Chapter 7
“Don’t come between a child and her mother, no matter what the species the result will be messy.”
“That’s not your real name is it?”
“Hmm,” Noah replied absentmindedly. He and Dinky had been walking in silence with the two guards flanking them for almost ten minutes. In reality Noah was walking while Dinky was snoozing soundly on his back, He had lifted the chitin covering his wings somewhat to guard her from falling.
“No One, that isn’t your real name,” the unicorn mare beside his spoke again, slight eagerness residing in her tone.
“You’re right it isn’t my real name, but it suits me.”
“So then what is your real name?” The stallion beside him spoke up, intrigued at the conversation.
“Spoilers,” Noah said with a smug smile, “I do have another name, but I prefer to keep some secrets to myself, besides I’ve already introduced myself as No One to a few ponies, I might as well keep the name.”
“Fair enough,” the mare grumbled under her breath.
“What about you two, I can’t seriously call you my guard ponies for as long as I know you, what are your names?”
“Secret,” the mare responded with a smile, her partner snickered.
“Hey that’s not fair, I’ve given you the name I go by, now what is yours?”
This time the stallion spoke up, “That is her name, Secret Strike, and I’m Pointguard.”
“Huh, kinda weird those names, reasons for them?”
“Well I my name relates to my unique ability,” Secret spoke up, “I can cast any spell without the tell-tale signs of a glowing aura, look I’ll show you,” and with that the spear across Point’s back levitated upwards, rapped Noah across the head lightly and dropped back down, not a single sign that a spell had been cast, “See no glowy horn, no glowy spear.”
Noah had stopped, over exaggerating the force that the spear had struck with and attempted to pout whilst rubbing the back of his head. The intended effect was not achieved with both guards breaking down into small laughter.
“Oh suck it up,” Point chuckled, “As for me my parents named me for the job they hoped I would grow into, both they and I are damn lucky I like charging into the fray, otherwise I might have some hassle over my name.”
Noah had resumed walking, increasing his pace to catch up with the others, “So what about you, why the name No One?” Point asked.
“Well it just suited,” Noah slowed as he pondered his answer for a moment, “When I first woke up I didn’t know who I was, when I was told this wasn’t a hallucination I didn’t know where I was, when I first saw myself I didn’t know what I was.”
He stopped for a moment, thinking of the rest of his answer, before hurrying along again, “And with the limited technology that I have seen I don’t know when I am either. So I took the name No One simply because it suited for the moment.”
“And when you know all of that what will your name be?” Secret asked sagely, a look of amazement flashed across Point’s face.
“It would b-, Uh Ah, it is still a secret, I may indulge that information to closest friends, but not to a couple of guards who tried to attack me in a spa,” he finished with a smile, “Nice try though.”
“Yeah,” Point commented, “They should have called her Sneaky Strike, it suits her a little better.”
The band of ponies had arrived at the town hall. The two tiered building sported a smoothly sloping roof, slight repairs where in order, a broken window here and there, and a hole in the floor as well as patchwork on the roof, one of the supporting posts looks bent out of shape from an impact, ugly struts had been erected to support the building.
Noah frowned slightly, “You’d think a governmental building would be kept in better shape than this.”
“Yeah we try to keep up with the repairs, but Derpy-, err Ditzy, sorry, she has a tendency to crash,” Point replied.
“Who’s Ditz-,” Noah started. A loud swoosh was heard as an object flew over his back, barely brushing past his cloak. He looked back to see that Dinky had disappeared, searching around frantically he saw the filly now resting peacefully upon Secret’s back, a look of slight astonishment crossed the mare’s face.
“How did she d-,” he started again, this time the unidentified flying object approached from the front, all Noah could see was the blur of a face full of anger, and grey. His mind didn’t even register the impact until his left legs were swept out from underneath him and he started to topple over.
At this time Pointguard had sidled up next to Secret Strike, whispering into the mare’s ear, “Timmmberrr,” to which he received a small chuckle as Noah struck the ground with a loud thud.
“Should we stop her,” was the soft reply of his partners whisper.
“I’m impartial to his predicament for how he treated me at the spa,” a roll of the eyes was the only answer he got, “But we should intervene if it gets to the breaking of bones.”
At the impact with the ground all of the air from Noah’s lungs was forcibly removed, leaving the figure heaving and gasping for breath, his diaphragm refusing to work. A loud thud above his head heralded the arrival of a third party.
While still gasping for breath Noah attempted to crane his neck to get a better view of his assailant. The sound of hooves slowly walking towards him was unnerving, before he could field the stranger in his view a swift kick was thrown. The sharp crack of hoof hitting chitin reverberated through the air and heads swivelled to see the beatdown. Noah’s head snapped down towards his chest at the force, a sharpened pain coursing through his skull.
Noah tried arching his neck again, trying in vain to see his assailant, another kick, just as hard as the last one sent his head back to his chest. Witnesses of the second kick winced in pity, no one wanted to be on the receiving end of those, the ponies that hadn’t turned at the first kick now had their eyes glued on the scene.
“Should we stop her?” Point whispered to Secret, wincing at the second kick.
“Only if she tries to kill him,” came the answer, “I want this to test his fighting capabilities.”
Noah got the message with the second kick, keep your head down. He desperately looked upwards, the sound of the attacker walking around into his field of view made him tremble. All of a sudden forceful hooves found his throat, turning his head upwards into view of a face full of anger. Try as he may Noah couldn’t look the pony straight in the eyes. Not without his desperately trying.
The pressure on his neck tightened, his throat closing at the force being applied. “No Pony Foalnaps My Filly, NO PONY.” The mare’s voice full of malice screamed at him. She began tightening her hooves further around his neck, cutting off his air supply.
“but i didn’t,” came Noah’s strained whisper, his eyes bulging out, lungs burning for air, black dots began to swarm his vision.
“Mommy,” the sound of Dinky’s worried voice snapped the mares head upwards her look of anger replaced by one of thanks that her foal was safe. The pressure she was applying on Noah’s neck disappeared as she turned to face her daughter.
The filly had woken at Ditzy’s yelling, still bleary eyed she carefully dropped down off Secret’s back and trotted over to her mother, nuzzling softly at her forelegs. In return two wings of grey swooped forward lifting the filly into a warm embrace her mother nuzzled Dinky urgently.
Dinky looked over to where Noah was gasping on the ground, his hooves pawing helplessly in the air. “What are you doing to him?” the filly asked.
“I’m teaching him a lesson sweetie, that it’s not alright to foalnap little fillies,” Ditzy responded.
“But he didn’t foalnap me I was taking him on a tour.”
“What,” the grey Pegasus did a double take, looking incredulously between the monster gasping for breath on the ground and the innocent filly wrapped in her wings.
“It’s true Miss Doo,” Secret interrupted, “We were investigating alleged attacks on the flower sisters, as it turns out No One here was simply being given a tour.”
“No one where?” Ditzy replied, a little confused at the mares words.
“That’s what he calls himself, No One,” Point interjected.
“Oh,” Ditzy said, “That’s a little confusing.”
“Tell me about it, we’d better get this sack of potatoes off the front porch and onto a couch, looks like he may need a bit of a rest after the beating you gave him.”
Ditzy knelt down for a moment, enough time to allow her daughter to jump up on her back and nestle in between her wings. Secret and Point sidled up next to Noah, roll him onto his front before shoving him onto his hooves from behind.
Ditzy took the lead, walking up the stairs to the front door and holding it open. With gentle and not so gentle coaxing from the guards Noah managed to clamber up the stairs, his vision still blurry and his breaths coming in ragged gasps.
“Somepony fetch us a fainting couch, a bucket and some wet cloths,” Point ordered as the trio made their way into the town hall. Within second a large couch dropped from a telekinetic grasp, a bucket and tray of wet cloths followed suit soon after.
Point and Secret manoeuvred Noah to the couch, bidding him to lay down. He took a step forward, unready for the unassisted stride and pitched forward, his head rebounding off the floor with a sickening ‘thwack’. Noah scrambled back to his hooves, dazed and disorientated his head was spinning, his stomach heaving against itself.
Point saw the signs and quickly moved the bucket under Noah’s muzzle. Just in time too as not a moment later the contents of Noah’s stomach relocated themselves outside of his body in a hasty purge. Point wrinkled his noise at the smell Ditzy covered Dinky’s eyes, and turned her own head away. For his part Noah began to pitch forward again, consciousness fleeting from him.
Secret quickly cast a spell to stop him, holding his head just off the floor and levitating him slightly. Point manoeuvred him over to the couch and laid him down gently, his head lolling about. The hood of Noah’s cloak was drawn back eliciting a gasp from Ditzy and the other employees of town hall. A wet towel was brought over from the tray and laid across Noah’s forehead, the cool cloth bringing him back to the conscious realm.
“Did anyone get the licence plate of that elephant,” Noah whispered, his eyes still rolling about in his skull.
A round of ‘huh’ echoed from the four ponies surrounding the couch. “Um very sorry for attacking you,” Ditzy started feebly, her voice soft and filled with remorse, her forehoof pawing at the ground nervously, “But I was told you had foalnapped my little Dinky and I guess I just snapped.”
Noah looked up at the apologetic mare standing over him, “You may have to apologise later, I’m not sure if I’ll remember this one.”
Ditzy nodded in response. A pair of hooves drew Noah’s attention clopping together in front of his face and rousing him from his stupor. “Now that you’re done playing a sack of potatoes, we need to get your information to file this report,” Point said sternly.
“Right details,” Noah repeated absently, “Please ask away.”
“Alright to begin with, please restate your name for the record.”
“No-, oh, No One.”
“Species?”
“Not sure,” came the wary reply.
“Not sure,” Point responded in disbelief, “How can you be unsure as to what you are?”
“Well it’s difficult to explain, my memory is blocked regarding what I am, all I know is that I don’t usually look like this,” Noah said, a few stars of disbelief cutting through the last of his haze, “But I think Dinky described it best as a Bug Pony,” he finished quickly.
“Bug Pony,” Point repeated slowly, “Alright, now sex?”
“Whoa not so fast, three dates minimum first buddy.” Noah’s response was quick and sharp, several more heads of the ponies surrounding the band snapped towards the speaker, Point had a look of shellshock upon his face.
“I mean, Male, or Stallion?” Noah quickly said, hoping in vain to save face.
“Uh huh, alright, what is your citizenship status?”
“Um I’m not too sure, I don’t think I’m a citizen, I’m sure I would remember that, maybe asylum seeker.”
“Asylum seeker,” Point repeated, “Do you have your papers?”
“Um, no, I don’t think so I only just arrived.”
“New asylum seeker, Alright we can set you up with a temporary visa, this will afford you all the right and responsibilities of a regular citizen, however you need to check in with the town guard every two days, and you cannot break any laws.”
“Alright, sounds good,” Noah replied warily, “And what about the longer term?”
“We will automatically word to the Princesses of the arrival of an asylum seeker, they will judge your application personally and decide whether or not to grant you full citizenship. Either way the temporary visa will last for three months.”
“Alright I’ll do that, anything else you need?”
“Yes, but you will need them also, you need a job and a place of residence, even temporary.”
“Ooh, ooh, he can stay with us,” Dinky exclaimed.
“I suppose we can help with the residence,” Ditzy said, “It would go a long way to say that I’m sorry.”
“Are you sure, I won’t stay with you just because you feel indebted to or sorry for me, I won’t stay where I’m not wanted, I won’t be a burden,” Noah stated.
“Well yes and no,” Ditzy said, “Yes I am doing this because I want to apologise, but you won’t be a burden, and I think Dinky would like you to stay with us, at least for a little bit.”
At this Dinky leaned over her mother’s shoulder, cocked her head slightly and smiled the sweetest smile she could. Noah’s heart melted right there, luckily Secret and Point had their backs turned and were saved from another blast of the Adorable Dinky.
“Alright, I’ll stay with you, at least for the time being,” Noah surrendered, “But what do I do about a job?”
“Well lucky for you one became available up at Sweet Apple Acres,” Secret read from a job description, “Applejack is away at the wedding and won’t be back for another fortnight or so, so Big McIntosh is looking for some help with manual labour.”
“I’ll take the job,” Noah said quickly, “Best I get a job sooner rather than later right.”
“Yeah sooner is better,” Point said, “No one else applied for the job so I’ll take it off the register, you should introduce yourself to Big Mac tomorrow. It’s a Sunday but he’ll still probably be working, it’s a bit late to do so now.”
“Alright place to live, job, anything else I need?”
“Nope, Ill finish up the paperwork and you can be on your way. Oh while I remember there will probably be a delay with any correspondence with the Princesses. They’ve halted all non-critical mail and information for another five days or so after the wedding. Something about giving the new couple time to relax, anyway there will probably be a bit of a back log so the review may take longer than usual.”
“Not a problem, I don’t think I’m going anywhere soon,” Noah responded.
“Well wait around for a little, we will deal with this and you can be on your way.” And with that Secret Strike and Pointguard retreated to the next room to complete the paperwork, leaving Dinky, Ditzy and Noah to converse.
“So Bug Pony,” Ditzy asked causally.
“Bug Pony,” Noah responded matter of fact.
“I really am sorry for attacking you.”
“It’s forgiven. I can’t really blame you anyway.” The conversation drifted off into a comfortable silence. “You do have a mean right hook though.”