A New Life

“Well…” Twilight starts, pausing a moment to add to the dramatic flare.. “Aren’t you a rather courteous and formal spoken human, I thought Princess Celestia said no military or government personnel.”

“I hope this doesn’t come off as rude Miss Twilight, but are you suggesting the only polite ponies here are as disciplined as your soldiers and royalty.”

“Hmm, I suppose you do make a fair point, forgive me for accusing you. But are you denying that you’re military?” The Princess flashes me a sly grin.

“Yes Miss Twilight, I have never been part of the U.S. military or government.” I respond, not a lie, just a careful choice of phrasing. I fix my eyes on Twilight and gauge her reaction to my answer by carefully observing her facial expressions.

As I wait for Twilight's response I can’t help but gauge her form. She isn’t much different than the other ponies. She’s smaller than Celestia and Luna, but she is still a bit taller than all the other ponies that I’ve met besides the other alicorns. My eyes wander to her crown, it isn’t the element of magic which isn’t much of a surprise. It's a golden tiara with a small diamond in the center.

“Good.” Twilight says snapping me out of my thoughts. She stands aside and gestures down the hall with one of her hooves. “Lead the way please, I'd like to meet the other humans.”

“I’ll warn you Princess…” Silver interjects, brushing past me and Twilight to walk in front. “Not all the humans are as pleasant as Mr. Filler here.” As Twilight turns her head to glance at me, Silver takes the opportunity to turn her head and send me a playful wink. I tense the muscles in my gut to hold back the heave that threatens to ruin my dinner.

“I’ll just have to judge the others myself.” Twilight steps behind Silver to follow her and I follow in the back making sure to keep a respectful distance behind the Princess without lagging behind. “I must ask…” Twilight starts to say, glazing back at me. “I know we just met, but you don’t seem to miss your home very much. Why is that?”

“What would make you think that?” I ask, curious as to where she would have been able to figure that out from. She wasn’t wrong, but how could she tell?

“It’s your eyes, whenever somepony comes here from another kingdom, or I’m in another with a group of soldiers. They all have the same homesick look in their eyes or at least some kind of longing to get back, no matter how disciplined. But your eyes have no such look.”

“Why does everyone say they see something in my eyes?” Wondering how so many ponies are so damn observat of not only my eyes, but the subtle feelings in them.

“They say the eyes are the windows to the soul, they don’t betray someponie’s true feelings. If you look close enough you can see all sorts of things.” Twilight stops, causing Silver to also halt. Twilight turns around and puts her muzzle only a few inches away from my face. “I’m curious, what can you see in my eyes? Do you even know how to see somepony else’s soul?”

I just stare into Twilight eyes keeping my blank expression. “Are you challenging me Twilight?” I ask in a plain deadpan tone.

“Yes.” Twilight says in a matter of fact tone, not moving an inch. “I want you to look and tell me what you see.” I decide to humor the Princess and look into her eyes when I notice something I find quite amusing. Unable to contain myself I burst into laughter. “What? What is it? What’s so funny?” she questions in an almost demanding tone.

“Your…” I choke on my words and cut myself off. I take a deep breath in to compose myself and swallow my amusement. “Apologies, I usually never lose my composure.”

“Do you really find the idea of looking into someponies soul through their eyes so ridiculous?” Twilight asks, her face taking the shape of a kind of pout.

“No.” I assure Twilight. “Quite the opposite, you see the first thing I saw in your eyes is what made me laugh. The most prominent look in your eyes was intrigue and curiosity, which seemed normal, you find me interesting because of my demeanor. The thing that made me laugh so much though was the very heavy dose of fear in your eyes. Do you really find me that scary Miss Twilight?”

It’s interesting to watch Silver go pale though her fur, Twilight however just lets out a chuckle before speaking. “Well judging by the fact that you could see all that, I'm guessing my fear isn’t without reason.”

“I’d argue the opposite, you see I’d never aim any ill will at you or the other Princesses. If anything you should feel more at ease around me knowing that, given the order, I’d aim my talents at whichever pony you direct me towards.”

Twilight seems to ponder on this for a bit. “You are quite the odd one aren’t you? Now what could have possibly happened to make you swear loyalty to me and the other Princesses so soon after arriving? Were you ordered to give that little speech?”

“Once again you’re assuming the exact opposite, you were actually my ticket.”

“I'm afraid I don't know what that means.”

“You asked me why I don’t miss my world, this is the reason. You see, I’m not just here out of obligation. Granted I ended up here by chance, but I quickly realized that this was my chance to cut myself off from my country and my world. Yes back on earth we have some really good stuff, but here I actually have a real chance at living by my own design.”

“Hell, I’m lucky that the government was so desperate to start this mission and moved us here so fast after my “recruitment”, otherwise THEY probably would have stepped in.” I think to myself, folding my arms behind my head and walking past Twilight who was still processing my answer.

“But don’t you have an obligation to your own country, how can we trust your loyalty if you abandoned your last country?” Twilight asks, spinning around with a mix of frustration and confusion on her face.

“It’s Simple Princess.” I say turning my head to the side to look back at Twilight. “I’ve never sworn allegiance to any county, I just always helped the highest bidder, but here you're the only ponies I’ll take orders from. I’m at your service Princess.” I accentuate my last decree by winking back at Twilight and walk away towards the barracks Silver following me close behind.