Maybe it was the alcohol in his system or maybe he just didn’t care anymore, but Swift Sleight didn’t even attempt to dodge the hoof rushing directly towards his face. Instead, he greeted it with a smug and stupid grin. He figured that would enrage his opponent even more.

The hoof hit him squarely on the muzzle. It gave off a nasty crack, and his head was jerked to the side violently. Loud cheering and laughing from the surrounding crowd filled the room. Swift felt blood gathering in his mouth and spat it on the wooden taproom floor.

Swift Sleight was an earth pony. His coat and mane were brown, though his mane had a darker shade. His cutie mark was an opened padlock. Overall, his appearance was inconspicuous, and he wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. Ponies tended to not pay much attention to him or simply overlooked him, which overall came in useful. A lot of the time, Swift didn’t want to be noticed. The only thing that broke through the theme of inconspicuousness were his turquoise eyes. The mind wanted to define the color as either blue or green, but could never decide conclusively.

The pony in front of Swift wore a grimace of anger and glee and waved both of his front hooves in front of him while bouncing lightly on his hindlegs. “Come on, get up! I’m not done with you yet.”

Swift did so, right before another punch followed. This time, Swift knew better and ducked. The hoof flew past his head and caused his opponent to lose his balance. Swift used the opportunity and dashed beside him. He kicked his hindlegs into the pony’s side, causing his opponent to yell out and fall onto the floor. Swift moved to get some space between him and the pony before he had the chance to get up again.

These kinds of situations were nothing new to Swift. This fight wasn’t his first, and it wouldn’t be his last. He grew up and lived in a poor part of Marberc, an important city in the earth pony realm Wrühtlant, so he was used to tough surroundings. Furthermore, he wasn’t exactly known for his luck. In fact, luck had lately abandoned him for good, it seemed.

It had all started with him taking a loan from a local crime boss named Easy Manage. He had needed the bits to pay his rent for his apartment in Marberc. After having paid the landlord though, someone had stolen the rest of the money. The irony of that made him laugh on the inside.

Another attack, a full-on charge this time. Swift’s opponent roared and galloped blindly towards him. Swift just grinned. That attack was easy to evade, so Swift decided to let his foe come nearer before jumping to the side. Then, directly before the contact, he did just that...

only to find the barmaid standing directly before him.

She had a plate in one of her hooves, and several mugs of beer were situated on top of it. Swift’s eyes grew wide as her horrified face came closer.

The heavy impact caused her to release a breathy ‘oof’, and both of them fell ruggedly onto the floor. The mugs flew in all directions, releasing their contents on the floor, tables, and ponies surrounding the two as well as themselves. The guests around them yelled in irritation, though Swift could also hear some ponies laughing loudly.

Swift hoped he hadn’t injured the barmaid and wanted to ask her if she was okay, but her reaction ensured him just that. She waved her hooves wildly at him. “Get OFF of me, you dirty scoundrel!”

“Oops, my mistake.” He tried his characteristic smirk.

It didn’t have the desired effect.

She glared at him furiously before hitting him squarely on the side of the head. The impact sent him off of her and onto his back on the wet, beer covered floor. His vision went foggy and his hearing became muffled, but not enough to conceal the ponies that were gathered around him and laughed uproariously at his expense.

After his money had been stolen, he had tried to gain it back with his usual, daily shell game on one of the markets. He had earned a few bits, but it wouldn’t have sufficed to pay back the loan. On top of that, the servant of a young, rich boy had noticed Swift cheating at the game and had told his master. The boy, who had turned out to be the son of the local baron residing in Marberc, had immediately called the city guards and demanded Swift’s arrest. It had been Swift’s speed and fast reflexes that had gotten him out of the situation. Problems with the guards had been nothing new to Swift, but this time they had been serious about getting him. It was a minor offense to rip off random ponies on the street, but do the same to a member of nobility... The obvious thing to do had been to leave the city for a while and wait until things cooled off again.

As Swift came to his senses again, he noticed how the ponies around him took a few steps back as their focus shifted to another pony beyond Swift’s vision.

Swift stood up shakily, shook his head to get rid of the drowsiness, and held up his hooves in front of his face, ready to fight. He sighed. “Want some more?”

A slight grin crept into the furious expression on his opponent’s face. “You bet!”

The pony rushed forward again. This time, Swift opted for one of his specialties: Running away. He spun around and started galloping, his opponent being closely on his tail. When Swift reached a tall, round table, he slid over it and landed on the ground on the other side. He turned around and glanced back over the table.

His opponent was stopped in his tracks by the maneuver, apparently being unable to imitate it, but he quickly regained himself and started circling the table. Swift reacted and went the same way, keeping the distance between him and his opponent the same. When the other realized what Swift was doing, he tried going the other way, but sure enough Swift turned around and went the same way.

The angry expression on the pony’s face intensified. “Stop fooling around and get over here, you coward!”

“Sorry, not interested.”

The two resumed the game a few more moments before the pony finally had enough of it. He climbed onto the table and rushed directly towards Swift. Instinctively, Swift put his hooves under the table. He pushed upwards with all of his might, releasing a yell of exertion. Since the other pony had not yet reached the middle of the table, the feat actually succeeded. The table flipped over, throwing the surprised pony off of it and onto the ground.

Swift lost sight of him due to the table top obstructing his view now, but he heard how he got back on his hooves almost immediately. Swift was running out of ideas. There was one more left though.

He frowned and concentrated, blocking out the noise in the taproom to focus on the sounds he wanted to hear. Which way did his opponent take? It didn’t take long for his well-trained ears to perceive the subtle detail. Right! He didn’t waste any time. He leapt towards the right edge of the table, sliding with his hindlegs in front.

And not a moment too soon.

As his hooves slid beyond the table, they instantly met his opponent’s. The pony gasped in surprise as his hindlegs rose into the air. Then, his forehead hit the edge of the table in front of him with a loud thump.

Swift cringed, but quickly leapt up, ready to grapple his foe should he try to get up again. All the pony managed though was a groan before his body slumped to the ground, his tongue hanging out of his mouth.

With a sigh of relief, Swift walked over to the table the pony knocked himself out on and grabbed one of the mugs standing on it.

As much as Swift wanted to not think about it and instead just drink his money away and play around with the other guests of the inn, he couldn’t keep his thoughts away from his current predicament. He was running low on money, and the city is where the bits were. But even then, it was doubtful that he could still earn his money by cheating at shell games on the market in Marberc. His encounter with the baron’s son had surely been much talked about gossip lately, and people would sooner or later recognize him as being a fraud. Luckily, Swift wasn’t a one-trick pony. He had some additional talents that he used now and then to earn a little extra. Their application came with a significant amount of risk, but it always paid off. Literally. He wondered if at least the guards’ motivation to hunt him down had died down by now. He didn’t raise his hopes though, considering the influence the baron’s son must have had.

There was no way around it: He had to get back to Marberc tomorrow.

Having been absent-minded for a few moments, he finally took a look into the mug he was holding. It was empty.

“Just my luck!”

*

As was to be expected, Swift had to help clean up the mess that he partially was responsible for. He didn’t mind though. It gave him something to do. Despite his profession as a thief and swindler, he had never refused to do respectable work. He did some minor jobs in Marberc when the opportunity arose, but he had never gotten the chance to learn a proper job. And it hadn’t been for lack of trying. Bad fortune always seemed to follow him wherever he went. That night at the inn was no different.

And so, he wasn’t surprised when some of the guests came to him and demanded the money Swift owed them for spilling their drinks. Having had enough trouble for one night, he gave in and paid them off. Unfortunately, that left him with not enough money to rent a room for the night.

At least it saves me the embarrassment asking for one after the mess i’ve caused.

Swift resumed his work when suddenly the front door of the taproom opened, letting in the howling, ice cold wind from outside. It was late at night, and most guests had already gone to bed, so the remaining ponies in the taproom curiously glanced towards the door, wondering who could enter at so late an hour.

A pony walked in and closed the door behind him. He shook himself thoroughly to get rid of all the snow he was covered with. One big saddle bag hung from each of his sides. A sheathed sword hung from his left side, and a shield was strapped to his back. He wore wool boots and a sturdy green cloak, which enveloped his body almost entirely. There was one thing though that he couldn’t obscure with it: His horn.

This garnered the interest of everyone in the taproom even more, who now stared at the newcomer intently and in some instances even talked to the other guests under their breaths.

Swift was no less interested. A unicorn here in this dump? Apart from traders in the big cities and borderlands as well as the odd diplomat to keep up the fragile relations between countries, ponies normally remained with their own kind, in their own homelands.

Marberc, which was a few days away by hoof, was a big and important city and was therefore visited regularly by outsiders. It wasn’t too odd for one of these outsiders to reside in an inn nearby. However, this outsider was a unicorn.

Everyone knew that unicorns were arrogant, uptight, and overall thought of themselves as better as earth ponies or pegasi. To them, respectability was determined only by magic prowess, and the less powerful you were, the less you were worth in their eyes. It was unthinkable for one of them to enter an establishment such as this.

He must be really desperate for a room because of the snow storm outside, if he decided to enter a remote inn full of drunken earth ponies in the middle of the night. That, or he’s really powerful.

After taking a look around the room, the pony walked to a free, round table in the corner of the room and sat down on a heap of straw in front of it. He put away his bags and weapons and pulled off his hood to reveal a yellow coat, a brown mane, and green eyes. A few wrinkles in his face showed that he was well within his middle ages, but other than that, his age was hard to determine because the color of his coat was rich and bright, and his mane didn’t have a single gray streak in it. His cutie mark was a map.

The owner of the inn went over to the table and exchanged a few words with him, presumably regarding his order, before he quickly went back behind the bar and inside the kitchen.

Swift resumed his work, but kept an eye on the newcomer as did most of the other guests. The yellow pony took a look around the room before he grabbed inside one of his saddle bags, pulled out a massive tome, and set it down on the table. He produced quill and inkwell, opened the book, and looked at it thoughtfully for a few seconds. After that, he used his magic to lift the quill, his horn being engulfed in a yellow aura as he did so, and started to write something down with a content expression on his face, not having a care in the world.

Apparently, this was too much for one of the guests, who darted up on unsteady legs, took one final gulp from his mug, slammed it down on the table, and walked towards the pony. When he arrived at the table, the two exchanged some words, which Swift couldn’t hear from his place in the room. He could, however, see the polite expression on the stranger’s face. Nonetheless, the drunkard seemed unsatisfied with him and raised his slurred voice so everyone in the taproom could hear him.

“He doesn’t want any trouble, he says. Then, why did he even come to this place, i wonder? It can’t be the storm. Surely a unicorn such as himself could easily protect himself from it with that handy horn of his...”

The longer he spoke, the more visibly irritated – no, frustrated – the stranger got. All eyes were on the two, and had it not been for the drunkard speaking, the taproom would have been shrouded in absolute silence. Unlike the brawl from before, this confrontation carried weight.

“I know his kind,” the drunkard said, pointing a hoof at the stranger. “Unicorns! I’ve yet to meet a decent one. I used to live at the border right next to the unicorn homeland with my family. We had a farm, which yielded us just enough to live, but like good earth ponies we were content with what he had.”

His expression turned bitter. “One night, i heard voices from the fields. I went out to see if the neighbor’s brats were again stealing some of our fruits. What i found instead were some fully grown, armed unicorns, who helped themselves to some food. I went back to the house to get my weapon when i heard ruckus from inside. They weren’t content to just steal our food. They were after our other belongings as well!”

At that point, he faced the stranger and looked him right in the eyes with a devastating glare. “But even that wasn’t enough. An earth pony life isn’t worth that much to a unicorn, you see? Neither is his or her dignity.” He paused for a long moment, not taking his eyes off of the stranger before he continued. “You want to know what they did to my wife?”

With a sad expression on his face, the stranger drooped his head before the other screamed the answer in his direction.

“They raped and killed her!”

Murmuring could be heard from the other guests and the barmaid put a hoof to her mouth.

The pony’s voice was now shaking with exasperation as he continued. “I heard her screams and their... disgusting laughs. I tried to get to her, but couldn’t. Some of the thugs found me and knocked me unconscious. When i woke, the whole house was on fire. I could only get out and just barely.”

For the first time, his anger seemed to dissipate only to be replaced by sadness. “I found their bodies later. I buried them near what was left of the house.”

He regained his composure and continued. “The nearest settlement was one of the cities of the unicorns beyond the border. In my foolishness, i went there to find help. Not one unicorn wanted to give me food or shelter, not even the inn owners! I went to the guardhouse as well to tell them what had happened, but of course a single farm beyond the border was none of the city’s concern. I was lucky they didn’t decide to arrest me for whatever reason when they had the chance. So i left, made my way to Marberc, and found work there.”

He then put on a bitter smile. “A few years later, i learned the best part of the story through sheer chance. The thugs that night were mercenaries, who worked for the city i went to to keep the peace at the borders! Their pay was so bad that they decided to loot earth pony farms!”

Silence fell upon the room. He had finished his story and now awaited a response from the stranger.

The stranger just shook his head sadly and looked at him. “I‘m sorry for your loss and your previous experience with my kind.”

A few more seconds passed before the other responded with a deadpan voice. “No. No, you’re not sorry and you insult me and them by saying that you are.”

He walked around the table, pulled the other up to his hooves, and took a fighting stance. “Defend yourself!”

The stranger was reluctant and took a few steps back. The other started throwing punches at him, which forced him to dodge. His movements were fluid and seemed instinctive. “I’d rather not fight you.”

The other didn’t seem to listen anymore. His face was distorted with exasperation. He threw another punch, which was evaded easily.

“Please, i don’t want to hurt you.”

Again, no reaction.

Swift’s thoughts raced. This isn’t good. He didn’t want to get involved, but he wasn’t too keen on learning what would happen if no one stepped in. The drunken pony seemed to be ready to kill!

Looking around the taproom, he could see the other ponies around him staring at what was happening. No one appeared to be willing or able to interfere.

Swift sighed. It’s always me, isn’t it?

“I SAID DEFEND YOURSELF!”

Another punch followed, then another, and another. The stranger dodged them all, but even he couldn’t keep this up indefinitely. He would need to counterattack soon to stop the raging drunkard.

Reluctantly, he readied a spell, causing his horn to flare in a yellow aura. Everyone in the crowd held their breaths in anticipation, expecting the other pony to be turned into a toad at any moment.

The loud clong echoed through the room and caused the two fighters to stop in their movements. The stranger had a surprised look on his face while the anger in the drunkards expression had vanished, leaving nothing at all.

Then, the drunken pony fell over on his stomach with a groan, revealing Swift behind him with a soup ladle in his hoof.

Again silence fell upon the room as everyone stared at him in surprise. It was the owner of the inn who found his voice first as his eyes darted between the kitchen door and Swift multiple times. “Hey, how did you get your hooves on that!?”

Swift threw the ladle over to him. Then, the other guests resumed whatever they had done before the confrontation as if nothing had happened. Two of them tended to the knocked out pony and carried him towards the stairs that led to the upper floor.

“Thanks!”

It was the stranger speaking, causing Swift to raise an eyebrow.

“My name is Wide Fare. It is a pleasure to meet you.” He held out a hoof towards Swift.

“Uh huh.” When Wide Fare kept his hoof up, Swift finally grabbed it reluctantly. “Swift Sleight.”

“I must say i’m surprised. Why did you do that, helping a unicorn in a fight against an earth pony?”

“Don’t know. I felt like it.” Swift thought that was a meager answer, but Wide Fare seemed satisfied with it and smiled.

“Well, i commend you on your instincts, even though i do feel sorry for the poor soul. Anyway, thanks again, friend.” With that, he walked back to his table and sat down.

Swift got an idea that might have gotten him a nice place to sleep that night after all and followed him. “Say, what’s that book you’re reading?”

“Writing, actually.”

To that, Swift could only raise an eyebrow.

Wide Fare smiled and explained. “I’m writing this book. It’s... a series of stories, meant to teach life lessons.”

“Who’s supposed to read it? I don’t know anyone personally who can read.”

“Well... in my homeland reading is more common than it is here.”

Having obtained what he was after, Swift decided to end the conversation there. “Well, have fun writing i guess! Maybe we’ll see each other again some time.”

“Yes, maybe we will.”

With a content smile on his face, Swift started to make his way to the bar when Wide Fare’s voice reached him one more time. “Oh, and Swift Sleight?”

“Mh?”

“Would you be so kind and give me my money back?”

Swift just blinked and froze on the spot. I don’t believe it! That old pack-mule!

Not wanting to make a big fuss about the fact that he had stolen the pony’s purse, Swift decided against throwing it back to him and instead walked to the table and gave him the bag.

He wanted to turn around when Wide Fare spoke up again. “Wait just a moment!”

Swift became impatient. He was sure the stranger was just playing with him at that point, reveling the fact that he had caught Swift in the act. “What else!?”

Wide Fare counted a few coins on the table and pushed them in Swift’s direction. “Here, this should get you a room.”

It took Swift a few moments to realize what had just happened. As he put two and two together, his jaw dropped down and he was completely dumbstruck. No one had ever given him money out of generosity!

His reaction seemed to amuse the stranger a fair bit, who had a big grin on his face.

Swift finally found his voice again. “What the hell are you doing!?”

“I figured you don’t have the money to get a room for the night,” – He pushed the bits a little bit further in Swift’s direction – “so here it is. It’s the least i can do after you helped me.”

Swift was still confused at this unusual behavior but took the money before the stranger decided to change his mind. “Thanks!” He was unable to hold back the skepticism in his voice.

“Don’t mention it!” Wide Fare turned his attention back to his tome.

Swift walked to the bar and paid for his room. He went upstairs into a narrow hallway, which had multiple doors left and right. He found the right one, unlocked it, and went inside. It was a simple room, but had all the necessary features. For Swift it was more than enough. He cleaned himself as thoroughly as possible, using the bucket of water that he found, and went to bed, which thankfully was clean. He drifted off to sleep quickly with one last thought on his mind.

There sure are some crazy ponies in this world.

Author's Note

Fun trivia:
I took the name ‘Wrühtlant’ from the middle high german word ‘vrühtic’ which means ‘fertile’.

Marberc just sounded cool, but i found out that there has been a german word named ‘Marstall’ (royal stables). I’m pretty sure that the part ‘Mar’ is somehow connected to horses. So there’s your horse related city name in the form of Marberc too.