New to Equestria

Chapters

001: Off the Boat
002: Night Shift
003: Flames Make It Go Faster
004: Man Overboard
005: Scales
006: Orchard
007: Blood
008: Hospitality

001: Off the Boat

New to Equestria - Chapter One: Off the Boat

The large wooden ship I had finally crossed the ocean in rocked on the waves in the dock, it had been five minutes since a pegasus shiphoof had come below-deck to fetch me from my slumber, and now I sat there in my bunk face-in-hand. Several months waiting in the vessel had finally paid off, it was almost hard to believe i'd finally made it to Equestria. The journey had been hard, I wasn't used to the rocking of a boat, none of us were, but thanks to my misfortune I was the one human on board that threw up during the trip.

I got up and nearly banged my head against the ceiling, it's not that I was tall (not by human standards, anyway), the boat just wasn't really made to accommodate humans. Didn't have enough room to stretch so I decided to skip that part until I made my way up to the deck. I slipped on my dark brown boots, the front discolored from heavy wear. After that, I slipped on a vest manufactured to resist stab wounds, a CSPBA, looked like a ballistic vest but wasn't. Afterwards my field jacket came on, it was olive drab and came with a insulation vest, my Tac-gloves were already on, they'd become a familiar feeling after wearing them most of the ride.

I reached for my patrol pack, but instead decided to open it one more time, laying inside was flares, some medical supplies, canned food, canteen, and a file; which I pulled out and flipped open, it was the file I was to present to the Equestrian leadership.

Humanity has isolated itself from the rest of the world for a long, long time. Just before news of Discord, humanity built a wall, the "Great Wall", all the way around the human-controlled landmass. After the wall was erected we had deported all non-human citizens and closed our borders, archers and ballistae were placed to line the battlements. Fear of Discord caused weapon science to advance quickly, so the now-considered ancient weapons were quickly replaced by riflemen and howitzers.

After Discord our best scientists focused on medicine, due to the plague. After defeating the airborne menace we began to cure more sicknesses in order to minimize loss of life.

Humanity has had it good.

The year was now three-thousand-one After Discord, no one had been concerned about the world outside of our large continent until a year ago, when a trade vessel, lost from it's course, was spotted on the horizon.

The races we once knew, the griffons, the equines, and the rest had been forgotten. Shocked by their appearance, we quickly took them in, brought them back to health, and introduced them to our society, afterwards, preparations were made to send one man into Equestria, after all these years.

That file in my hand, that held my mission, basically; learn everything. What can I say? Humanity is a curious race. I was to proceed to the Equestrian capital immediately and make contact with the leaders of the country. I would return to the Human United Nation for my debriefing.

On board the same trade vessel we spotted on the horizon nearly a year ago, there were three humans including me. After realizing Equestrian individuals had names that reflected them, I was ordered by my superiors to come up with an alias that reflected what kind of person I am.

Silver Tongue.

It was the first thing that came to mind, and I quickly blurted it without thinking - I had to, if I didn't come up with something there was a long line a people begging for my job. Now, I will suffer for lack of creativity. It was printed on my official documents immediately and I was ushered onto the boat.

I tossed the file back into the patrol pack and closed it. Afterwards I took to one knee and looked under the bed, there was the two weapons I was issued for my adventure. There was a long sword, and an M14 Designated Marksman Rifle which came complete with scope and several magazines, after slinging both on my back next came the patrol pack, it went over the sheath and I clipped it at my chest. I grabbed my scarf (it was some mix between that and a bandana) off the door handle and pushed down on it before wrapping it around my neck.

I saw Tristan outside, he was the human being sent to the Griffon Kingdoms, he was a jovial sort of guy too, more so than me. He had a round face and a outgrown orange beard, but hardly any hair on his head, at just a foot shorter than me, he was like a tall dwarf. He acted like it too.

"Why hello 'dere sleeping beauty, 'welcome t' Equestria', the captain said." He said, scratching his beard.

I grinned. "Yeah, finally here. Too bad you have to sit in this bucket for another month or so."

"Aye, wish I could see that out there myself. But i'm more excited to see the rest of the griffons, they seem like me kinda folk."

"True, from what I could tell." I responded, scratching my own stubble. "Where's foxgirl?"

"Hey!" I heard the woman coming down the hall. "You're the one who doesn't have a real name anymore, heading to the Canidae Lands or not, I still have mine."

"Yeah," I huffed. "Don't worry, i'm only half-jealous."

"What?" Kinzie huffed. "Not a fox person?"

"No, I am not actually, especially after that stupid song that went viral in the music shops a few years back."

"Oh relax. If these uh..." She looked down at the piece of paper in her hand. "Roter Fuchs are sentient beings like we've heard it'll be fine."

We had begun to climb onto deck as a horn sounded, announcing the imminent departure of the two's vessel, the area smelled like your typical dock, looked like it too. The docking area itself mostly wooden, while the main platform, lighthouse, and other buildings were built from cobblestone. Salt lingered in the air.

"I suppose this is it. It was nice knowing you two." I said.

"Aye, we'll miss you lad." Tristan told me, a little more somber sounding now.

"Likewise, Silver. Hope to see you again." Kinzie said as she and Tristan walked onto the docking plank of a new boat.

The mast opened with a loud swooshing sound, with the windy conditions the ship was able to speed up with relative ease. The two humans leaned off the deck and shouted another goodbye while waving. Returning their wave as their ship drifted off, a sick feeling made itself apparent in my stomach. I really was alone now. I couldn't send a letter home nor receive one, I wasn't able to use magic. Radios, even if I had one, didn't span out across the ocean.

The boat began to pursue the setting sun at the edge of the sea.

What to do, what to do...

Humans had traded many of their belongings to the ship's crew in order to finance our adventures, so money wouldn't be an issue. I had several of the coins Equestrians used as currency, "bits", they called them. They were sized like a thick human quarter, which I scoffed at, paper money would be so much more easy to carry.

Either way, something other than water or ale to drink for once would be nice.

I turned away from the departing ship and willed myself together, the wooden platform was probably half a football field long, though there were longer docks, I couldn't imagine any Equestrian ship being that big. I was halfway across the length when I realized that the platform was devoid of any being, aside for one furry bipedal... Thing. I could only see almost-doglike-but-not-quite ears protruding from behind the fold-scarred paper in it's glove-wrapped paws.

I put two and two together, that thing was one of those fox creatures. Turns out they did have some sort of sentient level of thinking, if this one was reading. I opened my mouth to call out to it but it pulled the paper down and looked at me first.

The fox made some sort of curious sound and looked at me questioningly, that's what I thought, at least.

"Hi..." I managed.

It's ear flicked at the sound of my voice, and blue eyes met my stare.

"Hey." It responded. I could tell the creature was a male by his voice, though didn't have a scratchy voice or spoke funny despite my expectations. He wore a thick brown hoodie and a dark green bandanna on its head, along with baggy jungle-themed camouflage cargo pants, dark leather boots on his feet. His fur was a orange with a white under his chin and went down his neck.

"New here?"

"Got here just..." He stuck a paw in a pocket with a patch on it, the patch itself had a crescent moon logo and the word Nachtschicht on it.

His paw emerged with a pocket watch and flipped it open. "An hour ago. Still haven't found the tavern."

"Tavern?" I said, tilting my head. "Like... A bar?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm pretty sure this map is wrong."

"Here." I said, stretching out my hand. "Let me check."

He gave me the map, but looked at my hand warily, I found the problem right away and I started to question just how smart this fox really was.

"You were reading it upside down."

"What?" He growled, snatching it from my hand. He studied it for a moment and his mouth started to hang open. "Scheiße."

"Huh?"

"Nothing, just... Gah, the maps back home are much easier to read."

I shrugged in reply.

"Well, thanks for the help, the name's Heckler."

"Silver Tongue." I replied, Heckler snorted at that.

"Hah. What are you anyway?"

"We call ourselves humans. We're pretty far out across the ocean."

"Wow, so why are you here?"

"What is this? Twenty questions? Diplomatic stuff. You?"

"Adventure." He said, shrugging. "Give me a break, I was just curious."

"Curiosity is what got me stuck here until the next Winter Solstice. So you're heading to the Inn right?"

He nodded.

Traveling with Heckler would probably help me get around in Equestria, if I could persuade him to follow me, that'd be like extra protection and i'd have someone to actually talk to. It'd probably take only a few words and a strong to get him to tag along, my directive was to see the the ruler of Equestria, after all.

"Alright, i'll tag along."

002: Night Shift

New to Equestria - Chapter Two: Night Shift

I wasn't really thinking of the reactions i'd get walking into a new species bar/hotel thing when I nearly destroyed the feeble wooden door trying to push it open. Sounds of banter and clinking glasses quickly ended as all eyes turned to Heckler and I. We were the focus of every pegasi, griffon, and the few canines in the room.

Though to my surprise, they shortly turned back to what they were doing and disregarded us. The tavern was all lit by fire. I didn't see a single chemical, magic, or electrical light in the room, giving the place a snuggly feeling, the heat accumulated in the building only reinforced that feeling. My nose began to suffer from the dramatic change of temperature though.

I hummed. "Didn't think they'd take us so casually."

"Well, at least I know i'm not a total minority here." Heckler said, gazing at the several drunken foxes in the room. "You, on the other hand..."

"Yeah, thing is, if i'm not the only one here then I've got a problem."

"Why's that?" He asked me ask we sat at the bar, him on my left side.

"I'm supposed to be the only of my kind here. My people have been sealed away for a long time, when the great walls were constructed, all humans should have been accounted for inside our country or confirmed to be dead."

"Just how long are we talking about here? Because I've never actually heard about humans."

"Uh, let's see. Royal Sisters banish Discord and the AD era begins, about half a thousand years later there's something about the Crystal Empire, two thousand years after that and i'm sitting here talking to you. Around two thousand three hundred years."

Heckler echoed me.

"Yeah." I confirmed. "Pretty good chunk of time."

An earth pony gave me an inquisitive look from the other side of the bar, his mane was combed back and a slick black color, with a pale brown coat.

"Hi." I said with an awkward wave.

"I'm going to take it you're new here. What'll you have?"

"Anything but ale or water, and i'll pay for whatever my friend here is having."

Heckler raised an eyebrow, but informed the pony he wanted a beer, after he'd left to go get my mystery drink and beer, Heckler looked at me.

"Think I can't pay for myself?" He deadpanned.

When I turned in my seat and almost began to explain I was being generous. He grinned and chuckled a little.

"Well, you're right."

"I figured it'd be a nice gesture. And why's that?"

"Absolutely broke, miracle I got here at all." He leaned close and began to whisper. "I stowed away in a boat from my fatherland, worst month of my life."

"Impressive." I said, grinning.

"I'm glad my suffering has given me your approval."

The barkeep came back, laid our drinks out and collected my bits. Almost glad to be rid of the coins, I took a slow swig of the beverage, the familiarly strong taste of whiskey hit me, but there was something else I couldn't identify.

"What is this?" I asked in general.

"Whiskey and Pony-Cola." The barkeep pony told me as he walked by to serve someone else.

I hummed curiously and took another drink. When I did, I caught one of the foxes staring at us, or maybe just me, I wasn't sure, but it raised my suspicion. I bumped Heckler with my knee and got his attention.

"Call me paranoid." I said, putting down my drink. "But I've got a bad feeling about the fox to my left."

His eyes darted to said canidae, it was a moment before I saw a look of realization flash across his face, and he looked at me.

"We should leave."

"What's wrong?" I said, voice lowering.

"It's not you she's staring at, it's me."

I wasn't exactly sure, but Heckler seemed to have been struck with genuine fear. I took one more swig from the mixed drink before nodding and getting off of the stool, motioning for him to stick close. Indeed, the vixen watched us, I saw it from the corner of my eye. She had even gotten ready to get up.

"Damn," I cursed. "Here I was thinking I wouldn't have trouble here."

"We just got to move fast." He hissed as I pulled the door open. "You're probably trying to get to Canterlot, am I right?"

I nodded my head. He looked back towards the tavern as we walked along the cobblestone road. The buildings along running along the road had a medieval sort of look to them, made of dark wood, and were usually two stories high, there was an alleyway between every one of them almost. The sky had grown dark, a beautiful yet dark sky surrounded the world.

"Hey!" A female's voice called out to us.

"Ignore her." Heckler instructed. "Let's try and lose her through the alleyways."

I followed him wordlessly as he hastily walked into the nearest alley. It didn't look conspicuous at all, with the garbage, darkness, rodents moving in the shadows. As we went deeper, I noticed the lack of light seemed to have no effect on Heckler, while I was having troubles seeing my feet.

When I heard the sound of pawsteps rapidly approaching us I quickly turned. However I didn't see anything, instead I heard Heckler grunt and land with a thump.

"I wanted... To ask you... A question!" The fox from the bar hissed.

"Rot in hell!" I heard Heckler retort, just before the sound of an elbow meeting a face met my ears.

Eventually I stopped wasting time and opened my pack, pulling a flare out and holding it in my left hand. I pulled the white cap off, turned it around and struck the magnesium with it. The flare ignited on the first attempt and just simply burned for a second before sparking and completely illuminating the area.

I saw Heckler, and I saw the woman... Or whatever. Both were shielding their eyes against the brilliant light, I took the few precious seconds it took their eyes to adjust and pulled my longsword from it's sheath, I dropped the flare on the ground behind me and by the time the fox was able to see, the tip of my blade was at her throat.

"This how you treat your own kind?" I challenged.

"Cowards, maybe!" She spat.

"There a story between you two?"

"There's a story between him, and the whole of Fuchsland, a very short one too!"

"I love stories, tell me more."

She hissed at me but didn't move otherwise. "You've seen the patch on his garb ja? 'Nachtschict'."

I nodded.

"Night Shift. True warriors of the dark, most dead now. The cowards are the ones that survived." She turned to Heckler. "And you DARE continue to wear it!"

Heckler snorted. "Those that died in those days were fools. Yes, I wear the patch, may as well have gotten something out of the military other than bread crumbs!"

"Coward!" The woman hissed again.

"Get out of here." I told her, motioning with my sword. "We don't want trouble."

She snorted and walked around be, I kept my blade trained on the vixen in case she tried to start something. She reached they edge of the alley and shot us a discriminating look before disappearing around the corner.

"You. Fucking. Moron."

I turned to Heckler, who was shaking his head. "What?"

"Füchse, or 'foxes', in your language, are sort of like diamond dogs, most of us have packs, guess who that vixen is running off to get?"

I looked back towards the alleyway entrance and bit my lip. "Still got that map on you?"

"Mhmm." He said, offering it to me.

I grabbed the map and set it on the ground, looking for anything that resembled a train station, after a quick scan of the key I noticed a steam whistle is what marked it. I found the steam whistle roughly in the center of the city, which I finally realized was called "Vanhoover", in twelve months i'd return here to leave the country.

That, however, was currently irrelevant. I memorized what looked like the quickest path before folding the map back up and handing it to Heckler. I told him to keep close, and we began running. I just hoped the train was actually in the station.

003: Flames Make It Go Faster

New to Equestria - Chapter Three: Flames Make It Go Faster

"What do you mean we can't just go directly to Canterlot?!" Heckler yelled.

"Bandits are all over the railway between us and the capital, the train won't even run that route now." The grey earth pony replied impatiently.

"Look Heckler," I said, rubbing my temples. "I don't get caught by a horde of angry bipedal foxes, we can worry about Canterlot later."

"Fine." He hissed as I bought our tickets.

"Have a safe ride." The ticket master said sarcastically. I replied with a rude finger gesture he didn't understand.

The train had already begun to depart by the time we jumped aboard. It looked ridiculous, honestly, and I felt ridiculous just to be riding the thing. I thought I heard barking, but the steam whistle drowned out any other noises as it blew. Before we even managed to our seats the lights of Vanhoover had disappeared and all that was outside was darkness.

Heckler flopped down in his seat while I stood for a moment, trying to decide whether to sit or stand.

“So where is the train going now?” He asked.

“Some town named Ponyville, not too far from Canterlot apparently.” I replied.

He hummed and closed his eyes, I figured I wouldn't be able to get much out of him for the rest of the night, especially not about the Night Shift thing. I guess that meant is time to mingle with Equestria’s more nocturnal citizens. I would have just left my rifle in the seat beside Heckler, but I wasn't necessarily sure if I wanted to run the risk of having to regret it later.

I wasn't really at the point of hunger, but decided to head for the food-serving part of the train anyway. Most of the passengers were asleep at the moment, but the ones that were still hanging onto consciousness were a little more surprised by me that the tavern folk, maybe even startled.

I’m not sure why I was surprised to see only one passenger in the train car that served food and the whatnot. The pony hadn't noticed me, but I was a little surprised by her. I’d seen pegasi before already but this one was different. As in it had leathery bat wings instead of feathery bird wings. Her coat was grey, mane two shades of greyish blue, one dark, one light.

When I began to walk towards the bar she sat at, her ear flicked once and she calmly turned to look at me. Her irises were a sort of brass color, a black slit forming the cornea. I almost hesitated, but found it in myself to keep moving.

She looked at me curiously with big eyes, I hated to admit it, but she looked laughably cute with that expression. A piece of fruit impaled by her sharp batty teeth, it was either a mango or an orange, I wasn't that great telling the difference.

When I waved and gave off a nice smile the bat pony became a little more relaxed. While I pulled a seat up she literally pulled all the juice from the fruit, slightly unnerving, but she had the decency to eat it instead of spitting it out.

“Wow. Never thought i’d see a hairless monkey, tall too.” Her words felt like silk to my eardrums. It took me a second to realize what she’d just said.

I recoiled slightly. “What?”

“I… Wait… Oh.” She stammered.

I just blinked in reply.

“I. Am so. Sorry.”

“I’m not even sure what kind of comeback I should use for that.” I said, stealing one of her fruit and popping it in my mouth. Mango, should’ve known.

“I’ve… It’s just that i’ve never seen…”

“Humans.” I interrupted with a smile, lifting up a gloved hand and wiggling the fingers.

“That’s weird.”

“Do you like to put down all exotic species down like this?”

She tilted her head left and right, a devilish grin on her face. “Maybe.”

“Figured.” I said with a chuckle. “And just what are you?”

She gasped and mocked distress, putting a hoof to her chest.

“I’ll have you know,” She said in the most cliched, prim voice. “I belong to the thestral race.”

I looked at her with a “what” sort of expression and she laughed.

“Everypony calls us bat-ponies.”

I tossed the phrase around in my head a few times, not a very creative name, but... “Makes sense.”

She extended her wings fully in an almost dramatic fashion. “I guess.”

“Where do bat ponies come from, anyway?”

“Well…” She started, twirling her hoof on the desk. “When mommy and daddy love each other VEEERY much…”

“No, I don’t need the birds and the bees lecture. Forget I asked.”

“Suit yourself, what’s your name?”

“Silver Tongue, you?”

“Hmm… Not sure if I want to say…”

I knew one of these ponies would exploit that card eventually, just didn’t think it would be so soon.

“But surely such a beautiful young mare would want her name to be known.” I said, leaning over a bit.

She chuckled. “Nice, could use some work though. I could see annoyance flash in your eyes when I asked. The name’s Echo.”

She held out her hoof, it looked like she was expected a handshake, but I was suddenly in my Suave-mode, so instead I gently took the back off her hoof in my hand and kissed the front of it, more-or-less how’d you’re expected to kiss the back of a lady’s hand.

“I’m honored.” I told her. That’s about the time I realised I just kissed a pony’s hoof. At least she wasn’t a wild animal, right?

I managed to see her blush, wasn’t entirely sure how that worked, what with the coat covering her body, but I did. She drew her hoof back and looked slightly sheepish.

That’s when I heard the howling, Echo and I looked around confusedly until Heckler burst through the door.

“Silver! The train’s under attack!” He shouted.

A bottle of whiskey with a rag in it broke through the window for emphasis, apparently the attackers had forgotten to light it though. The bottle shattered uselessly on the floor.

We both just stared at it for a moment.

What a waste. I thought.

“At first I thought they were the Füchse from the bar, but it must be diamond dogs because I know my kin are not that stupid.” He deadpanned. “They’re also moving hella fast.”

“Woah, what’re you?” Echo asked.

“Eh, maybe later.” I said, readying my DMR. Now I knew it was right to keep it on me, the bat-pony was just noticing it apparently but didn’t bother asking.

“Do Equestrian’s have fire-extinguishers?” I continued, chambering a round and savoring the lovely metallic sound that accompanied it.

“Yeah,” Echo replied. “I’ll go warn ponies.”

I held out my hand to stop her. “Stick behind us, it’s not exactly safe.”

The look on her face told me what she thought about that, but the bat-pony didn’t say anything. When Heckler turned and opened the door he was immediately tackled by a lunky dog, at first I thought he’d need help, the diamond dog obviously had superior mass and the quarters were tight. Somehow though Heckler managed to pull off a sort of reversal and get it into a choke-hold.

“Shh…” Heckler shushed the dog, I was a little more than scared of him because of the way he did it, after thirty or so seconds of struggling and the mutt went quiet.

“CQC. Real big boss huh? Let's go." I told him as he got up.

“Ja, mein Kapitän.” He said sarcastically, taking point.

All of the passengers in the next car were scared and confused of course, waking up to an attack. There were a few shouts and I heard more howling just outside the train car, close enough that we heard it over the steam engine. Then there was a loud thump, immediately drawing my attention. There was a diamond dog grappling at a window, hissing and barking at a passenger on the other side of the glass. I immediately took aim. Ending or threatening another life had become less hard to take after my time as a marksman, especially if they were trying to burn us alive.

With a loud crack, the lead projectile was launched from my weapon, breaking the sound barrier. The bullet wound I knew would not be lethal, it struck his shoulder and had the force to make the dog lose it’s grip. The fall however, I was not sure. To my surprise, none of the ponies screamed in fear, rather, their attention was on me, trying to figure out what the hell I just did. It pretty much answered my question concerning whether they had firearms or not, luckily I didn't see any children aboard.

I motioned to my little group to keep moving, it wasn't question time for these ponies. We made haste through the aisle, arriving in a new passenger car, where Heckler made a brilliant observation.

"The whole damn things going up in flames!"

"You don't say?!" I retorted, raising my voice to overcome the noise.

There wasn't much oxygen left to breath inside, so I gave Echo my scarf to wrap around her face so she didn't breath in the thickening smoke (ladies first, right?). Heckler and her had already acquired extinguishers and were trying to combat the flames wrapping around the train car while I watched their backs.

There were still ponies trapped on the cars behind the one we were in. I had already decided that the best course of action would be get rid of the fire and try to evacuate the lower cars, simply detaching them would leave the passengers at the mercy of the bandits. It came at an annoyance to me that Echo happened to be the only pony on board who was even remotely capable of operating during combat.

"Silver!" Said mare called. I looked over in her direction, two passengers, they weren't responding, but hopefully just unconscious. I rushed over to the two and managed to get them on my shoulders. My vision was completely clouded with smog now, I could hardly see five feet ahead and it didn't help when sweat continued to drop in my eyes. I pushed into the train door and actually broke it down this time, I didn't stop at the first and ended up sailing through the door on the other car. It took me a second to remember that they were meant to slide.

I heard a yelp of surprise and realized there was a diamond dog on board. I set the unconscious ponies down just in time to block an oncoming claw-swipe from the scruffy-looking bastard. I returned with a punch across his snout, it spun around, holding it's nose. Not wasting a second I grabbed the back of it's tattered vest and threw the dog into the wall of the train.

And the whole thing just fell off, the diamond dog with it.

"These trains are well-built!" I said sarcastically, shaking my head.

"You just knocked down the entire wall!" A incredulous unicorn observed.

"Yeah. I guess I did, can you see to these ponies? They need help. You might wanna consider changing cars too." I replied.

He nodded and the rest of the passengers followed by example. I took a deep breath, and charged into the burning car again, the flames were almost controlled, but large chunks of the train were seared and some even missing.

"I'm going to the other side." I exhaled.

"Goddess be with you." Heckler grunted.

I'd never played hopscotch before, but now I could totally see the appeal. After my leg fell through the floor twice and the railway nearly dragged the rest of my body through I just started jumping past the scorched pieces of wood and hoped I landed on the stable pieces. Apparently luck was on my side for now, because I found myself on the other side of the car. Opening the door quickly I stepped out into the night for mere seconds before disappearing into the next section of the train.

004: Man Overboard

New to Equestria - Chapter Four: Man Overboard

Apparently some ponies were fighters, I couldn't vouch for said pony's mental stability though.

A white stallion stood amidst three diamond dogs, all of which were on the floor. The pony didn't have a horn, nor wings, but seemed to be built like a rock. He was facing away from me, but I didn't need to see his face in order to feel the pure anger radiating off of him. I could see his cutie mark, a pick-axe, not too reassuring.

He did turn to me when I subconsciously closed the door, his eyes were the color of steel blue, a messy mane of dark grey covered his head. What stood before me was a very angry, buff, earth pony. Apparently, he saw me no different than he saw a diamond dog. I sidestepped him as he charged at me, ramming his head into the door and falling on his flank with a dazed look.

"Easy there," I told him, trying not to laugh. "I'm here to help."

My voice brought him back down to Earth as he turned and gave me a fierce glare. He launched himself at me swinging wide with his right arm, I took a hold of it, and using the momentum of his body, slung him across the car. The stallion landed on his hooves, skidding for a bit. After stopping he scuffed his hoof against the floor, imitating a bull preparing to charge.

I cracked my knuckles. "If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get."

"Daddy?" I heard a childlike voice call from behind the stallion, he suddenly froze in place and looked back. There was a filly behind him, apparently his daughter. Her coat was white, but unlike the stallion that attacked me, she had wings and her mane was a minty green, a few shades lighter than her eyes.

"That doesn't look like a diamond dog, daddy!" The filly noted.

The father turned from the filly to me, and then look at the diamond dogs, then back at me. Finally the stallion was out of his rage, I could tell the realization had struck him struck him by the expression on his face.

"You're right sweetie... But what is it then?"

"Allow me to answer that question," I said. "Silver Tongue the human at your service. I came here to help the rest of the passengers with the diamond dog problem and get them up to the front half."

"The front half? Why?"

"The diamond dogs tried burning some parts of the train, the car behind me is badly scorched and i'm not sure if it will hold up much longer."

He was silent in thought for a moment, I couldn't completely blame him for not trusting a stranger, an alien stranger at that. The pony looked to his daughter once more, they shared something I didn't see nor hear, probably a tight father/daughter thing.

"Okay," The father said. “I’m getting my daughter to safety first, go help those ponies.”

“On it.”

I walked further down the train, there wasn’t very many cars if I remembered correctly, with any luck we’d be able to get all of the passengers to fit on the front half. While opening the door, something occurred to me, where the hell were the police?

Entering the next part of the train, nothing but silence met my ears and three diamond dogs stared at me, they’d cornered a single passenger, a pegasus with a blonde mane and gray coat. What confused me wass whether they were all having trouble trying to contain a single pony, or if they were just bullying the poor mare.

Deciding to level the odds a bit, I pulled my longsword from the sheath on my back, doing it slowly and dramatically as possible. Looking at my targets I established the tall and cocky-looking one was probably the leader of their little group. The other two, which were fairly shorter and chubby, were looking unsure of themselves at the moment.

I didn’t have time for more tactical analysis as the tall one literally jumped at me, caught off guard, I was knocked on my back. Before the dog had the opportunity to rip me to shreds with his claws I hit one of it’s temples with the hilt of my sword, the attack knocked out my aggressor, but before I was able to throw his body off of me I saw the rounded diamond dog preparing to finish me.

It didn’t get the chance though, Heckler had my back, delivering a solid punch to the dogs throat and throwing it to the floor. My fuzzy ally extended his arm to help me and I gratefully took it. It became apparent once I was up that the other diamond dog had bailed on his friends, literally jumping out of the train car.

“Woah!” The grey mare said. “That was so cool!”

“I’m always one for making a show out of things.” Heckler said cockily.

“Yeah, thanks for the help by the way.” I told him, before turning to the mare. “Are you okay miss?”

“I’m fine. But you might want to go check the other ponies.”

I stepped aside as the mare walked the way me and Heckler came from, I saw Echo and the white stallion coming through just as the unnamed mare was leaving.

“What’re we supposed to do with these dogs anyway?” Echo asked, prodding one of the canines.

“I’m not sure, but there’s one more car that needs clearing.”

I didn’t get the chance to open the door, it exploded before me, time seemed to slow as if I was in a mainstream action flick and the developers felt more epicness was needed. Only there was a noticeable difference, I saw a big-ass diamond dog charging right at me. It pounced before I was even able to reach for my sword. Timespeed returned to normal as the dog bit into my upper-right torso, pain shot through me as the mutt’s fangs burrowed themselves deep into my body.

I knew I was screaming, but all I noticed was the ever-increasing agony. Then the shaking began, like a wolf swinging around it’s soon-to-be devoured prey. I felt a burning sensation similar to that of being put through the seventh level of hell, my arm felt as if it was coming close to being torn off, my heart dropped, and black started appearing at the edges of my vision.

It was about to be game over, and so soon. Whatever, I still managed to find my longsword in my left hand somehow, I waited until the dog steadied for a moment and when he did, my blade found itself ran through the midsection of an overgrown canine. My attacker pulled out his teeth and howled, I felt my body beginning to lose blood, but I couldn’t feel the pain anymore.

I was on my feet even as the world spun, left hand death-gripping the sword handle. Instead of dropping dead like I hoped, the dog glared at me fiercely, and swiped with his right paw. The sword was still in my hand, it must’ve ripped out. Interestingly enough, I was still mid-air. It took me a moment to realize I was no longer in the train, and that the ground was rushing up to greet me.

By the time i’d hit the ground I was already unconscious.

...

When the darkness parted, I found myself laying in a pool of my own blood, seriously, stuff was everywhere, I was on my stomach, left hand shot out forwards. The sun was now rising, and interestingly enough I saw a unicorn mare.

She wasn’t very colorful like other ponies, she was rather… Monochrome? Grey coat, and white mane with a streak of grey. Her eyes caught my attention, the lower part of the iris was yellow, it

developed into orange as it went up. She wore a long coat, halfway-buttoned up and being worn as a sort of v-neck. She wore a hood over her head, casting a shades over most of her face.

I reached out to her with my left hand as she came closer, trying to make some sort of comprehensible request for help, nothing came out of my mouth though.

“Well, aren’t you an interesting creature.”

“He-hel…” I choked out.

The mare sat there with a smug grin on her face, eyes filled with amusement, if only my hand could reach further, i’d ring her damned neck. My hand fell when I lost the strength to hold it up, I passed out again not long after.

I didn’t have the luck required to get some rest apparently. My brain starting overclocking as a lucid dream melded before me. I remembered the place, a year ago i’d been enjoying a warm homemade meal there. It was my home. I found myself lying on the hammock I called my bed in the second floor of my apartment, it was in the corner closest to the wall that faced the street. Window shutters closed with pricks of sunlight coming through, generating enough light for my eyes to make out my environment in detail.

The floor was littered with clothing and trash, as usual. Pulling myself out of the hammock wearing a sleeveless shirt and sweats, there was a slight sting in the place where the diamond dog bit me, but when I checked the place the fang marks should’ve been I didn’t see anything.

I stumbled downstairs, the first thing that came to my attention was my couch… And the unicorn sitting atop it. The monochrome mare, the same exact one, sat there. Her eyes had followed me as I came down the stairs.

“Sleep well?” She purred. Her voice carried mysticism, and probably would’ve caught my attention from across a football field.

“I hate lucid dreams. I know you’re watching me bleed out right now but at least have the decency to not make me think about the ‘what’s real and what’s not?’ thing.”

“No worries dear. I’m just here to… Study... You.”

“Creepy.” I sighed, averting my eyes from the mare. When I looked back, she was gone.

She came from right behind me not a second later, brushing against my side. “It’s not creepy at all.”

I walked away and seated myself on the coach. “So, what do you want?”

“Just looking to get to know you.” She replied, looking around the apartment with an unimpressed look.

“Well, i’ll tell you what, get me a phoenix down, and i’ll give you my auto-biography.”

“Hmm, no. I want more…”

Uh…

“No.” She shook her head, apparently reading my mind. “I mean literally. Let me show you.”

Her horn glowed, there was a flash of light and I found myself on a rooftop, panicked screams filled my ears. I didn’t see the mare, but a hand grabbed my wrist, when I looked at the source a saw a girl, probably just in her twenties. When I stared into her eyes I realized I was looking at the monochrome mare, only as the monochrome woman… She wore a white hoodie in the same fashion as her pony coat, dark ripped-up denim jeans, and a simple pair of white sneakers.

“Where are we?” I immediately asked.

“You tell me.”

I looked around, taking account of my environment, it clicked immediately, I was in the financial capital for the H.U.N.; Medius. Taller buildings than the one we stood atop surrounded us. I was so awed by my old station that I didn’t notice the masked man standing at the edge-guard of the building until the monochrome woman pointed him out to me.

The man looked like a federal sniper, I would know. He had an M24 Sniper Weapon System propped up on a bipod, scope focused on whatever was below. Curious, I leaned over the wall and looked to the ground below. There was a hostage situation.

“Remember this don’t you?” Monochrome chimed in.

“Too well.” I grimaced. “I hate flashbacks.”

“I hate to remind you of such a dark day, it could have been better though.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You could’ve saved two more people that day.”

My teeth ground together. “I followed my orders, morality doesn’t matter.”

“Really now?”

There was the crack of a rifle, but it wasn’t from the sniper. Down below a man with a sack over his head dropped.

“They’ve executed another hostage.” The sniper murmured.

“HQ copies all.” I heard a disembodied voice all around us.

Another crack, the sniper twitched and I could see his knuckles go white gripping his weapon. There was several more agonizing seconds of waiting before the voice spoke again.

“Send it.”

There was a flash from the end of the M24’s barrel, the executioner below dropped and the sound of breaching charges could be heard, along with shouting and some more fire.

“Why’d you wait? Did you want to see those innocent people die?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Answer my first question.”

“I told you earlier; I was just following orders.”

“You let a man sitting at a desk with a badge decide whether you should save those people or not?”

I looked over to the sniper as he pulled off his balaclava, and I looked back at me. Was “just following orders” a good enough excuse to let those people die? What would’ve happened if I fired early?

I turned back and glared at the woman. “Yes. I did.”

005: Scales

New to Equestria - Chapter Five: Scales

~ Silver Tongue ~

"So where are we now?" Monochrome asked me.

"Huh, looks like the federal offices."

Exactly so, in fact. We were on the second floor of the building, the walls were cool brown with a white ceiling and blue carpet. Even though it was a large room, it felt cramped with all of the cubicles being tightly packed within. When I looked to a conveniently placed calender, I noted it was a very interesting day.

My past self stepped out of the captain's office in my dress uniform, several medals adorning my upper-left torso. There were bags under my eyes, as if I hadn't had sleep in several days. The Monochrome Woman look towards past-me and present-me.

"You look marginally better." She said.

"I would imagine, this is my dream form. Physically I probably look like hell seeing how a certain pony is looking into my past while I die." I retorted.

She shrugged. "Your current form is reflected by your mental health."

"Uh huh. You ever done this before?"

Monochrome smiled. "We have looked into many dreams, yours is not the first."

A sudden change in facial expression told me she hadn't meant to say that. As soon as the change occurred it was gone, replaced again by her smug smile. Without further comment, the Monochrome Mare abruptly sent me back to the present reality.

Unfortunately, I hadn't been found and taken to a hospital. I saw myself in the same position as I was after falling off the train, prone and left arm outstretched. The blood that had pooled around my body expanded halfway to my elbow, if that wasn't enough evidence, the ghostly cold feeling ensured that i'd lost far too much of the red fluid. If I had to guess, i'd imagine that roughly thirty percent of my total blood was on the ground right now

Looking around it came to my attention that there was actually two bottles lying to my left, both made of glass. One had a golden wing ornament attached and was filled with a clear liquid, inside the liquid was a tangled red substance, it took me a moment to realize I was actually looking at a "phoenix down" potion.

The vial of phoenix down had a note beside it, it read: "For when your heart inevitably stops beating."

The other glass was filled with a pigment pink substance, it also had a note: "Pour on your bite."

Said wound began to sting, I grabbed the bottle and managed to pull off the cap between my thumb and index finger. Rolling on my back I inhaled deeply before emptying the liquid out onto my wound, despite my expectations, there was no disinfecting sting. Rather, there was a fuzzy warmth, to my amazement, my skin was knitting itself together. I looked back to the bottle, sitting up. I noticed there was a black emblem depicting a snake wrapped around a hourglass, strange as it was, I stowed the bottle in a pocket, with any luck I could find more.

I picked myself up and looked around, I was currently looking down the rails which the train had come from, which split in the distance, both heading west towards the coast but in two different directions. Turning around I saw the track go straight east before vanishing over a hill. It was a hefty distance off, but if I conserved my strength and take it easy, getting there wouldn't be too much of a problem. After that, it shouldn't be hard to spot the next town.

...

~ Heckler ~

I stood near the train station with a smirk on my face as the surviving diamond dogs were hauled off in chains flanked by several gaurdponies, it was a sight to see.

Echo, on the other paw (hoof?), wasn't coping so well. After what we presumed to be the pack leader was incapacitated by the wounds Silver dealt it, Echo's adrenaline apparently wore off because she'd gone from courageous to timid in no time. Any attempt i'd made to get the mare to talk was shot down by utter silence.

I couldn't help but think of how this would affect the country, after all, Silver said he was the one diplomat sent here. It only made sense that his nation would assume the worst after not hearing from him. Echo refused to believe it, and I hated myself for even letting my worries exist; but Silver was ran through by huge teeth, not only that but he was thrown through the train's wall as it was at full speed. If he didn't die already, he would be soon.

"Hey." The mare to my left said, for a moment i'd forgotten Echo was there.

"What's up?"

"Shouldn't we have... I don't know, warned the guards about Silver Tongue?"

"That's..." I turned back to see the guard's caged chariot vanishing in the distance to Canterlot. "A very good question."

"Great." The mare sighed. "Alright, let's just go to the tallest building in town and hope it's a government building."

At the moment, we were still at the train station, located at the southernmost part of town. The surrounding area was void of all but a couple of buildings, while I was scanning for some sort of landmark I realized the sun's position.

"Hey, you're half bat, half pony aren't you?"

"I guess."

"Then why are you out in the sun?"

Echo looked at me, and then towards the sun, shielding her eyes with a hoof. "Well, that's were the half pony part comes in, we can be out during the day, but we're at our best and more comfortable at night. You see, we uh... Operate better with the non-radiant magic of the moon."

"Uh huh."

"Problem is," Echo interrupted herself with a yawn. "This will wreck havoc on my internal clock."

We went back to our search, entering the town itself. Most of the buildings we passed were timber-framed with thatch roofs. Here and there you'd come across a brick building or a sort of tent-like structure, most of which seemed to be businesses. It seemed like a pretty normal small town, that is, until I saw the gingerbread house.

After taking a bite of the building, and being disappointed at the discovery that it was fake, we moved further into the town. Along the way we found several interesting structures, the most interesting (aside from the gingerbread house) being the giant tree, I stopped in place and look at the mare approaching us.

"Hey, Echo. Ponies usually have a horn or wings or neither right?" I asked.

"Yeah, why?" She said, keeping her pace.

"That one has both."

Echo's head whipped around and saw the same pony I did. "P-princess... Twilight S-sparkle." She sputtered, before bowing.

"Please," Twilight said with a sheepish look. "Just 'Twilight' is fine. Do you mind if I-."

"A princess?" I interrupted, surprised. "I'm pretty sure we have an issue that warrants your attention then."

"Oh of course, I always try to make time for my hometown."

"It's bigger than that." I said, scratching the back of my neck. "You're aware of the diamond dog attack on the train yeah?"

"Yes, the guards took care of it. They didn't try and arrest you did they?"

"No." I said with a wave of my paw. "There was a human diplomat on board, we were ne-"

"Human!?" She screamed, wings flaring out. "Where?"

I was getting to that! I nearly said, biting my tongue to stop.

Echo filled in for me. "We lost him near the mountain tunnel, can you help?"

Twilight bit her lip, looking worried. "A dragon was reported to be in the caves of that mountain recently."

...

~ Silver Tongue ~

Let it be known; I hate caves. The mountain in front of me had no shortage of them. The way the train tracks ran into the mountain led me to believe the only real way to civilization was through the tunnel. Still, I opted to go around until I heard a loud thump and grumble sound out from within the caves along with the jingle of coins.

Damn my sense of curiosity.

Three minutes later found me a quarter of a way up the mountain peering into the darkness of what I hoped was the right cave, the entrance was massive compared to the others, and stalactites had formed within view distance. The outside world's light lasted for a good few yards. I entered, and on the verge of zero visibility, I leaned back into cover and pulled a flare from my bag, I struck the magnesium tip three times before it lit. After it became illuminary I blindly threw it into the cave and waited five seconds before peeking again. Within lay a mound of gold coins and trinkets, two light blue eyes with slit corneas looked back at me.

I heard the grumble again just ahead of me, it formed words. "Another distraction. I will never get to sleep."

The owner of the voice and presumably the gold rose from the mound slowly, treasures rolling off of them. It was a dragon, straight from a fairy tale; scales, wings, leather belly, and webbed wings. It's scales were pure white while it's belly was light grey. She dwarfed me in size easily, being about half as big as your average living room.

"Show yourself." The dragon demanded, the voice was somewhat feminine. She didn't yell or growl, but her words had a force of authority behind them.

I obeyed, stepping into view, but not within arm-length. The dragon's eyes widened as she saw me, I returned the gaze but after I few moments she began to laugh.

"Ah I've slept into the return of humanity! Finally done hiding behind their walls." I frowned at this until the dragon continued. "Now their going to hunt us in secret once more."

"Hold on. No one's hunting anyone." I told her.

"Really? Did the human race suddenly become pacifistic?"

"... No."

"I thought not. So foolish of you to think you'd end me in my sleep."

"I'm not here to kill you." I said raising my hands. "Just give me a few moments to explain."

"Fine, speak."

I recited my tale thus far from getting off the boat, which in retrospect, has been shorter than it's felt. The dragon had began to make herself comfortable and listened intently.

"So," The dragon began to rise when I finished. "You're here alone, with no help coming soon?"

I grimaced at the toothy grin. "Yes."

The dragon roared with laughter. "Human, you shall not leave this cave alive."

I yelped and jumped back into cover as the dragon's laugh stopped and was replaced by a stream of flame. The dragon flame wasn't too close, but the sheer heat in the small cave made me sweat and my scalp itch. DMR ready, I leaned out of cover as the dragon's stream of flame ended and aiming at the monster's head, fired three shots.

At least, that's all I got before I was pulled off my feet and into the shadows. A howl of pain filled my ears and left me with a feeling of accomplishment, the dragon sped by me soon after, smashing through stalactites and other rock formations and she made her way outside.

"Are you crazy?!" Someone whispered in my ear.

"No, just stupid." I admitted.

I heard a groan and finally decided to face my supposed savior. She was a pony with wings as well as a horn, her coat was lavender colored, and a mane of sapphire blue, with pink and purple streaks.

"Princess...?" I started.

"Not now. There's a dragon on the loose."

I followed the princess to the cave exit, we didn't see the dragon itself, but heard her wings flapping. The ground shook as the monster landed on the ground below us, looking up. The pony as my side trotted to the edge of the mountain and stood tall.

"I am Twilight Sparkle, and-"

I saw the flames begin to bellow within the dragon, she opened her jaws and fire appeared at the back of her throat, I grabbed Twilight and pulled her back and down as dragonfire hit the mountainside where she'd been standing. We hit the ground, and I instinctively attempted to make sure if anything came at us, it'd hit me. However as we were mid-air, the princess opened her wings in panic and I may have landed on it.

"GET OFF MY WING!" The pony screamed in my ear.

I obeyed, jumping off slightly startled. Twilight's wing was bent in a way it shouldn't have been. The dragon floated behind us, her wings blowing chilly air on me. She merely watched as I turned to her again.

"Look, you just assaulted a diplomat, and now a princess is hurt. I'm already tired from being thrown off a moving train, can we just sort this out peacefully?"

"I wont allow humanity to set another foot on this land. My kin will not be endangered by you."

"It doesn't matter if you kill me, you irrational bitch!" I yelled, receiving not as much as a flinch from the dragon. "In a year from now more of my kin will come, and if they don't find me alive, they'll be hell-a-pissed!"

The dragon growled and landed on the mountainside, beginning to walk towards me.

"So, what do you suggest I do, then?" She spoke.

"Let diplomacy take it's course. I get that there's bad blood between dragons and humanity, likely that you had some firsthand experience if what I know about a dragon's lifespan is about right, and that you're just afr-... Worried for your kind, I've seen my own die as well, I can at least try to make sure that doesn't happen to you again."

That's when I noticed something, my bullets had found their mark. I'd hit the dragon's right eye. I had halfway blinded her, no way she'd just let me walk away now.

"Fine."

"I'm sor-... What?"

"I hope that you keep your word, human. Wait here for a moment."

The dragon stomped by me and Twilight, who was nursing her injured wing with an occasional whimper. I waited for the dragon like she'd asked. It was roughly five minutes before she returned, a silver necklace was hanging loosely from one of her teeth, it was a beady sort of necklace, with a red jewel within the pendant.

"What's this?"

"Take it." The dragon said, leaning down to me. "A tradition among young drakes and drakka involving silver. A symbol of promise.

I nodded. "Very well."

I gingerly pulled the necklace from the dragon's fang and placed it around my own neck.

"That other necklace you wear, from another dragon?"

Confused, I pulled out the only other object around my neck, dog tags.

"No," I told her. "Identification tags, in case I... Uh... Die."

"Like you almost did today." The dragon smirked.

"Multiple times." I said with a frown.

The dragon said a short farewell before she tromped away, back to her cave. I stood there in silence, watching the entrance until Twilight walked to me, looking a little less pained. She walked to my side and turned her head to the entrance as well.

"Well, now what?" I asked Twilight.

"We can't just fly away." She said gesturing to her wing, wincing as she did so.

I exhaled through my teeth. "Yeah. I'm sorry about that."

The mare just shook her head. "I didn't really tell anypony I was coming, it was of a spur-of-the-moment thing. So it's not like we'll have any rescue."

I grumbled and started walking east again. "Better start moving then. Who told you I was out here?"

"A thestral and a uh... Fox. I think that's what they're called." She replied, trotting beside me.

"Oh. Echo and Heckler."

"What?"

"I met them on the train, that's their names, respectively."

Twilight hummed. "Can you tell me what happened on the train? The official report is probably a bit scrambled."

"Why's that?"

"Well, I don't know about were you came from, which I'll want to talk about later, but anypony short of guard training, with a few exceptions, tend to lose their heads in situations like that. Because of that guards can't really get an accurate understanding of what occurred."

"Ah. Okay. Well as far as I know, there weren't any missing civilians. I'm pretty sure I only caused one fatality to one of the dog-things."

"Only?" Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Loss of life tends to be a big thing doesn't it?"

"Sure. The attack started when the dogs threw molotov cocktails through the window, trying to burn up the train. Me, Heckler, and Echo ended up fighting our way down the train trying to get as many ponies to the front as possible. When we made our way to the last car the pack leader threw me out of the train."

I decided to leave the part about the Monochrome Mare out, just in case.

"You look pretty well, considering."

"I always look good." I said smugly.

The mare groaned and facehoofed, quite the feat, if she was managing to walk at the same time.

"Do you mind if I ask a few questions?" She asked after recovering.

"Sure, the reason i'm here is to talk to the diarchy."

"Well, i'm not actually one of the royal sisters."

"Wait, there's more than two princesses?"

"There's four, as far as I know, including me. Princesses Celestia and Luna are the ones your hear of most often. Princess Cadance is north, in the Crystal Empire. Then there's me, Princess Twilight, I just uh... Ascended, so I don't really rule anything. In fact i'm still getting used to the wings."

"Ascended? You weren't always a... uh..."

"Alicorn?" She finished. "No, I was a unicorn. It's really a long story, and I still need you ask you questions."

"Right," I said. "Ask away."

"Just what are you?"

I sighed and stopped. "You know what? I think I have a document that will answer most of your questions."

Twilight stopped and watched me as I pulled off my bag and unzipped it before pulling my mission document out.

"You're technically a national leader I guess, so that technically means you can look at this."

...

~ Twilight Sparkle ~

This creature truly piqued my interests. Of course, that's to be expected when said creature is a old pony's tale. Light yellow skin, small eyes and ears on the side of it's head, rather than the top. A thin coat you could barely see, the only large amounts of brown hair being atop it's head and on his face, covering the area around his mouth and along his jaw. When I looked into his eyes I couldn't make out any sort of emotion in them, just the brown irises.

The human handed me a folded piece of thick yellow paper, with more delicate pieces of white paper within. I took them in my telekinesis and began reading. The first categories read his name, age, and race. Silver Tongue, 25 (Human years), Human: Caucasian. The last thing didn't make too much sense to me, but I assumed he belonged to a sub-race of humanity. And if the humans had the same calendar system of us, Silver was but a few years older than me.

The next bit listed his previous occupations and notable skills. Silver had spent three years in law enforcement and one in private investigations. His listed skills were close-quarters-combat, speed, speech, and something called marksmanship.

The next tab was labeled "Information on the agent sent to you."

Humans are a bipedal race, we stand and move on two feet. We have appendages on our feet and hands allowing us to grip objects with ease.

Obviously. I thought.

Humans have an omnivorous diet, we do not, however, consume other sentient beings. We are capable of being completely independent, and some humans work better that way, such as the agents chosen specifically for our first-contact scenarios taking place around the world.

All agents are indeed armed for their safety, we currently know little-to-nothing of the land outside our borders. We have however made a point to equip them with the bare minimum of gear in order to not seem imposing. Unknown to us is how far Equestrian weapon science has gone, the agent is under oath to inform you of his armaments.

"You're under oath to tell me about your weapons?" I asked cautiously.

"Mhm, i'll explain later."

Do not let this startle you, agents are selected from a very tight list of volunteers. They are been put through numerous tests to ensure they are mentally stable and disciplined. In addition, all chosen agents have a history of assisting others, as well ensuring law & order in our country.

Reassured, I moved onto the next tab, labeled "Note to Equestrian Diarchy", I decided to pass it. The next tab was just additional information.

The agents have all had their behavior observed and recorded during the time between their selection and the time they were prepared to be sent off. This was a process of three weeks, they were not aware of the observation nor that they had been selected until the process was complete. This assisted our attempts to deem them mentally fit for their assignment.

Again, our agents are capable of complete independence. They do not require sanctuary, if necessary the agent can survive in the wilderness until his return date.

In the event you would like to speak with an authoritative figure in the Human United Nation, a captain will be on board the agent's return vessel, which will come ashore after being given the agent's signal.

006: Orchard

New to Equestria - Chapter Six: Orchard

Somewhere within the castle...

"Wooooonnaaaa..." A singsong voice called.

The Lunar Goddess looked up from her book and about her room. It was the same, rich blue curtains covering the windows, ceiling portraying the stars above. The room kept its faint chill, and not a single lock on her door had been touched. Only two immortals dared to say that name, only one could appear within her room unnoticed.

"Discord." She mumbled.

"Oh what is the matter?" The draconequus said, dropping the singing tune and leaning in Luna's face.

"I am tired."

Discord tutted. "You poor thing, surely it is not due to mua?"

"For once, no." The alicorn sighed. "Somepony else, likely the most threatening mortal we have seen in a long time."

"Somepony huh?" Discord said sarcastically.

Luna looked at the being spitefully before continuing.

"I've used the same term for over two-thousand years, and I-"

"Minus the one-K you spent on the moon." The draconequus interrupted smugly.

"Thou suggests I was alone?" Luna replied, smiling wickedly and hushing the chaotic spirit.

"As we were saying," She continued. "Until we start receiving diplomats that're any more sophisticated that griffons we shall continue our constant use of the word."

Discord snorted. "I'm sure they wont keep you waiting."

Luna turned to snap at the spirit, but when she did, he'd vanished.

The room was silent and empty once more, the lunar goddess spared a few minutes to her thoughts before breaking the silence with a sigh and movement. She pushed herself up and left to speak with her sister.

...

~ Silver Tongue ~

"This still doesn't answer some of my questions." Twilight said matter-of-factly.

I cursed under my breath. "Alright, what else is there?"

Twilight caught what I said, I was able to tell by her scowl and the way her ear flicked when the curse was spoken.

"I'd be careful with words like that, a lot of places in Equestria aren't too accepting of them, and these questions are important."

She stopped in front of me and tilted her head. "For instance, how are we speaking the same language fluently when you were born on a different continent and sealed off from ponykind?"

I felt my eyes go wide at the revelation, and looked down at the pony staring up at me from chest-height.

"That's... That's a very good question." A few moments passed with me scratching my chin. "Well, ponies and human kind weren't always separated. I supposed some of the brass back in the Discordic Era wanted to have everyone forget life outside the walls. Hell, we threw out the Socialist regime hundreds of years after walls were complete and still had no idea about Equestria or anything else. Just a year ago we had men guarding doors without a single clue about what was behind them, I don't think anyone knew until we pried them open after rescuing a merchant vessel on the horizon."

I thought about what I said for a moment. "That didn't answer your question at all did it? Basically, what I was trying to say is that back when we weren't separate, we must've held onto a common language."

"Okay. So... What's been happening behind the walls this whole time?" She asked and we began walking once more.

I shrugged. "We've just been living, I guess. Finding new ways to blow stuff up, prevent disease, fighting among ourselves, gro-."

"Hold on," Twilight interrupted. "Fight among yourselves?"

"Yeah. Human populace isn't completely harmonious, more-so than Discord, but still."

"Right. How big is the human-controlled landmass?"

"What?" I said dumbly, before shaking my head. "Oh. We're not too sure at this point, though what we gathered from the merchant vessel crew, Penates is probably twice the size of Equestria, if not bigger."

"That's..." Twilight shook her head. "That's huge! And it's name, Penates, I recognize that, ancient Equestrian."

I hummed. "The plots thickens."

"Still. You have a wall all the way around it? How'd you accomplish that?"

"Well," I began. "If my the records we dug up back in the capital are correct, our magi predicted "imminent chaos" about two years before the original reports of Discord, guess that was enough to send us into a scare."

I heard the mare chuckle a little, and couldn't help but frown on it. Did their other princesses act like this? Laughing at our need to feel secure? My legs stopped moving and my arms crossed as my annoyance increased from just thinking about it. My casual demeanor fell nearly instantly.

"Something wrong?" Twilight said, looking back and noticing i'd stopped.

"Can you blame us?" I said a little sharper that I should've.

"What? It's not like a wall would've stopped him..." Twilight said sarcastically.

"Obviously!" I snapped, causing the mare to flinch. "But sometimes it's more about feeling secure. Hell, without the walls Discord would've probably been about to sense the sheer amount of chaos when people are literally running over each other trying to get to boats, it took weeks to coax people out from corners in their homes!"

"The walls didn't protect you... They kept you in, like a prison." Twilight concluded sadly.

I shook my head. "Yeah, probably best that way, something tells me that if he decided to arrive, and the ballistics back then managed to hit him, it'd just piss him off."

"What about now?" Twilight said curiously.

I adopted a wide grin and made a "boom" motion with my hands. "Some pieces flying around the country, widespread happiness, and re-opening of sea-trade routes."

"O-Oh... Discord's death would... M-make you all happy? That's... Bloodlust!"

I shrugged. "We heard about the whole thing with Discord being turned to stone, most of the population and high-ups are content with that."

"Oh... Okay. Uhm. Let's keep going?"

"Yeah, daylight is burning."

The trip was boring, two or so hours of utter silence passed between us. There were no highwaymen, or big scary monsters, nothing that called the two of us to action. The clopping of Twilight's hooves and my boots were beginning to wear on my sanity, I was only granted released from now-repetitive sounds when we began to venture into a orchard of apple trees as the moon was rising.

"This is Sweet Apple Acres!" She enlightened me, the whole nervousness caused by the chatter of Discord forgotten. "We're almost in town!"

"Looks lovely."

We entered the rows of trees, all of them being planted in near-perfect rows and covered in what looked like very ripe apples. It started to seem as if nothing else would be getting in my way to town, until I noticed Twilight had came to a complete stop, when I looked back I saw her biting her lip and looking back and forth from me to the trees.

"Something wrong?" I asked her.

"I... Do you hear that?" She whispered, crouching.

"No..." I replied, dubious.

Twilight's ear flicked towards the source of an unheard noise, her neck twisted allowing her eyes to face the source, I followed her gaze but saw nothing. My eyes scanned between the near-perfectly planted rows of apple trees, looking extra hard at the occasional darker spot.

"I'm not sure if we should go this way..." She said.

"I can defend myself, and you, if need be. I'd really rather take the risk and have a roof over my head tonight."

She looked up to me and said nothing.

"But, your choice." I said with a slight sigh.

"I... Suppose we can."

Nodding, I offered her a smile.

"Alright, keep close." I told her, unslinging my rifle and resuming the trek.

It was only a few seconds later when I saw the monstrosities, hanging off the trees, vicious eyes glowing at in the dark with fangs bared. A hissing noise met my ears and I stopped dead.

"Wha... What are those things?" I whispered to Twilight.

She didn't respond immediately, she took several cautious steps, leaning forwards slightly and squinting to get a better view of whatever hung from the tree.

"Can't be..." She muttered.

Her horn brightened, emitting a low light, just enough to make out the enemy, then all hell broke loose as they hissed loudly and took flight heading straight for us.

"Bats?!" I screamed.

They swarmed us before I was capable of reacting, I felt the scraping of claws against my clothes and face, and i'm pretty sure I had something wet spat at me. I instinctively covered my face with my left forearm as over-sized furry bodies collided into me, visibility had been bad enough already, now I couldn't see anything but swiftly moving bodies, I gripped my rifle in both hands and pushed the stock against my shoulder before firing several unsteady shots, causing loud bangs to pierce the silence of night.

My balance was lost and I hit the ground, but the swarm dissipated. I looked about cautiously before rolling over and pushing myself back up with a small grunt.

"Twilight?" I called as I kicked a dead bat behind some trees.

"They're everywhere..." Twilight responded, looking up.

When I followed her stare I saw the sky covered with more of the small devils. Small black spots across my vision covering the night sky, flapping their leathery wings. Together they blocked off the light of the moon, shrouding us further in darkness. I tore my eyes from them and looked at the ground.

"Twi, light please."

The unicorn nodded and brightened the area once more with her horn, there was enough light for me to recognize the objects strewn about the ground as apples, very squishy juice-less apples.

I looked at the unicorn beside me. "I think your orchard has an infestation."

007: Blood

New to Equestria - Chapter Seven: Blood

~ Silver Tongue ~

It was half an hour later that found me barely sitting in the cramped hospital chair. We were lucky enough that the hospital had a skeleton crew on the week days, so Twilight had been admitted, and rather fast. Though that was to be expected with her status.

A light green-maned mare with a powder blue coat had come out to us as we approached, and the rest seemed readily available to do their jobs, unlike the night workers I've had the displeasure of meeting, so i'd been impressed. Though I didn't miss the cans labeled "ENERGY DRINK" on the reception desk, of course, I didn't blame them, either.

Finally I ended up sliding out of my chair and onto the floor before leaning my head against the seat and dozing off into the dark yet warm and welcoming abyss of sleep. My favorite angel of death was there to welcome me.

"Vampire fruit-bats." She told me.

I shook my head and tried not to be too surprised. "What?"

"The bats which infest the orchard, they specifically target fruit unless they're threatened."

"Okay." I said slowly. "So, how did I threaten them?"

"That is what confuses us." She shook her head. "It didn't necessarily seem like you provoked them.

I pulled at the hairs on my chinny-chin-chin for a bit, thinking. "Why tell me this?"

Monochrome shrugged. "You're here for diplomacy, yes?"

I nodded.

"If your race being accepted is what you want, you'll need to earn the hearts and minds of our people, of course Equestria is not a widely violent nature, such as what I've seen from yours. So you've got your work cut out for you, and I've decided to give you information that may make it easier on you."

I hummed thoughtfully and removed my hand from my face, pocketing them both. "And you want my job to be easier... Why?"

Monochrome shrugged. "Like I said when we first met, I have interests in you."

"Interests can go different ways."

She raised an eyebrow. "You're not still thinking I want you inside of m-"

"No!" I shouted before facepalming and shaking my head. "I mean you're unpredictable, i'd be more secure in the knowledge that you're going to put a knife in my back than not knowing anything at all, y'know?"

The mare hummed in thought, looking into the void of my dream. "I believe I understand. I will allow you this; if needless harm comes to Equestria, and you're the cause of it, I may not be so merciful as to make it quick."

I frowned. "Makes sense."

Her horn lit up after I spoke, it felt as if something poked my forehead and I was nearly overcome by a sense of vertigo, though it passed quickly.

I heard footsteps around me, and then my very of voice, causing my to look up sharply.

"Captain," My doppelganger said. "I'm not clear on something that happened in the briefing..."

I looked towards the captain, he was a scruffy-looking older man with the signature police cap and a buttoned-up dark blue coat that ran down just below his knees.

"We've got time, what's on 'yer mind?" The old man responded.

"The term 'vampires'. Are we talking about a group of people that all happen to be affected by clinical vampirism or..." I trailed off.

"Son, there's a reason your lead is made of silver."

I looked confused for a second, until I pulled up the scoped rifle by my side and pulled back the bolt. I ejected one of the cartridges and gave the bullet inside it a hard look before muttering a lewd question.

"Just'a precaution, of course." Captain spoke lightly.

The actual me looked at Monochrome, she was in her human form again, even though the characters in the dream didn't acknowledge us. Not that I was complaining, I could probably get used to it if she wasn't so nerve-racking.

"Out of all my living nightmares..." I started. "Why this one?"

"It carries relevance." She replied simply before looking at the events that were about to unfold.

The seconds ticked by agonizingly slow, I had never thought of it before, but sometimes knowing exactly what was supposed to happen is the worst thing in the world. I spared a look at Monochrome, she was maybe somewhere around 5,5. She wasn't wearing the same clothes as i'd last saw her, and I finally noticed some of her features.

Her eyes were the same, yellow at the bottom, developed into orange as it went up. Her ma- hair, however, was now black with several bright orange streaks running through it, giving her a electropunk sort of vibe. She wore a checkered overshirt, like what I wore under my stab vest, except mine had a blue and white theme, while hers was just black and grey, and worn very loosely, with what could be barely considered a dark undershirt beneath it, seeing how it exposed a lot of what it was supposed to cover.

I'm not going to lie and say I didn't look...

Worse; she saw me looking and grinned before half-closing her eyes, giving me a (agonizingly) seductive look.

At that point, i'm not sure which was worse, being embarrassed by a shapeshifting pony or the fact that enforcers were preparing to breach the building, instantly me and Monochrome shifted from sitting the middle of the rooftop to leaning off the wall on the edge. I wanted to close my eyes and ignore it, but I knew that wouldn't be happening.

The radio cracked. "We're ready down here, on your mark."

"Copy." The sniper replied.

There was a few moments of silence, I looked down the street to the target building, it was about one-hundred-fifty meters off, maybe. The windows of the building seemed to have been painted over with black, blocking the sunlight.

The brass had been very generous towards us on this operation, most of the units down there wielded lightweight general purpose machine guns, I couldn't remember whether they were hundred-round boxes or two-hundred-round boxes. but either way, if they were firing the same chunks of metal I had, then this was a extremely expensive operation.

The sniper exhaled, and squeezed the trigger.

There was a crack, and one of the blackened windows went out, the sniper pulled the bolt back, ejecting a spent cartridge, and chambered a new one. He fired again, repeated, and fired again. Three windows were busted, and the reaction was nearly instantaneous, the three could hear stomach-wrenching screams come from the building.

The screams belonged to the vampires within, the sunlight poured in, literally causing them to combust, the sunlight was burning them alive.

They were burning alive though, not quite dead yet.

With a shout of warning or maybe some sort of taunt, I saw one of the strike force pull out a metal cylinder, light the fuse on top of it, and throw it into the main entrance, there was a bright flash and flame erupted through the doorway, the screaming only intensified.

I wanted to look at something else. I nudged Monochrome and pointed to my double.

"This building I was positioned on was actually a public library," I explained. "Imagine the old woman's face when we told her she had vampires down the street."

The thought made me smile a little, it was amusing.

"I don't think it matched my confusion about my bullets though, not sure about your country but silver is kind of precious here, and there I was firing bullets made out of it." I used my fingers to imitate the size of a seven-point-six-two round, Monochrome merely tilted her head, so I explained. "That's about how big the bullets were, minus the casing, that was made from brass though."

Monochrome kept listening as I explained random things to her.

"... And that's the concept behind rifling." I finished.

The radio cracked. "Overwatch, you seeing these guys?"

"A-firm." I replied.

I looked down the street, three cloaked figures stood several yards from the rear guard, one of which approached them with his weapon raised, yelling and motioning to get on the ground.

They didn't, and that's when everything went to shit.

They moved with incredibly fast speed, the unfortunate enforcers didn't stand too much of a chance, I saw the closest enforcer get pounced by the leader of the three cloaked figures.

"What the fuck!" The sniper screamed. He pulled the trigger, but merely grazed his target. The other two vampires had long since murdered the other two enforcers as my doppleganger chambered another round, hands shaking with panic. The figure below turned around, the only exposed part was his mouth, and it was covered with the blood of his prey. Not wasting any time, he put another bullet inside of the monstrosity.

The two remaining cloaked vampires looked towards each other, a silent conversation passed before one nodded and went inside.

I was loading another magazine into my M24, so I didn't notice the remaining vampire pick up the light machine gun and literally fire the thing from the hip -- which should have been impossible -- until a bullet tore through the side of my left arm. This was the same size bullet fired from my own rifle, so needless to say I didn't cope incredible well.

I threw myself to the ground, foolishly landing on the wounded arm, and proceeded to roll on the ground trying to nurse my wound

"Ouch." Monochrome commented.

"Uh-huh," I replied. "The scar's still there."

Back then, I would've just stayed there, but I realized my cover was being ripped to shreds by the light machine gun. Rolling onto my stomach, I slung my rifle over my shoulder and began to crawl to the fire escape on the other side of the building. As soon as I was safe, I stood up and began running down the fire escape and onto the street level, not taking more than a second to recover from the last drop down to the sidewalk before I kicked into full-speed towards the target building.

008: Hospitality

~ Sniper ~

I was maybe a street away from the vampire-infested building. Instead of running straight at it I took a early left in an attempt to flank around and get the jump on the remaining enemies.

I'd arrived in a large parking lot, occupied by several civilian steam wagons, when something dark moved in the corner of my eye. I stopped myself on the side of a wagon and pulled out my iconic forty-five, hoping the seven round magazine was loaded with silver bullets as well.

The dark figure had been just to my right on the backstreet, if it hadn't been for the fence between the parking lot and the road the vampire would've likely just rushed me. Considering what I've seen from them so far, it seemed strange that my quarry didn't just leap over the barrier.

Light footsteps sounded behind me, I turned around in time to fire at a robed figure attempting to stab me with a shortsword. The bullet hit their sword arm and they dropped the weapon, but did not stop. The vampire pounced me and I fell, my gun falling from my hands, just inches away.

My hands found the disgusting creature's throat, latched on, and pushed it away. I saw it's face, old-looking, saggy eyes, slightly pale, but nothing out of the ordinary. Easily passable for a human if he hadn't had his fangs bared at me with fresh blood on his mouth. The vampire grabbed onto my own throat and squeezed with one hand, I felt the inhuman strength.

I tried to gulp air in panic and almost lost my grip, the vampire began to smile, cheeky bastard.

I place my right knee at the vampire's tailbone, and planted my left leg outside his right. The guy was heavy, but I pushed him off to my left and didn't give him time to recover before I grabbed my sidearm and emptied the magazine into the recovering vampire.

"Rest in pieces." I sneered, before spitting on the vampire and walking away.

~ Silver Tongue ~

"That's one way to treat the dead." Monochrome said disapprovingly as we looked upon the scene.

I shrugged. "I don't believed they deserved anything more."

"You spit on it's corpse."

I turned to face the mare. "A slight offense compared to what they did to those enforcers, you didn't see what happened in that scope, the way they were ripped apart." My voice grew in volume. "Those men, they had children, wives, parents, siblings. These disgusting creatures had nothing, their families were first to die because of the vampirism."

Monochrome thought for a moment, before stomping the ground. There was a deep thump and a echo before the scenery around us shifted and blurred as it moved away from us. Indecipherable blurs of objects passed us by before coming to a gradual halt mere seconds later.

The sniper was on one his knees, beside the corpse of one of the machine gun-toting enforcers, the one that had advanced towards the robed vampires. The first vampire i'd put down lay to the side to the man's corpse, the pool of blood around it's head long since stopped expanding.

The enforcer was alive, actually. The only visible wounds were four bite marks to his neck, but there was something wrong, the man was non-responsive and his pupils were dilated.

My past self slapped him on the cheek a few times. "C'mon, come back to the world of the living here."

He resorted to shaking the man, but still to no avail.

The sniper sighed and got up, inspecting the obviously-dead troopers splayed upon the ground, reaching under the collars of their shirts before pulling off their pairs of tags, keeping one and placing the other in their mouths.

While he was doing this, he was oblivious to the man rising behind him.

"The enforcer..." Monochrome started. "Was... Did he..."

"Infected?" I finished for her. "Yeah, we weren't aware of how it was transmitted at the time."

The enforcer, or the thing it now was, approached the sniper. It's hand were twitching, same with it's eyes. It opened it's mouth and exhaled loudly. Causing the unaware man to turn his head sharply to the new danger.

But i'd hesitated, not completely aware of what was before me, it was the enforcer, but his skin was beginning to char from the sunlight. The vampire picked up his prey and threw it down the street, were he tumbled before hitting a brick wall, and didn't move. The vampire began moving towards the immobilized sniper, about halfway, the vampire began to actually burn, and succumbed to the flame before reaching his target, it was as if it wasn't even aware of the burning.

The area fell silent, for the most part, the only sounds coming from deep within the building and was easily distinguishable as gunshots and screams.

Monochrome looked at me. "I understand you were 'overwatch', but did you not have a commanding officer looking over you all?"

I nodded. "Yes, in a separate building, but I learned later he'd been the first to die. It's the reason reinforcements never came."

I walked over to my body, the rise and fall of my chest was the only thing the betrayed the illusion of death. His helmet was dented, shades cracked, half-mask still on his face but had blood on the outside. The scope on my M24 was cracked and likely out of adjustment. I laid on my side, facing towards the street, and the corpses. My left hand rested on the concrete sidewalk, dog tags still in the palm of my hand.

I looked towards the entrance of the building, I could see fire spreading within, all other sounds had fallen silent.

My mood had become sour, to say the least.

"The building burned up," I told Monochrome. "Probably from one of the guys that went inside, four went in, none came out. A lot of money was put into this, but evidently not enough planning."

"You have my condolences."

"They hardly knew what they were getting into," I grumbled, clenching my fists. "Wont expect it, they said. Just a disorganized band of vamps, be over in no time, everyone was going to get home at the end of the day."

I turned to Monochrome and spoke stiffly. "I think that's enough for now."

She nodded respectfully, "Yes, I suppose it is, your fuzzy companion appears to be trying to rouse you."

Monochrome was walking down the street away from me, details were becoming distorted and warped. She stopped, and looked back at me with pleading eyes.

"Please don't... Wait, we haven't a name for you."

I didn't answer.

"I suppose we could always just call you 'Overwatch' then."

"No, that would imply I was any good at my job, my name is Silver Tongue."

Monochrome nodded. "Thank you, Silver. As I was going to say, refrain from letting this fuel your actions with anger and grief."

She left. All of a sudden my eyes were closed, and I was being prodded by a claw.

"Hey wake up, Du Hurensohn!"

My eyes peeled open to reveal Heckler, knelt down at my side, he bore a toothy grin as I began to show responsiveness. To his left was Echo, the mare i'd met on the train. She too smiled, revealing her fangs in a way that was somehow more cute that frightening.

I focused on Heckler. "What in the grace of Sol Invictus did you just call me?"

"Oh great, he's Solar." Echo said jokingly. "Guess some things just weren't meant to be."

I made a gesture towards her body, emphasizing that she was, indeed, a pony, and the two noticed this.

"Evidently." I spoke with my own smile.

"Ah there's our happy human." Heckler said, patting me on the cheek.

Chuckling, I pushed his hand away and sat up to get a good look at the two, Heckler didn't seem to sustained any injuries. Echo was fine, but looked tired, her smile had become weak and her eyes sagged. Being a batpony implied she was nocturnal, so it was surprising she was still awake at... What, noon, maybe?

I yawned and wiped my face with my hand before looking around. The hospital was about as populated as it was last night, but the staff looked less tired and more attentive. I noticed the energy drinks had been replaced by still-steaming coffee mugs, the staff strolled about, some holding checklists and tending to their duties.

Nopony had roused the weird-looking foreigner, slumped against the chair in the waiting area, so that was nice, they must've been more casual than human hospital staff.

"Well, happy to see you still in one piece, Silver. I held onto this for you." Echo spoke, undoing the shemagh around her neck.

She hoofed it to me, i'd completely forgotten, I gave this to her on the train so she wouldn't breath in the smoke. I nodded gratefully and began to wrap it around my own neck.

"So," I started. "What happened while I was gone?"

"Well," Heckler spoke up. "After you got thrown off the train, the big guy didn't last long, you pretty much did him in. When we pulled into the station it wasn't long before the guards arrived and put the dogs in chains and hauled them off. Echo and I looked for some pony in charge for a while before running into Twilight, we told her about you, and she flew off not longer back where we came from."

"Oh, also, there's a giant gingerbread house here, don't try to eat it, you'll just be disappointed."

I rubbed my neck, it was sore from the way i'd slept. "I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for sending the princess after me."

"No problem," He shrugged. "Apparently she was pretty clued in about humans in Equestria. How is she?"

"She ended up breaking one of her wings." I decided not to mention how, exactly. "We had an encounter with a dragon."

I pulled the silver necklace from under my shirt and smiled. "I had to use my suave ladies' man skills to get her to let us go."

Echo looked at the necklace curiously. "You made a promise with a dragon?"

I nodded in confirmation.

She exhaled stressfully. "That's going to suck if you fail her."

"Yeah. Yeah it will." I said, remembering exactly what i'd promised the dragon.