Deadman realized that he should have really planned this in advance. While it was obvious in retrospect that it was a bad idea for him to jump out the window with the front door locked, he could not dwell on that now. Looking down at the lock while feeling a deep disappointment in himself for not remembering something so simple, he began to formulate a plan.
He couldn’t pick locks, he shouldn’t break down the door, and he probably couldn’t climb up the wall easily. It was then a plan formed in his mind. He could grapple up, with some supplies.
He flashed his HRV, he tried to locate anything that he could use to grapple up to his ledge. Seeing what looked like a laundry room in the distance, he walked towards it, occasionally flashing his HRV to avoid the occasional passerby who would have intersected his path, who was most often a maid, but occasionally a guard. Oddly enough, he didn’t come across nobles. Perhaps they lived outside the castle rather than in it and came here only on business. That would have to be another thing he would research later.
As he approached the room he believed was a laundry room, he flashed his HRV quickly and frowned. Inside the room was a pegasus maid, going about washing… something, he wasn’t sure if it was a tablecloth of some sheets. It appeared she was using a very archaic set of washing machinery which didn’t look very efficient.
Quieting his footsteps and sneaking up on the doorless entry, he flashed on his HRV once more. Her back was turned to him, it was was time for him to make his move.
Creeping around the corner, he made his way into the room while keeping an eye on both the maid and the light. He had to be careful with the lamp that hung from the room in the center. If he were to remain undetected he had to keep his shadow from casting where she could see. Glancing towards the drying rack, he realized that if he took a sheet from there it would certainly be noticed.
However, the ‘dirty’ pile appeared to be right beside her. Taking up a position to the left of the lantern, he stood there roughly two and a half meters behind a maid who had no idea he was even there. This could go exceedingly poorly if she turned around and realized he entered here without her realizing. At least watching her wash the cloth and run it through the machine next to the washing basin was more interesting than looking through a library he had no idea how to read. As soon as the cloth finished passing through the press and she picked it he readied himself. This was his chance.
Quietly darting forward, he grabbed two of the sheets of cloth before vacating the room, all the while keeping an eye on the mare who was trying to balance the now clean sheet on the line, likely trying to make sure it was balanced so it didn’t fall. Quietly, he backed out of the room, all the while minding the light of the lamp carefully.
Alright, he had his makeshift rope, now he just had to find a hook. It was then he realized the solution was right in front of him. His ultrasonic tomahawk had a small area that he would be able to use as a hook, as long as he turned off the axe to make sure it didn’t cut through anything.
He made his way back towards the gardens, passing through the halls without so much as a whisper, and ducking into the occasional empty room whenever his occasional scans revealed that there was someone coming. Making his way out into the garden, he checked to make certain that there were none watching his movement over the grass and towards his room. He would have slipped away into that maze to conceal his movements, but he figured that no one was trailing him, unless they were very, very good at rushing away from the windows when he reached to his HRV to check.
As he approached the balcony he recognized as his, he stopped and took a tied the sheets together into a nice, probably long enough makeshift rope. Once that was done, he made a new knot and tied the end of the long fabric to his tomahawk. He really hoped that this worked. Pressing the button to deactivate the ultrasonic portion of his ultrasonic tomahawk, he prepared to throw it, aiming in between two of the supports of the railing. If he managed to land it there, it would probably hook as the distance between the two supports wasn’t too large.
Raising the tomahawk up high he aimed carefully towards one specific gap, the closest pair of supports to the provided the ideal spot. He made a final few adjustments before making his throw. The axe flew gracefully through the air, flying up and bounced off the bottom metal railing with the harsh clang of metal on metal before being redirected to the balcony, where it skidded to a halt out of sight.
With a smile, he reached out to the makeshift rope and pulled it once. The axe came back towards the edge and he felt it hook on either side. He then gave it another, harder tug. It didn’t move any more, so he was sure that the axe was hooked in place.
Gripping the rope tightly with both hands and placing his feet against the base of the wall, he began scaling the wall at a slow, deliberate pace. It was then he saw one of the sights he least wanted to see. The knot between the tomahawk and the rope was coming undone, an outcome he didn’t anticipate. Time seemed to slow for Deadman as he became acutely aware of the downward momentum that he had managed to acquire, his body giving him just enough time to regret his decision.
Deadman groaned as his a mild pain shot up his back as he hit the ground, the tied blankets falling onto his visor and obstructing his vision. In retrospect, that wasn’t his best plan.
Sighing, he brought his arm up and gingerly brushed away the sheets covering his helmet. He comforted himself by thinking that at least it wasn’t his worst plan either, before slowly pushing himself into a sitting position and turning his HRV on. He needed to know if anyone saw his little moment of shame. Seeing no one in front of him, get got up off the ground and turned around. It appeared to him that there was no one watching him from afar, everyone was in the castle doing their business. The closest he could see was a unicorn wandering through the hedge maze. Seeing as they had no wings are were far away, odds are that they didn’t see his little issue.
Looking up to the balcony, he saw his tomahawk was stuck up on the deck, he couldn’t re-tie the knot and retry, he had to come up with another plan. It was then he saw it. Up there on the floor above was a very, very narrow ledge which blended in rather well with the wall it was attached to. It was maybe one and a half times the length of his feet at most, and it appeared to run all the way along, right over to a window without a pane of glass covering it a good twenty meters away from the area over his room. He sighed, it looked as if this was his only other option.
Picking up his makeshift rope once more and untying it, he began to retrace his steps back to the laundry room with his bundle of blankets in arm, he was going to drop them back there, and with any luck no one would realize that they were gone for a while.
In a case of startlingly good luck, no one was there when he got there, and he didn’t have to duck out of the way of any castle staff going about their daily activities on his way there.
With that out of the way he turned on his HRV once more, and mapped a good route to his destination before setting off. Unfortunately, there looked to be either a unicorn or one of the two more diminutive alicorns sitting in that room. He would have to check before he went in, unless he wanted to undergo another question and answer period when he had something more important to deal with.
Quietly passing by a maid, who not so subtly moved to the other side of the hall as he was approaching, he neared the room.
As soon as he was standing right outside the door, he flashed his HRV quickly and recognized the figure beyond the door. Right there, sitting at his own table with no one else suffering his company, was Prince Blueblood. Deciding that he didn’t want to hear anything that Blueblood had to say while still having a claim to innocence if he was questioned about ignoring him later on, Deadman lifted up his arm and brought up a holographic screen as he began to type with his opposite hand into a search function for the things stored in the memory of the computer in his suit. Soon enough, he came across what he was looking for, which was the music folder which Agents were allowed to keep for their break periods when they didn’t want to remove their armour.
Immediately, he put on a song from an OST of a game he couldn’t remember the name of and cranked the volume up high. If anyone asked, he could legitimately say he didn’t hear the prince of whatever the fuck speaking to him.
Opening the door, Deadman immediately closed it behind him and walked towards the balcony, boots falling on the stone floor. However, he could not hear them. A quick glance towards Blueblood confirmed that although he was talking, Deadman couldn’t hear his voice at all over the sound of guitar riffs and drums.
As soon as he got to the balcony, he carefully stepped over it, turning his face towards the castle wall. Although he would have preferred to go across in a different position, the fact that he had his gear with him meant that he could not. LMGs and heal injectors weren’t particularly compact items.
Taking one last glance towards Blueblood, who was now looking quite shocked, Deadman began making his way over to his room, taking precarious step after the precarious step towards his balcony.
Much to his delight, he made it to a position over his balcony. Now he just had to figure out how to get down easily.
Looking down, he guessed that he had a good two and a half meters to the edge of the balcony, he was very unlikely to miss that unless he threw himself off into the air with all of his might. Settling on what he imagined might be the more dignified looking approach. He prepared himself before taking a single step off backwards, letting himself drop through space for a brief time before impacting the stone floor with a dull thud.
Kneeling down, Deadman picked up his ultrasonic tomahawk and resheathed it, before turning around and walking back into his room and turning off his music.
Reaching down to his wrist, he opened up an application and set his alarm to nine o’ clock. Were he to visit Princess Luna tonight, he would want to be well rested, and a two hour nap would be just the thing to make certain of that.
Making his way over to his bed and laying down, he closed his eyes and let sleep take him for a while.
Waking up to the sound of a harsh beeping being broadcast directly into his ears by his helmet, he immediately slammed a button on his wrist with his other arm, turning off the infernal noise. Groaning internally, he flopped on to his side and cracked his eyes open to the sight of the room he had been loaned.
He rolled until he was at the edge of the four poster bed, before sitting up and yawning. Standing up, he felt slightly woozy, his body was giving him an odd feeling of unreality. It almost felt as if he was a bit drained from his period of sleep, rather than more rested from it. He joked to himself that perhaps Blueblood’s mere presence sucks the life out of one. Stretching his limbs to shake the tiredness from them, he made his way over to the door and flashed his HRV. To his surprise, waiting right outside of his door was Princess Luna.
Flicking his HRV off, he walked over to the door and steeled himself. He had no idea what he did to make her wait outside of his door, be it good or bad. Surely she had duties to carry out, he couldn’t imagine that she had a terribly large amount of spare time. Pushing that line of thought aside, he unlocked the door and opened it.
“Good evening, Princess. What do I owe the honour of your visit to this evening?” Deadman queried.
“Ah, I was hoping you were there,”she said rather joyfully before continuing “Night court was empty so I decided to see if you were here to take up my offer on visitation.”
“Of course,” Deadman said, rather happy to see her. While she still likely had quite a few questions, the equal sharing of information and her rather nice voice made question and answer period far more tolerable than with others. “Is there anything in particular you had in mind for this evening?” he asked.
“In fact, I wanted to introduce you to the night-life of the city below. I have heard from my staff of a place that does not quiet during the night,” she said, smiling and tilting her head a tiny bit to the right, her eyes betraying a bit of doubt. She didn’t seem entirely certain of her own plan, perhaps because she wasn’t sure about what her staff had told her. He considered his options. Either he could go out with Luna, who seemed rather keen on bringing him with her for whatever reason, or he could stay here.
Were he to stay here, not only would be have nothing to do for the rest of the night besides maybe sharpening his skills or visiting Twilight again, he couldn’t go to sleep. He had just napped for a couple hours, he wouldn’t be able to sleep for a while. On the other hand, if he went, there was a fair chance of there being a mass panic or his poor social skills causing a disaster. Deciding to go against his better judgement as well as maybe get an in with the Princess of the Night for his Agency, he settled on going.
He just hoped it wasn’t a club blaring techno music with a whole bunch of spinning coloured lights somehow managing to point directly into his eyes no matter where he turned. However, he discounted that possibility. What were the odds of that happening?
“That sounds to be a good plan,” Deadman stated. Although he was unsure about what type of ‘night-life’ ponies had, it was a nice surprise. Perhaps he would get to see how ponies lived outside of the castle.
“Wonderful! Shall we go then?” Luna asked, turning away from him before looking back over her shoulder to where he was.
“Lead the way,” he said.
With a nod, she turned away and began walking down a hallway in silence, with just one another. Following her, they were soon into a part of the castle that he had never seen up close before, it looked to be a more used hall. Soon enough, they were at a large, wooden door flanked on both sides by guards which saluted and opened the door as Princess Luna approached.
Walking by the two of them, Deadman gave them a glance out the side of their eyes while he passed. He could guess from the, they were either not too concerned about one of the two rulers of the country going out unescorted with the diplomat of a very foreign place.
Shrugging off that thought, he continued walking quietly behind Luna and out onto a cobblestone path which lead towards a set of tall walls and a gate, and continued even further past that. Right outside of the gate was a ornate looking chariot with an enclosed carriage with a two pegasi tied up to it in order to draw it.
He decided not to crack a joke about the fact that there were ponies drawing the carriage, instead asking “So where exactly is this place?”
“It is in lower Canterlot,” Luna replied, giving him very, very little to go on.
As they approached the carriage, Deadman darted out ahead and opened the door to the carriage, holding it open for Luna. He might as well be a gentleman, it never hurt to be polite by default.
Luna flashed Deadman a brief but quite warm smile as she past him and climbed into the golden carriage, sitting down on a wide bench on one side of the carriage.
Turning around, Deadman stepped up and into the carriage, closing the door behind him before sitting down across from Luna, whose almost unnaturally large smile told him that she was very happy about something. Whether it was that she was doing that with an alien from what was likely another universe was unclear, however.
“So, what do you think the purpose of the establishment we are going to is?” Luna asked him, causing him to stare at her in an unpleased manner, although due to his helmet she had no way of knowing he was doing so.
“You didn’t ask your guards about what they do where we are going?” Deadman questioned, resisting the urge to voice his disapproval. Why and how did one of the rulers of the country go out with an ambassador from a place they didn’t previously know of to a place they only know of from indirect accounts? This whole situation started to smell a bit of trap to him. He would have to be on his guard.
“Nay,” she said, causing him to suppress a small chuckle despite the situation, “They told me it is a place where ponies congregate to socialize, even in the depths of night and not much else.”
Fucking hell, if ponies were similar to humans on a social level, where they were going could very much potentially be some sort of large club. He just hoped that their taste in music here was a tiny bit less headache inducing than the loud, thumping noises of clubs back home.
He had enough of clubs after one deployment had them evacuate a building under a ‘bomb threat’ to take out the area that was being used a testing zone by The Order underneath. One containment breach later and they were shooting SIVs as lights strobed into their eyes and loud noise from dozens of hidden speakers masked all other sound aside from gunfire.
He silently shuddered at that memory. It was not particularly something that he looked forward to reliving any time soon.
His reminiscing was interrupted by the carriage starting to move, and then, much to his distress, began lifting into the air of its own accord.
He realized too late he should have been suspicious of the fact that it was two pegasi pulling the cart. He gripped the edge of his seat through his gloves. Here he was, in the air by power of pegasi which shouldn’t even logically be able to lift him into the air. He resisted the urge to bail before they gained much height. If they wanted to get rid of them, now was the perfect time. Those wings weren’t for show, and there were no windows to tell him what they were doing out there. They could go over a large cliff, she could step out and take to the air, and then they could drop him. He couldn’t stop it if they did, aside from taking them with him. Even though he knew, logically, that would be a poor move, he couldn’t shake the feeling of worry and unease. He would have to avoid this mode of transport in the future.
“Are you well?” Luna asked, snapping him out of his train of thought. Turning his gaze to her, he realized that she was looking at him with a moderately concerned expression on her face as well as a small frown.
He simply nodded.
“You became quite stiff and quiet for a while,” she said, “I was beginning to become worried that you were sick or were reacting poorly to the flying.”
“I have no issues with flying, I’m fairly certain I’ve jumped from higher than this. Granted, I used a parachute, but the point still stands,” he stated, freeing one of his hands from his grip on the seat. He sighed, hoping that they would be at the wherever they were going soon.
“What exactly is a parachute?” Luna asked inquisitively, tilting her lead slightly to the right.
“Err, think of it as a big, strong sheet which folds out of a bag on your back to slow your fall. It remains connected to the back of the user by a few stretchy straps,” he said, turning his head to glance out at the night sky, which was just barely visible through the small hole on the door of the carriage. He needed something to focus on besides his current situation.
Seconds later, much to his relief, he saw the tips of roofs through the small slit as they began to descend. “That sounds quite interesting, although I hope they don’t see too much use,” Luna said.
“Indeed,” he confirmed, “I think I remember reading of a statistic a while back that showed that flying in a plane, the general term for our flying machines, is much safer than using a regular personal transport vehicle.”
“Really? Why do you think it is like that?” Luna questioned as they touched down and began to slow down.
“You saw those vehicles on the side of the road in my dream, yes? Anyone given even half a brain and and a book can get cleared to drive one of those. People who pilot planes have several years of training under their belt as well as hundreds of hours in simulators before they even touch the controls of an actual plane,” Deadman rattled off. That was one of the statistics everyone always seemed to hear about, even though no one could point to the study which found that statistic. He was almost certain the statistic didn’t accomplish anything besides making people more wary of cars.
“Shall we?” Luna asked, gesturing with one of her wings towards the door.
Deadman nodded, and stood before making his way over to the exit of the carriage, much more calm now than he was during the flight.
Opening the door, Deadman stepped outside the carriage, holding the door, and immediately there was a set of gasps from a group of ponies ahead. There was a group of ponies lined up along the side of the street, held back from entering the club by one particularly large fellow in the top half of a suit wearing sunglasses. The building itself was a large and brightly painted with a sign that looked almost like neon; however, the material looked much more solid than neon, more like it was a solid material radiating light than a light radiating from inside of a glass container. While he could not read the words on the sign itself, he definitely recognized the image of a stylized record right next to the sign. It appeared that the worst case scenario had actually happened.
He shuddered before hearing Luna step out of the carriage behind him, followed by yet another gasp from the line of ponies, followed by a not so subtle whispering. He briefly considered remarking on the situation as if he knew what they were saying to freak them out, but he decided against it.
“Come, Deadman,” Luna said as she made her way towards the door, disregarding the fact that there was a line. He supposed that it was an advantage of being royalty to not worry about lines. Perhaps he could milk this ambassador thing for all it was worth and have similar perks. He smiled at that point as Princess Luna walked towards the door, and he followed a few steps behind her and to the right, the bouncer becoming ever more nervous as they approached.
When they got within ten, the bouncer’s front legs seemed to give out under him, causing a chain reaction with the ponies from within the line, who followed the bouncers lead and put their heads close to the ground while keeping their back legs in place. This was probably their version of bowing, if he had to make a guess.
Luna moved closer to the bouncer before saying “Rise, my subject.”
Immediately after hearing that, the bouncer shot back up and said in a tone which was half way between an acknowledgement and a question “Yes my princess.”
“Is this the establishment known as ‘The Flank Spanker’?” Luna asked, causing the guard to let out an involuntary seeming shiver.
“Yes your majesty,” the smaller pony quietly confirmed, shaking slightly more with his eyes flicking towards Deadman for the briefest second before locking back on Luna. Deadman privately wondered whether he was more freaked out about him or Luna.
Granted, the fact he was staring more at Luna pointed towards the latter, but on the other hand, he could have been avoiding looking at him to avoid angering him in some way for a perceived cultural slight. It was certainly not normal to be worried less about the alien than the princess, although that is in humans. It could be different here, given that their psychology could perhaps only happen to resemble the human psyche. He was getting too wrapped up in his inquiries again, however. This was likely one of those things you would never find the answer too.
“Good,” The Princess of the Night simply said, before swinging the doors inwards with her magic and walking forwards.
Deadman made to follow silently behind her, but not before turning towards the bouncer and flashing a holographic smiley face as well as giving him a thumbs up. Although he was sure the pony didn’t know what it meant, he had to commend the poor sap for not pissing himself, if only barely. He probably would have if an alien diplomat that came to the world yesterday and the Prime Minister approached him while he was on duty at that part time job at the butcher’s shop he had when he was younger.
Following Luna into the club, his ears were immediately treated to some rather loud techno music. The club itself was everything that he feared. The ceiling had many coloured lights on it, although they were off at this time, and there was a elevated platform which looked like a DJ station being tended by a white unicorn with blue hair and glasses opposite the bar itself. Both were separated by a dance floor which looked like it was fully capable of lighting up, but once more it seemed to be deactivated. To the side of the bar closer to the door, there was quite a few tables as well as a few booths. The only thing that was missing was all the ponies. There was only a few ponies in the bar. One of them was the bartender, one was the DJ, and the rest looked to be either waiters or security. The security seemed to be comprised of two teams of three, with one member of each normal pony species. If anything, he would guess that the pegasi were to spot issues, the earth ponies were there to break up the fights, and the unicorns were there to provide support if needed. It was a rather smart setup.
And all eyes were on them again, excluding the DJ who seemed to be too engrossed in her music to notice a few more additions to the bar. Granted, there were also far fewer eyes on them than before, but it was still moderately uncomfortable for him.
He shivered, and quietly followed Luna as she made her way over to the bar. “We have need for one of the stalls. I trust that need can be accommodated,” Luna stated rather matter of factly, almost causing Deadman to chuckle at the near terrified expression on the face of the barkeeper, who was a brown stallion who appeared to have been cleaning mugs before they made their way into the room.
“O-Of course your highness,” the scared pony said, nodding fervently.
Deadman didn’t wait for any indication from the barkeeper for which stall they were to take before making a quick dash towards the corner stall. It was the most easily defensible position in the case of something going wrong.
Deadman slid into the seat without a word, taking up a position slightly to one side of the center. From here he could see the major features of the bar, as well as most of tables. Here was a good place.
Luna walked over to the table in a manner which he could easily identify as regal, before rather unregally sliding into the booth and sliding her way over to him. Much closer than he would have preferred. She was practically touching him, and when she turned towards him and smiled he realized that her face was almost very uncomfortably close. She appeared to have no concept of personal space. Maybe it was just ponies in general did not have this concept and the rest in a position to get physically close to him were too uncomfortable to do so. It was then he came to the realization that they had barged in before the opening of the bar. Why else would there be ponies outside but none inside aside from the staff?
Deadman nearly groaned due to the situation he found himself in, but restrained himself.
While Deadman was attempting to think of himself as somewhere else, a small unicorn mare walked over to their table, levitating a notepad in hell grip. “What can I get both of you?” she cheerily asked, either not noticing the fact she was serving an alien and a princess or just not caring.
“You have any rye whiskey?” Deadman asked the waitress and Luna thankfully turned from examining him closely and to the waitress instead.
“Yes sir,” the enthusiastic waitress beamed.
“Please get me some of rye whiskey, then, on the rocks if at all possible,” Deadman said, before glancing over to Luna, who seemed to be deep in thought about her drink of choice.
“I would like a blue margarita, and I wish for you to bill any of our purchases to the crown,” Luna said, causing Deadman to turn towards her out of surprise. Were they back home they would be super pissed about even a cent of taxpayer money going towards the ruler of the country’s booze. It appeared that it either wasn’t so here or Luna didn’t particularly care. Monarchies did have a bit of a history of doing what they want in regards to spending their country’s money.
It was then the club actually opened, the sound of the hooves of a few ponies on the ground was heard just barely during some low points of the loud music. Seconds later, the first pony entered his vision and began making their way over to a table, followed by another group, and the room started to fill up as such.
A minute or so later, the waiter returned, levitating a tray with their drinks on it, before telekinetically lifting it and setting both drinks down in front of them.
“Anything else I am able to help you with?” the waitress asked, but Deadman was too deep in thought to really respond properly. He was trying to come up with a logical reason as to why she would levitate a tray with their drinks on it over rather than just levitating the drinks over.
Deadman thought for a moment before saying “If you are able to get some snacks, that would be good.” He had almost forgot that he hadn’t eaten for over day now.
The mare nodded and walked off, upon which time Luna raised her drink in her own telekinetic grip and said “To the future.”
“To the future,” Deadman agreed, grabbing his rather small glass and toasting with Luna. As she took a sip, he lifted his arms and began to delatch his helmet with a sigh. He did not particularly want to take it off in public, but he had no choice. Were he given a choice they would have done this in a closed area, with all entrants screened, but he couldn’t have everything.
With a sigh, he unlatched his helmet before placing it in between his legs and gripping it tightly with his feet. He then reached forward and grabbed glass, before raising it and taking a brief sip. As the rather familiar flavour danced on his tongue he smiled briefly before setting his drink back down. Looking towards Luna, he saw that she was intensely focused on his face to the point he was certain he had committed some unforgivable social faux pas.
“What is it, your majesty?” Deadman questioned, readying himself to react.
“Part of your face doesn’t quite match the rest of it as it moves,” she simply stated, focusing her gaze intensely on the right side of his face before bringing up one of her hooves and probing the area she was focused on gently. “And it feels different,” she said after a moment.
Deadman blinked for a moment, before sighing in relief. Was that all? “That is because part of my face is a synthetic replacement,” Deadman said.
“Oh,” was her simple reply, before she paused for a moment before saying “I apologize if this seems too prying, but how much is your body is a synthetic replacement?”
He smiled a bit wider before saying “What makes you think that more of my body is synthetic?”
“That would be because your right eye doesn’t quite match your left,” she observed before smiling.
“You caught me,” Deadman said, subtly moving away from her probing by leaning on the table taking a small sip from his glass. “I would say a fairly high portion of my body has been is artificial. Off the top of my head I can remember part of my face as well as my eye, my right arm, my left leg, most of my spine, and various parts of my internal anatomy,” he stated, before flicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth. That sounded about right to him.
Luna’s eyes widened in shock. “So much?” she asked, seeming almost uncertain about his presence in front of her.
“Yes, I took quite a bit of damage over the years. I suppose it was either keep going or retire, and I made the choice to slap some machines into myself and keep going,” Deadman reminisced. It became much easier after the first replacement part.
Luna seemed rather shocked, staring at Deadman with wide eyes as he raised up his glass and joked “At least I don’t have to worry about that leg falling asleep any more,” before taking another sip, but not before flicking his eyes cautiously towards the now bustling club that cast quite a few glances towards their little corner.
Several hours had passed, and it turned out that he was correct in his earlier assumption. Luna really didn’t have any idea what personal space was.
Over the course of the evening she showed a startling lack of restraint when it came to drinks, and after each and every one she seemed to move slightly closer until she was effectively leaning on him. He doubted that she could even walked properly at this point.
He, luckily, was far more conservative with his drinks, only taking the occasional sip. He also learned that a single plate of nachos was not enough for the two of them. They both had to order a plate which was supposed to be for a table on its own. However, him eating one made sense. He was not only twice the height of the average patron, he hadn’t eaten for over twenty four hours beforehand. He wasn’t sure where she crammed the contents of her plate, but he was certain that, logically, her body shouldn’t be able to hold that much.
His guess on the matter was that alicorns had higher nutritional needs by multiple times due to having wings, a horn, as well as the higher power muscles to power. If Twilight’s question and answer period was useful for anything, it was indirectly giving indirect information on the this land. Apparently those features were the most energy consuming part of a pony’s body, and alicorns had all three features, so it would stand to reason that they had higher caloric and nutritional needs.
Nudging Luna with his shoulder, he said “I think it is time to go.” While the music was still pumping and the ponies were still partying, the blood alcohol of everyone in the room went up past the acceptable level for a group of unknowns. He was beginning to become uncomfortable again. Anywhere in the crowd could be a threat, one with a weapon meant for self defence. The alcohol could lower their inhibitions enough to use it. Their presence made them a big target because they stood out. There were too many uncertainties
The Princess barely responded, speaking in a low tone which Deadman could not pick out the words of over the music.
“Come on now,” he said as he grabbed and put on his helmet before he slid towards the edge of the corner booth, dragging Luna with him as gently as he could manage. With a sigh, he stepped into the ground and assisted Luna to her feet as he supported her and began the slow walk towards the door.
They only managed to get a few steps before he felt something impact the back of his skull, the music suddenly becoming far too similar to the music in the club in the years past for his liking. His mind jolted into full alertness as he recognized that there was a hostile. He reacted as years of training guided his limbs.
He pivoted on the spot, dropping low and spinning on the spot. There was a pegasi with a cream coat and unnaturally unfocused green eyes hovering in the air behind him, with a hoof outstretched towards the spot where his skull was seconds earlier. Hostile spotted.
Deadman shot forward, carefully putting the VIP behind him as his armoured fist crashed into the snout of the hostile with a cracking noise.
Damage was estimated to neutralize the hostile for all effective purposes. Ponies were beginning to react to the strike, some looking in their direction were starting to flinch out of shock.
They would have to escape he realized as he pivoted around the room, looking for the best possible escape route while picking up the VIP and carrying her over his shoulders. There was a fire escape roughly twenty feet from their position, no high risk threats like the two bouncer squads near it.
He bolted, knocking ponies out the way as the veteran soldier knocked the door open and ran out into the night with the VIP, intent on getting her to a safe zone.