The walk to the pegasus carriage outside of town seemed like the longest walk Dex had ever taken. Behind him was a strange man who had gone from fighting, and somewhat winning, to drinking and answering questions. The mental stability of such a person could definitely be put into question. The worst part being they were questions that the man wouldn’t answer until Celestia was there.
The silence that stretched over the quartet was practically begging to be broken, but neither pony nor man broke the stillness of the air. A piercing scream cut through the heavy atmosphere, forcing the company to pause for a moment before breaking into a panicked run towards the sound. It was a convenient enough cry for help, coming from right where they were headed in the first place.
They arrived in the clearing to find the pegasus carriage under attack by a group of four griffon bandits. One of the pegasi had already been fought into submission, scars along his flank bearing the tale of his battle. The second had taken up a defensible position inside the carriage, allowing him to bottleneck his attackers through the tight choke point. Without waiting for a cue, both Dex and Stone jumped into the fray, attacking whatever target was close enough to get in range of their blades. The griffons backed away from the carriage in order to get a better look at the ones interfering with their thievery and rework their plan of attack. With the reprieve, the second pegasus exited his defensive position and joined the other two fighters.
After a moment longer, and a series of shared nods, the griffons jumped into action. They dashed at the group, but at the last minute, one of the four peeled away from the fight, leaving the battle in even odds. The sounds of battle echoed across the treeless ground and the combatants quickly became completely focused on their own fight, leaving the fourth griffon to sneak around the battle and approach Panacea.
A crack of a branch alerted the nurse and she turned to see the griffon jumping at her, his claw outstretched. On instinct, the mare let out a surprised cry. Dex’s blood ran cold at the sound, looking over his shoulder for a minute as he shoved his combatant away. With renewed vigor flowing through his veins, he went back into his battle, rage fueling his actions. Meanwhile, for Panacea, everything started to slow down as the half-bird, half-lion attacker approached her. Before she could begin casting one of her self-defense spells however, the griffon found a set of omnivorous teeth tightly clenched around her outstretched talon.
The griffon let out a high pitched shriek of pain and brought her other talon across the man’s face in an attempt to make him release his tightly closed jaw. The man refused and instead opted to bite harder onto the appendage. She brought her sharpened talons across his face twice more before spinning in a tight circle to send the bound man tumbling away over the grassy land. The griffon took a moment to spit at the man before turning to go after her target once more, only to find that a very, very sharp katana was now pointed at her throat.
She looked between the her associates, finding them beaten, and the man, whose weapon was poised to decapitate her at any moment. ”Who are you?” she asked in a tone that held a clear tone of fear.
“I’m Dex, of the Solar Guard. And you. You’re under arrest,” Dex said with a calm spite filling his voice.
“Let them go, Dex.” All present turned to see Inventor walking slowly toward the group, his face covered in a crisscross of red wounds.
“They are bandits, attempting to rob a royal carriage. They attempted to harm my friends and they wounded my charge. Why should I?” Dex said, angry at the sudden opposition.
“Because it’s two married couples who have children at home and they need money badly. Putting them in prison would potentially kill their dependants.”
“How would you know that?”
“Because, first off. They have to be extremely desperate to rob a royal carriage. Secondly, there is two of each gender among these four griffons and thirdly, that one has very real scars from a teething child,” Inventor said with a rising force behind his words.
“And what say you?” Dex inquired towards the griffon.
“I-I don’t know how he knows, but what he says is true. I-if you let us go I promise none of us will try this again.” The female said as tears started forming in her eyes. “I j-just didn’t know where else to turn.”
With a grunt of acceptance, Dex sheathed his sword and turned to Pan. “Check on the injured. The day I leave a parent injured of my account is the day I give up my knighthood.” Then, turning to Inventor, he continued. “The day I agree with a madman and a griffon bandit would have been up there too, but these are interesting circumstances.”
“My thanks, and I don’t know why you’re so opposed to taking advice from madman. You aren’t too far off yourself. Just a trip down the rabbit hole is all,” Inventor responded with a grin, insanity dancing across his eyes.
As the humans fell into a conversation, Pan quickly checked over and healed the griffons. Afterwards, the ex-bandits left hurriedly, not wanting to draw any more attention to themselves, leaving the four ponies to sit by and watch the bipeds talk, one human to another.
“At least I don’t bite my enemies...” Dex shook his head.
“Well, that’s rude. If they have to taste defeat at your hands the least you could do is taste their hands as well.”
“Ugh, I think you’ve lived too long.” Dex looked around to find the area free of griffons. “Well, now that that’s taken care of... apparently... Shall we go?”
“Fine by me, wouldn’t want to skip asking your companions though.” Inventor said, his manic grin fading away slowly as he turned to look at their spectators.
Dex grew irritated at the man’s tone. “Yeah, let me humor you. Stone, Pan, random guards that fly our carriage, what say you?”
“I can keep going as long as you can, boy.” Stone was quite passive to the whole situation.
“U-um... If it’s okay with you, Sir Dex, I think we should take a moment to rest for a minute. Even with Nurse Panacea’s healing my fellow flyer will be unable to pull the carriage for a while.”
“That works for me, as I can heal Inventor’s wounds while we wait.” Panacea said.
“Hmm, forgot about the guards being wounded... Yeah, you win this round, Inventor.” Dex said as he moved to take a seat on the carriage’s outer shell. While he sat in silent irritation, Pan started towards Inventor, her horn glowing as she prepared her healing spell.
“Stop. Don’t heal me.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want you to.”
“Why do you have to make this so difficult for everybody. It’s like you want to make this as hard on us all as you can.”
“Because I’m a stubborn brute of a human; it was the norm when the world ended and for a while before that. Honestly, you don’t know how lucky you are to get Dex, relatively unscarred as he is.”
“Right, that’s me. Relatively unscarred over here. Pan, just let him be.”
“You don’t think so? You don’t think you’re relatively unscarred? I was there when the world ended. Children looking into the glowing green skies, no tears. Just blood and melted flesh.”
“As horrible as that is, do you have to ask yourself if you’re just a puppet every waking moment? Because I sure do, ever since Discord brought me here.”
Inventor glared into Dex’s eyes for a moment, looking at the truth and power behind his eyes. “At least you're still human. I’m hardly that,” Inventor said to the knight. Slowly, he turned away and walked off to the edge of the clearing. There he remained, gazing into the distance.
Dex watched as the ponies surrounding him looked between the two humans. With a heavy sigh, he stood and followed after the mysterious man. As the knight approached the madman took the opportunity to speak.
“You ever look into the sunset with some friends and relax? Just let the time pass you by in good company?” The man laughed to himself. “Here we are, two humans in a world of peace-loving ponies, and we can’t stop complaining about our issues.”
“Two humans? So you still consider yourself one, that’s good. If you want my opinion, humanity is more about the mind than the body.”
“Hah, good opinion,” the man said with a grin. For a minute longer, he looked into the sunset. “Well, I wasn’t lying when I said I hate fighting. What say we put this behind us? After all, if the only two humans in Equestria can’t get along, what kind of example is that?” As he finished talking, Inventor held out his shackled right hand, offering a handshake.
“Agreed, and, thanks. For protecting Pan.” The knight offered his hand as well and both humans clasped the others in a tight grasp. One vertical pump, then they both looked into each other’s determined eyes and released the handshake.
“Say, speaking of Pan. My face really stings. Think I could get her to fix me up?”
“...Why did you change your mind?”
“I was being childish, trying to seem like I was better than you. That was foolish of me though, and I realize that now.”
“It’s fine, not like I was acting any better. I’m not sure if Pan will let you now, though.”
“Only one way to find out then, right?” Inventor said, a good natured smile coming over his face.
“Yup,” Dex said. They glanced at the sunset once again before both turned to face the group behind them at the same time. Inventor gulped and tugged on the collar of his shirt before looking to Dex. With a nod from the knight both of them set back towards the group.