a new hero

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.”