Leland woke up with his arms and legs bound in roped. “This is not a good start to the day” he thought to himself.
Military training taught him to observe his surroundings. He had learned a lot from his days in the service and even more working as a vigilante. He had also made many enemies. Fear raced through his body at the thought at what they might do to him in situation like this, with him at their mercy. He shuddered.

He opened his eyes. He was in a room with four white walls, angles between which appeared to be 90 degrees. One of the walls had a door in it. The angles weren't important, the door was. No sound was coming from it. That could indicate that he was alone though whatever he did, he would have to do it quietly because if there was a guard, he did not want to alert him.

He was tied to a bed by rope tried to his ankles and wrists. Just as concerning; he was completely naked. He knew how it worked, removing the clothes of people made them feel more vulnerable.

“This cannot get anymore fucked up” he muttered to himself as he tested the ropes. The knot in the ropes was well made and he doubted that he could pull himself free with brute force. However the ropes were not overly tight which was strange.

He considered the fact that he was bound by ropes strange, after all most people who would try to capture him new better than to tie him up with rope. And on the off chance that they did, there is no way they would be stupid enough to leave the rope relatively loose.

Leland tested the rope by flexing his wrists and then his ankles. The rope allowed for a bit of movement but he could not move his wrists more than a foot or so. The ankles were the same.

Leland took a second to think out his next plan of action. If he had been wearing his favorite cloak, he could of rubbed on a sleeve to bring out a blade to cut his bindings but for some reason he was naked. Maybe that was the reason they took his clothes. Most of them did contain concealed weapons.

“I need to get these bonds of me somehow. Breaking the bonds is impossible, I would need something with which to cut the rope. The knot on the bed is not going to break either.” he mused.

He examined the knot on his wrist. “There is no way in hell I’m gonna be able to untie that, but maybe I can rub the knot against the bed and slide the rope off my hand.” He looked at the soft sheets he was going to use as leverage to rub the rope. “This is going to take a while”.

Applejack sat outside the hospital staring at the door. Twilight sat next to her, having just finished writing a letter to the princess about the strange ape-like creature that now lay on the inside of that door.

“So you just found this creature in the south field when you went to check on the harvest?” Twilight asked.
The orange mare nodded, her creamy mane covering her face. “Like I said, ah never seen anything like this critter before. Neither has Big Mac”

“I’ve never seen anything like it either and I’ve studied the different species of mammals”

Applejack turned and looked at Twilight, raising one eyebrow as she did “You sure he’s a mammal?”

The alicorn nodded. “Only mammals have nipples. His species must be sentient, why else would he of been wearing clothes. Plus there’s the matter of this case that you found next to him.”

“You opened it yet?”

“No, heaven knows what’s in there. It could be dangerous.”

“So when’s the princess going to get here”

Twilight broke eye contact with Applejack. “If I had to guess I would say in 5. . .4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1”

A shadow fell over the two mares as a carriage pulled by white stallions in gold royal guard armour passed over the hospital.

The carriage opened and the white princess stepped out. Her mane flowed like liquid in the light breeze. Her guards took up formation behind her, relaxed but alert. They knew Applejack and Twilight well, the two young mares had been involved in multiple matters of state security, most of which the royal guard had trouble dealing with. Also, Twilight was now a princess so the guards were bound to protect her even if she had chosen to not have any personal guards.

“Princess!!” Twilight squealed as she ran forward and embraced Celestia. Applejack bowed, while she was sure the princess would not mind if she had just greeted her as a friend, it was always best to bow to royalty.

“Hello Twilight, I came as soon as I got your message about your guest.”

“Thank you. Applejack found him outside in one of her fields. I checked the area and found no sign of him walking there.”

“He did na walk there, ma sister Applebloom said she could find no tracks and if she can’t find any tracks, I’m telling you princess, they ain’t there.” Applejack interjected.

Celestia and Twilight both looked at her. “Your sister is a tracker?” Celestia asked surprised. Ponies who could track were rare, with tracking being an unneeded skill that was only useful mainly in the Everfree Forest where it was a good idea to know how to recognise animal tracks.

Applejack shrugged. “Yea, I dunno when she learned to do that but after the bunch herd of cows panicked and broke into the forest, she was the one that tracked them all down, even the ones who had crossed rivers. Ah reckon she been spending too much time in that forest.”

“But some of those cows made it miles into the forest before they stopped.” Twilight exclaimed loudly. “Even my magic had trouble find some of them after they had travelled so far and crossed rivers.”

“Did Applebloom notice anything that would hint as to where this creature came from” Celestia asked changing the subject. She was slightly concerned, strange beings appearing out of no-where usually did not go well for her subjects and the kingdom.

“She mentioned to me that the ground was slight impacted as if he had fallen from a considerable height.” Twilight replied.
Applejack looked at Twilight amused. “Told you in those words did she?”

Twilight shook her head. “Not quite, the exact wording was it looks like fell out of a hell of a tree. But that can’t of happened, the nearest tree was five meters away and Applebloom told me the angle of the landing was wrong. Not to mention the tree was no-where nearly as high as what would be required to cause the marks in the ground.”

“So it would seem as if it appeared out of thin air” Celestia asked for confirmation.

“Appeared of thin air from high enough to leave marks in the ground without damaging himself while bringing two large cases with him.” Twilight replied.

“Cases?” inquired Celestia. The two young mares nodded. Twilight gestured over to the cases that were lying beside the door. “These came through with him. We haven’t opened them yet in case they were dangerous.”

It was Celestia’s turn to nod. “That was good thinking. I’m glad to see you two took proper precautions.” Twilight blushed at the complement from the princess and Applejack said “Aw shucks, its what anypony with a brain cell would do.”

Celestia turned to Twilight. “What makes you think that this creature is male?”

Twilight’s blush was now showing through her purple coat as she answered. “We too…took its clothes off so that we could check for injuries.”

Applejack facehoofed and Celestia smiled at Twilight’s embarrassment. Twilight did not notice this as eye contact with Celestia had become considerably harder.

“What do we know about him physically?” the now amused Celestia asked.

“Um, he’s, I mean… I wasn't looking, not that I would ever look. I don’t know…”

Eye contact with her old tutor suddenly became impossible for the purple alicorn and she leaned her head forward so her mane covered her blush.

“Sugarcube, that wasn’t what she was meaning, she was asking what did he look like” Applejack turned to Celestia. “He looks a like a monkey that has no fur. We restrained him so that if he was dangerous, he would not hurt anypony”

Celestia nodded and began issuing orders to her guards. “Once we see this creature, surround him as soon as possible. He may be harmless but take no chances. However, if he does attack, please try not to hurt him.” The guards nodded their understanding.

Inside the room, Leland moved his ear away from the door.

Getting the ropes off him had been tricky but his persistence allowed him to rub the rope off his right wrist. Using his free hand to undo the other knots had been easy. Now he was free and no-one had any idea about it. Not that that would last for long. What his captors were talking about was interesting, by the sound of it they did not want to hurt him. That was good, it meant that he would not have to fight his way out of it. While he had faith in his skills, combat was dangerous normally, fighting multiple opponents was just a bad idea.
“What the hell did they mean by anypony though, are they crazy or something” He shrugged. He could have just heard wrong. If not, this was going to be an interesting conversation.

He heard the sound of multiple hooves clopping towards him and he stepped back from the door.

Author's Note

My first attempt at a fanfic. Not sure whats happening in later chapters though I am thinking of shipping [DATAREDACTED]
Dedicated to my friend Madi.

Fixed the misspelling of vigilante.

Actually, I would like you to criticize please, I need all the help I can get.
Also, take a guess what is in those cases. I haven't decided yet so I'm open to ideas.
Chapter 2 was delayed by my trip to USA. Sorry about that. Not that anypony cares.