New Dawn

A tea cup gently clinked against its saucer as four alicorns looked around the room at each other, a unicorn stallion with a lab coat shifted uncomfortable and another unicorn stallion yawned heavily. The silence was finally broken by the largest alicorn. “So Doctor Stable, why have you requested an audience with all of us?”

The unicorn in a lab coat smiled nervously and pulled four copies of a medical chart from his bag. “If you would all please look at this first. I think it might answer a few questions and it might help the explanation.” The room fell silent except the shifting of papers and the occasional clicking of a tongue or tsking sound as someone read something particularly disconcerting.

Twilight put hers down first and tapped her chin with a hoof. “Doctor Stable, do you still have the body?”

The doctor chuckled to himself a little and shook his head. “That's issue number one, the patient is still alive.”

Everyone dropped their chart and stared at the doctor open mouthed. “That's...that's not possible.” Twilight grabbed her chart and flipped through it again. “With these kinds of results there is no way this creature could be alive.” She flipped through to a specific spot and reread it several times. “Even if this is right he shouldn't be a living specimen. Granted his cells do not appear to be dying off as they should but this is...” She trailed off and chewed at the tip of her hoof. “Maybe but no that...” She looked at Doctor. “How did he loose the original magic that was in his body?”

The doctor took a sip of his tea. “He never had any to begin with.” He smiled. “That’s the strangest part. The magic is aggressively trying to mutate his cells when the opportunity is presented and he has no defense against it because he was not originally a magical creature.”

Celestia gently placed the chart down. “I have lived a very long time and I can say this might be the first time this has ever happened. I could be wrong but I have never seen anything like this.”

Luna flipped back and fourth through the chart. “Did the patient say when this started?”

The doctor tapped the table his eyes turned upwards and a little to the side for a moment. “Roughly five years ago I believe is what he said.”

Luna gently placed the chart back on the table. “I see. This is most interesting indeed. Twilight, you have been looking into how humans might have entered this world correct?” Twilight nodded. “Please tell us what you have found.”

Twilight tilted her head to the side and gave Luna a confused look. “What does that have to do with this?”

Luna smiled and sipped her tea. “Please just humor me.”

Twilight stood up and a chalkboard appeared as she did. “Okay. I'm not sure why you want to know what I have found.” A pop echoed in the room and Twilight began flipping through a stack of notes. “Well, it has to do with Tirek.” Celestia furrowed her brow and turned her head slightly causing Twilight to shift uncomfortably. “So Tirek, he is well, a gate keeper.” Twilight took a deep breath. “Maybe I should back track even further. So this world is not the only world, there are countless others existing side by side with our own. The world Sunset Shimmer fled to after stealing my crown is one such world. The mirror portal I passed through was one of many gateways that used to exist on Equus. While it is my personal belief that all the other portals are closed and that is the only world left connected to ours I think that Jerrod and the others he mentioned came from another. That is were Tirek comes in, he was the guardian of the portals throughout Equus once upon a time.”

Twilight stepped up to the chalkboard and drew a crude map of Equus. “So through out history there has been talk of places were strange things happen. The Island of the Rainbow Bridge, or The Continent of Shadows. There was the Roaring City, the Home of the Forgotten and so many others. All of those were a place were a portal had been left unattended and the worlds had begun to converge. Tirek is possibly the oldest being on Equus and I believe he may not even be from Equus but that's not the important part, he has always been connected to these places. His purpose was to manage these portals and prevent the worlds from colliding and mashing together. We can see evidence of his failure in this regard all over Equus even today, those little things that you don't question but don't belong.” Twilight pointed to the round doorknob. “Those being a prime example, our hooves are most definitely not compatible with it and yet we keep making them. This brings me to how Tirek was supposed to manage these portals and keep the worlds separated.”

Twilight drew a crude drawing of Tirek absorbing magic. “Tirek passively absorbed aspects of both worlds, magic from ours and what ever forces drove the other worlds. Most of the time this excess would bleed off back through the portal and keep it stabilized. The excess was used to maintain the connection and keep the worlds separate but Tirek discovered that he could hold onto the forces.” Twilight stopped and tapped the chalk on the chalkboard. “Much like I believe Tirek to be, Triek's brother was from another world. Records of him are sparse but I have found myths that talk about a battle between them. Tirek's brother chose a pair of children from the world I think Jerrod is from. These children had a connection to what we now know as the harmony force, a catalyst for the ponies of the time. These children helped the ponies fight Tirek and his brother used his brothers weakened state during the fight to sever the connection to the other worlds. After the connection was severed Tirek was left weakened, still immortal but no more powerful than a mortal pony. The rest is history. Tirek sought the magic of the ponies who had defeated him and left him for dead and his brother stepped up again only to be killed as he defeated Tirek once more.”

Twilight erased the chalkboard and drew the six elements of harmony on it. “Fast forward some two hundred thousand years or so to twenty years ago. Tirek escaped his prison and ran amok on Equus, focused mainly on the ponies again. As his strength grew the seal his brother had placed weakened. After everypony had been absorbed the seal broke but Tirek's connection remained unstable.” Twilight hung her head. “He needed one final piece to stabilize the connections to the other worlds. He sought the most powerful beings on Equus, Discord and myself after you gave me your power. When I let him take the power from me he became stronger than he had ever been, the portals feeding him power again and the strength of two demi-gods and three true gods flowing through him. He only managed to connect to one world but that was all he needed, the speed with which we acted saved this world from a much worse fate.”

Celestia grimaced and Luna paled giving Shining a moment to speak up. “So wouldn't he have stopped the...oh.”

Twilight nodded. “When the elements stripped him of his magic the portals were left unguarded. A giant tear in the fabric of our world and the world humans came from. Our saving grace is that he only had time to open the passage to one world instead of several. The elements after defeating him worked to stabilize the portal, which is why me and the others were so exhausted afterwards. Once it was stabilized the elements needed a way to plug it which is why humans were able to fall through for so long afterwards. In the end Tirek's broken body was connected to the passage again and the doors were closed for good.”

Cadence looked at the chalkboard with a furrowed brow. “But, no humans arrived in Equestria, why?”

Luna went to speak but fell silent and her ears fell back. Celestia looked at her and patted her shoulder before looking at Cadence. “That would be our fault. Long before your time or even Equestria is were it begins but we don't need to go that far. The ponies of the Hearths Warming tale were our subjects is the best place to begin.” Everyone in the room perked up. “Far across the seas there is an island, it is the home of the forgotten alicorn race and the place were all equine life started. The ponies fled from there after Discord arrived. The windigos were his minions that he sent after them. Luna and I, we were normal ponies back then, before the elements of harmony. We defeated Discord at the cost of the alicorns that lived there and we came here. It was only a few short years later that Discord made his way across the seas for revenge.”

Luna sat up. “When we first arrived here the ponies welcomed us. Alongside our kin again we colonized this land and made peace with the locals, you know them as nocturnis or bat ponies now. For those few years there was peace, with a little fighting between the tribes of ponies. It was when Discord arrived that things went downhill. The second Discord War as it was called back then was not really a second one. He took the taint of our land that we had destroyed and set it upon us. The sky was sundered, the earth salted and magic untamed. He used this chaos to fuel his power and nearly destroyed the bat ponies and subjugated the ponies. My sister and I went into hiding. For a time we looked into ways to defeat him, trying time and time again only to be pushed back.”

Celestia picked up as her sister receded into her memories. “Each time we fought the land was more and more scarred. When we finally found the elements and defeated Discord this land was nigh unlivable. The elements did what they could but it took the combined effort of all the tribes to heal the land but it went a step further.”

Twilight dropped her chalk on the table and took a sip of her tea and grimaced because it was cold. With a quick spell she reheated it and took a grateful sip. “That harmony is why Equestri never saw a new human. I imagine a few passed through on occasion but our lands are to stable for portals to open. The Everfree forest is to chaotic and it bounces them somewhere else.”

Luna shook her head and leaned against her sister for a moment before standing up and pacing the room. “Which brings us back to our patient here. Five years ago every magically attuned being on Equus was shaken to their core as a massive surge of magic coursed through the leylines of this world. Some catastrophic event happened and it was centered in the dragon land.” Twilight's ear twitched back and forth and Celestia smiled a little. “The same place our friend Jerrod was roughly five years ago. I may be wrong about this but I think that maybe, just maybe, he had something to do with that. Maybe he found a way to open the portals for long enough to send his brethren home but something disrupted it. In that moment the entire spell surged back into him and we end up with the results we see in this chart five years later.”

Doctor Stable tapped his chin and flipped through the chart. “But why him?”

Twilight furrowed her brow and gave her chin a pensive stroke. "It could be that the energies of the portal collapsed on Jerrod when the portal closed! All that magic energy needed to go somewhere, after all. It could be possible.....but it's only a theory, mind you."

Cadence looked at Twilight confused, Sihinging mimicking her. “What, how would that work? Basic thaumic principles state that something like that is more or less impossible. All spells collapse in themselves instead of the caster. It's not entirely understood why but the cases of spells collapsing on the caster are more or less nil.”

Twilight smiled giddily and hopped up and went to her chalkboard. “Because he was the center of the spell. Any spell that creates a portal of any type needs a destination, some set of predetermined coordinates.” Twilight covered the chalkboard in drawings and equations, her smile growing wider and wider the more she drew. “Take teleport spells, you visualize were you want to go and then set up the spell around that destination. If you wanted to tear open a portal between world you would need something a little bit more complex though. I believe that in this case that was Jerrod, it could have been any human but Jerrod, Jerrod was the one used. He was used because he himself set it up.” Twilight stared at the crude drawings on the chalkboard and erased one to redraw it slightly different. “Jerrod stood at the center of the spell and built it up around himself, a very dangerous and idiotic thing to do if a spell is not designed for it and that is why it collapsed on him.” Twilight smiled and started doing even more complex equations across the board and out onto the walls.

“Yes so, Jerrod was at the center of everything. The entire spell was laced through out his body and branched out to every human on Equus. The moment it failed everything fell apart. When a portal type spell collapses it implodes in on the center, in this case Jerrod. Usually the spell then explodes sending all the energy back out into the world but Jerrod is a living creature and his body resisted. It must have been agonizing painful to have all that magic coursing through him. With no were to go the magic would have jumped to the nearest source of magic which should have been the leylines.” Twilight dropped her chalk defeated and rubbed the sides of her head as she growled. “This doesn't make sense, what are we missing? If the magic jumped down into the leylines it explains the surge we all felt but it doesn't explain why the magic stayed in Jerrod.” She stared at the equations on the walls and the chalk board and punched the blank spot next to the equals sign. “It doesn't add up right, we are missing an element.”

Celestia put her tea down and her horn lit gently. “Perhaps we should just ask Jerrod himself if he knows anything about it. He is most likely the one who invented the spell after all.” A loud popping echoed through the room and everyone turned to look were Jerrod appeared and froze.

They all stared as Jerrod calmly ran his fingers through the griffon ambassador open wing while humming a gentle tune. The ambassador's body rumbled in a deep content purr as the fingers worked to straighten his feathers and tease the leading edge of his wing to coax a little water proofing oil onto Jerrod's finger before he stroked down another feather. Jerrod shook his head and the humming stopped  but he continued with his task. “This better be important.”

Luna sat down hard on her cushion and Cadence blushed while trying to cover Shining's eyes. Twilight buried her face in Celestia's side while Celestia's brain froze completely. Jerrod huffed. “Well, out with it.”

Luna spoke up. “Um, what are you doing to the ambassador?”

The ambassador spoke up, a slight irritation in his voice. “Giving me the best damned preening I have ever had in my life. Or it was until Miss Sunbutt over there grabbed us from my room.”

Celestia shook herself. “Sunbutt. No not you too.”

The ambassador chuckled. “I like it. Jerrod was right about it suiting you.”

Celestia's teeth ground and her eye twitched. “Why you. Urgh.” The ambassador chuckled at Celestia's discomfort. “Is this why you have never dated or ever been seen with another griffon in a lovers capacity, because your a xenophile?”

The ambassador rolled his eyes and cracked one open towards Celestia. “No it's because I'm gay and griffons aren't to fond of that. Our culture is far less excepting of same sex relationships than yours Sunbutt. I can't believe your devolving to such petty...” The ambassador hummed mid sentence as Jerrod hit a particularly sensitive spot. “MM, yea, there, right there.” His leg kicked a little and Jerrod chuckled while Twilight squeaked and Cadence smiled brightly.

“So why am I here?” Jerrod's voice was cold but calm and it made everyone in the room shiver.

Twilight pulled herself from Celestia's side to look at him. “We wanted to ask why exactly you left the dragon lands.”

The room seemed to grow exponentially colder and Jerrod's fingers slowly stopped moving. He sat completely still, his breathing even but his whole body tense. Slowly his head turned to look at the assembled ponies. “Because I made a mistake, nothing more nothing less.” Celestia opened her mouth and Jerrod's hand swung up with a single finger raised. “NOTHING MORE NOTHING LESS.” He growled it loudly and clearly and then turned to Celestia. “I have been respectful of your secrets and I expect the same in return.”

The ambassador rolled over in Jerrod's lap and pulled him close, placing his forehead against Jerrod's. “Calm down love. They are merely curious as to why you left, it can't be that bad.”

Jerrod took a deep breath. “It is that bad.” The ambassador tilted his head and pouted a little. “It is. I nearly caused a war and...and I failed my people.”

Twilight and Luna moved towards him. “You mentioned something like that before. A mistake, what was it.” Luna reached forward as she spoke only to have Jerrod gently bat it away.

He looked at her and shook his head. “No.” He stood up and wrapped his arms around the ambassador, leaving his wings free, and jumped backwards. The window shattered and Jerrod fell for a few stories before the ambassador's wings popped open and they began to glide away.

All four alicorns leaned their heads out the window, watching in open-mouthed surprise as Jerrod and the griffon ambassador went hurtling toward the ground. Their heads bowed in the nick of time, as suddenly, just to add more bizzare-ness to the whole fiasco, a wooden trunk came whizzing over their heads and out the window, following Jerrod and the ambassador on their wild escape. The three of them--human, griffon, and trunk--disappeared in an explosion of dust mere feet before hitting the ground, seven stories below.

Luna turned to Twilight and her sister. “Please tell me I wasn't the only one who just saw a trunk dive seven stories and then dart off into the streets.”

"What just-" Twilight stammered. The last thing she saw of the unorthodox troupe was the wooden trunk, zooming out into the streets of Canterlot with an airborne trail of dust in its wake. "They just.....flying trunk.....what??"

Shining sighed and rose to his hooves. “I'm gonna hafta cancel dinner Cadence, me and the guards are going to be needed on the streets tonight.” He left the room with a huff, slamming the door behind him.

Luna looked at Twilight and her sister again. “The nobles are going to be in a tizzy aren't they?” Both of them nodded. “Twilight, could you please write Spike and let him know me and Jerrod will be arriving sometime tonight.” Twilight opened her mouth. “No, you have my sister, he is mine.”

Celestia blushed crimson and Twilight stammered while Cadence kicked the ground. “Dammit, I owe Shining fifteen bits now. How did you know Luna?” Luna just smiled and skipped out of the room whistling a jaunty tune. “Fine don't tell me. I think I need to leave to, I want to send Amadiel a letter and ask her if she knows anything.” Cadence turned and left, leaving Twilight and Celestia alone.

Twilight looked up at her mentor and the door sealed behind Cadence. “Alone at last.”

Celestia looked at Twilight and smiled. “Remind me to thank Jerrod for this someday.”

Twilight giggled gleefully and lit her horn. “I have been waiting for this for so long.” Celestia skipped towards Twilight. “Finally I can ask you about the history of the Alicorns.” Celestia tripped over herself and eeped as a mountain of parchment and quills buried her.

Her head wormed its way from the mountain and looked at a blushing Twilight. “Really?” Twilight nodded and unburied Celestia. “We're all alone and you want to have a study session.” Her shoulders slumped and planted herself at the table. “Ask away.”

Twilight clapped her hooves gleefully and pulled a few history books from the pile. Celestia smiled slightly as she spied an alicorn physiology book buried deep in the pile but was quickly swept up in a flurry of question from her ex-student. She took a deep breath and thought to herself, this is going to be a long night.

~ ~ ~

The ambassador glided down, Jerrod's feet hit the ground and he stumbled forward a little before catching himself and jogging a few steps forward. The ambassador wrapped his legs around Jerrod's torso and hugged him from behind like he was getting a piggy back ride. “Well that was unexpected.”

Jerrod shrugged. “What can I say Swiftflgiht. I was uncomfortable and you presented an easy escape.” Jerrod reached back and gave him a quick scratch behind the ears. “Where's the train station from here?” Swiftflight pointed off to the left and Jerrod started walking in silence, the ambassador hanging on his back contently.

After a few blocks they stepped into an open clearing and a large crowd of ponies. The train sat at the station puffing steadily away with a cloud of smoke billowing out of it's smokestack. A large trunk sat next to the ticket booth, an earth pony pushing away it. Jerrod walked up giggling as the earth pony put his shoulder against it and started running in place. Without a word Jerrod popped the lid. “What the, how did you get in there Sun Feather?” The ambassador looked over Jerrod's shoulder and laughed.

Sun Feather looked up from inside the box. “Oh thank the heavens, I'm free again.” He burst out of the box and wrapped Jerrod in a hug. “I don't care that it's you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Jerrod shook his head as Sun Feather continued to babble into his chest. He waved at the earth pony who was staring and then reached into the trunk and pulled out a bag of bits. “Hey, where's my cupcakes?”

Sun Feather pulled away a little. “Sorry, I was trapped in there for two days, I needed to eat something.” Jerrod looked down and narrowed his eyes and Sun feather blushed lightly. “I used a jar at least for the...” He pulled himself free. “I am gonna go find a restroom.” With that he darted off into the crowd.

Jerrod rolled his eyes and turned towards the ticket booth. Swiftflight waved at him and walked up. “I got our tickets.” Jerrod looked over his shoulder then back at the ambassador. “Sorry about that, I used to be in the spy business.”

Jerrod shrugged. “Well, thanks for paying for my ticket.”

Swiftflight smiled. “I got one for me and Sun Feather too. By the way, how did Sun Feather fit in that trunk?”

Sun Feather walked up and looked at the ambassador. “It's bigger on the inside.” He scooted away from  the trunk as shifted towards him. “And it's vicious.”

Jerrod leaned down and hugged the trunk. “Don't listen to meany pants there, your a good trunk. You were just protecting your owners things from him.”

Sun Feather huffed. “I swear it laid a trap. I looked into your room and it opened to reveal the greatest stash of weapons I have ever seen. It knew I was weapon fanatic and it taunted me.”

Jerrod laughed and stood up moving his way towards the train with the ambassador. “Well that's your fault Sun Feather. You let your curiosity get the better of you.”

“What kind of trunk is that?” Swiftflight handed the tickets to the conductor as they boarded. “I have never seen anything like it before.”

Jerrod tapped his chin thoughtfully. “I would think they would be popular with griffons. You do a lot of trade with Dryads don't you?”

Sun Feather perked up. “You mean that's a sentient trunk? One of the dryads most coveted creations.”

Jerrod shook his head and sat down, the trunk parking itself by the wall next to him. “Not sentient but it is alive sort of. It's a construct made from the remains of a dryad who has passed. Usually it attaches itself to someone the dryad was close with in their life.” Jerrod sighed wistfully and little sadly as he stroked the lid of the trunk. “He was a wonderful dryad. I traveled with him for a few months before we got to his home.”

Swiftflight put a claw on Jerrod's shoulder. “How did he...?” He left the question hanging.

Jerrod looked over at Swiftflight. “Sickness. He caught in the tropical forest of the minotaur lands. He held on until he got home and his last request was that he be given to me.” Jerrod patted the trunk. “It's a reminder of days long past.”

Sun Feather bit his lip and shifted uncomfortably. “I think I have misjudged you little Jerrod. I thought you were just a bumbling idiot, a philandering fool but Luna was right, there's more to it than that.”

Jerrod turned to Sun Feather. “What?”

The pegasus rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “I was told to be your personal guard about a month after you arrived and the other one retired, he said it was to much stress to watch you. I was a little miffed about it but I saw a few things, like sometimes you would just stop walking and turn to look towards some far off place only you could see, or that look you get at night sometimes. I went to Luna about it because it reminded me of her and she said it was the mark of creature tormented by his past. The more I find out about you the more truth I see in what she said.”

Jerrod smirked and ruffled Sun Feather's mane between his ears. “Who's a sweet little guard, yes you are.” He chuckled and pulled his hand back. “We all have regrets boy, some of us just have more than others. I am a fool and a philander and an idiot and so much more.”

Swiftflight smiled. “You're kind, loving, caring, affectionate. Don't forget to look at those qualities about you that draw others to you.”

Sun Feather smiled. “I must say I agree with the Ambassador. For all your faults you are fairly charismatic. I may not be fond of you but I also don't really mind your company. A little bit of sunshine on a bleak day as it were.”

Jerrod smiled and pulled Sun Feather into his lap and poked him between the wings. Sun Feather eeped as his wings shot open and then stuttered a little as Jerrod began preening him. “I'm glad to hear you say that Feather. I know I can be annoying but it's just how I am.”

Sun Feather smiled and hummed a little. “Your just sad and lonely and looking for a way to forget it. Your living your life to its fullest in remembrance of those who can't, those you lost. It's admirable really, you take strength from your sadness and your loneliness and let it push you into the embrace of others.”

Swwiftflight nodded. “I have seen many warriors like yourself choose to hide away and shun the world rather than face it. A sad few even chose to leave life behind but you, you take all your pain and turn it into a strength.” He eyed Jerrod's fingers and Sun Feather's wings enviously. “I am going to want that treatment to by the way, you never did finish me first.”

Jerrof shrugged. “Sorry, maybe when I'm done with Sunny here. Also, not warrior.”

Sun Feather looked up sideways at Jerrod. “Yes you are.” Swiftflight nodded and Jerrod sighed.

“No I am not.” Jerrod poked Sun Feather in the side. “I am nothing more than a traveler.”

Swiftflight chuckled and leaned against Jerrod. “I have met many travelers and I have never met one who carries the scars you do. Can I ask something else?” Jerrod nodded. “It's a little off the warrior topic but what's with you and wings?”

Jerrod smiled. “Sorry, I just find comfort in preening wings.” Sun Feather and Swiftflight both cocked an eyebrow at him questioningly.

Sun Feather sighed and shifted a little. “I have never met a wingless creature who can...” He paused and his back leg kicked as Jerrod scratched a spot on the underside of his wing. His body turned to putty as the scratching stopped. “preen as good as this.” His tongue lolled out and his eyes drifted halfway closed.

“It's a pastime of mine. I've known the skill for a while." He smiled wistfully and a single tear rolled down his cheek. "I learned from the best, and that's no lie."

The ambassador leaned back and put his claws behind his head. “Well you'll have to tell me more about that someday. Maybe teach me a few of your tricks so I know what to do when you and those miraculous fingers aren't around to do it for me.”

Jerrod turned to look out the window, a far off look in his eyes. “Maybe. Maybe someday I will.”