Chapter 6
A New Hero Arises

Brandon, or Shattered Souls as he liked to refer to himself as now, was a couple of days into his recovery, while still at the hospital. He was really bored and tired of looking around the small white hospital room that he was still in. He wasn't as bad off as he was before since he was now able to sleep and wake up on a regular schedule. Twilight hadn't returned yet and he suspected it was due to the fact that she was still trying to figure things out about him. He hoped that eventually he'd be able to become friends with her seeing as that was one of his dreams. He wanted to be friends with all the mane six and participate in adventures with all of them.

The current time was 10:00 in the morning on his third day here in the hospital and he already wished his stay was over. Nurse Redheart opened up the door to his room, giving him a small warm smile.

Smiling back a little he asked,"Good Morning Nurse Redheart. I was hoping that I could go out to the gardens or something. Could that please be arranged?"

Nurse Redheart moved closer to him while checking her clipboard and looked up at him,"Just let me take a look at you real quick. If I feel your in good enough condition I can arrange for someone to take you out to the gardens."

He sighed while nodding and moved a bit so that she could check him over. Checking his bandages and wounds, she hummed a little tune as she did her work. Soul's ears twitched as he listened to her humming what sounded like a version of the Friendship is Magic theme song. This pleased him enough so that he was able to relax in to pillows behind his back while she worked. Satisfied that he was in good enough condition, she gave him a warm smile while writing down the results of her examination on her clipboard.

"Well Mr. Souls I do believe that you are good to go. I'll go speak with the nurse at the duty station and we should have someone in here shortly to help you out to the garden. You'll be in a wheelchair and I must advise that you stay in it."

"Can do Mrs. Redheart," he saluted while giving her a small smile. Dropping his gaze to his satchel, he pulled it up towards him with a hoof having finally figured out how to grip stuff with it. It was a lot of trial and error but he was glad he'd finally learned how to grab stuff with his hooves as he still didn't have access to his magic.

The nurse smiled while slipping out the door and closing it behind her. Souls was left in peace for a moment while looking at the different chips in his satchel. Enough time had passed for Keldeo's soul to have been fully repaired and the image was back to what it had been before.

A few moments later an unfamiliar pony came into the room while pushing a wheel chair in front of themselves. Observing her carefully a moment, he noted that she was a familiar cream coated mare, who was a roommate with Lyra Scratch. In other words the mare before him was none other than BonBon, or secret agent Sweetie Drops. He gave her a small smile as he hummed a bit. She smiled back at him as she came into the room fully showing off a small had she was wearing that read Volunteer on it.

"Hello Mr. Souls. My name is BonBon and I'm here to help you out to the gardens," She politely nodded to him.

"Thank you Miss BonBon. I'd be most happy if you could help me out of this room," He politely replied while widening his smile. She came over with a bigger smile herself and gently helped him into the wheel chair. She pushed the wheel chair in front of her with him in it while he silently looked around the area humming to himself.

The white hallways of the hospital loomed before him with many open doors leading to empty rooms. Nurses walked down the hallways giving him a polite nod or warm smile as they passed him and BonBon. He could see other patients inside of their rooms eating or performing various other activities to keep the boredom at bay. He blinked as he noticed a familiar orange mare with three apples on her cutie mark in one of the rooms. She seemed to be having a conversation with Rarity and Pinkie Pie who were trying to keep her occupied. Her right hindleg was bandaged up and in a cast while she lay on the bed.

He winced as he remembered they said she had ended up with frostbite due to Kyurem's attack. He really hoped their magic had been able to heal her leg enough in time to prevent permenant damage from happening to her leg. He saw all this for only a moment before BonBon had pushed him past the room and towards a set of doors leading outside to the gardens.

Smiling contently as he gazed up at the sky, he continued to him a nonsensical tune to himself while observing the gardens. Seeing other less injured patients walking around the gardens, he wished that he himself could also do that. He pointed at a more secluded area of the gardens and looked back at BonBon.

"Um If you don't mind Miss BonBon, I'd like to go over there to that part of the gardens," He asked nervously.

Smiling encouragingly she replied,"Its no problem Mr. Souls. Just let me wheel you over there and I'll leave you in peace for a while."

Nodding happily, he looked around some more as she wheeled him over to the spot that he wanted. Once he was there, he nodded back to her before observing and smelling the flowers in front of him. Happily sitting in the wheelchair, his ears flicked as he heard the hoofsteps of someone coming up this part of the gardens. Letting out a small sigh, he looked to the curve of the path to see who it could possibly be. Around the corner of the bend came a tan unicorn. Said unicorn was wearing a short sleeved shirt, with a skull pattern, and a pair of red shorts of all things. His eyes were aqua blue and he carried some kind of sword on his back. This looked like a pony one didn't mess with for just any reason.

Stopping at the bend of the path, the unicorn looked at him with a startled expression not having expected to see someone else on this part of the path. He looked unsure of what to do until Souls lifted a hoof and waved at him in a friendly manner. He nodded as he returned the wave and walked further down the path towards Souls. He stopped a few meters away and looked at the injured souls with inquisitive eyes. He was wondering just what could have happened to injure the stallion this badly.

Souls got a better look at the sword on the unicorn's back where he had to blink in surprise at the design of the sword. It looked very similar to Dante's, from Devil May Cry's, signature sword. He turned to look back at the unicorn himself wondering what he could possibly be doing here at the hospital.

Finally deciding to speak before things got to awkward, he quietly said,"Hello sir."

The unicorn blinked at the sudden greeting before shaking his head and responding,"Uh Hello."

Souls decided to ask why he was here,"If you don't mind me asking. What brings you here to the hospital gardens? You don't look like your injured at all."

Scratching the back of his head with a hoof, the unicorn responded sheepishly,"Well... I heard that a friend of one of the people I like was here at the hospital and I was hoping I could run into my friend."

Souls nodded,"That makes sense. Well I hope your able to run into your friend real soon. And that's a cool sword you have there."

The unicorn grinned a bit as he looked back at his sword momentarily,"Yeah. It is a pretty cool sword. I wouldn't give it up for the world. So why are you in the hospital."

Souls nervously replied,"I'm in the hospital......because of the dragon attack."

The unicorn winced,"Ouch. Sorry to hear that. I would have fought the dragon myself but I was out of town on business at the time. I did hear that some crazy blue unicorn with an aqua colored coat managed to beat the thing. They said he was a sword user himself. I'd like to meet him sometime."

Souls' ears flattened backwards a bit,"Well it is nice to hear that someone beat that dragon back. I have to say that it scared me quite a bit. I still wonder why it decided to threaten Ponyville though.

The unicorn nodded in reply,"Yeah. Oh yeah I wanted to ask. What is your name? My name is Jack Hunt. I'm sort of a guard for the town of Ponyville. I try to keep most of the monsters at bay or away from here all together."

Feeling more relaxed Souls happily said,"Cool. My name is Shattered Souls. I don't really have a job at the moment or specialization."

Jack Hunt raised an eyebrow,"But your cutie mark says you have something to do with beings souls. I'm guessing your talent has something to do with a field of magic."

Souls sighed,"Yeah I guess. I've just been having some problems lately."

Jack nodded and gestured to the Soul Archiver,"So what is that thing on your leg anyway? Is it some kind of new device?"

Seizing up on the inside, Souls quickly replied,"Oh this is just a new kind of watch. I was asked to test it out and give the results to the creator. I get to keep the watch for myself."

Jack raised an eyebrow at the too quick reply. "Well Its good to hear that you've been asked to do something like that. Anyway I'd better get going. I have to catch up to my friend after all."

Souls nodded again,"Yeah. Maybe I'll see you around and we could talk again."

Jack Hunt returned the nod,"Right. See you around Shattered Souls." With that he continued by the unicorn right as a chip in Souls satchel started to glow. Souls had hidden the satchel in the side of the wheelchair, between him the side of it. Jack didn't notice the glow until it was to late. Before he knew it he felt a short jolt of what felt like electricity,"Ouch. What the hay?"

Turning back around he saw that Souls had dropped a bag that he had not noticed before. The bag had smoke rising from the inside of it but otherwise seemed to be fine. Souls looked a little frantic and really nervous. He trotted back over quickly to him.

"Hey do you know what just happened? I just got zapped by something." He rubbed his side where there was a little singe mark.

Yelping in surprise Souls turned to him,"Yeah. Don't scare me like that. Something in my bag just started glowing and let out electricity. I don't know why."

Grimacing in pain, Jack moved to the bag,"I'll just take a look at it."

Souls was about to call out to him to wait but it was already to late. He had moved over to the open satchel and looked inside. The smoke had dissipated now and he could see clearly. Looking over the contents, he saw the chips that bore images of creatures he'd never seen before. One of the chips was glowing a soft blue at the moment which died down after half a minute. That chip did nothing else so he brought his head back out of the satchel and turned to Souls.

"Well whatever it was seems to be over. Just please try to be more careful with your things." He levitated the bag over to Souls while grumbling to himself.

"Yeah sorry. I just recently acquired these so I don't know everything they can do yet. I'll try my best not to let it happen in the future." Souls replied nervously.

Sighing in frustration, Hunt nodded and moved off away from the unicorn again. He headed quickly into the hospital leaving Souls alone in his part of the garden. Souls looked down into his satchel to see one of the chips gain an image of the unicorn he'd just met. A little icon on the top of the image denoted that this was a rare special chip that shouldn't be traded or given away. Underneath the little icon were the words,"Dragon/Pony hybrid warrior". The caption for the image read,"Jack Hunt, Swordmaster of Lightning.

Quickly closing the flap of the satchel, Souls sighed as he stashed the bag away in the side of the wheel chair again. He really didn't need to deal with this right now. Going back to observing the garden, he relaxed and let his worries wash away.

Jack Hunt had exited the hospital a couple of hours later heading for his home on the outskirts of Ponyville. He was secretly a pony/dragon hybrid although he tended to stay in his pony form the most. His father had been a dragon and his mother a unicorn mare, who had fallen for his father. Together they ended up having him and they loved him dearly.

The townsfolk had taken to him happily and said he was one of the most adorable foals they'd ever seen. They helped to take care of him when his parents were too busy with their jobs to care for him. So he had grown up in a loving environment. He had started out as just a unicorn foal but as he grew he felt a fire in his stomach.

Telling his father what he felt, his father said he might actually be able to turn into a dragon. And as he grew older the changes made themselves apparent as he gained draconic features such as horns, wings, and a tail. Training his magic, he was able to gain control of his body and switch between a pony form and dragon form. After doing so, he decided to take his training a step further. Taking up the sword at age 16, he had managed to train through the years to become a master swordsman. He had had added mastery over lightning magic to his repertoire as well as that was the element he was most connected too.

He had ended up defending his village from many threats that came along and repelled them easily. The mayor eventually decided to hire some guards for the town once the town's budget had been adjusted. He had ended up training those guards and they defended the town alongside him. Finally at age 22, he decided to go out and see the world for himself.

Traveling by his lonesome, he experienced many new things until he came to Ponyville and saw all the trouble it got into all the time. He decided to settle into the town and help defend it from trouble. He stayed in the outskirts though because he didn't want anyone to figure out he was a hybrid. And it was honestly the best place for him since he could stop monster threats before they could enter the town.

Reaching the outskirts quickly, Hunt saw a flickering of wild magic half a mile away from his position. Jack had been seeing these quite a lot recently and figured it might have something to do with the dragon that had appeared a couple days ago. Racing towards the disturbance, he heard a crackle and saw a portal open up before his eyes.

The portal glowed a sickly green color and was the size of 2 ponies standing on top of each other. Out of the portal stepped another dragon of some kind. This one had no wings but did have all four legs and a tail. It had shimmering blue scales that shined in the light. A crested rige rose from the back of its head as spines jutted across its back. Its tail ending in a curving blade of some kind. Its eyes denoted a cunning intelligence behind it but at the same time it didn't seem that smart. The portal closed behind it completely once it finished stepping out of it.

Sniffing the air with large nostrils, it turned its head to him and let out a piercing roar. He charged at him roaring again as saliva dripped from its fangs. Drawing his sword from his back, Jack yelled out his own battlecry as he charged the sword with electrical energy. Running towards the weird dragon, he gripped the hilt of his sword with a telekinetic grip. Horn glowing brighter then before, he fired off a couple of spells that summoned ghostly looking blades, shining an eery blue in the sunlight.

Finally remembering what kind of dragon this was, he recognized it as a lightning drake. These things were nasty to deal with and were actually immune to all electrical damage since they were tied into the element of lightning quite heavily. He turned off the electricity to his sword right before meeting the charging drake. Jumping up into the air, he avoided the snap of its jaws coming down right where he had been.

Landing square on its back, he galloped hard along its spine while bringing his sword point down into its back and dragging it along with him. Roaring in pain, the drake lashed out with its tail along its back. Jack was forced to duck under the swing only standing back up and continuing his gallop once it had passed over head. Although the blade of the tail had managed to shear some of his mane straight off and narrowly missed his horn.

Jumping off the back of the drake he whirled around, directing the ghostly weapons to hack at its legs. The flew over and started biting into the drakes legs opening up gashes that flowed with black ichor along with the long gash on its back. Maddened by the pain, it lashed out with a flury of swipes from its claws and another swipe of its tail.

Hunt brought his sword around in time to deflect the first claw swipe knocking it off to the left but the right claw managed to dig into his right leg. Yelping in pain he backed up as blood started to flow freely down his leg from the claw that had left its mark there. Luckily the wound was shallow but it still hurt. But the drake had already brought its tail around and the back of the blade slammed into his side driving him to the ground. He plowed into the dirt hard as the blade tip left a long scratch across his side. It started to bleed thinly as he shook his head having lost concentration on the ghostly weapons causing them to dissapate.

Getting back up quickly right, he moved out of the way just in time to avoid a claw that came down right where he had been. Summoning the ghostly weapon again and picking up his own sword he charged the beast. The weapons hacked into the drakes legs again until the ghostly sword he'd summoned severed a tendon in the drakes right forleg causing it to stumble into the ground.

Its face became buried into the ground and Hunt took the opporutunity it presented. Charging ahead even faster he jumped into the air and with a loud cry brought the blade down on the drake's neck cutting deep into it. He quickly did it several more times before the drake could recover and severed its head from its neck.

Having bested his foe, he backed up and panted hard. Regaining his breath after a few moments, he finally dismissed the ghostly weapons and took note of his injuries. His horn glowed with his magic as he cast a healing spell on himself which managed to close up the wounds he had aquired. They did leave scars behind but for the most part he'd be just fine. Looking back at the dead drake he grinned at having gained another trophy for himself. And with that he went about collecting the head and gathering ingredients from the body. So a new hero has arisen for the town, fighting in secret to protect the town and its inhabitents.

Author's Note

Hey Everyone. So Here's a new chapter. We check in with Souls again but we also have a new face. Jack Hunt does not belong to me. He is an OC belonging to Fimfiction user Knives. Thanks for letting me use him and I hope you enjoy this chapter. If anyone else wants me to add in their OC just pm me. Go ahead and leave comments about what you liked in the chapter or just leave constructive criticism.