New to Equestria

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.