Unknown Disturbance

Azure Star grumbled to himself. Today, he was the assigned escort to the ‘Human’. Apparently, he had a meeting with Shining Armor and the Princesses in the garden today, and Azure had to wake the thing up and get it over there. Today was not his day.

He walked over to the door, where he waited patiently for the unicorn to open it. It swung open, showing the creature inside of the bag that it slept in. From what I had seen it would be much more comfortable than- No, He cut himself off. ‘Don’t think about that’.

It poked its head out, looking at him. Sighing, Azure began his rehearsed speech.

“Wake up.” He said in a low voice, “Apparently, someone in the ranks thinks you need some time outside. So, we will lead you to the gardens, and you will NOT try to escape. Understood?”

He almost sighed over how ridiculous it was, but he had to say it because of protocol. Yet another gift from the higher-ups.

“Yea, I get it… Dickhead.” The creature said. Azure ignored the snickers of the guards behind him and watched closely as the ‘Human’ strapped a metal thing to its waist, before turning to him and walking up to the door. Azure promptly turned around and began leading it through the halls. After ten minutes of walking around, he finally reached the door to the outside, guarded by two of the unicorn guards.

One of them raised its spear at the creature. “Halt!” The unicorn shouted. “Why is this… Beast not back in its cell?”

Azure rolled my eyes as the creature began to respond.

“First off, I have a name.” It snapped at the guard, leaving the unicorn stunned. “It’s Tyler Maddox. Learn to use it, or I’ll throw you around the goddamn castle all day. I’m sure your friends” It said, gesturing towards the Azure and the other unicorn. “would enjoy that. Second, someone apparently thinks I need some fresh air. So, if you’re quite through wasting my time, I would like to get a glimpse of the sky for once.”

Azure figured it was time to step in.

“Just let us through,” He said, “I got the orders from Shining, so I assume that he has a good reason for it.”

The unicorns slowly opened the door, revealing the outside. The creature stepped out and took a deep breath, obviously enjoying the outside. Azure sighed and took point.

“Come this way. I don’t know why I am leading you here, but this is where I was told to go.”

The creature followed him closely until they reached the lake. Standing by it was Shining Armor and the two Princesses, obviously waiting for them. Azure stiffened slightly as the creature stepped forward, but forced myself to relax.

“Ah, our guest has arrived,” Luna said, “Would you kindly answer for what happened two days ago? We have had much time to think over it, and We demand an answer from thee.”

Azure let out a soft sigh as the creature did as well, obviously knowing this was going to be a long day.

“If I had told you,” It – a he, obviously - explained, “Would you have believed me?”

Shining Amor was apparently getting impatient. “Just what is going on, Princess Celestia?” He asked.

Celestia sighed. “We know why this creature-”

“I have a name, for Christ’s sake! It’s Tyler Maddox. Stop calling me ‘creature’, or ‘beast’, or ‘savage’, or whatever you come up with to sooth your mind over the fact that I am clearly intelligent enough to hold a conversation with you, and the obvious evidence that our kind is clearly more advanced that yours!” ‘Tyler Maddox’ was shouting at the end, causing Celestia and Luna to flinch, and Shining Armor to glare at him.

Azure flinched, too, but for a different reason. This was about to go bad.

Shining Armor, obviously, was the catalyst. “How can your kind possibly be more advanced than ours! You obviously have no magic, so how would you advance at all?”

Azure was shaking his head at this point. “This can’t end well..” He murmured out to the guards behind him.

The creature was visibly shaking slightly. “You just don’t get it, do you?” He said in a low voice, “My kind has done things that you have never dreamed of. We have gone into space and landed on our moon, and we have technology beyond your comprehension. My country has an army of six million men, all of whom are armed with weapons beyond your capacity to understand! We have bombs that can vaporize entire cities and all their surroundings, and we have managed to established a global communications network that allows everyone with a cell phone to communicate instantly with anyone else, anywhere. Don’t you dare try to pass yourselves off as more advanced simply because you have something that SHOULDN’T EVEN EXSIST!”

Azure was in a slight shock at this point. All of what it had said seemed to be fiction, but he could tell from several signs – or the absence thereof – that it was not lying.

Shining Armor was shaking in fury. “Guards, take this creature and put it back in its cell. We will discuss this later when it does not suggest such things!”

The creature promptly turned around, as Azure and the other guards led it back to the doorway. He even though he caught a glimpse of his sister, watching from a distance. He shook his head. This didn’t go to plan at all.

They quickly led the creature back to its cell, locking the door behind it. Seconds later, however, a pegasus messenger dropped off a scroll in front of them. Azure picked it up with his hoof, looking through the writing. It ordered him to bring the ‘Human’ to be questioned by… Azure Star. He sighed, knowing only his sister could get caught in something like this, even after what happened. Apparently, from the writing, it had been going on for a couple days now.

He opened the door just to hear the creature begin to talk.

“Damn it…” It said in a low voice, “I shouldn’t lose my temper like that, but that ignorant asshole set me off. I really need to work on that…”

“Yeah,” Azure said, “You should work on that.”

The creature turned around in mild surprise. Seeing the expression on its face, He started his explanation.

“We have another questioning for you. I know it’s been around ten minutes since you blew up on Shining and the Princesses, but, as two days ago, we got somepony else to do it.” Azure explained, motioning to the door with his wing.

The creature quickly packed up its things, slinging the thing it had called a ‘Gun’ on its shoulder. They walked through the same set of halls, until they took a sudden turn, leading us though another series of halls to a certain room. The Human knew what to do; it immediately entered, leaving Azure to stand outside and guard the door. He sighed. It really seemed as though he had all the exciting duties mixed with the boring ones lately.

-=-=-

[Azure, 1st Person]

Fifteen minutes later, the Human – Tyler,  I reminded myself – came out of the room. I simply stared at him. Being the door guard, I heard every word. Every. Single. One.

Eight awkward seconds passed after the door closed, after which I finally talked.

“Is what you said true?” I simply asked.

He nodded. “Every word of it. And don’t try to take away either of my guns, or whoever she is” He pointed back at the room, “Will have plenty of notes to take on how dangerous they are. Understood?”

I nodded, glaring at him a bit. “Oh, and by the way, her name is Amber Star. Please refer to my sister as such, or I’ll have your flank, weapon or no weapon. As another note, my name is Azure Star, and yes, we are related.” I finished off with a grin, silently daring him to say something.

“Ok then,” He said. “Let’s get back to my ‘room’.”

I quickly led him back to his cell, where I was scheduled to be on guard duty for a few hours. Almost immediately, however, small booms and some yelling began to come though the cell. I ignored it, choosing to purposefully deny any wish of mine to see what it was.

Two hours later, however, I couldn’t resist. I was supremely bored, and, well, I doubt the Human would try to escape, if he could have at any point from the time of his imprisonment. And it was my break time, anyway.

I opened the door silently, using the level that pegasi and earth ponies could use. The Human looked up at me, silently asking what I was doing here.

“What are you doing to make that sound?” I asked.

“I’m playing a game.” He stated.

“A game? What type of game, and what is it called? And how are you doing a game on that glowing thing?” I asked.

“The game is a shooting game. It has warfare in it, and it’s called Battlefield 3. As for how I am playing it, this is a computer. It’s an electronic device that allows me to do a variety of things, and I have quite a few games of it.” He finished off.

“Can I watch?” I asked after a moment.

“Sure, although I don’t know if you will understand half of what you see, so feel free to ask if you need to.”

I trotted over to the cot he was on, jumping on it and sitting down. He turned the light thing towards me, allowing me a view of a screen that had several words on it like ‘Resume’, ‘Options’, and ‘Quit’. Suddenly, the screen disappeared, and I was left with a view that was obviously from 1st person, slowing a long device sticking out in a pair of the creature’s ‘hands’.

“Is that a gun?” I asked. It looked similar to the one that the Human had, but I couldn’t be sure.

He nodded. “It’s a gun. The name of it is the M16A2. It’s like the gun that I have, only a different type of bullet is fired – or shot, if you prefer that term – from it.”

I stared at the ‘screen’, as he called it, as his view moved forward. Suddenly, a series of high-pitched bangs erupted in close succession, dirt popping up off the ground. There were others of his kind moving from a kind of doorway, holding things that looked a lot like his ‘Gun’, and probably were. Several of them dropped to the ground, obvious dead, after the Human pressed a button on the series of buttons, which made fire spew from the front of the ‘Gun’, which, I knew from what I had overheard, were ‘Bullets’. I could even hear several of the ‘Enemies’ speaking in a language I recognized from a small stint in Saddle Arabia, where I had to learn as much of the language as I could in three days. After a while, I had to drop the question.

“Is that how warfare on your world really is?” I asked.

He nodded.. “It’s pretty close. This is a game, and has inaccuracies that the real world wouldn’t have. For example, on here your character has a health meter that tells you how much life you have left. In the real world, you would simply die, or be severely hurt. However, in a game, some realism is sacrificed for a better experience.”

I nodded to show my understanding, and he continued. After a short while, I recognized a guard from the day contingent in the doorway.

“Azure! Enough socializing, your break is up, and you’re needed on-duty for the wedding.”

I turned slightly to look at the Human. Taking a small breath, I got to my hooves and walked to the doorway, where I spoke to him. “It was… interesting being around you. Although I don’t understand half of what I have seen and heard today, I think I know better than to try and understand it all.”

The door closed and locked, signaling the start of my shift today. With a sigh, I got ready for it. The wedding was tomorrow, and it was going to be chaos until then.

-=-=-

At the end of the day, both Azure Star and Amber Star collapsed on their bunks. They would need all the rest they could get for tomorrow. It was a wedding day, after all.

Things were bound to be crazy.