Shining Armour was going over the list of new recruit assignments when the door to his office flew open. “Captain Armour!” A guard yelled as he came through ht door. “Captain Armour, sir! There is a monster loose on the palace grounds!”
Shining Armour’s eyes went wide for a moment, but he quickly managed to recompose himself. “Where is this monster, private?” He asked, getting out of his chair and quickly moving towards the door.
“Reports suggest that it is either an ogre or troll, but we have yet to get verification.” The private answered as he followed Shining Amour down the hall. “A pegasus mare reports that she was exploring the hedge maze when the creature in question suddenly appeared and attempted to abduct her; she was able to escape since the creature seems to be incapable of flight.”
“At least there is that.” Shining Armour said with a small smile.
“A unit has been placed at the entrance, and another one at the exit.” The private continued. “So far it hasn’t engaged either unit, so we can assume that it is still within the maze. We are just waiting for you to arrive before sending a unit in to flush the creature out.”
Hunter continued on his way through the labyrinth unsure of what to make of his recent encounter. “Well; either she calls the guards, or someone in charge, and they realize that it was me and the whole thing blows over, or...” he tailed off as it dawned on him how bad it could get. “They have no idea that it’s me and they send the metal clad, spell throwing, wigged, four-legged juggernauts after me. I should probably just surrender if they go with door number two.”
As he rounded another corner, hand still on the hedge wall, Hunter could make out the sound of hooves coming towards him. Looking up, the human could make out several figures flying over the maze in a circle pattern. When one of them yelled and pointed in his direction the others began to move closer. Shaking his head, Hunter stopped walking and let his arms drop to his side. Here they come. He thought as he braced himself.
The first of the pegasi turned and dove, its speed dramatically increased as it approached the ground. At the last moment it pulled out of the dive; now flying only a few feet off the ground it collided with Hunter. The impact knocked the human backwards, causing him to stumble, but not to fall. The second pegasi came in a bit slower, but very low; the pegasus connected with Hunter’s leg, just below the knee. Thrown completely off his footing, Hunter fell forwards, landing on his hands. As he struggled to stand, a third pegasus attacked, this one struck him in the shoulder, knocking Hunter backwards and onto the ground.
From his prone position Hunter could see the pegasi circling around for a second pass. Rolling over, he managed to get to his knees before he was surrounded by a dozen ponies all wearing the armour of the solar guard. Hunter slowly raised his hands, “I surrend-” He managed to get out before something hard connected with the back of his head and everything turned black.
Arriving at the hedger maze, Shining Armour found the guards pulling something out of it. Pushing his way through the growing crowd, Shining found a pair of solar guards dragging a tall creature out of the maze. The guard saluted when the noticed Shining Armour standing there. “Captain Armour, sir;” one of them said, “We’ve captured the monster.”
“You’ve done nothing of the sort.” A voice said from behind Shining Armour. The white unicorn turned to face the speaker to find a group of night guards standing there.
“Shrouded Armour, why are you here?” Shining Armour demanded the leader of the night guards, a dark grey unicorn with a deep blue mane and red eyes. “What is the captain of the lunar guard doing here?”
“We heard that a monster was loose in the maze, so here we are.” Shrouded Armour said as he moved closer to the creature in question. He looked over the creature, then turned to Shining Armour. “So, do you even know what you have here?”
“It is the monster that attacked a pegasus in the hedge maze.” Shining said with a proud smile.
“No,” Shrouded said shaking his head, “what you have here is a human; Hunter to be precise.”
Shining Armour stared at his counterpart blankly. “Wait... he’s the human that the princess...”
“Yes.” Shrouded said sternly. “You assaulted a personal guest of the princesses.”
“I did nothing of the sort!”
“Then explain why he’s unconscious.”
“He was like this when I go here.”
“Then you allowed the stallions under your command to enter the maze, and assault a guest of the palace.”
“But I-”
“I don’t want to hear it, captain.” Shrouded interrupted, pointing a hoof at Shining. “Ever since the disaster that was your wedding the solar guard have been desperate to regain some of the respect and trust they have lost.”
“Now listen here-”
“No. You listen; if you’re lucky he’ll understand that this was all just a misunderstanding and won’t complain to the Princess. Meanwhile, do your job and get your stallions in line.” Shrouded turned to face the small group of night guards. “You two;” he pointed a pair of unicorns. “Take the human up to his room and place him in the bed. And you;” He pointed at a pegasus, “go find the doctor, and bring her to the human’s room. The rest of you; set about dispersing the crowd, let them know everything is taken care of.”
The lunar guard quickly saluted and set about their respective tasks. Shrouded Armour shot Shining Armour a disappointed look before following the unicorns and Hunter towards the palace.
With low groan, Hunter slowly opened his eyes, discovering that he was no longer in the gardens but in a bed. Turning his head, he could make out an odd green and white blob off to the side. As he’s eyes focused a green unicorn wearing a white lab coat walked over to the bed. “You’re awake, that’s good.” The unicorn said with a pleasant smile.
“Dr. Triage, right?” Hunter asked weakly.
“You remember me? That’s good, what else do you remember?” The unicorn asked.
“Umm... I was walking through the gardens, went into the maze when I bumped into a pegasus. She saw me, panicked, and flew away. Then... guards, and then waking up here.”
“One of the solar guards bucked you in the head. Fortunately there seems to be only some swelling and no major damage. How do you feel?”
“Like someone hit me in the head with a sledgehammer. Twice.”
“Well, that can be expected. Now, let’s try getting you back on your feet.” The doctor said as she pulled the blanket away.
Hunter nodded, and slowly sat up in the bed; feeling no ill effects, he carefully swung is legs over the side, and let his feet touch the floor. “Why are the floors always cold?” He said aloud as he flinched when his bare feet touched the stone. Dr. Triage gave him a blank stare, causing Hunter to shake his head. “Right, hooves, never mind. Can you at least bring me my shoes?” The human asked. Triage nodded, and used her magic to levitate the requested items over to the human. Hunter gave a quick “thanks”, then set about securing them to his feet.
Once the task was complete, Hunter stood up from the bed. Once on his feet, he remained still for several moments fearing that he may fall over at any moment. “Well, looking good so far.” Triage said as she looked the human over. “Seems like you haven’t lost you sense of balance; try walking around for a bit.”
Hunter nodded and began to slowly walk around the room. “I guess I feel alright; at least I feel like I can move around without falling over.” He said as he pace increased to that of a normal walk.
“Alright, looks like everything is fine;” Dr. Triage said as she tried to keep track of Hunter, “even though we don’t really have any real baseline for you.”
“That... is a really good point. Maybe once we both get some free time I can come by your office and you can take some notes of me when I’m healthy.”
“It would make things easier if you ever got hurt again. Alright, once I’m back at my office I’ll see about arranging a time.”
A group of cloaked figures stood in the shadows of the caves that ran deep under the city.
“So, did you all see that today?” One asked in a deep voice.
“We did; there seems to be some tension between the day and night.” A raspy voice replied.
“This ‘human’ thing is turning out to be more beneficial than we thought it would be.” A third stated in a melodic voice.
“If we can make this ‘Hunter’ a point of contention between the sisters, it means they will not be focusing on us.” A voice barely above a whisper said.
“Here’s the plain;” the first one spoke again, “we must make the night embrace this stranger, while the day reject him. Be warned however; we cannot have him leave the city, either by choice or by force. Make sure your agents make him suspicious to the day, but not actually guilty of anything. As long as there is no actual misdeed, the day cannot cast him out.”
“What about the griffon?” The raspy voice asked. “He has extended an invitation to the human to come live with them.”
“Leave the griffon alone for now.” The first answered. “The human views the griffon as an ally, or even as an equal. The Kingdom would simply send a replacement, an unknown, something we cannot have. Furthermore, with the lost of the only one the human views as a true ally, we do not know how it will react.”
“Then how do we stop the human from leaving the city with the griffon?” the melodic voice asked.
“By giving him a reason to stay.”
“And what would that be?” the whisper spoke.
“The moon; we know she is trying to get close to the human, we simply push the two of them together and see if they stick.”
Humans: a tall bipedal, tailless creature that lacks fur, and the only significant amount of hair is located on their head. Significant amount debate has been put forth on how they walk with only two legs and no tail. When this question was put to a human the only reply that was given was: “How do you walk on four?”
Unlike most species in Equestira, Humans do not seem to have a single defining trait (i.e. dragons and greed, griffon and aggressiveness, ponies and harmony) instead they display all traits to varying degree based on the situation and the individual. Addendum: they only trait that seems to be common across all humans is curiosity. When an unopened box is places in front of a human it will eventually try to figure out what is inside it, inevitably opening the box.
Human do not have any magic to speak of; they cannot cast spells, they cannot fly, nor do they have the enhanced traits shown by the earth ponies. Nor do they have cutie marks or a unique ‘special talent’; instead they are gifted with intellect and adaptability. Given an adequate amount of time, any human can learn to perform any task or skill they are physically able of performing. Furthermore, should they be physically incapable of performing a task they will adapt their tools, environment, or other outlying factors in order to complete the task.
When dealing with a human remember the following tips: 1) Always assume that the human either knows about, or will quickly learn about, any subject that you happen to be conversing. 2) When presented with a challenge or an obstacle a human will not only overcome it, but will turn it to their advantage. 3) Never confront a human when they are threatened or frighten; this will only escalate the situation. 4) Finally, a human’s goals are typically self-centered; and they are not above lying to achieve them.
The safest way of deal with a human is to follow the following principle: A human will tell one truth, one lie and one uncertainty.
Celestia lowered the ancient book she was reading; although it confirmed her suspicions about humans not being trustworthy, it didn’t give her any useful tips on how to deal with one. As she sat looking out her window over the landscape, her mind drifted back to the events of the day.
Although the human had frightened a young pegasus mare, he didn’t harm her or even mean to scare her. Her guards had over reacted when they heard about a monster and attacked the human without waiting for orders, or investigating the situation. The night guard almost instantly sided with the human, Captain Shrouded Armour even publicly scolding Shining Armour over the incident. Celestia found herself in a position she had not been in for over a millennia; the sun princesses was unsure of what the best course of action to take was.