The Warlock

“What do you mean he escaped!” Princes Celestia was mad. Actually, mad did not even begin to describe what she was feeling. There had been a human in Ponyville, and not only did it lie to her most trusted student about his identity, but he had managed to escape capture for ten hours, three of which he was within three feet of the captain of the squad!

“He escaped through some kind of vanishing wall, Princess. We have been trying to replicate the effects, but it does not seem to be magical in nature. Breaking through has also proven useless.” Captain Gum Drops reported. She had her squad working on the wall for over an hour and a half. The princess had been keeping the peace in Ponyville and preventing the usual mass hysteria that this town was famous for.

“Well, keep trying!” And with that, she left. Celestia was not usually like this. In order to run the country, she had to keep her stress levels down low, or else it might effect her diplomatic relations with the other countries. However, the stress and fear from finding a human within her country's boarders had made for a rather grumpy alicorn. Her calm demeanor had evaporated when she got a letter from Twilight late at night about her new 'friend'. She said that he was an 'elf', but described an archatypical human perfectly. Knowing her student would not know what a human looked like, she immediately rallied the elite troops of the military. The humans managed to burn and destroy any record of their existence. The only things left were ancient paintings from long dead soldiers who had fought them.

It was nearing seven p.m. when Celestia admitted defeat. The ponies just could not move the rock. She had even tried her hoof at it, only to fail just as spectacularly as the rest of her contingent. It was getting late and she was running out of options. She needed help.

And she knew just the mare to call.

O0o0O

I was in pain. i was very much in pain. The lift was jerky and unstable. Every time it rolled over a certain pin on the wheel, there was a clank, and the entire lift would shudder and jar my shoulder. I had been on the lift for longer than I would have liked. Wherever it was taking me, it was really far down.

I had been on the lift for several minutes before I actually saw anything. And it was sudden too. It was pitch black one moment, and the next there was a door with a light shining above it.

It was an elegant door, simple in design, yet looked stunning none the less. It was a simple circle of metal wedges aligned like a camera aperture. They would all slide in one direction and a hole in the center would appear. Depending on how far the wedges tilted, determined how far the circle opened.

Not knowing how to operate the door, I reached out and gently touched the middle of the door. With a slightly organic crackling sound, the door slowly opened to reveal an absolutely giant cavern. The massive cavern was underground. And it was deep enough that the ceiling stretched up over a thousand  feet. The whole thing looked to be miles long, and a mile deep. From where I entered, I looked to be at least a hundred feet up with a series of ramps and platforms leading down. There were numerous manors all along the cavern floor, and even more regular sized homes. And as far as the eye could see, there were tiny lights. On the houses, on the streets, even on the ceiling. Off in the distance, he could see a huge stone column rising from the cavern floor, near the center of the city. It was massive, even from this distance. The whole thing had a sort of Menzoberranzan vibe to it, just with less drow.

But I had other things to focus on. I saw a building with a red cross on the top.

O0o0O

The Commander in Chief's office was tiny. The room was only 5m by 5m. It was incredibly small, especially for a pony as long as the one that used it on a daily basis. There were row upon row of medals, ribbons, and bars adorning the walls of the office. There was not much room for anything else except the two diplomas, military history from Westhoof, and astronomy from PCSGU. Lining the back wall was a simple filing  cabinet with drawers labeled 'military law and code', 'military logistics', ' top secret' and 'snacks'. In the center was a desk with almost no room for anything more than a few papers and a couple of decorations. There was a picture frame with the owner and their sister posing for a picture in front of the metal monster exhibit in the Canterlot Museum of Natural History. The other was a simple stature. No one would think anything of it, seeing as how he was one of the most famous unicorns in history. It was a simple statue of Starswril the Bearded. Behind the desk was a their favorite chair (i.e. a bean bag).

Trotting in was the owner. She maneuvered to sit at the desk, but hesitated. Using her magic, she reached into one of the drawers in the filing cabinet. There was a package sitting in the middle of the drawer. Confidential packages were frequently dropped to this drawer by a specifically trained courier. Taking the brown paper warped parcel out of it's place in the drawer, she placed it on her desk whilst gently kicking the drawer closed with a hind leg.

Carefully examining the parcel, she recognize a certain seal. This was a different drop than normal. The seal was regarded as a top priority in immediate need of her review. Tugging the knot open on the top of package, the paper lost tension and fell open. Inside was a clear bag with red marking on it. Inside were 15 pink crystals.

She carefully opened the bag and pulled out one of the crystals and brought it closer to inspect it. Once she had eyed each crystal to her satisfaction, she proceeded on to the next phase of her plan. She levitated the small crystal close.

And and quickly popped it into her mouth.

“Not bad. Could use some more rose flavoring though.” Princess Luna said as she munched on the  rose flavored crystal. She usually tested new and innovative candies and snack foods for aspiring companies. It was not like she could be assassinated from these, due to her natural resistance to poisons. They received a royal review and free advertising if she went out and was seen eating them. And she received free junk food. It was a win win situation.

Placing the bag aside, she opened the drawer labeled 'top secret' and pulled out a manila envelope with the big red 'top secret' stamp on the front. Pouring out the contents, she was greeted with a dossier, a few letters from witnesses, and a baggy containing a single silver bar stamped in a script she was unfamiliar with.

She got a ping in her magic as she was looking at the bar. Somepony had tripped one of the ancient alarm wards she had placed on the ancient human cities.

Scanning the cover of the dossier, the Commander in Chief of Equestria's armed forces felt enchanted ice grow in her veins.

She and Celestia had a system that only they knew regarding threats to Equestria. The fact that the mission report was written in black ink and was signed by her sister meant only one thing.

Human in Equestria.

O0o0O

One thing I noticed right away with the city was that the streets were all empty. Absolutely nobody was around. The city was eerily silent, not even the occasional drip from the ceiling made much sound. Empty carriages lined the roads. The air was heavy with moisture and decay. It was if the city was abandoned in the middle of the night.

I was right outside the building with the red cross. It looked like a modern hospital from back home. However, I noticed that the door was about eight feet tall. A full three taller than that of the ponies. Unfortunately, the building was also abandoned.

Getting closer to the door, I could see various chairs and desks strewn about. The waiting room looked like a riot had passed through. I managed to pry the door open with my kukri, and stepped in. The air in here was even more damp and foul, it that was even possible. There was chairs thrown about, and the front desk had been smashed in half.

Stumbling around in the dark was no fun. Especially if you have a messed up shoulder. Running face first into a wall was not good either. Thankfully I had bumped into what looked like a directory.

Unfortunately, I could not read anything on it. It was in a too dark to make anything out on the faded sign. So, thinking 'fuck it', I wandered down a random hallway. Doors lined both side of the hall, most of them were closed. There was one open about seven or eight doors down on my left. Curiosity piquing, I looked in.

It was a small room, consisting of a medical table attached to the ground, and a box in the corner. The box had a touch screen on one side. The un-powered screen was only a few inches from the right side of the table.

Seeing no reason not to, I went to lay on the table to get some real sleep. As I sat on the table, a slight click emanated from the base of the table. The screen on the box lit up.

Wondering how the building still had power, I slid off the table to look for a power supply. The screen went dark as soon as I got off the table.

Figuring that this I needed to be on the table to work on it, I sat back down. The screen lit up again. This time a voice came from a hidden speaker on the box.

“Yazyk?” A woman's voice questioned. I had no idea what she said. “Sprache?” Again, nothing. “Language?” This time it was in English. That was good.

“Yes, this one.” I said, having no idea how to talk to the hospital box lady.

“Thank you. What is your medical issue?” Huh. Seems like I had stumbled into a self serve hospital. This was weird. And concerning. How did the hospital still have power? The city was dead and the hospital still had power.

“Um... Hurt shoulder?” I guessed. I had no idea if it would recognize what I said. Thankfully it did.

There was a click from the machine. The top opened up to reveal what looked like a flashlight on a robotic arm. There was a bright flash from the thing and the arm retracted back into the box.

“You have pulled your rotator cuff in the right shoulder. Would you like to proceed with treatment?” No matter how nervous I was about the whole 'strange abandoned city with medical robots that still worked some how' thing, I had to get my arm fixed.

Nervously I stammered “Y-yes.”

“Please place left wrist into the cuff on the table.” A panel on the table flipped up to reveal a small cuff on my left side. It must have been smart enough to tell that I would not want to move my right arm. I slipped my arm into the cuff and let it tighten. 'Is this one of those blood pressure gauges? I've never seen one that goes on the wrist.' My thoughts were cut off by a sharp sting coming from the cuff, and the feeling of warm honey flowing through my veins.

The last thing I saw before my world faded to a drugged bliss was the box opening and a multitude of medical tools on arms descend towards me.

O0o0O

“Mzark.” The cobalt princess was not even inside the cave, but she could tell where the human had run off to. Because the situation was so dire, she did not feel the desire to use the 'royal we' her sister thought was so funny. She was a 20 yards from the entrance of the cave with her sister. This had been the first human city that she had fought at.

There had been some rather confidential information in the dossier, so in order to keep any curious ponies from hearing national secrets, they had erected a spell that created a near perfect sound proof barrier.

“Are you sure, Luna. It has been over two thousand years since you have last seen a human, let alone a human city.” She loved her sister, but she had a hankering for battle that was unheard of on Antera since she had come home.

“Yes, I am sure of it sister. Mzark only has two known entrances, and this is one of them. He did not take the main entrance, so he could be anywhere in the main city.” Luna was already planning on how to tackle the situation. They could not use the emergency exit anymore (she had used it from the first encounter with the humans), as he had most likely destroyed the control panel that operated the assembly/disassembly matrix. And because of that, the only way in to Mzark was from the main entrance, and that was nearly 15 kilometers from their current position.

“What are we going to do?” Celestia was nervous about what would happen to her ponies. They had gone into full panic mode when it was revealed that the creature that walked through the town in the company of Twilight was the most feared species of creature in the world. Twilight however, was not being her rational self. She kept insisting that the human was nothing but polite when speaking to her.

“WE are not doing anything! I am going in through the main entrance alone. You know that you have almost no combat experience, especially against humans. I on the other hoof have over eight hundred and fifty years of experience fighting them and navigating their cities. I know that you want to help, I really do. But I can't put you through the horrors of war. What if something goes wrong, and Equestria is left with no ruler? You and I both know that I am right on this, 'Tia.” Luna dearly loved her little sister, but when they stopped aging all those thousands of years ago, they retained the emotional outlook they had possessed at the time, and Celestia was just as emotional as any other teenager (though much better at hiding it).

While their mental age still advanced and matured with hardships and experiences, they remained emotionally young. Celestia was only 17 when she had become immortal, while she was 25. And while Celestia was the larger sister in height and length, Luna was definitely the older and more magical powerful one.

Luna had gone off to war to maintain order in the military, while her sister had run the country in the other matters. Celestia tried to join up with the army, but her emotional state of mind simply did not allow her to make the kind of split second life and death choices that Luna was capable of making.

“I know, but...” Celestia struggled to find the right words. “I feel so useless for not being able to help with this.” Celestia had always tried to help her sister when she could. She had failed a thousand years ago to realize what had happened to her when she lost Starswirl, and was determined not to let her sister down again. She had never met her sisters best friend, but she knew just how much it had effected her when he died.

Luna gave her sister a harsh look. “You are not useless, Celestia! Somepony needs to be the face of Equestia, and I can't think of a better leader than you. You will be helping me with this when you calm down the general public. The alarm wards only show a single human in Mzark, so for all we know, he is the only one on the continent. He could also be part of a scouting party or even a raider band. But the public cannot know that. I need you to tell them what they need to hear.” She scolded her sister. She was thankful for the sound shield she had placed around them. This was information she did not need everypony to know.

Her sister gave a resigned sigh, and nodded. “Alright. I don't like it, but I can do that. Just promise you will be cautious down there.” She hugged her sister, and prayed she would be alright.

“I promise.” She hugged back.

With that, she left the bubble in search of the main entrance.

O0o0O

I have had had some strange doctor visits before, but this made the odd quacks look tame. I woke up after the machine fixed my shoulder. It had totally destroyed my BDU top, but left the vests alone. Recovering the stripper clips from the heap of cloth that had once been my favorite BDU top, I left the creepy machine to itself.

No longer focused on the hospital, I stepped out into the city. There was a distinct disconnect from here and the surface world. For one, there was very modern technology just lying around, while on the surface they still had thatched roofing. There was also the fact that all of the doors and buildings looked like they were designed for humans, not ponies.

It was kind of easy to figure out that he was in a human city. I knew that there was at least one group out there who wanted his skin for a wallet, so I needed a way to protect myself. My guns were great and all, but I only had 200 rounds for the Mosin, and 69 for the 1911. Figuring that a society as advanced as this one would recognize the need for armament, I went in search for a gun store.

O0o0O

Luna was advancing on the main entrance, glancing around the castle in nostalgia. The Everfree castle had originally been built on top of the main entrance for the city as a defensive measure, but it had taken on a more meaningful place. It had served as the capital of Equestria's military and political needs for almost a millennia. It had also been where a demon of immense power had taken over her body when she had accidentally dropped her guard while grieving for her lost friend.

Not all of the nostalgia was pleasant.

Shaking off her nerves, she set off for the vaults. Feeling the ancient human wards kick in, she resigned herself to walking. The wards kept creatures from flying or teleporting, as it would put any attacking force on an equal level with the humans. The wards were powerful enough that they could still be felt  about a meter above ground.

With reservation that she would be at a major disadvantage, she descended into the chamber underneath where her old throne had been located. Her mind was in motion as she remembered the damned thing.

'I was, and still am the Commander in Chief of Equestria's armed forces. Why did I get a throne? I am only a princess because I am Celestia's sister. The nobles did not like that I had replaced the throne with a recliner that one day. It was funny watching old Hoity-Toity turning that puce color. Does his descendant turn that color too?' She was of course thinking about that failure of a stallion, Blue Blood. How his family was still in any form of power was beyond her understanding. And she still did not understand the circumstances in which he had become any form of royalty. He was totally inept at everything he did. And he was the rudest stallion she had ever seen! The moron did not even understand common courtesy. If it were not for the fact that he was a stallion she would have punted him straight into the stratosphere.

Shaking her head of the amusing thoughts of the royal idiot flying in a perfect art straight into the Antleric Ocean, she set back onto the task at hoof.

Reaching the deepest part of the vaults, Luna came to a set of doors that she never thought she would need to open again. Pulling out a rusty key that was far too intricate for any other species to reproduce, she unlocked the main gates to her first battle ground.

O0o0O

Shivering in revulsion, I threw the book into a corner. The spell book had described exactly how the soul snare spell worked, and how the utilization of the soul for energy it stored would destroy everything that made that person a person. And that was not even the most fucked up thing in the book. It had some truly gruesome rituals in chapter two. Gutting oneself while in a salt mine for extra magic? No thank you.

I had not found much in the way of  useful tomes in the weapons shop, but there were some interesting weapons to be found. The most interesting was the top loading plasma blaster. I tested the different rounds out, and I found that it could do anything from burn a dime sized hole in something, to atomizing a building depending on what type of ammo was loaded in. The thing was almost too light. The gun looked like one of the old Gyrojet rifles. Even loaded the same way. I grabbed as many rounds for the thing as I could, but luck was not on my side that day. There were only five boxes of different plasma intensity in the whole store. 'I only have 40 rounds for the rifle, so I would need to conserve these.'. Stuffing the small plastic crates in my ruck and slinging the loaded rifle, I went back to the books.

The book searching did yield some fruit though. It was stated that all humans were capable of telekinesis. The book did not have any references on how to use it though. Knowing the irony of where I had been less than a day ago, I admitted I needed to do some more reading.

I needed to find a library.

O0o0O

The human was not very subtle. He had left muddy footprints all the way to the hospital. From how the prints were angled, she could tell he was injured. Following the prints to the minor injury ward, Luna found the room he had occupied.

The auto-doc report had read out that it had recently treated a sever tendon sprain to the right shoulder. He had sought out medical attention as fast as he could, and would be much more stealthy. And now he had over three hours head start on her. Having taken the human's attire into consideration, Luna could only assume that he was at least adept at hiding.

For whatever reason, he had not attacked at the first sight of a pony, like most other humans would normally have. He had even had a polite conversation with one of the most honest ponies she knew (other than the farmer, Applejack). So something was going on. And Luna was determined to find out what.

Luna cast a chameleon spell on her self to stealthy track the human. Magically bending the light around her body gave her an almost watery look when she moved, but when still, it would take a merical to be able to see her.

There was something familiar with the human, and she was interested in seeing in how this would play out.

O0o0O

I held the piece of clear plastic in my hands with near reverence. The data pad the library had automatically manufactured (took a piece of plastic and glued a computerized frame with a handle around it) for me was unlike anything I had ever seen before. I began scrolling through the vast database the library automatically maintained.

The library was really a kiosk near the center of town with its own data bank. It was right against the giant pillar of stone. The pillar was odd in itself, I could feel heat radiating off of it, and I could see an ornate door set into it about 150 feet to the right of the kiosk.

Finding the basic primer for magic, I began reading the part on the basis of human magic.

'The magic that humans use is very different than how the other species use it. The pony races pull magic in with their hooves, wings, and horns. Minotaurs use their hooves and horns to use magic. Griffons and changelings both use their wings to use magic.' The book featured a depiction of ponies that left something to be desired. Eyes that extended past their foreheads and with dunce caps for marks. I had no other idea about the other species though. 'Humans are very different though. They are the only species that uses magic with their brains. Humans used to not be very good at magic, but then lord Z'ant enlightened the all of the humans in the world about how to use more magic.' The simple worded book went on about how all of the other races were all evil and degenerate scum. I skipped to the part about TK.

'Pull in the magic with your brain. You can do this by imagining a balloon is blowing up inside your head, and the magic will work. This is the easiest part. Then push the magic down your arms and out your fingers. The magic will make your fingers tickle, so do not worry. Next, make the thing you are looking at to move to you. It will take some time to be good at it, so keep trying!' The book was simple and to the point. Why couldn't all instruction manuals be written like children's primers?

I imagined the balloon in my head, and got nothing. For two and a half hours I kept trying to make the balloon in my head inflate, with no success. Maybe this only worked with these humans.

Then, I got an idea. I pulled from the ground.

I did not think to pull the magic from the ground up through my feet and body like a pony, I just pulled from the ground. I got a tingling feeling in the tips of my fingers. Success! However, there was a problem.

I could not move anything move. I sat and concentrated on making my data pad float. It almost felt like there was a something my hands were pushing against. Pushing though the blockage, I finally got a result.

My vision swam, and black spots formed in my peripherals. Standing up, I caught my breath for a moment. 'What the fuck was that?!' I wondered if I had shifted and cut off blood circulation to something, but as fast as it came, it was gone. I figured it was a side effect of learning magic, so I went right back to work.

Lifting my hand, I felt the tingle once again. Focusing on making my data pad float to me, I pushed the magic through my fingers.

The data pad flew right into my hand.

'Alright! I did it!' I mentally screamed, too cautious to make any real noise. Though my celebration, I heard a noise.

Clop.

Spinning my head in the direction, I got ready to defend myself. But I saw nothing. Knowing that I had been hunted on the surface, I was instantly on guard. When I was excited about finding someone in the snow, I had gotten sloppy, and revealed my position by stepping on a twig. Looks like whoever wants to find me just did the same. Because I had not heard their presence, I could only guess that whoever is ghosting me, is an expert in what they do. For all I knew, there was a squad of ponies waiting to make me wish I was never seen. Or it could be a single individual. Not good for me in either situation.

Using my peripheral vision to find the command on the data pad, I set the data pad to download everything on the database (another great thing about this library), and slowly scanned the area. I was still picking up nothing. When the pad finished its download, I kept moving to the ornate door on the pillar, blaster at the ready.

O0o0O

Luna was stunned. This human had no idea how to use magic. It was reading a foal's primer with rapt attention. She had zoomed her vision in with a spell to better see what he was reading. He then set the data pad down and focused.

This was even more shocking to Luna. Humans were the only known creature to be able to instinctively use a levitation spell. This was due to the fact that most humans could access over 30 percent of their brains, ponies usually averaging at about 10. More than that was that humans were also the only known beings to channel magic directly though the brain, an act that would kill a lesser creature. To see a human not be able to use a levitation spell was like seeing a noble with honor.

She knew of only one other case of this.

Pulling away from her thoughts, Luna returned her attention to the human. For the next two hours, the only reason she did not go in for the kill was that this human fascinated her. Not only was he polite, but he was unable to use magic. He also knew how to load the plasma blaster and had knowledge of how human technology worked, so she was cautious.

When the human had a breakthrough in magic, Luna was woken from her thoughts when he started dancing and floating the data pad to him.

He looked like he was going to move towards her, so Luna moved to intercept.

Clop

Did she really just do that? Had she lost her edge that much that she would let herself make such a basic mistake? Regardless of the cause of the slip up, she had still planted her hoof on cobble instead of in the mud and gotten the human's attention.

He snapped to attention, blaster shouldered. The human somehow managed to stare right at her, even though she was still concealed with the chameleon spell.

He pushed a icon on the data pad without moving his eyes from her. A moment later, he stood and grabbed his things and stalked away.

She stayed frozen for another three minutes, un-moving. When she heard a door gently close Luna finally felt comfortable moving from her position. Using a spell to track heat, she saw the vapor trail of the human leading away from the kiosk. But the closer it got to that pillar, the more his trail was overpowered by the pillar.

This left Luna confuse just long enough for the human to get just far enough ahead.

O0o0O

I bolted down the stairs that the pillar door had lead to. The pony had not followed me as far as I could tell, so I needed to move fast. I needed to find a defensible position. Unfortunately the staircase curved to the right. I might be able to hit them, but they were far more likely to hit me. Having no real sword training put me at a sever disadvantage.

The staircase had gone on for what seemed like forever. It eventually opened up into an absolutely massive cathedral. It spanned over a mile long, and at least a quarter that in width. There were enormous pews lining the entire thing, with only a few rows to walk forward. The whole place was somehow still brightly lit, but with no visible source for the light. There was an alter near the back, but I could barley make it out. That seemed to have the best cover of any place in the cathedral.

As soon as I hit the bottom of the steps, I bolted forwards. The alter was a straight shot from the stairs. Both were centered. But there was an inherent problem with my plan. Because it was a mile away, and even the pews offered little in the way of protection, so I was totally exposed for over a mile. I was not the fastest runner in the world, I had gotten an eight minute mile in high school. But with the threat of impending doom via angry pony, I pushed it to six minutes.

I was breathing hard when I reached the alter. It was a simple block of stone with a large doily thing covering it. There were some unlit candles on the top, and a pentagram in the middle of the table. Behind the alter was some kind of control board. I had no idea what it did, so I left it alone. By the alter was a banner on either side, with some kind of horrific shrieking face depicted on them. They were both flush with the wall.

Just as I was hunkering down behind the alter when I heard the clip cloping of hooves on hard stone. I knew that who ever was ghosting me was most likely only a few hundred feet away, and was probably hiding themselves with magic. I loaded my new rifle with dime-sized-hole rounds and fired.

O0o0O

The bolt of star matter sailed past Luna's head. Cursing, she hit the floor. That had been close. Thankfully the human was not a good shot, or else that would have really hurt. She would not have been killed, but it would have burned her mane and a fair amount of fur clean off of her head, and that would not have felt good. She had that happened once when she had been fighting off the humans from the volcanic wastelands down south. It had taken weeks to grow it all back. Not fun.

She heard the thing scream something in Gryphic, and she was glad she had threshals for guards, as that tended to be the only language they used.

“That was a warning shot. Turn around and go home. I won't miss again.” He called out.

'He had intentionally been aiming to miss. What kind of human was this? No human I had ever faced acted like this one. Any other human would have shot me the instant they knew where I was.' The main aisle was fifty feet wide, but he still had managed to pinpoint her location enough that he could place a warning shot within centimeters of her left ear. She sat down on the floor with her forelegs raised above her head. She could still cast, but Luna did not want to further anger this odd human. Uncloaking herself, she remained in place and waited for his response.

O0o0O

The mare had uncloaked her self and looked as if she was surrendering. Odd. They did not seem to be the type to do that. Standing up, he braced the butt of the rifle on his left shoulder.

“I don't want to hurt you. Just go home and leave me in peace.” I tried to talk her out of flowing me any further. She was different than the other types of ponies I had seen before. Having both wings and a horn was the big give away. She was either an elite soldier, or something even more terrifying. Not taking any chances, I bounced on the balls of my feet to keep in constant movement.

“What kind of human would not hesitate to shoot a pony?  Why did you come to Ponyville in the first place?” She had an almost perfect American accent for some reason. I was intrigued by this pony. Other than Twilight, this was the only other pony I had seen that was not afraid of me, or try to kill me on sight.

“Look lady, I just want to go home. I don't know where I am, or how I got here. Ponyville was the first settlement I came across. So do me a favor and just turn around and go home. I want nothing to do with the other humans, I want nothing to do with the fucked up shit they do for fun, and I want nothing to do with you or the rest of Equestria. So turn around, and go home!” I yelled across the massive cathedral.

The pony did not turn around and leave, but did not move from where she was. Taking this as the best I could get, I backed up and started to move along the wall. I kept my rifle trained on her the whole time, and never took my eyes off her.

The plan did not last long, as I had just passed over one of the banners, and realized there was a passage behind it a moment too late. I tumbled backwards into the tunnel, and landed on my ass. This was probably a really bad idea, but it kept me from being out in the open more than I needed to be. Backing down the hall, I moved slowly with my rifle trained on the entrance.

The tunnel kept on going for a hundred feet or slow. I felt my foot land a few inches lower than it normally would have. With a gasp, I managed to catch myself before I went down the stairs. It was another spiral staircase. I carefully maneuvered myself to be able to walk down them backwards.

O0o0O

Luna did not dare move. The human had told her to go home, but she did not trust the creature not to shoot her in the back. She kept her head trained on the man as he began to walk against the wall. She thought that he was going to walk the three kilometers to the entrance of the cathedral, when he fell through one of the ghoulish tapestries.

He must have fallen through one of the high priest's secret tunnels. Jumping up, Luna slowly walked over to the tapestry. She would roll her hooves as they hit the stone floor, so as not to make any noise other than an initial tink. This way of walking took longer than normal, so by the time she got to the tapestry, he had already gotten down the staircase behind.

Luna Was following with the same hoof rolling technique when she started thinking. 'Could this human not be like the others? He has repeatedly passed up opportunities to shoot me. He has stated that he wants nothing to do with my kind or his. And he had been seemingly disgusted with the actions of the rest of the humans. Could he be like...' She stopped herself, not wanting to delve into long buried memories of her most loyal friend.

The human was an inegma. He was definatly worth investiagating. Luna cloaked herself once again and set off for the strange human.

O0o0O

I had gone down the staircase for a few minutes before I felt my back press agianst a door. The door was different thant the others. Instead of a normal handle, it had five finger holes on either side. I was not thinking clearly when I put my fingers in the holes. Had I been in a stable state of mind, I would have hesitated before I did something so reckless.

Luckly the holes were not trapped. Just placing my fingers in them did nothing for opening the door, so I started to flex my fingers. There was a distinctive clicking every time I did this, and I could feel the switches I tripped as well. Getting a bright idea, I gripped and yanked. The portion of the door pulled out with my hands. The two circles of holes began slowly rotating. I pulled my hands away before any could be twisted in an unsavory manner.

The doors swung open slowly as the circles turned. There was a simple room within. It was roughly ten feet in diamater, with a pedistal in the middle. On the pedistal there was a black rod floating in the center. The rod was about the size of a slightly thicker king sized Sharpie, and uniform in thickness. There was also a human corpse next to the door.

The human was long decayed. The tatterd remains of robes clinging to the ancient bones. The human seemed to hold onto a simple grey box for dear life. I had no respect for the humans on this world, so I had no problem taking this box from the human's decayed hands. It was roughly two inches wide and five inches long.

Pocketing the box, I looked back at the pedistal. There was a small room, with a single pedistal and no other furniture. The thing on top of the pedistal was floating a foot above the top of the pedistal, and it had lights shining on it. Whatever this black thing was, it was really important. Without much more thought, I grabbed it and placed it into an extra pouch I had on my vest, right next to the grey box.

The moment I took it, there was a loud grinding noise. My head darted around, looking for any sort of crushing mechanisim or spikes. I did not find any of those, but I did find another door way had opened in the back of the room. Walking in, I was greeted with a wonderful sight.

It was a lift, like the one I used to get into the city in the first place. I looked up and saw the tiniest of prinpricks of light. I got on and quickly kicked the switch on.

I was about half way up the lift when I unholstered my pistol and pointed it straight ahead of me.

“I thought I told you to go home.”