Brandon Elstwere took a deep breath when he saw Captain Joyner approach him during dinner that evening. The news about Tamika had spread like wildfire and rumor had circulated to him about his fellow Sorcerers being approached by different members of the C.W.G. and asked to stop their magical practice sessions. Brandon had seen the confrontation coming and had correctly guessed who it was that would be confronting him.

Brandon was seated on one of the remaining stone foundations which was yet to have a new building set upon it. Dinner consisted of a new attempt for serving fish, pan fried. It had taken the cooks quite a bit longer than normal to finish the fish but the result smelt amazing. Brandon had been looking forward to enjoying his fish, but fate had a different course in mind. As the head of the Community Welfare Guardians walked over with his own plate, Brandon set his fork and knife on the clay plate resting on his lap.

Mike presumptuously sat down right next to Brandon and set his clay cup of water on the cobblestones at their feet, "Hello Brandon." he said simply.

"Hello Captain," Brandon replied taking a sip from his own clay cup, "I heard some of your officers have been talking to people today."

"You know they have," Mike looked at Brandon out of the corner of his eye, "I presume you also know what they were talking about."

Brandon nodded his head while cutting a piece of fish with his fork, "And you are here to ask me the same thing I presume," Brandon said taking a bite of his fish.

Mike likewise cut a piece of his own fish while speaking casually, "That's part of it." He brought the piece of fish to his mouth and bit down.

Brandon nodded his head before swallowing to speak, "And what would the other part be?"

Mike swallowed his piece of fish and took a sip of his water to clear out his mouth, "That would be the two of us sitting down like we are now, and discussing what are these grievances you have against the Kavim," Mike said.

Brandon smirked as he speared another piece of fish in the tines of his fork, "Why not just arrest me and break a couple of my bones instead?" Brandon jabbed verbally.

If the verbal insult against his Officers upset Mike, he never gave any indication of it. He remained cool and calm.

"One of my Officers confronted one of your Sorcerers and Tamika pulled her knife before my officer said for certain she was going to be arrested. She used the element of surprise and attacked my Officer. That same Officer needed more than thirty-five stitches. After her backup arrived, Tamika bit down and crushed the windpipe of one of the other Officers. That same Officer is in critical condition from blunt trauma to the testicles. Tamika also had her hand in her pocket when her arm was broken. That same pocket was heavily laden with small pea gravel." Mike turned and looked at Brandon for the first time in the conversation, "Your Sorcerer was all too happy to try commit murder. My Officers were under no orders to force arrests, Tamika brought it upon herself when she opened up the belly of one of my people. I would be careful which direction you chose to throw your stones. We do live in a glass house after all." Mike said gesturing to New Humansville.

Brandon smiled derisively and set aside his half finished dinner, "So," he began, "What issues we have with the Kavim? How about them lying to us about the thirteenth Noun?"

Mike chewed his mouthful of fish before answering, "We heard about that. Believe it or not we actually had a bit of a discussion in regard to that discovery this morning." he turned and regarded Brandon as he spoke, "We weren't happy about the idea either. One of the Officers came up with a possible reason for the omission." he turned back to his plate and cut another piece of fish while he spoke, "The Arch Magister and the other Unicorns actually didn't know about it."

Brandon threw his head back and laughed, "Oh that's bullshit and you know it. How could they have missed an entire Noun for who knows how many thousand years?" he put his right hand to his mouth, "Come on, is THAT the best you can come up with? Damn we need some people with some brains around here!"

Mike kept his composure as he concentrated on his meal and continued, "It's completely possible if you consider the fact that you can achieve the same effect using different Nouns. They have nothing to gain by hiding a thirteenth Noun." Mike smiled and finished his thought, "It just so happens that the Arch Magister herself has been trying to prove the existence of a thirteenth Noun for decades. It has been her life long dream to discover it. Now somebody else has and she cannot take credit for it."

Mike paused for a breath before continuing on, "If for no other reason, the discovery of a Noun places Humans in the magical safe zone. Nobody would be idiot enough to restrict the potential of a species that found an entirely new new Noun in just a couple of months. Equestrian Unicorns will be looking to Humans for a magical revolution. You have nothing to fear from any of them trying to stop all Humans from using magic unless we abuse it far, far beyond reason."

Brandon looked at Mike with a surprised face, "So Tamika is going to be famous?"

"And in prison for attempted murder, three counts of assaulting an Officer, resisting arrest, illegal practice of magic, and malicious wounding." Mike said in an off handed manner.

Brandon frowned deeply as he spoke through clenched teeth, "Damn. Now that Pony bitch can take all the credit!"

"Nope," Mike said casually, "She's already submitted the proper forms to the Princesses. She wrote Tamika's name as the source and the one who made the discovery."

Brandon snorted in disbelief, "You just have all the answers don't you."

"It wouldn't be very smart to confront a person capable of starting a splinter group dedicated to violence with magic if I didn't have a few tricks up my sleeve." Mike cleared his throat and soldiered on, "Now, truth be told I personally don't have much that I can do aside from telling you to get your license from the University Unicorns before you practice. I can arrest you, but I think that's kind of unnecessary. If you are smart enough to be a threat, then you are smart enough to be spoken to in a civil manner. So onto your next grievance?"

Brandon grunted in affirmative before clearing his throat and narrowed his eyes, "We are second class citizens compared to the Kavim. We are not treated equally. Intentionally or not the ponies are belittling us. It constantly seems like they are trying to 'tame' the us, keep us in check, or not allowing us to self-regulate. Celestia is trying to control us, not maliciously I think though. She is obviously used to being in control and has mistaken control for their vaunted ideology of harmony. She basically herded us like animals to what is essentially a giant cage where she can keep an eye on us. And not in the good, 'I’m worried for them and their safety,' kind of way, rather the, 'I’m worried about them and what they'll do,' kind of way. Too much chaos is obviously bad, but too much order leads to the situation we have here where the Ponies think that what they do is right because they are the ones doing it.

"Celestia and Luna treat us like mad dogs that will go on a killing spree at the drop of a hat, and that it is only their influence that keeps us form destroying ourselves and everything around us. Do the princesses' not understand that we've had civilizations for thousands of years without their influence? Humans should not have to explain themselves, excuse themselves or answer to Ponies in any capacity. Does any other nation answer to the Equestrian government or ask the Princesses' permission for anything? And another thing. The Ponies are getting preferential housing, why is that? We are the ones who lost everything we knew and loved. The volunteer Ponies can just leave and go home at their leisure while we are stuck with a situation we never asked for. After all our other hardships I think we could at least get first pick of the nice houses.

"Luna straight up lied and abducted Chris. What if we had taken Luna captive would Celestia have acted so calmly? I sincerely doubt it. Furthermore Luna isn't being punished for it. A mild humiliation does not count. She should be imprisoned or lashed at the bare minimum. Celestia and Luna are nearly demanding that we trust them, but they have not offered any reason to do so, nor have they trusted us. The only thing we know about Celestia is based off of our first interaction, in which she demanded ridiculous concessions in order to manipulate us into giving in to her demands. Celestia, Luna and all Ponies are simply not qualified to judge humanity especially when their first interaction was to repay an offer of peace with a slaughter. I know that it supposedly wasn't the intent but it is how we first knew them. It happened on Celestia's watch. Her guards, her self-imposed responsibility, her fault. I hate to say it like this, but if Celestia had just gotten personally involved from the start, a lot of suffering could have been avoided. She chose to not get involved until there was literally no alternative and both sides were on the brink of war, which is just poor leadership. I am a firm believer in the idea that everyone is guilty of all the good that they don't do. And Celestia didn't do anywhere near enough.

"They are trying to treat us like Ponies. Humans are not Ponies. Our views and ways are not their views and ways. We are a totally different people with a different history, culture and philosophy that are literally beyond the Pony’s comprehension. Blue cannot comprehend orange. No practicing magic without Pony supervision forces us to do things the Pony way instead of learning ways more suited to humanity. The Ponies treat us like children and yet we are the ones to discover a new Noun. If we had stuck to Pony mandated magic training, we would have been told that there were only the existing Nouns and never expanded any significant knowledge in the possibilities of magic."

Brandon took a deep breath and clenched his fists, "Sorry, I know you asked for no belligerence but, where the hell do the Ponies get off telling us that we are not allowed to hunt animals for food? Are the Gryphons only allowed to eat fish because the Ponies say so? And what about our weapons? Weapons are a part of our culture and history. Everything from the crafting to the wielding of weapons is a form of art. I would happily take the compromise of: "You can craft and carry a sword or whatever, but it can't be sharpened to an edge." That way the art of swords and other weapons still exists, but for all intents and purposes they are just fancy clubs. Why haven't those involved in the massacre been handed over to human custody, to be put through a trial and punished in accordance with human justice? Frankly the got off ridiculously lightly. One month of what amounts to Community Service per dead human?! That is very demeaning view of the value of human lives that Celestia and Luna have. Oh, and the commander walked away with mere banishment while we lost some 10% of our population, which is a devastating amount considering our gene pool is shrinking. There needs to be justice and compensation for this, not just an apology and a handout of a single favor. Apologies are just words. When one side gains and the other side loses, that's not a compromise, that's a defeat.

"Ponies using magic on us is also demeaning. A Pony sees two humans fighting and breaks them up with magic. I know that they are trying to help, but they're doing it with a Pony mentality. The non-magic equivalent would be if two people were fighting and then a third broke them up by tying them up and dragging them apart. It's like putting a leash on a dog. The current mentality of YOU, our leadership, seems to be "Humans do A, but Ponies do B, so we will do B." This is similar to indoctrination. And don't say "When in Rome". The phrase "When in Rome" was invented by the Romans, because they wanted the entire world to be like them. I want us to stand up for ourselves, call out the Princesses on their crap, and not capitulate for the Ponies. And now that some of us are powerful enough to give the Princesses, if not all of Equestria, a run for their money, I want our leaders to walk up to the Princesses, toss them a stack of papers and say, "These are the new laws and ordinances of humanity. We are not asking, we are telling." I don't want to be conquerors, I just want to be strong and independent."

Mike chewed on his final piece of fish and set the plate down on his left, "Quite a list. You have some valid concerns, but I also see some things that you seem to have missed, or perhaps you never quite understood. When Celestia, as you put it, 'herded us here' you are right she did. I do have to ask though, what would have happened if they sent a single Kavim to talk to us, or if Celestia had come to us herself?"

Brandon rolled his eyes, "That's easy. If it was a single one of them somebody would have gotten pissed and riled everybody up as a mob and killed them, or in Celestia's case they would have tried to." Brandon pursed his lips, "I cannot believe you are defending them for herding us."

Mike shrugged, "Personally I cannot think of any other way for them to have persuaded us to come here at that time. The grief and hard feelings from the Massacre were still too fresh for any of us to be in a reasonable mind set. Heck, plenty of us still aren't reasonable and that's understandable. Had they tried to send us a message, we would have torn it up, had they tried to leave us alone and send us food or supplies right then, we probably would have burned them. Sometimes the most reasonable solution is the offensive one. Was it demeaning to be herded like cattle? Of course it was, but it was the best they could have done. In regard to holding us in a cage. Of course she did after a bunch of us went and all but carried out our own massacre. You're judging all of them all based on what those fifty Royal Guards did and then you turn around and say it's wrong for them to act the same way? What, should I be held personally responsible for what happened with Jason, the same way you want Celestia to be? Besides this so-called cage isn't a cage. This is a safety barrier, I don't know why you can't see that. What would happen if we just decided to wander off to the next town when they have no idea what we are yet? Mass panic, more miscommunication, probably more than a few deaths. We don't yet speak their language fluently enough, we barely have the same grasp of magic their children do and plenty of us are more powerful than their Guards. Trying to introduce us to any sized population in our current condition is asking for trouble."

Mike ran his hands through his hair,
"The colonists who decided to come here knew they were in for a big change with a new and strange species and they were still caught off guard at first. By placing the colonists with us everybody involved is taken out of their comfort zone and has to adapt to work together. Once we start moving away from here, and some of us will for certain, instead of getting an overload of culture shock we will at least have an idea of what to expect. Besides even that, if the Kavim are curious, and we know they are, a lot of them would want to come see the new species. They would be innocently inquisitive but extremely disruptive while we are still trying to get on our feet. Human news crews in the reversed scenario would mercilessly hound any aliens on Earth until somebody either forced them to stop or someone would end up getting hurt and the situation would spiral out of control. Like it or not, this was the only really feasible option. As for the Kavim always thinking they are right because they do something one way and we do it another, I've noticed something and I think that if you stop to consider it you will too. Most Kavim tend to assume the best about others while we tend to assume the worst. Their way is not necessarily better than ours, but nor is ours better either. There will be clashes, that is unavoidable and there is really nothing we can do about it. For example: they were willing to rewrite their laws to allow all civilians to carry a type of weapon, which is something they NEVER allowed before. It is a clash of morals and ethics and we have to find a compromise with them. This is a work in progress that may never end, but condemning them for being different won't help any.

"Celestia and Luna don't treat us like mad-dogs, they treat us like kids with built in weapons. How would you treat unfamiliar aliens in your world who have built in weapons? Of course they're worried about us going ballistic, Celestia has Dan's memories. See Dan was the type of person to think the very worst about folks and he didn't like most people because he didn't trust them unless they've proven themselves to him. Celestia has only one person's memories to go by and no offense to Dan, but he isn't the person I would have chosen to be a source of knowledge on Humans. Yes we had civilizations for thousands of years, and in that time how many millions of people died because of our own natures, our own warmongering. You say we shouldn't answer to any Kavim, but you know, you KNOW that without anybody to answer to we run wild and cause chaos and death. That is a part of Human nature. Who do you propose we answer to? Our leaders?"

Brandon shook his head, "It would be better than being under their thumbs."

Mike shook his head sadly, "So what? We steal land from them and claim it as our own? Where would we be without them? No, we didn't ask to be here, but they could have seen us as invaders and kicked us out. I've heard tales about Gryphons, would you rather live in a land ruled by apex predators who probably outweigh us several times over? We don't have the option to annex from Equestria. The Kavim have promised us protection from other nations, have you given that any thought? If America suddenly had aliens land inside our country every other nation in the world would be trying to either befriend them for their own purposes or exploit them. This world may not be Earth, but I should think that not all nations are like Equestria. If we declared independence from Equestria not only would we be spitting in their faces but we would be opening ourselves up to every other nation in this world and it would hardly be fair to expect the Kavim to come to our aid after we figuratively flipped them off. I don't much care for answering to the Kavim, but I'll take that over possibly ending up as slaves or a meal for some other species.

"As for receiving preferential housing, where did you get that idea? The only Ponies who have moved into houses are the ones with children, uh foals. We WILL be getting first pick of houses and homes when the houses are done. I have THAT in written form, signed by four Kavim Alicorns. In regard to Luna's punishment, that is up to Chris. He is the one she wronged and he decided that she deserved to wear that ridiculous collar. Do I think Celestia would have been as reasonable as Chris if we had abducted Luna by force? Yes, because we would have had a much harder time doing so and we probably would have suffered extensively in the attempt. Just TRYING to kidnap Luna would be an ordeal of epic proportions and one that would not likely end in our favor. I think Celestia would pity us for the attempt.

"As far as Luna and Celestia all but demanding that we trust them, you are correct, they are, however I hasten to add that they HAVE given us reason to trust them. They could have wiped us out in one swift move as soon as they learned about what Dan thinks about other Humans but they didn't. They could have captured us and performed experiments on us but they didn't. There are a ton of things they could have done, both good and bad. They've made mistakes, so have we, but they are working with a species that they had only the most negative information on, and in light of that fact, I think they did pretty well. When Celestia opened the first negotiations with us after Jason almost murdered a family, she used actual negotiator methods, methods she KNEW I was familiar with. Dan knew I knew those methods so she used what was familiar to me. She played the situation the same was as any negotiator does. I knew what she was doing and I have to admit that given the fact that a bunch of us snuck off in the middle of the night to massacre a bunch of their citizens, she was extremely understanding. You have to be willing to look at the situation from her perspective. Now, I do agree with you that no Pony is in any position to judge us. Simply put, they do not have the proper basis for it, but in that same respect nor do we. You said that the Ponies who participated in the Massacre should be handed over to us for judgement, I have to disagree. We would have killed them all as revenge and called it justice. Look at Beacon. He freely admits he was one of the ones who participated in the Massacre, but he was willing to defend Jason from his own kind and was willing to die doing so. No Human murderer would do that.

"I'm also with you on the point that everybody is guilty of the good they could have done. As far as Celestia not doing enough though, yeah I agree with you there too. But like I said our two species don't know enough about each other's cultures and social structures to judge. Now, for us being forced to learn magic the way Ponies do, I have to disagree with you. The Human way of learning about something new and destructive would probably end up with a bunch of us blown up by accident. Maybe the Ponies rules for practicing magic are too strict, but we are infants when it comes to magic and some experience is better than none, which is what we have. I also have to disagree with you on your opinion that nobody would have found the new Noun. Catalyst was looking for it anyway. Once we knew enough not to blow ourselves up she would have probably jumped at any opportunity to test new ideas, but you didn't give her the chance. I do think that in this case we have no idea how to proceed and we should follow their example. It is a surefire way that works and we have no safer method of practicing."

Brandon chuckled, "Oh bull, the way my Sorcerers and I were practicing was plenty safe. We had the ward exactly right. You can't say we weren't being cautious enough."

"Yes I can," Mike countered, "We all know that a ward only stands up to the same Noun and Verb total which was used for casting it. If one of you had surpassed that number the ward would have failed and you would have serious issues."

Brandon didn't respond so Mike continued, "As far as hunting for food goes, didn't you get the little memo that the animals in Equestria are intelligent?"

Brandon twitched and turned to Mike with a disbelieving expression, "You're kidding me."

Mike shook his head, "Nope. Try watching Darryl's fox and then you tell me there isn't some significant mental power there. That fox isn't colorblind and it can count at least to ten. I'm all but certain it can understand everything we or the Ponies say. As far as weapons go, I see no reason why you couldn't carry around a blunted sword. Eduardo has one, it's a machete but the purpose is pretty much the same. As for the Commander who orchestrated the Massacre, that is out of our hands and there isn't anything we can do about it now. As for compensation, a public apology certainly wasn't enough, but did you forget the boons that each of us has? A single boon from Celestia, I have no idea how powerful that boon might be, but I get the impression they aren't all that common. How about we test the limits of that boon before we condemn everything she's done. She has already admitted she isn't perfect and makes mistakes and while they may still owe us something, we do not have the moral high ground either. If you wish to pursue further compensation, I see no reason not to pursue it, but starting up a splinter group to violently use magic as a weapon, you're making terrorists, hell you're practically trotting in the footsteps of the I.R.A. and we all KNOW they never injured an innocent."

Mike rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed, "If you feel that there is any sort of threat to our freedom with magic, how about reaching out to the Ponies? They wouldn't, they COULDN'T survive without it and it helps put us on equal footing with them. After how we handled ourselves during The Battle For New Humansville without us using magic, I would imagine they would be rather upset that the aliens who didn't have to die to defend them were being mistreated. Don't alienate your most powerful source of support. Instead of hosting magical practice sessions in the forest, practice it safely, but go to your instructors and ask about a sort of magic user group who are warriors. I happen to know that one already exists. You aren't breaking ground Brandon, you're reinventing the wheel here. Just use what is already available to you and for God sake give it time. Things don't change in the blink of an eye so let's wait and see what happens but have plans in place in case something does go wrong. That's not terrorism, that's thinking ahead. Do what you feel is best, follow your convictions, but just do it within the confines of the law. If things go to hell then you will have allies who knew you were right, if not then at least you were prepared." Mike turned and smiled at Brandon.

Brandon scrunched up his nose and growled, then stood up and walked away yelling over his shoulder, "You win this round, Captain, I'll keep the peace for now, but if things go down the way I know they will, you'll come running to me begging for help."

Special thanks to the co-author of this chapter ReaperManX15 for assisting me. As usual please remember to Like if you like the story. There will be a second Live Character Q & A in a few more chapters, specifics to follow in upcoming chapters.