Boundary Point

The sound of a bowstring hummed throughout the open courtyard, lined with white arches, and laid with deep green grass. An arrow glided from Xavier’s compound bow and slammed into the outer black ring of the target with a thud against the gray sky.

“The earliest humans didn’t use bows,” a gray stallion with a low-cut brown mane and gray coat spoke to the crowd of onlookers, his cutie mark a scroll tied with a simple cloth, “It is likely that their first weapons for hunting were long sharp branches. But from there, they moved up to the knife and the spear. The atlatl, a device attached to the blunt end of the spear, was used to extend their range. With this, and their naturally more gregarious behavior, the closest competitor they had, the Neanderthal, which had a larger brain and a more powerful body, was driven to extinction.”

Xavier lowered his forest green and black compound bow as he faced Professor Quill, who himself was looking at the crowd of onlookers. Ponies, griffins, two dragons, and three humans were listening with intent to the Professor of human studies at Manehatten University as a gentle breeze rolled on by.

“So you could say that humans beat the Neanderthal through the magic of friendship?” an Earth Pony shouted. Giggling and chuckling erupted from the crowd as the Professor looked down and gave a grin.

“Ah, you all laugh now, but friendship even without the magical element still has deep, profound benefits, especially in a world where there is no magic,” Professor Quill gave a nod to the Earth Pony asking the question, “Working together, covering each other’s weaknesses, calling on one another’s strengths, patiently providing for the weak until they can stand again, these things are not magical, but still provide a real, tangible benefit.”

Professor Quill coughed as he began to pace to the right and left of the crowd, “Back to the subject of human’s closest competitor, that isn’t to say that the Neanderthal is completely extinct. Towards the end of their time, many of them, in effect, became friends with humans and interbred with them, which they themselves have confirmed with their DNA technology. With the decline and absence of their only closest competitor, now friend,” Quill chuckled to himself, “Humans continued working on their tools. Eventually discovering the bow, which led to the longbow, which led to the recurve bow,” Professor Quill turned towards Xavier and gave a nod. The human then unstrapped his line from the bow and held it by the riser, showing its side for the crowd to see. “Which eventually led to this, the compound bow. Using a series of pulleys and synthetic materials from their world, it’s able to transfer much more force into the arrowhead than even our own ice bows, and those are magically enhanced. This is a testament to the human capacity to exceed the circumstances they’ve been placed in.”

“Why bother when they have guns?” a question shot out from the audience.

“Excellent,” the Professor gave a bemused smile towards the crowd, “Humans differentiate between hunting and killing. And yes, for the last few hundred years, humans have used guns to hunt. But as time went on, their rifles became more accurate and more lethal. Due to this, for some, the thrill of the hunt had been depreciated by this. Returning back to the bow for some of them is a way to bring the challenge of the hunt back. The satisfaction of taking down cunning prey. I’m sure you griffins can appreciate this,” the stallion gave a curt nod towards a cluster of Griffins in the audience.

Xavier walked over to the demonstration table where many human weapons were on display. A flint knife, a spear, long and recurve bow. Putting his compound bow and arrows back on the table, he turned to face the professor who was still focused on the audience.

“That said, humans still use guns for hunting, especially prey that are dangerous or hard to take down. And even in cases where they still decide to use a bow, many will carry a handgun, an easy to carry gun, just in case they are not immediately able to make the kill and the dangerous prey charges towards them.”

“Is that how they killed Sombra?” A voice shot up from the audience, the ponies now began to talk amongst themselves, sounds of hushed whispering even dragged in the other audience species as the group grew louder.

“As far as I know, however they managed to stop Sombra has been a well kept secret in the Crystal Republic,” the Professor glanced over at Xavier who gave a tiny shrug.

“You mean Crystal Empire,” another voice rang out. What had been whispers became arguing amongst the attendees. While the Griffins were in the mix with the rest of the ponies, the three humans quietly excused themselves as the two dragons in attendance moved to the outer zone of the cluster of bodies, talking to each other and laughing as the audience’s rumbling grew louder.

“Calm down, calm down…” the professor tried to repeat, but soon he himself was dragged into the cluster argument of quadrupeds of all kinds. A Unicorn with a crimson mane turned to yell at a Pegasus, a brown and gray Griffin condescendingly tilting its feathered head at another Unicorn, who slipped off their saddlebag and retorted with a hoof jabbing in midair.

“Well, that sure deteriorated fast,” Xavier walked towards his handler, Jade, as she stared with focused intensity at the audience. Sitting on a metal hybrid seat at the other end of the courtyard, her glinting obsidian mane occasionally wisped up with the gusts of wind.

“Hopefully,” she began, “When this referendum nonsense is done, most of the loyalist will move out of here and head towards Kingdom territory,” Jade snorted, “Manehatten isn’t going to just forget how hard The Kingdom squeezed them for draftees. Especially when it was discovered that Canterlot had offset its numbers by raising the recruitment quota here.”

Xavier took a seat next to Jade as they watched the chaos brew in front of them, “It’s too bad that it had to end this way. The way other ponies tell it, most of the land was at peace with each other before the return of Luna a few years ago.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Jade answered, tucking in her hooves and looking down. The shimmering green fur along the back of her spine stood up for a moment, only to finally recede after a hot minute rolled by.

“I apologize,” Xavier nodded, “I forgot that crystal ponies only came back on the scene a few years ago, It must’ve been a trying time for you.”

“It’s been a lot to handle, yes,” Jade returned the nod, “But we’ve had a lot of support from our sister states, and plenty of support from your kind. First the Corridors, then the outbreak, I’d argue that we’re not the only ones facing problems.”

“True, true,” Xavier trailed off for a few moments, watching as a mix of pastel colors and feathers slowly swirled, “But we’ve always had dominion over our world. Like the professor said, we absorbed the last group that might challenge us.”

“Or you can say that you helped preserve the Neander-tall,” Jade responded, rolling her neck and arching her back.

“Neanderthal,” Xavier corrected.

Jade wrinkled her nose for a moment, puffing her cheeks before exhaling, “Was the accommodations to your liking?”

“I had to sleep on the couch, I have no idea what kind of bed that is,” Xavier looked away, watching as a pair of arguing ponies had finally shoved each other and the crowd was slowly falling into a pushing match.

“It’s made for herds, the goal is the more warm bodies sleeping together, the more comfortable it is,” Jade got up and eyed Xavier, “Let’s leave before they escalate.”

Xavier nodded as he followed Jade out the courtyard and into the beige academic hallways. Stone archways extended as far as the eye could see, with cases showing the past accomplishments of ponies long gone from this mortal coil.

“So, where did you learn to do that?” Jade asked as she led her charge down the hall, eyeing every warm body that approached from the other lane.

“Learn to do what?” Xavier asked.

“Shoot arrows.”

“College,” Xavier answered, “Had to take a physical activity course, archery was an option, so I took it. Got the choice between the compound or the recurve, took the compound because I thought I might go hunting someday.”

“Be honest,” Jade said, taking a turn, “How many have you killed in your hunts?”

“None,” Xavier shrugged. Jade stopped and looked at the human with an eye raised, “I mean, what’s the use if all the meat I want is at the grocery store? It’s a lot of effort just to get venison.”

Jade gave a warm smile and nodded, “Using sloth to justify not taking a life.”

“Don’t give me an award just yet,” Xavier stopped in front of a large tapestry of Clover the Clever, who was draped in a black cloak and casting a silver diadem into a dark gorge. Xavier stepped past a small, chain link barricade cutting the tapestry off from the rest of the hall and pointed to the green unicorn sewn on it and said, “You know, they say he found Manegra La, and for his help uniting Equestria, they asked him to stay.”

“Sure he did,” Jade lowered her head and started to snake alongside Xavier, forcing him to step over the chains and moving him away from the tapestry and back into the shimmering hall, “And I’m a Princess.”

“Where are we off to?” Xavier asked as a row of windows teased him with their light from the gray outside.

“Well, I would’ve let you look around campus with the professor, but he’s obviously busy right now. I’m taking you back to the hotel, I’ll check on a few carnivore restaurants and see if they are on the up and up,” Jade said as she ceased snaking and started leading Xavier through the mazelike structure of the campus.

“Is there anyway we can go to the park?” Xavier sniffed.

“Absolutely not,” Jade said.

“What about the harbor? I’ve never seen a ship run by ponies before,” Xavier asked.

“What about the Magical History Museum? You know a thing or two, I bet you’d find it interesting, and it will be easy for me to vet that,” Jade said as she turned and looked up at her human charge.

“Doesn’t half the stuff there not work anymore? At least that’s what the Internet says back home,” Xavier tilted his head at Jade.

“If I understand correctly, it’s only certain kinds of spells that no longer work since The Shift. Teleportation spells fail, attempts at manipulating time fail, but that’s only magic that only the strongest spell casters could’ve used to begin with. Most unicorns didn’t notice a thing,” Jade answered as she led Xavier into the business building. “If anything, that at least reins in the Queen, though the Pegasi were right upset with the fact they couldn’t stand on clouds anymore. But at least Cloudsdale has the cliffs to fall back on.”

“I’ve read that Pegasi can control the weather, is that true?” Xavier hummed in a light manner as he looked at the long line of business ponies who have donated to the school.

“From what I understand, yes. But it now takes large numbers of them to do it and most Union cities just don’t have the numbers.” Jade looked out a glass window and saw the clouds just meandering by, “It’s not bad though. Being greeted by surprise rain or snow, if anything it adds a new kind of texture throughout the day.”

“But what about storms, or worse?” Xavier found a chair to sit in right next to a bronze bust of a unicorn with a curly mane.

“If I understand correctly, The Kingdom still has sufficient numbers of Pegasi to at least prevent weather disasters in its cities. But the days of a Pegasus to a town or five to a city, and scheduling snow days are over,” Jade said, turning to Xavier. “All the times I’ve been here and I’ve never gotten to see them do their handiwork, and I guess I never will,” Xavier shrugged, making a slight frown.

“I know that the Crystal Republic and Manehatten are having to do renovations on their storm drain system, since they now have to deal with uncontrolled amounts of water. I’m not sure about the other cities, though it wouldn’t surprise me if they had to follow suit,” Jade answered.

“I guess I’ll take the Magical History Museum tour,” Xavier conceded.

“Good,” Jade nodded, “I know we got off on the wrong hoof yesterday,” Jade prodded Xavier with her hoof, “But it’s my job to keep you safe.”

“I hope the Professor will be okay, he seemed to have wanted to try to avoid the political bullshit,” Xavier mumbled, “I’m just really surprised at how knowledgeable he is about human development.”

“Human academia might be larger and have a deeper body of work outside the magical arts, but don’t think for a second that we can’t keep up,” Jade hummed with amusement. “You should really visit Crystal University if you ever get the chance.”

Xavier grimaced as he looked down, “Academia is a strange beast. Sometimes it’s to the strongest, other times it’s who you know more than what you know. I’ve known way too many professors that were too smart for their tiny lonesome community college and others too dumb for their main university gigs.”

“So what’s your opinion on this university?” Jade tilted her head.

Xavier shrugged, “Honestly, one of the first things I noticed was the abundance of unicorns and the lack of Earth ponies and Pegasi. I don’t know if that’s just the culture or if there’s a strong bias against those two here.”

“I know there are some institutions of higher learning that better accommodate those without horns,” Jade answered, “But this is Manehatten, it’s already expensive enough to live here, but to study?” Jade trailed off, “Truth be told, I wouldn’t be surprised if half the unicorns you see here come from The Kingdom, or at least the ones who couldn’t get into UC.”

“Any chance of letting me visit the University of Canterlot?” Xavier jested.

Jade looked at the human with a bemoaned face, slowly shifting her features.

“Hey, just asking. Never know when you get a yes so…” Xavier said, looking the other way, clapping his hands together.

“While you’re under my watch, there’s no way in Tartarus you are going a Hundred kilometers near Kingdom territory,” Jade spat out.

“I get it, I get it. I was just curious that’s all,” Xavier waved a hand at the green crystal pony. “That said, should we go check on the Professor? I’m a little worried that he might be in a lick of trouble.”

Jade raised a hoof to her chin and hummed, “I guess we should, he was the one that requested you for that bow and arrow demonstration from our consulate.”

“Professor knows me from our time during the conflict,” Xavier nodded, “It’s rare that I get to meet with a pony that treats humans like humans.”

“And I haven’t?” Jade raised an eye.

“Look, I can appreciate that you’re trying to protect me, but it’s coming off a little, what you might say,” Xavier bit his lower lip and stood up, “Zealous.”

“Better that than negligence,” Jade retorted, “Besides, you’ve made my job relatively easy.”

“I try not t-” Xavier’s eyes widened as his hands started to shake.

“Xavier what’s wron- oh,” Jade was about to ask as Xavier thrust into his pockets and pulled out an orange prescription bottle. Dropping it, he fell to his knees and reached out before kneeling over, clutching his hands into fists as his breathing labored.

“Hang on,” Jade said as she picked up the orange bottle with the softs of her hooves and tried to uncap it, “Shit, I can’t. What the rut is up with this lid?”

Xavier slowly extended his arm, carefully opening his hand as its claw-like appendages convulsed and jittered. Looking at the spasming palm, Jade ignored the offer and tried again to open it, but once more to no avail.

“Shit, where’s a unicorn when you need them?”

“Just,” Xavier groaned, “Give it.”

Jade ceased and immediately gave the bottle to the crumpled man, his right arm gripping it to the point that even the crystal pony could see he was warping the plastic. With a thud, he pulled the bottle back in close to his chest and slowly worked his finger magic, pressing down on the white tab on the outside and giving a quick jerk to unseal it, he finally opened it, only to spill its round, shiny blue contents atop the marble floor. Quickly swiping two pills, he slammed them into his mouth and then swallowed.

“I’ll be,” Xavier winced, “I’ll be okay in five,” Xavier said as he began to pick up each pill off the floor, one by one. His trembling hands doing what they could, occasionally dropping a pill. Jade turned around and began scanning the area. “Afraid someone might,” Xavier stopped to breathe, “Afraid someone might take advantage of me?”

“I’m just looking out for trouble, you’re doing the hard work,” Jade turned, giving Xavier a despondent look, “I’m surprised you handled the pain that well.”

Xavier continued to pick up the pills, piece by piece, “Honestly, the pain was a lot worse back home. Being here seems to have taken a bit of the edge off,” dropping a pill, he picked it up with his shaking hands and continued, “That or placebo effect is in play,” finding the last pill, Xavier resealed the bottle with a grunt, and stumbled back over to the chair.

“Do we need to go see a doctor?” Jade asked.

“I’m fine, just give me a few more minutes and we can get back on the road,” Xavier laid back as he let out a sigh as his fists slowly relaxed, “So, tell me about yourself Jade.”

“I-” Jade gulped as she looked down, “There’s not much to say.”

“Oh please, a green crystal pony with a hammer and chisel for a cutie mark playing minder to a human in Manehatten doesn’t have a story to tell?” Xavier coughed out a laugh, “Come on, indulge me. Distract me from the pain.”

Jade turned her head right, facing the hall entrance, “There isn’t much to say. I was raised at the capitol, Sombra came, the Queen’s ineptitude got us sent into the future only for Sombra to win anyways,” she shrugged as her rump slumped, “Got to wear a helmet that made me a good, compliant pony and I probably killed a few, though Elysian Fields knows I can’t remember. Then you guys took care of Sombra and his dark magic failed while I and others were raiding a town.”

“Not exactly the best moment to regain your senses,” Xavier nodded.

“Right, so the helmet came off, saw blood on my hooves though Aurora Lights knows where it came from. We all surrendered, took weeks to get back home,” Jade’s lip curled as her ears folded down, “Soon after, find out that the The Morning of Truth happened, and we find out that Queen Celestia was going to make us some kind of,” Jade shivered, “Puppet state,” staying silent for a moment, Jade spat, “So I had enough of the being a puppet for others gain and joined the Republics’ self-defense branch.”

“From sculptor to body guard?” Xavier cocked an eyebrow.

“Please don’t remind me,” Jade shook her head, “Not doing the job you were made for would be a minor embarrassment, if not for the need of-”

Xavier looked away as a golden earth mare and a silver unicorn stallion entered the atrium, arguing with each other. The doors outside stood open as the air from the interior of the building blew outside, and Xavier’s shoelaces dangled wildly towards the exit.

The fight grew louder and louder as both parties approached, each combatant feeding off each other’s words. They soon stopped and turned to each other, gazing with a burning desire to win.

“No no no, I’m telling you that Star Swirl was born on the shores of Foaledo. The early references to the forbidden jungle prove it,” the stallion snorted at the mare.

“I’m telling you, it was Southstock. That accounts for the forbidden jungle and his notes on how inexpensive basalt was, he was so near the source he could practically get it himself!” the mare retorted while thrusting a hoof.

“Hey could you two keep it down?” Jade cried from across the room, her lips curled as her ears were paying full attention to the combating ponies.

“Hey stay out of this!” the mare shot back before quickly turning back to her verbal opponent.

Jade jumped to her hooves and walked to the two, “Excuse me?”

“We’re having a conversation and this is a public area,” the stallion responded, scowling at the uninvited crystal pony, “If you have a problem, why don’t you leave?”

“We were here first,” Jade growled as she thrusted her hoof and prodded the silver unicorn.

“Hey! Hooves off my stallion!” As the golden mare pushed herself between the two, her ears folded down, “If you have a problem with him, you have a problem with me!”

“If you have a problem, we can take it outside,” Jade narrowed her eyes at the mare.

A few seconds passed before the stallion nudged his companion, and with a calm voice whispered, “Let’s just go, it’s not worth it.”

The two turned but not before the mare spat on the floor right ahead of Jade. After the interlopers left the room, Jade turned around and said, “Sorry about that. They’re just a bit too loud for me, you–” Jade stared at where Xavier had been sitting, now empty and vacant, as the wind rushed past her and out the door.