//------------------------------// // Welcome to London // Story: A Sea More Sunless // by Phenoix12 //------------------------------// A shout of anger. A cry of pain. The hard crack of wood against skull. The thump of a body hitting the ground. All of these sounds string together with crazed laughter and become Twilight's entire world in those few moments. She covered her eyes as she silently begged that it would all be over soon. The shuffling of boots against stone was the melody of the struggle happening a yard away from her. With one last crack and a soft slump it was all over. Slowly Twilight peeked from behind her hooves. The blue clad constable stood facing away from her over the other two breathing heavily. Despite the darkness of the alleyway, the shining blood slowly creeping down over one of the downed assistant's faces burned itself into Twilight’s memory. Twilight was not naive, she knew about violence in the world. Though she never expected to see it herself. She felt sick to her stomach as she watched the thick crimson liquid drip down from her blue clad savior’s club onto the cold cobblestone. One of her attackers stirred slightly with a groan as he tried to push himself back to his feet. The red-haired constable clicks his tongue in annoyance before rearing back his leg and kicking him in the gut hard flipping him over onto his back with a dull thud. “Jist stay down ya Sasanach bastard,” he says with a slightly sadistic smile, “...or oi might jist 'av to crack yer skull again. Know what... oi think I'll just do it anyway.” Twilight forced herself to look away right as he brought the billy club down with a resounding crack. She whimpered to herself, frightened of the very being who had saved her. How could anypony be so cruel? Why was everypony here so violent? To kill someone just on a whim... she couldn't wrap her head around such a th- “..the 'ell?” Twilight opened her eyes and slowly looked up at the form of her savior. She presses herself harder into the wall in fear of what he might do. The redhead squats down and looks into her deep purple eyes with his bright green ones. His face baring the most unamused expression Twilight had ever seen. “I thought oi 'eard a lass in trouble... but al' oi find is a bleedin' poorpil 'orse.” He groans to himself placing his hand against his face before continuing, “did oi just club the cr'ahp out av these blokes for sum silly 'allucinashun?” He says, poking Twilight's cheek. “A soft 'allucinashun at that.” Twilight sat there dumbfounded while the creature poked her face. 'How can he just go from violent to calm like this just like that!?' She thought to herself, 'Are they all like this?  Just violent psychopaths!? How did they ever build any sort of civilizati-' “COULD YOU PLEASE STOP POKING ME!?” “Bleedin 'ell it talks!?” “I'm not an it... sir? I am a she... and also not a hallucination.” “Well av course yer a 'allucinashun. Blatherin' poorpil 'orses ain't real. Even down 'ere in de Neath” He says mater-of-factly before poking her cheek again. “I'm not a... 'orse' ...I'm a unicorn.” she says before he poked her again. “Just proves me point more... Unicorns don't exist.” he says, poking her again. “Of course I exist!” -poke- “I'm sitting here talking to you right now and...” -poke- “Will you please stop...” -poke- “Stop poking...” -poke- “Stop it!” -poke- “GERRRAAAHHH!!” With that shout of anger Twilight lunged at the offending appendage biting down on it. The owner of says appendage doesn't appreciate it and yanks back his hand with a pained yelp. “Ya feckin bit me!” He says, clutching his pained hand to his chest; now sporting a fresh bite mark. “Y-ya... ya bit me” Twilight gags while trying to spit the taste of his hand out of her mouth, “When was the last time you washed yourself!?” “Ya bit me... an' it 'urt,” he half whispers, staring at Twilight with awe. “Well of course it hurt. It was supposed to.” She punctuates with a malicious glare that came off entirely to cute looking. “You're real!” He says quickly pushing himself farther away from her in pure shock of his realization that the magical purple unicorn was, in fact, real. “Yah, that's what I was telling you.” “Well excuse me for not belivein' you! Unicorns ain't supposed to exist!” He exclaimed with a half-sarcastic tone. 'Don't exist?' Twilight thought to herself. 'If unicorns are not supposed to exist then how did they know about our existence? ...are we... e-extinct here? Is this some far off land where unicorns are just some old marestale? W-What happened to all the unicorns!? O-Oh Celestia. D-Did they hunt them to extinction!?!? OH NO OH NO WHAT IF HE WANT'S TO HUNT ME!?!?' A shock of pain passes though Twilight's cheek as she is pulled back to reality. “D-Did you just smack me!?” “You looked loike you cud use a good smack'n. Starin' off into nathin' loike dat makin' dem odd faces.” “U-Um... S-Sorry?” Twilight mumbles out quietly... embarrassed that she went on a mental tangent again. “Soooo... Unicorns are real?” “Umm. Yah?” “Okay then,” he says standing up and brushing off his pants, “I've seen stranger things raun dees parts.” He stretches himself out and looks back at the downed assailants before glancing back at Twilight. “So, whats yer name lassy? If ya care ter share it dat is... Oi never understood why no one likes givin' their names down 'ere. Quite rude if ya ask me.” He says with a wide smile, showing off his actually well kept teeth. With an exception of the missing one. Now that Twilight was calm she was actually able to digest his manner of speaking. She'd never heard an accent like his before... it was oddly nice. Kinda melodic in nature with a slight nasally sound. 'Wow... he speaks really different from the other ones. Interesting. I wonder what produced such wildly different accents in this place. Maybe he's from some other far off land other than this... one...' Twilight train of thought is cut off as she watches him as he starts going though the pockets of the three downed assailants, “Are you robbing them! Is it not bad enough you killed them!?” “Eh, they wud 'av done the same to me... an' oi don't think they're dead. Death is kinda funny down 'ere,” he says with a shrug while he goes though their pockets. “Bah, waat a bunch of tossers. They make me scrap dem an' they don't 'av the common courtesy ter 'av more den a few Echos on em... So lass you going to tell me yer name or not?” “O-Oh,” she stuttered in response, embarrassed that she completely forgot about it. “I-I'm Twilight Sparkle” “Twilight. Sparkle,” he says slowly as if tasting her name. “Well ain't dat jist the silliest name Ah've ever 'eard! Though Oi guess it fits since you're the silliest tin' Ah've ever seen in dis god-forsaken city.” “W-wha!? I am NOT silly!” “Yer a silly unicorn.” He says with a laugh. “W-Well what's YOUR name, huh?” “Ian O'Mooney, at yer service lass.” “I-an Oh-Moon-y...” she says, pausing to hold back a sneering laugh. “And you thought my name was silly.” “Is dat any way to trate the paddy who saved yer life?” “A... paddy?” “...a man.” He says in a very slow and deliberate tone. “Man?” “Yes, a man. That's waat I am lass.” He says with a roll of his eyes. “Sooo... these are... also mans?” “...you're not from raun 'ere are ye.” He says fiddling with a tiny bag of some sorts that he pulled off one of the fallen men. “No... No I'm not. I... I don't know how I really go-,” Twilight's words were cut off by a big full of jingling things boped her in the face, “OW! Why did you throw something at me!?” “It's money lass. Aboyt 'alf of waat they 'ad.” “Y-You're giving me money?” She says looking down at the bag and lifting it up in the dull glow of her magic; which she notes is slightly more difficult in the strange oppressive atmosphere of this city. “Jesus! W-What H-How are yer doin' dat!?” he shouts in confusion, taking a step back. “What... Magic?” “Magic?” “Yes. Magic.” she says with a deadpan stare as she opens up the little bag. Inside is some rolled up paper and some kind of coinage. “So, waat you're tellin' me is dat you're a blatherin' poorpil unicorn. An' you're magic.” “...I'm actually more of a lavender.” She mumbles in annoyance, kicking a loose stone. “Well...” He pulls out silver flask and takes a deep drink of it, “...I can live wi' dat.” He quickly turns and starts walking back towards the end of the alley, muttering something under his breath. “W-Wait where are you going?” she says, trying with some difficulty to tie the bag around her neck. “I'm 'eadin' this way,” he says with a chuckle and a gesture ahead of him. “But your a constible right, arn't you supposed to, I don't know, arrest them or something?” “Nahhh. Oi'm sure they learned their lesson,” he says with a shrug and another pull of his flask. Twilight stares at the unconscious men on the ground before looking back at the lawman as he leaves. 'He is crazy... b-but he is a constable and that's like a guard, right? So...' “Well come on lass. You jist gonna to sit there in de dirt al' day or you going to follow me?” he says looking back at Twilight with a wide smile. “...well at least he is kind of nice. It is better then trying to chase me.” She mumbles to herself with a smile before standing and trotting out with him sparing only a single glance at the men who had attacked her before slipping around with Ian. “Mr. O'Moony?” “Yah?” “Thank you for saving me...” “Ah, don't menshun it,” he says as he takes a step into the street. Twilight stops and he turns to look back at her, “something wrong lass?” “W-What if... there's more mans out there who want to hurt me?” “Ah don't worry lass, they won't mess with you if you stick close to me,” he says with the most sincere smile that Twilight has seen since coming here. Twilight returns the smile and strange pair step out of the ally into the busy London street. A true first step into a whole new world for Twilight. And for that single moment she was not afraid. “Ah, by the way lass. Welcome to London.”