//------------------------------// // Chapter Two // Story: Human Relations - HR // by LucidTech //------------------------------//         Blinking back the darkness, Ledger brought his ringing mind back into the world of the living. He felt a trickle running down his nose and sniffed subconsciously. His head was looking down, his neck limp, and he saw that he had been stripped of his clothing. Instead, a set of white undergarments covered him. A set that he hadn’t seen before. They lacked anything special, and were simply stitched cotton. He made a note to thank Rarity later.         He felt something running along the middle of his nose, then he watched as a small red droplet tainted the white cotton. “Sorry.” He said immediately out of habit as he watched the pristine white get ruined by his blood. He raised his head from it’s submissive position and looked towards the surrounding room.         He found it surprisingly empty of ponies, aside from Rarity, who was knitting in the corner. Or, rather, had been knitting. At the sound of his voice she had put the cloth down on her bench and moved closer to the human. “It’s no problem dearie, I don’t particularly want the cloth back.” Her face remained perfectly straight but his suddenly broke into a good natured smile. “What’s funny about that?”         “Nothing Rarity, nothing.” He coughed to the side politely, “How’s Sweetie Belle doing?”         He wasn’t expecting the wild haymaker that hit him squarely in the face. His other nostril began to bleed and he blinked back the pain that spiked through his eye sockets from the hit. “HOW DARE YOU!” He wanted to apologize, though he knew not what for. “HOW DARE YOU THREATEN MY SISTER LIKE THAT?” “No I -” He watched as she turned for another hit and shut up immediately, flinching away from the hit. He heard the approach of hoofsteps from somewhere nearby, but he couldn’t pinpoint it. With face stinging, he watched Rarity slowly lose the desire to hit him. He let his head drop limp again and watched as another stain of red tainted the cloth. He didn’t apologize this time, even though that’s what he wanted to do more than anything. A set of doors opened nearby and he heard the approach of several ponies, though he couldn’t count them by the sound alone and he lacked the desire to raise his head. He saw an orange leg and a hoof that raised his head to the eye level of the ponies. Applejack stared into his face, full of anger. “Were ya threatin’ Sweetie Belle just then huh?” “No, of course not.” Another hit smacked him across the side of his face and he felt his lip split from the blow. “Don’t lie, or I’ll hit ya.” “For being the element of honesty you REALLY suck at knowing what’s truth.” He spat back angrily. She wound up for another hit and he stared at her, daring her to do it, and she would have, but she was stopped by a call from the shadows. “Don’t A.J. We need him awake.” Twilight stepped out from the darkness, her hair frayed and swept by some unknown chaos. A.J. stepped away from center of his vision and was replaced by Twilight. Ledger was kind enough to keep his head elevated without the support from the earth pony’s hoof. She stared into his eyes for a long moment, as if judging him before she spoke. “How do you know about the elements.” The words came out as a calm command, and he felt an urging in his mind to tell them the whole truth, just to see how they would react. However, that plan was quickly scrapped in favor of one that involved more lying, since it was less likely to get him killed. “Do you really think that the queen doesn’t know about the elements? The one things that can destroy her and remove her power?” He tried to keep an edge of malevolence to the tone, since being a nice guy was clearly going to get him hit again. “That’s not what I meant.” Her voice was calm and practiced. “I meant how do you know that we’re the elements, how did you know my name, that I was even involved, when even the queen herself has no idea?” Ledger sat in silence for a minute, looking at her, then felt the need to blink back a set of tears that were welling up from the pain. “Lucky guess.” He said at last, all his thoughts coming up blank for an alternate answer. He heard A.J. start to approach again, but Twilight spoke up and kept her at bay again. “Please, Applejack, he deserves a right to his answers until we know he’s lying.” “Why’s that Twi? Why are ya defendin’ this thing?” In answer she looked to Ledger once again. “Why have you never told the queen that you suspect Rainbow Dash as a revolutionary?” Each of the ponies looked to him for an answer, but found that he had his head leaned as far back as the chair he was tied to would let him, trying to stop the blood from running down and out his nose. Eventually he let his head slip back down to eye level again. “There was no reason to.” “Oh?” “This revolution of yours is doomed, I have no desire to help you all into shallow graves.” This time it was Twilight who hit him across the face, her face stone and cold with no mark of remorse on her features for what she'd done. Not that there would've been any, he knew he was going to get hit for that one, he just hadn't expected it from her. He smiled as the stream of blood from his nose started again, wider than it had been before. It traced a line down his face and meandered it’s way along his neck, turning the collar of the cotton shirt red. A voice boomed from the upstairs and all of the ponies turned around in fear. “Mister Ledger of the Queen’s Court, where are your whereabouts? Mister Ledger?!” “Is that Caramel? The hell is that fool doin’ here?” A.J. Said angrily, as if expecting someone to answer her question that she didn't even have the slightest answer to. Twilight broke her gaze from the ceiling and turned it back towards Ledger again. She didn’t say anything as she looked at him. And as he looked back at her once again she saw a kind of tired fatigue in his eyes that she would've sworn wasn't there before. “You should get going, I don’t know how long I can go without shouting for their attention.” She looked back at the ceiling and began to back away from Ledger, the other’s following her lead. She paused in her retreat to look at him one more time before breaking into a full run out through the doors they had come in from, except for Rarity, who ran off in a different direction and disappeared around a corner. As soon as they were all out of sight, Ledger began to shout with all his might and it wasn’t long before Caramel, as well as the other stallion who had been pulling the carriage, came in from a different route. The one he didn’t know the name of was the first one on the scene, and there was a moment as he looked at the helpless human, that he seemed to consider leaving him there. Ledger looked back at him and realized that, really, he wouldn’t blame him if he did, it was probably the smarter decision all in all, it would certainly save everyone a lot of trouble. Besides for Ledger himself anyway Caramel, however, rounded the corner soon after, and immediately began to untie him, surprising both the other stallion as well as the human. “Why are you helping me Caramel?” He asked sincerely as he waited for the ropes to loosen, his muscles already aching at the prospect of being free from their bindings. “Because you’re a terrible actor sir, if you don't mind me saying” Came the reply and Ledger felt a grin meet his face. As the ropes went loose Ledger came to the sudden realization he couldn’t stand very well because of the crippling state of his mind and the ache in his legs. As he began to slide off the front of the chair the second nameless stallion was there to slowly ease him back into the chair. “Thanks Mr…” Ledger said as he waited for the pounding in his head to subside slightly. Even just a little bit. “Heartstrings sir, Guitaga Heartstrings.” “Nice to meet you Guitaga.” Making a mental note of it for later. “You too sir.” A door was heard creaking nearby and both the stallion’s turned to face the noise. Rarity froze as she came into view, a small slumbering form on her back, wrapped in a blanket. The stallions looked to her, then towards Ledger. Doing his best to fight back the ringing, Ledger forced himself to his feet and looked towards the sisters. “Curses miss Rarity, I haven’t a clue where those scoundrels went to. But I’m glad to see you managed to keep Sweetie Belle safe. I managed to distract them long enough for you to like, I dunno, do something I guess.” Ledger clutched his head in his hands. “Whatever, you get it. I just-” He stumbled slightly and placed his hand against the wall for support. “Mercy and crap.” “Come on Guitaga, Caramel, we need to get back to Nightmare Moon and let her know that Rarity is in favor of the new tax law on cloth and attire, believing it to be better for small business, which in the end breeds better competition to grow from, while taking more from larger more established businesses that can afford it.” He glanced back at Rarity. “Correct Miss Rarity?” When she nodded, Ledger was quickly out of the room, with unstable steps. He managed to find the stairs and began to haul himself up and out of the basement and onto the main floor, but began to stumble over them as he reached the top of them. As a growing feeling of dizziness hit him he was forced to sit down again and wait for it to subside, during which time he couldn’t quite place the whereabouts of the stallions. As his head began to clear again, he heard hoofsteps climbing the steps and smiled as Caramel offered him the clothes that he had been stripped of during the ambush. He nodded and slowly meandered his way to the nearest bathroom, where he washed the blood from his face and wrapped the cotton clothes into a bundle. He took a length of paper towel and put it in his nose to stop the bleeding, also pocketing a fair length so he could replace it later. He washed the blood from his face and then paused to look at himself in the slightly grungy mirror. “Look at the monster, oh no, everyone better punch him in the face, oh he’s being helpful,better punch him harder, that’ll solve our problem.” He gritted his teeth, but said nothing else and he put his clothes back on. He patted it down and looked again, ensuring that he looked fine, other than the strip of paper towel that was slowly becoming entirely doused in blood. “Might have to get it looked at if it doesn’t stop soon…” He glanced at his glove, then back to the mirror again, a tempting thought worming through his mind, but he decided against it. He exited the bathroom and saw the two stallions waiting for him by the exit to the boutique. He approached and was stopped as Caramel held out a small cream colored vial to him. “A little bit of healing salve will cure that right up Sir.” Ledger smiled as he took it and applied a little of the mixture to the inside and outside of his nose, quickly blocking it back up with a paper towel after he was done. “So, are we set to go back to Canterlot then?” Ledger said, handing the vial back to Caramel. “I suppose so Sir.” “Excellent, let’s go see how the queen’s meetings went this week then.” “You don’t think the resistance will kill anypony, to get what they want, do you sir?” “If they didn’t kill me, I can’t imagine they would kill anypony else. After all, I’m a terrifying monster, and you are the stallions who have the misfortune of following my commands. I’m pretty despicable, aren’t I?” “Completely reprehensible sir.” Caramel smiled first, with Guitaga smiling only moments later. “Excellent.”