Next Gen. Elements 4- Babs' and the Manticore

    The forest was scary, it was dark and who knows what was making noises behind bushes. It was really quiet between the six of us, except for an occasional comment from one of us or a quiet giggle from Dash for no exact reason. Finally one of us broke out a conversation.
    “This place sure is scary...” Sweetie Belle said, looking around: above her, behind her, side to side. It was as if she thought something was going to creep up on us.
    “Yeah, it wasn’t as scary when we were fillies, remember trying to find that cockatrice girls?” Scootaloo said, turning to Applebloom and Sweetie Belle. They nodded and laughed a bit.
    Suddenly, a growl emerged from behind us. We turned to see a big cave carved from a mountain, and a large manticore emerging from the cave. It was angry, not a clue why, but it was. We all shrieked.
    “Dash! You’re good with animal’s right? Why is it so angry?!” Scootaloo yelled over the growling.
    “I’ve never met a manticore! I know close to nothing about what makes them tick!” she said in a terrified tone.
    “C’mon guys, i’ve got this.” Babs said, smoothly trotting towards the monster, I was about to yell after her, but no one else did, maybe she was fine.
    She trotted dangerously close to it, and just looked it in the eyes. It wasn’t even a hard stare, she just looked him straight into the eyes. “You ain’t such a bad little guy are you?” she asked softly. My jaw almost dropped, Babs looked and acted like somepony that would pummel you for teasing her, instead of beating this manticore senseless, she was soothing him?
    “You’re actually sorta cute, what’s wrong?” she asked, in the same soothing and soft voice.
    The manticore stopped growling, he turned to let Babs and the rest of us see a sickly black thorn vine tangled in his glorious mane.
     Babs inhaled through her teeth, “Ouch,” she said, gently touching it with her hoof. The monster wailed in pain, “I can get that out in just a sec. This’ll only hurt for a minute, Dash, I could sure use some animal assistance.” Babs turned back to us, and motioned Dash over.
    Dash lept from the ground and flew over to the monster, her a Babs both pulled the black thorn vine from the majestic creatures mane. After an immense growl, the monster grabbed Babs and hugged her tight.
    “Okay there big guy, I can’t breathe.” Babs said jokingly.
    “Hey, I helped!” Dash said giggling. The monster took his massive tongue and licked her face. If a manticore licked me in the face, I would have been totally disgusted, but Dash giggled louder, and managed out a, “Thanks big guy!” out of it.
    I turned to Babs who was trotting away with the group again, “Bab Seed, how did you know about the vine?” I ask in astonishment as Babs and Dash join the group again.
    “Ai’ didn’t, but I learned as a filly, some ponies need a beating, some need empathy, and you should never just hurt some pony because their bothering you.”
    I stopped for a moment, and took it into consideration. I guess the toughest looking ponies can be the kindest.