Her magic is like a python around my neck, slowly tightening as if to make this last longer. I try to claw at the force crushing my windpipe, but as it is magical in nature, It is useless. Twilight, who has stood still in either shock or fear, finally comes to her senses and starts to panic.
“Princess Celestia, what are you doing?! He hasn’t done anything!”
“Twilight, my faithful student, you must understand. This.. beast should be dead. He and his kind have caused nothing but pain.”
Does she know? How could she possibly know?!

“What are you talking about princess?”
“This creature is called a moonlight beast. They were created to terrorize my ponies during the era of…during the rift between me and Luna.”

Well, she didn’t know where I was from at least, but who is Luna? And how did she manage to create beasts like me? As I continue to gasp for air, I can feel myself start to black out. As I begin to panic, I make one last feeble attempt to get her to stop. I wheeze, using the last breath in my lungs, a single word: ”please.”

The look of pure shock upon her face as she heard me utter this single word could rival the look on my face when Pinkie managed to guess my origins.
“h…how… how can you speak?! Your kind weren’t able to speak!”
“Princess, I’m sure he wants to explain, but he can’t when your crushing his windpipe.”

With this, she loosens the grip, but still keeps me elevated. She then speaks, uttering a command with so much power in only one word.
“Speak.”

As I take breath after fresh breath of air into my lungs, I clear my throat. “Well then, now that I am no longer being suffocated, hello your majesty, a pleasure. My name is Laurence, a scholar who was once a different species, but due to… an accident, I was transformed into this.”
She grunts and lightly chuckles, as if I told her a humorous joke.
“Funny. You think you can lie to me.”
“No he’s not, we had Applejack here to make sure we knew if he was. He’s being serious.”

“Hmph. Ok, so he isn’t lying. That still doesn’t excuse him for what he will do if unchecked?”
“What do you mean princess?””Moonlight beasts were designed to sow fear. They had no mind, they could only follow orders. After nightmare moon was banished, without orders, they began to go from town to town, killing and eating my little ponies, leaving no survivors. Not even children. So we had to hunt them all down. And now somehow, a random scholar acidentally turns himself into one of the most dangerous, mindless creatures in Equestrian.”

Of course the form Odeon gave me is from a genocidal mindless race.
“Well princess, those were mindless creatures. Designed to operate only on orders. Once orders were no longer received, their brains would fail, unable to handle the strain, causing them to go savage. But what if they had a brain that could think? A brain designed to have thoughts, not follow orders? Would they still devolve into savage beasts, or would they integrate with society, or maybe even form their own?”
“ What is your point, beast.”

My eye twitched, as I begin to see red enter my vision. I was done dealing with this. “First of all, my name is Laurence, and you will address me as such. I do not care if you are royalty, you have NO excuse to treat me as rudely as you have been. Secondly, my point is that they were weapons, with brains that could only function as that. I am the same, with a brain that can handle far more. So maybe you should fear me, but not for the same reasons.”

“You have no idea what I have seen, and the person I am. Twilight knows more than you, but even she has barely scratched the surface. I have communed with the gods and learned their secrets. I have seen my entire town overtaken by sickness, only to be transformed into mindless beasts hellbent of spilling blood. I have seen my friends, ripped to shreds and beset by madness from the horrors we had to witness. Yet I am still here, and I am still sane. So I will not take any of this disrespect. I will not take this barely veiled disgust, and I certainly will not take it kindly if you continue calling me a beast.”

Both of their faces were pale, as if seeing death itself. I am confused, I thought Twilight would be pale, and Celestia would be brimming with rage. Then I noticed: I was on fire.

“Oh not again.”
“not again? NOT AGAIN?! YOU MEAN TO TELL ME YOU’VE BEEN ON FIRE BEFORE?!?”
“Yes. Last time though it was because of a Molotov my former colleagues threw at me. This time it doesn’t hurt for some reason.”
By now, the princess has recovered, but instead of rage, I saw regret.
“You’re right. I let my past cloud my judgement, and I almost killed you for something you never even did, all because you look like the beasts from oh so long ago. I do not know what you have seen, who you’ve communed with, or who Odeon is, but I am sorry you went through what you did. Please do not let this affect how you see my country or my ponies. Please forgive me.”

I am shocked. A ruler who is humble when others are angered by them. We could have used more people like her back in my world.
“ I accept. I am sorry for yelling at you, as it was uncalled and rude as well. I hope this will not affect our images of each-other.”

“I am a tad confused though. You are regal and polite, as if you grew up or trained to deal with royalty. You are also able of self combustion, in which very few creatures have, and fewer survive. As well as this, when I pushed you too far, your eyes went red, and you then ranted as if you had to on a daily basis. A scholar, able to commune with gods and somehow acidentally change his species, speak with royalty as if it was second nature, self combust without harming yourself and rant with the anger and passion of a preacher. Who are you, Laurence? ”

She is truly clever. Able to pull so much from me from such a small amount of time.
“ you truly are as wise as twilight claimed. Very well. I shall reveal a little more about myself to you too. To twilight, because I trust her, and to you, because you wish to earn my trust.”
Twilight excitedly grabs her notepad and quill, getting ready to write down everything I say. I just hope she can handle this.

“I am a scholar, first and foremost, doing everything I do to further my people along. Secondly, I was a leader to my people, helping negotiate with the nearby areas to keep us out of harms way. And finally, I was the head of a church, designed by me to continue our studies while saving the people of Yharnam from disease and injury. I had never wanted to do anything other than study, but to save my home, I had to step up. But I’m doing so, I caused the downfall I so desperately tried to avoid. I am Laurence, the first vicar of the Yharnam church of healing. And I am the last survivor of the fall of Yharnam.”

Author's Note

Once again, if you have any complaints or suggestions, leave a comment. Thank you!