New to Equestria

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.