a new hero

Chapters

prologue
harsh introductions
conflict and connections
the pain that we share
rigged from the start
A Test Of Loyalties

prologue

This world has been spinning for millions of years. People come and go. Nations rise and fall. But two things will remain constant, human kindness and human brutality. Even today a nation’s prosperity is measured by how well it can defend itself during times of crisis. In a true sense he was a good Samaritan, thrust into a world that was not his own, a world filled with problems the likes of which he could not have found anywhere else. His family forever gone he had turned his back to all around him, trying to shield himself from the pain and grief that often surrounds loving others. This cold shell, this barrier meant to keep him strong was slowly tearing him up on the inside, part of him wanted nothing more than to feel the warmth of another person. But the natural human tendency for brutality, won over his soul. But god could not stand for this, he could not watch as one of his children was about to implode over all of his self righteous thoughts and actions. In a way the military was the only real option for him, no real friends, no family, no one to miss, nothing at all to tie him down. The brass saw this and after seeing his metal in combat quickly signed him up for a special unit. A group of elite warriors whose only job was to keep humanity from a threat they knew nothing about. The mission was supposed to be a simple, in and out, affair. But like with all stories of this nature something had to go wrong. The only way to escape the self destructing facility, was trough a portal, one that would ideally take him back to earth… if not on earth then where, You ask? Well for the time being that does not matter. All you need to know is that at the second the transmission of person occurred the reactor finally gave out, putting out a wave of energy that would otherwise atomize our hero. But the energy supercharged the teleporter, sending him to not another planet, but a whole new dimension entirely.

The new day sun covered the land like a yellow blanket, the birds could be heard singing the happy tunes. Small animals were scurrying back and forth in a feverish pace for no real reason at all. The entirety of ponyville was awake and around, eating breakfast, doing some morning shopping, or like with rainbow dash, sleeping the morning away. Nopony could have ever dreamed of what terrors would come within the next week. Not even cellestia could speak of the strange being who would eventually save them all, well most of them anyway… ok I’m not going to be coy, there is going to be a lot of dying in this story so just bear with me. The unicorn by the name of rarity could be heard bustling about her boutique, since the former night the white unicorn had been trying to fill a rather large rush order, that in hindsight accepting was a near foolish venture. However part of her enjoyed the challenge “this is your shot rarity,” she would tell herself, “this could be your lucky break!”

Change to a bakery near the center of ponyville, it could be recognized from a mile away, what with it’s pink paint and more over it was designed to look like a giant cake, complete with frosting and sprinkles. Looking at it from nit too far away the building would look completely edible, especially with the smell of fresh baked treats rolling out of every open window, luring in ponies from all over to buy some of the sugar cube corner’s delicious treats. Inside one would find a bouncing pink pony, moving around the kitchen almost unnaturally. Singing to herself in the most delightful and happy manner, as she prepared some of the treats that would be soon bought up and gobbled as if they were the last treats in all of equestria.

On the edge of town was perhaps the most famous farm any pony could see, sweet apple acres. The home of a few of the resident apple family, granny smith who earned her name not just by her bright green coat, but by how old she was. Big Macintosh, a large dark red colt, was perhaps the strongest pony in all of equestria. Applejack, a yellow young mare stronger than most colts around ponville whom everypony could spot because of her large stenson hat. And lastly a young filly, not even old enough to have her cutie mark, was applebloom, one of the three cutie mark crusaders with an oversized red ribbon in her hair. All of the apple family had the same deep southern drawl. It was always one of applejack’s favorite sights to wake up in the morning and look out across the orchard of apple trees, blanketed by sunlight and sparkling with new morning dew. Today would be the first day of the harvest for the apple family, just like all the years before them.

On the far side of ponyville was a small cottage, home to a light yellow Pegasus named fluttershy, her home looked almost earthen in color and texture, with a roof that appeared to be foliage. And the cottage inside and out was covered and surrounded by bird houses, and small structures made for assorted small animals. These animals were all fluttershy’s responsibility, a daunting task for any other creature, to fluttershy it was more than a hobby it was a passion. Her home was all alone on the edge of whitetail wood, far from any sort of civilization, but that is exactly how the yellow Pegasus like it.

Floating in the sky over ponyville was a small castle made of cloud, where we join a blue Pegasus, with a rather unusual mane containing all the colors of the rainbow. Aptly named rainbow dash, she was still tired but excited for the day of tricks, and stunts she had planned for the day. After grabbing a quick breakfast she stretched her wings to the sky and flew with a speed most others would deem impossible if they had not seen it before, dash flew as fast as her young strong wings could take her to the center of ponyville, a giant old oak tree hollowed out and turned into a library, home to a purple unicorn, by the name of twilight sparkle. Twilight was finishing putting books away, as her purple dragon spike could still be heard snoring the morning away. When the cyan Pegasus crashed through the front door,

“Twilight, Twlight!” exclaimed the eager rainbow dash, “what is it that you have planned for us today anyway. You said you would help me with my tricks!”

“settle down rainbow,” Twilight seemed almost uncaring as she continued to use her unicorn magic to levitate and place her books in their proper place, “you have to wait for the others to show up first.” This angered dash, she was used to moving by the beat of her own drummer, who would probably be dead by know…

“whatever,” dash turned her back and began to walk upstairs to the newly awake dragon.

The human found himself not in the cold steel bunker he had expected but in a forest, studying his surroundings things just didn’t add up. He couldn’t quite place it but somehow he knew this was not his home planet. He still had all his gear, a couple of pistols, ammo fully expended, a throwing hatchet and a combat knife. Inspecting his armor he found singe marks, as if from some high energy rifle, even the ceramic plates appeared to be slightly melted. And yet he was not burned. He couldn’t even remember feeling heat on his trip, to whatever asinine planet he was on now. Continuing to look around, he noticed he was in some sort of a ruin, surrounded by forest on all sides, with a deep crevice near the front, and an old bridged spreading the gap. Thinking to himself, seems like a logical direction to start.

It was the greater part of the day before our brave… you know what, I’m tired of calling him some bullshit like ‘our hero’. What say you we give him a name? how about jack? Yeah that will work. Now let me start again, It was the greater part of the day before jack saw anything alive. Walking down some path he stumbled upon and looking up at the sky, aimlessly looking for anything that would give him some sort of direction, or location. Sure he had a standard issue gps device but it kept coming back with “location not available,” this angered jack. He was used to be able to know wherever he was no matter the time, this would allow him to formulate some sort of a plan. The gps after giving up it’s futile search for the satellites that were not there finally settled for homing in on the planets magnetic field giving its user a compass. Although it helped him a little to know that he was headed dead west, it didn’t much help him. Placing the small device back in his pocket, he could hear something. Like a child. It was closing in. from behind him. His only reaction was to hide from his presumed threat. Peering out from behind his tree shield he saw something that just could not be. A grey blue horse, with a yellow mane and more importantly it had wings! With which it was flying, but most importantly jack could tell that this creature was the source of the mysterious singing he heard, coming from behind him. Jack began to panic as it stopped in mid air, hovering. Just looking around for some unknown threat. Jack watched in a sort of fascinated horror as the horse shrugged and began to fly away singing as gleefully as before. He stood there motionlessly until he was sure that the grey, abomination was gone, when he continued upon his path. It was nearly sunset now the edge of the forest was now in sight. Most people might have hurried to escape this parcel of forest seemingly devoid of all animal life, but jack just continued with his controlled canter, almost fearful of what to expect on the other side. Emerging from the tree line jack found himself in a sort of prairie, and he could see some sort of small village off in the distance. He slowed his pace as he looked around studying his environment for possible other objectives, or more notable scenery. In the distance was a mountain and oddly enough a city was perched on the side of this mountain. However it seemed, well wrong. Just by looking at it jack felt slightly drawn. It was like a fat guy smelling a krispy kreme store in a mall, he stared into the majestic flowing curves of the city, his feet carrying him without his knowledge. Stumbling upon a large rock brought him back to the clear side of sanity. This stone was actually part of a small stone bridge spanning a small creek. This bridge seemed old, as if it had just been sitting there for thousands of years, the deck of the bridge was covered in a slight layer of moss, which had what appeared to be hoof prints in it. using some training he was able to determine at least six horses had crossed this bridge, twice. But that was well long ago the scrapes in the moss were old and were beginning to be taken back by the green slime. Another hour has passed and the village was in clear sight. To jack’s horror the only life visible was a bunch of horses! Some with wings, some with what appeared to be unicorn horns, and some were just normal, and they made up all the colors of the spectrum between their coats and manes. His first instinct was to go down and kill as many as he could, jack restrained this notion as he formulated a plan.

“I should wait until dark,” he spoke to himself, “gather some intel about what the fuck this planet is all about. I mean its like planet of the fucking apes down here, well ponies anyway,” trying to crack jokes to his team that were not there.

Ditzy doo, or how she was more commonly called, derpy, had an important message to deliver, derpy was a mail mare, who took her job a bit too seriously, yet this is exactly why princess luna chose her for such a delivery.

Luna was careful, she knew that what she was about to do could be considered treason in the eyes of her subjects, especially since the whole nightmare moon thing. All she knew was that the whole land of equestria was in danger and her actions would either save them all or get every last pony killed. Her sister made it clear that a young unicorn in ponyville was quite possibly the only hope they had left. And that a message must be delivered explaining what was coming, no matter how dark and dire the situation would become. She tried to describe the situation, trying to not add to much panic in her words. Finishing her letter she placed it in a seemingly uninteresting envelope, as too hide its true intent from anypony that would love nothing more than to see such a message intercepted. As per the plan worked out in secret with cellestia, princess luna walked across canterlot, letter I her saddle bag. Despite the situation she seemed calm, enjoying her night. She could hear the slight snoring of ponies in the beds, windows open to enjoy the crisp night air. Walking down an alleyway she could see a young filly walking counter her direction,

“you seem a bit young to be out this late alone you know,” luna spoke caringly.

“I’m not that young!” the young filly spoke harshly, “I can take care of myself!”

“I never said you weren’t,” the princess spoke like in a true motherly tone, “what is your name?”

“scootaloo,” the filly seemed overjoyed just to say her own name.

“what a fine name, could you do me a favor perhaps?”

“hmfp, depends. How exciting is it?”

“well I know of quite a few ponies who would want to hurt you for what my little favor entails,” it would have sounded terrible to anypony else to hear of such a task but luna could see the little scootaloo perk up at the sound of such a dangerous task.

“well what do you need me to do?” her excitement was almost unquellable now.

“I need you to bring a letter to the post office,” the smile and glint in scootaloo’s eyes disappeared, “make no mistake, if it were that simple I wouldn’t be asking you to do it for me.”

“whatever, what is in it for me anyway?”

“well, what do you want?”

“how about a cutie mark?” luna now noticed that the filly’s flank was in fact blank.

“well maybe you will discover you mark on your perilous journey!”

“whatever,” the orange Pegasus took the small letter and ran off.

Derpy was one of the first Pegasus to the post office in the morning, she grabbed her saddle bags as with most mornings, and after some pleasantries with the other letter carriers flew off towards ponyville. She enjoyed her morning flight, the sun was just cresting the horizon and she could already feel the new day’s warmth. She was about halfway home, flying above the everfree forest, singing a song she had just newly learned. Although she didn’t know all the lyrics she tried anyway. Something caught her eye down below. Everypony knew that the everfree forest was almost barren of all life. She just had to stop and try to detect what she thought she had seen. She could have sworn it was some sort of monkey or something similar. Scanning the terrain below her to no avail, she just shrugged and continued her flight to deliver her mail. When she arrived in the ponyville post office, it must have close to noon. The place was nearly full of ponies expecting to receive and send their mail. Derpy walked past them all to the sorting room in the back, where she exchanged her saddle bags for a different set, full of letters meant for ponies all over the small town. She took her leave to the skies, her joyful singing marking her path.

Darkness was beginning to claim the land of equestria. Luna’s moon was on the cusp of emerging. But cellestia’s light still held on as long as it possibly could, in its futile task. Derpy hooves was just finishing her final delivery route, the last stop was the large oak tree that was the library. It was not uncommon for twilight to receive mail, but usually it would be transferred via dragon’s magic. But this thought did not enter the mail mare’s mind. She thought only of the dinner and sleep that would ensue after her arrival home. She landed just in front of twilight’s door, she knocked upon it, and stared at the candle painted right in front of her, waiting for somepony to answer her call.

“Just delivering your mail,” derpy said in her usual ecstatic tone.

“Why thank you ma’am,” twilight knew it was just ditzy, but she was taught to always be on her best behavior. She took the small bag from her friend, said her goodbyes, and carefully closed the door. Inspecting the bag, there was just a few books, she quickly placed them in their place. Thinking not much of the letter sitting on the table. If there was any important letters they would come from spike’s, shall I say, ability. To twilight this meant it was probably either junk mail or a letter from some far off nearly forgotten friend. In either case this gave her the excuse to put it off till tomorrow morning. With this thought she climbed the stairs of her library, by now her dragon’s snoring could be heard. To most ponies snoring was considered a nuisance. But to twilight it was a sign that all was well with the world. Almost to the point where she found it hard to sleep without that noise. It was her way of knowing that nothing was wrong. She turned down the last lantern, with her magic, then climbed into her bed. The sun was fully down now. The streets were clear. All was silent. Most ponies had taken to their beds. But on the edge of town, one man stood, still waiting, studying the town before him. Just waiting to make a move.

Jack was somewhat mystified by the sights that were upon him. He knew these horses were not human but everywhere he looked he could see things that reminded him of earth. Although no two buildings were alike, he could see architectural influences from pretty much all of the northern European influences, in the different buildings. There were street lanterns still flickering with the wind, but if someone did not know better they would think this town was abandoned. Even in today’s society even the smallest of towns stayed up past sunset, but this village seemed to almost fear the dark. Jack saw nothing in the streets yet he felt compelled to stay to the back roads, and in the shadows. He couldn’t know how such creatures would react to such a foreign creature as a human.

“I’ll never see anything out here,” he spoke quietly, trying to remain hidden from some unseen foe, “I think I need to break in to one of these buildings.” Sneaking around he saw a building that caught his eye, something that looked like a carousel converted into a habitable structure. He knew this would be a good place to start. Approaching the front door he tried the lock. To no surprise it was locked fast. Jack took a knee and produced a lockpick kit from his belt. Inspecting the lock jack was surprised to find it was ancient. He opened the door as if he had a key. The door creaked open in the night breeze. Ringing a bell as it did so. But jack hid to one side as not to expose himself, he was ready for some sort of a trap after the simplicity of the front door. He took his chance and rushed in, being careful to find the darkest corner he could. His mind raced with the possible threats and dangers his imagination wanted to find. Yet he could see nothing, but some sort of sales floor, filled with all sorts of dresses, seemingly meant for horses! Embroidered with all sorts of jewels some even might be worth some money back home. But jack knew this was not the time to give any of the locals any clues to his existence. Climbing the stairs he found in the back, he could clearly hear something snoring, at the crest of the stairs was a door slightly ajar.

Sweetie bell was a young filly, and member of the cutie mark crusaders. She was a white unicorn with a pink and grey purple mane. The previous day had been exhausting, even with the advantageous scootaloo away at canterlot, the day was still filled with antics designed to earn one of the three their cutie marks. She felt exhausted sitting in her bed, yet for some reason could still not attain sleep. She rolled over in her bed, and sighed. When a sound she had heard many a time, but not at this hour of the night pierced her ears. It was the shops bell, above the front door! Now theft and crime in general was all but absent in the small up and coming town of ponyville, the town didn’t even have a police station. But sweetie bell was terrified at the intrusion that was surely below. Thoughts ran through her mind, maybe I forgot to lock the front door? Maybe big sis has someone coming to pick up a dress, these thoughts still did not comfort her mind. Being still just a child, she found some comfort in hiding beneath her blankets, she peaked an eye out from underneath. The door to her and her sister, rarity’s, bedroom began to creep open. The filly was frozen in place as she could see a shadow of some creature she had never seen before enter their room. All that brave talk of “cutie mark crusaders creature catchers” from when the three cutie mark crusaders had slept over at fluttershy’s cottage meant nothing now. She was terrified. The form that produced the shadow silently entered the room. Sweetie bell wanted to scream, but her body did not respond. The creature fully entered the room, looked around studying the room from top to bottom. Sweetie bell’s eyes widened when the fiend stared right at her, she could feel herself shaking now. But to her surprise it looked away and silently left the room, closing the door to about the point it once was. Sweetie bell lay in her bed, not knowing what to do. She shuddered at the sound of the front door’s bell. She looked at her sister, still asleep, not knowing of what had just happened. The threat was gone now. All was quiet once again. Now sweetie bell found sleep quite easily.

Hidden again, jack breathed out. He knew that he had been discovered. It was a mistake to investigate the source of the snoring. If he were to go back tomorrow night he would have to be considerably more careful. He crept back to the forest he had emerged from earlier that day; found a soft tuft of grass and let sleep take him.

Author’s Notes: this is just the beginning of my little story. i know it sucks right now but it will get better, might even go back and rework this segment to make it a little more palatable.if people read it and want more i have a few more pages that i can put up. i am still looking for some sort of title if you can help me out there, also i could use some proof reading. thanks for reading if you want to help shoot me an email 0sheldm@gmail.com lastly i meant no connection between this and samurai jack.

harsh introductions

Chapter 1: Harsh Introductions

The sun had risen, but this was next to indistinguishable through the clouds the Pegasus had been collecting for an afternoon storm. Most of ponyville knew this would be quite the fiasco, so most ponies either stayed home or were hurriedly rushed around the town trying to complete their morning tasks before the storm would shut them down. Just inside the everfree forest jack began to stir. The previous day’s events had wracked his mind with all sorts of possible horrors that might await him with these creatures that dominated the world he was now stuck in. sleep had come quickly for him the former night, but it came at a cost he would wake up often as different nightmares consumed his consciousness. Now awake, his basic needs kicked in. he hadn’t eaten in about two full days, his mind quickly found a memory of an apple orchard on the edge of the town. He picked himself up from his makeshift bed and headed to the stream that was on the border of the wood, for a morning drink, jack found his bearings and headed for the apple trees.

Twilight was in a sort of helping mood as she awoke, she knew that yesterday would have kicked off the apple buck season. And she knew moreover that the apple family could always use a couple of extra hooves, or a good dose of magic. After eating a small breakfast twilight headed towards the farm. It was still fairly early, and the few holes in the storm clouds above were being quickly patched by a few flying Pegasus, however rainbow dash was not with them. ‘Probably still asleep’ twilight thought to herself. Sweet apple acres was now in sight. A peak of nervous energy ran through twilight’s veins. She knew today would be a large amount of work, but that is kinda what she wanted. She even let spike sleep in this morning, the last time she had helped applejack all spike did was lie on her back complain, and even begin to throw some of the apples on the ground. Approaching the farmhouse, something seemed wrong. The apple family was nowhere to be seen. Twilight walked up to the front door and knocked, announcing who she was deemed no response from anypony inside. Twilight couldn’t even hear movement inside. In a nervous panic she threw open the door. Searching frantically she could find nopony. Thinking maybe they were still asleep, twilight ran upstairs. Part of her mind snapped when she saw the blood strewn about the hallway. She ran to the first door, granny smith’s bedroom, and vomited at the sight of the old mare lying in her bed with her throat cut open. Wrenching away from the terrible sight, twilight nearly fell down the stairs behind her. She thought about running away, but the thought of applejack being in danger made her run to the next door. Big Macintosh was sitting against a wall, it the blood in the hallway lead straight to his body. Twilight began to panic now, granny smith killed in her sleep, big Mac, killed in trying to save his family. Twilight began to think of the horrors that she would find in the final two rooms. She wanting to wake up from this nightmare, but she had to continue in her dismal task. She felt some relief in finding applejack’s room empty, everything seemed half destroyed but there was nopony there. The final room, applebloom’s, was in similar disarray, but once again vacant. However twilight noticed the window was open, and a small amount of yellow hair was caught on a nail. Normally twilight would be terrified at the knowledge of the filly being injured, but this gave her a sense of hope, that maybe her friends had escaped the fate of their family. As she peered out the window, this sense of hope was quickly dashed, as she saw applejack lying not twenty feet from the side of the house. Twilight used her magic to teleport down to her departed friend’s body. The young mare lie in a puddle of her own blood, her body was already cold. Twilight looked around for the still missing applebloom. She found a trail of hoof prints leading into the orchard; she picked up her crying form and ran into the trees.

Jack had already picked up a few apples and was eating them, he was very hungry and such a treat was just what he needed. His blissful eating was interrupted by the sound of a small child crying. He flew to his feet discerned the distressed direction and ran off in an instinctual need to help those he could. He sprinted for a good five minutes before coming to the injured form of applebloom. Jack froze as he saw the human noises coming from the young horse at his feet, his eyes widened as he remembered being in a similar situation, years ago. He shook himself out of this daze and quickly started the triage he was taught. It looked like the small creature had been mauled by some sort of animal, a dog perhaps. He knew there wasn’t much he could do for the dying animal. His instincts got the better of him, as he began to try to stem the blood flowing from multiple deep gashes.

“what’s your name?” he asked frantically.

“appl..apple…bloom,” she could barely speak trough the pain and fear.

“applebloom? Ok. Don’t you worry I’m gonna help you. You are going to be safe!” still frantic in his near futile task to save the young filly, he began to cry. Applebloom just lay silent as the mysterious stranger above her promised her safety and life. Twilight’s running hooves could now be heard in the distance, as she closed the gap. Jack kept doing everything he could to save applebloom but her wounds were just too much for a child to handle. Her breathing slowed and slowed until she was gone. It may have been nice to see on last act of kindness as she departed but that didn’t matter now. Twilight finally emerged from behind a tree to find a strange creature kneeling over a mutilated filly. The creature stood, turned with tears filling his eyes and rolling down his face. Twilight’s horn glowed like it never had before. She had found her perpetrator standing with a smoking gun, so to speak. She was ready to kill it right where it stood, but she couldn’t. maybe it was the tears careening down his face or the fact he was covered in applebloom’s blood, probably both. When jack finally saw through his sadness and guilt at letting the child die in his arms, he saw a purple unicorn, it’s horn glowing magnificent colors. With a look of pure anger across its face, a look that quickly changed to shock. They both wanted to speak, jack about what had happened, how he had tried to save the young life. Twilight, wanted to ask him a series of questions like ‘how could you?’ or ‘why?’ or just simply ask the thing what it was. They stood there in deep silence, twilight’s horn slowing returned to its normal state, as the rage left her body and the reality of her friend’s death sunk in. jack knew he couldn’t stand there forever, as he turned to leave the unicorn screamed,

“JUST WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING HUH?” her rage had quickly returned. Jack just turned to her closed his eyes and began to run away. “COME BACK HERE!” twilight shouted giving chase. As they began to enter the everfree forest nothing would stop the furious unicorn, her normal thoughts and apprehensions of the everfree forest were destroyed by the rage that made her want to rip this thing into shreads. They ran for what felt like forever, hoping over stumps, and dodging low lying tree limbs. If she had any sense left in her at all twilight would have known that they were fast approaching the old castle that had once held the elements of harmony, they both sprinted across the ancient bridge, jack managed to cross just in time but the old ropes just couldn’t take it just as twilight was about to step to safety. The bridge gave way. Twilight’s anger was overcome by fear, as she plummeted to her almost certain doom. Her eyes slammed shut in fear. But soon she couldn’t help but realize her descent had been stopped. She looked for some sort of explanation as to why she was ok, but her heart sank as she saw the creature had grabbed her with a still bloody hand. Jack couldn’t just let the pony die, even knowing that it might try to hurt him if he pulled it up, yet he did anyway. Once twilight was on level ground, she wrenched herself away from jack, backing up to the wall of the distraught castle wall. She watched as the thing that had saved her sat against one of the bridges stone supports. The act of kindness that she had been shown, didn’t make sense to her. How could something kill, no butcher four ponies then save her in a split second. They both sat silently and motionlessly across from each other. The silence was finally broken as the rain began to fall, the wind blew thunder cracked, yet the two creatures sat silently there.

“I know we are not on the best of terms right now, but this storm is pretty bad,” jack had broken the silence, but he still did not look up, “I think we need to work together to get through this.”

“how can I understand you?” twilight was mystified by the fact that something she had never even heard of before could speak.

“can’t say as I know, don’t even know how I got here,” he looked up now. The blood had began to wash off of his arms.

“how can I trust you?” thunder had finished twilight’s statement.

Jack stood, “honestly?” he began to walk towards twilight, “neither of us has any reason to trust the other, but that doesn’t matter now. We need to do something, or we will both die.”

Twilight was frozen by his statement. It was cold but still held feeling. She sighed, rose, and nodded her head. They both ran into the castle and did their best to impose some sort of covering to keep them dry. Once they were done, jack began to start a fire as twilight laid down.

“I just have one question, did you kill them?” her eyes teared and could barely finish her solemn question.

Jack dropped the pieces of wood and looked the mare dead in the eye, “no I did not,” he looked down, “I don’t expect you to believe me, but I didn’t kill her.”

“what about the others?”

“what do you mean others?” tears began to roll down his face once more.

“applebloom’s family…”

His speech was nearly inaudible, “she had a family…” jack bowed his head and began to pray quietly.

They sat in silence again almost sharing each others grief, twilight began to openly weep. She found some sort of comfort in this strangers arms. The feeling of her friend’s death was unimaginable sorrow, in the flickering of the fire twilight fell asleep in jack’s arms.

Spike was terrified the news of the apple family’s murder was all over ponyville, and even worse twilight was nowhere to be found. Now spike was a dragon but he was still little more than a baby. Even though owlicious was there to comfort him it brought him little reprieve. He had run off to find somepony to shelter him and keep him in a feeling of security, he chose to go to fluttershy’s cottage. Even though the Pegasus was crying over the loss of her friends, it was still a step up from being alone. The storm raged as the town grieved the loss of two of its local heroes. Nopony left their homes. A feeling of sorrow covered the town throughout the night.

Twilight woke up to the sight of some food just in front of her, he savior of the previous day was eating in the corner by himself, the sun was shining but water could be heard dripping from the trees. A sight she would have wholeheartedly enjoyed if it weren’t for what had been burned into her memory.

“I see you found breakfast,” twilight spoke as she looked over the small bits jack had produced.

“I have to apologize though, I don’t rightly know what you eat.”

“well you are close enough,” twilight began to eat the small bits of grass and flowers in front of her, speaking in between bites, “my name is twilight sparkle, what is yours?”

“jack, my name is jack. You people sure do have some odd names around here. But I guess we come from different cultural backgrounds.”

Twilight was shocked at this philosophical statement, considering that she thought at first sight that jack was just some sort of weird animal. “I just have to ask, what are you? Speaking as to species.”

“I am a human. Interesting how your kind exists where I come from but that is not vice versa.”

“you mean ponies exist outside of equestria?” twilight was truly astounded she was always told that all the ponies stayed in equestria. Considering other areas like dragon country were off limits.

“let me tell you this, I know nothing of equestria, or for that matter this planet. I come from somewhere far away.”

“how far away?”

“right now I have no idea, I know how I got here, I think, but I don’t know where I am compared to where I am from. I also have no idea how I am going to get home. I am sorry when I get tired I tend to ramble a bit.” He ended with a bit if a forced laugh.

“so how did you get here?”

“well I was travelling through an interplanetary portal when a nuclear reactor sent out a neutron pulse, which must have scrambled the teleporter signal. Sending me here.”

Twilight stood aghast, she had never heard of teleporters or reactors, or even other planets. She didn’t know how to respond.

“by the look on your face a gather that you understood none of that. I also think it is worth pointing out that where I come from, horses are not intelligent life forms like they are here.”

“wait you said you were tired, didn’t you get any sleep last night?”

“not a wink.”

“why?”

“memories, dreams, nightmares,” jack looked at the ground and just froze

Sweetie bell had a dire task ahead of her. She had to think of a way of a way to tell her best friend that applebloom was dead. Scootaloo had tagged along with zecora to canterlot to obtain certain herbs and spices that could not be found anywhere else, at least not practically anyway. She tried going all around ponyville asking others for advice, but at the mere mention of the victim’s names most ponies would run away crying. Not too many ponies knew the apple family personally but in a land with few deaths other than natural causes, a murder was quiet disheartening. Scootaloo was galloping into town, lighthearted for returning to her friends and continuing their quest to find their cutie marks. Something felt off as she entered the city, it was as if the entire town had been consumed by dread. A worried expression enveloped her face as her pace slowed, something definitely was wrong. Ponies were downtrodden, heads lying low to the ground, some sobbing, and some still hidden in their homes. The only logical explanation would be at the carousel boutique, home of sweetie bell. Entering the front door, there was nopony in sight. But the clear sound of crying was heard upstairs. The source was rarity, holding her silent sister.

“can one of you explain what’s going on around here?” this question made rarity cry even harder.

“they are gone,” sweetie bell began to cry silently.

“who? What do you mean?” scootaloo’s face took on a clear sight of worry and confusion.

“applebloom,” sweetie could barely talk now, continuing her story was hard through her sorrow, “applejack, big mac, granny smith, and twilight too. Something killed them all.” Scootaloo’s normal attitude of arrogant superiority vanished as she stood in pure shock. She didn’t know what to think. Maybe this was just a prank, perpetrated by her friends. But then why would the whole town seem to be feeding in on this horrible joke. Her head began to feel lighter and lighter as the room began to spin, and then turn to black.

“we have to get back to ponyville, now!” twilight just wanted to be back in the essence of her friends.

“do you really think that is a good idea?” jack seemed worried.

“what do you mean?”

“well, some of your people are dead. I am the obvious outsider. Right now I would be the easiest thing to blame.”

“what? Where did that thought even come from?” twilight seemed confused at this very notion.

“personal experience.”

“well the good ponies of ponyville trust me, and if I tell them you are a friend, they will believe me,” twilight’s confidence was brimming, yet she still was slightly unhinged at what she had witnessed. The two headed out, back towards ponyville walking in silence until.

“I have to say, considering what you saw you seem to holding up pretty well,” this comment seemed almost joyful if not for the grim matter in which it was spoken.

“I can’t explain it,” twilight stopped, and closed her eyes, trying to search her feelings, “I know I should be sadder but I am not. Yet I could say to you the same thing.”

“I am a warrior,” jack chuckled, “death seems to follow me where ever I go.”

“you said that you had nightmares, can I ask of what?”

Jack sighed as the two began walking again, “what happened with applebloom,” he swallowed hard, “happened to me once before. Every time I closed my eyes that was all I saw. That is all I want to say.”

Twilight didn’t know what to say, ‘should I comfort him, tell him everything will be fine?’ she decided to say nothing at all. And the silence stayed with them all the way to twilight’s home. As they walked through the city ponies everywhere just stopped and stared, somepony they were told was dead, was now walking right in front of them! None cared to approach her as the large thing with her still had some visible blood on its body.

“twilight!” spike began to cry as he saw his best friend and maternal figure emerge back from the dead. The joy he felt was indescribable.

“spike, I would like you to do me a favor if you could.”

“anything twilight,” spike’s eyes glowed and he seemed to brighten the room with joy.

“I need you to go find our friends, and bring them here. Can you do that for me?”

This notion brought spike back down, partially because of applejack, but mostly because that meant he would have to leave twilight, “but…but applejack…”

“I know what happened to applejack,” she cut him off, “now go.” With this he left. “so, jack in all my years of studying I have never heard of a human before.”

“I don’t suppose you have. Yet I see different things that remind me of earth.”

“really?” twilight almost shouted as this phrase stole her attention.

“yeah. In some respects the only difference I see is that you ponies have replaced humans.”

Spike had moved quickly, rounding up all the mane four he was sent out to retrieve and in a breath was back in the tree house. Between their seeing their dead friend in front of their eyes and the human she was sheltering they were all speechless. Just standing in awe, twilight without saying a word just walked up to her friends and gave them all a hug.

“I hate to interrupt your little moment,” jack broke the silence, “but we need to find out exactly what is going on here. Why your people are being…for lack of a better word hunted.”

“WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN!” rainbow dash was flying not two inches from jack’s face, “ARE YOU A SPY?!”

“told you twilight,” jack leaned around his accuser without giving her any acknowledgment, “told you the outsider would be easier to blame.”

“but what do you mean by ‘hunted’?” twilight was disturbed by this phrase but she also completely ignored rainbow dash’s accusations. Dash looked at her tail, half expecting applejack to be there holding her back, just as she did when dash accused twilight. A sad expression crept over her, but no tears fell.

“well honestly the young applebloom, she appeared as if mauled by some sort of animal.” Rarity began to cry loudly, finding some comfort with an embrace from fluttershy. “I would like some time to, study, learn about what has gone down here.”

“you want to see the…bodies?” all the ponies cringed.

“yeah, will give me a good place to start.”

“why are you helping us anyway?” rainbow dash was back on the attack.

“long ago,” he turned to face dash still hovering, “I took an oath. An oath to help and protect those who need me. Even at the cost of my own life.”

Author’s notes: if you are reading this than that means you might be following my story, i thank you for that. anywho in case you didn’t notice i try to incorporate small elements of humor in my writing, sometimes a little misplaced...but i digress, things get a little better from here as the action picks up stay tuned for more.

conflict and connections

Chapter 2: conflict and connections

The group was led by twilight towards the town of canterlot, the only place near ponyville to have a practical morgue. The trip took the rest of the day, luna’s moon was casting its gaze over all of equestria now. The group stood still in front of the two stainless steel doors, a sign hung above saying “morgue” fluttershy broke down with rarity following suit.

“I think I should go in alone,” jack moved closer to twilight.

“if you’re going to be with them I want to be there too,” twilight countered.

“what I plan to do here is not going to be pleasant, I need to inspect their injuries. The only real way to find the full extent of the damage is by going to the inside.”

Fluttershy gasped at the idea of some strange creature cutting into her friend. At the same time rarity fainted, rainbow dash touched ground after flying all the way there, but twilight’s eyes widened as she shrunk back where she stood.

“you should have some friends here right? Someone who you can go and talk to?”

Twilight couldn’t process this statement, she was focused on the image of jack mutilating applejack and her family, “we could go see the princess,” she finally responded, “yeah I think we should go.”

“this might take me a while, where should I go to look for you?”

“the castle, on the edge of the cliff. I will make sure you can get in,” twilight found it hard to speak and yet her words seemed to carry themselves off her tongue, having a will of their own.

“ok, make sure to get some sleep. All of you.”

Jack was no doctor, but performing an autopsy was a simple task to one trained so highly in ending lives. The bodies were long since cold but they held no meaning to jack, just another dead thing. But he had to shutter and clear his mind as he came up to applebloom. Her once bright yellow coat was dulled, and stained with her own blood. Her red mane was frazzled and out of order, the bow in her mane was removed by some pony doctor. Her eyes were closed, her mouth just slightly open, as she lie on the steel table. There were three more victims along with the apple family, three new ponies that appeared to have the same injuries. To find out everything he wanted to know would mean being up all night.

Twilight and her friends slowly made their way across canterlot. It was close to midnight, yet there were someponies who were still having a good time, out drinking and partying in the night air. Pinkie felt almost angry at these ponies ‘how can they party, when our friends have been killed?’ even the usually attention sharp rarity chose to block out the world, she normally would have been giddy at the sights and sounds of one of the most fashion centric cities in equestria. Rainbow dash hadn’t flown since the morgue, she just trotted at the back of the line they were forming. The normally strong upright feeling she usually had was long since gone, without this strengthening force the entire group began to suffer. Fluttershy still stood next to her best friend rarity, she had become slightly accustomed to death, being around short lived animals, had tempered her loss. But it still couldn’t stop her from weeping, nothing could. Although she would never show it twilight took it the worst. Jack and the human military might pride her in how well she accepted her friend’s demise. She had finished mourning them and now was only thinking of how she could make things right. She was the only pony in the group with her head up actually looking where she was going, deep in thought of how she would find the culprits responsible and moreover what she would do when she found them. Although twilight looked the part, spike was the one most content among the group. He had fallen asleep upon the purple unicorn’s back. She was the closest thing he had to a mother and he never wanted to leave her back again. Time seemed to fall into a riff as the group soon realized they were standing outside of princess celestia’s private chamber. The door was already open in anticipation of their arrival, inside the princess was already asleep.

“I think we should get some rest,” twilight spoke quietly yet still with purpose. The others just nodded, almost happy to have someone point the way. They spread out on a few simple beds presumably set up by some servants in preparation for their arrival. None of them had slept better since hearing the world changing news.

“rise and shine kiddies!” jack’s voice boomed in the large room. Twilight arose, seeing that the sun was risen to almost noon now. The others did the same, almost looking worse than the night previous.

“what did you learn?” twilight got straight to business.

“I don’t think that is an advisable place to start,” the princess seemed to come from nowhere.

“you know how hard it is to break into this place?” twilight lit up in remembering that she had forgotten to ensure safe passage for jack.

“you broke in?” even the princess seemed shocked at this.

“yeah it is what I do. Your princess and I were up all morning talking about what’s going down here, I have learned a lot. But I still know you holding back cellestia.” Nopony had ever heard something speak so harshly to the royalty.

“I told you all I could know of our new enemies!” cellestia nearly shouted, yet still held her composure. It was only now that everypony had seen the small alicorn Luna hiding behind her sister.

“you have told me what they are, where they are, and their movements. Yet you are neglecting to mention some sort of motive,” jack had moved out to the balcony.

“big sister, he needs to know,” Luna spoke for the first time. A smile crept across jack’s face, in knowing he was right.

“maybe you’re right Luna,” cellestia followed jack to the balcony, with all the other ponies, “ but we should at least tell the rest off them what will happen.”

“that would be nice,” twilight tried to downplay the fear that hung in the room.

“for starters, we know that these attacks are being perpetrated by the diamond dogs, worse off they have help.” Jack started.

“worse off we think they are being helped by the dragons,” cellestia continued.

“but the worst part,” Luna finished, “some ponies have joined their cause.” Everypony gasped at this startling revelation. They had faced dragons and the diamond dogs before, but have never even heard of conflict amidst ponies.

“stop me if I’m wrong,” jack looked across the city towards a small building, “I think you have an object of in that building. However I don’t know what you call it. but that would be more than enough to draw these factions together and against you.”

“how?” the princess was shocked, this human somehow knew something that cellestia thought only her and her sister knew about.

Jack laughed as he turned to them, “its my job. But moreover it must have been dormant for a long time. Frankly put I can see no absurd reason why anything… unindoctrinated would want one of those things around.”

“care to inform us of just what you are talking about?” rainbow dash interjected, finding her usual attitude gave a bit of life to the group.

“jack said it,” the princess took on a troubled look, “we have come to call them objects. They are large statues that are not carved, they are found,” the group focused.

“they are dangerous, just being in the same room as them, can allow them into your mind. Where they twist and tear till you find you sanity lost and you want nothing more than to do its very will. They are made of rock and metal, yet they seem to be sentient,” jack rejoined the main room.

“we kept one, that we managed to keep dormant, for study. To maybe learn something about it. well it was actually discord who managed to capture it. we just kept it around.”

“and with discord gone once again, the magic he must have cast upon it faded, awakening it. or he simply released it when he was awake,” Luna was calm when the rest of the ponies saw only gloom.

“but that was two years ago!” twilight spoke.

“it can take a long time to get an army together,” jack said with the confidence earned of him, “being absorbed can take a while.”

“how do you know all of this,” dash looked angry.

“my first encounter with these things,” jack sighed, lost in a memory, “it wanted me. Somehow I managed to win the battle for my mind and ended up destroying the bitch. Ever since I started hunting them, they kept trying to capture me, it is an interesting expirence.”

“what do you mean? What does it say to you? Howdidyoubeatit?” Luna sped as she spoke, clearly intrigued by the notion of being able to win.

“it starts slowly, like a small whisper coming from inside your head. Then you start to discern individual words, then phrases, then you can hear everything. It tells you different things, trying to find the way into your mind. In my case it told me what I wanted to hear…”

“and what was that?” twilight cut him off.

“it told me that if I did what it said, it would bring back my wife and daughter,” twilight didn’t know what to say, “I realized that nothing would bring them back, that it was just lying to me. But I would be lying myself if I said I didn’t want to join it.”

“I hear it,” pinkie spoke up, “it is inside my head, telling me that nothing is worth it. that my friends all hate me. And after applejack…it told me that you all would follow if I didn’t release it.”

“there was a song written about them where I come from,

Life it seems will fade away

Drifting further everyday

Getting lost within myself

Nothing matters no one else

I have lost the will to live

Simply nothing more to give

There is nothing more for me

Need the end to set me free

Things not what they used to be

Missing one inside of me

Deathly lost this can’t be real

Can’t stand this hell I feel

Emptiness is filling me

To the point of agony

Growing darkness taking dawn

I was me but now he is gone

No one but me can save myself

But its too late

Now I can’t think

Think why I should even try

Yesterday seems as though

It never existed

Death greets me warm

Now I will just say goodbye

“well do you think we should confront it?”

“couldn’t hurt, you guys go on ahead. Twilight, I would like to speak with you in private for a second,” jack looked at her and motioned for the others to go, “we will catch up.”

After the room was empty, save for the human and unicorn, “what did you want to talk about?” twilight seemed eager, expecting to chat about knowledge from the foreign world.

“I’m gonna be frank. Stop thinking about revenge,” jack had looked away now. Twilight was astounded. She tried to think of ways that he could have known about her feelings of hate.

“how?” she asked simply.

“you and I, we are not so different. We think about each step we take to the nth degree. Your friend was taken from you and now you wish to return the favor.”

“you don’t know how it feels though!” twilight was livid.

“I do, I won’t bore you with sorrowful details, but I will tell you this. If you seek revenge, and achieve it or not you will die. Not in a physical sense, but in a mental sense. It happened to me and if you continue, it will happen to you.”

“but you seem fine, Not ‘mentally dead,’” she half mocked him, “you are the same as when you started!”

“who says I am?” he still couldn’t look at her, “I was different. My own family probably would not recognize me now. I have done terrible things to bad people, and sometimes to those who didn’t deserve it. My anger and fear clouded my judgment, and guided my actions down a path I wish I could have avoided. Not guilt haunts my mind; that is why I still remain a soldier, to try to maybe help some people, to vindicate me from my fate. I live by an oath, ‘to help others, even at the cost of my own life.’ I fully intend to eventually die for what I believe in. moreover it is too late for me, satan is waiting in hell for my soul, and he will get it one day. But I will bring as many malicious souls with me as I can.”

“so what? You expect me just to give up?” twilight was in full attack mode now.

Jack sighed, “I see I am already too late with my advice, you have chosen your path. And you will follow it. there is still hope though, I will help you. But you must promise me you will take in what I have to say, and mostly you must be patient.”

“what?!” twilight was confused.

“I will try to guide you down your path, make sure you don’t lose sight of who you are. It won’t be easy for you, the natural feeling of anger is easy to follow. But if you do, your life as you know it will disappear.”

“so what is the plan?” the unicorn had settled down now, knowing that her feelings would be followed to an extent.

“well overall, simply put we have to kill all those indoctrinated,” twilight gasped, “there is no saving them. Once you are in there is no getting out.”

“but you got out.”

“I was never fully in. one more thing,” as jack began walking to the door, “keep an eye on your friend, pinkie, the object wants her. Keep her close or you will lose her.”

The group had reformed in front of a tall slender building. The sign out front spelled out “the original museum of equestria” it was a collection of assorted art and historically significant items. Cellestia used her horn to open the large wooden doors supported by large iron hinges and bands. The inside was lit by natural light, filling the large open room with a yellow light. Looking up one could see all the way to the ceiling, with each floor standing like a balcony over the center, in which stood a large marble and obsidian statues of the princess sisters, each with a statue of the sun and moon above their respected guardians. The entire building seemed to be made of white marble.

“so where is this thing exactly?” asked rainbow dash.

“eight floors up, twenty feet back towards the right, in a corner by itself,” jack didn’t miss a beat.

The two princesses stood aghast, “how did you know that?”

“ask pinkie,” jack replied calmly.

“it speaks, in my mind, I can hear it,” pinkie spoke softly.

“she is right, I have just tuned myself to be able to locate these things. As they try to pry apart my mind they have to reveal parts of themselves to me.” Twilight’s mind was spinning, the very idea of an inanimate object able to somehow invade something’s mind and control it, was….was….absurd. she thought it impossible, and had it not been for pinkie, or the two princesses confirming what she was hearing she would have denounced it completely. The group clambered onto a small primitive elevator, that was magicked up to the eighth floor by cellestia, upon reaching their floor a brake was activated by Luna, and the group departed already drawn by the force emanating from the corner. All but pinkie pie walked away, the party pony stammered up to the nearest wall and shrunk down to the floor holding her head in obvious pain. The thoughts invading her mind, pushing, clawing, and digging at her to take the nearest sharp implement and plunge it deep into the human’s chest. She felt herself move finally move, although not by her own will, she walked clumsily up to one of the museum displays. It would have been clear to anypony around her that something was wrong, but they were all too absorbed in their own curiosity to notice their friend’s peril. Pinkie began to cry, she willed herself to stop, but her body did not respond. The object controlled her mouth to bite down hard on the blade in her mouth, the ancient steel devoid of a handle cut into her lips and tongue, she wanted the pain to stop, she knew what the object was about to do, blood dripped mixed with saliva from her mouth, marking her path. With one last drip hitting the floor she took her charge. Past her friends, still caught in their trance. Jack became aware in a way the others couldn’t. in one fluid motion he deflected the attack, with his left arm and produced a hatchet with his right, striking pinkie with the hammer end, the adrenaline slowed time for him as he could feel ribs breaking, in his weapon. The attacker fell to the ground, but recovered quickly, regaining a combat stance, jack made the next blow precise, but nonlethal. A simple swing to her head knocked his assailant unconscious. As pinkie fell to the ground, the spell cast over the rest of the ponies was broken. Rainbow dash was the first to lash out, unwilling to see past the person holding a weapon over her broken and bleeding friend on the ground.

“WHAT DID YOU DO!?” tears found her eyes, as rage boiled her blood.

“she isn’t dead,” jack couldn’t even look at his accuser, “if I wanted her dead she would be gone,” he hid away his weapon, with the same quickness in which he produced it.

“what happened?” twilight spoke out half crying, “how did none of us notice this?”

“simple,” jack still did not look up from the comfort he found in the floor tiles, “the artifact had gripped your attention. It had me too, for a while. This one is particularly strong, normally it can’t control hosts that quickly. We could be in for quite a fight.”

“what are we supposed to do with pinkie?” rarity was the one most worried, “we can’t just leave her here.”

“for now we have no choice, she isn’t going anywhere. We are close now.” The two princesses seemed nervous, nervous in a way twilight had never seen before. To see her great teacher, one of the most powerful alicorns scared troubled her. But on the other hoof was jack. Some mysterious being from somewhere far away. He showed no fear, almost more of an impatient anger towards this threat. Once more the princesses had accepted him with very little thought, when they first saw him he was wearing singed armor, and in general he looked rough. Twilight herself could not explain why she trusted him so well, sure he had saved her life but normally she would not even trust another pony this much after so long. It even took a good bit of time before she truly trusted her now close friends. Still trapped in thought twilight ran into the now motionless jack. He was just standing there. Staring up at some large statue. It was purple, not unlike twilight’s coat, but it was also streamed with black orange gold, and a deep red. It looked like a mess of tentacles rising from a large cracked stone; the whole thing seemed to glow. But more worriedly twilight could hear something. Almost like a whispering emanating from the staute. Everything about it just seemed wrong, every fiber of her being wanted to just run away, try to escape to the danger that she could feel in the air. Twilight turned to her mentor, her eyes displaying her distress, ears folded tightly against her head. To her chagrin princess celestia just gave an empty stare back, she still seemed confident, yet the beads of sweat that ran down her face told otherwise. A plume of magical smoke began to rise from the statue, all the young mares came close to one another, trying to gain some sort of comfort in each other’s embrace. Only the two royal sister’s and the human remained motionless, as the plume surrounded the group sealing them in a magical prison. The whispering from before was now more audible, the group of friends looked about each other, trying to determine if they were the only ones seeing what was happening. Still jack and the princesses remained still.

The air turned cold, and felt dense as it entered jack’s lungs. He had been in this shadow ‘cave’ before. And he knew the way out. He looked around, still just listening to the whispers, the smoke wanted him to slaughter the ponies behind him. It would be a lie to not say some part of him wanted to do it. Those horrid words became louder still itching in his ears, it was torture. But he had made it through this before. He finally broke the deadly silence, much to the ponies delight, “so what is your name?” twilight was taken aback by his politeness, this….object wanted her to kill everything around her, and jack was treating it like just a common passerby.

“I have many names, you may choose what you want to call me,” the twisting shadows seemed to answer from every direction at once.

“I don’t suppose you could make this easy for my?” jack spoke with a arrogance twilight had not seen yet, “you could just kill yourself, but then I guess it wouldn’t be fun now would it.” twilight was shocked, ‘was this fun, was fighting something that humans enjoyed?’

“ha,” the shadows laughed, “I see you know how things work with us. But I still have a few questions, who are you? Where did you come from? Why are you here?”

“I suppose there is no gain in lying. My name is jack, I come from earth, and…well I am here to kill you. And you have never seen anything like me before.”

“you are a human. We have fought you before. We have killed you before. And you cannot stop us here!” the voice grew in intensity, almost deafening now.

“wow, you are no different,” jack was almost giggly, “when you little fucks get scared, you try to assert your authority, you get loud, and start speaking in the third person. Give me something new eh? But that is the difference between you and I, you remain predictable, we change, you are willing to kill for something, ‘we can’t possibly understand’ we fight and die for our very lives. But we also fight for others, you lack such unity, such compassion. You will try to resist but I will kill you, no matter the cost.”

The smoke was silent, jack’s little soliloquy had left the great thing speechless. Even the great solar princess did not know how to respond. But yet the princess of the moon could not hold her tongue any longer.

“you may have returned, but now we have the secret to finally kill you for good.” Every one instantly looked at the blue mare, stunned that she knew of such things. And even more so that maybe she had fought this thing, but what worried jack the most was the implication of failure. Luna’s words were those of hope, but they were built upon words of defeat. Jack regained his composure, pulled out his hatchet, and rushed into the shadow wall. And just like that he was gone. Twilight could not here him, or see anything that gave her a clue to his existence. The darkness continued to twist, and writhe. Even the princesses were scared now, though neither made it clearly visible. But then it stopped, the darkness was still, the whispers quiet, light began to pierce through, burning away the veil. The bright indoor light had twilight temporarily blinded, but as the world came into focus, she could see the statue was in pieces, destroyed by jack who was standing before them, his entire body was still covered in the shadow, but even that shadow was burning off now. It gave him a look of being on fire. The group looked around at each other clearly overjoyed to be free of the trap, rainbow dash even started to chuckle a little at the whole experience. Jack even gave a little laugh as he looked at the shadow melting off of his hands, it had truly hurt to walk through the wall but he needed to do it. there was a lighthearted feeling, cellestia thought that the trials were over, that whatever was causing her grief all these centuries was finally gone. A smile spread across her face, much to the delight of her sister who almost jumped in excitement. It would have been a perfect time to raise all of their spirits, until somepony finally shouted.

“I WON’T LET IT HAVE ME!” pinkie’s voice was that of fear and anger, she stood near the railing. No one had noticed that she was now awake. Blood was just running down her face, from where jack had struck her before. There was a fear in her eye, as if she knew what was happening to her and there was only one way out. She looked to her friends, giving one last smile, as she let herself fall backwards.

Author’s Notes: yes i know some of you are going to hate me for killing pinkie pie now, but...i need it for the plot to work later down the line. keeping this short the song’s lyrics are actually from metallica’s fade to black. hey i was listening to that song while writing that segment and it seemed to fit...a little too perfectly o.O

the pain that we share

Chapter 3: the pain that we share

To have everything you know and love taken from you is a lesson jack knew well. And now it was one twilight was being taught, she was having her heart ripped out by something that she could not fight. It was something that had left jack burned out, an empty husk, a shell of his former self. The group of ponies and human had returned to the castle, most downtrodden, defeated from having two of their best friends taken from them in little under a week. But it was fluttershy who took it the worst, she wasn’t one for flying everywhere like rainbow dash, but now if you didn’t know better you might think she was just an earth pony. Her normally poufy mane seemed deflated, like when pinkie thought that all of her friends hated her. But this was different, there was nothing that could bring fluttershy back to the way she once was. When they did finally enter the castle fluttershy left her friends, and took to her temporary bedroom. Twilight saw this and started to follow only to be stopped by a jack who just shook his head. He said something, but twilight chose not to hear it. she just continued to cry as she trotted to her old bedroom.

“twilight said your name was jack?” luna finally broke the grief stricken silence.

“you heard correctly,” jack knew he was dealing with royalty, which he would treat with respect.

“I think we need to talk,” cellestia chimed in.

“couldn’t hurt, at least a time to compare notes. See just where we stand here.”

“well I don’t think we should waste any time here,” cellestia became more serious, “we knew what would happen here, and took it upon ourselves to try to stop the utter genocide, that would surely erupt if we stood by and did nothing. We searched high and low for someone who would know what was happening here and would more importantly know how to stop it.”

“so it was you who brought me here,” jack interrupted, “how?”

“are you familiar with unicorn magic?” luna asked.

“vaguely, some force that certain ‘ponies’ namely unicorns can manipulate to cause certain things to happen. But to transmit matter, me, across lightyears of dark space, or even to cross the dimensional barrier, is impossible.”

“well you don’t know the full extent of an alicorn’s power,” cellestia was delighted in the level of intelligence jack displayed.

Jack chuckled. “considering alicorns, unicorns, and Pegasus are mythical beings where I come from, let alone the fact that you seem capable of higher thought, this is all…well… this all just seems like some crazy dream.”

“think about how it feels for us, an old enemy suddenly reappearing, a human causing great rifts, and a population terrified to leave their homes.”

“that doesn’t make sense, all of your people seemed fine, happy, how do you know they a afraid?”

“what seems normal to you, in regards to behavior, is anything but in equestria. Your world is filled with violence and hatred, ours with peace and hope…usually. But know as we look out, on just canterlot, ponies seem…apprehensive. They do not know what or why they feel this way, but it does not change anything. But that is where you come in.”

“well if I am going to be a regular hero, I am going to need a lot of help,” jack grew a smile.

“you have all the help you will need,” luna stepped closer, “twilight sparkle is perhaps the greatest hope we have right now, she is hurt right now. Seeing her friends…as they are is hard, but you know what she is going through.”

“what is that supposed to mean,” jack took up a defensive posture.

“we had to know what we were bringing in,” cellestia answered, “we looked at a few candidates from your world. Searching their minds, trying to find someone that would be willing to help us unconditionally, weather alone or with some encouragement.”

“then one day we found you,” luna picked up where her sister left off, “it took the two of us working together to bridge the gap to bring you here, and it was fortunate we did it when we did.”

“the explosion,” jack looked sick, trying to understand what he was being told.

“yes,” luna continued, “you were brought to our world, just as you were about to die.”

“but bringing you here had its cost, it drained almost all of our magic. We had to rest for almost a week just to be able to walk again. In fact, we are still not up to full strength.”

“you have no intention of sending me back.” Jack turned around, putting space between him and the alicorns, “you brought me here when you did, so it would look like I died in my own world.”

“that was never our intention!” luna shouted.

“well if I am going to help you, you need to help me.”

“there is not much we can do, our magic will take some more time to recover.”

“all I need is..well let me explain. I will not be able to just blend in as a human among…’ponies,’” that word was bitter on jack’s tongue. All his life he was told that ponies were for little girls.

“we cannot do much, but that is why we made sure you found twilight.”

“WHAT!” jack leaped across the room, in an instant he had a knife against cellestia’s throat, “that kid in the orchard that was you?”

“NEVER, WE WOULD NEVER HARM A FILLY. OR ANY OTHER PONY FOR THAT MATTER!” luna interjected for her sister, now on her back.

“you have to believe us jack,” cellestia spoke as if her own child, sweet and caring, “we put you in the everfree forest, close to ponyville. Then we had a letter given to twilight, detailing what she should do with you, including hiding you from potential threats.” Jack lowered his blade, hiding it away just as quickly as he had produced it.

“Then explain to me this,” jack stood up, “if twilight knew I was coming, why did she try to kill me when we first met.”

“you have to believe me,” twilight appeared in the throne room doorway, “I thought you were the one who…who… and I never received a letter from you princess.”

“we did not send the letter through spike, contrary to popular belief sending messages that way is anything but safe.” Cellestia walked closer to her star pupil. Twilight did not know what she could have missed, then it hit her. The plain little letter that derpy had delivered a few days ago.

“so that’s what that letter was,” twilight rubbed the back of her neck, “well at least I wasn’t able to actually hurt him.”

“well either way we have a gift for you jack,” cellestia’s horn began to glow, pulling a box into the room, “something to help you in your fight.”

Jack walked up to the box taking off the lid a smile spread on his face, “my armor, was wondering where it got off to. You even fixed it up.” Jack pulled out a helmet and put it on. It was a semi standard N7 helmet, with the breathing apparatus attached and a solid black paint job. However the visor was blacked out, except for a symbol engraved over where the right eye would be. It was a roughly cut circle, with an x filing the interior, slimming in the center. Jack picked out the rest of his armor the same black color as the helmet, putting it on. When he was fully armored twilight, couldn’t help but feel an air of fear. He looked much larger and more dangerous, but twilight’s eyes were drawn to a crest on the middle of jack’s chest. It was a shield, with a flat top and sides that were straight about a third of the way down, before gently curving together. Two bands crossed on the center, black with a small red stripe through the middle. The shield itself was a very dark blue, nearly black. There was also a single red stripe dividing the lower have of the shield. Small writing adorned either half of the lower segment, although twilight was too far away to read what it said. Crossed behind the shield was a hatchet, and something else twilight did not know. Jack turned around, trying the movement of the suit, but this allowed twilight to study the back of the armor. It was the same black color, but the back of the helmet held silver symbols the likes of which she could not understand. Jack turned once more his left arm was surrounded by some sort of yellow aura. He studied it tapping certain areas, before bringing it to his chest. As he did he disappeared. Even the princesses were surprised, luna was frantically searching the room.

“did he teleport?” twilight asked.

“don’t think you can get rid of me that easily,” jack’s voice seemed to come from behind them, “I see you couldn’t refill my weapons.” Jack faded back into visibility.

“we saw your weapons, but could not discern how they worked,” luna perked up. Cellestia had given the task of studying and repairing the armor to her sister, who was a little more technologically inclined, despite missing one thousand years of technological advancements.

“I suppose I can accept that. I don’t even really know how they work…well I have a general understanding. So what is the plan now?”

“now we let you loose,” cellestia showing her pride, “we send you out to kill this thing.”

“I don’t suppose you know where it is?” jack removed his helmet, “that would help tremendously.” Jack hooked the helmet to his back, it moved and twisted to a flat shape on his back.

“all we know is that it is in dragon country.” Cellestia’s disposition changed, “you need to be ready though, it’s reach has spread farther than you think. Dragon country is rather far away, and there will be those who would die rather than letting you pass.”

“not to mention the dangers in dragon country itself,” luna chimed in.

“wait, I thought we stopped this,” twilight voiced her confusion, “jack destroyed that statue!”

“the statue was but a node, a drone given some of this reaper’s power. Destroying that was the easy part.” Without warning the throne room doors burst open, one of the palace messengers running in. twilight looked about but saw jack had disappeared again.

“your majesties,” the messenger, bowing, “I bring you grave news, there is a mysterious creature in the palace. It has already killed some of the guards!” cellestia grew a face of worry, “the royal cabinet wants for you and princess luna to retreat somewhere safe.”

“what do the guards say this ‘creature’ is?” luna approached the servant.

“they do not know, all they said was it looked nothing like a pony, almost more like a monkey without a tail.”

The princesses exchanged glances, “take your leave, tell the royal cabinet that we will stay in canterlot, but will go somewhere safe.” The servant gave one last bow before leaving.

“I take it that it was not you who brought in a second human?” jack walked out from behind one of the large marble pillars.

“no,” cellestia answered plainly, “we can’t just let it run free, if it is killing the ponies of equestria!” the princess did not lose her royal disposition.

“well you leave that to me,” jack dawned his helmet, “killing humans is easy.” A smile just appeared before being covered by the helmet. Twilight was almost scared by what jack had said. What did he mean, ‘killing humans was easy?’ how many humans has he killed, what else has he killed? A shriek broke the awkward silence, followed by a shout of panic and pain. Whoever this person was they had found another victim, and it sounded like it was just outside the throne room doors. Jack wasted no time, sprinting to the large doors, crashing through them in an crazed yet graceful manner, the way pinkie might have. The creature could not be seen by any of the ponies still in the throne room, but it gave another shriek, this time even princess cellestia, found herself scared. Twilight noticed a look on her mentors face, as if she was forced to remember something horrible. After all this she heard jack laugh, in amusement. The three ponies rushed out as jack pounced at the assailant, it gave a shriek, just as before, but this time it was met with a wet thud. Everything was quiet, until princess luna started to gallop over to the doors, her sister was next, and finally twilight broke out of her stupor. As she ran through the large doors, she feared what she was about to see, her fears were met in part. Two guards lain slain against the walls, but jack was kneeling over the semi human corpse.

“that does not look like any human I have ever seen,” luna approached the scene, celestia and twilight kept their distance, transfixed on what they were seeing.

“well that is because it is not human,” jack knelt over the corpse, “not anymore. We call them husks, human bodies…repurposed by the reapers to further their gains. Biological material is replaced with machines. They are simple yet complex at the same time, and given that this is just a G-1 husk, only dangerous in large numbers.” Now even cellestia was captured by jack’s knowledge.

“you say that these…husks are not very dangerous,” luna questioned, “yet it managed to kill many of our guards!”

“usually they are not, with modern weapons from my world you can easily drop them from a distance. If they get in close killing them is still simple, just a little more treacherous. But then you have the G-2 husks, just a little more dangerous simply because they are faster. Just feel lucky it was not a scion or worse.”

“worse?” twilight in awe, “how can something be worse than a human abomination?’

“oh that is the fun part, these things are simple compared to some of the things I have killed. Just wish I had some of my guns.” Jack slung a look towards luna, “do you still have them? My pistols and I came here with a rifle too.”

“we do, but we do not think they work, throughout our studies of your world we have seen just what the outcome of these weapons is, and we could not replicate the results.”

“I think I can change that, were you able to create any thermal clips?”

“thermal whats?”

“clips, no thermal clips no killing I mean it won’t work.”

“well I guess that makes sense,” luna rubbed the back of her neck, knowing that she was just trumped.

“I still want them though,” jack looked back at the husk, “I used to know a way to ‘modify’ them to work without the clips, assuming I can get access to some liquid hydrogen.”

“I will make sure you get them,” cellestia answered.

“PRINCESSES!” shout came from down the hall, “KILL THE INVADER!” jack turned, as a spear bounced off of his chest plate.

“ NO HE IS A FRIEND!” twilight shouted back. But another spear infused with magic came forth, this time having little problem piercing jacks armor. Jack gave a grunt as he fell to the ground. The royal guard rushing to protect their princesses. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!”

“we will have to work fast sister,” cellestia ran up to jack, still conscious, somehow, “he does not have long.”

“leave it in,” jack managed to say, “it is holding back the bleeding.” Jack groaned in pain, finally passing out from the shock.

The two alicorn sisters took to either side of the dying human, their horns began to glow, forming a white cloud of magic, around jack. Once he was completely covered the spear flew out across the room. The guards were shocked, why were they trying to save the thing that was trying to kill them? The princesses were deep in concentration, their faces contorted into ugly shapes. The white cloud began to fade into different colors first purple, then blue, green, yellow, orange, then finally red. Twilight knew this spell, it was one of healing. Something she knew that her mentor had created. She had seen it used before by unicorn doctors to heal deep cuts and other lacerations. But she had never seen the spell encase the entire body before. It would take a level of pure magic that could only come from two alicorns. The spell began to deepen in its red color, growing more intense near the wound, in jack’s chest, or where his chest would be. He could not be seen through the spell’s shroud. The spell must have last for at least two minutes, before it finally faded away. Jack woke up, almost instantly and began to inspect his chest. The wound was gone, but there were holes where the spear had passed. Twilight could now see that jack even looked younger. While before he looked in his mid forties, now he looked not a day over twenty. The two alicorns then collapsed next to jack, they looked sweaty, and exhausted, they had a good reason to be. “well that was…different,” jack was still dumbfounded looking at his chest.

“what happens now?” one of the younger unicorn guards asked.

“well I should kill you for trying to kill me,” jack smiled, trying to pass off the situation as a joke, “but in all seriousness you should probably get your royalty to their bedrooms, they are in serious need for some sleep.” This shook the captain, he repeated jacks statement in an order. The other guards saluted and went off to help their princesses.

“who are you?” the captain barked, “and why did they save your life?”

“I am the guy who is going to save your country,” jack sneered, “is there somewhere I can get some history about this place?”

“my old room in the palace!” twilight perked up again, “it is filled with books. I can get you all the information you could ever want!”

“lead the way,” a smile again crept on to jack’s face.

Twilight’s old room was a thing of beauty, it had once been constructed for princess luna…but then that whole ‘nightmare moon’ thing happened. Since then princess cellestia had used the room intermittently for each of cellestia’s private students; twilight being the latest of the students. The purple unicorn was perfectly at home in the large room, she had always loved books, and this library was the greatest source of pure knowledge that the average pony could use. Now it would be a library being used to formulate plans for war. Jack and twilight stayed up all night, whenever jack had a question about equestrian history, twilight could flawlessly grab a book off the shelf and cue it to the right page to explain and answer his question. But no matter how far either of them dug they could not find any literature detailing or even mentioning reapers, or mechanical beings. They searched all the books in the library for such information but always came up with nothing. There was frustration in the air, books were strewn about haphazardly, maps thrown on tables, and a mess of talking, as the two intellectuals threw ideas back and forth. Spike had long since fallen asleep, it was late at night when they had started, and now the sun was just cresting the horizon, but neither of them noticed. There was a lull in the action, the fatigue finally setting in, jack hadn’t slept in almost three days now. Nightmares among his work had kept him up.

“good morning twilight, jack,” princess cellestia’s voice broke jack from the sleep he almost attained, “you two look like you have been busy. Twilight?” cellestia saw that her student was asleep in a pile of books.

“let her sleep,” jack looked down the balcony in the room, “lord knows she needs it.”

“what about you? I have not seen you asleep since we met.” Cellestia gave a caring, concerned look.

“I can sleep when I am dead,” jack laughed, but his face betrayed his exhaustion.

“you will die soon, if you don’t get some sort of rest.”

“not that I would complain about that,” jack disappeared behind the balcony and sat in a chair, closing his eyes.

“you don’t really wish to die do you?”

“sometimes, life would be a whole lot simpler if I were to just fall off the face of the planet.”

“anything you want to talk about? Anything I can help with?”

“well there are some questions I have, that twilight could not find in her books.” Jack sat up.

“not what I meant,” cellestia came up close to jack, “anything personal?”

“my demons are my own,” jack gave a thousand yard stare, “my life lately has been a symphony of horror and misery. All of which I brought to myself, I have done and seen things that would give you nightmares.”

“we have all done things we regret, I am sure twilight told you the story of me and my sister.”

“yes she has,” jack looked up wanting to gauge the princess’ reaction, “your sister wanted to be noticed, and you sent her to the moon for a thousand years. And by the way the story made it sound you had no intention of setting her free yourself.”

“it was a different time back then,” cellestia had to look away, “I did not want to banish my own sister but she gave me no choice.”

“but there was a choice, you could have done something, to show how the ponies respected her night, but you took the easy path. The path where you made the problem go away instead of facing it properly.”

“you think it was easy for me to do that?” cellestia didn’t try to hide her anger, “do you think that I wanted to be alone for a thousand years?”

“to be alone like that I could not imagine,” jack leaned forward, “I had a family, a wife and daughter, one day they were both killed, right in front of me. But I did not get angry. I found the people responsible, and made them feel how I did. I know what it is like to be alone, the pain the hate, the shear wanting for everything to just end. But you have something that I can never have, you were able to get your family back.”

“so we have more in common than I thought, we both have history we would like to forget,” cellestia let a tear stream down her face.

“we share a pain, that cannot leave us alone.”

“well what do you want to know, about history?”

“simply put we could find nothing relating to any sort of reaper, not in equestrian history.”

“well there was a good part of pony history before the founding of equestria, this is just the latest chapter.”

“great, but where is all the info on the ‘pre-equestria’?”

“there really is not much, the old country was abandon long before my sister or I were born.”

rigged from the start

Chapter 4: Rigged From The Start

“So where are we going anyway?” jack and princess cellestia were deep within the castle, in some sort of long dark hallway. Jack guessed that they had to have passed underneath the castle and probably under most of the city. Maybe even extending into the mountain.

“The archives,” the princess had her horn aglow lighting the hallway, “they are deep within the mountain, it is a place where we have hidden many a secret. Things that should never see the light of day.”

“We all have our secrets, some we want to keep some we have to.”

“You understand, there is one book I can think of, one that is much older than my sister or myself.”

“I am giddy with anticipation.” Jack didn’t try to hide his sarcasm, “Are we almost there?”

“almost, but I must tell you I must not stay down there, we cannot just leave this kingdom to fend for itself, but my sister should be there. She can help you with pretty much anything you might need.” The two finally came upon an old elevator, “take this elevator all the way to the bottom. That is the archives.”

Jack nodded, “does twilight know about this?”

“no,” cellestia turned to leave, “the things hidden down there are to evil for most of my subjects to bear.” Cellestia began to walk back down the hallway. Jack carefully stepped onto the elevator, it was in bad shape, it looked older than jack himself, but it still worked just like new. The elevator descended eventually coming out of the small shaft, giving him a view of a massive underground chamber. One that would make the warehouse at the end of raiders of the lost ark jealous. Different areas held different things, some places looked like libraries, some areas held large wooden crates, one small area held a small group of tables, with a small light jack could see something sitting at one of the tables, probably princess luna. But what surprised jack the most were the large concrete and steel beams that came from the ceiling. These beams almost had a glow of their own, infused with an ancient magic, to keep them from corroding away with the passing of time. They had held the city of canterlot for millennia upon millennia. The elevator finally reached the bottom of the huge cavern. Princess luna was waiting for him there, she held a small lantern in her magic, without saying a word she turned and began to walk. Jack followed, neither said anything the room echoed the foot/hoof steps. They walked down a path made form large wooden boxes, some gave jack a tingling feeling, deep in his bones. Perhaps they held some sort of terrible item, or maybe they just oozed pure magic. They came upon the clearing full of tables that jack had seen from the elevator. Luna set down the lantern down next to a stack of old books.

“my sister does not understand what we are up against,” luna looked at the one open book.

“and you do?”

“not fully, but I have been down here every chance I could find trying to research this thing. She does not know what it is truly capable of, neither do I, but I know more than her.”

“she said you could help me find a book, one that came from the old country.”

“that would be this one,” luna held up an old black book, “just be careful, it is old, delicate.” Jack took the book and began to read, “we have been having a hard time. As you can see it is in an old language, not even our top scholars can recognize it. it is like it is…”

“not from this world?” jack finished her statement, with a smile.

“how did you know that?”

“simple, this is my native tongue.” Jack turned a page, the smile left his face.

“it is odd, there is the normal symbols, writing for about twenty pages, and then just that same little bit for eighty three pages.”

“binary.”

“what?”

“binary, it is called binary code, it is a simple language using a sequence of ones and zeros, something any computer can read,” jack made his hand glow again, holding above each page for a second before turning to the next. “it is another document, plans on how to make a weapon. But it is old, this kind of thing has not been used for centuries.”

“why not?” luna was intrigued in finally being able to decipher the tome.

“they call this thing a planet cracker. For good reason. You light this thing off in sub orbit around a planet and depending on a few variables it might completely the planet. But either way it will wipe a planet clean of all life. What bothers me more is the fact that this seems like more of a checklist. Missing only one thing, Plutonium.”

“so you are saying that some pony might have already built this weapon?”

“probably. Did you find anything along with this book?”

“no,” luna answered plainly, “when we did find it, about three thousand years ago, it was in an old shack, nothing was inside. Save for this book of course. That shack is long gone by now. I believe the current school house in ponyville was built where it used to stand. “

“I need to get there, I believe there is something very important there.”

“we can be there in twenty minutes. Do you want to bring twilight sparkle?”

“I see no need…” jack looked away, toward the elevator, “did you hear that?”

“hear what?”

“we are not alone.”

“we need to get back to the surface.”

“I agree, I hate caves anyway. Almost died in one, a while ago.”

Princess luna and jack moved to the elevator. They searched around but could find nothing out of the ordinary, let alone any evidence of an eavesdropper. As the elevator ascended jack could see that the room itself seemed to glow, faintly. Something that might inspire someone of the right mind. But soon the elevator ascended into a small shaft cut from the mountain. The elevator finally slowed to show the hallway from before, luna used her magic to light their way. Both were quiet, jack did not have much to say, and princess luna never really was one for conversation. The hallway seemed longer this time, but it impossible to tell, jack could not see beyond the light that luna cast. when the hallway finally emerged into the castle, the sun must have been near high noon, he had not spent that much time down there had he? They continued on, luna led them to the main throne room. Cellestia was already there waiting, twilight was with her. The purple unicorn looked pretty bad, the stress from have two of her friends taken from her.

Twilight took stock of the two figures coming into view, princess luna looked worried, frantic. And jack looked like he had one foot in the grave, the lack of sleep was by no means hidden. He walked with a slight limp, and the dark circles under his eyes were punctuated with a black eye.

“what did you learn sister?” cellestia spoke nervously, all her words almost slurring together.

“jack thinks that this book,” luna magicked up the book from seemingly out of nowhere, “and where we found it might be important.”

“where did you find it,” twilight couldn’t help but stare at the book, she had a desire to read it.

“ponyville, or the place where ponyville now stands,” even the solar princess seemed transfixed on the tome.

“the ponyville school house to be more precise,” luna finished.

“I want to get there as soon as possible,” jack broke in, “and preferably as quietly as possible. Make no mistake princesses you are being watched, everything you do is being calculated. I think it would be best if you were to just stay here in canterlot.”

“I think you are right, besides right now our country needs us. Or at least it will”

“twilight gather your friends, its time to go.”

With a nod twilight began walking out of the room, jack began to follow but was stopped by princes luna, “before you go I want to give you something.” Luna’s horn began to glow, and jack’s chest plate reciprocated the light. With a flash the light was gone. In it’s place was a sort of collar, a very dark blue, almost black, in the shape of luna’s chest piece. Just like luna’s it had a crescent moon in the center, but jack’s had two silver stars imbedded on either side of the moon. “this is the crest of the elite royal guard, only a select few are allowed to wear this. If anypony sees this crest they will know you are a friend.”

Jack laughed, “I prefer not to be seen, but I am sure this will come in handy from time to time.” Jack now followed twilight’s path, she was considerably farther ahead but he saw where she had gone. Turning a corner he came upon the group of twilight and her friends, they all looked terrible, robbed of sleep. There was a moment of silence, none of them knew what to say in this situation, jack was the first to break the silence, “you all look as bad as I feel,” he said with a smile.

“well as long as you don’t feel as bad as you look we are fine,” rainbow dash played along.

Jack sighed, exhaustion was finally caching up to him, “there is no use just standing here, we need to get back to ponyville.” The walk to the train station was almost torturous, none of them knew what to say, a few questions were asked of jack but he would just shrug them off with a one or two word answer, he was not going to give up anything if he could help it. he was always just so cold, so barred against the world, he even constantly wore a frown, looking like he would just as soon punch a passer-by, as give a greeting. The train station was a bit of a relief the constant bustling of ponies all around them broke the haunting silence in the group. The tickets given to them by the princess were for a private car, something twilight had grown accustomed to over the years as, well the princess’ favorite student. Rarity was beside herself, she loved the elegance of the train car, and she did not try to hide her excitement. Even rainbow dash seemed taken aback by the train’s decor. Each of her friends found a different place to sit down, rarity found a rather large couch, rainbow dash trotted up to the small wet bar a scanned the contents, fluttershy disappeared quickly to the small restroom in the car. But what jack did puzzled twilight, he did not sit down on any sort of furniture, instead he leaned up against a wall in the corner and slid to the floor, crossing his arms he closed his eyes. She couldn’t see how jack could sleep right now, rarity and rainbow dash had gotten into an argument, over the bar.

“how can you be thinking about alcohol at a time like this!”

“what, I can’t have a little something!”

“it is just distasteful! I bet you didn’t even plan on paying for your booze!”

“distasteful? And how dare you! I am the element of loyalty, there is no way that I could steal!”

The two went back and forth for a while, twilight casually walked up beside dash and poured herself a drink, the act made rarity stop mid sentence. There was a small pause as even rainbow dash was shocked at her friend, “twilight, dear, I didn’t think you were even old enough to drink yet.”

“I am not.” Twilight took a sip, “but it looks like a good time to start. I have been thinking, we should get to know each other a little better,” twilight turned her gaze to jack in the corner, she took another sip, “like for starters what do you like to do in your free time?”

“I don’t think he is awake,” dash looked at the corner.

“I am awake,” jack didn’t look up, “and I don’t really have much of a hobby. I have had about three minutes of free time in the last year or so.”

“well you must like to do something,” rarity used her usual snobby tone. It made jack twitch.

“you are right,” jack pulled out a rather large knife, “when I get bored I practice.”

“practice wha-?” dash was cut off by the blade flying past her face, hitting twilight’s glass, shattering it before imbedding itself in the wall behind them. “WHAT WERE YOU THINKING,” dash shouted, “YOU COULD HAVE HIT US!”

“I know what I am doing,” jack had re-crossed his arms, “that was not the first time I have thrown a knife. And I leave nothing to chance.”

AUTHOR'S NOTES: well i think i will let this story die. it was just going places that i couldn't rightly let it go, i did have some great ideas and little parts that i wrote to be folded in but *shrug*. if you want me to continue shoot me an email 0sheldm@gmail.com

A Test Of Loyalties

Chapter 5

A Test of Loyalties

Most people don't like to think about fear. Fear of heights, water, death. It obviously brings them discomfort. What most people miss is that in the proper ratios fear itself can be used as a weapon. It pushes you, drives you, makes you do whatever it takes to get through and survive. Jack had learned this lesson the hard way. He had learned to control his fear, control it so that it would make him better, make his shots truer, his hand more steady, and at times his feet faster than he could any other time. But as i said jack learned this the hard way, only through experience and time in the flames of hell itself can train you. This is the only way to learn. The only way to make yourself better in combat. Very few ponies including the two regal sisters can remember the last war equestria fought. Most ponies these days don't even see violence in the world. Twilight and her group of friends were no different, how exactly could they have coped with at first Applejack's death, and then pinkie pie's? even rainbow dash, never one to back down from a fight, felt a fear. A flame of doubt gripping their minds. This human....a stranger from a strange land. He had given them no reason for them to trust him....and yet. Part of them still felt compelled to follow and help him, like a child gripping it's father in a dark place.

The trip back to ponyville only takes a couple of hours, but to twilight and her friends it seemed a lifetime. Jack didn't move after his little outburst. He sat against the wall motionless, if he was breathing he was doing a good job of hiding it. No other pony dared to speak most just stared out the windows of the train, fluttershy was the one exception, she tried , multiple times to try to talk to the human. Normally this would obviously out of character for her, but after going through what she had, left her different. Perhaps she saw something in jack that no other pony could see. As far as twilight was concerned he was just an angry, violent...well killer. He couldn't be trusted, not with a book from the library and certainly not with the safety of the entirety of equestria. Twilight could hear fluttershy asking a number of different questions to jack, ranging from what his plan was to what his favorite color was. Most just gaining a single simple 'yes' or 'no' answer. This seemed to go on for a good amount of time, fluttershy gaining nothing, just breaking the silence that otherwise the others would have dreaded.

"so..um..do you have...um...any pets?" fluttershy was losing momentum.

"no," jack deadpanned.

"how about family?"

Jack didn't move, didn't answer for a good minute. Finally he slowly looked up, anger seething in his eyes and hate in his voice as he spoke, "no. not anymore. Just...just leave me alone." He rose and walked to the back of the train car, a door slamming, hidden from view.

"i just wanted to get to know him," fluttershy looked ready to cry.

"oh don't worry about him darling," rarity gave her friend a hug, "he will come around eventually. Right Rainbow Dash?" rarity looked to the blue mare who was in some sort of mental daze.

"huh? Oh right, of course," Dash flew in as well to comfort her oldest friend, "you are one of the nicest ponies i know.

Jack made his way to the back of the train, and just stood on the back of the caboose. Staring off into the forest, little creatures moved and ran off catching his attention. He hadn't thought of his family in a while. It had always just brought pain. Memories circled in his head, some made him smile others laugh, when he remembered how he lost them. Any expression on his face disappeared instantly at this thought. He wasn't strong enough, wasn't fast enough, wasn't good enough to protect that which mattered most. His malignant train of thought was broken by the door behind him opening and the sound of hoofsteps coming closer. "are you going to be alright?" the voice was that of the purple unicorn.

"sure," he spoke flatly, "what do you want?"

"the princesses sent us a letter. After what you told them they want you to investigate a village near gryphon territory. It is normally a very busy village with many ponies coming and going all the time."

"hang on let me guess this village went dark, no communication, no travelers, no sign of any sort of life?"

"yeah, how did you guess?"

"same thing happened back home, where i come from. We called them the collectors, till they were all but wiped out by some war hero named Sheppard."

"so you will help?"

"i don't think i have much choice in the matter," jack turned to twilight, staring with bloodshot eyes, "i need to get back home, and they are the only ones who can help me in that matter. So where is this village?"

"we need to get off at the next train station and head east for a while, some accounts say that there was a fire burning in the village, so it should be easy to find."

Jack just nodded and turned back to gaze into the forest. Twilight felt a little saddened by his almost rejection and took her leave to rejoin her friends. It wouldn't be long till they got to the next stop and she figured she could at least tell her friends that his family was not a topic of conversation.

The train screeched to a halt at the station, the four ponies and one human being the first off. There were very few other ponies there, but they all stared at the strange creature walking down the line. Jack didn't waiver, he kept walking as if he blended in perfectly. His companions did not feel the same way. Even Rainbow Dash seemed to shrink under all the stares. They all kept walking, until off the platform. This village was nothing too big, perhaps a might smaller than ponyville. A sign nearby hailed "WELCOME TO THE TOWN OF SHAMROCK" the town was green, very green, almost uncomfortably so.

"I can't believe this," Rarity was aghast, "who in equestria would put this much green in such a small town?"

"It is their tradition here," twilight spoke matter-of-factly, "most of the ponies here trace their backgrounds back to Ireland."

"we need to make a few stops," jack spoke up, not turning to face his audience, "we are going to need supplies."

"like what?" Dash said hovering next to her friends.

"food, water, tools," jack turned to the mares, "and most importantly weapons."

"weapons?!" Rarity was in shock, "you expect us to fight?"

"no i expect you to stand back and watch as i go out and die," jack paused, it didn't take a genius to tell he had struck a nerve. He turned to face the market "how do you pay for things here?"

"we have bits," twilight said in her lecturing voice.

"good because i really don't think your people will accept alliance credits."

"So what exactly did you expect us to do with you?" rarity chastised

"well let me put it this way your princesses scouted out my world to find something to 'cure what ails you' they found me. I have one job back home and that is to kill my enemies. Be it personal or by the order of a superior."

"how can you talk about.....," fluttershy swallowed hard, "so easily?"

"my world is not nearly as friendly as yours," jack started walking, "some of the places you go, other beings will try to kill you just for being alive. I was walking through a market much like this a few years back when someone jumped me and held a knife to my throat."

"what did you do?" Dash was almost entranced suddenly.

"I took out my pistol and shot him in the stomach, he fell to the ground and I shot him in the head."

Rarity and fluttershy both gasped at this, while twilight could just stand there, mouth agape. Rainbow Dash however could not suppress a smile, "what is it like?" jack gave her a blank look. "what is it like to kill?"

"personally," jack turned and stopped in front of a stall, "i hope you never have to figure that out. It is something that stays with you, something you cannot just brush off, something that you never forget. And most of all it is something that changes who you are as it either hardens your soul, or drives you insane with guilt and self pity."

***

The sun was high in the sky when the group finally left the village, each had different supplies in saddle bags, jack had a backpack. They had just about everything you would need for a camping trip, food, water, a couple of tents, and a few sharp implements. The most alarming of which was a long machete that jack had tied to the back pack's side. It was meant for ponies to use but jack figured that with a little time he could balance the blade and make it easier to use. Jack still led the group the others fell in a rather tight bundle at least six paces behind. None of them said anything. Every time any of them tried to say something friendly he would somehow make them feel bad, or even worse he would not say anything.

"So where is home for you jack?" spike who was rather forgotten about by the author in the past few scenes made his presence heard.

"place called earth, in the sol system of the alliance cluster. Ironic how much our two cultures seem to overlap."

"what do you mean?"

"language, architecture, and many other little things. I am so far from home yet this is the closest i have ever been."

"that doesn't make any sense, how can you be away from home and close at the same time?" the baby dragon showing off his understanding of oxymorons.

"when you travel a lot and see different parts of the world, and all you want is to see the people you love...." jack gave a thousand yard stare into the sky as he trailed off.

"so you have done a bit of traveling in your days?" rarity asked.

"yes, although not much of it by choice. Back home i was a soldier i fought for my home and saw many an awesome sight."

"you are a soldier? So is my brother!" twilight chirped excitedly.

"really, i will have to meet him at some point. But i don't know if we will exactly identify, and by that i mean, when was your last war?"

Twilight thought for a second, "well the most recent one was the griffon war, that was about three hundred years ago now, so not too long ago."

Jack stopped abrubtly, and turned with a puzzled look on his face, "three hundred years? Shit, the last war i fought in before the current one was only two years ago and the one before that, well i guess the skyillian blitz was not a real war, was about ten years ago."

"so humans really like to fight?" twilight asked.

"oh yeah, before we became a space fairing race and discovered other species we could not go ten years without some sort of war. And when we did find other species the first one we found were the turians, and well they like to fight as much as we do." Jack gave a sly smile.

"wait you said space fairing?" rainbow dash perked up, "but isn't space rather you know huge."

"by your methods of travel yes, twilight told me about your sonic rainboom," rainbow dash puffed out her chest in pride, "even at that speed it would take you about seven or eight million years to cross the galaxy."

"then how do you do it?" twilight asked.

"faster than light travel, simply put sound travels at about 700 miles per hour on earth, light travels at about eighty eight billion miles per hour. And FTL makes that look slow. We can travel from one side of a galaxy to the other in days not centuries. But from a legal standpoint i cannot tell you much more."

"well why not?" twilight and dash said almost in unison.

"we call it uplifting, and well that has not worked out well in the past. The last species that was uplifted ended up as a threat to the galaxy and had to be...taken away as a threat."

"how did you do it?"

"well humans had no hand in the matter, but the other species got together and basically made it so that most of the children would be either miscarriages or just still born."

"that's horrible," fluttershy whispered from the back of the group.

"what's worse is what they have done to try to reverse it, that gave me some memories that i can't unsee," jack gave a slight shake of his head clearing the horrid things he saw on tuchanka.

A sort of awkward silence fell upon the group, twilight after a while just started staring at the sky. The sun was beginning to set, a golden yellow taking the sky, and clouds gaining a pink splash as celestia's sun crept below the horizon.....pink, images of all the wonderful times twilight had with her friend.....with all her friends. It made her droop her head in despair, when a hoof made contact with her shoulder, twilight looked up tears cresting her eyes. She could make out rarity through her blurred gaze, rarity had a calm mournful smile on her face, she knew how twilight felt and probably felt the same. After a brief hug twilight gained a small smile herself. When they realized jack had turned around and was staring at them, "you're doing pretty well," he said with a slight smile as well, "i still remember the first friend i saw die. Wasn't the same after that, took me a good week just to stop feeling bad for myself." His expression changed as he looked down, turned and then started walking.

"was that a show of compassion?" rarity whispered to twilight.

"i think so, i thought he was just mean and angry all the time."

"as did i."

"one more thing, it will hurt at first but it will help later on," jack turned and started to walk backwards, "talk to each other , bring back memories of fun times you had with your friends. It may seem odd but it helps, trust me. It is the only way i could live with myself after what i have seen."

"i may regret this..." rarity began, "but what have you seen?"

"trust me, you don't want to know, hell i don't want to know. How far off is this village twilight?"

"quite far actually, and this is still the most direct route."

"it's getting rather late, we should stop and make camp for the night."

"I say we should keep going," Rainbow Dash declared in her usual excited manner, "it can't be that far."

"even if we could make it there tonight, and i don't know if we could, we would be tired, not ready to fight if need be. Once more if we are tired, you miss things, traps, hints, tiny movements, i can't have you at anything less than your best, you have lives counting on you now," jack stopped walking as he reached a small clearing in the woods, "now i need a couple of volunteers to go get some firewood while the rest of us set up."

"fluttershy, lets go," Dash deadpanned, a little gusto seemed lost from her. Fluttershy simply followed her friends lead, without saying a word.

Darkness soon followed, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had come back with enough firewood to last the night. Twilight used her magic to light the fire, and rarity was busy setting up the tents, with her own added...."quips" each tent had the respective ponies cutie mark on the side, along with small markings, and little decorations making them that much more "homey" and "unique" as the white mare had put it. Jack found it all a little over the top, he would much rather just sleep under the stars alone, as long as it was not raining. But he had little plans for sleep, he planned to wait till the others fell asleep and do....well...something. these past few days had been exhausting yet sleep never came easily. Jack had gotten too used to working at night, in his line of work it was simply put, easier.

Twilight was not having an easy night, she was with her friends, but something still felt off. It was as if she could feel something's eyes burning into her skin. But even that thought just seemed absurd, was she crazy? No she couldn't be crazy, that was just not quite possible....was it? The crackling fire did bring a sort of comfort. As if of all the things in this world there was something she could control. All her friends...all her remaining friends, were talking and somewhat forcibly laughing at different stories of their friends, that they would never see again. But she was hardly paying attention. Her mind was racing with all that had happened recently. Most recently why the princess would send her on this wild goose chase, halfway across equestria for no apparent reason. It was as if celestia wanted to keep her away, prevent her from finding something, seeing something, or maybe it was to keep her from not finding something. As crazy as this notion seems, both literally and grammatically, it made sense. Jack knew things, things that not even the princesses knew. Their discussions of speed and velocity alone proved that. Jack knew so much, knowledge that was rather commonplace wherever jack came from. And just where did he come from? Any place with such advanced technology has to have unceasing levels of amassed knowledge. It would take years for her to just read all the titles.

"What do you think twilight?" rarity's words broke her stream of consciousness.

"think about what?" twilight spoke after a short pause.

"you zoned out there didn't you," Dash deadpanned while giving her friend a glare.

"well...yes."

"we were thinking about going to sleep," fluttershy answered, "but i wanted to see what you wanted to do."

"that sounds like a good idea, i am tired, i am sure all of you feel the same. What about you jack?"

"ya'll can do what you want. I'm going to take a little walk."

"what are you gonna do?" Dash incriminated.

"long story short, i need to get rid of some nervous energy. And some good food couldn't hurt."

"but we have plenty of food," twilight added.

"humans are omnivores, i need some meat."

Fluttershy audibly recoiled at this statement, while the rest of the group just stood aghast, causing jack to lean up from the tree he was sitting against, and cast a questioning glance across the group.