I followed Twilight out of the confusion in the Town Hall, keeping quiet as the alien began making friends with the locals, and we went back through the town in the direction of a large tree. Of course, this confused me. Turning to my new co-worker, she seemed unfazed by the facts that she was both working with an alien and that she wanted to go to a tree. "Twilight," I began, not dropping pace and continuing to fiddle with the sword I had obtained. "I'm just gonna ask why we're headed to a tree? I thought we were going to your 'library'." She looked back up at me, and I genuinely felt a lot taller than everyone else, including her.
"We are," she replied, "The tree is the library. Don't you have different shaped buildings in your world? Maybe your house?"
"Don't have a real house, I live in a camper van. But yeah, most other buildings are different." I looked around. She seemed to be asking a strange question, considering our surroundings; Almost all of the buildings I could see looked exactly the same. All of them shared the same thatched roof, same brown wooden support beams, same white walls, same red doors, everything. Some houses were accurate even down to the plants in the pots, but I couldn't see many other similarities due to the 'eternal darkness' that Nancy had set across the land. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Elite I took down got back up, and after some convincing he began to consider the idea that he'd been lied to, and stopped being unnecessarily violent. I felt as though I'd accomplished the impossible, something that'd be impossible on Earth: I convinced a homicidal alien with a sword to convert from psychopathic religious ideals into those that allowed him to speak with the equine-based society.
Just then, we arrived at the library. I assumed that she would knock on the door to the huge, great oak tree with windows and platforms and balconies of all kinds. Instead, Twilight lit her horn, and swung open the door. The lavender mare looked at me with a smile. "Go on, enter." she encouraged. Cautiously, I stepped into the library. It had lights on inside, and it was illuminating a grand room with books lining shelves that were literally made from the tree. Each had been engraved into the wood (Or is the correct word 'carved'? I'm no carpenter...). However, the one thing I really identified was the fireplace. As Twilight began to go over bookshelves with all the speed of a thousand accumulated Gazelles, I simply stood and stared at the fire in bemusement. Finally, after about two minutes, I leaned back to speak, not taking my eyes off the fire.
"Ah, question?" I asked, refraining from raising my hand.
"Yes, what is it?" she replied quickly, undoubtedly flicking through some other books. I could see the pile of books gathering in the faintest reflection in the lenses of my sunglasses.
"Who the bloody hell puts a fireplace in the middle of a tree?" There was a sigh from behind, punctuated only slightly by the warm blaze in front of me.
"I'll...explain later," Twilight said in an almost exasperated tone. "Right now, I think the best plan is to find out how Princess Celestia defeated Nightmare Moon the first time. Quickly, come help me look for information, start flicking through the shelf!"
"Miss, hate to sound rude or anything," I started, raising a finger to make a point as I turned to face her, "But I can barely read any text around here, it's all a bunch a' squiggles the way I see it. You all speak the Queen's English, why don't you write it, Shiela?"
"Because," Twilight snapped, using the weird sparkle horse powers to push a book against my chest with a less than amused expression on her face, "We just don't need to, this is Equestria, and if you're gonna stay here after we get the Princess back, you'll go by our rules, got it?" I glared back into her eyes. That sword from earlier was pretty effective at cutting through wood, maybe I could get it through her thick skull, too?
"You're bloody stubborn," I spat, flicking the book open to be faced with squiggly lines I couldn't read. "You really don't get this do you? I'm from another bloody country from this, maybe another bloody planet, I'm talkin' to a purple magic horse, I recently had a sword fight with an overzealous psychotic crocodile that walks on two legs and spouts religious toss in every sentence, and now I'm standin' in a pissin' tree readin' books written in a language I don't get! Why couldn't I just stay back home, maybe with a girl I picked up on my travels, picking off high-value targets for a large sum of money then probably gettin' arrested and managing to be bailed! I'm a Mercenary! I don't do...words!" Twilight just looked back with a flat stare.
"You're a Mercenary." she said in the most unamused way I've ever seen. "Learn to word."
It was about half an hour into the evening when the door suddenly slammed open, knocking down a large stack of books that toppled in my direction. It wasn't anything worth dodging; from an external point of view, it'd just look like I was any other solid object, and that they all bounced off me with no effects. However, as the hardbacks hit the floor, my biggest concern changed from picking it all up into an orderly way to trying not to laugh at the bright bluePegasus that had suddenly appeared in my field of view. It had its hooves on my shoulders and was clearly straining to push me over, and it had a brightly coloured rainbow hairdo and tail. "You're goin' down, monster!" it yelled in a rather tomboyish voice. I stood resolute, barely making an effort to stay stood up as I continued trying to read the book I was holding.
"Mmm, 'fraid not, Shiela," I sighed calmly. "Twilight, are you sure you really can't pay me for this? I'm pretty sure that helping in a library didn't mention a bright blue rainbow Pegasus flying in and trying to take me down."
"Face, just..." Twilight held a hoof to her forehead in what seemed to be frustration, before making the universal 'pipe down, alright?' gesture with a less than awake face. Then, she turned to the group of five other horses, I assumed all of them were female. "What are you all doing here, I already said I didn't want to speak with anypony."
"What about anything, huh?" the pink one suddenly cried in a rather cheerful way. Then, she appeared on top of my hat brow, flipping in front of my field of vision from above and scaring the hell out of me. I panicked and dropped the book, grabbing onto the pink horse and holding it like a small dog or baby; right in front of me, hands at its sides.
"Jesus Christ, where'd you come from?" I asked quickly. I let my eyes flick to the rainbow one being held back by the orange one in the hat, then looked back at my hands.
The annoying pink one was gone.
"Bloody hell, how?!?!" I cried in frustration, looking around for her. The other horses around the room looked at me and clearly stifled chuckles. "What?"
That's when I felt it.
Tapping up and down on my head, moving my head up or down in accordance, there was most certainly a small pink horse bouncing up and down on the top of my hat. Finally, I sighed, lowered my head and ran my thumb and forefinger over my eyes. "Oh, I'm bloody dreaming, tell me this is all some crappy nightmare I can wake up from..." I muttered, beginning to walk around the room. Twilight ignored me, and began to adress the other girls. I paid no attention to what she was saying.
I really just had to think about...stuff.
"So why trust me?" I asked once more as all seven of us advanced through the town. I was receiving mixed responses from the townsponies or whatever I was to call them: Some glared with spite and cried 'traitorous beast!', while others smiled and nodded, delivering words of encouragement and complimenting my decision to change affiliations. It was still dark out, so a lot of lights had been turned on very quickly and it was almost as if they'd been prepared for eternal lights-out as the houses were lit up, street lamps were illuminated, and ponies seemed to be either heading home to wait for it all to blow over, or to go about daily business. Heck, even a few market stalls were set up, like the daylight was still hotter than the sun in the middle of July. I did, however, agree with their decision to not wear clothes all the time; they had fur, and they seemed to be still pretty hot in that. I looked down at Twilight again. "As far as any o' you are concerned, I could be takin' the piss and be working on my own secret agenda, against Nancy and you lot." The blue Pegasus, who I found out was named 'Rainbow Dash', leapt at the opportunity to try and get me away.
"Aha!" she cried, darting in front of my face again. "I knew it! He's not with us, guys, he's still working for Nightmare Mo-"
"Nancy." I corrected.
"-NIGHTMARE MOON!" Rainbow yelled. "C'mon, how can we trust him? He said himself that he signed a contract with Ni-"
"Nan-"
"JUST SHUT UP, MONKEY!" Rainbow said angrily. "I won't let you hurt anypony in Ponyville without going through me, first!"
"Alright, Shiela." I replied, before resuming my walk and easily moving her out of the way. "I really don't give a toss what you think I'm doin', but my idea is to go along with this." I explained as the 6 mares followed behind. "This is the best adventure I've been on in bloody years, so I don't think ending it by being arrested is the best way to finish this."
"But," 'Rarity' objected, "You said you worked as a...um...what was the word?"
"Mercenary: Paid killer," I replied. "Your point being?"
"Well," the Engineer-related horse replied, who I couldn't remember the name of, "Y'all must have been on some mighty adventures while...you...y'know...killed people?"
"Nope, not really." I dismissed her with a hand. "I stayed in the same facility, Badwater Basin Serial Number #6135, did the same thing for years, and I was fired for sucking at my job. The most 'adventurous' thing I did was sneak behind enemy lines and slaughter their Snipers with a machete, and even then I almost died because some wanker launched a bomb into the room I was in and nearly killed me. Went unconcious for 4 hours and my team assumed I was dead. So you think that's an adventure, go ahead and enquire. Otherwise, I just want to go find Nancy and bring her to justice."
"And what would you know about justice?" Rainbow spat, flying in front of me and glaring. "From what I can get from what you're tellin' us, you killed people. You killed for MONEY. The most 'justice' you could do is telling your evil employer that somebody stole a sword from someone else!" The other girls seemed to be considering this, and we finally reached the bridge crossing to a large forest. They called it the Everfree, and it was supposedly an 'unnatural' place because the clouds moved by themselves and animals looked after themselves. "C'mon, guys, why are we trusting him? Am I the only one who wants to keep Equestria safe?" The other girls looked down in consideration.
"Well, what could you possibly need me to do to prove I hate that Nancy lady?" I asked in frustration. "Come on, Shielas, gimme somethin' to work with here. I'm here against my will, just tell me what to do that'll get you bloody ponies to stop hating me." They seemed to be really considering this, looking at each other. Finally, after about ten seconds, Twilight looked at me.
"Give us a moment, Face," she said, eyes narrowed. Rainbow looked at me in an almost victorious way. I looked at her in the way that most of the time I reserved for when I noticed someone doing a lot of damage to my team. The girls promptly huddled, leaving me to lean against the wall of the bridge and look into the water below. I could still see the slicked mud where I'd pulled myself out of the water, but that almost seemed like an insignificant event. Just then, I noticed something in the reeds just near the point where bridge met river.
A long silver barrel with bolts either end to secure a rather battered robot skull into place was peeking from the top of the watery plant, and I could just make out the hilt of my Bushwacka beneath it. I must have forgotten them when I received the intense pain from landing. Smiling, I leapt over the bridge wall into the shallow water that just barely reached my waist, and waded my way over to retrieve the weapons. I could hear Rainbow yelling 'Get back here' in a voice that seemed to try and command attention. But as with all commanding things, it is quite easy to ignore them. Grabbing the barrel of my rifle and yanking it free of the reeds, I performed a brief functions test to make sure it could still operate and then I ripped the Bushwacka from the ground, slipping it into my back-sheath to keep it secure. All I needed to carry was my beloved rifle. Sighing in content, I made my way back up onto the bridge. The girls gave panicked looks as they realised I was now more heavily armed than before, and Rarity and Twilight both set their horns glowing with what I assumed was magic that'd kill me, or, at the very least, incapacitate me.
"Calm it, Shielas," I said, gesturing for them to stand down as I approached. "Just had to pick some things up from Ground Zero. Now, you decided what ya need me to do?" Pinkie Pie immediately pulled a dramatic stance and began advancing slowly.
"Are you ready, Warrior Face, to receive the challenge you so desire?" she asked in a rather unnerving way. I tensed slightly and darted my eyes around with a worried look, and the girls behind her seemed no less worried. "It'll be a dangerous task, one you must undertake with great care and consideration, and there will be no turning back. You will face many peri-"
"Just tell me the damn task, Pinkie." I snapped.
"Escort us through the forest!" she giggled, suddenly dropping the super edgy acting and bouncing ahead through the dark woods. One by one, before I could complain, the girls turned and left into the forest, leaving just me and Twilight. As we both followed on, she nudged me.
"Don't worry," she smiled, "I'm not so sure about these ponies either."
"As you can tell, neither am I," I nodded, smirking. I figured I'd stick with Twilight. She was already good to me, and I felt I'd return the favour.