//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 - Of Ponies and Humans // Story: Adventures of the Moon Son: Chapter 1 - The Raising // by TheAuthorsApprentice //------------------------------// "What is the damage, Captain Armour?" Celestia inquired over her ornate desk to the guardspony sat on the opposite side of it. He was a stallion, white in coat and two toned blue in mane and tail. He was sat proudly and with authority, clad in a suit of master crafted armour. "Rather minimal, Princess, the hole in the fifth floor corridor's wall is already being repaired and should be done by nightfall" he replied, levitating a clipboard with a progress sheet attached to it. "Very good, the damage was done by one of the Fireworks, yes?" "Yes, Princess, apparently one that the guards forbade from being brought onto palace grounds" "Apparently somepony decided not to listen... What of the ponies working in the garden at the time?" "We tracked them down and they're all alright, but they're refusing to come back to the castle, Whatever you pulled from that pile of rubble scared the tartarus out of them" "Understandable, if there is one thing ponies are afraid of, it is things they do not know" "Indeed, Princess, and how is our... mystery guest?" "I have a doctor tending to his head wound as we speak, he'll be left under guard supervision and I will talk to him when he wakes" Shining Armour snorted slightly with a mixture of anger and concern "Are you sure that's a good idea? We don't know what that thing is, let alone what it can do. I don't like the idea of you being in a room alone with it" "I will not be alone, I will take my sister and the other element bearers to talk with him" "Him, Princess?" "I may not know anything about what he is, Captain, but I recognise a male when I see one" "Very well, But still, we don't know anything-" "Exactly, Shining Armour!" Princess Celestia demonstrated her remarkable ability to sound like a pony's scolding mother and it caused her Captain's ears to flatten against his head, she pressed on regardless "We don't know anything about him, all we do know is that he caused no harm to the ponies that ran from him and he saved Dame Rarity's life! We will not assume him to be a monster until he gives us a reason to, do you understand!?" Captain Armour's military training kicked in, he subconsciously straightened to attention in his seat, "Yes, Princess Celestia!" he barked out "Good, you are dismissed, Captain" Captain Armour winced, but stood regardless and with a bow he took his leave. Princess Celestia looked up from the paperwork she was examining and sighed, remembering she had things to do before the guest inevitably awoke. With a flash of golden light, Princess Celestia disappeared from the office and appeared in the castle armoury. A mix between a store room for the spare weapons and armour of the royal guard and a smithy for crafting more, the only pony in the space was a gruff looking earth pony stallion, one with his facial fur grown into a burly brown beard that matched his coat, A black blacksmiths apron was tied around his barrel. His eyes widened when he saw the princess approaching and he dropped to a bow. "Princess Celestia, you humble this mere smith with your presence" He said in a deep, booming voice. "Rise, my little pony, and please tell me what you have discovered" The stallion quickly rose to his feet and turned to regard a piece of light grey armour lay on a nearby table, it had been pulled from the mystery thing's forearm with no small amount of effort and coercion using a pair of tongs, ordered to be examined by Princess Luna after noticing its unusual nature. "Well... All I can gather about this stuff is that it's some kind of body armour, Princess" "I had already gathered that, Iron Hammer, can you tell me anything else? What is it made of?" "I have no Idea, your Majesty, Honestly I've never seen anything like it! Its strong, stronger than metal without being made of it! It's lighter than it has any right to be and so malleable it can bend to the touch. In short, I get the impression that not a lot of things could hurt somepony clad in a suit of it" Celestia frowned as she regarded the tough piece of grey material. "What about magic? Is it resistant to combat spells?" "I'm not sure, Princess, Earth ponies such as myself aren't gifted in the art of magics..." "Alright, stand back" Without another word, Celestia channelled some of her magic into her horn, the tip of it lighting up slightly as a bolt of concentrated magic shot from it and struck the armour on the table. With a loud aggressive pop, fragments of material scattered everywhere, each glowing hot and matching the red hot hole now present in the armour's surface. It cooled quickly and Iron hammer picked it up to examine it. "There's a metal mesh underneath the outer coating!" he cried with excitement "The magic burst open the outer layer but couldn't get all the way through... Amazing!" "Yes, well as fascinating as that is, my little pony, It only leads me to wonder one other thing..." "What's that, Princess?" Celestia turned her gaze to the other side of the table, beside the obvious design differences, she could easily guess what it was. A scabbard... one that was strapped across the visitor's back and had also been taken for examination. Celestia warily eyed the handle protruding from one end of it. "If the armour is this advanced... What are the weapons capable of?" ******** Headaches... Switch hated headaches... He had been conscious for several minutes but had kept his eyes shut to stave off the light that was no doubt filling the room. Sunlight was the bane of headaches! The people... or ponies in this case... never considered the adverse affect bright light had on head trauma sufferers. His own personal infirmary back at the base had controllable blinds on the windows. Took him two seconds to think of adding them... But deciding that complaining inside his head wouldn't help him figure out the situation, Switch cracked open his eyes. And there it was! The sunlight that stoked the fire in his head to an agonising inferno. Stupid windows... there they where on the opposite side of the room, laughing at his pain! Ignoring the pain as best he could, Switch gazed around the standard looking hospital room he was in, noticing the lack of any usual medical equipment such as ECG's or heart rate monitors. The floor was the usual polished linoleum and the walls where at pale green instead of the all white associated with such places. "Welcome back to the land of the living, Master Switch!" Jeeves called out inside his head "Good to be back, Jeeves, how long was I out?" Switch replied under his breath to ensure none of the natives could hear him, he didn't want to risk spooking anyone by being the alien being that talked to himself. "Six hours, thirty three minutes and twelve seconds, sir" "Well, that's not so bad I suppose. Who put me in here?" "I'm sorry, sir, but usual unconscious surveillance was suspended to repair damage done to your mask" "Damage?" "Some of the circuitry was knocked loose when you where almost buried alive, sir" "Ah... then we're all fixed?" "Indeed, sir!" "Then lets have a full systems and H.U.D start up" "At once, sir" Immediately, Switch's entire field of view was lit up with dozens of digital markers. Each of them having a specific diagnostic or statistical purpose. Items within the room where systematically scanned and labelled, the armour's internal systems where turned on one at a time. When each of the digital subsystems within the mask had been initialised, Switch was left with a compass running along the bottom of his vision, medical information such as heart rate and blood toxicity was in a box to the upper left and different ammo counts for his inbuilt weapons running down the right. Turning his head to the left, Switch noticed a pitcher of water with an empty glass next to it. Smacking his dry lips, he reached for it. There was a sudden metallic thunk as his hand was suddenly stopped by a very clunky and rudimentary looking handcuff. "Well... it seems that the people didn't take so kindly to my timely rescue..." he murmured "or the subsequent trauma you received as a result " Jeeves added. "But they did leave one of your hands unchained" "And..." Switch looked down to his hip and with his free hand he removed the pistol he had slotted into a holster attached to it "... They left me my gun!" "Obviously your captors don't have experience with firearms, sir, or they're just very trusting of prisoners" The door to the room opened at that point, a pony with features that suggested she was a mare trotted into the room, she was wearing what looked like the equine equivalent of a nurses uniform and was pushing a cart with bandages and boxes of medicine on it... Painkillers... Killing some pain appealed to Switch a great deal. She was humming a jaunty tune to herself, and it continued in blissful ignorance until her and Switch's eyes locked onto one another. The nurse gasped and backed away, spilling medical supplies to the floor as she did. All it took was Switch inhaling to start assuring her that he meant her no harm for the Nurse to scream and bolt out the room. "Jesus Christ..." Switch whispered to himself as his head flopped down onto the pillows behind him. Two more ponies suddenly burst through the door, these ones where matching in height, stature and colour. Both outfitted with a long spear and a suit of golden armour. These same spears where levelled at Switch. "Stay! Still!" "Don't! Move!" The words where shouted at Switch with such slowness and with such emphasis on every syllable, it only lead to one conclusion. "It appears the first group of ponies didn't inform them you speak the same language, sir" Jeeves said. Lowering his hands slowly to his side, Switch used a tech-pad located on his non pistol hip to type out a silent message to Jeeves. "It appears so... Let's keep up the act for now..." ********* What followed after the shouted orders of the guards was twenty two minutes and thirty six seconds (Jeeves could conjure a clock) of utter, uncomfortable silence. It was weird that they could spend so long without moving or blinking. Switch was quickly considering throwing something at them to see if they would try to dodge it. But experience and common sense told him that such an action would have painful or perhaps lethal consequences. However, the stillness was eventually shattered when the door to the infirmary was opened and eight more of the exceptionally colourful ponies walked through it. Judging by the fact that two of them were taller than the others and kitted out in shining regalia and crowns, Switch could only guess that the royalty who owned the castle had finally come to see him. He'd be honoured if his visit so far hadn't royally sucked! Each of the ponies looked him over with mixed visible reactions, one of them with a pink mane and yellow coat looked like she was about to faint. The blue one with a rainbow mane looked like she wanted to kick the shit out of him.... The rest merely looked curious... That was at least something Switch had experience with, this not being the first world he had dropped unannounced into. The white coloured pony with the weird waving mane and the golden crown stepped forward and cleared her throat, catching Switch's attention. She reached upwards with a hoof, pressing it against her chest. "Cel-es-tia" There was a short silence after that... one in which, once Switch realised what she was doing he quickly found himself employing all of his willpower to avoid bursting into laughter. "I know you're going to pay along, sir, but I don't think its the best idea..." Jeeves whispered "Cel-es-tia" After another second of silence and a blank stare, Switch changed his expression to one of understanding. "Oooh~!" he called out, nodding as he pointed at her and replied "Celestia!" Celestia's face split into a grin and she nodded furiously. "Yes, Celestia!" she cried, then pointed her hoof at him, raising her eyebrow questioningly. Switch raised a hand and pointed a finger at himself. "Switch!" he replied "Switch!" Celestia turned around to the rest of the ponies and they all began to talk amongst themselves again, their conversation was edged with excitement. Switch could hear random words making their way out of the huddle... ones such as 'exciting', 'Scientific' and 'Species'. He was about to signal to Jeeves to start analysing the conversation when one of the ponies left the huddle, She was the white coated one with a rather stylish purple mane and tail. Switch immediately recognised her as the one he saved from a sudden stop on stone. Her features where hesitant and she gingerly made her way to the side of the bed, unnoticed by the others engrossed in their discussion. Switch turned his attention to her and she nervously shifted before starting. "You. saved. me" she murmured, indicating herself with a hoof and again enunciating every syllable, Switch frowned when he saw the beginnings of tears in her eyes. She smiled and slowly placed a hoof on the side of the bed. "Thank. you." "You're welcome" The pony gasped, her eyes widening to the size of dinner plates as she brought a hoof up to her mouth, Switch's friendly smile helping her to keep calm. "W-what?" she whispered. "I said, you're welcome, and whilst I hate to change the subject, could I get a glass of water please? My throat is killing me" "Y-you can talk?" "Last time I checked, now, I don't like to be a bother... but how about that water?" The second time was the charm and Rarity shook her head to clear it of her surprise, she poured a glass of water out of the pitcher and levitated it over to him. "Rarity!" A voice signalled that the group talk was finished and the unicorn turned around to see the eyes of the rest of the group on them, the lavender mare stepped forward. "What are you doing?!" Rarity looked between her friends and the Switch sipping at the glass. "I'm giving Switch a glass of water, Darling?" she replied as if it was blatantly obvious "Why?!" the lavender mare cried "He asked for one!" It was just then that the Switch finished his drink, emitting a sigh of relief at his soothed throat that was loud enough to attract all the attention in the room. "She's right, I did" he said. What followed then could only be described as wordless pandemonium, a series of event that involved plenty of wide eyes, open mouths and shocked glances at others. It was then that the Blue monarch, who Switch guessed was a princess or a queen, stepped forward. "You speak Equestrian?!" She cried, Switch rolled his eyes but it wasn't visible from behind his mask. "I speak English, yes" he replied "Then, why didn't you say anything until now?" "Do you know what happened the last time I tried speaking to some of your subjects? They ran away screaming, said some very hurtful things, tried to take my head off with a firework and I was subsequently given a premature burial! Gives someone the idea they should keep their mouth shut!" Understanding and sorrow crossed the faces of everyone in the room, especially the two monarchs, It was the blue mare that spoke again. "I can only apologise for the actions of my little ponies, they can be rather skittish when it comes to... things they do not understand. But allow me to start afresh, my name is Princess Luna" As if taking some unspoken queue, each of the ponies introduced themselves. Switch stopped himself from chuckling at some of the names, besides, his was Switch so he hardly had room to judge. "Look, Its great to meet you all... you seem nice, really!" he said to them "But its hard to mend relations when I find myself your captor" "You aren't a captor!" Celestia said with a look of alarm "Oh really?" Switch replied "Well I'm just gonna get a glass of water..." Inevitably, Switch's arm was restricted as the handcuff went taunt, he put on a look of severe confusion as he looked at it "Oh! Celestia I don't wanna alarm you but there appears to be something restricting my arm movements! It's the darnedest thing but I'm not sure what's causing it. I mean it can't be this handcuff because I'm not-" "Alright! You have made your point! I'll fetch a guard to remove the handcuff" "No, its okay I've got it" Switch suddenly snapped his fingers and the handcuff dissipated into a small flash of yellow light, it was a split second later when the manacles reappeared onto a nearby table. Silence reigned again but Switch casually sat up straight on the bed. "Can we go somewhere else to talk? My legs are going numb..."