//------------------------------// // Apr. 2014 - Sweat, Flesh, Blood, And Bones - 3. The Sign On Her Flank // Story: RoMS' Extravaganza // by RoMS //------------------------------// New Version: They reeked like rotting flesh. The stench, forcing its way through their muzzles, slipped down their throats like thick and sick mucus. The witnesses gasped and held back the gag reflexes, hiding their faces from the atrocious spectacle displayed before their eyes. The smell was indescribable, unbearable. But their appearance was even more revolting. Disgust and malaise bloomed in the audience’s minds. Five broken bags of bones had shattered in the room, given to see in a twisted play. Their features were ghoulish, wrinkled, ravaged… devastated. Fear bathed their disoriented eyes. They were abashed. At the moment, the terror breaking through their souls was so pregnant it spread to the witnesses like a disease. Everypony stepped back in aversion. The five creatures, all of different ages, genders and statures were crouched on the tiled floor. Dust had not fallen out yet the new environment startled them. Panting, hissing and ready to burst out in panic, they scanned their surroundings aimlessly. Intermittently, spasms plagued their limbs and tips. Their complaints sprouted macabre thoughts in everypony’s heads. The stench grew more and more oppressive. Yet, their look was still the most shocking as all became aware of their traits. Skinny like skeleton, the five primates manifested shaved bodies whose faces were circled by hideous manes. Three of them had scrubby beards, on it were stuck together dirt, dust, remains, and dried fluids. Their bloodshot eyes fixed one by one on the neighbouring ponies. Finally, one of the creatures, the closest to Celestia and her sister, spoke. The words went out inaudible for most of the ponies. Luna horrified them as she rushed under a table, her cheeks wet with tears. Celestia’s eyes were blurred and clumsy. She was mumbling something and did not even react when the creature grasped her hoof. It gave out under the weight of its wounds and fell into unconsciousness. The assembly held their breath in utter terror.Its hand slid on Celestia’s silky and pearly white fur, leaving a blood mark on its tow. She suppressed her craving to break away with a cry of fear. Her stare turned back to another couple of creatures of this brand new species. They were regrouped in a corner of the banquet chamber. The first primate was undoubtedly a girl. She was surprisingly young but, paradoxically, awfully withered. An unending hunger had hollowed her features, branded by time and scars. Her narrowed hazel eyes snaked on the surroundings, unable to understand what was going on. She gasped at the sight of the ponies. And it was not in awe, but in horror. Their stares were eerily settled on her, it was unsettling, if not mind-wrecking. “Don’t look at me,” she hurled, – the room became heavily silent –. The waving mane of Celestia did not make the situation any better. Strange phenomenons were as scary as the unknown and the room was full of them. The girl whirled her rags on her shoulders and deepened inside. Circling tightly her knees, her arms shivered. She began wobbling on her feet like a lunatic, biting her thumbs to the blood. She was skinnier than her relatives and her widening eyes were of the most unpleasant to watch. The sinews of her neck convulsed. She buried her face in her arms. Was she crying? Celestia moved away her gaze and set it upon the youngest of the five beings. It was still a foal, having no better words to qualify it… him for the moment. His face was a disturbing mix between, surprise, incomprehension and fear. His eyes fixed the noble ponies intermittently, but they always came back to the impressive display of food around them. Food… the ponies and Celestia swore the fear in the creatures’ eyes was not due to the true existence of talking, multi-coloured ponies, but a consequence of their starvation. Right now, the four awaken creatures were questioning the true reality of the situation, the true pregnancy of this Pavlov’s spectacle harassing their senses. A bang echoed harshly and everypony instantly gazed toward its origin. One of the primates was taking his due on the tables, spilling around drinks and breaking plates without a pinch of care. Biting with greed in the meals surrounding him, he was drooling hideously. His eyes widened. It was clear he had only one unique idea numbing its mind… eating. A noble tried to intervene. “Mister, you’re not allow…” The animal grabbed a knife and struck it in the table, sinking the edge in the wood without even casting a glance of interest at the pony. His deed sufficed to shut everypony’s mouths. “Just fall back,” the primate hissed uneasily, ripping off a mouthful of a bread stick. “Just get away.” Crumbs got stuck in his beard or fell on his torn clothes. His eyes were tearful, clearly enjoying a basic need he had been deprived for far too long. He kept eating. A cry broke the omerta. This time, Celestia focused on the girl. Some ponies held their breath. She ran over the white majestic alicorn and pushed her aside with a frail strength. A second wave of fear sprawled in the nobles. Celestia had been… pushed by a stinky creature without any sense of manner. The girl kneeled near her dying friend and sunk her face in his tattered outfits. Her sob were muffled but still impressively moving in everypony’s hearts and ears. The last primate standing was looking down at his friends. His face was distorted horridly by the lack of emotion casted upon it. He exuded incomprehension. Yet, showing much more restrain than the others, he scanned everypony around him and finally stared at Celestia. His eyes were filled with cluelessness. He repeatedly swallowed his saliva while his head gave little shakes intermittently. Just looking at him was… earth-shattering. “Please, tell me. Are we still on Earth?” Ray asked with hesitation. His hands were trembling as were his stare. Tired, starving and with no frame of reference his eyes were blinking awkwardly. His movements were jolted. “Earth? No…” Celestia replied with a disclosed surprise. “You’re in Equestria. What’s… Earth?” “Did the uproar happen here?” he continued, pleading the alicorn without answering to her question. “Uproar?” “Safe… Are we safe?” He finally succeeded in asking this question, the question. His voice was moving, a genuine hope slithering in his tone. Hearing this word they had banished from their lexicon, Maria and Kreps went surprisingly silent. They raised their head in Ray’s and the alicorn’s direction. Their eyes were glaring supplications, soaked in a hope they hardly believed in. Celestia stood back, gritting her teeth in awe. Their look was confusing. These creatures, apparently harmless had seen things… horrible things. Deep inside her soul she knew it. “Y… Yes,” she replied. The silence petrified the room. Slowly, every creature kept his gaze unsettlingly fixed on the regal sister as if she was a merciful god. A mighty being that had finally arrived to greet them and lead them to heaven. Never had Twilight or her most devoted ponies looked at her this way. Her heart shattered in thousands of pieces. A cold anger nested in her bowels. She was angry at the one that had them suffer and go through Tartarus. Ray’s eyelids lost their tension slightly. His mouth slowly dangled. A brief ‘thanks’ erupted from his dried lips. His eyes were shockingly bloodshot. He could not believe it. A part of him refused to accept the truth, convinced that everything was a deep and well-conceived deceit, a kind of hurtful joke. But he was facing undeniable facts. He turned back to his friends. For once in a lifespan of surviving, Ray caught himself smiling genuinely. And it was not a smirk, nor a fake grin. It was… joy? “Is… this really… over?” Kreps and Maria queried, tears flooding their eyes. “It is over,” Ray nodded, giving a small laugh. A long complain crawled out of their mouths. Their anxiousness, held for far too long, exuded from their skin. And cries crept out of their throat. Kreps dropped his knife and cringed on the marble, holding his face in his hands. He tried to restrain hiccups and sobs. But he finally burst out, laughing and crying at the same time. Maria was the most moving. She lost every speck of composure. Still riveted to her bleeding friend, she wet his torn garments with hot tears. Her cry was a hoarse howl to the one who had finally listened to her… that true one who had given them the right to escape their fate, to escape the hell. She had prayed to god each night of each day since the beginning of the uproar, their ordeal. She trembled, sobbing noisily, her eyes lost into the emptiness of space over Verdugo. Ray circled his arms over Maria’s shoulders and comforted her. He was crying too, silently though. His shivers joined his friend’s little shakes. He tried to calm her down, but seeing this, Maria pushed him away. She refused to be cradled or touched. Ray understood and looked back at Celestia. Facing the goddess, he leaned, pleading, thankful, nearly shameful. “Thanks! Thank you… thanks… thanks…” And he burst out too, crying all the suffering he had kept buried in his mind for so long. He curled up. This day, their minds broke free, finally relieved from the pain, the fear and the hopelessness. Their howls of pain echoed in the hallways of Canterlot, alerting guards and ponies who was not attending the feast. The gates opened and a flow of ponies entered and lay their eyes upon the phenomenon, curious. Many hearts dropped heavily in their chest. The spectacle was pitiful and somehow, atrocious to witness. At the hooves of Celestia, the five creatures had frozen in dread and sorrow. They had wet themselves in tears and fluids. Nopony really knew how to react. Dealing with such traumatized animals was not something they were used to. They wished Fluttershy was here. “Verdugo, stay! Please, stay with me… please…” sobbed a desperate voice. Everypony focused. The girl hiccupped… she tried reanimating her friend. Her hands were clumsily running on his chest, spilling blood on her arms, splattering haemoglobin on the immaculate marbled floor. Whatever she did, she kept spreading blood over her until only her face and eyes were the last washed parts of her body. Shaking, her clothes slid upon her scarred skin. Rolling on her back, the rag folded limply on the ground. Everypony felt something break inside themselves. Queasy, they looked down at a mark they knew so well. They oscillated between Fleur Dis Lee and the female primate. On her back was a fleur-de-lis… But it was not a cutie mark. It was a mark though… but it had been branded, carved in and on her flesh with a white-hot ember. It was cauterized since a long time. Under the sickening symbol was tattooed a number, fourteen. Fleur Dis Lee covered her mouth. On the verge of throwing up, she trotted outside, stumbled in the threshold of the gate and disappeared in the hallway. Fancy Pants did not even follow her, he was frozen in shock. Catching her breath the girl looked behind and understood what had created the eerie silent. She gasped and covered her back again. She returned to her sobs and her dying friends. “Help them.” Celestia’s voice ripped off the cold frame of this mad play. Eyes derived on her. Her stare was glaring at the guards, pressing them to urge. Her voice was regal, echoing in everypony’s heads. “Call the nurse and help them, whatever the cost.” The assembly caught tears springing under Celestia’s saddened eyes. Nopony dared raising a hoof against her statement. The situation was too heart-breaking to think clearly and it was going to be hectic if they did not act quickly. A click slammed in the silence. Maria lifted her hands to her neck. She touched a strange object. She hesitated and stopped. She groped around. It was an unrefined irritating leather lace… like a leash. Slowly, she turned on her feet in fits and starts. Both of her hands tried to rip off the lace. Her two atrociously widened eyes were set upon a unicorn guard. His horn was slightly glowing yellow sparkles. And next to him, the tip of the leash was restrained by a twinkling mist of the same colour. He looked around, everypony’s face was silently pointing out he had maybe made the biggest mistake of his life, thinking it was just a simple animal like a dog… that a leash would be a good initiative. Her cheeks and neck were contracting randomly. Anger… basic instincts was burning under her skin, gritting her teeth, maddening her eyes. The guard gulped. She leaped. “Set me free!” she wailed. Jumping on the pony she aimed for the neck, circling her fingers over it. She howled in awe and rage. A sick crack of bones twisted everypony’s ears. A scream broke out in the room. Their faces went ghoulish. ϖ Ϩ π ϰ ϡ Ξ ϡ ϰ π Ϩ ϖ Ray and Kreps were holding each other, trying not to stumble in the hallway as they were surrounded by guards. Their vision was blurred. Tears and exhaust had dealt the final blow. Their bodies were calling for rest. They had given up, nodding at each demand that was asked to them. Their mental health was broken. Everything should now be better than living in the wasteland. Their minds were somehow relieved of an unbearable burden. Not thinking was a kind of freedom at the moment. The guard was leading them through majestic places. They could not care any less, absorbed in their wishful thinking. They had been conducted to caretaking rooms in Canterlot’s Hospital. Each in their own room they sat, motionless and passive like dummies. Few hours passed… “How are they doing?” Celestia asked, sorrowful. She was looking through a massive and thick plate of glass. On the other side was the creature who had thanked her earlier. Two ponies were by his side, checking him, washing him and trying not to show their disgust. In front of the door of the room, a couple of nurses was looking at a medical report. It was badly-written on a blank sheet. It had been done in a hurry. A stain of blood had wet the bottom of the page. “This one will survive. In spite of his current physical state… malnutrition, diseases, parasites, infections, rashes and wounds…” “Wounds?” Celestia raised her brows. “Of many types,” the nurse kept going, listing macabrely. “Cuts, burns, twists, bruises, badly sewed gaps, old broken bones which were not well mended together… And it kept going on.” The nurse stalked the creature through the opening. “He is more like a walking corpse than anything else,” she stated, neutral. “Did he…” “He spoke indeed. They are… humans. His name is Ray, just Ray. He has an obsession on a few words he repeats over and over again… We gave him food, but he won’t be able to feed himself properly for a while. He and his siblings have been starving nearly to death. Lack of vitamins, of proteins, of glucoses, and apparently… of sunlight.” Celestia’s heart fainted slightly. “They all have a melanin malfunction.” The second nurse accompanied her to the next one-way mirror. It was the second male… human. This one was lying down on a stretcher, unconscious. Doctors were in the middle of an gastric lavage. Celestia frowned in front of the unexpected spectacle unfolding before her eyes. She looked at the nurse, a genuine interrogation on her lips. “He had eaten too much in the banquet room, snatching everything he found. He drank too. If we don’t do this right now he will die from indigestion. His stomach wasn’t… ready to go back on this kind of diet.” Celestia had a good insight of his appearance. These humans were bipedal creatures. They had fingers like dragons but were deprived of any talons or claws. Their skin was bare and some spots were sprouting clumps of fur. Their mane and beard were rough unlike ponies. The human was also covered of filth and scars. His ribs, only covered by a thin layer of flesh, were giving him the look of a mummy. Randomly, his legs were startled by a strong shake. But this reaction to the unfair treatment the doctors were administering him did not last long. Celestia sighed. She wanted to move on to another topic; or another human in that case. They walked past an empty room. A scream broke out from the next open door, followed by a harsh yelp. Celestia and the nurse casted a glance inside. The room was shining. Each speck of it had been cleared of any particle of dirt, there was not an ounce of air that had not been sterilized and everything was white. So white the light coming from the ceiling forced their eyes to blink a few times before being able to stand the brightness of the chamber. It was the medical care bathroom. After a second look, not everything was as bright as expected. Curled in a corner was the young girl from before… her fingers were awfully twisted. Trying to choke the guard she had not even remarked the armour around his neck and her fingers had long snapped before the armour would. She was also bleeding and a small path was streaming on the ground down to the sink in the middle of the room. She was hissing like a cat. Unveiling her bad teeth, incisors and canines shocked the ponies and Celestia. The yapping had not been the girl’s deed, she was not bleeding. A nurse already present in the room had folded her hoof under her chest. It was her blood the strange species girl had on her face and clothes. Celestia narrowed her eyes. A bite mark was clearly visible on the nurse’s fur. She was crying. The wound was really deep. Another nurse tried to come closer to the little monster. She withdrew quicker than she had moved forward. “We’ve tried to wash her,” The tearful nurse sobbed. “Leave me alone,” the princess ordered. More than a pair of eyes lay on Celestia. “No we can’t…” “Leave me alone with… her.” The nurses left half-heartedly. The princess of the Sun closed the door behind them and let out a breath. It was a loud sigh coming from the deepest corner of her heart. She was clueless on how to manage such situation. She looked at the girl. She expressed pity for her. She was awfully… ungirly. All features making her a mare, or whatever the name this race had for this usage, had been ripped off. Just staring at her was a difficult experience. Celestia caught the girl crying. She was afraid. Celestia was indeed intimidating. Bigger, taller and in some sort of way fatter than this poor girlish skeleton, she was impressive. Celestia held her breath. Their stares had crossed. She finally decided to sit down, five hoofsteps from the human. Her slender legs folded under her white coat. Celestia thought she would look less frightening this way. Experiencing fear from an all of white coated goddess in an absolutely stainless room, this idea kindled a spark of laughter in her mind. “My name is Celestia,” She said slowly after a long pause. “What’s yours young filly?” Her voice and her eyes were steeped in compassion and gentleness. She expected a reaction from the ‘human’ and she got it. The girl slowly raised her head. She was somehow fascinated by the princess mane which strands of hair were fluttering and sparkling in the air. Celestia saw it. With a snap of her teeth, she cut few straws of her mane and let them float to the scared human with her telekinesis. The creature waited for the lock to fall on the ground, and the magical glow to disappear. She waited again. And then Celestia blushed in shame. The human had raised her hands, showing they were both broken and crooked. The girl held back tears. “I’m Maria…” “Hello Maria, we’re here to help you. Nothing more… Nothing less.” “Last time somebody told me that shit… he tried to… to…” She wept. The words died behind her lips. Celestia was shocked, deeply moved. She refused to let a painful silence settle between them and definitely lock away the filly’s voice. She had to keep talking. “I’m… I’m sorry, but you’re hurt and in pain. We need you to beha… to let us heal you.” Celestia tried to find an incentive to push Maria to be more committed to this tragic situation. “You can come with me and eat,” Celestia said, Maria’s eyes sparkled – she drooled slightly –. “…only if you let me watch your wounds and wash you.” “Wash?” These four letters struck Celestia so hard she restrained a retching with difficulty. Had the young creature suffered this much? Where was her parents, the care she should have been given? What kind of civilisation had cradled these… humans? The girl had taken a peak in a pond few days ago, Celestia had seen it. But drying slowly in the air after a bath in stagnant water was not something one called washing. Furthermore, she had gone through a huge physical effort which had left here filthy. Celestia’s horn glowed a bright white and she grabbed few bandages set upon the closest sink. “Show me your hoov… hands.” Maria held them up. She bit her lips when Celestia got her fingers straight. The princess was impressed by her resistance to pain. Maria wiped few tears with the back of her forearm. She looked at her tips, wrapped tightly in cleaned gauze. She smirked. “I would have done better,” she laughed with a melange of sarcasm and relief. “Th… Tha… thank you.” “You’re welco…” “What are you?” Maria cut her off, her voice suddenly stern and harsh. “We are ponies… I’m an alicorn. And you girl?” “I’m not a... girl. I’m a woman,” Maria replied, vexed. “Your friends said you were humans.” “Yeah, there is man and woman. We’re humans and there are men and women,” Maria said in a flash. For a first time, it was hard to catch. Celestia promised herself to come back on this lexicon later. “How can you talk?” “I beg your pardon?” Celestia arched a brow. “Yeah, from where I come animals don’t talk,” Maria stuttered. “Well, you’re not on your world anymore I guess.” Maria sniggered and gave out a shy laugh. She dried a tear rolling on her cheek and wiped the pony’s blood she had on her lips and chin. “How did you do the glow?” “The glow?” Celestia giggled. It was her turn to laugh. “You mean my magic?” – Maria gave her a creepy stare – “You… you don’t have magical powers?” “I don’t even know it could exist in reality. Is… Is this real life?” Celestia slid toward Maria and gave her little poke on her shoulder. “It could not be truer.” Celestia tried to be friendly and intended to make Maria laugh. But her stare was casting shadows. She started hissing again as horrific memories were brought back. “Don’t touch me ever again.” Celestia stepped back slowly. “But I have to wash you…” “Don’t…” The white alicorn put her hoof on her chin, rubbing it. An idea popped in her mind. “I won’t have to!” Celestia fell back to the opposite side of the room, her horn started glowing. As did Maria’s torn clothes. She gasped and tried to keep them put on. But Celestia’s magic was too strong for her limp skeletal bones. She sobbed and gave in. “Okay, just… just close your eyes,” Maria surrendered. “I may hurt you if…” “Please,” Maria’s eyes were begging her new friend to accept this condition. Maria had hidden her back since the beginning, dissimulating this horrid symbol carved upon her. “You saw it?” “Yes,” Celestia confessed, swallowing her saliva. Having the correctness not to ask what it was she anticipated Maria’s next plea. “I will ask everypony to keep it silent about it. I’ve seen you dissimulate it from your friends,” – Maria suddenly lost the tension in her shoulders – “But someday you’ll have to show them… and tell them and to us what it is. It is harmful to keep such burdens and carry them along the way of existence.” Celestia could not get rid of Fleur-Dis-Lee’s troubled face when she had left the banquet room. She would be a spine in the foot. “Yeah, someday,” Marias’s voice died in a disappointing silence, evasive. Celestia closed her eyes. With her magic she slid the rags off Maria’s skin. She grabbed a towel, a flannel and soap. Groping the wall she found the tap. Switching it on, she smiled, hearing the lapping of water. A flow splashed heavily on her head. The warm stream ran over her mane and fur. Maria laughed. This time Celestia found the good tap. Maria yelled. “What’s wrong Maria?” “It’s… nothing. I forgot what clean water… warm water feels like.” Celestia nodded in silence, her eyes still closed. Using the soap she started rubbing Maria’s back. Even with her magic and through the thick fabric of the flannel she felt the bruises, the gaunt and scars on her skin. She shivered as she ran over Maria’s bones, right beneath the thin wrinkled flesh. “How old are you?” Celestia said, putting an end to the silence. “Seventeen,” she replied. Maria’s belly growled. “I’m hungry.” “I am too, to be honest you appeared right in the middle of our diner,” Celestia giggled. “Do I owe you something for the hospitality?” “Absolutely nothing,” Celestia stood proud. “Here help is priceless and is better given than sold.” “Everybody pays but nobody knows the price,” Maria replied, cryptic. Celestia’s ears twitched. Slight vocabulary differences existed between their idioms. It was small but still interesting to notice. “I want to see Verdugo,” Maria ordered. “Who?” “Verdugo, my friend.” Celestia guessed she was talking about the deadly wounded man. She had not seen him yet but the nurses and doctors should be focusing on him at the moment. “Don’t worry, he is in good hooves, but even I won’t be given the right to see him before he has been… fixed.” Celestia turned off the tap and gave Maria the towel to wrap her in. “Can I open my eyes now?” Maria quickly wrapped herself and then replied. “Yes.” Celestia opened them. She blinked a several times to get rid of the pain the light was dealing to her retina. She might be the Princess of the Sun, but she still had a corporeal envelop. And therefore, she was bound to its weaknesses. Maria’s filthiness had been washed away. The water flowing from her legs was black… Celestia’s eyes widened. It was really black! She chuckled. Maria went through a complete change. Gotten rid of the muck, her skin was smoother and was somehow tanned. Her wet hair had dropped on her shoulders, sprawling over her skin. It was dark brown, as were her eyes. Celestia could not tell if she was beautiful. She was not aware of “human’s standards”. Yet she was able to say Maria had moved at least from the ugly part of the scale to the average one. Meanwhile Celestia had kept her eyes shut Maria had wrapped her arms and legs in tightened bandages and herself in a long white towel. They stood up. Maria flagged and fell on the ground. She refused Celestia’s hoof. “Give me something to help me walk. And something to put on.” To put on? Celestia suddenly remembered every human was wearing clothes, even if it was stinking sweat and blood. A tradition? A social norm? The facts struck the princess, they had no fur. Celestia understood it was for protecting their bare skin from external aggressions. Celestia ordered the nurse outside to give Maria a cane. They did and so, both the human and the alicorn went out in the hallway of Canterlot horsepital. Having nothing to wear, Maria, still wrapped in the towel snatched a curtain of red silk from a window, without an ounce of care. She withdrew to the bathroom. When she left it again, she had exchanged the towel for the fabric. It was much more comfortable and less humiliating. The nurses lifted their hooves to their foreheads. Celestia sighed gently. It was just a curtain after all. It was not as if she had skinned an animal to make a coat of it. The nurse conducted Maria to the next hallway. Celestia had decided to take care of the other humans. A doctor, a unicorn, came up quickly. “The wounded creature is now saved.” “They call themselves humans,” Celestia nodded. “How is his state?” “From now on, it is… stable.” The doctor laughed to his own pun. Celestia smirked slightly. “But seriously, the four creat… humans are safe now. Though the rehabilitation will take time. They went through Tartarus during their journey. I can’t even begin to imagine the horror they have suffered.” “I can’t either.” The doctor’s horn glowed a light pink and he drifted a report from his saddlebag to the air. “The wounded human suffers from blood loss, gangrene and a huge bunch of different problems. He lost his right arm,” He brought up, embarrassed. Celestia frowned in disgust. “Lost? He can’t use it,” Celestia passed over quickly. “No… we amputated it,” – Celestia’s features turned greenish –. “The gangrene would have killed him if we didn't. The wound in his shoulder was due to a projectile, which pierced it from side to side, shattered his scapula, cut the nerves toward his arm and obstructed some crucial veins. But I can’t identify what kind of weapon can deal such destruction.” “With magic it will be easy to fix it,” Celestia sighed in relief. The doctor gulped in discomfort. “In fact, the human resists magic,” he said, trying to get rid of Celestia’s stunned look. “Not that he is immune to it. It’s just that magic becomes random when it is casted directly on him. We have been able to reconstruct the bone, but only time will help now. We can’t accelerate the process without jeopardizing his state.” Celestia smiled. At least the human was not going to die. She had to inform Maria. She decided to change the topic. “And the fifth human, the foal.” “The… the fifth? They were only four of them in my service. I haven’t treated your last one. You didn’t bring him to me.” Celestia got stuck in motion as she was going to leave. This was an issue, a very big problem. She bit her bottom lips in stress. ϖ Ϩ π ϰ ϡ Ξ ϡ ϰ π Ϩ ϖ Luna was sobbing on her balcony. She had finally raised the moon after a long day of intense emotions. The monster was in the castle. That true one who killed her in his dreams. And Celestia had given them a shelter... Luna was doubtful. The other “humans” might not be bad people, but this one... She could not accept him roaming freely in the hallways of the castle, or even under her delightful night. He was a danger. She extracted herself from her day-dreaming, beneath her tower she saw Twilight and her friends running toward the gate of Canterlot. Fluttershy was limping, a hoof folded on her flank. She sighed and guessed the Mane Six wanted to talk to Celestia about the ‘new guests’. She was tired. Two days she had not slept. She toddled to her couch. Dark rings circled her eyes and she was ready to collapse on her silky bed linen. The kid was there. Luna’s eyes widened, scared. The child, the human child was on her bed and… Luna saw her teddy-bear in the creature’s arms. He was petting it. The urchin saw her, stuck out his tongue and tightened the plush toy in his hands. Luna tilted her head, she was absolutely not amused. “Drop it! It’s mine!” The child raised a brow and stand up, creasing the perfectly tided sheets. He was smiling eerily at the Princess. He moved forward. “Don’t come closer,” Luna stressed. The child tends his chubby hands to the Alicorn, trying to reach her. Luna hissed. The child was now standing between her and the door. “Help?” Luna complained. “Please, need some help!” Her call faded in the air, nopony was here to listen to her. The child started toddling toward Luna. She panicked. Old Version: They reeked like rotting flesh. The stench, forcing its way through their muzzles, slipped down their throats like thick and sick mucus. The witnesses gasped and held back the gag reflexes, hiding their faces from the atrocious spectacle displayed before their eyes. The smell was indescribable, unbearable. But their appearance was even more revolting. Disgust and malaise bloomed in the audience’s minds. Five broken bags of bones had shattered in the room, given to see in a twisted play. Their features were ghoulish, wrinkled, ravaged… devastated. Fear bathed their disoriented eyes. They were abashed. At the moment, the terror breaking through their souls was so pregnant it spread to the witnesses like a disease. Everypony stepped back in aversion. The five creatures, all of different ages, genders and statures were crouched on the tiled floor. Dust had not fallen out yet the new environment startled them. Panting, hissing and ready to burst out in panic, they scanned their surroundings aimlessly. Intermittently, spasms plagued their limbs and tips. Their complaints sprouted macabre thoughts in everypony’s heads. The stench grew more and more oppressive. Yet, their look was still the most shocking as all became aware of their traits. Skinny like skeleton, the five primates manifested shaved bodies whose faces were circled by hideous manes. Three of them had scrubby beards, on it were stuck together dirt, dust, remains, and dried fluids. Their bloodshot eyes fixed one by one on the neighbouring ponies. Finally, one of the creatures, the closest to Celestia and her sister, spoke. The words went out inaudible for most of the ponies. Luna horrified them as she rushed under a table, her cheeks wet with tears. Celestia’s eyes were blurred and clumsy. She was mumbling something and did not even react when the creature grasped her hoof. It gave out under the weight of its wounds and fell into unconsciousness. The assembly held their breath in utter terror.Its hand slid on Celestia’s silky and pearly white fur, leaving a blood mark on its tow. She suppressed her craving to break away with a cry of fear. Her stare turned back to another couple of creatures of this brand new species. They were regrouped in a corner of the banquet chamber. The first primate was undoubtedly a girl. She was surprisingly young but, paradoxically, awfully withered. An unending hunger had hollowed her features, branded by time and scars. Her narrowed hazel eyes snaked on the surroundings, unable to understand what was going on. She gasped at the sight of the ponies. And it was not in awe, but in horror. Their stares were eerily settled on her, it was unsettling, if not mind-wrecking. “Don’t look at me,” she hurled, – the room became heavily silent –. The waving mane of Celestia did not make the situation any better. Strange phenomenons were as scary as the unknown and the room was full of them. The girl whirled her rags on her shoulders and deepened inside. Circling tightly her knees, her arms shivered. She began wobbling on her feet like a lunatic, biting her thumbs to the blood. She was skinnier than her relatives and her widening eyes were of the most unpleasant to watch. The sinews of her neck convulsed. She buried her face in her arms. Was she crying? Celestia moved away her gaze and set it upon the youngest of the five beings. It was still a foal, having no better words to qualify it… him for the moment. His face was a disturbing mix between, surprise, incomprehension and fear. His eyes fixed the noble ponies intermittently, but they always came back to the impressive display of food around them. Food… the ponies and Celestia swore the fear in the creatures’ eyes was not due to the true existence of talking, multi-coloured ponies, but a consequence of their starvation. Right now, the four awaken creatures were questioning the true reality of the situation, the true pregnancy of this Pavlov’s spectacle harassing their senses. A bang echoed harshly and everypony instantly gazed toward its origin. One of the primates was taking his due on the tables, spilling around drinks and breaking plates without a pinch of care. Biting with greed in the meals surrounding him, he was drooling hideously. His eyes widened. It was clear he had only one unique idea numbing its mind… eating. A noble tried to intervene. “Mister, you’re not allow…” The animal grabbed a knife and struck it in the table, sinking the edge in the wood without even casting a glance of interest at the pony. His deed sufficed to shut everypony’s mouths. “Just fall back,” the primate hissed uneasily, ripping off a mouthful of a bread stick. “Just get away.” Crumbs got stuck in his beard or fell on his torn clothes. His eyes were tearful, clearly enjoying a basic need he had been deprived for far too long. He kept eating. A cry broke the omerta. This time, Celestia focused on the girl. Some ponies held their breath. She ran over the white majestic alicorn and pushed her aside with a frail strength. A second wave of fear sprawled in the nobles. Celestia had been… pushed by a stinky creature without any sense of manner. The girl kneeled near her dying friend and sunk her face in his tattered outfits. Her sob were muffled but still impressively moving in everypony’s hearts and ears. The last primate standing was looking down at his friends. His face was distorted horridly by the lack of emotion casted upon it. He exuded incomprehension. Yet, showing much more restrain than the others, he scanned everypony around him and finally stared at Celestia. His eyes were filled with cluelessness. He repeatedly swallowed his saliva while his head gave little shakes intermittently. Just looking at him was… earth-shattering. “Please, tell me. Are we still on Earth?” Ray asked with hesitation. His hands were trembling as were his stare. Tired, starving and with no frame of reference his eyes were blinking awkwardly. His movements were jolted. “Earth? No…” Celestia replied with a disclosed surprise. “You’re in Equestria. What’s… Earth?” “Did the uproar happen here?” he continued, pleading the alicorn without answering to her question. “Uproar?” “Safe… Are we safe?” He finally succeeded in asking this question, the question. His voice was moving, a genuine hope slithering in his tone. Hearing this word they had banished from their lexicon, Maria and Kreps went surprisingly silent. They raised their head in Ray’s and the alicorn’s direction. Their eyes were glaring supplications, soaked in a hope they hardly believed in. Celestia stood back, gritting her teeth in awe. Their look was confusing. These creatures, apparently harmless had seen things… horrible things. Deep inside her soul she knew it. “Y… Yes,” she replied. The silence petrified the room. Slowly, every creature kept his gaze unsettlingly fixed on the regal sister as if she was a merciful god. A mighty being that had finally arrived to greet them and lead them to heaven. Never had Twilight or her most devoted ponies looked at her this way. Her heart shattered in thousands of pieces. A cold anger nested in her bowels. She was angry at the one that had them suffer and go through Tartarus. Ray’s eyelids lost their tension slightly. His mouth slowly dangled. A brief ‘thanks’ erupted from his dried lips. His eyes were shockingly bloodshot. He could not believe it. A part of him refused to accept the truth, convinced that everything was a deep and well-conceived deceit, a kind of hurtful joke. But he was facing undeniable facts. He turned back to his friends. For once in a lifespan of surviving, Ray caught himself smiling genuinely. And it was not a smirk, nor a fake grin. It was… joy? “Is… this really… over?” Kreps and Maria queried, tears flooding their eyes. “It is over,” Ray nodded, giving a small laugh. A long complain crawled out of their mouths. Their anxiousness, held for far too long, exuded from their skin. And cries crept out of their throat. Kreps dropped his knife and cringed on the marble, holding his face in his hands. He tried to restrain hiccups and sobs. But he finally burst out, laughing and crying at the same time. Maria was the most moving. She lost every speck of composure. Still riveted to her bleeding friend, she wet his torn garments with hot tears. Her cry was a hoarse howl to the one who had finally listened to her… that true one who had given them the right to escape their fate, to escape the hell. She had prayed to god each night of each day since the beginning of the uproar, their ordeal. She trembled, sobbing noisily, her eyes lost into the emptiness of space over Verdugo. Ray circled his arms over Maria’s shoulders and comforted her. He was crying too, silently though. His shivers joined his friend’s little shakes. He tried to calm her down, but seeing this, Maria pushed him away. She refused to be cradled or touched. Ray understood and looked back at Celestia. Facing the goddess, he leaned, pleading, thankful, nearly shameful. “Thanks! Thank you… thanks… thanks…” And he burst out too, crying all the suffering he had kept buried in his mind for so long. He curled up. This day, their minds broke free, finally relieved from the pain, the fear and the hopelessness. Their howls of pain echoed in the hallways of Canterlot, alerting guards and ponies who was not attending the feast. The gates opened and a flow of ponies entered and lay their eyes upon the phenomenon, curious. Many hearts dropped heavily in their chest. The spectacle was pitiful and somehow, atrocious to witness. At the hooves of Celestia, the five creatures had frozen in dread and sorrow. They had wet themselves in tears and fluids. Nopony really knew how to react. Dealing with such traumatized animals was not something they were used to. They wished Fluttershy was here. “Verdugo, stay! Please, stay with me… please…” sobbed a desperate voice. Everypony focused. The girl hiccupped… she tried reanimating her friend. Her hands were clumsily running on his chest, spilling blood on her arms, splattering haemoglobin on the immaculate marbled floor. Whatever she did, she kept spreading blood over her until only her face and eyes were the last washed parts of her body. Shaking, her clothes slid upon her scarred skin. Rolling on her back, the rag folded limply on the ground. Everypony felt something break inside themselves. Queasy, they looked down at a mark they knew so well. They oscillated between Fleur Dis Lee and the female primate. On her back was a fleur-de-lis… But it was not a cutie mark. It was a mark though… but it had been branded, carved in and on her flesh with a white-hot ember. It was cauterized since a long time. Under the sickening symbol was tattooed a number, fourteen. Fleur Dis Lee covered her mouth. On the verge of throwing up, she trotted outside, stumbled in the threshold of the gate and disappeared in the hallway. Fancy Pants did not even follow her, he was frozen in shock. Catching her breath the girl looked behind and understood what had created the eerie silent. She gasped and covered her back again. She returned to her sobs and her dying friends. “Help them.” Celestia’s voice ripped off the cold frame of this mad play. Eyes derived on her. Her stare was glaring at the guards, pressing them to urge. Her voice was regal, echoing in everypony’s heads. “Call the nurse and help them, whatever the cost.” The assembly caught tears springing under Celestia’s saddened eyes. Nopony dared raising a hoof against her statement. The situation was too heart-breaking to think clearly and it was going to be hectic if they did not act quickly. A click slammed in the silence. Maria lifted her hands to her neck. She touched a strange object. She hesitated and stopped. She groped around. It was an unrefined irritating leather lace… like a leash. Slowly, she turned on her feet in fits and starts. Both of her hands tried to rip off the lace. Her two atrociously widened eyes were set upon a unicorn guard. His horn was slightly glowing yellow sparkles. And next to him, the tip of the leash was restrained by a twinkling mist of the same colour. He looked around, everypony’s face was silently pointing out he had maybe made the biggest mistake of his life, thinking it was just a simple animal like a dog… that a leash would be a good initiative. Her cheeks and neck were contracting randomly. Anger… basic instincts was burning under her skin, gritting her teeth, maddening her eyes. The guard gulped. She leaped. “Set me free!” she wailed. Jumping on the pony she aimed for the neck, circling her fingers over it. She howled in awe and rage. A sick crack of bones twisted everypony’s ears. A scream broke out in the room. Their faces went ghoulish. ϖ Ϩ π ϰ ϡ Ξ ϡ ϰ π Ϩ ϖ Ray and Kreps were holding each other, trying not to stumble in the hallway as they were surrounded by guards. Their vision was blurred. Tears and exhaust had dealt the final blow. Their bodies were calling for rest. They had given up, nodding at each demand that was asked to them. Their mental health was broken. Everything should now be better than living in the wasteland. Their minds were somehow relieved of an unbearable burden. Not thinking was a kind of freedom at the moment. The guard was leading them through majestic places. They could not care any less, absorbed in their wishful thinking. They had been conducted to caretaking rooms in Canterlot’s Hospital. Each in their own room they sat, motionless and passive like dummies. Few hours passed… “How are they doing?” Celestia asked, sorrowful. She was looking through a massive and thick plate of glass. On the other side was the creature who had thanked her earlier. Two ponies were by his side, checking him, washing him and trying not to show their disgust. In front of the door of the room, a couple of nurses was looking at a medical report. It was badly-written on a blank sheet. It had been done in a hurry. A stain of blood had wet the bottom of the page. “This one will survive. In spite of his current physical state… malnutrition, diseases, parasites, infections, rashes and wounds…” “Wounds?” Celestia raised her brows. “Of many types,” the nurse kept going, listing macabrely. “Cuts, burns, twists, bruises, badly sewed gaps, old broken bones which were not well mended together… And it kept going on.” The nurse stalked the creature through the opening. “He is more like a walking corpse than anything else,” she stated, neutral. “Did he…” “He spoke indeed. They are… humans. His name is Ray, just Ray. He has an obsession on a few words he repeats over and over again… We gave him food, but he won’t be able to feed himself properly for a while. He and his siblings have been starving nearly to death. Lack of vitamins, of proteins, of glucoses, and apparently… of sunlight.” Celestia’s heart fainted slightly. “They all have a melanin malfunction.” The second nurse accompanied her to the next one-way mirror. It was the second male… human. This one was lying down on a stretcher, unconscious. Doctors were in the middle of an gastric lavage. Celestia frowned in front of the unexpected spectacle unfolding before her eyes. She looked at the nurse, a genuine interrogation on her lips. “He had eaten too much in the banquet room, snatching everything he found. He drank too. If we don’t do this right now he will die from indigestion. His stomach wasn’t… ready to go back on this kind of diet.” Celestia had a good insight of his appearance. These humans were bipedal creatures. They had fingers like dragons but were deprived of any talons or claws. Their skin was bare and some spots were sprouting clumps of fur. Their mane and beard were rough unlike ponies. The human was also covered of filth and scars. His ribs, only covered by a thin layer of flesh, were giving him the look of a mummy. Randomly, his legs were startled by a strong shake. But this reaction to the unfair treatment the doctors were administering him did not last long. Celestia sighed. She wanted to move on to another topic; or another human in that case. They walked past an empty room. A scream broke out from the next open door, followed by a harsh yelp. Celestia and the nurse casted a glance inside. The room was shining. Each speck of it had been cleared of any particle of dirt, there was not an ounce of air that had not been sterilized and everything was white. So white the light coming from the ceiling forced their eyes to blink a few times before being able to stand the brightness of the chamber. It was the medical care bathroom. After a second look, not everything was as bright as expected. Curled in a corner was the young girl from before… her fingers were awfully twisted. Trying to choke the guard she had not even remarked the armour around his neck and her fingers had long snapped before the armour would. She was also bleeding and a small path was streaming on the ground down to the sink in the middle of the room. She was hissing like a cat. Unveiling her bad teeth, incisors and canines shocked the ponies and Celestia. The yapping had not been the girl’s deed, she was not bleeding. A nurse already present in the room had folded her hoof under her chest. It was her blood the strange species girl had on her face and clothes. Celestia narrowed her eyes. A bite mark was clearly visible on the nurse’s fur. She was crying. The wound was really deep. Another nurse tried to come closer to the little monster. She withdrew quicker than she had moved forward. “We’ve tried to wash her,” The tearful nurse sobbed. “Leave me alone,” the princess ordered. More than a pair of eyes lay on Celestia. “No we can’t…” “Leave me alone with… her.” The nurses left half-heartedly. The princess of the Sun closed the door behind them and let out a breath. It was a loud sigh coming from the deepest corner of her heart. She was clueless on how to manage such situation. She looked at the girl. She expressed pity for her. She was awfully… ungirly. All features making her a mare, or whatever the name this race had for this usage, had been ripped off. Just staring at her was a difficult experience. Celestia caught the girl crying. She was afraid. Celestia was indeed intimidating. Bigger, taller and in some sort of way fatter than this poor girlish skeleton, she was impressive. Celestia held her breath. Their stares had crossed. She finally decided to sit down, five hoofsteps from the human. Her slender legs folded under her white coat. Celestia thought she would look less frightening this way. Experiencing fear from an all of white coated goddess in an absolutely stainless room, this idea kindled a spark of laughter in her mind. “My name is Celestia,” She said slowly after a long pause. “What’s yours young filly?” Her voice and her eyes were steeped in compassion and gentleness. She expected a reaction from the ‘human’ and she got it. The girl slowly raised her head. She was somehow fascinated by the princess mane which strands of hair were fluttering and sparkling in the air. Celestia saw it. With a snap of her teeth, she cut few straws of her mane and let them float to the scared human with her telekinesis. The creature waited for the lock to fall on the ground, and the magical glow to disappear. She waited again. And then Celestia blushed in shame. The human had raised her hands, showing they were both broken and crooked. The girl held back tears. “I’m Maria…” “Hello Maria, we’re here to help you. Nothing more… Nothing less.” “Last time somebody told me that shit… he tried to… to…” She wept. The words died behind her lips. Celestia was shocked, deeply moved. She refused to let a painful silence settle between them and definitely lock away the filly’s voice. She had to keep talking. “I’m… I’m sorry, but you’re hurt and in pain. We need you to beha… to let us heal you.” Celestia tried to find an incentive to push Maria to be more committed to this tragic situation. “You can come with me and eat,” Celestia said, Maria’s eyes sparkled – she drooled slightly –. “…only if you let me watch your wounds and wash you.” “Wash?” These four letters struck Celestia so hard she restrained a retching with difficulty. Had the young creature suffered this much? Where was her parents, the care she should have been given? What kind of civilisation had cradled these… humans? The girl had taken a peak in a pond few days ago, Celestia had seen it. But drying slowly in the air after a bath in stagnant water was not something one called washing. Furthermore, she had gone through a huge physical effort which had left here filthy. Celestia’s horn glowed a bright white and she grabbed few bandages set upon the closest sink. “Show me your hoov… hands.” Maria held them up. She bit her lips when Celestia got her fingers straight. The princess was impressed by her resistance to pain. Maria wiped few tears with the back of her forearm. She looked at her tips, wrapped tightly in cleaned gauze. She smirked. “I would have done better,” she laughed with a melange of sarcasm and relief. “Th… Tha… thank you.” “You’re welco…” “What are you?” Maria cut her off, her voice suddenly stern and harsh. “We are ponies… I’m an alicorn. And you girl?” “I’m not a... girl. I’m a woman,” Maria replied, vexed. “Your friends said you were humans.” “Yeah, there is man and woman. We’re humans and there are men and women,” Maria said in a flash. For a first time, it was hard to catch. Celestia promised herself to come back on this lexicon later. “How can you talk?” “I beg your pardon?” Celestia arched a brow. “Yeah, from where I come animals don’t talk,” Maria stuttered. “Well, you’re not on your world anymore I guess.” Maria sniggered and gave out a shy laugh. She dried a tear rolling on her cheek and wiped the pony’s blood she had on her lips and chin. “How did you do the glow?” “The glow?” Celestia giggled. It was her turn to laugh. “You mean my magic?” – Maria gave her a creepy stare – “You… you don’t have magical powers?” “I don’t even know it could exist in reality. Is… Is this real life?” Celestia slid toward Maria and gave her little poke on her shoulder. “It could not be truer.” Celestia tried to be friendly and intended to make Maria laugh. But her stare was casting shadows. She started hissing again as horrific memories were brought back. “Don’t touch me ever again.” Celestia stepped back slowly. “But I have to wash you…” “Don’t…” The white alicorn put her hoof on her chin, rubbing it. An idea popped in her mind. “I won’t have to!” Celestia fell back to the opposite side of the room, her horn started glowing. As did Maria’s torn clothes. She gasped and tried to keep them put on. But Celestia’s magic was too strong for her limp skeletal bones. She sobbed and gave in. “Okay, just… just close your eyes,” Maria surrendered. “I may hurt you if…” “Please,” Maria’s eyes were begging her new friend to accept this condition. Maria had hidden her back since the beginning, dissimulating this horrid symbol carved upon her. “You saw it?” “Yes,” Celestia confessed, swallowing her saliva. Having the correctness not to ask what it was she anticipated Maria’s next plea. “I will ask everypony to keep it silent about it. I’ve seen you dissimulate it from your friends,” – Maria suddenly lost the tension in her shoulders – “But someday you’ll have to show them… and tell them and to us what it is. It is harmful to keep such burdens and carry them along the way of existence.” Celestia could not get rid of Fleur-Dis-Lee’s troubled face when she had left the banquet room. She would be a spine in the foot. “Yeah, someday,” Marias’s voice died in a disappointing silence, evasive. Celestia closed her eyes. With her magic she slid the rags off Maria’s skin. She grabbed a towel, a flannel and soap. Groping the wall she found the tap. Switching it on, she smiled, hearing the lapping of water. A flow splashed heavily on her head. The warm stream ran over her mane and fur. Maria laughed. This time Celestia found the good tap. Maria yelled. “What’s wrong Maria?” “It’s… nothing. I forgot what clean water… warm water feels like.” Celestia nodded in silence, her eyes still closed. Using the soap she started rubbing Maria’s back. Even with her magic and through the thick fabric of the flannel she felt the bruises, the gaunt and scars on her skin. She shivered as she ran over Maria’s bones, right beneath the thin wrinkled flesh. “How old are you?” Celestia said, putting an end to the silence. “Seventeen,” she replied. Maria’s belly growled. “I’m hungry.” “I am too, to be honest you appeared right in the middle of our diner,” Celestia giggled. “Do I owe you something for the hospitality?” “Absolutely nothing,” Celestia stood proud. “Here help is priceless and is better given than sold.” “Everybody pays but nobody knows the price,” Maria replied, cryptic. Celestia’s ears twitched. Slight vocabulary differences existed between their idioms. It was small but still interesting to notice. “I want to see Verdugo,” Maria ordered. “Who?” “Verdugo, my friend.” Celestia guessed she was talking about the deadly wounded man. She had not seen him yet but the nurses and doctors should be focusing on him at the moment. “Don’t worry, he is in good hooves, but even I won’t be given the right to see him before he has been… fixed.” Celestia turned off the tap and gave Maria the towel to wrap her in. “Can I open my eyes now?” Maria quickly wrapped herself and then replied. “Yes.” Celestia opened them. She blinked a several times to get rid of the pain the light was dealing to her retina. She might be the Princess of the Sun, but she still had a corporeal envelop. And therefore, she was bound to its weaknesses. Maria’s filthiness had been washed away. The water flowing from her legs was black… Celestia’s eyes widened. It was really black! She chuckled. Maria went through a complete change. Gotten rid of the muck, her skin was smoother and was somehow tanned. Her wet hair had dropped on her shoulders, sprawling over her skin. It was dark brown, as were her eyes. Celestia could not tell if she was beautiful. She was not aware of “human’s standards”. Yet she was able to say Maria had moved at least from the ugly part of the scale to the average one. Meanwhile Celestia had kept her eyes shut Maria had wrapped her arms and legs in tightened bandages and herself in a long white towel. They stood up. Maria flagged and fell on the ground. She refused Celestia’s hoof. “Give me something to help me walk. And something to put on.” To put on? Celestia suddenly remembered every human was wearing clothes, even if it was stinking sweat and blood. A tradition? A social norm? The facts struck the princess, they had no fur. Celestia understood it was for protecting their bare skin from external aggressions. Celestia ordered the nurse outside to give Maria a cane. They did and so, both the human and the alicorn went out in the hallway of Canterlot horsepital. Having nothing to wear, Maria, still wrapped in the towel snatched a curtain of red silk from a window, without an ounce of care. She withdrew to the bathroom. When she left it again, she had exchanged the towel for the fabric. It was much more comfortable and less humiliating. The nurses lifted their hooves to their foreheads. Celestia sighed gently. It was just a curtain after all. It was not as if she had skinned an animal to make a coat of it. The nurse conducted Maria to the next hallway. Celestia had decided to take care of the other humans. A doctor, a unicorn, came up quickly. “The wounded creature is now saved.” “They call themselves humans,” Celestia nodded. “How is his state?” “From now on, it is… stable.” The doctor laughed to his own pun. Celestia smirked slightly. “But seriously, the four creat… humans are safe now. Though the rehabilitation will take time. They went through Tartarus during their journey. I can’t even begin to imagine the horror they have suffered.” “I can’t either.” The doctor’s horn glowed a light pink and he drifted a report from his saddlebag to the air. “The wounded human suffers from blood loss, gangrene and a huge bunch of different problems. He lost his right arm,” He brought up, embarrassed. Celestia frowned in disgust. “Lost? He can’t use it,” Celestia passed over quickly. “No… we amputated it,” – Celestia’s features turned greenish –. “The gangrene would have killed him if we didn't. The wound in his shoulder was due to a projectile, which pierced it from side to side, shattered his scapula, cut the nerves toward his arm and obstructed some crucial veins. But I can’t identify what kind of weapon can deal such destruction.” “With magic it will be easy to fix it,” Celestia sighed in relief. The doctor gulped in discomfort. “In fact, the human resists magic,” he said, trying to get rid of Celestia’s stunned look. “Not that he is immune to it. It’s just that magic becomes random when it is casted directly on him. We have been able to reconstruct the bone, but only time will help now. We can’t accelerate the process without jeopardizing his state.” Celestia smiled. At least the human was not going to die. She had to inform Maria. She decided to change the topic. “And the fifth human, the foal.” “The… the fifth? They were only four of them in my service. I haven’t treated your last one. You didn’t bring him to me.” Celestia got stuck in motion as she was going to leave. This was an issue, a very big problem. She bit her bottom lips in stress. ϖ Ϩ π ϰ ϡ Ξ ϡ ϰ π Ϩ ϖ Luna was sobbing on her balcony. She had finally raised the moon after a long day of intense emotions. The monster was in the castle. That true one who killed her in his dreams. And Celestia had given them a shelter... Luna was doubtful. The other “humans” might not be bad people, but this one... She could not accept him roaming freely in the hallways of the castle, or even under her delightful night. He was a danger. She extracted herself from her day-dreaming, beneath her tower she saw Twilight and her friends running toward the gate of Canterlot. Fluttershy was limping, a hoof folded on her flank. She sighed and guessed the Mane Six wanted to talk to Celestia about the ‘new guests’. She was tired. Two days she had not slept. She toddled to her couch. Dark rings circled her eyes and she was ready to collapse on her silky bed linen. The kid was there. Luna’s eyes widened, scared. The child, the human child was on her bed and… Luna saw her teddy-bear in the creature’s arms. He was petting it. The urchin saw her, stuck out his tongue and tightened the plush toy in his hands. Luna tilted her head, she was absolutely not amused. “Drop it! It’s mine!” The child raised a brow and stand up, creasing the perfectly tided sheets. He was smiling eerily at the Princess. He moved forward. “Don’t come closer,” Luna stressed. The child tends his chubby hands to the Alicorn, trying to reach her. Luna hissed. The child was now standing between her and the door. “Help?” Luna complained. “Please, need some help!” Her call faded in the air, nopony was here to listen to her. The child started toddling toward Luna. She panicked.