a new hero

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.