Chapters Chapter 1: Cursing for a Cure
Celestia stared out into a stained glass window, running through the thoughts in her mind. She closed her eyes as she attempted to pick out her next move. Things were delicate; the iron was hot. If she didn't act soon the embers would die and they would all be back to square one.
"What's got you so frazzled?" Discord asked, jolting Celestia's eyes open. "I must admit that was quite a show earlier, but we've freed Harry from his curse."
"Discord, guilt is indeed a powerful magic but it doesn't last forever. When the feelings subside, the ponies will treat Harry as they always have unless we make our next move quickly."
"What are you talking about? You saw the way that Fluttershy gave the crowd what-for. They won't treat Harry the same way on her watch."
"But they'll continue to do so on their own watch. They will shake Harry's hand, but still cringe as they do so. He... has an aura about him, one that I cannot fully explain."
"An aura? What malarkey are you talking about this time? Do you think somepony cast a spell on Harry that forced everypony he's ever met to hate him?"
Discord waved his claws about in sarcasm. Celestia turned towards Discord, her expression staying neutral. Her silence spoke more words than a thousand conversations could. She believed that Harry was cursed? Who would do something like that? And why? Harry as an infant...
"Why are you looking at me? I would never do something like that. Yes, I can be cruel but I prefer to do the cruelty myself. I do have standards you know. It's no fun when somepony else does it."
"If you didn't, then who? You didn't feel... those thoughts and emotions around him either, did you?"
"Emotions?"
Celestia turned back towards the stained glass window. Displayed on it was her student Twilight Sparkle and her friends banishing nightmare moon. The smallest light in her mind told her that Harry was grotesque and abominable, thoughts she could keep at bay and thoughts she could resist. They were always there, eating at her mind. A small flame in her own mind would be a roaring inferno in the minds of a lesser pony.
It made sense. This fire burned in the hearts and minds of most ponies... all of them except Twilight and her friends. Did holding the elements of harmony douse their flames of hatred? Celestia let the thoughts loose. She had to analyse them. They weren't natural, almost as if somepony was forcing her to feel this way. But why? More importantly... would she feel this around other humans...
/\/\/\/\/\
Harry sat at home and stared out of his window into the Everfree Forest. He took a deep breath and wondered what went wrong. He sifted through the lies. He could see through the false smiles, how they cringed as he spent time with them. They were ancy; always looking for an excuse to leave. Harry looked at his reflection in the window, he was disgusting, wasn't he? The answer was obvious. He just wondered why it took him twenty years to realize this.
A knock on the door reminded him why.
"Sweetie, dinner is almost ready. You've been in here all day, are you feeling okay? I can make some soup too if it'll help."
"Soup won't fix what's wrong with me Mom. Apparently not even the Princess can fix what's wrong with me."
"Harry, there's nothing wrong with who or what you are," Fluttershy said, coming closer. "It'll just take them some time to realize that, but trust me when I say that they'll figure it out soon. You're too wonderful for that not to happen." She put a hoof under his chin.
There was a knock on the front door, stopping Harry from saying anything. Fluttershy gave him a warm smile and turned towards the door. Harry looked on in curiousity. Fluttershy opened the door to reveal Twilight. The two of them made small talk until Twilight noticed Harry sitting on his bed. She stepped forward into the house.
"There you are Harry," she said. "Princess Celestia has requested your audience. She's at the town hall right now."
"I don't even want to look at her right now," Harry replied.
"Come on Harry, I'll walk you there," Fluttershy said.
/\/\/\/\/\
Harry stepped into the town hall to find Princess Celestia standing on a balcony in wait. Harry almost smiled—a face that didn't cringe as its eyes cast upon him. Any chance of a smile faded when Harry remembered that Celestia hadn't solved his problems, any of them. Harry just stared at Celestia and Celestia stared back for quite some time until Twilight gave a nervous chuckle.
"Are you expecting me to bow?" Harry asked. Twilight's eyes darted left in right.
"No, why should you? What have I done for you? I let you exist in a world that hates you for twenty years, while I stood and watched your peers nearly torture you."
"W-what do you mean by 'the world hates my Harry?'" Fluttershy asked.
"Fluttershy, look at Harry. Tell me what you think of him?"
"He's the most magnificent creature ever put on Equestria," Fluttershy said, not turning her eyes away from Celestia.
"I said look at Harry. This is important."
Fluttershy took a look at Harry. "He's the most magnificent creature ever put on Equestria, and I couldn't be happier to have him around." Fluttershy smiled and Harry returned it.
"Where are you going with this?" Twilight asked, quirking her brow.
"Fluttershy, do you want to know what I think of Harry?"
"I certainly do," Harry said before Fluttershy could answer.
"I think that Harry is a disgusting pile of flesh that shouldn't be trusted, cared for, or even looked at."
The entire room went dead silent. No one spoke. Those words paralyzed Harry where he stood, and muted both Fluttershy and Twilight. Each word had been said with blunt brutality. Each word contained the venom of truth. Those words came from a very dark place in the princess' heart. After minutes or hours of still silence a sound broke the air—Fluttershy whispering a surprised "princess."
"Now let me tell you what I know. Harry is a good-natured creature and you two share an intimate bond. I know that he's never done anything to earn my hatred, nor has he done anything to earn the hatred of those around him."
The silence remained, this time more out of puzzled confusion than stunned shock. Twilight broke it this time.
"T—that doesn't make any sense. How could you know something, and think it's exact opposite?"
"I believe a very powerful magic has been cast over Harry, and perhaps all of his kind," Celestia looked at the confused expressions she was getting. "Harry may be the only human currently in Equestria, but he certainly is not the first. Come with me."
/\/\/\/\/\
Harry, Fluttershy, and Twilight flew in a chariot in tandem to Celestia's. They soared above and past the Everfree Forest. They were moving fast. Celestia was determined to get wherever she was going in quite a hurry. If only the same could be said about explaining what she was talking about. Harry mulled over everything that Celestia said, and very little of it made the slightest bit of sense. It seemed like Fluttershy and Twilight were attempting to sort through this puzzle as well. They didn't say a word the entire trip, but their shifting expressions gave insight to the turning gears in their mind. It didn't make much sense to anypony.
The chariots landed in front of some ruins. A huge domed building, conquered by cracks and ivy stood before them. Marble pillars that may have once supported it lay in shattered pieces. The forlorn beauty of the grand building, or the stone dwellings escaped Harry's vision. He was focused on something much more interesting: himself.
Only it wasn't himself; it was a statue, partially eaten by moss and time. Harry walked up to it and marveled at the thing. It wasn't him—it was a creature like him. Harry placed his hand in the statue's. The cold stone met warm flesh. Five fingers met five fingers. Somepony tapped Harry on the back. It was Fluttershy. She was pointing to several other statues that looked almost like Harry. There were so many of them.
"What is this place?" Twilight asked.
"The Alabaster Archelogical Dig!" shouted a mint-colored mare after suddenly teleporting next to Twilight. The surprise caused Twilight to jump into the air and forced her to hover in shock "What brings you to these parts? Don't get many visitors here with Celestia forcing us to stay 'top secret'. Hey... how'd you get past the poisonous giant fire beetles? And don't say you flew in because there would be no way around the fearsome flying sharks!"
"P-princess Celestia brought us here herself. My name is Twilight Sparkle. I'm assuming that you're an archeologist here."
"Yup, don't just dress up like Daring Do for the fun of it... most of the time. Name's Lyra Heartstrings. Statue's impressive, isn't it? Five-thousand years and still standing. That creature is called a hoo-man. That's H-U-M-A-N. That's kind of why we've been digging here, find out about these creatures. Their culture is so fascinating!"
"We... brought a 'human' with us," Fluttershy said, forcing Lyra to turn to her and Harry.
Lyra took a long look at Harry. She didn't move a muscle for quite some time. It was almost as if she was in a trance. It was actually a little bit jarring. A minute ago she wouldn't shut up, and now she wouldn't move beyond a couple of random twitches. Her eyes were also making weird dilating motions. She blinked once or twice, then turned around. She walked a few steps and threw up at Twilight's hooves.
Lyra began to bang her head with her hooves. "No! This is all wrong! I've been waiting for this opportunity all of my life. This is a dream come... Yeah! That's it! I'm dreaming!" Lyra nodded her head, turned towards the domed building and rammed right into the wall, causing her hat to fly backwards. "Nope, not dreaming."
"Um... Lyra, are you okay?" Twilight asked, wiping the throw up from her hooves.
"No! I'm not okay at all," Lyra said, and then she began banging her head against the wall. "I've waited. All my life. For an opportunity. Like this. I know what. A human is. Supposed to look like. I should not find one—"
"Disgusting?" Harry asked.
"Yeah! How'd you know?" Lyra replied, turning to Harry. The second she laid eyes on him she put her hoof to her mouth, obviously to stop herself from vomitting. She turned around and took a deep breath.
"Um, do you want your hat back?" Harry asked, swimming through the awkwardness.
"Keep it!" Lyra shouted, shaking in place, continuing to stare at the wall. "I don't want anything that's touched your filthy fingers! Argh! What am I saying!? Bad Lyra! Bad Lyra!"
"Perhaps we should leave Lyra to her... that," Fluttershy said. "Come on, I saw Princess Celestia go inside this big building here."
Twilight, Fluttershy, and Harry entered the building and just marveled in its majesty. The building remained beatiful despite the tarnish of time. For every piece of debris that three of them stepped over, they found another beautiful vista painted onto the walls. They eventually got to what appeared to be a large throne room. Light shone down from above through the cracked roof, casting a somber view of the place. Most of the statues in this room were cracked or disfigured in some way. Celestia stood in the center.
"Something happened here five-thousand years ago. It was something before my time, before the three tribes were united. It was a different world entirely."
"Why have you brought me here?" Harry asked.
"I'm sending you back five-thousand years in order for you to find this curse cast upon your kind and find a way to undo it."
Celestia's horn glowed and a small artifact appeared in front of her. It appeared to be made of crystal. Inside were gasses of several vibrant colors. Celestia lowered it into Harry's hands. It was surprisingly warm to the touch.
"This is a time recall. Shatter it upon the ground to return to this point in time. As you might have guessed it can be only used once, and they take one-hundred years to make. It is currently the only one in existence. You have one chance to do this—"
"WAIT!" shouted an all-too-familiar voice running down the hall. Lyra was running down the hall, wearing her hat, which was now dripping wet. She stopped in front of Celestia and began to grit her teeth.
"You can't send the nice , fascinating , and totally not gross human back to exactly five-thousand years ago," Lyra said, gritting her teeth with every word. "You'd send him right to the fall of their civilization, and he might die. And that would totally be a not-good thing. Bad Lyra! Think properly."
"What do you suggest?"
"Send him twenty years further in the past. Have him see how the grand plot unfolds, as the old saying goes."
"I'm not staying at you-know-when in the past for twenty years!" Harry shouted.
"Don't worry Harry, you're not going alone," Fluttershy comforted him.
"Yes he is," Celestia replied. "That time recall is the only way back to the present. You'd both need to be touching each other at the same time to both use it. And remember, these were the times that the pony tribes were in seperation. Harry must do this alone. We don't even know the relationship between humans and ponies before this curse was thrust onto them."
"I've seen plenty of books and writing on the walls all the way up here," Twilight said. "There must some information in there."
"We tried to translate them like one-hundred different times, but it always comes up as gibberish because humans are too stupid to—" Lyra covered her mouth with her hooves.
"What do you want me to do? Change the past?" Harry asked.
"That's impossible. No matter what you try to do, you will not be able to undo the curse. You need to find out its nature, who cast it, and if there's any possible way to undo this."
Harry looked at the trinket, and wondered all of the possibilities. This could be it. This could be his key to happiness. All it risked was getting trapped five-thousand and twenty years in the past. Did the rewards outway the risks?
"You don't have to do this Harry," Fluttershy reassured him.
"Ha ha! That's a laugh," shouted Lyra, getting back to her hooves. She was twitching here and there, but for the most part her eyes stayed dilated. "'He doesn't have to do this' she says. It just might stop him from being a foul abomination of Tartarus! It just might stop him from being a stupid, culturally backwards dolt! It might stop him from—"
Twilight had chucked a stone rock at the back of her head, knocking her out cold. They watched her sleep in a pile of her own drool for a bit before they returned to looking at the time recall. Harry had one shot to live a life where that would never happen again. Lyra was right. It would stop him from being all of those things—in their eyes.
"Send me back in time."
Chapter 2: No Time Like the Past
Harry stood in the center of the domed room. The time recall was secured to a chain that hung from his neck. Fluttershy wouldn't stop hugging Harry. Twilight looked repeatedly from Harry to Lyra with a rock in her hoof. Lyra kept mumbling incomprehensible words in her sleep and drooling. Celestia beckoned Harry to stand.
"Remember—you have one chance Harry. If you return to the present without the answer no amount of magic can lift this curse."
"I understand," Harry said.
He broke out of Fluttershy's embrace, gave her a smile, and she backed away. Celestia's horn glowed brighter than it had ever done so before. She aimed her horn at Harry. Swirling magical auras shot from all parts of the room and caused the glow to grow. Before long a huge orb of scattering magical energy was swarming around Celestia's horn, casting the room in blindingly radiant light.
Fluttershy and Twilight backed up, covering their eyes with their hooves, yet still desperate to see what was going on. The orb of light shot from Celestia's horn and enveloped Harry. Sparks and hissing sounds began flying from it. Harry's silhouette rose above the ground and began rotating. An explosion shot from the orb as it disappeared, knocking Fluttershy, Twilight, and Lyra into the wall.
Harry felt a strange sensation all through his body as he noticed his fingers beginning to disappear. His breaths grew heavy as a tightness grasped his chest. He closed his eyes and upon opening them again he found himself in a swirling vortex. Ribbons of light spiraled around his view, and a horribly powerful wind struck Harry's body.
Almost as suddenly as it started, it stopped. Harry hung on all fours. He felt like a unicorn had just shot a fireball at his stomach. Staring the ground, the first thing Harry noticed was the near darkness, only battled by dim torchlight. Torchlight? Harry looked up to the ceiling to find nary a crack. In fact, it was the host of beautiful murals.
Harry wiped his eyes to adjust to the near-darkness. The statues that surrounded the room had also been repaired, or replaced. They were not statues of humans though, they were statues of unicorns. Harry shook his head in order to shake away the illusion, but no matter what the statues stayed unicorns. Did Celestia send him back too far, or perhaps not far enough?
Harry's eyes shot open with realization. He reached for his neck, and felt calm. The time recall was still there. He shook his head. That was an uncomfortable few moments. He didn't know which would be worse—living in a world that hated him, or being in a time period he knew nothing about. Even so, he still liked having the choice. He tucked the trinket back under his shirt. Then he grabbed one of the torches and began walking down the halls of the building.
Shelves of dusty books lined the walls, and every so often there was another outlet with a unicorn statue. They were each kept in perfect condition. Gemstones socketed their eyes. In fact, come to think of it, that was a common theme—panelings in the walls, bejeweled. That's right, this was back before the first Hearth's Warming Eve and the three pony tribes lived in separation.
Harry stepped out of the domed building and into the cold night air. The bite of a late autumn chilled his skin quickly. Real nice Celestia, Harry thought to himself, couldn't have sent me back to a summer, or at least day time? No, an autumn night. Harry heard hoof-steps, doused the torch, and hide behind a marble pillar. Two unicorns fitted with some intimidating armor strolled by, casting beams of light, searching for something—threats most likely.
"M'hunimish debrula ver induda," one of the unicorns said to the other, and he responded with similar gibberish.
Great. Just great. Not only was Harry in a familiar time period, he couldn't speak anypony's language. If anypony called him a—wait. Celestia sent Harry back to a time before this supposed curse was cast, at least that's what she said. There was only one way to prove whether or not Harry was in the right time period. He jumped in front of the two unicorns. Blinding lights shot on his face.
Gibberish. More gibberish. Harry started to speak, and the two broke into laughter, causing the lights to shine away from Harry's face. He looked at them quizzically. Well, they weren't cringing, so he'd like to say that this was before the curse was cast. Unfortunately he had no idea what they were really doing. Harry did the only thing he could do, and he put his hands up.
Then the last thing Harry expected happened. They arrested him. One of the unicorns shot a bolt of magic at him and all of a sudden there were florescent shackles around his wrists. A chain of purple lighting shot from one shackle to one of the unicorn's, and a chain of blue lightning shot from the other shackle to the other unicorn.
They started walking, practically dragging Harry along with them. Harry barely tried to resist, more out of curiosity and shock than anything. Did he do anything illegal? Was there a citywide curfew? There were no ponies wandering about the street, but Celestia knows how late it was. Were these unicorns just massive plotholes?
The unicorns eventually stopped in front of a seemingly random house of the whole street. One of them knocked on the door, releasing his magical grip on Harry's shackle. The other unicorn made sure that the brief semi-freedom wouldn't last for long. The house lit up after a few more knocks, and to Harry's surprise a human answered the door. Layers of confusion stacked on top of layers of confusion.
The unicorn and the human shared a few lines of gibberish before returning inside. While they were speaking, Harry got a glimpse of his magical aura shackles. This time period was not painting itself as friendly. Soon an orange unicorn mare with a yellow mane stepped out, rubbing her eyes. More gibberish. Harry couldn't believe that he could have ever felt more alien than he was in his time, but this new time period was trying to prove that thought wrong. Desperately.
Their conversation ended with the unicorn dropping a bag into one of the guard's hooves. The sound of coins clanked as it landed. The other guard pushed Harry into the orange mare's house. She talked to the human, and bid him upstairs. Then she looked at Harry intently, and her horn started to glow. Harry backed up, only to hit the door. The unicorn started speaking in gibberish. It looked like she was asking him a question, beyond looking like she wanted to blow him to smithereens.
"Please don't hurt me," was all Harry could muster. The mare didn't listen, or couldn't listen. She blasted Harry with a bolt of magic... that didn't seem to do anything beyond making his tongue and his ears tingle.
"Grudda melos understand me? Can you understand me?" said the mare, her language travelling from gibberish to recognizable dialog.
"Y-yes," Harry said in words that sounded foreign to him. Then he added, "Can you please tell me what's going on?"
"Huh, 'please'—rather unusual for a human," the mare said, before she started looking around shelves. "I got a pretty good deal. I lost a human a few days ago, guards have been looking for him, thought you were it."
"So... can I leave?"
"No. Knows etiquette, but doesn't have a grasp of common sense—humanity for you," the mare gave Harry a snide glance. "You live here now."
"Wait, what?" Harry asked, out of surprise more than curiosity. He knew the answer, though he wished that that wasn't the case. The mare kept looking at him smugly. She said nothing, expecting Harry to come to the conclusion himself.
"B-because you o-own me?"
The unicorn gave a sigh. "'Own' is such a cruel word, and if there's anything unicorns should be called, it's far from cruel. We do this out of charity. You do our bidding and we don't let the creatures of the wilderness gore you. Seems like a fair trade to me. Not so much owners, but defenders. You... you're not around here, are you?"
"T-technically no."
"'Technically'? Perhaps undeniably. No wild human wears such professionally made clothes. And no domestic human doesn't speak our language. Where are you from?"
The mare's horn began to glow, and something told Harry that she wasn't planning on casting another language spell at him. Harry stayed silent and the mare walked closer, her expression unchanging from an air of superiority. The Hearth's Warming Play was right, unicorns were stuck up snobs. She was expecting an answer; and silence wasn't even a possibility to her. The only question was whether to tell the truth or make up some kind of lie. Were time travel spells invented yet?
"I—I'm—I'm from the future. Really far into the future where ponies... and um... humans don't speak this language."
The mare's horn stopped glowing, but her expression did not falter. "So when does the spell wear off?"
"Y-you believe me?"
"Were you lying?" the mare asked, quirking her brow. "No, no you weren't. Now please answer the question. I need to know so I can cast a counter-spell. Hey, don't look at me like that. Whoever decided to use you as an experiment knew the risks involved."
Harry didn't answer for quite some time, causing the mare's expression of superiority to falter. It had now had an air of annoyance. She was getting impatient, and Harry was running out of answers. What was he supposed to tell her this time? That it was a different kind of time travel spell, a much more powerful one than what she was assuming? She obviously didn't take humans seriously, and something like that sounded like he was claiming that he knew more about magic than her.
He stepped backwards, causing the time recall to slip out. The mare levitated it off of Harry's neck and held it front of her. She dangled in front of her eyes and watched it gleam in dim candlelight. Harry got to his feet and swiped it from her telekinetic grip. The mare flinched at the action. A few seconds later, she changed from shocked to pure seething anger.
"HOW DARE YOU!?" she shouted.
Winds of magical energy shot from her horn causing knickknacks to fall off of shelves and books to fly everywhere. Harry held onto the time recall for dear life. Harry got to his feet and jumped out of the way as a small bolt of lightning hit the door. Harry tucked the time recall under his shirt and dodged another lightning bolt.
A spell was cast and whips from the mare's horn extended to Harry's magical shackles. She thrusted down, forcing Harry back to the ground. Harry turned onto his shoulder to prevent the time recall from getting crushed under his own weight. It clanked upon the stone floor, and it's same familiar shape didn't change. Not broken, not yet at least. Harry had to make sure to keep it that way.
A third lightning bolt singed the floor, just as Harry rolled onto his back. This wasn't working. If this unicorn was anything like Twilight she could keep casting these spells all night. She knew about time travel spells, so she clearly had some interest in magic. Another grab with the magical whip tossed Harry into the wall.
From his advantaged position, he looked around for some kind of weapon. There was nothing but books and other debris littering the floor. There were no blunt objects that Harry could defend himself with, not even a broomstick. Harry slipped down from the wall and did the only thing he could think of: he charged at the unicorn. Once again she flinched. Then she shuttered when Harry grabbed her horn.
A fireball shot from the mare's horn and hit the ceiling. The heat burned Harry's hand, but he steadfastly held on. She was shaking wildly and looked like she was on the verge of throwing up. So that's why Fluttershy said never to touch a unicorn's horn. Harry grabbed it with his other hand and began forcing her to ground.
She started casting all kinds of spells in sheer desperation as she flailed to escape from Harry's grasp. When she was on the ground, Harry grabbed the near book and began to bash. Blood splattered to the corner of the book. Harry stopped and let go of the unicorn's horn once he noticed her closed eyes. She was still breathing. Harry dropped the book in pure relief. Thank Celestia she was alive. Harry couldn't think of what he would have done with himself if he had gone too far. For a second he saw Twilight in her place.
"Wha-what have you done!?" asked the human. He panicked, and bolted from the house.
Harry couldn't move. He was too busy dealing with the parasite of guilt, eating away at him. His eyes were still drawn to the trickle of blood coming off of her forehead. Harry needed to do something to make sure she was okay. He looked around the room. There was a basin full of water in the corner, perhaps used to wash clothes. On a table there were many alchemy supplies—mortars and pestles, empty books and quills, and most notably a knife.
Harry took the knife and cut off his right sleeve. He dipped it in the water and made a makeshift bandage out of it. Being raised by Fluttershy certainly had its advantages. He tied it around the unicorn's head, making sure to place plenty of pressure on the wound. It wasn't much, but it should suffice until somepony else found her.
The handiwork helped Harry notice his magical shackles. Out of curiosity, he pressed the knife to it. It only ended up giving him a small electrical shock. The knife clattered to the ground. He nervously touched one with his finger but it just went through them. It was clear that anypony could just use that same magical spell to keep him in submission if he couldn't figure out how to break them. Maybe Twilight...
That's right, Harry was alone on this one. He grasped the time recall. It's chilling surface felt soothing in his near-charred hands. The future was right there in his hands. No. He placed the time recall back under his shirt. He wasn't going to give up. One chance. That was much too valuable to give up just because things were... tricky.
There was a knock at the door. Speaking of things getting tricky, Harry needed to get out of this place fast.
Escape. That was the only thing left on Harry's mind. He looked to the back of the room—perfect, a window. There was another knock on the door, this time more aggressively. There was no time to think of the situation. Harry picked up the knife and dashed for the window as the guards broke down the front door. They stared at the fallen unicorn, trying to piece together what happened.
Harry jabbed the knife into the window causing the glass to shatter. The guards turned their attention towards him. Harry climbed onto the sill and felt one of his arms being pulled backwards. Through the corner of his eye he saw the other guard shoot a fireball at him. Harry ducked down and rolled as much of his body out of the window as he could, causing the fireball to to just narrowly fly over him.
His wrist still remained in the room over him, and the guard was pulling on the shackle harshly. Harry tried to pull back, but faltered. His strength was no match for that of a trained guard. Harry heard hoof-steps over the scattered papers. The other guard was coming closer.
Harry looked to the knife. He prayed that this would work. He gave some slack on his arm, and then pulled with all of his strength. He breathed a moment of relief. Excellent, some of the chain was on his side. Harry jabbed the knife into the chain. As expected he felt electricity coursing through himself as he struggled to turn the knife. He heard one of the guards inside give a grunt of pain. He wasn't the only one suffering from an electric shock.
It was a battle of endurance. Harry was gritting his teeth, struggling not to let go of the knife, no matter how much pain he was in. If he didn't get out of this one, there would be no telling what the consequences were. Harry heard a thud and seconds later his arm was freed. The knife clanged onto the window sill and he pulled his arm out before the other unicorn could ensnare it. Harry fell onto the ground, barely dodging the pieces of shattered glass. He had to think through these things more thoroughly.
Harry looked around the area he was in. It was that mare's backyard, fenced in with walls presumably built high enough to stop a human from jumping over. That wasn't going to stop him from at least trying to climb over it. He ran at the wall, jumped, and just missed the top of it. One of the guards jumped out the window. Harry heard the sound of glass chips breaking. He turned to see the guard standing in front it in the house's dim light. He was shaking as he scouted the yard. Harry could barely make out any specifics, but it was clear he had jumped onto the window's broken glass.
Wait, if Harry could barely see the guard in the house's light; then the guard definitely couldn't see him. Harry intended to keep it that way. He ducked down and scooped up some of the dirt. A light shone from his horn and he began to scour the yard. Harry charged forward Light shone on his face, forcing his eyes shut. Harry blindly tossed the dirt in front of him. Harry felt the light on his face die out and opened his eyes. The unicorn was tearing up, shaking his head, desperately trying to get the dirt out.
Harry ran back inside the house. The electrical blast from earlier seemed to have knocked out the unicorn guard. Harry didn't have time to worry about this. He bolted out the door into the street. He looked around and saw some lights in the distance in most every direction—guards most likely. It didn't really matter where Harry was running to, just anywhere but here.
The cover of darkness was a comforting one. Harry thanked his lucky stars that it was at least a cloudy night. There was no telling what these unicorns could see in the pale moonlight. There was also no telling how fast Harry's crimes would spread around the city either. The one solution obviously was to escape it as soon as possible.
The Harry's memory struck him. The ruins from the modern age. They spread out really far. This wasn't simply a city, it was a bustling metropolis, at least at it's destruction. Harry kept sneaking through the city as he swam through confusion. How could humans go from slaves to having statues built of them... in twenty years? That puzzle could be dealt with later. There was a much more important puzzle to solve—that of survival. Harry was running through random streets and he was getting tired.
He was too often running into dead ends. Roads ended at massive walls too frequently. Two guards strolled almost every street, scouring each nook and cranny fiercely, and that was before they knew that a criminal was on the loose. Harry ducked into an alley and sat beheind a barrel in order to attempt to gain his breath. Fatigue from getting thrashed against a wall and electrocuted twice was finally setting in.
Harry sat there breathing heavily until he heard what sounded like a lock being unhinged. He tightened his chest, closed his eyes, and prepared for the inevitable. The inevitable never came. In its place were whispers.
"This way, come here."
It repeated a few times before Harry opened his eyes. He turned towards the whispering to see that a trapdoor had opened next to him. There was a sillohuette down the stairs calling out to him. Harry couldn't make much out, but it was definitely bipedal. Harry knew that this was going to be a mistake walking down there, but anything was better than staying up here just waiting to get caught. Harry ducked into the trapdoor and the sillouhette closed it behind him.
"Don't move," a raspy voice said.
A torch was lit and Harry stood face-to-face with another human, similar to his own stature. He looked misshapen, partially starved, and like he hadn't cared about his hygenie in months. He definitely smelled that way. He beckoned Harry to follow along down the stairs. As he stepped down he heard clanking around the human's chest. In the torchlight, he also noticed a lack of shackles.
"Who are you? What's going on?" Harry asked, trying to spark up a conversation. Before he even finished the second sentence a knife was at his neck. The human began to whisper.
"Not a word."
Yup, this was definitely a bad idea. Harry gave a subtle nod, and the human dropped the knife. There was more clanking. It wasn't much sound, but it was the only sound that overpowered the torch fire. There was nothing else to focus on until Harry was hit with an overpowering stench. His eyes began to water. Never in his life had he smelled something so terrible.
Harry heard the human make a splash in some water. Then it come together. Harry was in a sewer. He got close to the water, debated going further, and just plunged in. The splash brought him down to his knees, and caused an echo throughout the tunnels. The human looked back to Harry with rage in his eyes. He didn't say a word this time; he didn't need to. The message was clear.
They followed the twisting passages of horrid odors for quite some time. The only sounds to keep them company were the squeaking of the rats, and the clanking. The near-silence was gnawing to say the very least. Finally, the human let out one solitary word: "Speak."
"What's going on?" Harry asked the most important question on his mind. He didn't really care who this nutjob was anymore.
"Freedom," the human said.
Before Harry could ask a next question, the human grabbed Harry's wrist and examined it under the torchlight. He gave a motion that told Harry to take it. Harry did as he was instructed. The human reached under his shirt and pulled out a neckless that seemed to contain three rather long teeth. He jabbed Harry's shackle with it. Harry winced, expecting the electrocution, but none came. He saw that the tooth had stopped just before puncturing Harry's wrist and was absorbing the magical shackle. He used another one to free Harry from his other shackle, and then he took the torch back. They continued on their way.
"Th-thank you," Harry said, examining his own wrists. "What were those?"
"Unicorn horns."
"Wait, what!?" Harry said, almost under his breath. Harry stopped walking. He thought very hard about turning around, running back, and just saying sorry for what he had done. The human almost seemed to predict this and grabbed Harry's arm again.
"What I did to them will be nothing compared to what they do to you if they catch you."
"I don't see what could be worse than murder," Harry said, eyeing the horns still hanging from the human's neck.
"Murder now? That's a rather harsh assumption."
"..." Harry tried to speak, but couldn't over the gagging. Now he could see what was worse than murder. He left three unicorns permanently mutilated, their magic robbed from them for the rest of their lives.
"Are you coming or not?" the human asked.
"I'm not going with any creature as demented as you are."
The human practically laughed.
"Do you know what lies outside the city?"
Harry thought back to before he went back in time. That archeologist mentioned something about poisonous fire beetles and flying sharks. Still, Harry decided to feign stupidity. He shook his head. The human came in closer.
"Fiends darker than your worst nightmares. What did those legends tell you about? Dragons? Landsharks? You are just one human and you will be ripped to shreds by next nightfall. The unicorns may be horrid slavemasters, but they still have honor. A human that agrees to serve their kind stays safe in the city. A human that does not..."
"Dies in the wilderness?"
"If you're lucky," the human said and he let go. Harry felt like he didn't have much of a choice and continued following him. His mind didn't really want him to do anything but find some sort of comfort, and the only thing of comfort right now was conversation.
"The uni-unicorns can't be that bad," Harry stuttered. The human stopped again.
"First of all, you made your choice. You've clearly just escaped. The unicorns do not give second chances," said the human, and suddenly the knife was back at Harry's throat. "Just so you know, neither do we." He put the knife down and began walking again.
"Secondly, I noticed those burns on your hands. You must've had a fairly good defender if that's your only scathing, and you think that they have any shred of decency. They're allowed to do anything with their humans beyond sending them outside the city walls. Some humans we find cannot speak. Some humans we find cannot see.
"Come to think of it, you seem a little well-off for an escapee. You keep the pet fed and he never runs away. Why did you leave? You're well-dressed, you're well-groomed, and you're well-fed. Several of us would kill for a life like that."
"I-I-I," Harry said, stammering for a lie. That unicorn barely believed it when Harry said he was from the future; he definitely wouldn't believe it.
"I understand," he said, and then he let go. "Some of them just suddenly snap. You're not alone."
"Wh-who are you?" Harry asked, the only question that could still rush to his mind.
"Remlocke, a friend."
Right, because friends hold knives to friends' necks. Harry looked back to the darkness of the tunnel. If he were to turn around he could be lost in this labyrinth for who knows how long. There really wasn't much of a choice but to follow this guy. That didn't make it an easy one. Harry took a deep breath and continued to follow along.
"They-they're not all like that," Harry stammered. He thought of Twilight.
"Pardon my skepticism. Care to tell me which one of them is so pure of heart?"
"What?"
"Who did you escape from?"
"She was an orange mare with a yellow mane. I don't know more than that."
"That's two from her in a week. I'll have to pay her a visit later," Remlocke said, more to himself than to Harry.
"What are you planning on doing to her!?" Harry demanded. Remlocke turned around, waving his torch in front of Harry's face.
"Perhaps it would be best if you didn't know. I wouldn't want to give you more unsettling thoughts. She wasn't your first defender, was she? From what her last human told us, she isn't anything special."
"You—You're right; my first defender was a purple mare named Twilight. She never layed a hoof on me. We actually seemed to be pretty good friends. There must be more unicorns like her."
"Tens of thousands of unicorns live in this city. One good unicorn versus countless of bad ones do not make a good case."
"If there's one, there must be more."
"Are you willing to risk your chances? If you hang onto that belief so dearly, by all means go back. See how many of these 'good unicorns' there are when they banish you to the wilderness. I've seen enough to make my decisions. I've heard enough to make my decisions."
Harry narrowed his eyes. He had as well.