Nightwatch

The Watcher

The nauseating feeling of weightlessness woke me before the wagon we were in hit the ground roughly. I grunted in discomfort and looked around. It was pitch black in the wagon, no surprise I suppose, but I didn’t hear any other noises from the others other than their fast breathing.

I heard shouting from outside and hooves hitting stone. The doors to the wagon swung open, letting in piercing rays of sunlight and forcing my eyes to close from the pain. Apparently we had been travelling all night. The others fared worse than me, howling at the burning sensation in their eyes. “Shut those monkeys up already!” a male voice shouted in irritation. A loud crack like thunder silenced the thirteen of us.

“Captain True! What is the meaning of this? Why is there a prison wagon full of humans here? Not only that, but why is one armed and armored?” My eyes were still adjusting to the sun, so I couldn’t see what the guy who was yelling looked like, but he sounded like a complete asshole.

The voice of the mare from the camp answered. “Watch your tone with me ‘Captain’ Bronze, you would do well not to insult your only chance of promotion,” she replied smoothly with a hard edge to her voice. “And if you really must know, these humans are now the personal property of the Nightwatch.”

The other voice, now sounding much more angry despite no longer yelling, demanded once more, “And the armored one? Why has he not been stripped and disarmed? ”

Amused chuckling was his answer. “Oh, I’m sure he’ll be fine. I have a good feeling about him.”

“So help, True, when I’m captain of the guard this kind of stupid ‘feeling’ crap will not stand.” I heard the sound of hooves grow faint as the guard left. Jeez, I just got myself out of trouble and now I’m directly in the middle of some sort of power struggle. Just peachy. I started thinking that maybe the guard wasn’t as safe as I had hoped it to be.

I finally blinked the rest of the spots from my eyes and took in the area. The ground was covered in cobblestone and to the side were several large buildings of white stone with colorful banners all over the place. It reminded me somewhat of a castle from an old computer game I played. Guild something. I knew it started with Guild. I frowned. That game had been a major part in many of my more medieval fantasies and I couldn’t remember it for the life of me, which was actually more upsetting than it should have been.

“Alright, somepony get me something to get this big guy out.” Huh, when did that mare get so close to me? She was looking off to the side, probably waiting for one her subordinates to get some chains to put on me while I was still ‘unaware’. At the exact moment that I stood though, a small smirk crawled onto her snout. “Belay that, he’s getting up.” She trotted a few feet away and tapped her hoof on the ground right next to her, giving me a pointed look and that same smirk.

I stared for a moment, puzzled by her behavior. Most creatures, be they pony, minotaur, or gryphon, had never been this relaxed with me. Not even when they thought I was fully ‘trained’. She cleared her throat impatiently, prompting me to finally stand where she wanted me too. Now satisfied, she went about ordering the plethora of guards around us to unload the others and take them to a ‘holding pen’.

I had prided myself in being able to detach myself from my emotions during my time in Equestria. It was often times the only thing keeping me sane when the atrocities I have committed catch up to me. There was only one time I had ever let my control slip and that had been years ago when my first children had been taken from me. My body had burned with so much hatred and fear and adrenaline that it wasn’t until the skin around my neck had been charred black by my collar after killing one of the bandits that I collapsed.

Once again I felt my skin tingle from the sensation burned into my memory and I took a step forward to stop the guards. The foreleg of the mare next me blocked me though and it was all I could do not to immediately gore her on the bar of metal gripped in my fist. “I want several of you to keep a watch on them, make sure nopony tries to snatch our spoils,” she commanded with an amused smirk that several of the purple armor clad ponies returned. Most just saluted. She turned to me with one command, “follow,” turned and trotted away.

I hesitated and watched the others be taken away. They made no noise of protest, no attempts at escape, and just followed the guards with scrunched faces as they tried to wipe away the pain still in their eyes. If I wasn’t reacting then neither would they. My heart twisted as my mind told me that I needed to secure us a safe home while some darker part screamed that I couldn’t let them out of my sight, that these beings were not to be trusted and would take what I cared for from me.

But, as I had done many times before, I crushed that voice and let cold intellect take the reins. I needed to secure a safe place for us. There was no place safer than the center of a nation’s capital. If I had to, I would convince the ponies that we would cooperate more if I stayed with the others in some form or another. I turned and began to follow the captain. We would be fine.

As I followed the mare, I took the time to truly take in the city I was now in. Everything was far more awe inspiring than I had originally seen. The cobblestones were smoothed and cleaned to an idealistic flat grey surface. The Buildings stretched high, decorated with statues and flags and stained glass here and there. I could see what looked like the crest of a mountain just past the cityscape and wondered if what I had heard about Equestria’s capital being built onto the side of a mountain was true.

As we journeyed further away from what I could only assume was the military area of the city, what with all the guards clad in many different colored armors, I saw something that would forever be imbedded in my memory as we entered a small plaza.

There, literally hanging off the side of the mountain face, was a magnificent castle of the purest of white, royal purples, and splendid gold. Spires rose high into the air, competing with the mountain for dominance of the sky. Statues as tall as buildings displayed winged unicorns to the greatest detail, the feathers and faces chiseled with utmost care. Gardens were spread about, filled with a myriad of exotic plants and animals while a small river from the mountain flowed through it all, as if the great piece of earth were acknowledging the castle’s splendor with a gift. A simple bridge and stone path almost seemed to invite anyone in the plaza to enter.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” the captain asked, breaking me out of my stupor. “But as much as I too would like stand here all day, we’ve got places to be. Let’s go.” And she was off again, marching diligently to the castle with me in tow, ignoring the fact that she had talked to me as if I weren’t what most humans were.

She led me through the great wooden doors at the front and I was again struck by the beauty of the palace, though my awe was quickly shot down by the sudden commotion around me.

Ponies of all races were panicking. Well, most anyways. All of the ones dressed in garishly vain clothing were trying to hide behind the closest guard, who just glanced at the bat mare in front of me before deeming me less of a priority than calming the others around them. Some of the more reasonably dressed, at least reasonable to me, just watched me with slight hints of apprehension but were too busy trying to calm their fellows, probably trusting the guards to take care of me. What I found rather funny though was that the apparent servants of the palace didn’t even bat an eye at me, somehow perfectly at peace with the chaos of screaming ponies and armed and armored humans going about.

There was even a grey stallion with one of the most epic moustache, monocle and tuxedo jacket combo I had ever seen who had five ponies clamped to his sides. The only reaction I saw was his mustache twitching. Dear lord my cheeks hurt from that.

At any rate, the captain guided me through a myriad of hallways with ease while I struggled to remember if we took a left at the stairs or the four way cross section and whether the stairs we had gone up had the moon above them or a sun. A stray thought in the back of my mind suggested that criminals were put in here instead of prison to spend the rest of their days navigating an ever changing maze. I shook my head at the amusing but silly thought.

Finally, after an ungodly amount of time, we stopped in front of large double oak doors. Maybe oak anyways, I couldn’t tell with all the blue paint, intricate metal webbing of silver and the symbol of a full moon smack dab in the middle. It was a nice door and if there was anything I had learned about nice doors, it was that they usually had an extremely important person behind them.

The captain knocked on the door and a moment later a regal voice answered. “Enter.” If there was one good thing I had to say about this world, it was that many of the mares had very… nice voices. The doors seemed to open of their own accord and let us in.

I was starting to get a little overwhelmed with this place so far. First the city, then the actual castle, and now this one, single room. The simplest way to put, it was like a fantasy room out of a fantasy story. That wasn’t redundant either. If you took the most idealistic fantasy room and made it exponentially more fantastical, that was the room I was in. There throw pillows strategically placed all around the room, the biggest one being nearly four times as big as I was. Heavy curtains the color of red wine hung over stained windows two stories high with thick cords of golden silk rope. A great fireplace with a crackling white fire illuminated the room and glowing specks on the sealing imitated the night sky perfectly. Bookshelves reached far above the floor, filled with tomes and scrolls with some twice as big as my forearm. Walls of night blue were covered with portraits of landscapes and a myriad of creatures with marble busts under those of some of the more regal looking beings.

So absolutely amazed was I that I almost missed the next few words. “Hello, Princess Luna,” the captain said as she kneeled.

I remained still, however. Having already shown some level of intelligence, I didn’t need these ponies to know that I was smarter than the average bear. So I just kept looking around until my gaze landed on the figure the captain was kneeling for. In some ignored part of my mind, something released a heavy sigh as, once again, my conscious mind was taken by the glorious image before me, lounging on a large pile of the expensive pillows.

It was another pony, of course, but the wings and horn denoted her as one of the great alicorns, a princess of Equestria, and the mark of a moon surrounded by a violet mass on her flank showed that she was the regent of said celestial body. Her fur was a midnight blue and her mane and tail lazily blew in an invisible breeze, looking like the night sky as star dust sparkled in them. Silk strips of silk dyed a deep red were draped over her form in an exotically attractive way. On her long horn were small silver rings at the tip and base, connected by a thin silver chain that in turn connected to a silver circlet around her brow. To top it all off, she had several silver rings around her neck, each one growing smaller in diameter than the last as they climbed halfway up her long neck.

With the way she was sultrily sprawled out on the pillows and her attire, I would have said that she was trying to seduce whoever came through the door. Of course, this was a princess, and the way her cyan eyes roamed across the scroll hovering in front of her with focused intent showed that she was indeed more worried about her work.

“Ah, Captain True Feeling, you’ve returned.” A quill incased in the same blue aura of the scroll scribbled something onto the parchment. “And I see you brought something rather interesting.” Her calm, slow tone sent shivers down my spine, much like on a warm night.

True got back onto all fours and smiled. “Yes, I found him and a dozen more when we were sent to eradicate those bandits terrorizing the eastern borders. I thought you might want to examine the newest addition to our assets.” There was knowing tone in her voice that I didn’t like.

“Hmm,” the princess hummed, “I can see why.” She had yet to even look at us other than through her peripheral. “A human clad in armor and given a sword. Granted, a sword and armor made from sharpened and warped scrap but still, a sword and armor.” She scribbled several more things onto the scroll. “Such a strange thing. Why would bandits waste such resources on a human? The reports only spoke of a group outfitted only with leather armor.” Because they knew deep down that I was more important than they were.

While I was somewhat irked by the mare’s supposed lack of any actual interest, True just smirked in amusement. “Yes, well, the reports also left out that humans were being used as war beasts. I can only presume that, given the behavior of the bandits during our attack, they probably believed themselves above such cumbersome armor.” She tsked reproachfully, obviously unimpressed with my old masters’ arrogance.

“Well, before we move on to our guest, why don’t you give me your report of last night?” Luna suggested, once again scribbling something onto her scroll. My irritation grew slightly with how she was apparently ignoring us and yet giving absolute attention as well.

“Of course, your highness,” the captain saluted smartly. While True gave an in depth and very detailed report of what happened, I watched the princess’ reaction. I saw her smirk when the captain mentioned how they had dealt with a quarter of the bandits within the first few minutes. It was when my entrance was mentioned that I grew concerned. As the captain spoke, the princess grew noticeably more interested in the report, even going so far as to put her scroll down and actually look at us. When she was told about my destroying the amulet, she spent the rest of the report staring intently at me, her gaze burrowing through the small slit in my helmet. “After the humans were loaded onto the wagon, I had Sergeant Silver take command of the cleanup while I and a small escort returned.

“I see,” the princess began, “and I suppose you returned because of an anomaly other than a poorly trained human?”

“Yes, your highness.”

The Alicorn tilted her head slightly, her eyes lazily roaming my form. Then, with a flash of blue around her horn, every strap and buckle of my armor was undone. In little more than a second, the princess had stripped me bare of my armor and weapon, which were now floating around her lazily as she examined it all.

I was paralyzed. Not by some magic, though. No, my entire body shivered in fear, so suddenly exposed with such little effort in front of two unknowns. I idly noticed that my now defunct collar was also removed, exposing skin for the first time in years. I resisted the urge to itch my arms and legs, irritated from the peeling of the leather padding on the steel.

“Hm, while nowhere near the work of a master, or an apprentice really, whoever made this at least had some idea about what they were doing,” the princess remarked offhandedly. “Barbaric, inefficient, and by all rights should not have been able to last in proper combat.” It wasn’t a compliment but I took some pride from that statement. I had worn that stuff for several years and had come out mostly unscathed in my fights with guards. Then she brought my collar into view, staring at it intensely. “I take it this was the collar used to keep him in check?”

The captain nodded. “Yes, though I presume all magical potential in it has been removed after the destruction of the amulet he crushed.”

“Not quite.” The princess was silent for a moment. Her horn glowed brighter for a moment and a grey furred unicorn emerged from… somewhere. “Take this scrap to be melted down and this,” she indicated my collar, “to the council of mages.” The unicorn saluted sharply before taking my armor and collar in his own yellow magic and disappeared.

I did my best not to scowl. While I held no love for the collar, that armor and sword had been my only real possessions since none of the bandits had been stupid enough to try and take them. The midnight blue pony looked at me interestingly, seemingly sensing my irritation. She spoke after a moment of silence. “Come here, human,” she commanded, with a strange inflection to her voice. I obeyed and walked forward, stopping a few feet in front of her.

For several minutes she just stared at me, hear cyan eyes roaming over every inch of my body. My face grew hot under her gaze, even more so when she lingered on a certain piece of my anatomy between my legs. Finally, she locked her gaze with mine and I felt like she was boring into my soul. “He is a fine specimen,” she said finally. “Take him to the pens and make sure he and the other humans are well taken care. I will decide what to do with them further at a later date.” And with that curt dismissal, she returned her focus to the scroll she had been working on.

As the captain led me out of the princess’ room, dutifully and silently doing what she was told, I couldn’t help but feel that I would be dealing with these two ponies quite often for years to come.