The End of an Era

As the sun rises, the rays peek over the ledge and down onto a man sleeping on the stone floor of a cell in the middle of the palace dungeon.

"Oh.. my head..." he whispers as he brings a hand up to touch his head but it is stopped short by the chains of the irons he's in. The man looks up and around to see that he's in a cell with a very tiny window in order to let light and air in.

"What... where am I?" he questions silently, then the memories of last night flood back to him. How he tried to escape, how he was helped by the gentle pegasus who comforted him when he was panicking. Then how he tried to hold her hostage in order to get away, only to be stopped as soon as he got into the hall by.. a princess? That's not good. Now he not only assaulted the only one who was nice to him, but he also pissed off royalty.

Son of a bitch...

Suddenly the cell door slammed open and two unicorns and two regular ponies walked in, clad in golden armor entered his cell. One of the unicorns was larger then the other three and he spoke up.

"Prisoner you are to be brought to the princess to await judgement. You will come peacefully or you will be knocked out and dragged there. Do you understand?" The unicorn commanded.

The man in chains nodded slowly and took a deep breath to stand up. He finally realized he was able to stand by himself and his casts were gone, but that didn't stop the splitting headache he had. At least he was still in the bed sheet toga he made last night. Not exactly a suit for a trial but what can you do?

Two of the guards filed out of the room and allowed the man to walk out with the other two right behind him. He couldn't move quickly because his legs were chained together and his arms were chained together. There would be no escape this time, only the release of his execution. One of the guards shoved the man when he started to slow down.

"Keep moving, we have a schedule to keep prisoner." The man huffed and picked up his pace, turning his head to look at the one who pushed him. Somehow they all looked the same, the only difference was the ones with the horn.

"Well if you take the chains off my feet we could get there faster. I can't walk quickly with this shit on. And I'm obviously not going anywhere with you guys glued to my ass."

The large unicorn in front turned around and punched the man in the stomach causing him to buckle over. His horn flared and unclipped the chains around his feet and levitated them over to a guard not following.

"Take these back to the dungeon. You, creature, watch your mouth and stand up. You will speak when spoken to or we will have to do this the hard way."

The man coughed and stood up glaring at the large unicorn and nodded. The five continued their way out of the dungeon and into the palace proper. There were guards every few feet holding spears, swords, and all manner of things in their mouths or levitating somehow beside them. The man kept his head forward and continued walking.

The palace was huge, even for his standards. The ceiling was easily a hundred feet up and it seemed as all the pillars, floor and even the walls were made of marble. There were tapestries hanging above the doors and in between the columns where there weren't doors, there were windows. The sun shone brightly through the open windows and flooded the palace corridor with radiant natural light. All of the guards around were covered in bright golden armor and their coats where white as the freshest winter snow. Their eyes were a cold blue and they followed the man from the time he came into view until he left. Every guard looked exactly the same, save for the presence of horns, or wings. None of the guards had both, so he figured that only the Princess had both. All of the guards stood about mid stomach level with him when they were on all fours but he was sure if they stood on their hind legs they'd be the same size if not taller.

The guards escorting him then turned a corner and walked onto a carpeted area. The carpet was soft and smooth to the touch. It was red with gold trim on the side and went as far as the corridor could see, then turned and continued on. After a few more minutes the guards turned another corner and there at the end of the hall he saw two extremely large golden doors. The doors were studded and ordained with symbols of the sun and the moon, along with six different colored gems on each door.

The large guard then stopped and turned to the man and said. "Once again you are not to speak unless spoken to, you are to kneel and remain on your knees for the entirety of the trial. Once you are judged you will be taken to where you will be executed." Once the guard was finished, he turned around and the doors opened.

Judged and then executed? What there's no chance for redemption here? The man thought to himself.

He looked into the room and there at the other end was a extremely large white horned pegasus. Even at this distance it was much larger then the blue one he saw the previous night. He could compare because she was standing next to the other one. The white, horned pegasus, had a golden crown on her head along with golden shoes and a large golden amulet studded with a large ruby around her neck. Her ethereal pink, green, and blue mane flowed as if propelled by wind from one side. The smaller blue one's mane flowed the same, save for the midnight coloration and what seemed like stars speckled into it. He admitted to himself that these were a couple of pretty fancy looking horses, even if they were going to kill him.

He and the guards approached the throne which was at the end of the room elevated on a platform with stairs leading up the middle. Once they reached the base of the stairs the guards behind him kicked him in the back of the knees sending him to the ground in front of them. At least he was on the carpet that was in the middle of the room so his knees didn't hurt that much. He remained upright and straightened his back out in order to remain as defiant as possible. He was, after all, a human surrounded by horses. He was the top of the food chain, he would not bow to these horses, even if they were royalty. The guards then broke away and stood behind the man as he looked off to the side where six multicolored horses looking at him.

On the far right, closest to the two princesses, was a purple unicorn. She had purple hair with a pink highlights and large lavender eyes. Her eyes were narrowed as she looked at him. He remembered her from the first time he freaked out and had to be sedated in the hospital.

Next to her was a light blue pegasus with a rainbow mane. Her eyes were a dull pink color and her head was leaned down in an aggressive posture. She looked as if at any moment she would fly over and jump down his throat. The man remained calm as saw her. If she was as light as the yellow one from last night he could probably at least keep her away.

After her was an orange regular pony with a blonde mane and tail tied into what looked like a ponytail. On top of her head was a brown stetson hat. Underneath her hat were her narrowed emerald eyes with a few white freckles underneath them. She looked just as angry as the blue one who stood next to her and then the man doubted he could take both at once. He remained steadfast as he continued glancing down the line to see who was next.

A white unicorn was next with a deep purple mane and tail that were styled in large curls. The man wondered how much time it took to get them that way as he looked into her piercing blue eyes. He then realized that all of these horses were so pissed at him that this trial was obviously a farce so he could just forget about freedom. His only option would be to plea for a swift execution as he coninued down the line.

A dark pink regular pony was next with dark pink extremely straight hair with a smirk on her face under her light blue eyes. If the rest of the others looked pissed this one looked like it was about to murder him in the most painful way possible. He could almost feel the rage coming from her eyes which shook him to his core. He swallowed gently, trying to keep his appearance on defiant and stoic, but he could feel it cracking under her stare.

The next one almost broke his heart, it was the yellow pegasus with the pink mane he had threatened to kill so he could get away. Her large teal eyes looked slightly reddened from crying as she looked at him, trying to hid behind her large pink mane. The man exhaled slowly and then turned his head back to the two large horned unicorns standing atop the throne platform glaring daggers down at him.

The blue horned unicorn took a step forward and then spoke, her voice loud enough to shake even the strongest of souls to the core. "Monster thou art charged with assaulting a bearer of the Element of Harmony. Fluttershy, the Element of Kindness!"

That was enough for him to bend just a bit. The element of kindness? Whatever it meant other then the fact she was probably the most kind out of the group sent a shivver down his spine. His heart ached and a tear came to his eye, but he straightened back up and looked the blue princess in the eyes.

"How doth thou plead?"

"Guilty." The man said firmly, his voice shaking a bit but he continued to look in the princess' cobalt eyes. No one moved, and no one said a word. He must have caught them off guard, expecting him to plead his innocence so that he could try and fight his way out.

The blue princess then nodded. "Very well then, Thine punishment shall be execution. Guards!" The man then inhaled sharply as the guards moved forward.

"Wait princess!" Fluttershy called out, causing every head in the room to turn to her. She noticed and then backed off a bit, quivering. She then took a deep breath and then looked up again. "Can we at least hear his side of the story?"

This caused every other pony in the room to gasp besides the two royal princess' at the top of the throne. The white one then looked down at the man who hadn't moved his eyes from the two princesses. He let out a long and ragged breath, his execution stayed for a few moments more.

"Very well Fluttershy, we shall hear his side." The white princess looked down at him as the blue princess took a step back. "Prisoner explain yourself. Why did you attack Fluttershy?"

He looked over to Fluttershy and then back to the princess. "I did not intend to hurt her your majesty, I only wished to escape to some where safer. I meant to escape without her knowing, but when she woke up, I had to change my plans."

He could tell everyone wasn't buying it but no one stopped him so he continued. "What would you do if you woke up with no means of defense around a bunch of things that looked like me?"

This question was obviously new to everyone because they suddenly looked a lot less pissed.

The man continued, "I know what would happen if one of your kind were to wake up in a hospital populated by my people, and I did not want that to happen to me, so I wished to escape and find somewhere safer to hide."

"And what would happen if one of my ponies were to wake up in one of your hospitals?" The white princess asked, still glaring down at the man.

He took a deep breath and looked down, knowing full well the shame of his people's methods would not sit well with her. He then looked up at her and frowned.

"Your majesty, it would not be pleasant. Your ponies would wake up and be strapped to the table as I was, but when they awoke they wouldn't be asked questions. They would be tested for tolerances of pain, then after they were medically examined, they would be dissected, possibly alive, to see how their bodies worked until they died. It would not be a quick process. I hardly expect them to be treated as I was. I did not want that to happen to me, so I had to get away. I appreciate the gesture of helping me recover now, and I apologize for what happened. I did not mean to hurt her, I just wanted to escape. I'm not begging for your forgiveness, I only ask for a quick death."

You could hear a pin drop from the silence in the room. The man looked down at the ground in front of him waiting for judgement. He didn't see the white princess descend the stairs and go over to the six other ponies. He could hear whispering, perhaps they were deciding on the correct method of execution. His tears streamed out of his eyes and down his face, landing on the carpet in front of him. The seconds passed by feeling like hours. He reviewed his actions that he had taken. Not only had he been a fuck up in his world, now he had betrayed the one who showed him the most kindness.

The man could hear footsteps coming towards him and he tried to suck his tears back up without moving. He tensed up as he could hear footsteps coming up behind him, and then he felt it. One of the ponies and placed their forelegs around him and rested their head on his back. His opened his eyes to see yellow forelegs around his chest and his breath hitched. It was her, the one he threatened. The one he held hostage. Fluttershy had come up and hugged him tightly. "I forgive you..." she whispered.

That was all he could take, he slumped forward and started to sob, he tried to choke his voice back but the tears kept coming. His breath was ragged as he tightly shut his eyes. He couldn't take it, she was too kind. It tore him up inside and he was shaking violently. He wanted it to end, death would be better then the pain in his heart.

"Prisoner," the white princess commanded "You have been found guilty of assaulting Fluttershy, the element of kindness." The man breathed slowly, trying to get himself back under control. Fluttershy's legs tightened around him. "You are hereby sentenced to community service, until such time as we decide. You will be residing with my student, Twilight Sparkle, in Ponyville for the duration of your sentence."

"WHAT?!" Everyone in the room shouted, including the man in the center, looking up with his tear stained face to the white princess. She had a soft smile on her face and her eyes now radiated a soothing calm that eased him.

"Sister thou canst be serious?!" The blue princess shouted. "He attacked our subjects and attempted escape!"

"Because he was afraid Luna, you heard what he said. Would any of use do differently had our rolls been reversed?" The white princess said, still looking deep into the man's eyes. It was unreal, the feeling he got as he gazed into her soft pink eyes. It was like watching the sunrise come over the calm ocean. The feeling of peace through his body calmed him. He couldn't control himself as he slowly raised to his feet, his chained arms slowly outstretched. Fluttershy had released him upon hearing his punishment. As he stood the guards started to charge forward. He couldn't hear them, nor could he hear Celestia when she told them to stand down. He reached his arms out to her and took another step, he was close now, so close to the white princess.

Everyone held their breath as he took another step and placed his hands and his head against her neck and sighed. He couldn't fully hug her because his arms were chained, but he did his best. She rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes as she smiled. "Remove his chains." She quietly commanded the guards. They did as she asked and the man quickly wrapped his arms completely around her neck and held her close. Her white fur gentle and warm against his cold hands and face. All he could do was sigh and whisper his thanks into her neck. He stood there for what felt like hours, but in actuality it was only a few seconds before he regained his control and backed up quickly.

The man quickly took a step back and looked at her with shock, looking at his hands and then taking another step back putting more distance between them. "I'm sorry I couldn't control myself..." There was then a light blue blur streaked across the room and slammed into his chest, tackling him. Everyone gasped as the other ponies ran across the room getting in between the princess and the downed man.

"See Princess he can't control himself! He shouldn't be allowed to be free!" The blue pegasus on his chest shouted, holding the man's shoulders down. He was wrong, this one was much stronger then Fluttershy, and if she was the lightest this wasn't going to be pleasant. The pegasus then picked up one of her forehooves in an attempt to punch the man's lights out.

"Rainbow Dash!" the purple one yelled, freezing the blue pegasus in her tracks. "The Princess Celestia said he would be re-evaluated at a later time and I hardly think that time is now! Let him go!"

"But Twilight!" Rainbow complained, only to be interrupted by Princess Celestia herself. "Rainbow Dash I appreciate your loyalty, but I believe that he will be of no more trouble unless provoked. He shall stay with Twilight and she will report back to me every day with his progress." Rainbow nodded and then got up and off of the man and walked over to the side, glaring daggers at him.

"Please forgive her, she can be a little bit of a hot head sometimes." Twilight the purple unicorn said, looking down at the man. "We haven't been introduced and since you will be staying with me I should at least let you know our names. My name is Twilight Sparkle." She pointed a hoof to her chest, then over to the blue pegasus standing next to me. "That is Rainbow Dash," she then moved to the white unicorn with purple curls.

"That is Rarity."The unicorn nodded but didn't say anything.

Twilight then pointed to the orange pony, "That is Applejack." The orange pony nodded and remained silent but still looked extremely upset.

He had a feeling that both Rainbow Dash and Applejack would be the most aggressive of the bunch. Twilight then pointed her hoof at the pink pony, only some how her hair was no longer straight and she seemed a lot brighter. Her hair was pink and poofy like a bunch of cotton candy and just been glued to her. Her eyes also softened and she no longer had that murderous intent painted on her face. Instead she had a huge toothy smile ."That's Pinkie Pie."

The pink one then ran over and got into his face, talking much more quickly than he thought possible.

"Hi I'm Pinkie Pie! Who are you? Where are you from? Oh you're going to stay with Twilight! That means you get a Pinkie Party! Do you like parties? What am I saying everyone likes parties! I'm gonna throw you a welcome to Ponyville, congratulations on not being executed party!" Then man slowly started to crawl backwards until his back was up against a column while the pink pony kept up with him.

She then took a deep breath and got much closer to his face and whispered quietly and coldly, her eyes returning to her cold steel blue from before. "And if you even think about hurting one of my friends again it'll be the last thing you do." She then bounced back to the group humming a happy tune as if nothing had even happened.

"Okay..." Twilight said before pointing to the yellow pegasus standing next to her. "And you already know Fluttershy. Just be good and we won't have any problems. If you need something you can ask me." The man nodded silently and looked up to Princess Celestia.

"I am Princess Celestia, and that is my sister, Princess Luna. We rule this land that you are now a part of. We will be watching you very closely." She said as Princess Luna descended the platform stairs and walked over to her sister. "Thou wouldst do well to not endanger our subjects. Next time we shall not be as lenient with thou."

Twilight then looked over to the man now starting to stand up, his hands on his bed sheet toga from the previous night. "We've introduced ourselves, now it's your turn. What's your name?"

The man was about to speak but then his free hand ran up to his neck and rubbed the scar from the rope gently and nodded. "My name is.. Jack." The man continued to rub his neck gently looking at all of the ponies in front of him before he remembered something. "Uhm.. Can I get my clothes back? As comfortable as this bed sheet is, I'd like to at least get my clothes back on."

Everyone looked a bit curious but Rarity put her hoof to her forehead and sighed. "Oh thank Celestia, darling. I was hoping you would have something other then that horrid bed sheet."

Celestia chuckled a bit and brought her hoof up to her mouth to hide her smile before setting it back down. "Of course, Guards if you would please escort Jack to a guest room to get changed and have somepony bring his clothes to him. After he is dressed escort him to the train station where he will accompany these six to Twilight's home." The guards saluted and then turned to Jack, motioning towards the door.

"Thank you Princess, and thank you for your benevolence." Jack said as he bowed his head, then turned to follow the guards to the guest room.

After Jack had left the room and the doors had shut the six mares turned to Celestia and bowed. "Forgive me Princess," Twilight said,"but I do not think he's entirely safe." Celestia smiled and nodded her head.

"That's why he will stay with you, my best student, instead of one of the other girls whom he could cause more problems with. I have every confidence that you will be able to handle him. He does not seem to be a danger unless provoked. Who else would be more qualified to study and report back to me on what he knows and believes?"

Twilight lit up at hearing her newest assignment from the princess. "Of course, right away Princess! Come on girls let's get to the train!" And with that, they all bowed again and exited the room quickly without another word.

Luna approached her sister quietly. Celestia turned to her and then began. "Sister I would like you to keep an eye on his dreams if at all possible, I want to know what he dreams of. If there is anything that could be dangerous to my little ponies I wish to know about it Immediately."

Luna nodded quickly. "Thou can trust us sister, it shall be done."

Celestia smiles and then hugs her sister gently. "Get some sleep sister, You have been up for much longer then usual."

As Jack walks into the open guest room he looks around. It's a nice wide open space, even bigger than his apartment back home. The bed is easily a king and fitted with dark blue sheets and fluffy looking white pillows. There is a large armoire against the far wall next to a door he thinks could be a private bathroom. There is a writing desk next to the front door and a large window behind the bed overlooking the rest of the city. Jack lets off a soft whistle and a smirk.

"Pretty nice room for a guest... Guess it pays to be rich.."

The door slams right behind him and he turns around quickly to see the large unicorn guard from before. He takes his helmet off and places it on the desk beside him with Jack's clothes beside that. He then closes the distance and gets right up to Jack's face.

The helmet off Jack can see that he's a solid white unicorn with a blue mane with a lighter blue highlight running through it. His steel blue eyes narrowed in determination and Jack could see what looked like a purple shield on the side of his back leg with a purple star in the middle. "Listen up because I'm only going to say this once. If you even so much as touch a hair on Twilight's head you wont even see the Princess' next time. You hear me?"

Jack looked at him up and down, knowing full well that right now the guard could rough him up a bit but couldn't kill him. But he'd be damned if he was going to be pushed around by a guard of all things. The princess' maybe, but not some two bit, limp dick, glorified ass kisser.

"I won't touch her lover boy, you got nothin' to worry your pretty little head about. But if you think you can threaten me you have another thing comin'."

As he finished, the unicorn punched him in the stomach and then in the side of the head where Luna had previously hit him, giving him a black eye. "Glad we can come to an agreement."

With that the unicorn turned around and walked out of the room closing the door behind him. Jack picked himself up and rubbed the side of his face and winced a bit. That was going to bruise quickly so he put his clothes back on quickly. His pants, shirt and jacket looked like they had seen better days with cuts and scrapes all over them and his pants were stained with dried blood that had been washed out. He laced up his socks and boots and then tightened his belt a little bit as his stomach started to growl. "Holy shit I'm hungry..."

Jack walked to the door and opened it to see two identical guards, but not the large unicorn anywhere. "I'm ready to go to the train station, but can we get something to eat on the way there? I don't think I've eaten in a few days."

The guard on the right nodded and then Jack and the two guards started to walk down the hall way towards the kitchen. Jack started to run through his head what he wanted to eat. Seeing how these were ponies he doubted they ate meat so he had to think up another meal. He didn't even know what time it was, hopefully it was still around breakfast. As the guards and Jack rounded another corner they walked into a fairly large dining room with no one in it. One of the chef ponies turned the corner.

"Yes breakfast is almost over what can I....." He stopped as he looked up at Jack, never having seen anything like that before and one of the guards coughed to get the chef pony's attention. "Oh.. OH! Yes.. well what can I get you?"

Jack smiled and nodded. "It's alright I'm not here to hurt ya. Can I get an egg and cheese omelet on wheat toast with a glass of orange juice please? Something to go preferably."

The chef pony then nodded and ran back into the kitchen leaving the two guard ponies and Jack alone. The right guard pony turned around and looked up at Jack.

"Good you got it to go, we're running behind with that little talk you and the captain had." He smirked as if he knew exactly what had went down. Jack just nodded and waited patiently for the chef pony to run back out with a brown bag and a cup with a lid on it levitating in front of him. Jack reached out and took the bag in one hand and the cup in another.

"Thank you sir, I'm sure it'll be excellent. We'll be going now." The chef pony nodded and then walked off while Jack and the two guards continued out into the hall and headed for the front gate.

"Once we're outside keep your eyes forward and don't say a thing. You're going to the train station and you aren't going to cause a scene in the middle of our city." The right guard spoke. Jack nodded as they got to the door. He could hear a bunch of commotion out in the street, probably a bunch of ponies going around doing whatever it is they do. As soon as the door opened and he and the guards walked out he could see ponies all in the streets going in and out of buildings and walking along the streets. There were several ponies in outside cafe's having tea and gossiping and he could hear some parts of the conversations. However as soon as he got out in the street with the guards everyone stopped whatever they were doing and stared. It went from a dull roar to total silence in the blink of an eye as everyone just stood and stared at the new creature that was following two guards. Before he knew it there were four more guards that flanked him and two more behind him.

Well I guess its better then being attacked in broad daylight by some kinda weird monster hunter pony...

As they turned the corner, Jack thought he saw a pony in an ally way with a black cloak, large brimmed hat and black mask over his muzzle watching him pass with the guards.  And as quick as he saw him the pony faded back into the shadows and Jack shook his head.

What the fuck...

After about a half hour or so of total silence and walking with the guards he made it to the train station where the six mares were waiting patiently. Twilight was reading a scroll, Rarity was looking into a mirror brushing her mane. Pinkie was hopping around the girls in a circle while Fluttershy was sitting on a bench quietly. Applejack and Rainbow dash were looking around for Jack and when they saw him their eyes narrowed and got into a defensive stance.

"Well at least those two are happy to see me." Jack whispered to himself as the guards walked him onto the train. Once Jack got on he realized there was no one in the car besides him and the guards, who quickly left. Jack sat down in one of the seats and moved over to the window and opened his bag. The first two girls that were on were Applejack and Rainbow Dash and they sat right in front of him glaring daggers at him. Applejack had refused to say a word to Jack since they had first seen each other, but Jack was just fine with that.

Don't start nothin', won't be nothin'. He thought to himself as he pulled his omelet sandwich out and started to eat quietly. The rest of the girls sat around the car either a row in front of him or a row behind him, but no one sat next to him.

Jack looked around the cart at the girls as the train started to move.

Even in this world you can't get girls to talk to you. You're pathetic.

Yea well that's what happens when you have a misunderstanding and threaten one of them. I'm sure they'll lighten up eventually...

Yea lighten up enough to call you a freak and beat the shit out of you. You can't even defend yourself against a girl pony, you're worthless.

Well we're stuck together so you might as well give me a break for the time being.

Jack sat quietly watching the train roll down the tracks as he sipped his orange juice from the castle's dining hall. As he watched the scenery roll by he sighed quietly and smiled. He had never been on a train in his time so it was quite relaxing watching the scenery flick by.

"And what are ya'll smilin' about over there?" A pony said from in front of him. It startled him a bit as he looked over to see both Applejack and Rainbow Dash glaring at him. He concluded quickly that it was Applejack that was talking to him and he smirked, another southern hick trying to yell at him. He grew up in the south but was the only one who never picked up the heavy twang so everyone had ridiculed him for it calling him a yankee or some other such trivial bullshit.

"Well darlin' ah'm smilin at that there scenery. Ah ain't never been on no train befo'." Jack quipped in his best red-neck impression. This had the affect he intended and had Applejack stand up and get right in his face fuming mad.

"Who ya'll callin darlin!? And are ya'll makin fun of the way ah talk?!" Applejack screamed getting Rainbow to stand up and close in on him too.

Jack smirked and leaned back a bit in his seat chuckling a bit. "Sorry, just a joke heh.. You know you're cute when you're angry."

*SMACK*

Applejack quickly smacked Jack in the face and then sat back down across from him crossing her forelegs and glaring daggers at him. Rainbow laughed. Meanwhile Jack's face was against the glass and he was pretty sure he'll have two black eyes before he got off of this train. He brought his hand up and rubbed his face but stayed silent. "Buckin jerk." Applejack huffed as Twilight walked up and stared at Applejack, only having seen Applejack slap Jack in the face.

"AJ, what was that about?" Twilight asked looking at Jack holding his cheek with his head against the cool glass.

"He was makin' fun of mah accent and being a jerk so ah set him straight." Applejack said with confidence.

Twilight turned and look to Jack and asked "Is this true?"

"Yea but I said I was sorry and I even gave her a compliment. Guess ponies don't like to be called cute." Jack said still looking out the window. At least if Applejack hit him again his head might go through the window. Twilight gasped and looked over at Applejack who was still seething looking like she was going to jump up and swing again.

"Ya'll watch yer mouth now ya here!" AJ shouts and shakes a hoof at him.

"AJ can I talk to you and Rainbow over here for a minute?" Twilight motions them to the other side of the train and they leave.

Told you so...

"Shut the fuck up..." he whispered out loud to himself and kept looking out the window. He closed his eyes and Fluttershy sat down infront of him where AJ was. Jack had heard the footsteps and just kept his eyes shut.

"You gonna hit me again? Well go ahead this time just try to knock me out so I don't feel it."

"Oh no, I'm not going to hit you, don't worry." Fluttershy whispered softly and Jack opened his eyes a bit to see her. He sat back quickly and opened his eyes a bit trying to back off as far as he could.

"Sorry I... Sorry.." he turned his head towards the aisle of the train and closed his eye, the left side of his face now had a rather large bruise in the shape of a hoof print from where the captain of the guard had hit him earlier today.

Fluttershy gasped and moved closer to him. "Oh my, what happened to you? Are you alright?"

"Yea I'm fine I just... slept on it wrong or somethin..." He said quietly. He then opened his eyes and saw that she was sitting right next to him with her face right in front of his looking him over. He quickly backed up again and looked into her eyes. "Look I'm fine I just... Just stay back." Fluttershy frowned a bit and then walked back over to the seat across and to the right of him so that she could sit with him but give him his space.

After an hour of a train ride the sun was starting to near its opposite horizon when the train pulled into the station at Ponyville. Twilight showed back up next to Jack looking him over to make sure he was awake.

"Jack we're here time to go." Jack sighed and got up, carrying the now empty cup and paper bag with him.

"Alright let's go." He said as he followed Twilight and the rest of the mares off of the train and to the platform.

As Jack looked around the platform he could tell he 'wasn't in Kansas anymore.' The platform was completely wooden and there was a wooden ticket booth right in the middle with schedule and times on it. He could only make out the numbers but he couldn't read the letters. Great now he couldn't read because somehow everything was in a different language that he somehow knew how to speak. Well that's fine I guess. Learning to read again would give him something to do when no one needed help with anything. Jack and the girls started walking off the platform and into town. No one said a word the few minutes it took to get to the edge of the town until Twilight spoke up.

"This is Ponyville. Don't worry about the local's they're pretty nice." As she said that someone screamed "monster" and everyone started to panic, running into whatever building was closest and slamming the doors and shutting the blinds to the windows. "Heh heh... Well.. they'll warm up to you once they meet you I'm sure..."

Rainbow Dash grumbled something about being too trusting but Jack didn't catch most of it so he just put that in the back of his mind.

As the group approached the center of the town Jack saw a very large tree. It seemed out of place but there was door and a balcony. There's no way someone hollowed out a tree and was living inside of it was there? This thing was huge!

"And this is where you and I shall be staying." Twilight said matter of factly. "This is my home and also the town library." She then turned and opened the door.

"Spike? Spiiiike? I'm back from Canterlot!" As soon as she finished calling a rather large purple and green lizard came running down the steps to the front door. It stood about chest height with Twilight and about knee high with Jack. It was a light purple with a green under belly and green ridges on the top of its head. It also had green reptilian eyes and was walking on two legs. Jack wondered what the hell kind of thing this was but rather then say anything rude and get his shit slapped by another pony he just bit his tongue.

"Heya Twilight. How was the Princess?.... And what is that?!" Spike said as he looked and pointed at Jack. "Spike, this is Jack, the Princess wanted me to keep watch over him for a while so he'll be staying here in the guest room up stairs." Spike rubbed his chin while looking at Jack thinking of what to make about him. "Alright Twilight..."

Jack then knelt down so he could get a little closer to the purple reptile. "Hey there, nice to meet you, I'm Jack." He said while reaching his hand out.

Spike took a step back while looking at him. "Wow he talks?!"

Twilight shook her head and then looked back at Spike. "Yes now be nice."

Spike reached out his claw and shook Jacks hand. "Nice to meet you too."

Jack wondered why he was being nice to him, then he thought he was just out of the loop of what happened with Fluttershy. He decided to just leave it for the time being, hopefully he can at least build some kind of good relations with someone without having that thrown in his face every few minutes.

"See girls he can be nice if he wants to!" Twilight said looking back at the group.

"Yea well I'm not buying it, you heard what he said." Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

Oh Shit...

Jack let go of Spikes hand and then stood up, stretched and fake yawned. "Oh boy I'm beat, Twilight can I get to my room so I can go to sleep?" He hoped he could get away from this before Spike too got on his case. The last thing he needed was some more hateful people against him.

"What did he say?" Spike asked and Jack quickly started to inch his way towards the stairs. Hopefully these stairs led to his room because that was the closest place he could get to.

"He threatened to hurt sweet little Fluttershy here!" Rainbow Dash said, pulling Fluttershy close into a one armed hug.

As soon as she finished that, Jack knocked over a stack of books while walking towards the stairs causing everyone to look over at him.

"WHAT?!" Spike shouted starting to huff smoke.

"Uh.. I.." Was all Jack could say before he decided to enter the door below the stairs. He grabbed the doorknob to the door and quickly opened it and ran inside, locking himself in. Luckily this was a way down to the basement. Unfortunately this was the only way out so he just held onto the door.

Spike was clawing at the door and he could hear Twilight and Fluttershy try to calm him down. He didn't hear the other girls so he figured they were either laughing at him or had left to go do other things. Jack held onto the door for dear life until the banging and the clawing stopped.  A few minutes later there was a soft knock on the door.

"Jack, you can come out now." Twilight called through the door.

"You sure? You don't have any other crazy ponies out there trying to punch my lights out or blast me into oblivion do you? Cause I'm pretty sure I could use another few hundred of those." Jack droned, rolling his eyes.

"Of course not now come out here so we can eat some diner. I sent Spike off to spend the night at Rarity's, and everypony else left. It's just us two. Now come out." Twilight knocked on the door again and then took a step back from the door.

Jack cracked the door open and peered out to see a set of big lavender eyes looking back at him.

"I can't open the door the whole way with you standing right in front of it you know." Jack said. Twilight blinked and then stepped back .

"Heheh.. sorry. Well I'll go get diner ready, is there anything you want to eat?" Jack opened the door fully and scratched his unkempt beard.

"Well I can just eat a bunch of steamed vegetables, ya know carrots, broccoli, corn, stuff like that." Twilight nodded and then started for the kitchen.

"Hey Twilight, I don't want to seem rude or anything but is there a shower or something I can take? It's been a few days and I'm pretty sure I smell horrid with all this going on." Jack said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh right, glad you asked, up the stairs and its the last door on the left. Just clean up when you're done and come down, I should have diner ready by then."

"Alright thanks." Jack said as Twilight headed into the kitchen.

Jack headed up the stairs and off into the bathroom. As he entered he looked around at the facilities, he wondered how horses could keep everything so organized and clean. He looked over at the large white porcelain tub with purple curtains hanging down from a railing near the shower head, however, do his dismay, the curtains and the shower head were about shoulder level. The shower head was connected to a much longer hose than was needed so he figured it could be moved freely of the stand it was at. He shrugged and started to check the cabinets for towels and soon enough he found some. He stripped out of his clothes and sighed, putting them aside.

I really have to get some more clothes, maybe there's a tailor shop or something around here. Jack thought to himself.

After getting undressed he turned the shower water on and waited for it to warm up. Even here they had two knobs so it didn't take a genius to figure out which was hot and which was cold.

After finishing up in the shower, taking care not to use too much of Twilight's soap products, he dried off and put his old clothes back on. He felt kind of dirty with this stuff back on but it was better then going around town naked. That thought got him wondering. He saw almost all of the ponies in Canterlot wearing clothing, however most in Ponyville didn't.

"I guess they don't really need clothes other then to use as status symbols since they have fur and all." He mused to himself as he descended the stairway.

"Oh good you're done, well diner is in the kitchen so come and eat. Also I have some questions about you and where you come from." Twilight said, watching Jack cross the room.

"Alright then, I'm starving lets eat!"

As Jack entered the kitchen he was almost stunned at the sight. For not seeing any real technology previously they still have refrigerators and ovens? He decided he'd ask that at a later date after he found out more about their level of technology, something told him he didn't want to know. Jack sat down at the table and a plate levitated over and landed on the table in front of him. As he saw it he stepped back and looked at Twilight.

"How the fuck is that thing flying around?!"

"Oh, you don't have magic where you come from?" Twilight asked, levitating a scroll and quill up to her face and started taking notes.

"Uh, not real magic, just a bunch of illusionist stuff, slight of hand tricks mainly." It was then that Jack started to notice a soft purple glow around the quill, parchment and Twilight's horn. He took a seat at the table and then looked over. She had made a salad of mixed greens and what looked like some flower petals in it, along with the steamed vegetables and there were two large pitchers of water in the center of the table. "Looks good Twilight. You didn't secretly poison this to get back at me did you?"

Twilight almost dropped her quill and parchment and looked at him with shock in her eyes. "No! Of course not! Why would you think that?!" Twilight put her front hooves on the table and looked across at him wide eyed.

"Well you're friends don't seem to care much about my health so I figured I'd just ask." Jack said picking up a fork and started eating the salad. He avoided the petals but other then that he didn't mind anything else. It was either pretty good, or he was just really starving after a few days without food. To him, it didn't matter. Twilight shook her head after a few seconds and then sat down across from him and levitated a fork as well and started eating, every once in a while glancing up at him.

"So what kind of creature are you? I've never seen or read about anything like you before." Twilight asked after taking a sip of water.

"I'm a what my people call 'Human'. Where I come from our ponies and horses don't talk and they're much bigger. In fact we're the dominant life form on the planet, but that causes its own set of issues."

"And you said you don't have any magic. Things must be a lot more difficult where you come from without it."

"Actually we have things pretty easy. Yea there's a lot of manual labor still but I suspect in the next couple of decades we will be doing less and less. We have technology and tools in order for us to do plenty of things quickly and easily."

"Mhmm.." Twilight scribbled as she listened. "Well besides vegetables what do you eat?"

Jack sat back a bit and wondered how he was going to phrase this. After a moment of silence he started. "Well Humans are basically omnivores, which means we eat both meat and vegetables. Our bodies are more suited to get nutrients from grains and starches like potatoes, rice and wheat. However we also can eat meat if needed. Where I come from people mainly eat meat with sides of vegtables."

Twilight was jotting notes untill he said that he mainly ate meat. "Don't worry I'm not going to be eating any ponies. Most of us have an aversion to eating anything we deem having a higher thought process other than eating and sleeping." Jack reassured her but it did little to assuage her fears.

"We don't have any meat here in most of Equestria, we're herbivores." She then looked at the salad and saw some lettuce and all of the left over flower pedals. "You don't eat flowers?"

"No, there are some plants that we use as medicines that are flowers, but we don't eat them for sustenance. In fact, a lot of flowering plants make humans sick. A lot of us stick to fruits, berries, and some earth vegtables like potatoes and carrots."

Twilight went back to furiously taking notes, trying to catch up on everything he said.

"I have a question for you now." Jack said hesitantly. Twilight looked up and nodded to him. "Is there anywhere I can get some new clothes? I only have these and they're pretty torn up."

"Why do you wear clothes? Why don't you just go without them?" Twilight asked innocently.

Jack sighed and shook his head.

Figures they wouldn't wear clothes.

"Well it's as much a survival thing as well as a social thing. Humans don't have fur covering our bodies so we use clothing to keep warm. We also use it to cover our more... private areas. Being naked in public in my world was seen as a taboo. Also, there were some people who you didn't want to see naked even if it was taboo."

Like me...

"Hmm, well the only clothing shop in town is owned by Rarity so I'll take you over tomorrow to get some made."

Oh shit... well... she didn't attack me so that's good. Maybe she's one of the nice ones. "Alright I'd like that. Thanks for the dinner."

Twilight nodded and whisked the plates away with her magic and into the sink. "Come on I'll show you to your room, you look tired."

Jack nodded and stood up, it had been a long while since he had walked this far, and with no signs of any transportation other than his feet in sight, he was sure it wasn't going to get any easier. As Twilight ascended the staircase with Jack behind her, his eyes wandered to her back legs, there was a large six pointed purple star overlapping a light blue one. It looked oddly similar to that asshole guard that was kicking him around all day.

"Hey Twilight?" Jack asked as they got to the guest bedroom door.

"Yes?" She turned to face him.

"Don't take this the wrong way but, what is that on your back legs right there?" Jack pointed.

"Oh that's my cutie mark! Everypony gets one at some time. It shows their special talent and what they'll be good at in the rest of their life. Don't humans have cutie marks?"

"Uh.. no. We can get tattoos but we usually choose what they are and what they mean. They sometimes have something to do with what we do, but most of the time it is just art." Jack said as he rubbed his chest. It had been a while since he had gotten that tattoo removed but at times he would get a phantom pain of it.

"Well thanks for dinner Twilight. I'll get out of your hair now." Jack said somberly as he walked into the guest bedroom and closed the door. He quickly took off his clothes, save for his boxers, and climbed into bed. Hopefully tomorrow he wouldn't get the shit kicked out of him again.

Back in Canterlot, Princess Celestia was pacing back and forth in her anteroom waiting for Twilight's first report. She worried that she let that creature off too easily but he seemed genuine enough in his apology. If anything did happen she was sure Twilight could handle herself, but she couldn't help but worry. Then with a flash, a scroll appeared before her. Celestia grabbed it with her magic and unfurled it and sat down to read it.

"Dear Princess Celesta. I have spent most of the evening with Jack the human. He seems calm enough and was actually kind to Spike when they first met. However, he ran into the basement as soon as Spike found out what happened to Fluttershy. No harm came to either of them and I sent Spike to spend the night with a friend while I calmed Jack down. We spoke for a while at dinner but he seemed extremely distant and sad. I think he felt bad about what happened to Fluttershy, but I'm sure there was something more. Tomorrow I am going with him to Rarity's in order to get more clothes made for him. He says his people wear clothing in order to stay warm. I think it would also be a good idea to get the girls to come around and accept him. I don't trust him very much but he hasn't shown any aggression to me yet. I will report again to you tomorrow with any more news. Your faithful student, Twilight."

Celestia rolled up the scroll and sat it down on an empty bookshelf. "I hope you're right Twilight." She whispered to herself before heading into her chambers to finally go to sleep.