#2 - Celt The Bugbear

        After a short stop back at Ponyville to safely store her notes from the previous interview, Puppy Love and her spritely companion started down on the trail of the next possible human. According to the plethora of information she had gotten from a combination of Jazz, former slaves, and some “connections” she had in the local gangs, there were some fantastic stories behind a strange and unheard of creature that had been sighted all over Equestria. All of her sources agreed that the most likely place to catch up to him...

        “Oh, come on!” Dave complained from his perch. “That’s the most hilarious name I’ve heard for the name of a port!”

        “Hush up, Dave,” the Pegasus chided, brushing her mane from her eyes. “It makes sense. I mean, it’s on the other side of the jungle, they’re surrounded by tall trees, it’s a port-”

        “LongWood Port!” Dave cackled mirthfully. “I love it!”

        Her patience wearing thin, Pup countered by saying, “You would, wouldn’t you?”

        Dave wasn’t dense enough to not notice the implied joke behind her words, and he harrumphed into a brooding silence, as they flew across the vast jungle.

OIOIOIOIOIOIOIO

        The village was an odd site to the land-savvy Pegasus.

        Several houses were composed of thick, sturdy logs, and had heavily thatched roofs, obviously prepared to deal with any kind of storm that the nearby sea would try to throw at them. Sturdy wooden planks made up all of the roads...and the entire settlement was raised at least ten feet into the air, supported on tall beams of wood.

        Pup was in awe of the wide diversity of creatures living in the small port-town. Sure, she saw a sparse amount of pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies, but there were also zebras decorated in several gold rings, and cat-people with leather clothing. It was strange to the Pegasus. For the first time, she felt extremely small, like the world really WAS some huge, unknown place.

        The feeling was quickly forgotten when she felt the familiar tug in her gut that told her where her target was. Her inner journalist made itself known, as she quickly trotted into a nearby bar, where she could hear the faint sounds of...

        “GAAAH!” Pup screamed in surprise, as she saw a pony’s head explode out of the nearby wall.

The pony rolled its eyes in a daze, and slurred, “Thank you shir, may I have another?”

Dave let out a wide smile, and said, “I think we found our guy...and I think I’m gonna like him!”

        Pup gulped in worry, but stepped into the bar.

OIOIOIOIOIOIOIO

        “...How did he do that...to the entire bar?” Pup squeaked in awe, staring at the carnage that was formerly the bar.

        Tables had been smashed entirely to pieces, bottles had been smashed and completely drained. Ponies, zebras, and cat-people alike had been casually tossed around the room, some of them sticking out of the walls, others were draped over the counter and tables. The entire place reeked of alcohol, sweat, slightly overlapped by the unmistakable scent of vomit.

        Only four figures had been left standing in the wreckage. The barkeep, a changeling (this one gave Pup pause, but not enough to scare her off), an enormous wolf (Dave thought it was a giant puppy), and...well, she didn’t have a word for the last one.

        It was wearing a dark colored trenchcoat over a coat of light yellow fur, with dark sunglasses set over its eyes, and a triumphant smirk on its face. One arm looked...well, relatively normal for its body, with a sophisticated crossbow clutched tightly in his hand. The other was made of a strange metal, almost a combination between iron and steel. It wasn’t quite that, but it was the closest she could guess.

        “Well, don’t just stand there!” Dave hissed, nudging her head. “Go over there and talk to him! Gah! Is this gonna be like high school?”

        “We agreed to never mention those days again!” Puppy hissed back in reply.

        “...You know I can hear you, right?” the creature deadpanned, sitting back down in one of the few surviving chairs.

        Pup let out a nervous chuckle, before clearing her throat and settling back into her “Professional” mode. “Are you the one known as Celt?”

        He arched one of his eyebrows, “Depends who is asking.

        “Well, my name is Puppy Love. I’m a journalist for the Ponyville Inquirer, and I was hoping that I could interview you for our next issue,” Pup explained, “I’ve been investigating some reports on strange activity from ‘foreign’ creatures, and your name came up a few times.”

        “Well, I have a few moments before the ship leaves.” He pauses and looks around the bar, “And I don’t think any of these idiots would want to play with me anymore.”

        At this, Puppy got a familiar gleam in her eyes, as Dave pulled out his notepad to once more record everything that happened.

        “Okay! Let’s get started then!”

INTERVIEW

“So, first things first. Who are you? And not to sound mean, but...what are you?”

“If I considered that mean then I would not survived as long as I have. Anyway, you already know my name, but if you forgot within the 5 seconds of you saying it then, it’s Celt. And as for what I am, I am simply a bugbear.”

“A bugbear? I can’t say I’ve ever heard of one of those. Are you like the others, and...well, are you an alien too?”

“Yes, and I’ve come to sex up this planet’s women too!” He laughs.

“Sorry, heard that joke from a talking cat already. Nice try though, points for being adventurous.”

He stares down at Puppy, “I thought I was being original. Oh, well.”

“Well, that aside, were you sent here by a god as well? And did he give you any special powers, abilities, etcetera?”

“Oh, yeah totally. I was sent by Loki, god of tricksters! The cheapskate gave me a metal arm instead of a real one but if you want to know more about him, ask Fenrir here.” He points to the wolf, “Loki is his father.”

“I was actually about to ask...Why do you have said giant wolf, and...more importantly, is he hungry?”

“Oh, don’t worry about Fenrir, he only eats pegasi...oh wait.” He pauses and looks down at Puppy.

“...Erm...Why do you have him?” Puppy casually places herself closer to the nearest window.

Celt chuckles madly, “Oh, god you ponies are too easy to trick!” He quickly recovers from his laughing fit, “The reason I have him is because why the hell not?And also for the shits and giggles that usually comes from ponies reactions, isn’t that right Fenrir?”

“Indeed Celt.” The wolf boomed.

“Okay, you got me. Gotta give you that much. So, about your arm...well, what happened to it? If Loki gave it to you, does that mean you lost it before you came to our world?”

His smile faded from his face and was replaced by a saddened visage, “I lost it when a burning building fell on me.”

“I’m very sorry to hear that...I shouldn’t press you. Okay, next question...According to some of my sources, you blew up a Canterlot library, took down one of the worst criminal trios, and a plethora of other feats. Are those true?”

“Well, I haven’t heard a lot of those stories but yes most of them are probably true.” He relaxed slightly.

“Very impressive. May I ask why you did that to the library, though?”

“Do you want reality story where I am the villain or the fake story where I am the super villain?”

“Depends. Do you have a secret underground base in the fake story?”

“Might as well with how ponies blow everything out of proportions. In reality I was there to ‘borrow’ some books and I happened to trigger the alarm system that bursts into flames.” He chuckles a little, “Fun fact creating a flame in a room filled with dust from hundreds of years is not a good thing to do.”

“Well, I’m trying to fix that gossip we ponies tend to fall for nowadays. But that’s interesting...So, if all of those stories were true, then you DID help a group of ponies? Why did you do that?”

“Oh them? They just happened to be in the right place at a time when I was feeling helpful.”

“That’s certainly...blunt. Then again, you did just tear apart a bar within, what, five minutes?”

“4 minutes 34 seconds actually.” The changeling meeped.

“Wow. That’s pretty dead on. Say, why are you traveling with a changeling? Not to say they’re bad, but don’t most ponies fear them?”

“One, I don’t care less what ponies do and don’t fear. Second, I am traveling with Twitch because we made a deal.” He pushed the word Twitch hard.

“You’ve really been busy then. Alright, so, last questions: What are your plans for the future, and do you have anything you’d like to say to the readers at home?”

He looked down at his arm, “ I plan to get my arm back and as for the readers at home, for god’s sake get off your ass and do something about all the threats literally scrolling through your country like they owned it! I had to fight diamond dogs, a psychopathic griffin and fucking godlike being!”

“...That coming from an adventurer of your calibur, means something.”

Puppy extended her hoof towards the bugbear, and said, “Well thank you for your time. You really are more impressive than the rumors said you were.”

He accepts the handshake, “My pleasure we’ll do it again sometime eh?” A ringing of bells is heard off in the distance, “Well I really must be going.”

“Alrighty!” Pup smiled. “It was nice meeting you. Good luck on your travels!”

He chuckles, “Luck is for the weak!” He takes a swig of alcohol, “Vodka and rum are for the strong!”

T/N: Celt is from Troutking's story, "What Was Lost". Next Chapter: #3 - Ivan the Zebra Estimated time remaining: 59 Minutes