Border of Saddle Arabia, date unknown

In spite of his situation being pretty bad, Stas was hopeful. He reached the road few hours ago, protected from sun's scorching gaze with his improvised armor-garment hybrid, now it was the time for the long walk down the poorly-constructed rural path. This path would lead him to civilization, a deserted village on the border between two deserts was the closest settlement he could find on the map, which was, for some reason, was separated from the rest by few days of travel.

"Perhaps, it was a military or border outpost, which managed to grow into a town because of immigration? Like with London?*" He had nothing else to do as he walked to his destination, so, he entertained himself with different musings, such as "why is there a remote village on the border of two deserts?".

Stas kicked a stray pebble, keeping the comfortable pace as he trotted, barely burdened by the weight of his loot thanks to both his new physique and old training. The serine silence of the desert had it pluses, for an example, it was easy to hear when anything mowed nearby. On the negatives, it was driving him up the metaphorical wall with boredom and, thanks to his previous encounters with bandits, it made him paranoid. He decided to dine while he walked, seeing no reason to stop.

"Alright, let's recall my 'background' once more..." Stas was one weird stallion, so, he had to make up a story for himself, something which made sense, but could not be tracked down if someone decided to be nosey. Thankfully, he had weeks to come up with something which would explain his skills and situation. After carefully thinking, he came up with the mostly solid background.

His name is White Knight, it might not be original by any means, but thanks to this world's magical shenanigans, specifically, that fact that the name of the pony usually matched with their Cutie Mark or profession, it would play in his favor. Also, the more bland and unoriginal his name sounds, the better it is for blending in.

White Knight is, big surprise, an Equestrian hedge knight*. That would explain his wealth (including the high-quality steel blade), combat skills and education. Also, if someone asks why he is so different from a normal pony, he can just say that he is an unacknowledged bastard child of a noble unicorn mare and an arden* servant.

He was travelling with caravan as a sellsword*, when the merchant he worked for decided to take a shortcut through the desert off the road. Which resulted in the caravan being ambushed and destroyed by bandits, he was knocked unconscious by the lucky shot of a sling on his head before he was able to react and was left for dead - which is why he is stranded without a map or any knowledge of Arabic. The bandits took everything from the caravan's carts, but did not looted him because they were already overloaded with booty and thought he was a porter and had nothing of value on him
(or, at least, that what White Knight thinks). He woke up after they left for the camp and escaped after realising the rest of his companions were dead.

After that, thanks to concussion he received from a rock hitting his head at mach fuck, White Knight lost himself in the desert for weeks, spending most of it recovering from the injury by the oasis he luckily stumbled upon after few days of wandering. And, if anyone asked him where the battle took place, he forgot it from the head injury and the non-existing bandits had more then enough time to hide the tracks.

Stas ran through the story he made up again. It was, judging by his wonky internal clock, an early evening, when he walked up the road between two barkhans and found himself looking down into the lowland where the village stood, a hundred or so meters away.

"Hah... I guess my map reading skills got rusty, or, maybe, I was moving way quicker than I realised." Stas looked upon the small town of forty or so houses, made from adobe* or sandstone in the typical rural-arabic style one would see in the movies about Afghanistan, they were placed closely to the big oasis. The light were out, but a lot of ponies were working the fields or collecting dates from palms around the lake, few village guards stood here and there, scanning the expanse of sand for any dangers, or, more likely, bandits. Two of them were talking with eachother by the main entrance, too busy to notice him standing on the hill.

"What a shame, whoever packed my bag for this adventure did not bothered to pack me a pair of binoculars..." Stas, just like anyone else who has been in the army, did not liked the idea of going into the unknown without any intelligence data or preparation, especially after those bandits almost fried his arse after almost trying to "jump" him. On other hoof, he had to get down and talk with those ponies, he has no reason to go back to the camp and standing here like an orderly on duty until they spot him will be suspicious as fuck.

"Ну, c Богом*..." Stas took a deep breath and started to walk towards the entrance, where two guards stood idle while energetically chatting, wearing what looked like linothorax* with linen caps and holding spears in their front hooves. Stas approached slowly but steadily, making sure he looks casual and non-threatening. He was able to walk for seventy or so meters before one of the guards finally saw him approach. The earth pony hit her companion on the shoulder with her hoof and pointed at him, two mares scrambled to their positions and pointed the business ends of spears towards him.

"Stop! Who are you?" One of the ponies shouted in Arabic, attracting the attention of those of villagers who were at homes and the guards at the square, where small bazar stood abandoned. Some of the armed mares approached closer to the gates, wary of him. As guards held their ground, Stas could feel tens of eyes looking at him from the windows with worry and curiosity, clearly not expecting him to even be here.

"Hello! Can you understand me?" Stas could feel a hint of surprise from villagers and militia, clearly, both the fact he spoke in Equestrian and his rought booming accent was something they expected even less then meeting a complete stranger at the gates of their home.

"Is that a sun-damned stallion?... What the actual buck is going on?" Even if it was just a whisper to him, he still heard the surprise in the voice of one of the militiamare. It seemed like those ponies were flabbergasted, what could possibly surprise them so much? Sudden realisation hit him like a sack of bricks, he realised that all the bandits and guards he seen were female and he never actually seen a single male since he got stuck in this world.

"Эй, вы меня понимаете?" Maybe it was a dumb move on his part, but Stas tried to repeat his question, this time in Russian. Now those ponies were even more confused, great...

"You! Get one of the elder's daughters here!" One of the ponies, probably an officer, judging by the fact she had an actual helmet with a plume on top of it, called out to one of the guards. The mare swiftly retreated, moving somewhere towards the bazar.

Awkward silence filled the air for the few minutes as the entire situation came to a sudden stop, militia was wary, but he no longer felt any hostility and they did not approached him. Stas stood in his place as well, realising that he cant speak with them and trying to back down or get closer might get him skewered on a spear.

"Make way!" A commotion started somewhere behind the line of infantry ("Or was it cavalry?"), the lines of armed ponies made way, letting a young unicorn mare with a slim figure to make a stop before them. The relatively tall unicorn with a cream-colored coat and a bleak green mane wore a blue linen robe, which seemed both practical and not-so-cheap. He could feel her nervousness as she looked at him carefully, intimidated by his large and roguish figure, she clearly was thinking about how to start a conversation.

"Hello, who are you?" The mare started in Equestrian, doing her best to hide her worry, she was speaking with a soft accent he never heard before.

"Hello, young lady, I am Sir White Knight of Equestrian realm." The mare was surprised, the mix of his weird accent and a stallion's claim of noble status clearly confused her, even so, she tried her best not to show it inspite of how strange this entire situation was in the first place. After all, her mothers taught her how to trade, and Equestrians were among those she will have to interact with in a future if she ever wanted to become rich. And, as her birth mother told her, Northern realms might as well be an entirely different world.

"Excuse me Sir, but what are you doing here all alone?" Aira doubted the stallion's words, considering he was gigantic even for Arabian and had a very strange accent, but even so, she did not wanted to risk souring her village's relationships with northerners in case he was honest.

"The caravan I traveled with was ransacked by brigands, I was an only pony left standing..." Stallion's words shocked Aira. "Those cretins from Zira's gang successfully ambushed an Equestrian caravan?!" That damned exile and her lackeys were a blight upon the Jabal al-Nour for years and now they grew bold enough to attack northern merchants!

"... because of a lucky shot on my head from a sling, that knocked me out at the very start of an ambush, before I even unsheathed my blade, I awoke many hours after the battle as the scumbags left me for dead and had to look for the settlement on my own." Stas finished retelling his story, trying to sound as natural as he could.

"I am sorry to hear that, Sir, but how did you reached our town through the brigand's territory with your cargo intact?" Aira realised that something was very wrong, as the stallion not only has loaded cargo saddle-bags, which were not looted by bandits, he also seemed unharmed for somepony who claims he almost had his skull caved-in.

"Бля, she thinks I am with the bandits! Play it cool, play it cool! What would a young noble say in this situation?!" Stas thought for the moment, taking a slow sip from a waterskin to give himself some time to think about what he is going to say. Suddenly, it clicked - just act arrogant and boast so much that ponies would think you are related to Trixie!

"As a matter of fact, young lady, I did not!" Aira looked at the stallion in confusion, trying to understand if she actually understood him correctly or if she had some problems with Equestrian tongue.

"I've been robbed and left to die, but I managed to reach an oasis and spend two weeks recovering there unseen by brigands." That part made sense, through Aira wondered how he managed to hide in the oasis where bandits were taking their water from.

"But, after the recovery, I did not fled, I ambushed their small patrol of three and killed them to obtain their weapons." Stas continued to lie out of his ass, rarely adding a half-truth or two.

"He bucking what?" Aira started to feel uncomfortable, hearing a stallion boldly claim that he killed three bandits was something she never expected to hear from somepony she normally would associate with house chores and cooking.

"So I armed myself and decided to find the camp to avenge my fallen comrades, to my surprise, the camp was empty, save for the tracks the entire gang left in their wake. Which I ,obviously, followed." Stas continued boasting, making his best impression of an arrogant noble.

"I found all fifty of the rapscallions huddled by the large stone gates leading inside the hill, as I looked upon the rabble, I realised they were robbing an ancient crypt for wargear." Stas did not seen it, but the young mare became pale at the notion of bandits defiling what sounded like an ancient tomb of Maresyrrian soldiers.

"The brigands still not recovered completely after the battle and stood so close I could not hold myself back. I used the opportunity and launched a fireball into the crowd, killing half of the scum with a single spell!" Stas told her with enough fake pride to make a conservative politician look shy in comparison. Sure, it was actually one of their own mages who did it, but who else knows it beside him?

"Truly? So.... how did you dealt with the rest?" Aira was barely able to hold herself from sounding sarcastic, now she had no doubt he was an Equestrian noble, but to think he would be stupid enough to lie about fighting an entire gang? Petty Equestrian tyrant probably ran when he noticed them by the tomb and tries to make himself sound like a hero.

"I killed them with sorcery and weaponry I looted from the patrol. It may sound petty, but the damned Ataman made it personal by killing my comrades and stealing my blade!" He boasted once again, making the mare grunt in done-with-his-shit tone while militia, who were trying to follow the conversation without any success, realised they probably will have to kick the stallion out any moment now.

"Oh... Does it means you have.... a proof?" Aira was barely holding herself, thinking about how bad it will look for her reputation if she were to beat the manure out of the Equestrian noble stallion. Even if he was a pathological liar and a serious irritant, and at least a head taller than her.

"Indeed I do! What is the point of such a feat of arms if you cant prove it? Here, look what I took off the body of a zebra which used to lead that rabble." Stas used his magic to hand over the map he looted from the war room, hoping that this will be enough to convince her that he is not lying. He realised that he was on a thin ice after being such an arrogant pest to her, but he tried not to show how nervous he was right now.

The mare lifted her hoof to order the militia mares to stand down as they were ready to pounce on the stallion the moment he ignited his horn. She took the paper, watching as a misty white aura was replaced by her emerald green.

"Holy sun..." Aira could not believe what she saw. A very detailed and expensive map of a region was covered by writings in both Arabic and Zebrican, shoving the position of the brigand's main encampment, ambush spots, hide outs and positions of bandit sentries used to spot the caravans. Zira would never gave up something like that without a fight.

"The arrogant bastard is not lying, he actually killed the bitch..." Aira still was bewildered and did not noticed how the captain trotted to her side and was looking upon the map with wide eyes.

"He bucking killed Zira..." Aira told to captain, causing the rest of the guard to look upon the stallion with disbelieve.

"H-How?" She finally asked, still not believing that a stallion was able to destroy an entire gang on his own.

"I am a hedge knight and a professional soldier, so, let's just say..." Stas lifted the scabbard with scramasax before his eyes and unsheathed half of the blade, high-quality steel cleaver gleaming like silver in the light, making guards and the unicorn stare in awe.

"... when I claimed that rock was a lucky hit, I meant it."

Author's Note

1) Originally, London was founded by Romans as a administrative and military center for forward outposts on British Isles in year 45 A.D., the smallish town (150 hectares total or so) was abandoned by Romans in 5th century. In 6th century London was rebuild and repopulated by Anglo-Saxons.

2)Hedge knights are minor nobles (usually, knights) who had no land or subjects of their own. Usually, they were younger children with no valid claim to the parent's title, bastards (child born outside of marriage) or disgraced/bankrupt nobles. Hedge knight were usually given a set of gear by their family and send of to serve as officers or soldiers in hopes that they will gain enough wealth to buy their own land. Obviously, that tradition is one of the main reasons why raubritters (robber barons) were a thing in the first place.

3)Arden - Russian breed of draft horses, almost 1.5 meters in height and 900 kilograms in weight.

4) Sellsword - mercenary.

5)Adobe - a sun dried brick made from a mix of hay and clay.

6) Ну, c Богом - With God's help.

7)Linothorax - light armor made of several layers of linen.