Chapter 8- Being Human

"First" holding up three fingers; the pinky, ring, and middle fingers, "You'll return to me my clothing," lowering the pinky, "The small silver band that was on this finger," indicating my ring finger before lowering it, "And the small metallic can," waggling my middle finger at her before lowering it as well. It's a shame she won't get the meaning.

"And just why should we give in to these demands?" An exasperated Guard, looks like the Officer in Charge, a unicorn with a blue mane.

"If your boss wants answers, you'll get me my shit. No personal artifacts. No answers." I fired right back at him before leaning back against the wall and crossing my arms and looking back at the Great White.

Something about her makes me really uncomfortable. Her mane is not normal; it's a pastel hued rainbow that moves listlessly in the wind; except there is no wind. Hell, it doesn't even look like normal hair. Then she has wings like Pegasus from Greek mythology and a horn like a unicorn. She's also a LOT bigger than the rest of ponies here. Not quite as big as a normal horse, but not small either. And she's more slender than a Terran equine.

But what unnerves me the most is that face, the eyes especially. That shit ain't natural.

"So, if we meet your requests, will you answer my questions?" She spoke up in a flat, yet motherly tone. She never broke eye contact with me and even cocked an inquisitive eyebrow.

I need to tread carefully or might let important information slip, "Yeah, sure, why the hell not?"

"Captain Shining Armor, retrieve all his belongings but the weaponry. And bring a bucket of water, a rag, and a towel. I thought I ordered you to have him cleaned up before put in here." Celestia reprimanded her guards for their negligence, her voice never reaching angry levels but it did harden enough to show she was displeased.

After a long minute of silence, Celestia broke the silence, "Is there something you'd like to talk about while we wait?"

That question caught me unawares.

"Yeah, where y'all keeping my buddies?"

"They are being kept at the hospital from which you ran from; still comatose, sadly."

"So I'm the only one that came out of coma. Great." Inhaling deeply while staring at my feet, I looked back at her, "I'm guessing I should'a kept my ass put."

She chuckled lightly, "Yes, it would have saved us much trouble had you stayed in the hospital, and you might not be covered in your own blood from a broken nose. My sister happens to still have quite the short temper." Yeah, Little Blue has a temper for sure. But how did she disarm me so easily?

"I gotta know, how the hell'd she rip my sidearm from my hands without actually gripping it?" I asked, furrowing my brows. She better not say magic.

"Magic."

Fuck me. "I call horseshit. Ain't no such thing as magic."
She cocked an eyebrow at this.

"I do believe that is where you would be wrong. Let me show you." Celestia looked at a cup of water on a nearby table, enveloping it in the same glow that was emanating from her horn and levitated it off the table towards me and I reached out and grabbed it. Once I had a grip on it, it and her horn ceased glowing. I looked down at the cup, then back up at her, then looking back at the cup.

"Holy shitballs...."

Magic. Motherfucking magic.

Now I know why she scares me. I felt my stomach drop and my skin electrify as my hairs stood on end. She scares the living shit out of me and here I am cornered in a cage without any way to defend myself.

Celestia had just demonstrated her magical ability to the human, who visible paled. She looked closely and noticed his skin had grown pale and prickly with his hair standing on end. He also started to slightly shake, which she found odd, it was warm in the dungeons. Why would he be cold?

Then it occurred to her, he was frightened.

He was deathly afraid, she'd seen similar reactions when humans local to Equus had done something to earn the ire of their masters. She wanted to comfort him and let him know he was safe and not to be threatened, however she knew how humans that were scared were. They had a 'flight or fight' response. And he was cornered, meaning 'flight' was not an option for him. She had seen how physically capable he was, he was far more nimble than almost any pony, and if his displays of acrobatics and musculature were indicative of anything, he was also strong.

"Are you okay? You appear ill."

He snapped his eyes to me. "I'm just a bit cold."

Shining Armor and a few of his guards had returned with the human's belongs, all of them packed away neatly in the large green pack. Another guard carried the rags, towels, and water bucket in his mouth following along behind the Guard Captain.

Celestia noticed the human look at the water bucket and green pack as he stood up in preparation.

"Bout time, I'm tired of being covered in my blood." He said, seemingly gathering some fortitude. Celestia admired his ability to push his fears behind him. The guards set the bucket and towels just inside the cell and Shining used his magic to levitate the pack to the foot of the cot.

"May we have your name at the very least?" Celestia inquired, trying to say it in as innocent a way to keep from startling him and scaring him any further.

"You can call me Steiner." he curtly replied glancing at me, then back at the bucket. Not making a move for it all.

Celestia stepped back a few steps to try and coax him to retrieve the bucket. Which he finally did, never moving his eyes from the crowd of ponies. His eyes darted back and forth, stopping on the unicorns eying them like they were predators waiting to pounce on him. He sat down on the cot and proceeded to wash himself off entirely, stripping down to the nude to clean his entire frame.

As he was washing himself off, she observed him. She noted the various scares across his body. Taking a special account of the loss of his lower left leg and what appeared to be a highly advanced form of prosthesis of his left arm from his upper arm down. She secretly wondered what could have caused the unique scarring across his body, they resemble burn scars, but covered much of his left shoulder and left thigh.

She also took a look at the tattoos on his chest and right arm. The one on his right shoulder resembled the insignia on his armor pauldron, and the one on his chest resembled an ancient rune that the latest scholars said belonged to ancient pony kind. The presence of the same rune on this human told her the scholars are probably wrong.

After drying himself off, he opened his pack and put on a fresh uniform. Celestia was wondering what was going through his mind at the moment. He seemed to totally ignore the presence of all the ponies just outside his cell as he rummaged through his stuff.

Celestia glanced at her guards, some of them seemingly perplexed at the actions of the human. Some of them tense, anticipating something dangerous from the human. And then a few of the pegasus mares were fidgeting their wings while they were staring at his naked frame.

That display of the mares unnerved her. She had heard that mares would 'utilize' male humans for personal pleasure. To force themselves on another creature was something that disgusted Celestia and Luna, and was one of the reasons why Celestia wanted to force the release of humans. The hitch in her plan was where to release them? They've become so reliant on ponies or the centuries.

When she looked back, Steiner was pulling a shirt over his head to cover his upper body. We reached into the pack and pulled out a pair of boots and put them on and laced them up. He exhaled sharply and slapped his hands on his thighs, getting the attention of the guards that had started to whisper amongst themselves. "Where my personal shit at? It ain't in here."

Shining answered, "It should all be there. Are you sure you checked all the pockets?"

"Yeah, I did, I'm missing the silver band, my ring." Steiner responded as he returned to rummaging through his pack, pulling out all the contents and dumping them on his cot.

"Why is that ring so important to you?" Shining retorted with some ice. It was enough to make the human stop and lick his lips.

"Find. That. Ring." was what came from him, each word drawled out for emphasis. After he said that, he shifted his weight to one side and reached behind him, presumably retrieving something from one of the pockets on the back of his trousers.

After he found what he was searching for, he proffered a small, brown metallic can that he shook while smacking the top of it with his finger.

"Excuse me, but what is that?" Celestia asked, genuinely curious to the contents of the can. When he popped the lid off, he pinched some between a finger and thumb and put the wad of it in a pocket behind his lips. The sweet smell hit her nose, and she wasn't entirely sure what it was. It had a mildly sweet and minty smell to it.

She became alarmed when his eyes rolled into the back of his head, he moaned, and started to slowly lean back against the wall.

"He poisoned himself!" She shouted as she rushed into his cell towards him.

Old Virginia Wintergreen.

I found my log of dip.

I put a pinch in as the nicotine kicked in and I closed my eyes to savor this euphoric state as the drugs calmed my nerves.

Then I heard some yelling that snapped me from my trance as I saw Big White barreling at me with a look of intense worry in her eyes. I damn near jumped out of my skin and yelled "WHAT THE FUCK?!" as I attempted to scramble the wall behind me to get away from her.

"You are attempting to poison yourself! I refuse to let you die!" She yelled as she gripped me her magic bringing me near to her. "Spit it out! Spit the poison out!"

Knowing she could manipulate me and throw me around like a ragdoll really scared me. Scared me even more, but hearing her yell about my tobacco as poison was humorous. I mean, yeah, my wife would've agreed, but still. I don't know whether to laugh or piss myself.

"Um... no? A dip can cost four TBills, and I'm sure y'all ain't got none to replenish my stock when this log is used up." I said, with my eyes darting back and forth.

She cocked her head back and to the side and furrowed her brows, "What?"

"It's tobacco, a recreational drug. Can ya put me down? I really don't like this... ah... situation."

"Oh yes, I apologize." She returned, setting me down. "I did not mean to act so rashly. I assumed you were attempting to poison yourself. I know you are your races military and in ancient times, captured soldiers would attempt to kill themselves to prevent their enemy from extracting information. Again, I apologize." She finished as she backed up and regretfully looked at the ground.

Did she blush? Can she blush? She has fur on her cheeks? I'm pretty sure she can't, but I'm pretty sure I just saw blushing.

I'll just chalk that up to magic.

"So... ring? Yes?"

"What?" Shining Armor responded. They have funny names. And not like names that the Conglomerate races use, those make sense when you put it in the context of their languages and cultures. These ponies speak English and have names that a combination of adjectives and nouns. Like this guy, a soldier with the name Shining Armor.

Just an observation.

"Have you found my ring?" I asked again.

"No, we haven't even gon-"

"Don't care. No ring, no answers." I interrupted.

"Shining Armor, find this man his ring." Celestia reprimanded her guard captain. She obviously wanted answers. I glanced at the Captain and saw he had bowed down and trotted off. I really do want my ring back.

"So, can you tell me the significance of this ring?" She asked, I wasn't expecting that question.

"Yeah, it... uh ... it represents something that was near and dear to me." I replied, feeling the thousand yard stare kick in. "I just want it back, it's about all I have left to remind me of home." And it was, I had a picture of me and my parents, a picture of me and my wife, and a naughty picture of my wife. I lost the rest.

Celestia could see him attempting to focus on something as if it were on the horizon when he half choked out his answer. When she focused on his eyes, she could see a shine in them that wasn't there before. Was he crying?

"What time is it?" he asked, looking at a small device on his wrist.

"It's nearing noon. Why?"

"How close to noon? Like, the exact time."

Looking out the window at the sun, Celestia replied with, "Just about noon. Is that some sort of device to measure time?"

"Yes, I'm gonna set it to 1130. Close enough?"

Celestia was dumbstruck. He speaks Equestrian flawlessly and used the same method of time measurement. What else do they have in common? For a race that is not of this planet, they sure do have much in common. "H-how do you measure time?"

"In seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years? Sixty seconds to a minute, sixty minutes to an hour, twenty four hours to a day, seven days to a week, thirty to thirty one days to a month, twelve months to a year. How do y'all measure time?"

"Almost the same exact way, except all our months have only twenty eight days." She was surprised at the similarities.

"Makes sense, our planetary orbits are different; resulting in differing year lengths." He responded nonchalantly while folding his clothing and packing it up with the rest of his things before closing up his pack.

Shining Armor finally returned with a small envelope in his magical grasp. "I found it finally. It had fallen on the floor." And he proceeded to levitate it over to the man who cautiously took it from the magical grip and open it. He held the ring up and inspected it closely in the light before putting it on a finger on his right hand.

And then Luna teleported into the dungeon with a loud 'pop.'

"I heard he was awake!" she exclaimed, garnering the attention of everyone in the dungeons.

"Dear human! Tell us what thou know!" She exclaimed with massive enthusiasm and a large grin plastered to her face.

Celestia looked at her sister before slowly turning her gaze towards the human. She could see Steiner slowly backing away from Luna as she approached him slowly. She could almost taste the fear and loathing from him.

But why loathing?

"Who are you?" He snapped. Well this might go badly.

Luna stopped in her tracks, ears flattening, and grin fading as she responded, "We are Princess Luna of the Moon and Guardian of Dreams. And whom might thou be?"

"Guardian of Dreams? What," was his response.

"Yes, it is my duty to guard and protect our subjects whilst they sleep." She responded with an air of pride in her work.

"So, you can see people's dreams?"

"Yes, I banish the nightmares that ponies have at night."

"If that's the case, then you can see my dreams. And if you can, then I presume you already have. And if you can banish the nightmares I presume you can also cause them. Am I correct thus far?" Celestia could hear the venom in his voice, something about her sister really riled him up. She could see the hairs on his neck standing up and his skin reddening slightly.

"Yes, I have seen the dreams thou hath dreamt. But we were but a mere spectator at their unfolding." Luna responded, her eyes betraying her nervousness. Celestia could see her sister growing very worried. What has she done?

"I disagree that you had a passive effect. Pretty sure my shit went to hell in a hand basket 'cause of your meddlin'."

He was shaking in a mixture of anger and fear. That much Celestia could tell. Her sister scared him far more than she did, and that actually worried her. It appeared that Luna wasn't aware that she was frighting the human as badly as she was. She needed to intervene quickly.

"Luna, I need to speak with you quickly." And with that Celestia walked down the hall and Luna followed.

So Little Blue just teleported into the room with me, scared me shitless, then started to bombard me with questions before Big White wanted to talk to her in private.

Her ability to teleport scared me. Her ability to toss me about like a rag doll like her sister scared me. Her ability to see into and manipulate me dreams? Yeah, that actually had me chilled to the bones. I've never been so scared in my entire life. Nothing the Snakes have thrown at me have scared me this much. This broad could literally brain melt. Just pop my brain with a thought.

Her physical presence felt wicked familiar, and if what she said was true about the dreamwalking bit, then she was in my dreams.

I physically shuddered at the thought. I could potentially retreat into the sanctity of my mind if the beatings got too bad to bear. But if she can go there, no place is safe. I had no safe place to be anymore. And that put the fear of God into me.

"Okay Luna, what did you do to put the fear of Faust into him?" Celestia scolded her sister.

"We merely observed his dreams. We did not intervene at all." Luna retorted, not sure why her sister was being so belligerent all of a sudden. "Surely thou doth not think our mere presence had an impact on him, doth thee?" Luna started to get mildly worried.

"Luna, he is already very wary of the unicorns. He doesn't understand us. In fact, I do not even think he believes in the existence of magic. Which I believe scares him to the core. All the creatures of Equus have a magical footprint, even if they cannot directly manipulate magic themselves. I can detect no magic in him. He is almost like a shade, he is there but unless directly observed, he is not there." Celestia attempted to explain to her sister.

"So you believe he has no magic where he hails from?" Luna asked, starting to put the puzzle together.

"No, I had to show him the existence of magic and even then he seemed to question it." The white alicorn said. "Looking at his belongings, I think they are so technologically advanced because they have no magic. Similar to the inventions the Gryphons have created to compensate for their lack of magic."

Then it clicked for Luna. "Not even his dreams are safe from us" She said ominously as her ears laid flat and she deflated slightly.

"To him they are not. He is deathly afraid and may act in manner to preserve his life that we may deem irrational. I do not want him no any ponies getting hurt. We must tread carefully."

"How much damage hath we done with our impatience?" Luna inquired.

"Much it seems, however I believe we may be able to smooth some of this over and make amends." Celestia countered, she had formulated the plan to allow the human full diplomatic benefits. She wanted to learn from him and of him.

But more importantly, she just wanted to make sure her ponies would be safe.

And he safe from her ponies, especially after the recent events regarding a Changeling Queen.

Author's Note

Oi, I rushed this because my head is swimming in details and I just wanted to get this out quickly before I forget things.