Nightwatch

by RandomGuy16

Rating: mature
Tags: Adventure, Alternate Universe, Human, Dark
Length: 6131

A father joins the personal guard of the Princess of the Night to ensure the safety of his children. Ancient enemies question his resolve.

A father is many things. He is kind. He is caring. Above all else though, he is willing to do whatever it takes to protect his children.

When a man has been brought to the very edge of despair, seven pairs of wide innocent eyes pull him away. And for that, he would do anything for them. He would wrap himself in steel and defend the land which had pushed him so far, all for the sake of his children.

But, when dark times fall upon the land and ancient enemies rise from their graves, will he be strong enough?

(A spinoff of MadMaxtheBlack's "Your Human and You" about how a man in a world where humans are treated like wild animals and pets and his attempts prevent their exploitation.)

(Image courtesy of google because I can't draw for crap)

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-04-19 04:24:35 UTC

A New Night

The Watcher

I watched the bandits dig through the remains of the caravan, my steel helmet hiding my angry scowl. This was the fifth one this month and I was losing the patience that I had built up for seven years. I would have yelled at them for being scum, I would have taken the sword in my hand and driven it through their skulls, but I couldn’t. My voice had abandoned me when I had first come to this world and the enchanted collar around my neck prevented me from taking action lest the blue furred unicorn congratulating his followers channeled his magic into the amulet around his own neck, activating my collar and sending a piercing pain through my nerves to the point I wouldn’t be able to move.

To my side stood three other male humans, their naked forms in direct contrast to my fully armored body. I gave a bestial grunt and they all snapped their attention to me, ready to do as I did. The unicorn commanded for us to follow the group of bandits, whom had finished scavenging anything of value from the wreckage, and I did. The other males followed as well, though only because I followed and not the bandits’ foolish misconceptions that they were actually competent at training humans.

They followed me, the alpha. When I had arrived in this world I had come to quickly learn that humans here were no smarter than dogs in my world. They were pets, used as social symbols, companionship for when someone needed a friend, and ‘companionship’ for when someone had gone without for too long or to fulfill some sick fantasy, or for fighting. But even if they were too dumb to perform simple math, speak, or feel emotions like I could, they were still animals with instincts. They followed the strongest, me. I obeyed the bandits under threat of indescribable pain and death and, by proxy, so did the other humans.

We arrived back at the camp the bandits had set up a week ago and they quickly went about counting the coin and figuring out what was worth how much. A gryphon broke off from the group and herded us into an area with several large cages. Two of the cages were empty, my own and the other for my three followers. But across from them, immediately drawing my eyes, were three more cages, each with four women chained to the floor. Out of the twelve women, seven were noticeably pregnant, all of them by my seed. As alpha, it was only right that I have the most children. I smiled sadly behind my helmet, happy in the thought that I was a father.

But I knew what the bandits would use the children for. They would be sold off to the highest bidder, just like the last few.

I was shoved into my cage without resisting and the men followed suit into their own cage, quickly sitting in separate corners and going to sleep. The doors to our cages slammed shut and were locked by insultingly simple lift bars. But I didn’t let the gryphon know how stupid he and his fellows were as he walked away, for assuming that they were smarter than anybody else and that I was dumber than a rock, and simply removed my poor excuse for a helmet and placed in the corner with my equally poor sword and shield.

I sat down with a grunt and leaned against the bars of my cage, shifting so that the warped steel sheets that acted as armor didn’t stab into me. I wanted to take it off so bad but to do so would show that I had learned how to untie knots and unbuckle buckles by myself, which would then lead to either me being killed off by the collar or being sold to some mad scientist for a large fortune. I snorted at the irony that they didn’t bat an eye at my physical prowess in using my sword and shield without their instruction, yet would freak out at my ability to remove and put on armor. It only reaffirmed my extremely poor thoughts about their intelligence.

With the gryphon gone, I could finally interact somewhat with my little tribe. I gave a slight hoot and every one of the women looked at me. I smiled sadly at the dull looks in their eyes, nearly hidden behind the grime from weeks without bathing. At least they weren’t emaciated. The bandits fed us well, to keep the women healthy for breeding and us men for fighting, and for that I was grateful. I gently rubbed my hands across my belly and hummed, the women all doing the same. My smile grew as several of the pregnant women looked at their bellies strangely. The babies could feel their mothers and were kicking.

I gave another hoot and they all stopped, running their hands through their hair as I did the same. Theirs was significantly longer though and I had to awkwardly brush my hands through thin air so they would get all the way through their own hair. Another hoot and I started brushing the dirt off of my armor and face, with the women once again mimicking me. This was what I did every day with my group. They understood when I wanted them to do what I did but could never learn to do it themselves, so I had made sure to keep their hygiene relatively decent to the best of my abilities.

We stopped sometime after the moon had risen above the trees when I heard a scuffle beyond several tarps that separated our cages from the rest of the camp. I stood up and placed my helmet back on and picked up my sword and shield. I gave a harsh bark and the men in the cage next to me woke immediately, eyes darting back and forth and teeth bared to defend their alpha. The women, however, shuffled into the darkest corners of their cages, huddled together for some protection.

The bandits were usually asleep around this time, so I assummed that someone was attacking. I was proven correct when one of the bandits, a minotaur this time, ran to our cages and all but yanked off the doors to mine and the other men’s cages. He yelled at us and flailed his arms in the direction of the main camp, wetting himself in the process. I nearly laughed at him until I realized that the only thing that made foolhardy, stupid, and boisterous bandits quiver like scared children was the military. I did smile at that thought and ran into the camp with my men following closely. What greeted me sent my heart soaring with glee.

A little less than two dozen Equestrian Guards, the purple armor of the dreaded Nightwatch contrasted by the bandits mismatching leather and cloth, were engaging the twenty five bandits. Already, several of the bandits had been speared or carved into by the multitude of levitating swords without a single casualty on the guards’ side, confirming the rumors I had heard of the guards of the night having better training than any other military. At least as far as actually fighting and killing went.

As soon as my little war band entered the scene, however, everyone froze. The eyes of every guard showed a slight amount of fear now, knowing that it would take at least three guards working in tandem to subdue an average human, even more when they saw me clad in steel and wielding a crude sword and shield nearly as big as them. The bandits, on the other hand, gained cocky smirks, now certain in their victory.

My eyes flicked across the battleground, hidden from my foes by the small slit in my helmet. I found the blue furred unicorn who held the only thing preventing me from joining the guard in slaughtering the bandits facing off against an earth pony wielding a spear and a Pegasus with batlike wings and little blades on their hoof guards. He glared at me, snarling with gnarled yellow teeth. “What are you waiting for? Slaughter them!” he yelled. His horn was surrounded by a yellow aura and the gem imbedded in his necklace glowed in turn, forcing me to a knee as shocks went down my spine in an attempt to spur me into a rampage.

I stood and roared with a primal fury amplified by the metal around me that sent shivers of despair down the spines of everyone present. The men behind me roared as well and charged at the guards closest to them. Once again the area was taken by the sounds of frenzied combat.

I charged through most of battle, batting away swords and spears and hoof blades while bowling over bandit and guard alike, making it as obvious as possible where I was going. The apparent leader of the guards, a bat winged mare with purple fur clad in more intricate armor than those around her, shouted to her subordinates. “Get that unicorn! He’s controlling the human with that amulet!” I grinned as six more guards descended on the already overwhelmed unicorn.

One of the pegasi dive bombed the poor stallion, pulling up as he dove out of the way. He scrambled to get back on his hooves as a spear threatened to gore his skull but failed to move quick enough to avoid two swords from flying around and slicing at legs. He tumbled unceremoniously to the ground as his tendons were cut and was immediately pierced by many spears. The necklace the stallion had been wearing had its chain cut and was sent fly right my shield hand’s palm.

Once again the battle ceased. Both side were looking at me with absolute terror now. The very thing that restrained me was now in my possession. I turned to survey the battle, noting that my men had been quickly neutralized, though at the cost of letting the bandits regroup slightly and a few extremely bruised guards. I was thankful to see that they were relatively intact, most likely taken down by a few neutralization spells.

Guard and bandit looked on in apprehension as I crushed the brittle gem in my palm, the fragments falling to the ground with an almost deafening tinkling in the silence. Then I charged the nearest bandit. He screamed in terror as the sharpened bar of metal ripped his head away from the rest of his body. Then the bandit next to him lost a leg before the one behind him found my blade in his heart.

I didn’t see any guards enter the fray after that, probably watching in some mute horror as I left a minotaur with a halfway bisected torso and kicked a stallion onto the ground before slamming the edge of my shield into his throat.

I grunted as one of the gryphons slammed into my back, forcing me face first into the ground. He tried to remove my helmet, probably to gouge my eyes out, but the ground and my face provide too much friction for it to budge. I let go of my blade and grabbed his writs, pulling him over me and standing in one smooth motion before I put my foot on his shoulder and pulled until I heard a loud pop. The pain was apparently too much for him as he immediately passed out.

Picking up my blade, I once again turned my attention to the other bandits. There were a few pegasi, the minotaur who had released me, a unicorn, and several more earth ponies. The pegasi immediately flew off, hoping to escape my wrath, but were just as quickly captured by the bat winged guards. The unicorn looked about ready to lose all control of his bowls. The only ones not scared shitless were the minotaur and earth ponies and even they were hesitant to attack.

I gave them no choice.

The earth ponies lowered their spears as I charged and the minotaur prepared to cleave me in two with his bastard sword. It was all for naught. The unsteady spears bounced off my shield and the sword imbedded itself in the earth as I sidestepped, my own blade burying itself into the bull man. A bright green bolt from the unicorn slammed into my side, making me stagger for only a moment. It was long enough for the earth ponies to try and gut me once again. Like before, the spears bounced off my shield and scraped along my armor. I was much more effective in my counter attack.

My blade cut a deep gash across the face of one of the bandits before moving on to lop off a leg from the mare next to him. I ignored the next spear wielder as another magical blast hit me, once again being far more useless than it had originally been intended, and charged the unicorn. He shrieked and let loose several uncontrolled blasts, only one hitting me while the unicorn’s comrades were blown to pieces.

His horn was surrounded by the green aura for one last attack but disappeared as his horn and most of the left side of his head were removed. He stood as still as a statue in shock for a second before gravity pulled him down.

I panted for a moment as my body dealt with the stress of moving in full armor faster than it should have been. My legs burned from carrying so much weight but I didn’t care too much. The only things that hurt more than my legs were my cheeks from the huge grin I had. In little more than a couple of minutes I had freed myself and slaughtered my captors, avenging my lost children and the many innocents I had been forced to hurt.

A branch snapped behind me and I spun around, holding the point of my blade towards the group of guards. They all stopped, shaking under my gaze after having seen me mercilessly slaughter the bandits with no trouble. Well, most of them were shaking. The mare in charge just watched me with calculating eyes. She watched as I slowed my breathing to a more acceptable pace, curious with my apparent control over myself. Then we locked eyes.

What eyes! They were red, redder than anything I had seen before. But in them I saw a sharpness so alluring I could barely tear my eyes away. But I did, turning to go make sure the women were alright. I could see from the corner of my eye as the guards watched dumbfounded as the beast that had so casually slaughtered a dozen bandits turn its back on them.

I wouldn’t attack them. I needed them. I needed them to protect my little tribe from other threats. We couldn’t stay here, not with other bandits roaming the land and my reputation in this area. We would be hunted night and day and I would eventually tire. No, the guard would take us as ‘recovered goods’ and restrict my freedom again. But the sight of my women, chained and dirty, pushed that thought away.

I grabbed the ring of keys hanging on a post and quickly went about freeing the women, gently pulling them to their feet. With only a few stumbles, I herded the twelve women into the camp proper where we were met with most of the guards cleaning up my mess and several unicorns holding chained iron collars in their magical grips. I scowled but allowed them to place the collars on the girls, only grabbing the last collar that was about to try and worm itself under my helmet. They tensed and, when they decided I wasn’t going to do anything else, one of the unicorns broke away from the group and went to whisper something to the bat mare with red eyes. She once again shot a piercing stare at me, one I returned with an intensity only she seemed to notice.

“Leave him be,” she said in a silky smooth voice. “If he acts up, I trust the six of you can quickly subdue him.” The unicorns gulped for a moment but nodded, not arguing with their commanding officer. I and the women were taken away from the camp, three pairs of floating swords and several subjugation spells prepared for any wrong move from me. Several large chariots waited for us with an even larger wooden wagon with a barred door most likely for prisoners. The bar was lifted and the doors opened to allow us to get in, also allowing me to see the men also present and chained. I waited until the last woman was on before I climbed in myself, barely fitting my bulky frame, shield, and blade. The doors slammed shut, plunging the space into pure darkness.

With every one of my little tribe crammed into the wagon, ready to be flown back to wherever the guards took us, I couldn’t help but let a content sigh escape my lips. I was moving from one master to another, of that I was sure, but I was sure my situation was improving immensely.

With the small spark of hope in my heart steadily burning, I allowed my eyes to close.

Sightseeing

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.

An Opportunity

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Seven is a Happy Number

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The Monastery

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Lessons in Empathy

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The Enemy

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