The Warlock

I looked down to see the shaft of the bolt sticking out. It seemed to be lodged right where my left kidney was, thankfully it was not deeply embedded, but would not be easy or pleasant to remove. I was actually impressed with the level of accuracy needed to pull something like that off with a hoof mounted crossbow. I was mildly surprised with how little it hurt though. There must have been insane levels of adrenaline coursing through my veins. I lightly touched the shaft. It did not really hurt all that much, and really only hurt when I poked the notch lightly. It seemed to hit something solid when I moved it side to side, and made a dull thunk. The bolt had pierced into my load bearing vest, and into me.

I shifted my shoulders slightly, and realized just what happened. With a grimace I yanked the bolt out, there was a great pain from my midsection, and I saw the warm yellow-red liquid run out of the hole and on to my fingers. As I did this, I could see another pony that looked similar to Luna walk in with a horrified look on her slightly green face.

O0o0O

'What was with this human. He seemed to be the antithesis of everything human! He sacrificed himself to save me

He had first stepped under a young bunyip to save someone he had literally know for minutes, he thought they had been foalnapped, and crawled through the castles ventilation system for over three hours just to look for her, not to mention the twenty story shaft to get into the tower in the first place, he had stepped in front of a group of heavily armed guards so he could buy her some more time to escape, and he had taken a bolt to the stomach for her. This created a large number of conflicting thoughts to run through Luna's head.

'A human would never do anything like this. He was willing to sacrifice himself to save me.' The bolt he had taken would not have even pierced her skin, but it would normally sail through an unarmored target. The fact he stopped it is amazing. Luna was equally shocked when he violently ripped the bolt out.

O0o0O

"Luna, what is-" Celestia had came as fast as she could when she had heard the alarm spell her sister triggered. They had set up alarm runes in the polished marble floors in their rooms that they could channel magic through their hooves and activate it without alerting any assailents. She had rushed over with a full contingent of guards to her room when they heard the alrm go off. Celestia had been slightly behind the guards when they had burst into the room. There was a cry of "Go! I'll hold them off! What are you waiting for?! Go!" Before the dull twang of a hoof bow went off, and the solid smack of the bolt hitting something.

She had just entered the room to see the human with his left arm extended as if to protect her sister behind him, whilst he ripped the bolt out of his abdomen with his right. The yellow fluid flowing freely from where his kidney was had thoroughly disgusting her. As a statesmare, she had never had to deal with the effects of war, and what it would do to a person. The fact he was leaking a bodily fluid that she was fairly confident on what it was all over her sisters floor had almost caused her to loose her lunch all over the floor. The fact the human was still standing up was incredible. For a moment, he stood there unmoving, before he sunk to his knees.

O0o0O

I screamed. The noise pierced the silent room, catching the ponies off guard. I clutched at the leaking hole in my blouse to try to stop the flow. There was a wild look in my eyes, like a cornered animal. Luna rushed to my side, attempting to help, but she knew that there was little she could do for me, and called for a medic. I fell over to my side, simply whimpering and crying out. I could feel two other ponies rush over to me and magically undo my vest and blouse. As I saw the white saddlebags adorned with red crosses on their backs, I knew help had come.

I smiled. This was too funny. Deciding to allow my game to end, I jumped to my feet laughing. Enjoying the shocked looks I got, I proved ed to rip open the pouch on my vest and pull out the now ruined flask from the pocket. It had sailed through the front, and pierced the back, so as too poke into my gut. The hole was only sightly more painful than a paintball, but the alcohol that poured out had caused the small hole to burn like I had been stabbed full on. The actual wound, however small it may have been, would still hurt like a son-of-a-bitch tomorrow. Assuming I lived until tomorrow.

Suddenly dead serious, I pointed my pistol at the large white mare at the rear of the group of guards. I could hear the clicks of reading crossbows, but none of them actually fired, as I was aiming at what I could was an officer of fairly significant rank. "Alright, who are you, where are we, and why did you kidnap us? Actually, scratch that. I don't give a shit who you are, or why you kidnapped us. All I want to know is where we are." I kept all emotion out of my voice, so as not to give the ponies in front of me any indication of my actual mental state, all the while keeping an arm in front of the cobalt mare who I had fought next too against an eldritch horror.

"How dare you!" The white mare in front of me screamed.

"How dare I? How dare I?!" This time I let my anger show. "No fuck you lady! Let me tell you how it is from my point of view. I get plunked into some alien world against my will. I have been hunted, I have fought a monster straight out of legend, and then you have the gall to kidnap both I and the President of Equestira, lock me in a fucking zoo enclosure like Harambe and experiment on me with poisons in the water, and then steal my grandfather's pistol. So I don't give a shit what you think about me, so why don't you take your posses, and fuck off!" My rage had reached a new height. Finally mobilizing it had made me realize just how screwed I am.

"I- I-" The white mare stammered. The guards looked stunned. The mare's face suddenly looked as if it was carved of stone. She opened her mouth, looking like she had something to say.

"Guards. Stand down."

This had not come from the white mare's mouth (which was still open, but this time in confusion). The guards automatically lowered their weapons and snapped to attention with a sharp "Jawohl" I followed the direction of the voice. My heart sank as I realized just what I had gotten myself into.

Luna walked around my now lowering arm and began barking orders in German to the guards, all of whom after receiving them shouting "Jawohl!" and dashed off, presumably to carry out their orders. After all of the guards were off doing whatever they were supposed to be doing, she beckoned the white mare into the room, and closed the door. The white mare was directed to a overstuffed bean bag on the floor, while I was shown to another on the opposite side of the room, but only after I levitated my things out from the vent. Luna maneuvered a bean bag to the center of the room near the door, so as to create a rough triangle between the three of us.

The white mare and Luna both sat down on the bean bags, while I worked on putting my stuff again. After finally getting everything back in place, I leaned against a wall with the plasma rifle cradled in my arms.

"Alright. I propose that we take turns asking questions. You ask a question and then one of us will ask a question. Does this work with you?" Luna asked me.

"Yeah. Why are you working with her?" My question was laced with a hint of accusation. I was hurt, oddly enough. I had only known her for a few hours at best.

"This is Celestia. My sister." My brain broke a bit. The mare who kidnapped me was the sister to the closest thing I had to a friend. I felt a little betrayed to be honest. "My turn. Why are you here?"

"One of life's great mysteries isn't it? Why am I here? I mean, am I the product of some cosmic coincidence? Or is there really a God, watching everything. You know, with a plan for us and stuff. I don't know Luna, but it keeps me up at night."

Both mares gave me a blank stare. "What? I mean why are we out here, in Equestira?"

"Oh! I don't know. I was out exploring and saw something shining and looked at it. Next thing I know, I'm here." I gave an honest answer this time. "Why did you kidnap me?" I asked Celestia.

"That was not me." Celestia answered. "And you were not foalnapped. You were brought in to see if you were a threat or not. We did not mean to cause you any distress."

"Well that turned out well, don't you think?" I questioned sarcastically.

"I apologize for any discomfort you may have experienced." She was very diplomatic, I will give her that.

The questioning eventually broke down to Celestia and I swapping questions and thinly veiled insults.

O0o0O

Luna let her sister question the human for a while. She was by far the more diplomatic of the two. Although she had a justified prejudice against humans, she was tackling it very well. She got to thinking while the two talked.

Gareth was not a normal human, and this had been established in her mind. But the dream test and his actions in the last few minutes had rocked any remaining preconceptions to the core. Never before had a human tried to save the life of a nonhuman, even in the efforts to sew the seeds of chaos in a country. He had crawled around in air ducts for three hours while lugging nearly thirty kilos behind him, and risked what he thought was death if caught, all in an effort to find and rescue her from a supposed foalnapper. He had even been willing to sacrifice his own life just so she could get a few extra seconds to escape. She knew that gun only held eight shots before it needed a reload, then it only had seven. He would have had 24 bolts in him before he could get more than four off.

His dream test was even more telling. Because the subconscious was incapable of lying, she had seen him for what he truly was. He was a teacher at heart, and wanted to help ponies. But he was also startlingly intelligent. He knew that he did not have the skills or knowledge to teach the beggar how to work, so he paid someone to teach the beggar for him instead. There were not many ponies like that in the world, and all of them were philanthropic and very, very wealthy. This human would go places.

Luna mused on this for a while, and came to a conclusion.

'There are only three possibilities on why he is so different. A.) He is not a human. He could be an 'Elf' like he told Twilight three days ago. He could simply look like a human, but not actually one. B.) He is unaffected by the curse that Z'ant cast. The curse is well known throughout the immortal community, and that it effected the humans magic, which was focused in their brains. It is not likely, but he could interact with magic differently than the other humans. Like Starswirl... C.) The curse has been lifted. Not very likely, but possible.

Luna needed to find out.

"Gareth, I have a question. How did levitating things feel?"

O0o0O

I stopped my scathing answer to Celestia's question. Luna had asked a fairly random question.

How did my magic feel? When I first attempted the spell, I felt a pull to the Earth from my hands, but now, I only felt pressure in my arms and legs now. The magic had a feed back. Even in Ponyland, Newton was still enforcing his laws. Granted, these were drastically reduced, but only a five to one ratio. Lifting a hundred pounds of crap felt like twenty. I told Luna this. I got a nod in response and another question.

"How long did it take you to learn this spell?"

These were some really random questions. "About two hours. Why?"

Luna stood up. "We are done with questions now. Come with me." Luna ordered.

Celestia and I both stood and moved to follow her. We walked down the stairs, through a few large hallways, and into a massive room lined with guards and civilians alike. The two sisters entered before me and were all met with a bow. When I entered, there were three distinct reactions.

There were the civilians, who all looked at me with confusion and fear. I was a creature that they had probably never seen before, and reacted accordingly. There were also the reactions of the two distinct set of guards. There were the thestral guards. They all looked at me with a healthy sense of distrust. But there was an undertone of respect and admiration. Then there was the ponies clad in gold and, in only one case, purple. There's was easy. Hate. Pure, unadulterated hatred. The one in purple seemed to be visibly trembling in rage.

Luna stood in front of everyone to make an announcement. She motioned for me to stand to her left, and Celestia to her right. "Gentlecolts and Mares, I have a few announcements for today. Today we have received a visitor from another country. This is Gareth from the continent of Faerûn, hailing from the country of Lanten. His kind are called 'Elves', and are renowned for their intellect and technological prowess."

Holy fucking shit, she was using my lie to create a fake background. This was kind of awesome, but at the same time, kind of worrying. What if I was found out?

"He has emigrated to Equestia today, and has been made a full citizen. I expect you to treat him with the same respect that you would give any other pony." She gave me full citizenship. Just like that. I was not too concerned, as I had literally nowhere else to go. But I was curious on the why.

"Secondly, due to an unforeseen complication in today's evens, both Day and Night Court are canceled for today." This drew some quiet groans from the crowd. "And lastly, I must address the rumors about a human sighting in Ponyville." The crowd gasped. They had likely not even heard of the incident in the small town.

"All that happened in Ponyville was a miscommunication with the locals. They saw Gareth here, and assumed that he was a human. He had encountered the locals, and because of the uncertainty of what humans look like, they simply jumped to conclusions." This part was true.

The ponies had no clue on what humans look like. All they had was a horrible propaganda caricature from a thousand yeas ago that featured the worst features on a human. The eyes were so small, they looked like simple dots. The hair was patchy and matted. The face looked like it had been smashed in with the exception of the nose, which was red and bulbous. The arms were gangling and the legs were twig like, with watermelon sized feet. The ears were like over large fins, and had tufts of hair sprouting out of the center. They were hunched over almost like an ape, and were dressed in potato sacks and  loin cloths. All of them were wielding sticks and bananas. All in all, not very flattering.

"So in closing, there is no human threat to Equestria." With that, the mare walked off, leaving Celestia and I to follow. The thestral's and pony guard's eyes followed me. Respect in the former, and loathing in the later.

O0o0O

We were off in a simple sitting room. The Princess had ordered tea from a server pony, while Luna and I ordered coffee.

We sat in silence for a few minutes, sipping at our respective drinks. Luna and Celestia seemed to enjoy theirs well enough, but I set mine down on a table after a few minutes. It was simply too weak to be palatable.

Eventually I broke the silence. "Why?"

Seeming to understand what the meaning behind the question, Luna answered with, "Because you will do amazing things, but you need to be a citizen to do them."

"Like what?"

"That is for you to decide for yourself, Gareth."

With that, we returned to our silence.