A Fugitive In Equestria

As Luna, the princess of the night, held the four creatures in her magical grip, she readied a spell. It was non-lethal, but it would be enough to force them into unconsciousness. An overglow appeared on her horn, then she released the wave of magic, sending the strange creatures into a magic-induced slumber.

The one that was blood-soaked and looked rough and beat up fought at first. It was strong. Far stronger than Luna could have guessed. But the spell was stronger. It struggled for a few seconds, making any and all attempts it could to fight the magic, but failed in the end, passing out.

The three that looked more trained, trim, neat even, were completely unfazed by the spell. They looked to Luna, faces completely free of emotion. They looked to each other briefly, then raised their arms into the air in a gesture of surrender.

Luna landed on the ground, setting down the unconscious creature on the ground in front of her, then releasing the three other creatures from her magic, but keeping a spell charged in case they tried to fight her.

One of the creatures stepped forwards and spoke. It was nothing but a guttural, growling, rumble to Luna. When it finished speaking it looked to her expectantly.

Luna frowned. "We are sorry, but we do not speak your language."

There was a small whirring noise coming from the creature. After only a second, there was an audible click, then it started to speak again. "We are sorry that harm came to your home. We need that criminal to be given to us for execution," it said in perfect Equine with a smooth voice.

Luna blinked. "You come here and destroy our home and expect us to allow you to simply go free?!" she ask incredulously.

"Sister..." a voice called out.

Luna and the three creatures all looked to see Celestia walk slowly over to them, Twilight at her side, holding Celestia's horn in her magic.

"Oh... no..." Luna whispered.

"Sister, it was not these three who did this," she said, waving her hood around her. "It was that one who did this," she pointed a hoof at the unconscious form laying on the ground in front of Luna.

Luna looked to the ground in a mixture of disgust and horror at the creature at her hooves. "this... thing did this to you?!" she asked, enraged.

Celestia nodded. "And killed two of my personal guard as well, and hospitalizing a third."

Luna looked to the three creatures standing before her. "This criminal has murdered almost three innocent ponies, destroyed the castle grounds, and crippled my sister!" Luna roared at them. "The criminal will face trial, and be convicted in our courts, then executed by us! Then... you can have the body."

"Luna, I will be fine," Celestia tried to assure her sister.

"No sister. We will make sure this criminal pays for what it has done," she said coldly.

"We need to take him back so he can be executed," the creature said again.

"It will be executed here-"

"Luna!" Celestia hissed.

"-and you can bring back the body as proof that it is dead."

The creature stood there silent for a while. It seemed to be thinking, but Luna had no way of telling because of the complete emptiness of its face. "This will be acceptable," it said finally.

Luna nodded. "Then it is settled. You and your soldiers are welcome to stay in the castle until all has been resolved."

"We will accept you invitation," the creature said.

***

Luna called the guards to bring the creature to the dungeons, the she and the other two alicorns showed their three new guests to what would be their room during their stay there. It was a small room, but comfortable. "We hope that you find everything to your liking?" Luna asked.

"Yes," the groups apparent leader said, "this is acceptable."

Luna nodded to them once. "We are sure that you must be tired from your ordeal, so we will leave you to rest."

The three creatures just stared at her with blank faces.

Luna nodded once more and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her as she left.

"So," Twilight began. "What are they?"

"I do not know Twilight," Celestia said, shaking her head. She had refused to see the royal doctor until the three guests were in their room.

"Neither do we," said Luna. "But whatever they are, they are extremely dangerous. Enough so that in only a few minutes they destroyed the gardens and caused great harm to the most skilled in the royal guard." She looked to her sister. "And also magically cripple you, sister," she said with anger in her voice.

"I will-" Celestia started.

"No! You will not be fine!" Luna yelled, pushing her sister towards the medical wing of the castle.

"Luna-" Celestia tried again.

"We will not tolerate another word from you sister! Either you go to the doctor, or We will drag you there by force."

Celestia sighed and started walking, without Luna's force behind her, to see the royal doctor. Twilight trotted along side her, gently floating Celestia's horn at her side.

Now that Celestia was going to be taken care of, she could do what she needed to do.

***

Wayne was laying on his back in a cold, dark place that reeked of mold, damp, and age. He opened his eyes slowly, not wanting to worsen his pounding headache. There was no light, save for the torches sparsely placed along the walls. No windows to let in the sunshine, or moonlight, he wasn't sure which it was; it was hard to tell when you were locked up in a cell without any windows.

He looked around him. In the dark he could see the forms of at least a dozen military horses standing guard outside of his cell.

Wayne groaned and got shakily to his feet. His head almost brushed against the ceiling of his cell, and he had to duck down sightly. He was always tall, but this cell was designed for these little horse things, not Humans. He walked slowly over to the gate, sticking his hand through the bars and shaking them. He was surprised when they bent slightly from the force he was applying.

Instantly a military horse stuck its spear through the bars and jabbed him in the stomach.

Wayne doubled over, coughing. He hadn't expected them to hit him. But no he was angry, and he wanted a little bit of payback.

Wayne grabbed the bars again, putting enough pressure on them so they bent enough for him to squeeze part of his body through them.

The military horses reacted, but Wayne reacted faster. Two of the jumped forward and jabbed their spears in to his cell at him. But Wayne swung his body to the side and grabbed the spears, pulling them from the horses. He spun them around in his hands and stuck the spear heads through the horses who had hit him. One spear went through its chest, the other through its neck. Wayne twisted the spears to the side, then ripped them out of the horse, causing a wave of blood to spill free from its wounds.

The horses' comrades backed up as the spray of blood showered the walls, the floor, and Wayne.

Wayne pulled back inside of his cell, still holding a spear in each hand. He watched as the horses collected the corpse of their friend and left him. There was only two guards now, instead of the whole squad like before. And unlike before, they were standing far from his cell, not looking away for even a second. There was a small, orange horse with blackish-blue hair and vibrant green eyes with wings. The other horse was only slightly larger, colored white with fiery red hair, with deep golden eyes who also had wings.

They had dropped their spears and now sported short swords which they held in their mouths. Even though they probably knew that Wayne could kill them in a second, they stood their ground. Wayne could at least credit them with courage, if nothing else.

Wayne sat there, spears on his lap, eyes never moving from the two horses guarding him. He had noticed that they didn't have the bright gold armor that the others did. Instead, they had a dark, blueish-purple colored armor the seemed to help them disappear in the darkness surrounding them. If Wayne didn't know they were there, he would never had seen them.

After about an hour of staring each other down, a voice broke the silence. Wayne didn't know what it said, but the two guards instantly stood at attention, no longer worried about Wayne.

Wayne saw the large blue horse from before walk up to his cell and look at him with what looked like disgust. It opened its mouth and uttered a string of syllables at him.

"I don't speak yer fuckin' language," Wayne said flatly.

The horse looked at him with anger. It spoke again, more forcefully this time.

"Listen, ya fuckin' horse!" Wayne yelled as he stood, the spears clattering to the floor. "I don't know what the hell you're sayin'! So speak English, or shut yer mouth!"

The horse looked to the spears on the floor, noticing them for the first time. It spun around and shouting something at the two guard horses.

They responded with military-like syllables, not looking at the blue horse, but still answering it.

The blue horse faced Wayne again, looking even more furious than before. It screamed at him, still not understanding that he had no idea what it was saying.

Wayne just kicked the spears towards the blue horse with a sigh. "Please, just shut up, would ya?"

It looked at the spears, not understanding.

"Take my weapons, or whatever the hell ya wanna do. Just shut up already," he said, leaning back against the wall and closing his eyes.

There was complete silence, like when a bomb goes off too close to your head. Then, after a few minutes, Wayne heard the clopping of hooves against the stone ground as the larger horse walked off. He cracked open one eye, and saw that the spears were still there, right where he had kicked them to.

***

Luna walked through the dungeons with swift certainty. It was almost completely dark down there, but she had supernaturally good night vision.

She turned one last corner and saw the cell that the murderous swine was being held in. She immediately saw that the dozen guards she had placed there were no longer at their posts. Instead, only two newly recruited young mares were standing guard over this creature. The had their swords at the ready, waiting in a defensive stance.

She walked closer, then stepped in some kind of puddle of lukewarm liquid. She looked down to see her hoof covered in blood. She looked up, her eyes narrowing at the creature in the cage.

She ignored the blood, walking straight up to the cage. "Where did this blood come from?" she asked the creature in the cage as she came closer. It just looked at her, not answering her question.

She walked up to the cage, noticing the destroyed bars. "Did you harm one of my guards?" she asked it.

It spoke in the same guttural, growls that the first one of it kind spoke in.

"The others like you speak our language! Don't pretend you are ignorant!" she yelled at him.

Luna was surprised when it- no, the others said it was a "he"- when yelled at her and stood. She was surprised that he had raised his voice to her. But mostly, she was surprised by the two spears that landed at his feet. She knew where the blood came from.

Luna spun around to face the two recruits. "Why would you allow him to keep those weapons?!" she shouted.

"We were afraid that he would kill us if we got too close ma'am," the orange coated mare said.

Luna was furious. She turned to face the creature again, rage clear on her face. "You murdered another of our guards! You are nothing but a monster!"

The creature sighed and said something in his language, kicking the two spears towards her, far out of its- his- reach.

She looked down at the weapons, not sure what he was doing. Was he challenging her? No, it looked relaxed, bored even. Was it offering them to her in peace? She didn't know. If it- he- really was offering her peace, why had it- he- killed her guard?

She looked up at it- him- as it- he- spoke again. She had no idea what the words were, but she could tell what they meant. She knew because it- he- laid its- his- head against the wall and closed its- his- eyes.

It was giving up. It didn't want to fight her. Then why had it killed her guard?

As she looked at it- him- she almost felt sorry for it. Then she remembered what it did to her sister. It had destroyed her horn. It had caused her pain. It had hurt her. But... It was giving up. She needed to think on this. She turned and left the dungeon. Left the two guards brave enough to guard the creature. Left the creature who didn't want to fight her.

As she ascended the stairs to her chambers, she could think of nothing else but what to do with him- it.