Celestia opened the hospital door with her magic. The guards trotted into the room, spears at the ready, expecting the creature to be tied up on his bed. This was not the case.

Since they did not have orders relating to this situation as they had been told that the creature would be restrained, they were quite surprised to say the least. Downright concern was more accurate.

While the creature had not yet made any hostile actions towards them, the last thing they wanted to do was give it a chance.
They surrounded the creature, their spears pointing at its body until there were enough spears that any movement on the creature would result in it being stabbed.

Celestia entered the room, followed by Twilight and Applejack. All three mares noticed the creature seemed to be in a state of shock.

Leland’s jaw dropped. He had chosen to sit cross-legged on the bed to greet whichever person opened the door.It was a very dignified position as far as he was concerned, even if it did restrict movement. It was also the best way for the sake of modesty. He was just hoping that they weren't trying to kill or hurt him. If they were, this as going to be a lot harder to escape.

He did not expect the see what looked a lot like a white horse with a horn, wings and a multicolored mane to be standing there. His mind went blank. It never occurred to Leland to react as the pony guards surrounded him, making any potential escape much more difficult, if not impossible.

“They’re horses, ponies, something!! Oh this is fucked up on so many levels. This can’t be happening! Someone must have spiked my food!” He started in a normal voice but as disbelief turned to panic, his voice became louder and higher.

“You can talk?” an orange mare asked him.

He turned to look at her and repeated her question. “You can talk?”

“All of ponykind can talk” the large white one. Leland noted that all the other ponies as seemed to answer to her. This must be the one called Princess Celestia as she was by far the largest, standing nearly twice as tall as the ponies next to her.

“Where am I?” Leland asked. He knew that there was no place on earth that there were talking ponies. Hell, this entire situation seemed absolutely ridiculous. He still hadn’t ruled out the chance that he was under the effects of drugs, if anything it seemed more likely. Talking ponies ruled by princesses? Ponies using spears? His panic began to dissipate as he relaxed. If this was a delusion, he might as well enjoy it. If not, well this was going to get a lot more interesting before it got normal.

“You are in Equestria. I am one of four princesses that rule this land. This is Twilight Sparkle, she is my personal protégé and the youngest of the princesses.” Celestia gestured to the purple pony next to her.

“Um… how is she holding that notebook?” Leland asked.

Twilight’s horn was glowing with purple energy as the notebook. A similar purple energy was surrounding the notebook as a quill hovered over it.

“Magic” the purple pony replied. “Don’t you have magic where you come from” she asked.

Leland shook his head. “Wait, you guys can use magic?”

Twilight nodded. “Unicorns and Alicorns can due the horn on our heads that can channel magic. While all ponies have some form of magical energy that is present in their bodies, only unicorns and Alicorns can use magic in this form. Pegasus grow wings and can walk on clouds and earth ponies have a natural affinity with the earth that make allows them to farm on the ground.”

An orange mare slammed her hoof into her face. “Sugar, he didn’t need the whole lecture.” The mare turned to Leland. “Howdy, I’m Applejack, the local apple farmer”

The human nodded “I’m Leland, the local.. um..” Now this was a scenario he had not envisioned. How in god’s name do you explain to a bunch of ponies that you are a serial killer? Ok, sure that the people I killed deserved it but why should they believe me. Besides, I doubt ponies are going to like the idea of killing. Still, probably better if I tell the truth, if they have magic, sooner or later they will find out if I lie.

While he was thinking this, all the ponies looked at him expectantly.

He took a deep breath and asked “How would you feel if I said I was a vigilante?”

The two princesses and Applejack shared a glance and judging by the change in body language, they took him a bit more seriously. He wasn't surprised, leader generally hated vigilantes as they could undermine their power. That and professional vigilantes tended to have little respect for authority making them difficult to control.

“I would want to know if you were a threat to the citizens of Equestria” Princess Celestia asked. What this being did in his world was his concern but if there was a chance he would hurt one of her subjects…

“I have never intentionally hurt an innocent person.” Leland weighed his words carefully, telling the truth in a favourable way.

“And what of those you deemed guilty” Celestia asked harshly. She had no patience for those who thought themselves above the law.

Oh god, shes pissed. “I made sure they were guilty of the crime for which I hunted them.” He kept eye contact with Celestia. “Once confirmed what they did, I killed them.”

Twilight and Applejack gasped in horror. The guards tightened their grip on their weapons. Celestia had no visible reaction but inside she was even more concerned than before. This creature, Leland he called himself, showed no concern about admitting that he had killed.

“What did they do to deserve death?” Celestia asked.

“Do you know what slavery is, your majesty?” Leland chose to use the term of respect in deference to her rank, no sense further pissing off a creature who could probably kill him in a heartbeat.

Celestia frowned, slavery had been stamped out centuries ago, after she and Luna had defeated Discord. While there had been a more recent period in history in which stallions had been kidnapped, that was long over though traces of that time could still be found in Equestria's culture.

“I know what slavery is.” she replied. “Does your kind practice it?”

Leland scowled in disgust. “We banned slavery centuries ago but it still goes on. People are kidnapped off the streets and sold into slavery. The females get sold into the sex trade and the males go into manual labor.”

Twilight and Applejack gasped in horror.

“Thats… thats horrible!! Why in tarnation do you allow it?” Applejack burst out angrily.

“For most people, it one of those out-of-sight-out-of-mind things. I can assure you, I personally did not allow it. Why do you think I got these?” Leland gestured to his crest. The ponies then noticed that it was interlaced with scars, some more recent than others.

“You fought them.” Celestia breathed. Now this put things in a different light, this Leland may not be as bad as she had originally thought. Still, killing was not something she took lightly, no matter how justified it was.

“I fought them.” he repeated, confirming her statement. “I hunted them, I ambushed them, I poisoned them, I shot them, I stabbed them, I made sure they payed!!” His voice started quietly but quickly escalated into shouting and by the end of his tirade, the ponies were wincing at the volume and Applejack had pulled her hat down further over her head in a vain attempt to block out some of the noise.

He noticed this. “Sorry, sore subject.”

“Why do you hate them so much?” Celestia asked. He opened his mouth to reply but the princess cut him off. “I don’t mean from a moral point of view. Your hatred of them is much more personal than that. The slavers did something to you.”

‘Holy fucking crap, how the fuck did she know that?’ Leland thought. That was his most personal secret, the one thing he kept hidden from almost everybody he knew. Only his family and a few other vigilantes knew. Those few were friends he had fought with and trusted with his life.

“I’m not sure you need to know that, Princess.” his tone darkening.

The mood in the room darkened, refusing any princess was a foolish move but to refuse a, already wary Celestia…

“I’m sorry” Celestia said quietly. Leland looked at her quizzically. Before anybody in the room could move, Celestia moved forward and touched her now glowing horn to Leland. Everything went dark for him.

Leland looked around the darkness and saw Celestia standing next to him. “What did you do?” he asked her nervously. She looked at him in sorrow. “These are your memories. This is the memory of what you refused to tell me.”
Leland shuddered. “Why do you want to see this?”

“Because I can’t risk you having a secret that could potentially hurt any of my subjects.

Leland comprehended this. “You want to see why I hate the slavers? Very well. How do I show you?”

“Just think of the memory.”

The darkness faded to reveal a street with two children playing on it. Celestia could recognise Leland, he had the same dark hair on his head as a child as he now did.

“Who is the other one?” Celestia asked gently. She could see this memory was causing Leland a lot of pain. Whatever happened next was not going to be pleasant.

“My cousin Sophie.” was the curt reply.

“You seem very close for cousins.” Celestia could feel everything that was in the memory, including Lelands emotions at the time.
“We lived together, we may have been cousins biologically but we were more like brother and sister.”

“Were?”

Leland gestured towards the street. “Watch”

He moved forward to where the children were playing and started speaking like a narrator, albeit a bitter one. “Thirteen year old Leland Price and fifteen year old play together in the back streets of Paris, France. Then suddenly….” Leland paused and waited for dramatic effect. As black van drove up, the children didn’t notice it until it stopped and masked men jumped out. Both the children tried to run. The boy made it to the safety of a shop. The girl didn’t. Leland and Celestia watched as she was dragged kicking and screaming into the van.

The memory faded out as Leland lost control and when Celestia turned to him, she could see the tears in his eyes.

Author's Note

I really need a proofreader.

I wanted to add more to chapter 2 but this just got stuck being background story. I don't like that either. I really just want to get Leland out and about and have some fun there.