-Chapter XLI- Ain't That a Kick In the Head?
-Ponyville, Equestria
-March 31st, 2012
-7:26 A.M.
-Nicholas
"You're not from around here, are you?" Rainbow Dash asked as she continued to examine me curiously. Though she tried to hide it, I could see a glimpse of suspicion in her magenta eyes.
"Not exactly," I replied coolly. "But I'm...somewhat familiar with the ways of pony- er, Ponyville."
She narrowed her eyes as she trotted around me, circling me. I could feel her judging stare as she examined every detail of my pony body. "Where are you from, then?" she asked smoothly.
"Uh..." I trailed away, not knowing any cities of Equestria. As discomfort told hold of me one luckily appeared in my mind. "Canterlot," I stated with a firm nod of my head.
"Canterlot..." she echoed. I felt my confidence begin to ebb away as she continued on with the questions, prying further into a pony life that I did not lead. "And you said your name was 'Nicholas Swiftsword'? That's unusual for a pony to have two names. Especially that first one. It sounds almost...American."
Panic shot through me. "Actually...it's Nordic," I said, deciding to blend the truth in a bit. "I'm actually named after a great warrior." Supposedly, I added silently. Suddenly a thought appeared in my mind. "Also, you wouldn't happen to be able to tell me where I could find Princess Celestia, would you?"
"Princes Celestia?" she repeated.
I nodded. "Yeah, I need to talk to her about something called the Elements of Harmony. Would you happen to know where she is?"
She shot me a glance of disbelief. "You're...kidding, right?"
"Should I...be...?"
Automatically her expression became blank, and I couldn't read her emotions. It seemed all feeling just melted away with my question. "No," she answered simply.
"Uh..."
"Hm," the multicoloured pony gave one last look over me with a nod of acceptance. "All right then," she said. "Have a good day, Nick." I gave a nervous smile as she began to flap her wings, and jumped high into the air with a burst of wind that caused my pony fur coat to become ruffled and my mane to fly about in a frenzy. I began to trot away, unnerved. There was something about how she had said my name before she flew off. It was almost with a hint of spite, it seemed. I drew a heavy sigh before beginning to trot away again. I thought I saw Twilight trotting along further down the road with Spike and Stealth on either side of her, coming towards me with a welcoming smile, but a shot of terror ran through her face before a sharp pain ran through the back of my skull and the world around me blacked out.
As the world of black enveloped me, I felt a circle of eyes watching me from every angle. It was as if...they were watching me with relentless gazes of uncertainty and bewilderment, yet...others were fascinated by me, like I was their entertainment. I heard a heavy, deep laugh in the distance, echoing through my mind as I looked around frantically for some sort of light at the end of the veil of black. When I couldn't find it, panic shot through my blood and fear gripped me. A miniscule speck of light sparked far, far in the distance. I felt a glimmer of hope well up inside of my heart as the light grew stronger, but hope soon turned to dread when I realized that this light would not be my salvation, and even worse when I noticed that I wasn't going towards it, but it was coming towards me. I turned to run with all of my might, as far as my pony legs could carry me away from the impending danger.
I opened my eyes, it seemed, and I was again in Celestia's throne room. Fear again gripped me as I saw a line of soldiers in blue uniforms surrounding the room, each and every one of them armed with rifles as big as I, all aimed at the pony sitting at her throne with a dignified look across her face as the collection of dozens of enemy soldiers all had their fingers ready to squeeze the trigger if she even were to move a pony muscle. The large, beautiful, majestic pony princess sat straight, staring directly across the throne room from her to where the massive doors hung from their strong hinges, where a man, tall and thin, with a suit of pure white, blond hair, and watched menacingly as he wielded a shotgun with only one hand, pointing it straight to Princess Celestia's head. I yelled out to attract their attention, but no matter how hard I tried to cry out, no words came.
"No!" I yelled, shooting up from where I lied. Panic didn't begin to ebb away as the memory of the dream passed. In fact, it only increased as I realized where I was. I looked around, panic and confusion blending through my mind as I looked at six ponies that stood over me. I was in a cage, lost as I ever could be, and looking back up at two ponies in specific: Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash.
"No what?" Pinkie asked from between Twilight and an orange pony with freckles.
"W-where am I?" I stammered.
"Right now, heading away from anywhere you could do any harm to anypony," a white unicorn mare stated curtly.
I held my head as it throbbed and looked up at the bitch in confusion. "What the hell are you talking about?"
As I said it I could tell I had done something wrong then and there. They all jumped back in fear before exchanging nervous glances. The most surprised seemed to be Twilight. "How dare you use such language!" the white pony scorned.
I snorted in irritation. "How pathetic," I said quietly.
"What was that?" Rainbow Dash asked angrily, pressing her face to the cage that surrounded me.
"You heard me," I retorted sternly. "Why am I here?" I asked again.
"You tell us," the white mare demanded.
"All right, fine. A group of raving mad horses kidnapped me and are now taking me to their lair."
The yellow pegasus mare standing quietly behind the throng of ponies shied away from my words as Rainbow Dash and the white mare returned my anger straight back at me. Pinkie, however, found my rebuttal humourous. "Hahaha! That's funny! Ooh! Ooh! Tell another one!" she pleaded as she lied back on the floor laughing.
I sighed. "Let me out of here. Now," I demanded, "or else."
"Or else...what?" the orange freckled pony asked with a desperately hidden tone of fear.
"He'll kill Princess Celestia!" Rainbow Dash stated before I could speak a word.
"What?" I demanded. "I'm trying to save your pathetic horse asses!"
"First off, we're ponies. You'd know that if you were one of us!"
My eyes widened as I was taken aback. How could they possibly know? "What makes you think I'm not one of you?" I asked scornfully.
"Well...you ain't really acting like one of us..." the orange pony said uneasily.
I looked at her in confusion. It was obvious she had tried to defend me while I was unconscious. "Who are you?" I asked, more softly this time.
I met her green-eyed gaze for a moment before her stare darted away. "Applejack."
My gaze moved over to the white unicorn. "And the bi- I mean, jerk?"
She was disgusted with the simple insult that had replaced my thoughts. "I am Rarity. And you are not welcome here in Ponyville! Nor Equestria, for that matter!"
"Rarity!" Twilight intervened. "How could you say that about anypony? You've never been one to judge a book by its cover," she said as she nervously darted her purple eyes from me and back to her.
I snorted. "That's surprising..." I said quietly, not realizing it was loud enough for anyone else to hear, but when Pinkie began to laugh it my comment I found otherwise.
"Why you foreign ruffian!" Rarity spat.
"Rarity!" Applejack called out.
"And you!" I turned to Rainbow Dash, "I haven't got the foggiest idea as to what you put into their heads, but I am no murderer!"
"Oh yeah? Prove it!" the multicoloured mare spat back.
"How can I? You locked me up for no good reason!"
"Because you're dangerous!" Rarity shot back.
"Take me out of this cage and I'll show you just how dangerous I am!" I yelled, unable to further control my anger.
"Nick!" Twilight yelled out.
"I knocked you out once, I can do it again," Rainbow Dash said with a scowl.
"Oh please!" I replied quickly, "you knocked me out by hitting me in the back of the head, or at least, I assume," I rubbed the back of my skull, "you call that a clean K.O.? You're worse than I thought!"
The anger that flashed fiercely in Rainbow Dash's eyes were burning so hotly I thought she'd charge at me and break the cage with her head then and there, but as she stood, Applejack forced her back down. "Nicholas Quicker...whatever, y'all ain't makin' a very good impression on us," she said, curiosity quickly turning to defensive anger.
"Why bother? Rainbow Dash seems to have done that for me," I said as I turned my back to the group. "Twilight seems to be the only sensible one." I looked over my shoulder as I felt the angry gazes of half the ponies burned into my back. My gaze automatically turned to the yellow mare pegasus. "And what about you, eh? You gonna assume I'm an assassin too? Is that what this bitch drilled into all of your brains? I'm some sort of...foreign spy sent here to kill your precious monarch where I am, in fact, here to save your royal leader from a spawn of evil!"
The yellow mare hid her face behind her long pink mane, squeaking in fear. The fear that I had sparked in her eyes caused me to soften my gaze a bit, but I quickly turned back around. The silence and tension was so strong as the train continued to clatter outside that I heard even Pinkie's squeal of fear. "You expect us to believe that?" Rainbow Dash demanded.
"At this point, with what you believe already..." I said without turning around, "No. Not really." I turned to face her magenta stare. "But if you ever wish for your...your princess to live, you will." I watched with a hint of satisfaction as a glimmer of self-doubt shot through Rainbow Dash's eyes, and her anger faulted for only a moment. A moment, however, that I felt last just as long as she seemed to. "You believe me, don't you?" I asked in a whisper, making sure it was only loud enough for her and I to hear.
She swallowed hard before returning to her fierce expression. "Of course not!" she spat at me.
"Why?" I asked without showing emotion.
She seemed to shake off my question without a second thought. "Hey Twilight, how long until we're in Canterlot?"
"About twenty minutes or so," Twilight answered without thinking. I watched as she stared doubtfully at her hooves.
"We're going to Canterlot?" I asked in surprise.
"Yeah, Canterlot. You know, where you said you were from, but are obviously not. Anypony from Equestria, especially from Canterlot, would know that Princess Celestia lives in Canterlot," she explained as she watched me. "Who are you? Really," she demanded.
"I am Nicholas Swiftsword!" I said, beginning to raise my voice again.
"Where are you from, then, Nicholas."
"I..." I didn't have an answer. "I'm...Equestrian," I stated simply, looking over my ponified hand. There were no words to describe how much I missed my hand. Especially my thumbs.
"Sure you are."
"I am." I said persistently.
"You are coloured strangely. Like an American horse would be."
Twilight began to interfere with the pegasus' rant. "Dashie, just because he's brown and tan doesn't mean he's American, and besides even if he were-"
"Were you there, Twilight, when the last American horse was here? He was a complete moron. He could hardly talk, and what he did say was that he let a...a human ride him!" Rainbow Dash automatically retorted. "If not American, then Hylian, or Alagaesian, or Nordic or something." I couldn't help but let my ears perk up a bit at the mentioning of Skyrim.
"He's got a cutie mark, Rainbow." Applejack objected.
"Which is a sword! It can't get any clearer than that, Aj. Why would he want to know where Princess Celestia is, if he lives in Canterlot. He's obviously not got the Equestrian spirit, and..."
"And what?" I dared. "I'm just as much an Equestrian pony as all of you, ask anybody else!"
Suddenly the expression of hatred escaped Rainbow Dash's face and was promptly replaced with a look of pure triumph. Her smile made it seem as though she had just won the entire debate without a word. She slowly walked back to where I sat in the cage and leaned her head closer to the bars before victoriously whispering, "anypony."