Undecided

The pain was excruciating.

Blood poured down the colts body, mostly from his face. Through his swollen eyes the colt watched as the other ponies around him leared and taunted.

He spat at the nearest one, figuring if he was going to die, he might as well show them what he thought of them.

The enraged pony came forward.

Left,right, left, right, left , right. The punches continuously slammed into his face and body until a rather hard left swing tore his eye from it's socket spilling blood everywhere.

The pain unbearable the colt blacked out.

The cloaked stallion trotted into the small town. He had a limp in his right legs that showed despite his shrouded appearance. He eventually came to a small eatery, Sugar Cube Corner, and entered.

Through his left eye, the colt watched in horror as the knife was brought closer to his muzzle. Squeezing his eye closed, he braced for the pain. It didn't matter though, nothing could block out the feeling of the cold blade as it cut through his cheek. Coughing and sputtering, the colt felt his blood pour down the front of him as well as down his own throat.

The pain rising to a crescendo, the colt passed out again.

The sandwich he'd ordered was simple, haygrass on wheat. He trotted into the corner furthest from the other ponies and seated himself. Pulling a small fold out foot high barricade from his cloak, the stallion used it to block his view, and the view of anypony else. Behind his barricade, he lowered his hood and set to eating.

The undeniable crack that came from his right legs rang true. The colt felt them break, and he knew what was coming the millisecond his adrenaline wore out. Waves of nausiating pain swept through him as he watched his right legs darken under the skin with blood. Slowly darkness overtook the colt, who was unsure of what would happen to him.

The front door rang as some new ponies entered the eatery. Out of habit, the stallion instinctively became on edge and looked up to see who had entered. First was a marshmellow coated mare, by the way she carried herself one would think she was from Canterlot.

"Come now, Fluttershy, we can't all be expected to know what animals think."

Following her was a subdued looking butter coloured mare.

"Um, I guess not, I just thought it was obvious."

"Well, that's jus' fine sugarcube. 'Sides, it all turned out jus' fine!"

That was from the orange mare, countrified obvioulsy, wearing a cowpony hat.

She was followed in by a lavander mare, who looked rather pleased with herself.

"Well I found it to be quite the learning experience."

"Of course you would silly. You learn from everything!"

A sickeningly pink mare bounced in smiling jovially.

"Well I still say we should'a bucked it in the face."

That remark came from a cyan mare, rather tomboyish pegasus, but most noticeably she had a rainbow mane.

He wanted to sleep, just sleep and never wake up. Something was tugging at the back of his mind though. Something telling him to keep fighting.

Opening his eye just in time to catch a massive flash of rainbow quickly followed by a outstandingly loud boom. The colt also noticed his bonds weren't attached, and one of his captors hade dropped the bone knife inches in front of him as it stared at the sky.

Out of fear, desperation, and sheer will to live the colt scooped up the knife and slammed it into his captors back.

Then he ran.

'Last time I saw a rainbow it led me here, and before that it led me to freedom. I wonder what will happen now?'

The stallion continued munching on his sandwich for another minute or so when he noticed the pink pony in his peripherial vision turn his way and gasp.

'Shit, shes seen me!' the stallion thought as he swallowed, raised his hood and muzzle cowl, then packed away his small barricade and made to leave. That didn't work out quite well though.

As he stood he found the pink pony a mere foot away.

"Hiya! I'm Pinkie Pie. You're new in town, or atleast I think you are, I can't tell because of that hood you've got on. Why do you have a hood on? Ohhhhh, are you like Zecora, huh?"

Unnerved by the pink pony, the shrouded stallion made to go around her as the countrified mare tried to calm her.

"Pinkie, jus' because you like everpony don' always mean everpony else likes everypony."

As the stallion made to leave, a second more burnt orange pony with a pink mane lept at him.

"Zecora!"

On pure instinct, and already being on edge from the previous pink pony, the stallion reached out and slammed the mare, no, filly, into a wall while his second hoof brought up a bone knife.

Realizing his mistake, he moved to sheath the knife and release the filly, who was staring at him in fear when he heard a noise to his right. It was a cyan and rainbow blur, swinging a chair straight at him.

'Well there's the rain, here comes the boo-'

"Shh, he's waking up."

"I can see that Dash, I'm ready."

The stallion raised his head up and blinked at the throbbing coming from the left side of his head.

"Don't make any sudden moves, I've got a loaded Twilight Sparkle and I'm not afraid to use it!" the chromatic mare shouted.

"Rainbow Dash, calm down. Besides Rarity's got him from the other side, and Applejack's got her rope." the lavander mare reasoned.

Sure enough as the stallion looked around he found himself set for trouble.

The rainbow mare, Rainbow, suddenly scowled, "So who the heck do you think you are mister cape!? Coming into our town and threatening fillies! What's your name!"

Seeing no reason to instigate further aggression, the shrouded stallion replied in a raspy whisper, similiar to if a pony never shut his lips all the way if he talked, "I'm Jecht Lagg. Earth Pony. Wanderer. Also not looking for trouble, but that seems to have failed."

"Well if you weren' lookin' fer trouble, what made ya' think pulling a knife on a filly was gonna achieve!" shouted the orange country mare.

"It was not purposeful, a simple knee jerk reaction, and not one I'm proud of."

"Easy Applejack." the lavander mare said calmly, "First off Jecht, I"m Twilight Sparkle, protege of Princess Celestia, these are Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity. Now what were you doing in Ponyville?"

"Simply walking, as I've done my whole life. It soothes me." Jecht replied calmly.

"Well that may be, but Ah'm havin' trouble trustin ya with that hood and cloak on." grumbled Applejack.

"That's right! How do we know we can believe you!? Take your cloak off Jecht!" shouted Rainbow Dash.

"It is a rather horrid fashion, I agree, remove it." sniffed Rarity.

Jecht shuffled nervously. He'd removed his cloak before, but it always ended badly.

"I wouldn't recommend seeing my face, but I have a gut feeling you won't let me leave if I don't." At this Twilight nodded. "Alright, just do me a favor and don't scream, or throw anything at me, or swing a chair at me" Jecht finished, pointedly staring at Dash from under his cloak.

Twilight was quick to assure him nothing would happen.

Jecht began to unfasten the cloak.

Jecht fastened the cloak. It was one of the only things that kept others from running in fear. He would never willingly subjugate anypony to seeing his ruined features.

Twilight looked at him uneasily. He also heard Rarity retching behind him. Applejack seemed surprised as well as disgusted, and Rainbow Dash merely stared.

With his cloak fully removed, Jecht stood in all his imperfection. Scars criss crossed his body, and a long healed burn marred his flank on both side where his cutiemark should have been. He had two nast scars on his right legs, and a pair of dark spots showing through his white fur where blood had permanantely altered the colour when they were broken.

This was a damn sight nicer on the eyes than his face though.

His entire right cheek was gone, baring his teeth and gums to the air, the scars led up to a empty eye socket covered in bandana/eyepatch, but the scars stretched out from under it. This all lead to his right ear, that had a couple of holes through it and a tear towards the back. This was all on the right side of course. His left side showed pristine white fur a full cheek and a dark purple eye marred by a bruised welt from where the chair had connected.

Grimacing from the looks he was receiving, Jecht limped back over to his cloak and startened to re-fasten it when Twilight's eyes suddenly seemed to soften.

"You know, I may not know what happened to you Jecht, but I get it. Well sorta. Here you are, avoiding everpony because you fear what they'll think of you. Then this random pink fluff of hyperactive energy shows up. I react to being uncomfortable by becoming nervous, but you? Obviously you went through something terrible. I get it. You felt threatened so you reacted the only way you knew how."

Turning to Twilight, Jecht simply nodded before starting off towards the barn door.

"Wait, dude, where will you go?" questioned Rainbow Dash.

Jecht simply shrugged.

"Well you can't just leave, besides I still owe you for smacking you with a chair, I guess it was kinda uncool." Dash mumbled, rubbing the back of her neck.

Jecht had a talent for looking at things from all perspectives, and he knew why she hit him. "You were just looking out for friends, there should be no reason to apologize for that."

Jecht made to leave, pulling the barn door open and beggining to raise his hood, when the barn door closed back shut with lavander hued magic.

"Am I still not allowed to leave Twilight?" quested Jecht.

"Actually, I was wondering if you wanted to enjoy a dinner with us, our treat." Twilight smiled.

"I don't need sympathy." Jecht replied coldly.

"No I understand, but we'd like to make up for our actions and assumptions. Please join us for dinner."

"Alright then, since you don't want to take no for an answer I guess I'll go." Jecht sighed, defeated.

The friendly stallion hiker had ignored his new companions features well enough, but that wasn't the case as they began to eat. Jecht watched the hiker start to become nervous and disgusted. To prevent any further trouble Jecht stood up, stretched, thanked the hiker for the meal, and went on his way. He still heard the sigh of relief.

Back at Sugar Cube Corner Jecht found himself seated at the left corner of a table with Rainbow Dash and the others next to him on his right. Twilight, Rarity, Applejack and Raibow dash were normal enough. The pink maned butter coloured pegasus Fluttershy was on the far side from him at the opposite corner. Then there was Pinkie Pie, barely reigning in her immense joy at a new pony being in Ponyville.

Looking down at the plate of food(a salad with apricots and peaches, next to it an apple turnover) and was about to begin to eat when he remembered his right facial features.

"Um, yeah, gimme a second please." Jecht mumbled as he went and fetched his barricade and began to set it up on the table.

"Watcha puttin that up for silly. How do we talk to you?" Pinkie giggled.

"You can talk around this Pinkie...." Jecht muttered.

His barricade was then pulled away by magic as he felt himself lifted and moved to the other side of the table.

All eyes turned to look at Twilight as she released the magic she'd just used. Most noticeably was Jecht's look.

"Uhm, sorry Jecht, I just assumed that you put that up because....well.... your..." Twilight couldn't find herself finishing the sentence, blushing furiously as she was.

"No, you're right. I don't mind either. Everything I've suffered is a testament to something great that I struggled through. Lagg's are good at pulling through." Jecht chuckled, mostly at himself.

Jecht looked back down at his food, then took a bite. He'd chewed three times and was acutely aware of the disgusting smacking noises he was unwillingly making. Feeling his cheeks flush slightly, Jecht quickly swallowed and pushed his plate a couple of inches away from him.

"That was, ah, really good. Thank you." It was a pitiful excuse, but he couldn't bring himself to continue the amazing meal in front of the ponies.

Twilight's horn began to glow again, and Jecht felt a tingling on the edges of his ruined cheek. Reaching up to investigate, Jecht found a magical barrier had been constructed making a artificial cheek.

"Um, wow, thank you Twilight!" came Jecht's happy, albeit very surprised, response.

With that the meal continued, although Twilight appeared mildly flustered.

After dinner was finished, Rainbow couldn't help but bring something up that had been nagging at her.

"So Jecht, You said you're last name was Lagg, right. Is that any relation to Obsidian Lagg?"

Jecht shuffled nervously. Family was a touchy subject for him. After a few seconds he nodded, "Obsidian was my grandfather."

"Oh so you're Cobra and Vipers kid..." Dash suddenly trailed off as peices slowly began to meld together, "Oh Celestia Jecht! I'm sorry, geez I'm stupid, you don't have to answer that."

"No, it's fine. Yes they were my parents." came the despondent reply.

Twilight remembered suddenly. It had been her brother's first  assignment. Back when he was a trainee. Find the Lagg family, a pegasi family, that had gone missing. Twilight rounded the table and patted Jecht on the back soothingly. "I'm so sorry Jecht. If I had known..." as she spoke she rubbed her hoof over an odd scar on his shoulder blade. Jecht stiffened and blushed slightly before pulling away from the mare.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you! I didn't realize it was sensitive!" Tilight sputtered.

"Relax, you didn't hurt me, I was just.... surprised." Jecht finished lamely, not noticing Dash scrutinizing the twin scars on his shoulders. That is until she screamed in outrage and threw a stool into the nearby wall.

"Who in the hay did that! I swear, I could just AGHHHHHHH!" Dash screamed.

All eyes turned to her as she finished. "Care to explain to Pinkie why you jus' smashed a stool inta the wall, sugarcube?"

"I...just....argh! Okay, so I had a friend that got caught up in tsunami force winds. It ripped her right wing clean out its socket. When it healed it left an indented scar. Cobra and Viper Lagg never had an earth pony foal, they had a pegasus!"

"So Jecht here is a fake? That's abhorent!" cried Rarity, absolutely appaled. Twilight was the one that put it together.

"No. This is Jecht, but what Dash is saying is.....oh my! Jecht, what happened to you?!"

"I uhm, no, ahhh...." With that Jecht took off out the door grabbing his supplies.

Dash made to take off after him when Twilight intevened, "No Dash, let me go after him. I'm a bit more level headed." With that Twi took off out the door in chase of the earth bound pegasus.