Laud shook free the mess from his blade before drawing out a cloth to finish the task. "You all fight good." Not as eloquent as he would have preferred, but those were the words he had to choose from. There was so much more he wanted to say. "Word for great doing? Like doing. Need doing."
Twilight turned to him, letting out a final huff before her breathing stabilized. She said three or so words, but without context, it was difficult to tell which was the one he was fishing for. "You did well."
Rainbow landed next to the dead worm. "Well? What'd you do to this guy?" She nudged the deceased creature with a hoof.
Fluttershy was shaking her head. "I didn't realize..."
"Realize what, darling?" Rarity was brushing out her mane and trying to restore her pristine appearance.
"Laud is a (unknown)." She pointed at the worm. "He (unknown) and that is his dinner."
Laud had missed most of that, but the tail end was easy to grasp, and difficult to comprehend. "What?" The thing looked far from wholesome. Sure, if he had to, it was likely meat, but it was far from his first selection.
Pinkie hopped up suddenly and threw a leg over Laud's shoulders, yanking him towards the ground. At first he resisted, making her dangle, but the urgent look on her face compelled him to drop to a knee slowly. "Laud," she harshly whispered. "Don't hurt her feelings. She's very (unknown, sensitive?)."
Fluttershy was circling the downed beast. "Do you eat it raw? I suppose you do, most predators don't cook..." She shook her head slowly. "If you had wanted some (unknown), I could have gotten some for you."
Laud stood up straight. If he was going to eat a big fanged beast, he wasn't doing it that way. "No, cook." A way out came to him. "Bring castle. Spike help cook."
Twilight's horn glowed as it began to hover up off the ground. "I'm not sure how good he is at meat dishes, but if you want help, alright."
Applejack leaned to the side towards Rainbow Dash. "Ya think he might find a pony t'be tasty?"
Rainbow gave her friend a wicked smirk. "Why, ya scared?"
Rarity flipped her mane as she regarded Laud. "He may be a predator, but he's a gentleman first. Even with his limited vocabulary, he has been seeking ways to be more (unknown) and polite."
That was when Laud noticed that his felled beast was the only body left on the field. How had the others deterred them? Were their defenses entirely non-lethal? He had so many questions that would come out awkwardly at best. He had been focused on his own battle and trusted them to handle their own, which they did. It had been a grand battle with an awkward finish.
The group split apart. Pinkie came along with Twilight and Laud towards the castle. As soon as Fluttershy had left their sight, Laud dared to try to get more information. "Pony not..." Kill was not a word given to him yet. "end living?" Close enough, he hoped.
Twilight blinked as if the question confused her. "Eventually. Why?"
Pinkie proved to be better at getting the hints. "Silly, he's asking about why what he did was so special."
Twilight rotated the floating body around to be in front of Laud as they walked. "While far from pleasant, the cave worms do have some (unknown). Thought." She tapped her head. "Most creatures do. To... (unknown), end life..." She shook her head. "That's not something I try to do."
They were pacifists, or at least they didn't like finishing a battle with true finality. It was... charmingly naive. "They not afraid to end pony life."
Twilight nodded. "That's true. They're hungry, and we're, well, food. That's what makes them a predator." She opened the door to the tower and stepped inside. "I know Fluttershy made up her mind, but I have to ask. Are you?" She set the dead thing aside. "Are you a predator?"
Laud frowned softly. "Is only two things? Predator or not?"
Pinkie tilted her head. "Are you something else? Tell us!"
Twilight sat on her haunches. "Yes, please. I don't mean to throw (unknown) at an alien race, so, please, tell us."
"Humans--" He pointed at himself. "--can eat almost anything. Plant, meat, many thing."
Twilight seemed to sag with relief. "Alright, but then... why did you end life?" She pointed at the corpse. "And why do you think Spike can help cook it?"
Pinkie rolled her eyes. "Don't be silly, Twilight. He doesn't want to eat that, do ya?"
Laud would have asked if they knew it was actually good to eat, but he had a good idea they would have not a single clue about it. "Would rather not. Not want hurt feelings."
Twilight raised a hoof to her chest. "Well, thank you then. Fluttershy can be like that sometimes. So, why? Why end life?"
Did they seriously have no concept of killing in combat? "It fight." He gestured at his leg and the crusted blood on his leg. He would have to get his pants laundered and repaired. "In true fight, life end. Mine, or it." He pointed at the felled beast. "I pick not mine."
Twilight gave an uneasy nod. "Were you... did you try to kill Maud, when we first met?" She used that unknown word again, but he had guessed its meaning by that point.
He remembered the moment, when she had caught his blade. She had seemed unimpressed and stoic, as she usually did. He had tried... He could see Twilight had figured it out. "I move with fear," he confessed, a drastic admission, to say he was scared at all. "Have learned. Ponies are friends. Maud is friend. Maud is teacher." He clasped a fist over his shoulder. "Would fight for her, not against."
Pinkie was far less grave about the matter. "Maud can take care of herself. I swear she's better at it than I am, unless she's distracted by a rock." Her eyes fell to Laud's sword. "Actually, I think she was. She talks about your sword, says it's made of something weird." She suddenly burst into giggles. "I wonder if she thought you were just giving it to her to look at."
Twilight put a hoof to her head. "Yes, well... I'm glad that didn't go... the other way. Laud, you must promise."
"Pinkie Promise!" squealed Pinkie, suddenly looking excited. She rose to two feet and began showing her strange ritual, ending with putting a hoof over an eye. "And that means you really really promise."
Twilight hiked a brow at her friend. "I don't think he holds a Pinkie Promise as his highest promise." She looked at Laud. "What is your highest promise?"
"What promise make?" Laud asked. He wasn't going to go promising things blankly. There was little honor in that.
She thrust a hoof at him. "Never end pony life. No matter what. Even if they fight. Never."
That was a most severe promise. "What if pony try end my life?"
Twilight frowned. "That would be a very sick pony, that needs help. You are a warrior, win, but... not end life." He could see talking 'down' to his level was just as annoying for her.
Pinkie bobbed her head. "How can you teach lessons to that?" She nudged the dead worm. "Oh right, should I get rid of this?"
"Please." Twilight let out a grunting whicker of a noise, not a word, Laud didn't think. "Laud, do you promise?"
If he didn't, he would be a murderer waiting to happen. He would lose any trust he had earned so far and gaining any in the future with the ponies would be quite difficult. He decided to accept it as a challenge. Could he uphold order without killing? As a Hawkwood, it was but one challenge among many. He would rise to it and prove superior, for his people. As Pinkie trotted off with the corpse, he took a stiff stance and spoke in clear English, "I, Laud Mountbatten, do swear on my house, the honorable House Hawkwood, to not slay a pony on the field of battle." Not that he hoped to face many ponies on such field. They needed his protection more than to face him.
Twilight's ears danced. "I did not understand most of that, but it sounded serious. Was that a yes?" Laud nodded and she smiled. "Thank you. Now..."
"Are you back, Twilight?" Spike came from deeper in the castle, walking along. "Everyt--Woah, you alright, Laud?" He pointed at his injury.
Laud shook his head. "I'm fine."
Twilight seemed less certain. "I'm sorry. I was so caught up in the predator thing, here we are being terrible hosts." With her horn glowing, several rolls of gauze appeared from nowhere. "Let's get you bandaged."
"You can take care of hurt?" Laud asked with some surprise. Was she trained as a nurse or a doctor?
"I can bandage someone," she assured, stepping closer. "Would you prefer we go to... place hurt ponies go? The hospital." She added the more complicated word after the simple words. "We can go there."
Was he that hurt? He had been standing and walking on the leg. Sure it stung, but it was nothing he wouldn't recover from, he thought. Still, there are those who thought the same thing, then fell to serious illness or complications later. He could try to be stoic and put on a tough show, or he could tend to his people, starting with himself. "Alright. We go to hospital."
Spike fetched a wheelchair from a closet, which was confusing. Why did ponies have what seemed like a clearly bipedal wheelchair? Why did they have door knobs?! The mysteries were growing. Regardless, he accepted Spike's kindness, though it ended up being Twilight that propelled the chair. Even if it was questionable magic, it was becoming hard to imagine that the ponies were capable of true evil. They were shielded from the corruption of magic by merit of innocence. It was like the stories. Witchcraft was bad, but an angel could grant blessings and never fall from grace for doing so.
Was that what they were? He wasn't ready to make that leap just yet. They were kindly creatures, with a naive innocence seemingly baked into them, but to call them servants of the almighty was another thing entirely. Besides, they were not perfect. They could become angry, confused, or even jealous. They were not a mythical archetype. They ate, drank, shat, pissed, and did all the things living things did. Angels? No. Something else.
His thoughts surfaced as they drew close to a one of the taller buildings in the town that wasn't the town hall or the castle they had come from. Made of brown wood, it had a large white sign out front with a pink cross in a red circle with four hearts arranged around it, pointing towards the center. A red cross, it was a universal symbol... among humans. It seemed it carried across to ponies as well?
Inside was a pony seated behind a counter. "Hello, Princess," she called as soon as she saw Twilight. "Who, or what, is that?" Her eyes settled on Laud.
"This--" she gestured with a hoof "--Is Laud. He was hurt defending Ponyville from cave worms."
The white pony rose up and quickly came around the counter. "Poor thing! Don't you worry, you're in good hooves now."
Laud attempted to stand, only to be gently nudged back down by the nurse. "I'm not that hurt," he protested. "Just a bite."
"I'll be the judge of that." She gave a firm nod, then pointed at herself. "I'm Nurse Redheart. Nice to meet you, Laud. Now just relax. Curious, the cave worms usually prefer to snap ponies up whole." She looked him over a moment. "But I guess you aren't a pony, or maybe it missed. This way." She reared up behind him and began pushing the chair away from a waving Twilight and Spike.