The Blood of a Heretic

by ArmOfSorrow

His Explanation

"Oh, for the love of Christ." I moaned, floating to consciousness. My head throbbed, my joints ached, and it seemed that I had not only my hands tied behind me back, but had my legs bound, my feet bound, and an extra rope tied around my chest, which didn't do a damn thing as far as I could tell. It was a nice touch, though.

"T-Twilight!" A young, male voice cried out, panicked, and I could hear footsteps padding quickly past me. A door opened, and I heard the voice speak again.

"I think he's waking up! He just said something, but his eyes are still closed."

I still couldn't force my eyes open, my head was aching way too much. Pressure told me that I also probably had a sizable lump over my temple, too. There was a rush of clopping as several ponies walked into the room I was in and stood around me. I could feel their anticipation, their nervousness, wondering what I would say. So, I gave them what they wanted.

"Care to tell me why tying me up was the best thing you could think of?" I said, forcing my eyes open and scanning the room. There were six ponies, a purple... unicorn, a pink one, a yellow pegasus, another unicorn, white this time, a light blue pegasus, Applejack, the one who knocked me out, and a small green and purple lizard looking creature.

"Care ta' tell me why attackin' mah sister was the best thing you could think of?" The one named Applejack retorted.

"She was a thief, a filthy pickpocket. And where I was raised, thievery was very harshly punished. Your sister got off lightly." I turned my head and stared her in the eye, her anger very clear to me.

"Look you two, let's just try and sort everything calmly and quickly. I've sent a letter to the Princess to inform her of what was going on." The purple pony said. She looked at me pointedly and said "I'm Twilight Sparkle, by the way. This is Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Spike." She gestured to each pony as she spoke their name, each one giving me some form of glare, whereas the yellow pegasus -Fluttershy- simply tried to hide behind the Rainbow Dash. Spike, the lizard, started at me in wonder, and the Pink one looked like she wanted to say hi.

"It's a strange occurrence when your captors introduce themselves to you. Though, I suppose I should return the courtesy. I am Aston, son of Fisk. Spike, would you do me the favor of untying these ropes so I can stand and speak proper?" I spoke with little enthusiasm; it was clear I had made a mistake in smarting Applejack's sister, which added up to two mistakes this night. The other was slipping on that patch of moss and exposing myself to the mercy of my enemies. Unprofessional, amateur. Should I return to the Inquisitors, my promotion was long gone, and it was doubtful I would receive another worthwhile assignment for quite a while.

"Sorry Mr. Fisk I don't think that would be a good idea until we know more about you. Answer some questions for us, and we'll decide what to do." The one named Twilight gave me a small smile in contrast to the scowls I was still primarily receiving.

'Fine then, I'll get these off myself, since you refuse to oblige me.' I thought to myself, as I worked my hand under my bunched up cloak. It would seem that these ponies only took the knife that I had in my hand; my throwing knives and my sword were still with me, and quite uncomfortable. I withdrew one of my throwing knifes from my belt, and, to my surprise, my coinpurse was still there. Giving a smile, I said "Ask away then, I'm sure an explanation would help."

"Twilight, why are we even tryin' to git anythin' outta this creature? He's jus' messin with us, and he's clearly up to no good." Applejack spoke, backed up by the blue pegasus Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah, Twilight. I don't get why we can't just kick his flank and drop him off in the Everfree Forest somewhere."

"Girls, he's... the first of his kind here in Equestria, as far as I know. We don't even know why he hit Applebloom anyway, instead of just calling a guard for what he thought was pickpocketing. Don't you think it would be worth a shot to find out?" Twilight argued, with, surprisingly, the Fluttershy pony admitting that I "may have just had a bad day". Bit of an understatement.

I had cut through the first rope that bound my arms, and had shifted to sit on my legs so that I could better reach the rope around my feet.

I sighed and looked at the two who had not yet spoken, and asked "Well, what are your opinions? Since we all see fit to dillydally around, I find it quite appealing to know what you two would like to do with me."

The Pinkie Pie dove forward and gave me a suffocating hug. "I do wanna know why you were so mean to little Applebloom, but the second you're finished explaining, we can throw a really big surprise welcome-to-Equestria party!"

"I'd rather not." I muttered, glancing toward the remaining white pony named Rarity, and shrugging so that Pinkie Pie would let me go.

"Well, if you ask me, I think he ought to explain himself, and regardless of what we decide to do with him, I simply must get some cloth in the same pattern as his cloak." Said Rarity, as she took a step forward and examined my cloak.

Cutting through the rope with a nearly inaudible snap, I unsteadily stood up, dropping the rope fragments and sliding my knife back into its sheath. After undoing the rope around my legs, and removing the useless rope around my chest, I took my first real look around the room we were standing in, ignoring the shocked looks I received.

It was the inside of a tree, or it so appeared, and had a large amount of bookshelves and writing utensils and paper and so on, so I figured it was quite obviously a library. I like libraries.

"You had a knife with you this entire time? Applejack, I thought you took his knife from him!" Said Twilight, who took a half step backwards as I took a step forward.

"Peace, Twilight. I only want to explain myself, and being tied up is something I can't deal with. Much less than other people, that is." I said, as I walked past her and began to examine the library.

"I...uh... well... okay..." Twilight stammered, looking around at her friends, none of which offered any condolence. "I guess I'll begin the questions, starting with what ARE you? No offense intended, of course." As she spoke, a small notepad and quill flew over and floated in front of her.

"Stop, wait. How did you do that?" I asked, staring at items floating in front of her.

"It's magic." Answered Twilight, at what must have seemed like an idiotic question to her.

"Don't you have magic where you come from, dear?" Spoke Rarity, the white pony standing next to Twilight.

"We have a force known as Fae, and the men who make it their expertise are known as Faerens. It has two forms, cognitive, meaning it is used by one's body subconsciously, and somatic, which means it is controllable, in certain amounts." I answered, alternating between looking at Rarity, who asked the question, and Twilight, who was clearly the more interested one, although I doubt they could see my eyes after I put the hood back on.

"Ah, interesting!" Said Twilight. "Can you perform any... Fae?"

"I am well versed in many different Fae spells, but can only use the cognitive branch. I was not deemed worthy to be taught somatic Fae, which would have been unnecessary in my occupation." I answered. "But, I do not mind."

"Okay.." Muttered Twilight as she -telepathically, apparently- scribbled noted into the notebook. "Now, back to the original question. What species are you, where do you come from? What can you do, what is your culture like-"

Twilight's line of questioning was interrupted by Applejack, who said "Now don't go off on a tangent there, missy. Let 'im answer." She glumly nodded to me, giving me the go ahead to speak.

"Well, Twilight, I'm a Human. I live on the planet Earth, and was born in the Mercian town of Stafford. I serve the Mercian King Offa, out of the our capitol, Tamworth." As I spoke, I went over my circumstances of arrival, and what could have happened to Frey and his five or so followers that had also come through the portal.

"So why do you wear that strange looking cloak?" Asked Rainbow Dash, cutting into the question I knew Twilight was about to ask.

"I wear it because it helps to hide at night and in the dark, and marks me as an agent of the Crown. It's part of the Inquisitor uniform." At this point, I had decided that it couldn't hurt to explain what I did, since this country probably had its own division of agents like me.

"So ya' called yourself an Inquisitor, huh? Well, whaddaya do?"

"I hunt Heretics, dangerous criminals, threats to the crown, and the occasional Faeran anomaly." I answered. "Most of you are being very quiet, is there a problem with me?" I looked around and noticed that Pinkie Pie had disappeared.

"Well, we're not very sure if we can trust you, yet, Mr. Fisk. We're not sure why you're here, and you did attack Applejack's little sister." Twilight explained, as the quieter ponies just looked around and shuffled their hooves.

"Well I must apologize then, for doing so. I overreacted, and treated her far harsher than I should have; she was innocent. However, you should try and understand my reaction, thieves are commonly executed where I come from, and if not, then they spend a very long time in a dungeon cell. In a case like mine, it would be better for me and the criminal if I simply beat them and took my money back."

My apology and explanation shocked the ponies into silence.

"They execute them? No no no, that's wrong. That shouldn't happen!" Exclaimed Twilight, who was beginning to look distressed. Rainbow Dash and Applejack both simply looked uneasy, maybe a bit green; I guessed they were of sturdier constitution than the rest. Fluttershy had emitted a small yelp and was in the process of holding back tears and Rarity was trying to calm Fluttershy, barely managing to maintain her composure.

"I don't understand the issue. Are executions uncommon in this region?" I asked, opening my arms and closing a book I had idly been leafing through.

"A criminal execution hasn't happened in nearly one hundred years, and there haven't been any altercations with guards resulting in a death for even longer than that. It just doesn't happen." Twilight said, after several seconds of each remaining pony trying to recover.

"Interesting, a peaceful nation. I've never heard of a nation that manages civility like that. Would you care to give me the name of this country?"

"Equestria, we live in Equestria dear. Equine, because the majority of our citizens are ponies, you see." This time, it was Rarity who had spoken who was still in the process of calming Fluttershy.

"Am I to assume that other countries are home to one primary species of creature?" I asked, curious.

"Yes, there are the Griffon Tribes, the Dragon Lands, the Crystal Kingdom, Saddle Arabia, and the Minotaur tribes." Twilight answered uneasily, referring to a different page in her notebook. "I have just a couple of more questions, Mr. Fisk."

"I think you may as well simply call me Aston by now, Twilight. I have a feeling I may be staying in this area for quite a while, regardless of whether I get a prison sentence or not."

"Uh.. Why's that?" Asked Applejack.

"Because I believe that I'm not the only person that came through the portal to this plane of existence. Before I came through, I was hunting a group of Heretics led by a man named Frey. He intended to open a portal to a completely different world, one inhabited by demons, and use them to destroy, or enslave the human race. Millions of people across our world would die, and that's only if we managed to stop them somehow. Well, instead, he accidentally opened the portal to this world, I was discovered, and they threw me in. I managed to pull Frey and several other heretics in with me. But, I don't know where they could be, and for all I know, they could be trying to open that same Black Realm portal here." I spoke quickly, wanting to get my point across and finish this questioning session, so that I could resume my hunt. Before I knew where they would be, but now they could be anywhere inside that forest I woke up in, and maybe even beyond.

Twilight and the others turned very pale at this, and Twilight immediately said "Spike, take a letter. Tell Princess Celestia that the creature that we apprehended is forgiven and that we have a very big problem on our hands, and that she needs to come to Ponyville and speak to the Human."

"Speak....to....the....human.... okay, got it Twilight." Spike said, and then lifted the letter to his mouth, expelled a small plume of flame, and the letter disappeared.

"Oh, he's a dragon. We used to have dragons, in the ancient days, with similar abilities." I said, amused.

"What happened to all of them?" Asked Rainbow Dash.

"We exterminated them." I answered, and continued to flick through the book in my hands.

Author's Note:

I hope you guys are enjoying what I have so far, because I enjoy coming up with this story. But, I've got a request.

While I like generally what I'm thinking about writing, it would be nice to have a beta reader to send these off to so that I'll have an early opinion on the chapter before I publish it. I feel uneasy about the way I describe everything.

That being said, if anyone sees this who is interested in being a beta reader, send me a message. Any comments and criticism are always helpful.

Comments

[Hallucination]

"We exterminated them."

I think this is going to need some context for spike's sake