Artex groaned as he spun his stool so he was facing the mare, "You know exactly who I am, don't you?"

The Pegasus mare raised her head slightly to look at him, "Razor Wit described you, yes." She said no more.

Artex crossed his arms and thought, 'It IS pretty bad right now. If the Royal Guard is already involved there is a strict limit to what I can do.' He pursed his lips and sighed as his mind continued to turn, 'I didn't know this situation affected so many members of Razor's family... but this mare's son would have killed any other Human. It was dumb luck that it was me he sliced open. He cannot be allowed to just walk away from this... but I think I can help the situation. It's the right thing to do.' He closed his eyes and rubbed them with the fingers of his left hand, 'It's not a sin to be angry, but anger is no excuse to sin.' He pulled his hand away from his eyes and sent up a silent prayer of thanks toward the sky.

"I might be able to help the situation, but with the Royal Guard involved, the matter will be mostly out of my hands. I'm a royally sanctioned Emissary and the position does give me some small amount of pull, but I won't be able to be a Magistrate in the case, only a witness. As the primary victim, I MIGHT be able to help your son, but he will not get off with a warning. What he did was far too severe, but as the victim I might be able to help a little bit. There is little I can do right now though."

The mare's eyes widened as he spoke and by the time he was finished, tears glistened in her eyes, "You're staying? You're going to help?" She asked hopefully.

Artex nodded reluctantly, "I was the cause of one of the problems. The least I can do is fix one."

The mare cocked her head to the side, "Which one?"

"I didn't know that I had been uncooperative when the doctors found me... how did they find me? I'm pretty certain I never stumbled into the hospital."

The mare suddenly found the bar top very interesting, "My son... and the others with him. Once they realized what he had done, he flew to the hospital and brought them to you. While he was doing that, those Unicorns standing outside just appeared and started guiding you to the hospital. Now I'm only repeating what I heard, I wasn't there. The Unicorn stallions used their magic to do something to help you, but I don't know what that might have been. My son brought the nurses and doctors from the hospital not long after that. They tried talking to you, but when you didn't acknowledge them, they tried shouting. When that didn't work, they pushed you over onto a stretcher. They had to restrain you right away because you weren't coherent and they had to work fast. My son stayed at the hospital until the Civil Guard came and arrested him. It was Razor's Mother who made the arrest."

Artex snorted, "I've heard plenty about her. I'm surprised she didn't try to put me back in the restraints."

The mare shook her head, "She isn't that bad. I don't know where you got the idea that she was that mean. Visceral Slaughter, or Numbers as we know her, may not like other species, but she IS fair... to a fault. She's the one who filed the charges against the hospital in your stead, despite knowing that one of her own sister/wives was going to be affected by it. We're not bad Ponies, I'm sure that's hard for you to see. You're angry and you have the right to be angry, irate even. My son was so broken up over what he did and Numbers is going to be in a bad place when she gets off duty tonight. She may be stern, but she cares about us so much. This is going to destroy her. She won't let herself show it while she's on duty, but she's going to be upset when she gets home."

Artex sneered, "She hates other species. THAT is not my fault and I refuse to subject myself to somepony who hates others for being born the species they were. Racism and bigotry are two of the few things I can honestly say that I truly HATE, no matter who is involved. I will be polite to her. She did what she thought was the right thing. She was willing to do what she thought was just whether or not she liked me. I can and do respect that. If she starts treating me like garbage, I will confront her about it and I will not hold back." He softened his voice, "I love Razor Wit dearly. I came here to see if her Mother would accept me," his voice suddenly hardened, "But I will not be abused by some racist mare who hates others for the way they were born."

The Pegasus mare chuckled dryly, "I'm not surprised Razor chose somepony like you. She was always a strong-willed filly and I'm sure that hasn't changed since she moved out." Her chuckles died off and she returned to her serious demeanor, "Would you like to know why Visceral Slaughter distrusts other species? She was bullied terribly by a Gryphon when she was little. None of the adult Ponies would do anything about it because they were all afraid of the adult Gryphons. They refused to confront the adults and she was bullied from when she was little, until the year she graduated. That year, the Gryphon's parents saw what their son was doing and they beat his behind until he couldn't sit anymore. They made him publicly apologize for what he had done and personally apologize to Slaughter and her parents. The damage had been done though and she has never trusted other species. She has her aversion because in her mind, it's just a matter of time before it happens again and she wants to protect the Ponies she loves. That's part of why she doesn't talk to her own parents very often. She's still mad at them for not protecting her so she set out to protect other Ponies from species she considers dangerous. She doesn't just hate anypony who is different. She bears other species no ill will, she doesn't want to hurt any of them either. In her mind they should just stick to their own kind and leave Ponies alone."

"But that kind of insular mindset breeds weakness. It's our differences that make us strong." Artex said.

The Pegasus nodded, "I agree, but that is the way she is."

Artex sighed, "Well, thank you for telling me. What should we do now?"

The mare nodded to the bar in front of him, "Maybe you should eat your lunch."

Artex looked and sure enough, there was a plate with a grilled cheese sandwich and celery sticks on the bar in front of him. He groaned as he slowly spun toward the food, "I think my bad day trumps yours only because I was holding in my guts."

The mare shot him half a smile, "How about I take half your sandwich and you pay for it. I've had the grilled cheese here before. Trust me, you won't be able to finish it all by yourself. They put a LOT of cheese on it."

Artex sent her a small smile back and scooted the plate over so it was between them, "Fifty-fifty for one 'hell' of a bad day." He said, "Both of us on the receiving end but from different perspectives." He said holding up one half of the sandwich. He raised and lowered his hand several times, testing the weight, "Wow, this thing is heavy."

The mare giggled, "I told you."

Artex nodded, "You did..." he suddenly blinked, "I just realized, I never asked your name."

The mare nodded at him and extended her hoof, "Cloudy Skies."

"Artex Rias." He replied, shaking her hoof.

Author's Notes:

There a lot of information packed into a small amount of words. Please read carefully. The next couple of chapters will be up soon. My editor sent me back the next one so it will be up tomorrow morning.