Target on Your Back {open}

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight Sparkle lay on the ground, panting and staring at the street, not believing what just happened. Her heart was going a mile a minute, far faster than she could ever recall hearing it go in times past, and likely far faster than was truly healthy for anyone. Yet she couldn't really blame it, not after what happened. She wasn't even aware of the splashed tea that decorated the front of her shirt, even though the heat of it was not exactly pleasant. Twilight wasn't even that concerned about the scrapes and bruises she felt already developing on her body.

No, of much greater concern to her was the fact that a car had nearly run her over.

She'd just been coming out of the Hattery, having doublechecked that everything would be alright for a meeting there. she'd also done some measurements to make certain that her slide-projector would work out like it was supposed to. Everything had gone well; Twilight had bought her tea and had hit the streets. But barely had she stepped out when a car came barreling at her out of no where. The unicorn girl still hadn't fully developed the right reflexes for dodging traffic, so there had been a few moments of stunned staring while her brain attempted to put things together. Just as the car got close enough to clip her, Twilight's reflexes finally kicked in. she threw up her hands, the shimmering purple of her magic soon surrounding her. It was good too, because the car clipped her, spun her, and soon Twilight ended up laying on the ground.

Which was where she remained, too stunned and in shock to move. How had... what had... that was just... she could have died, at the speed that was going. She'd only been lucky to get lightly banged up because of her magic, If she hadn't had that...

[Guts Blackhound]

Guts slowly hovered over the downed body of the girl that lay in the middle of the road, merely staring down at her from behind the lenses of his sunglasses. He gradually lowered the accessory, his one good eye surveying her for any injuries or if she was even alive. Discovering that her chest was raising and lowering to signify breathing, he crossed his arms.
He had seen the whole thing when he had been walking up the street. The metal dragon screaming down the road, the flash of purple light and the tumbling of the girl into the concrete below. It wasn't too far out of his way and he was at-least curious to see if she was dead or not, but now that he had found out she wasn't his curiousity was sated.

"Idiot. You shouldn't go fighting something like that if you aren't prepared for it." He grumbled, reaching his non-prosthetic hand down to help her up.
Coming from the dark ages, even if he had been exposed to some technological advances, meant he still was trying to get his head around some of the facets of the modern world. Chief among them was machines, while next among them was social norms."Guess you should just be grateful you aren't dead."

[Twilight Sparkle]

It took Twilight a few moments to realize that the man standing over her was actually standing over her instead of just sort of standing near her. Following that was a few more moments of realizing that he was actually addressing her. As for his statement, all Twilight could do to that was offer an indignant look and: "It's not like I was challenging it to a duel or anything! That--that car came out of no where and tried to run me over!" It did more than try, technically, and Twilight felt she had to add: "If it wasn't for my magic..."

She paused, looking to the hand offered and following it up to the person doing the offering. Large, imposing, and practically bristling with muscles, the man looked intimidating. Twilight liked to think she was at least a little hard to intimidate, but if she'd seen him first, she probably wouldn't have quite shot off with all the nervous banter. She took the offered hand nonetheless, and with Guts' help, worked herself back to her feet, albeit with some unsteady wobbling.

"Thanks," Twilight managed. She looked down at herself and frowned, trying to dust off. Realizing that her hand had lingered, she released, offering a bit of an abashed smile at the man. her eyes scanned him again, coming to a rest for a moment upon the artificial hand. That was certainly something you didn't see every day, and the guy hadn't mentioned cars or her being run over. Twilight was still too frazzled to think too much about it though; the whole incident was still wrapped tightly in her head, to the point where all she could manage was a: "I think that car wanted to hit me on purpose..."

[Guts Blackhound]

Guts stared at her in silence, his expression neutral despite the manner she initially spoke to him. He was willing to brush it off as her just being in shock, and even then she wasn't a threat and neither did he have any real ill will towards her. After helping her to her feet the black swordsman took a moment to look at her, mainly to try to make sure she wasn't going to just topple over or succumb to injury. He also couldn't shake the sense of familiarity with this woman.
Her strange hair color, the ability to use magic, and the general mannerisms she displayed all reminded him of Schierke: A young witch who had spent her time isolated from the world aside from her mentor, the original witch of the forest. She had given him and his companions new equipment, and also offered to aid them in the defense of the village at Enoch. After that, everything became a blur. He found it strange he regarded someone he knew so little about with such affection, but something about the woman reminded him of her.

"Had a feeling you were a witch, the hair and the glow kind of gave it away." It was then he saw her gaze rest on his person, looking down to where she gazed. Discovering it was his prosthetic hand she was looking at he returned to look at her again, although again his expression was neutral. He didn't seem all that bothered by the fact she had almost gotten run over or even the fact she had just produced a magical field, in-fact he seemed almost nonchalant about the whole thing.

It took him a moment to register that car was the name of the thing that had hit her, eventually giving a nod."Well, that thing didn't kill you and it's gone for now. I think getting out of here would be the better idea though, but stay alert. If that car wanted you dead, it'll probably try again." It was then a thought occured to him."Speaking of monsters, I need to find a place to store my sword. Don't know why they're so strict on not carrying them around, but i'll add it to the list of strange things about this place." He slowly turned, looking as though he was about to walk off.
His job was done for the time being and he had no obligation to this woman, even if she did remind him of someone he once knew. If the monster known only as a Car had stuck around he would have done what he could to make short work of it despite feeling weaker then he usually did.

[Twilight Sparkle]

"Witch?" repeated Twilight, nearly sputtering. Her eyes went wide again, the disbelief cutting at least partially through the whole car attempted murder thing. She blinked a few times, simply too stunned that anyone would think her a witch to say anything to the contrary for several seconds. Eventually, however, she found her voice: "I'm not a witch, I'm a unicorn!" Which was, of course, said far too loudly and involved rather wide hand gestures. Thankfully, Twilight's magic was under enough control to not instantly have some strange reaction, but the motion still had the normal reaction.

Next came the sobering reality, the same thing that Twilight had already suspected: the car had likely attacked her, and it would likely come back and do it again. that made Twilight's hands lower, nearly made her jaw lower. What she was supposed to do with that, exactly? Yes, she'd been thinking it, but it just made her brain repeat the old information over again: why? Why would anyone bother to attack her or want her dead? While Twilight thought, she heard the man say something about swords, which triggered the official training:

"You can actually carry a weapon around so long as you register it with the officials and don't use it except in self-defense. We're concerned that you're not some kind of crazed psycho killer; it's not that we want to disarm everyone and control everything. Though they probably do, it would make sense..." Twilight mumbled the last, only to glance up and realize that the man was, in fact, looking as though he wanted to leave. Twilight supposed it made sense, but her eyes drifted, looking to see if there was a sword or something. His hand alone would count as a weapon and probably should have been noted by whomever had registered him. "Wait, if you want to register your weapon you'll want to head to the offices," Twilight bit her lip for a moment, her scattered brain working, trying to latch onto this circumstance as opposed to what had happened. In truth, she was half thinking about the fact that this guy looked to be some kind of protector and she was looking more and more like someone who needed protecting.

"Did you maybe want some help? I work for the estates..." Twilight trailed off, the thought cutting off her words: Is that why someone tried to kill me? Or is it because of CAUS...

[Guts Blackhound]

Guts couldn't help the smile that crossed his face before he let out a chuckle at Twilights raised voice and over the top gestures. He saw far too much of Schierke in her, although that reaction was one she had shared with Isidro mostly in the short time he'd known her.
He briefly wandered if they were alright: He had left right in the middle of a big fight, and there had been alot of trolls charging at him. At-least that was as far as he remembered until he'd ended up in a back alley.
"Right..." He didn't sound like he even remotely believed her claim that she was a unicorn. All the evidence he had just added up to Witch, there was nothing else to it. If she wanted to avoid being burnt at the stake she'd have to do better then that."If you're scared of getting burnt or strung up relax, I havn't got a reason to rat you out to the church or local guard." He stared at her in surprise as she mentioned a way to make it so he could wander freely with his sword once more.

"You can make it so I can carry my sword around? Well, the sooner I can do that the happier i'll be. Travelling this place without it just feels wrong, but nothing about this place makes much sense. Can't even wear armor here! This place is nuts." He turned to walk again but this time gestured for the woman to follow him, his smile fading once again to his neutral expression. She did show some magical prowess, and the black swordsman hadn't bought for a second she was a Unicorn. Even by his standards, that was just silly! His brand hadn't stung or bled so she wasn't an Apostle, but she definitely wasn't an ordinary everyday girl either. Then again, nobody here seemed to be ordinary. "Say, long shot but does the name Schierke ring any bells?" The sooner he got a lead on his companions the sooner he could find Casca and the sooner he could get back to his original goal: Restoring Casca's mind.

[Twilight Sparkle]

"Burnt? Strung up?" repeated Twilight, her voice again hopping up an octave in sheer disbelief. Who would do something like that? Twilight was nearly tempted to outright ask, but the man had already supplied: a local church or guard. That nearly made Twilight laugh. She worked for the locals, and the guards were, well, actually Twilight wasn't quite sure what her relationship with the suits was, and she definitely didn't want to test it anytime soon. Better to just lay low for now, which definitely did not mean getting run over by cars, and don't think that hadn't left Twilight's mind. Her heart still hammered loud enough to nearly drown out the conversation.

Thankfully, the more Twilight had to do, the easier she could toss aside the nerves and reaction. "Well, actually, most of the people who work here can do that for you. You really should have been given the option upon arrival. They usually check everyone, and if you prove yourself to be relatively stable, they allow you to keep your weapons on your person," Twilight shrugged. She couldn't help but feel she was repeating herself a little there, but she was still a little too shaken to really help it. "And armor wouldn't help you much here. Unless it's the type that would reflect bullets. I don't think there are actually any rules about it, just... people don't," Twilight offered. Her voice had trailed partly because of the explanation, and partly because thinking of armor made her think of the guardspony she'd been closest to: her brother.

The question, however, jerked Twilight right out of her reverie. "Shriek? No, I'm afraid I don't know any shriek..." She said. She frowned, then shook her head. "I'm Twilight Sparkle..." She glanced at the road again, flinching as a car moved close by. "Could we maybe move a little? I'm afraid another one's going to decide that I look like a good target."

[Guts Blackhound]

Guts thought back to his arrival, remembering rather vividly the smells and the constricting walls of the alleyway that he had been transported to. There was also the fact he had taken a swing at the man sent to greet him, breaking his nose and no doubt his pride.
"Didn't get much explained to me. But, i think that had to do with his injury" He replied matter of factly, offering a shrug."The grunt gave me a basic run down of this place, told me some things i can and can't do. Most of it still doesn't make sense, I don't even know why I'm here...and why she isn't."

It bugged him to no end that Casca and his companions had not been able to make it with him. They had been in the church, and Schierke had been overlooking him. Even if it was only short range, why hadn't those trolls been brought through too? Perhaps it was just capable of bringing one person through at a time, or maybe it was something that only made sense to the world of magic. He didn't pretend to understand it, all he knew was that it existed.
The question of armor being useless made him shake his head."You'd be surprised what a good breastplate can do. Even if it's not much against a demon claw or a canonball, it can still stop a serious injury from being a fatal one." He learned that lesson from experience. His armor hadn't made him impervious to injury from his enemies, but it had kept him alive. There had been times he knew if it wasn't for his armor his fractures would have been broken bones, and blows that had severely injured him would have proven fatal. Without it or his sword he felt utterly vulnerable.

"Figured you wouldn't know her." He stopped next to an alley, hearing Twilights introduction."Just a second." Walking down the alley, he quickly opened a large metalic dumpster which he quickly sifted through. Grumbles and growls of frustration could be heard as he sifted through the waste that had been casually thrown into this giant chest. In retrospect it wasn't the best place to put it, but he hadn't been able to find anywhere else. His house lacked the space to store it and he wasn't just going to leave it in the surrounding landscape for any would be thief to steal. He had happened upon these giant, smelly, chests in his travel through the street and had placed it in there for temporary safe keeping. It had been just before he had seen the accident as well, so he hadn't left it for long. He eventually retrieved his weapon and made his way back.

"Sorry for the wait, had to grab something." As he rested the tip of the blade on the ground in-front of him with a thud, it became readily obvious just why he'd had so much trouble retrieving it or storing it. The sword was huge!
No, It was too big to be called a sword. Massive, thick, heavy, and far too rough. Indeed, it was more akin to a heap of raw iron then a blade. Scratches marked the flat of the blade, indicating that it had seen battle more then once while the edges looked dulled. There was still a sharpness there, but the weapon appeared more of a bludgeoning tool then a weapon of finesse.
Still, in spite of appearance, the weapon was wieldable. Even now Guts could still swing it, although it required the use of both his hands and felt far clunkier then it had back when he had walked his land as the behemoth slayer of demons.

"You lead. Besides, you're the one who can get me permission to carry this thing again." Both hands on the hilt, he hoisted it up onto his shoulder and followed along behind the former unicorn once she begun walking, managing to keep pace with her."By the way, I'm Guts."

[Twilight Sparkle]

The bit about injuries, Twilight opted to ignore. She knew that some Shifted reacted to the whole experience rather violently. If she'd had her magic, she likely would have lashed out at the suits that came to greet her. Instead, she'd had to flail around like a newborn colt. As for the next part, about why a "her" wasn't here, all Twilight could do was wince, well, wince and try to offer something of an explanation:

"It seems to be random," she volunteered. Twilight glanced askance at Guts, wondering if he was some kind of bold knight wherever he'd come from. Again, Twilight was reminded of her brother, though she wagered that Guts was more likely to match Big Mac in size then Shining Armor. The unicorn nodded as she continued: "And it only pulls you and whatever you happen to be carrying on your person at the time. Which is why you were able to get your sword but not--"

Twilight stopped, not to much because she was trying to be delicate, but because her companion had stopped. Guts headed into an alley and Twilight, still feeling nervous, ducked slightly in behind her. It did occur to her that having her walk into an alley with a large man was probably an even more effective assassination attempt than hitting her with a car, less public too. Yet Twilight also knew that you had to show people trust, and unless this man was a very good actor, he was too new to be someone who would willingly assassinate someone for the suits. That is, unless they offered him precisely what he wanted: another thought that Twilight didn't want to dwell upon.

The answer appeared soon enough, appeared in the form of a ridiculously large sword. Twilight's eyes bulged, the purple seeming to swell. There was definitely something about the weapon, a character if not some ambient enchantment. Twilight almost instantly wanted to experiment on it, or ask questions, and if it weren't for the thoughts still haunting her, she likely would have asked for precisely that. Eventually, Guts came back out, holding the weapon fairly easily. Made sense, as he was rather large; Twilight wasn't sure she could even pick the sword up without her magic, though a part of her definitely wanted to try.

"I can see why they wanted to confiscate it," she offered, her eyes scanning it again. "A weapon that large usually gets a fair amount of attention. Are you sure you even want to carry it around? People are much more likely to attack you if they see you carrying that," she pointed at the sword. "It will be like carrying a giant target..." Though really, was the only magic user in Tenebrae one to point out something like that? Twilight practically lit up a sign every time something around her went purple. Was that part of the reason...?

Twilight lapsed into thought, a hand going up just under her chin while her mind raced, the various ideas chasing one another about, pushing aside current circumstances. Maybe...

[Guts Blackhound]

Guts wasn't the least bit surprised by Twilights reaction to his sword. Most people regularly showed fear or shock at him revealing the weapon to them, and a swing of it had sometimes caused men to run in fear. Well, mortal men anyway. The demons tended to show some shock but, otherwise, weren't usually intimidated by it as much as an everyday person was. Even here, people seemeed to react with shock to it.

When Twilight spoke of not carrying it, Guts had to narrow his eyes. He held his sword out in-front of him, looking at the blades edge once again. His expression calmed as he saw the blade, as though simply looking at the sword eased any anxiety he may have had.
"Let them come, as long as I have this I'll be fine."

His sword had been the one constant throughout his life. Ever since he could walk he had always had one near him, or on him. War was something he understood, and swinging his sword around was an all to familiar experience that he felt more at home with then he had anywhere else. It was his lifeline and without it he felt wrong, as though an important part of him was missing somehow.

Leaning the blade against his shoulder once more, he stood in silence and simply waited. He knew that look on her face. He had been in enough battles, seen his commanders face enough times and the faces of countless other leaders to know that face: She was scheming something.

[Twilight Sparkle]

Well, that was certainly a statement of confidence. This man was certainly a soldier of some kind, likely a mercenary, if Twilight was any good at estimating such things. Guards had a tendency to be a little stiffer and polished. Twilight's brother had been imitating them since they were both young, so Twilight was a pretty good assessor of their like. Even if she wasn't the confidence with which Guts spoke was enough to reassure her; it should have been enough to reassure anyone.

Twilight's thoughts caught onto this idea and then began again chasing in circles. Swords, magic, targets, it all made sense to some degree. Twilight still couldn't figure out why anyone would purposefully go after magic users, even if she was the only active one at Tenebrae. What threat could she possibly be? Unless there was something that she was doing that was threatening. But Twilight's activities were relatively limited. She enjoyed what Tenebrae Estates had to offer in her free time. She worked for the Estates proper. She researched, read, and studied far more than was healthy. And, well, there was the whole attempting to get---

CAUS, Characters Against Unwanted Shifting, a group that was specifically looking for a way out. was that it? No, it could have been an accident, conjecture. Just because she had magic and did that didn't mean they were out to get her, right?

"How do you know if someone's trying to kill you?" the unicorn girl mused aloud, realizing that she'd never experienced it. The vocalization brought her back to the moment. Twilight nearly started, and she blinked, looking up at Guts. "oh, I'm sorry! I got lost in thought there... that happens sometimes," she blushed, lowering her hands and fidgeting a bit. "Uh, we were trying to get you to a registration office, right? I think we'll have to head to the main building..." Twilight was suddenly quite eager to get moving and leave the accidental outburst, and the rather macabre thoughts, behind her.

[Guts Blackhound]

Having been about to answer her question, Guts immediately went quiet at Twilights insistence she had gotten lost in thought. Hell, he was more qualified then most to answer that question as he had been on both sides of it as were most from his world. But, if she didn't want an answer then he wouldn't give it. Besides, he had a sword he wanted to be allowed to carry again.

"Alright." He started walking along again, vaguely remembering where the registration office was from when he was first brought here. It was still a recent event so he did remember it's location at-least somewhat. Now all he had to do was to get himself, and his new found companion, there in one piece.

Making sure he kept pace with the woman as they walked, Guts kept his eye out for any possible signs of danger. She was the one who could let him keep his sword after all, but he did admit he was starting to develop a slight soft spot for her. She reminded him alot of Schierke, and he could tell she probably meant well despite her over reactions. It also helped she wasn't trying to boss him around too much and was trying to help him out, neither had she tried to attack him despite being a witch. He knew not all witches were bad as Schierke had taught him, but he also knew how most reacted to compromising information and circumstances.
Witches were not seen in a positive light back in his homeland and he assumed that it was the same here. It wasn't a pleasant sight and many times in his youth he wandered if such people were even truly practitioners of the dark arts. Then again, he never spent much time in alot of towns or cities. Hell, even people who were stark raving mad were burnt in his homeland.
He had never been a religious man and after all that he'd seen, he knew if there was any god out there that ruled over his world...he wanted him to just leave him the hell alone.

[Twilight Sparkle]

It was odd to have someone who was just taking things in stride and not asking too many questions. Twilight was so used to answering them that she was almost saddened by the lack of excuse for her to lectu...talk, for her to talk. She fell silent and worked on walking, knowing the route to the registration offices all too well. They were all the way back at the main estates, just a short distance from the school and lodgings, which meant Twilight and Guts had a bit of a walk ahead of them. After a silent minute or so, where Twilight's mind continued to race, she realized that she really should be doing the friendly guide thing.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle, by the way," she said, glancing over at Guts. "I don't remember if I mentioned that. There was the whole car---" Twilight paused, looking ahead. She'd stiffened as she realized that they'd hit a cross walk. It was silly, really. There were painted areas and signs indicating where to stop and everything; heck, this was Tenebrae, about one person in ten actually owned or drove a vehicle. The streets were crowded with pedestrians, not cars. Still, Twilight found her feet momentarily frozen to the pavement, staring ahead. This wasn't even the only one they'd have to cross; there was at least four more between them and their destination.

"Um, sorry, I, uh,' managed Twilight, blinking and glancing at Guts before looking back at the crosswalk. A car trundled on through, causing Twilight to jump slightly, moving a little closer to Guts, more out of reflex than anything.

[Guts Blackhound]

Guts had seen alot in his life. He'd seen things that would have reduced ordinary men to sobbing wrecks, hell he'd lived through one such thing. Not only that but he had been thrust, almost his entire life, into dangerous situation after dangerous sitatuon. Each new challenge only grew upon the other, always escalating and never growing any easier. It was why he had taken the shifting as mostly an annoyance, aside from the confusion he experienced at the changes that the future now presented to him on occassion. He was used to this sort of thing, almost eerily so.

He listened to what Twilight said until she came to a complete hault at the road, which seemed to have various lines painted across it. Was this some kind of tradition? Or, was she just being polite in letting him cross first? Given how this world had been so far he wouldn't be surprised if it was either one or even both. Still, he felt it was perhaps time for her to move, starting to grow more then a little impatient with being stopped so suddenly. His expression started to show this as his brow furrowed into a small frown, looking at her in both confusion and annoyance at her refusal to move forwards.

The car moving by prompted Twilight to jump close to him, and immediately he put two and two together. She was scared of being attacked by another of those Car monsters again, and given how close this one had passed by so quickly as the other had he couldn't quite blame her. But, her fear and reluctance wasn't going to get them to the office any quicker.
"Come on, we gotta get moving." He gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder with his non-prosthetic arm, hoping to give her some encouragement. His hand soon returned to his swords hilt as he stepped out infront of her, walking along the crossing.

[Twilight Sparkle]

Get moving, reassuring pat. In fact, that pat made Twilight relax significantly. This man, he clearly knew how to handle himself in a dangerous situation. Yet again, Twilight was reminded of her brother and the guards that worked under him. You knew that they had trained to handle anything, and they were almost as likely to see something as a challenge as opposed to being utterly terrified by whatever was put before them. When Guts moved forward, his hand on his sword, Twilight felt that feeling increase, and she nodded.

Twilight started moving, but she still kept glancing down the street. It felt silly, given how very sparse the streets actually were. Guts was in front of her, and people were definitely going to give someone like that a wide berth in cases like this. Still, Twilight had to clear her throat. A lecture, an explanation, that was what would really clear her head and help her: "The cars are actually motorized vehicles used for transporting people. They are something like horse drawn carriages, only the horses are actually machine engines generally put in the front of the car. So I don't think you could actually 'kill' one with your sword," though Twilight's eyes flicked to Guts' weapon as she seriously considered it. Given the size of the weapon and the size of the man, well, she wasn't completely counting it out.

As if to reinforce her worries and beliefs, another car appeared on the end of the street. It was barreling toward them at a rather impressive speed. Twilight's eyes widened and then narrowed as she saw it. Without thinking much, she threw up her hand. Purple magical energies swirled around her for a moment, seeming to come from the center of her forehead, and soon enough, Twilight popped out of existence, porting her way over to the sidewalk in the time it took most people to blink. However, this also meant that she'd left Guts in the middle of the street, alone, with a car that was determined to at least seriously injure barreling forward. And Twilight wasn't sure how much of her lecture/explanation actually took.