Chapters Chapter 1: New home, Old enemy
Space. One word, what some people have on mind all the time. The last limit. Endless void. New adventure.
It's 2076 year of the New Era. Mankind is advanced technologically and open for far space travels, but they lost their homeland. 30 years ago, Earth was destroyed by the human's exploitation and war for resources. Now, it's wasteland without any signs of life. Humanity had to colonize the closest planet in their range, Mars. Humanity lived, like earlier, on terrafromed planet. But, it wasn't enough. A new Government, known as Ares Senate, decided to activate Project New Genesis, interstellar mission to find a new colonies for mankind. For now, five searching spaceships started their journey to potential colonies: Zeus, Artemis, Hera, Hermes and Athena.
The last one, Athena, is the most advanced of them all and has the best crew in the Solar System: Dr. Sarah Sky, biologist; Prof. Arthur Nate, astrophysicist; Sgt. Marcus McCain, security; Off. Oscar Stone, main pilot; Col. Raymond Dracons, captain of the ship and Pvt. Jacob Dracons, colonel's younger brother and engineer on Athena. Their destination is planet called Terra-2 in Hades System. Why does it has this name? It's because this system completely breaks physic's laws. There's one planet in the green zone and has perfect conditions for human race, but it's sun and moon are circling around it upright. It's the reason, why they were sent there.
Athena arrived to the Hades System, after 2 years and 5 months of flight. All systems started to be reactivated by AI called O.T.I.S.- Operational-Transport-Intelligent System. O.T.I.S started also opening the stasis pods. The first one belonged to captain.
"Stasis pod 1 opened." O.T.I.S. said. "All functions-normal. Good morning, Colonel Dracons."
"Good morning, O.T.I.S." Raymond responded, yawning and combing his black hair with hands.
After full wake up, Raymond changed stasis suit into his captain uniform and walked on the bridge. "O.T.I.S., report."
The flight was very peaceful, captain. We had some meteor rains, but Athena has only one damage.
"What exactly?" Captain asked with little worry. Athena was a tough ship and very hard to destroy.
"One of engine A modules is damaged. Engines lost 23% of efficiency. Required manual repair. O.T.I.S. explained.
Raymond wasn't happy about this for two reasons. Indestructible ship was damaged and he had to wake up his brother.
"O.T.I.S., open Stasis pod 2." Raymond said with disaffection.
"Yes, captain.
Raymond decided to wait on the bridge. He loved his brother, but he didn't like his personality. Raymond was looking at the planet in front of him. Terra-2, planet-mystery. He looked on the left. He saw the sun of that planet. It was called Cornelius. He looked at right. He saw many stars, including Sun from Solar System. Raymond agreed on this mission to help humanity.
" 'Morning, big brother." Raymond heard brother's voice. He looked behind him and saw a man with messy, maroon hair, goatee, eyes like two ambers and left, bionic black arm. He was wearing black shirt, ruined jeans and dirty, blue trainers.
"Good morning, Jacob." Raymond responded.
"You know, I had a dream. About our new home. Grass, trees, vegetables..." Jacob counted and looked at his older brother. "I know that face." Jacob said with resignation. "Something's fucked up, right?"
"One of engine A modules. You need to find this damage and repair it." Raymond explained the situation.
"Give me some duct tape and I'll fix it." Jacob joked, like he had in habit and laughed nervously. Raymond wasn't in mood for jokes. He's never been. "I'll take my little mechanic's set." Jacob said and walked to his cabin. Inside he had everything, what he took from Earth. It was total mess, but Jacob liked mess. He said, that helps him find things, but no one believed him.
Jacob found his tool belt and welding glasses, then took them and walked to the engine. When he was at place, he felt huge wave of heat.
"We need only ticket box and we have sauna." Jacob said with irony, wiping sweat of his forehead.
"Concentrate, Jacob." Raymond instructed him through the communicator. "Find the damage and fix it, immediately"
"Uh, you're no fun." Jacob sighed and started to look for the damage.
As an engineer, Jacob's often been exposed on high temperatures and tight places, so he got used to it. But it doesn't mean, he enjoys that. Around him were pipes with core refrigerant, engines' controlling modules and many other instruments.
After a few minutes of looking, Jacob found a hole in one of modules. It was big and long. "We have a winner." Jacob said to himself with smile. He put on his rubber glove on right arm and put it in the hole, to find a meteor, what caused the damage. Jacob felt much higher temperature in it. Suddenly, he felt a short cut and quickly pulled back his arm. "Fuck." He said, seeing a cut on his hand. It was flesh wound but long. Jacob had a first-aid kit for situations, like this one. He took of his glove, cleaned the wound with decontaminating spray, wrapped it with bandages and put on a new glove. He thought, it was just some sharp element or piece of conduit, so he tried once again. This time, he found the reason of the damage. When he took it out, he was confused.
"Ray, I found, what caused the damage, but it's not a meteor." Jacob said, studying the found object.
"Then, what is it?" Raymond asked surprised.
"Some kind of horn or fang. It's long, curved and red." Jacob described it.
"What about the module?" Raymond inquired.
"We can turn it off, as well." Jacob sighed, taking of the glove.
"Dammit." Raymond responded. "Good job, anyways. Go back on the bridge. Dr. Sky will look further on that thing, what you found."
"On my way." Jacob responded.
Suddenly, engineer felt a huge headache. Jacob thought, that's from heat, so he ignored it and left the engine.
On the bridge, all crew was awake. Raymond was talking with Dr. Sky. She had long, blond hair, green eyes and lab overall on.
"Do you think, that might be a sign of life in cosmos?" Sarah asked, very excited. "I've always wanted to study some alien life form."
"Don't forget about our main goal. Find a new colony for human kind." Raymond brought the scientist on ground.
"Of course. But, I want to know, if that planet is safe enough. If it's a fang, I don't want to know the owner."
"Well, it would be nice to kill something that big." Sgt. McCain interrupted. Marcus was a security guard of all operation. He was also the only, black skinned member of a crew. He had short, black hair, unshaved beard, space battle suit in green shades and always ready plasma shotgun and laser automatic rifle on back. "I wasn't sleepin' 3 years just to shoot some flies. I need a dinosaur or other dragon." Sgt. said. Marcus always liked to fight. No matter, if it was a human, beast or alien.
"Dragons are only a myth." Prof. Nate joined the conversation, looking at Cornelius. Arthur Nate was an oldish man with bald head, round glasses and inseparable plaid sweater. He was more skeptic, than Raymond have ever been. He believed only in things, what have scientific explanation. Other things treats with very huge distance. Including magic and dragons. Always, when he hears stuff, like this, he makes sour grimace. "If Jacob found fang or horn of a mythological creature, I'm gonna eat my favorite sweater with ketchup. And I hate ketchup." Scientist made a bet.
"You better be ready, doc." Oz interrupted. Oscar Stone was the best pilot on Mars. Everyone knows his red mohawk and mustache He was born in space, so it became his one and true love. He knew a name of all planets and stars in Milky Way. At first occasion, he joined Air Force School and became fighter's pilot. "Space if full of surprises. I wouldn't be surprised, if we could find a planet full of talking horses."
"I still can't believe, I'm part of this mission." Arthur said with facepalm. "This ship is full of kids, not soldiers and scientists. Anyways, where's that clown, Jacob?"
Someone knocked the bridge door. "You should say, who's there?" Jacob said.
"Who's there?" Sarah took care of this.
"Happy."
"Happy who?"
"HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY, DR. SKY!" Jacob screamed, walking through the door, holding a curved object in two hands, like a gift. Sarah giggled, because she enjoys, sometimes, Jacob's humor.
"Thank you, Jacob." She answered and took it from Jacob. "So, this is the thing, what damaged Athena?"
"Yep. It had to hit pretty hard, because we need a new module in engine A." Jacob said with crossed arms.
Dr. Sarah was studying the object very carefully. "Jacob, can you go to my lab, with me?" She proposed.
"Sure, Dr. Sky." Jacob replied and followed the biologist.
In Sarah Sky's lab was a lot of chemicals, plants, animals sketches and the other biologic stuff. It had also B.M.S. (Bionic Modifications Station), what Jacob installed by himself, to have a possibility to modify his bionic arm and other implants in his body.
"Sorry for mess." She excused. Jacob was confused by this sentence.
"This place is flawless, Sarah." Jacob sighed.
"I know your meaning of order." She explained.
"Well, then..." Jacob said, putting his left hand on random bottle. "Let me help you with cleaning." Sarah's eyes whitened, when she saw, what Jacob was holding.
"JACOB, DON'T!" Sarah screamed. Jacob looked at bottle's tag.
"'H2SO3'? What the fuck it this?" Jacob asked confused.
"Sulphuric acid. Very toxic and corrosive." Biologist explained. "It was in school, 8th grade."
"I've never liked chemistry." Jacob murmured, leaving the bottle alone.
Dr. Sky placed founded item into the analyzer. "O.T.I.S.-analyze."
"Yes, Dr. Sky. O.T.I.S. responded. It's a horn of creature, which DNA is very similar to Earth horses. Readings show massive compression of dark matter and energy."
"Looks like someone's eating his sweater." Sarah said excited. "It's a unicorn's horn. We have found sighs of life! How old is it?"
"It has about 1000 years." O.T.I.S. established. "I've calculated it's trajectory. It's from Terra-2"
"Cool, planet full of unicorns. I'm leaving the next escape pod." Jacob said with sarcasm.
"Jacob!" Sarah said with anger.
"Kidding." Jacob said. "But, if they will sing songs about smiles and friendship, I'm fucking out."
"For now, let's tell about it the rest of crew in canteen. I'm starving." Sarah said, grabbing her stomach.
Engineer and biologist went to the canteen and grabbed something to eat. Sarah had spaghetti carbonara and Jacob Cesar Salad, because he's vegetarian. They both told about a discovery.
"Told ya', doc'." Oscar said with smirk to Prof. Nate. Pilot took off the professor his sweater and spilled it with ketchup. "Bon appetit."
"I hate young people." Arthur said, slicing his sweater with tears. He always holds one's word.
"So, we can expect interesting company down there." Marcus considered with mouth filled with steak. "Maybe there are griffins, pegasus and dragons."
"I don't believe in anything, now!" Prof. Nate cried out, chewing his beloved piece of cotton.
"I just hope, we won't have any problems with our mission. We're staying here for 3 years." Raymond reminded, mixing his tomato soup.
"Ray, O.T.I.S. said, that horn has like 1000 years." Jacob joined the talk. "Those unicorns could vanish, as well."
"That is correct, Private Dracons." O.T.I.S. stated. "Extinction is very unpredictable process, so forms of life on this planet could vanish before or during our voyage."
"Great words, my binary friend." Jacob confirmed.
When Jacob wanted to tell more, Athena suddenly shook, lights blinked and alarm rung.
"O.T.I.S.-report!" Raymond screamed.
Explosion in biologic laboratory. O.T.I.S. said.
"I swear, I've done nothing." Jacob assured.
"It's not everything. My sensors are detecting there a form of life. Utilities recommended."
"Dr. Sky, Prof. Nate, Pvt. Dracons, go to the docks." Raymond ordered. "Sgt. McCain, Off. Stone, come with me. That's an order."
"I must deny the order." Stone protested. "My main goal, during the crisis, is taking every part of the crew to the save harbor."
"Fine. Jacob, come with us." Jacob nodded.
Jacob, Raymond and Marcus went to the biologic lab with armored suits and assault rifles. The room was full of smoke.
"Fire at will." Raymond ordered.
In the air, they could hear a silent laugh.
"Whatever you are, show yourself!" Marcus screamed.
"I have really bad feelings about this..." Jacob said.
"You're right, kid. You should have bad feelings. Mysterious, deep voice said.
"What?" Jacob said with confusion. It felt, like he heard that in his head. Everyone was terrified, but Jacob was the most.
"Concentrate, private." Raymond said.
"Yes, sir." Jacob replied, still scared.
"Don't listen to him. You don't need his orders." Voice said again. Was that Satan or what? "You should give him orders, not receive them. I see a deep potential in you, Jacob Dracons.
"Ray, I hear voices." Jacob said, like he was about to pee. But there was no answer. Jacob was alone inside. But, he saw something. It looked like horse. It reached with it's head to Jacob's torso. It had the same horn, what Jacob found. Also had gray coat, black ethereal mane, armor, crown, royal cape and eyes from nightmare. Red, snake eyes with green glimmer, emanating with purple smoke. Jacob felt, like he was looking as Satan himself and pointed his rifle on him. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU!?" Jacob screamed terrified. The unicorn creature started to get closer to engineer. "STAY BACK!" Creature ignored it and walked further. Jacob couldn't resist and shoot it. Creature only laughed and disappeared.
"Jacob, what did I tell you?!" Ray screamed with fury.
"I SAW IT! It looked like a unicorn. UNICORN FROM HELL!" Jacob cried out.
"Don't say, that you're afraid of little unicorn." Marcus said playfully.
"IT HAD LIKE 4 FEET!" Jacob screamed, looking for Satan.
"O.T.I.S., where is it?" Raymond inquired. Jacob was still shivering.
"Too much disruptions." AI responded. "But I fixed ventilation system."
"Activate." Colonel ordered.
Ventilation was activated and smoke disappeared, showing a unicorn, what Jacob saw.
"WHAT THE..." Marcus said, pointing his rifle on creature. "I pay honor, Jacob. This looks like unicorn from hell." Creature only looked at them with devilish smile. Then, it responded.
"Can I talk with you, Jacob?" It asked with grim and deep voice. "But alone."
"I am the captain of this ship and no one will be ordering here, except..." Ray's sentence was interrupted by a black smoke, what pinned him and Marcus to the wall. Creature's horn was emanating with dark energy.
"LET THEM GO!" Jacob shouted, still targeting the unicorn. It responded with laughter.
"If you'll agree for a little talk, then I will release your brother and companion."
"Fine." Jacob agreed and dropped his rifle. After that, he turned off the blockades on his helmet and took it off. "Okay. What do you want?"
"First thing is, that I want to thank you. Your blood woke up my powers, locked in my horn and helped me to return into my physical form." It said with respect. "But, where's my manners. I'm King Sombra. Ruler of the Crystal Empire on planet, what you call Terra-2. Actually, former ruler. I've lost my Empire. I was conquered by Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, her husband, Prince Shining Armor and Princess Twilight Sparkle, his sister."
"Well, you look like a guy, who needed that." Jacob said. Sombra's smile disappeared.
"Appearances can be deceptive, kid."
"First, don't call me 'kid'. Second, you look like a unicorn version of Darth Vader. How can I trust a talking horse, with demonic, royal armor, green eyes and fangs like fucking vampire's?" Jacob asked, taking back his rifle.
"Here's the best part." Sombra said with grin again on his face. "When you touched my horn, some of my power crossed into your nervous system. If you will help me, I can teach you, how to control it."
"Blah, blah, blah. You even talk, like Darth Vader. 'Join the Dark Side, Luke.'." Jacob denied. "You know nothing about me."
"I already know your name, your family and your potential. You're the first creature, what was able to control my dark magic." Sombra was still tempting Jacob, but engineer was unbreakable.
"Three words. Suck. My. Dick." Jacob said and shoot the unicorn. But, it didn't do anything to Sombra. "What the..."
"Bad choice, kid. Looks like, I'll have to get rid of you. But, I'll give you 5 minutes head start."
"Self-destruction activated. Core will melt in T Minus 5 minutes."
"Tick-tock, kid. Sombra said and disappeared, with smoke, what was holding Raymond and Marcus.
Jacob was completely confused and he had so many questions.
"O.T.I.S.-deactivation code: 5094ty5234yp." Raymond said.
"Code denied." O.T.I.S. responded. "I prefer abandon the ship."
"I agree!" Jacob said and ran to the nearest escape pod, but it was interrupted by sudden strong headache.
"I'll give you some time, kid." Jacob heard Sombra once again. "I know, that you'll come to me."
Headache stopped and Jacob went to the escape pod, next to him.
"Jacob!" Raymond screamed. Jacob turned around. "Be careful, little brother."
"Don't worry. I won't be late for Christmas." Jacob joked. "I'll be back." He said, closing the escape pod. Jacob wanted to launch it, but it was broken. "Fuck." He tried to leave, but doors were locked. "Dammit. HELP!"
"Explosion in 3 minutes."
Jacob saw crew's escape pods leaving. He felt, like he was about to cry. Jacob tried again to escape from his cell, what supposed to save him, but it's no use. He tried emergency opening, but nothing happened. "I don't want to die like this." Jacob cried out. He felt abandoned. His companions left him to die on this ship. His brother usually checked on him twice. But today, he didn't even do this once. "How could they? HOW COULD YOU, MOTHERFUCKERS! WHAT HAVE I DONE TO YOU?!"
Explosion in 2 minutes."
"Fuck you, O.T.I.S. Fuck you, Athena. Fuck you, Sombra. FUCK! YOU! ALL!"
Even if Jacob could repair it, he didn't had any tools. Everything left in his room. Jacob just wanted this to end. At least he could die, like he wanted. In space, far from his home planet.
"Explosion in 60 seconds.
Then, he reminded about emergency code, what Ray told him about.
"O.T.I.S. Release all escape pods! Code: 4312ol9073lr!" Jacob was praying, that would work.
"Code accepted. Releasing escape pods."
Jacob was happy, like little kid in candy shop, when his pod left the ship. He was screaming, like there was no tomorrow. "YES! HAHAHA! FUCK YEAH! NO THIS TIME!"
When he left, Athena exploded and turned into space junkyard.
After a few minutes of falling, Jacob landed on Terra-2. Impact was hard, but Jacob survived it.
Solid ground detected. Opening escape pod.
Jacob left the escape pod and took a deep breath. "Good, old oxygen." He looked around. Jacob landed in the middle of the forest, on some kind of glade. Behind him were castle's ruins and canyon. Jacob looked into his escape pod. In left container were first-aid kit, reserves of nourishing packs and water for 2 weeks. In the right one was fire extinguisher with liquid nitrogen, plasma pistol (works as flare and self-defense), survival guide and backpack. In the front one were, ironically, all tools and parts needed to repair the escape pod. "You're shitting me." Jacob said to himself. In the back container were radiation suit, winter clothes and swim suit with oxygen cylinder. Jacob grabbed a bottle of water and one of food packs. He took a bite of dry, square, brown cake. "Tastes like engine oil, but will be okay. At least, water doesn't have taste."
After his not-very-tasty meal, Jacob decided to check what's under that canyon, because he found stairs. Downstairs was a crystal tree with wipes made of balls. On it's branches were holes in different shapes: butterfly, balloon, lightning, diamond and apple. In the middle was hole in the shape of six-arms star. "First day on the planet and already ruins and weird tree." Jacob commented and left the canyon.
Jacob looked inside of escape pod, once again. It had only useless radio. Without Athena, radio was only a piece of junk. It was hot outside, so he took of his black, space armor. Luckily, he had all his normal clothes under it.
"I told you, I saw something falling." Jacob heard a female voice.
"Fuck, more talking horses." He thought, grabbed plasma gun and hid behind the capsule.
"What, on Equestria, is that?" Jacob heard another female voice.
"Equestria? So this is their name for the planet." Jacob thought and decided to hear a little.
"I don't know, but it looks awesome." The first one said. "Wait. I see something. It's an armor. It has some name on it. 'J. Dracons'?"
"Kinda weird name." Second one commented. "It doesn't look like ponish. Gauntlets have some kind of claws. Helmet is pretty oval."
"It would fit for a monkey or dragon." The first one said again.
"Maybe owner is close?"
"Twilight, I think I found him." Jacob looked above. It was a pale blue pegasus with rainbow mane and magenta eyes.
"Hello, there." Jacob heard the second voice. He looked right. It was a lavender hybrid of unicorn and pegasus with purple eyes and dark blue mane. It also had strands in two shades of purple. "Are you okay... sir?"
"Except talking with horses, everything's fine." Jacob said nervously.
"Em, we're ponies, monkey." The pegasus one said.
"Rainbow, show some compassion." Hybrid said angry. "I'm sorry for her."
"First thing, I'm a human. Second thing, you don't have to sorry. Third thing, yes, I'm J. Dracons. Jacob Dracons." Jacob introduced himself.
"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Dracons. My name is Twilight Sparkle and this is my friend, Rainbow Dash." She said, pointing at pegasus.
"Good to meet some nice ponies, instead demonic unicorns." Jacob turned that situation into joke. "By the way, you're 'Princess' Twilight Sparkle?"
"Yes, I am." She responded. "But, what do you mean, saying 'demonic unicorns'." Twilight asked worried.
"Does name 'King Sombra' rings a bell?" Jacob asked straight.
Twilight's eyes whitened. "But... He's dead." She said scared.
"Well, he's very alive. He destroyed our spaceship, Athena."
Twilight's jaw dropped. "You... you're from... from space?"
"Well, yeah."
Twilight made 'eep' sound. "You have to tell me everything. Your native planet, your race history, your technology..."
Jacob closed her mouth. "Take it easy." He said. Jacob opened his bionic arm and took of h-tablet. "Everything is here."
"It's a metal stick." She said disappointed.
Jacob pressed the button and tablet activated, presenting a hologram database. "It has like 25 Zetabytes of data. Or 250 libraries. It has history, science, culture and technology."
"Rainbow, pinch me, because I think I'm dreaming." Twilight said, hugging a tablet.
"Wow, that's awesome." Rainbow said, pointing Jacob's implant.
"You mean my arm?" Jacob asked. "Yeah, it's pretty awesome. It's called 'bionics'. Or bioengineering. It's technology compatible with human and animal biology."
"It says, that Bionics helped already 230 mln people and 20 000 animals." Twilight said, reading an article on tablet. Jacob was confused, because it was flying in some kind of purple aura. The same one was on Twilight's horn.
"Wait, you can do telekinesis, without any implants?" Jacob asked, pointing her horn.
"It's natural for unicorns. And it's called levitation spell."
"Spell?" Jacob's brain had more question than earlier. "You mean 'magic'? Like 'Harry Potter'?"
"Who?" Twilight asked surprised.
"You know, that kid with glasses and bolt scar on forehead who lived in school for sorcerers and he's friends with nerd and redhead." Jacob explained. "Right. Different planet, different stories." He said and facepalmed. "Jacob, you fucking idiot."
"I guess, it was a curse." Rainbow investigated. "Anyways, don't you have magic, on your planet?"
"We have technology. We don't have magic." Jacob explained.
Twilight was still researching on tablet. She was literally in a trance. Rainbow started to suit in Jacob's armor. Engineer decided to look closer on second from the two mares. Rainbow Dash was definitely an athlete. Jacob also heard in her voice something from prankster. She had a rainbow lightning on her rump. "Nice tattoo, Rainbow." He said.
Rainbow made confused face and flew closer to Jacob. "I don't have any tattoos. Ah, you mean my cutie mark?"
"Say what now?" Jacob said, with another question in his mind.
"It's a symbol of my special talent." Rainbow explained.
"It means, you can fart with rainbow lightnings?" Jacob joked and heard a muffled giggle from rainbow-maned mare.
"We like jokes, don't we?" Rainbow made a grin with raised eyebrow.
"I just wing it and it goes by itself." Rainbow again giggled.
"Make it stop!" She begged. Jacob was very confused, because no one was laughing or even giggling by his bad humor.
"Am I that good?"
"You're that bad."
"Is it a crime, to be a bad joker? If yes, they should lock me away and destroy the key. If no, well... they should do this anyway, because I'm the most dangerous bad joker in whole galaxy! Or maybe I just hit my head, when I fell from the sky. Who knows?" Jacob could talk like this for eternity. "Anyways, what's your special talent?"
"I'll better show you."
Rainbow Dash spread up her wings and flew up with masive speed. After a few seconds, pegasus started to fly down even faster. Then, behind her, appeared giant, rainbow sonic wave, what damaged a few trees nearby and destroyed the windows in Jacob's escape pod, what he couldn't destroy with his bionic arm, what was 5 times stronger than normal.
"Holy fuck..." Jacob said, when he was fixing his new, pomfy hairstyle into his normal one. Twilight was still reading, like it was nothing. "Did someone wrote this atomic bomb's code?" Jacob murmured, still frozen by this show.
"Am I awesome or am I awesome?" Rainbow asked in heroic pose. Jacob took a isolation knife from escape pod and cut on ground '(AWESOME)1000', because he couldn't speak. Maybe he wasn't the best at maths, but Jacob knew, how to use it in bad jokes. "This is passable answer." Rainbow responded with smile.
"Did I miss something?" Twilight asked surprised. "I had to read too much. This is fascinating. I've never seen so much data. And so many cultures. Your planet is wonderful place."
"You mean Earth or Mars?" Jacob asked with little sad tone.
"Earth. Is there any problem?"
Jacob grabbed the tablet and wrote a phrase 'Earth's destruction' and gave it back to Twilight. "It was a paradise. But, 30 years ago, World War III outbroke. It was complete genocide. 76% of Earth's population died in week. The rest of us was forced to leave the ruins and settle on Mars."
"I... I'm sorry." Twilight said, feeling guilty speaking about it.
"I wasn't even made there, so I don't feel bad. I'm not Jacob Dracons from Earth. I'm Jacob Dracons from Mars. Maybe I should say, why did I come here, because, I suppose, you're the ruler of this region."
"No, I'm not. I'm only a Princess of Friendship."
"Interesting title. But who's in charge here."
"Well, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna rule all over Equestria, staying on guard of our sun and moon."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, they both are controlling the day and the night."
Normally, Jacob couldn't believe, that two creatures are capable to control celestial bodies, but after what happened, he could even believe in God.
"Are they sisters or gay marriages are legal here?" Jacob said with dose of humor.
"They are sisters. Alicorn sisters." Rainbow joined the conversation. "They made Twilight an alicorn, too."
"So, they can change gens of others?" Jacob asked. "Right, magic. Okay, lead to the leader. I've always wanted to say that."
Jacob in company of two ponies walked into thick, dark forest. He still felt weird in company of talking ponies, but he didn't care, until they would attack him. Engineer took with himself his armor, plasma pistol and some tools, like screwdriver, soldering iron or laser saw. Twilight was still reading on tablet, what Jacob gave her. Rainbow was looking for any signs of danger.
Jacob felt, like something was watching them, so he decided to put on his armor and have his pistol ready. Darkness of the forest reminded him about some dark unicorn.
"So, who exactly is that 'King Sombra'?" Jacob asked.
"About 1000 years ago, in Crystal Empire..."
"I know that part, but who's this guy?"
"He's the dark unicorn, corrupted by the Dark Magic. He don't know, what 'mercy', 'kindness' or 'friendship' means. He was defeated by Princess Celestia and Luna, about 1000 years ago and by me and my friends, 4 years ago."
"Okay, he's not Darth Vader. He's fucking Satan! Has he tried to buy you with a promise of great power?" Jacob asked.
"No, he hasn't. Why do you ask?"
"He tried to do this with me, saying 'You're special', 'You have potential' and shit like this. He also said, that my blood returned him here. I mean, back to the living world."
"Wait a minute..." Rainbow Dash said. "I've read about something like this."
"You only read 'Daring Do', Rainbow." Twilight said surprised by Rainbow's words.
"Yeah. It was in 'Daring Do and the Temple of the Eclipse'!"
"The one, when Daring Do is fighting with cultists of the Nightmare Moon?"
"That one."
"Now I remember. Daring Do found there a book, called 'The Dark Codex'. It says, that anyone, who saves dark mage's life, he will become his student."
"But Daring Do came there, kicked their flanks, destroyed book and the temple and saved Equestria once again." Rainbow finished the tale. Jacob had no idea, what they both were talking about.
"Daring Do? Nightmare Moon? I'm reminding, that I'm an alien." Jacob said.
"Sorry." Twilight said. "Daring Do is a character from the adventure book and Nightmare Moon is a dark alter ego of Princess Luna. I guess, that I shouldn't say the last one."
"Well, if she's not talking to herself, that is all right." Jacob said without any worries.
"She's not." Twilight assured. "But, why Sombra would do that?"
"Maybe even bad guys know, what does it mean to 'owe someone'." Jacob proposed. "There's any way to kill him for sure?"
"I don't know..." Twilight said with head down.
"If there is, I'm going to find it." Jacob said with determination. "That bastard destroyed my way back, so I'm stuck on this planet."
"Does anyone come with you?"
"Yes, but they can be anywhere on this planet. For now, their status is 'missing' or 'dead'." Jacob's voice was cold. It could even freeze sun.
"Was there anyone close to you?"
"My older brother, Raymond." Jacob confessed. "In our siblings relation, he has brain and seriousness, I have face and humor. I know, he likes my jokes and pranks, even if he have never showed that. Or, he liked." That turned on something in Jacob's brain. "Does your brother is the handsome one?" Jacob asked Twilight.
"Well, Shining Armor went to the royal army, just when he grown up and... Wait, how do you know, that I have brother?"
"Sombra."
"Oh. Anyways, yes. I'm egghead, he's muscles. But he's not an idiot."
"Yeah. He almost married queen of shape-changing bugs." Rainbow said with devilish smile.
"Dark unicorns, creatures controlling celestial bodies, shape-changing bugs... I'm starting to like this planet." Jacob said with sarcasm. "Anyways, I hope, that nothing will attack..." Jacob's sentence was interrupted by strong stink, similar to not very fresh breath mixed with rotten Brussels sprouts. "Jesus, something died here?"
"Oh no..." Twilight groaned. "Timberwolfs found us! Run!"
Ponies and engineer started to run. Mares were much faster than Jacob, so he was far away from them. Jacob managed to reach a little lake and jumped on a one of rocks. From the woods jumped wolf made of sticks, with green eyes.
"Suck my dick, wooden asshole!" Jacob said, showing a finger to the creature. His happiness was broken by a gurgle. The safe harbor happened to be a crocodile. "FUCK!" Engineer screamed and jumped off the dangerous island. Right in front of timberwolf. Jacob reminded, that he has a gun and shoot down the beast, turning it into a piece of sticks. Jacob laughed once, but timberwolf shortly returned to his previous form and bit off pistol's barrel. Jacob looked at the gun with fear. "I fucking hate this planet."
Jacob started to run again. "Wait, I have Grasshopper." Jacob opened a panel on his bionic arm and pressed some holographic buttons.
"Grasshopper implant: Online."
Jacob made a short jump and started to jump, like giant spring. Grasshopper is a special bionic implant, what accessed it's user to us very long and far jumps and fall from a big height. It was standard implant for Project Horizon's members. One of many others.
Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle left the forest in one piece.
"Have you seen Jacob?" Twilight asked her friend.
"No, I lost him." Rainbow answered.
Then, their guess from other planet, landed in front of them. He was heavy breathing and started to press holographic buttons again. "Grasshopper implant: Offline." The defect of special bionic implants is that they are very overstraining for their user, so they can't be used often and long. Jacob cleaned blood dropping off his nose.
"I'm never going back to that forest!" Jacob cried out and fell on the ground.
"Are you okay?" Twilight asked.
"Except being chased by wooden wolf, stone crocodiles and getting overstrain by my implants, it's a fucking heaven!" Jacob said with angry and tired sarcasm. "I need shower, bed and food. In that order."
"Let's go back to Ponyville." Rainbow said. "He doesn't look well."
"You're right, Rainbow." Twilight agreed and helped Jacob to stand up.
"Thank you, Twilight." Jacob sighed. He took a single step and fell on the ground with groan. "Fuck. I think, that my legs are striking." He joked to make his situation little better.
"Rainbow, stay with him. I'll get her Applejack with carriage." Twilight said with worry.
"Okay, Twilight."
Chapter 3: Hope for Better.
After a few minutes, Twilight returned in company of orange pony with blond mane, green eyes and cowboy hat. The second one was pulling a carriage.
"Applejack, this is Jacob Dracons." Twilight introduced him.
"You can call me Jacob." He said with smile.
"Howdy, partner." Applejack said with characteristic accent. "The name's Applejack. Ah' heard, that ya' have a lil' problem with ya'r legs, fella."
"Yeah."
Twilight and Rainbow helped Jacob to get on the carriage.
"You're pretty heavy." Rainbow said.
"Jacob, now, don't show to anypony, until I will tell you, okay?" Twilight said in very serious tone, like real princess.
"Yes, ma'am." Jacob answered with displeasure, because he hated any kind of orders, except those about fixing things. Twilight locked the carriage and gave Applejack signal to move.
"Twi, can Ah' ask ya' 'bout somethin'?" Applejack asked.
"Sure, Applejack."
"It's about Jacob. Ah' have really bad feelin's 'bout him. Messy hair, goatee... this guy smells me."
"Applejack. Because somepo... someone looks different, doesn't mean, he's bad." Twilight lectured Applejack. "It's not like, he's criminal from other planet, who escaped from the prison." Twilight decided to search something about Jacob on tablet.
In the meantime, engineer decided to change little his haircut and facial hair with isolation knife, after Applejack's comment about his look. After a few minutes, his hair was short, but still little messy and goatee was also short and straight. Now, he looked more, like someone in his age and status.
"Where should we take him?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Now I think, that he will draw too much attention in Ponyville."
"Maybe Fluttershy's cottage?" Twilight proposed. "She could even help us with him."
"Monkeys are animals, too." Rainbow said.
"I'm not a monkey." Jacob said with anger. Tired anger.
After some minutes, they were in front of the cottage with leafs on roof. Around were bird houses and little brook.
"Fluttershy is a hippie or what?" Jacob asked, looking from the carriage.
"She's a... vet." Twilight explained. "She helps animals and she might be able to help you, too."
"Okay. But, if she will give me a banana... you'll gonna need a straitjacket." Jacob warned.
"Um... Is anypony there?" From behind the door left a quiet and delicate voice.
"It's me, Flutters." Rainbow said. "With AJ, Twilight and... guest?"
The door opened. Inside the cottage was a pegasus mare with light yellow coat, pale pink mane and deep green eyes. When she noticed Jacob, her eyes whitened.
"Is that... a human?" She asked surprised. "I thought, they are only a myth."
"This is getting even better and better..." Jacob commented.
"Wait, wait, wait..." Twilight interrupted. "How do you know about his species?" Fluttershy walked inside her cottage and returned with book in mouth. "'Myths and theories-Out of Equestria.'" Twilight read the title, with little shock.
"I... sometimes like to... read things, like this." Fluttershy said but it was more like a loud whisper. Pegasus walked to engineer. "Um... good morning? I'm Fluttershy. What's your name?" She asked with little smile.
Jacob froze by her cuteness. "This is the cutest thing, I've ever seen!" He thought, trying to say something. "I'm Jacob. Jacob Dracons." He finally spitted it out. "Nice to meet you, Fluttershy."
Before anyone explained everything, Rainbow Dash saw something metal on Jacob's neck. "Hey Jacob, what's this on your neck?"
Jacob presented it little more. "Those are my dog tags."
"So... ya're a soldier?" Applejack asked with little relief, knowing that their guest isn't any criminal.
"Pvt. Jacob Dracons. At your service." Jacob introduced himself as a soldier only for fun. "3 years in military and still only a greenhorn. The biggest thing, what I was fighting on Mars, was stomach flu, after eating 4 days chili."
"Let's take him inside, before he will say something even weirder." Twilight proposed, confused about Jacob's style of talking.
Jacob could walk by himself, already, but it was still a challenge for him. He's never used special implants before. He knew only a theory. On Mars, before the start, safety inspectors told Jacob and his crew to use those implants only in emergency situations. Engineer managed to get himself on a nearby sofa. Inside the cottage was a lot of many kinds of animals. Jacob was surprised, because those animals lived earlier on Earth. His looking around was interrupted by a big sneeze.
"Bless you." Fluttershy said.
"You have any rabbits around?" Jacob asked, then sneezed again. "I'm allergic to them." After this words, Jacob felt a small kick on his right side. He looked there and saw little, white rabbit with angry look. "What are you looking at, carrot-eater?" Jacob said and sneezed once again. Fluttershy grabbed the rabbit in her hooves.
"Angel, be nice to our guest." Fluttershy told to rabbit. "I'm sorry for him, Mr. Dracons."
"Mr. Dracons. That sounds so formal... Call me Jacob." Jacob said and looked at Twilight.
The alicorn princess was reading the book, what Fluttershy gave her. She had a cutie mark in the shape of sparkle. It looked like hole in crystal tree, what Jacob saw earlier. He thought, it's just quirk of fate.
Inside cottage was much hotter, than outside, so Jacob decided to take of his armor, once again.
"Holy horseapples!" Applejack shouted with surprise and fear. "Ya'r arm is... made on metal?"
"It's just a technology from Jacob's land." Twilight explained.
"Ah still don't get that..." Applejack said with 'What the buck did I just heard?' face.
"Also, it's not a simple metal. It's very durable and light nano-alloy of carbon, titanium, silver and lite. Can we leave my arm?" Jacob asked, feeling uncomfortable.
"Anyways..." Twilight started. "interesting book, Fluttershy, but I have to set us up a meeting with Princess Celestia. She have to know about our guest. I'll write a letter and come back soon." Twilight said and left, leaving Jacob alone with three mares. Fluttershy noticed a bandages on Jacob's right hand. She noticed, that they weren't red from blood, but dark, like starless night.
"J-Jacob..." She gasped. "Y-your hand..."
Jacob looked on his hand. The view was terrifying. He quickly took of the bandages. The cut turned into a black mark. "What the fuck? What's happening?" Jacob felt sudden and strong pain in his right arm. It's veins started to turn black and grey. When it reached the elbow, pain stopped.
"I'll go get Twilight!" Rainbow screamed terrified and left the cottage. Just after that, Jacob felt strong and familiar headache.
"They are lying to you. You are a fool, believing them. They will make it even worse. But if you want to stay, I'll give you advice, kid. Beware of the Moon." The headache stopped. Jacob started to be bored of this cliché, villain lines. But, Jacob was wondering, what's this all about this: 'Beware of the Moon'.
Rainbow and Twilight returned to the cottage, in company of two other ponies. The first one was a white unicorn mare with dark blue, light curly mane and blue eyes. She literally, in Jacob's thoughts, screamed 'Bitch, I'm fabulous'. The second one was a pink earth pony with pomfy mane and light blue eyes. Jacob felt weird about the second one.
"Jacob, how's your arm?" Twilight asked worried.
"It's made of metal, silly." Pink mare commented.
"There's no time and place for jokes, like this, Pinkie." Unicorn mare responded with anger to her pink friend. "Twilight meant the second..." She looked at this with fear and disgust in eyes. "SWEET CELESTIA! Darling, what happened to you?"
"I'll tell you later. Maybe at dinner?" Jacob couldn't resist to make joke, like this.
"Oh my! Twilight, why you didn't tell me, that our guest has such warm voice? Where are my manners? My name is Rarity. I'm sorry for my manners, good sir." Her accent became more noble and kind.
"Don't worry about it. I'm Jacob Dracons. Call me Jacob. Can we get to the hospital or something? I want at least one normal arm."
"Jacob's right, we need Princess Celestia's help, immediately!" Twilight hasted. "We don't know, what that infection can do but maybe she will know something about this."
When Twilight finished the sentence, to the cottage came little, purple dragon with green spikes on head and back. "Why... you have to.. run... so fast..." Baby dragon sighed tired. He looked, like he run a marathon. "Wait, is that this... Jacob?"
"The one and only on this weird planet." Jacob commented his situation.
"Good to see you, Spike." Twilight sighed with relief. "You have to write important letter to Princess Celestia. Possibly, the most important letter in Equestria."
Spike took from nowhere quill and piece of paper. "Ready."
"Dear Princess Celestia." Twilight started to dictate. "I just discovered something, that will change Equestria. In our universe exists life, besides us. In Fluttershy's cottage is living evidence of this. Human, named Jacob Dracons. He didn't came alone, but his companions gone missing. Their ship, Athena, was attacked by King Sombra. He caused very weird infection on Jacob's right, fore arm. I suppose, it's connected somehow with Sombra's return. The rest will be explained, when you will arrive here. Your faithful, former student, Twilight Sparkle." Spike rolled the letter and breathed with green fire on it, turning it into sparkling smoke. "Now, we wait."
A few seconds later, it door of Fluttershy's cottage, appeared a snow-white alicorn, with amethyst eyes and waving mane, similar to aurora. She was wearing golden crown, necklace and shoes. On her face was mix of surprise, fear and confusion. "Where is this 'human'?" Alicorn cried out.
Jacob walked to terrified mare. "It's me. You don't have to be afraid." Jacob was as tall, as her, what made alicorn even more scared. "Are you Princess Celestia?" Jacob asked.
"Y-yes." Princess said, felling the shivers on her back. Celestia looked into Jacob's eyes. Normally, she could see a little bit of soul in them, but Jacob's amber eyes seemed empty. His fake arm wasn't making it better. Princess was wondering, how Twilight and her friends weren't afraid of this being. She faced many enemies and saw many things but she's never been scared more, than now. She was literally paralyzed by fear.
"I know, I'm handsome, but I didn't know that it can intimidate." Jacob said with warm smile.
Celestia exchanged the fear for a giggle. "That was the cheesiest joke, I've ever heard." Celestia started to see Jacob in little better light. Only a little, but still better. "I'm sorry. It's just... difficult to me, seeing a creature, like you." Princess Celestia said, scratching the back of her head with right foreleg. "Twilight, could you and your friends leave me and Mr.... Dragon..."
"Dracons." Jacob corrected her.
"Dracons, alone?" Celestia finished. Twilight responded with a nod and left the cottage with her friends. Princess Celestia and Pvt. Jacob were all alone.
"Can we sit? My legs aren't in the best condition right now." Jacob asked.
"Of course." Alicorn and human sat on sofa. Celestia was sitting more like a dog, than a human. "First, tell me something more about you." Celestia asked, still feeling uncomfortable.
"If you insist... My full name is Jacob Vincent Gregory Dracons. Biologically, I'm 22. I'm a soldier in M.S.T.F. (Mars Space Task Force), private, correctly. I have doctorate in engineering, bionics and bad humor."
"So, what brings you here?"
"I'm the member of the Project New Genesis. It's a special mission to find a colony for humanity. We've sent five spaceships to planets, what could be good for humanity. My ship, Athena, supposed to land here, on Terra-2. Or, how you call it, Equestria. But, we had a little... accident." Jacob showed Celestia his infected arm.
"King Sombra..." Celestia was sick of this dark unicorn. "What exactly happened?"
"We were just waking up from stasis pods. It's some kind of bed, what stops aging. First one, of course, woke up my brother, Colonel Raymond Dracons, captain on Athena. He woke me up in the second order, because one of our engines was damaged. I found the source of our damage. King Sombra's horn. This little piece of dead body cut me and... caused this." Jacob looked on his arm. "Since then, King Sombra tries to turn me into the Dark Side and keep speaking in my head. He managed to restore his physical form, activate Athena's self-destruction and possibly survive the explosion."
"So... Sombra is using the Dark Codex to turn you into his student?" Celestia deduced.
"Something, like that. He said, that my blood helped him return to the living world, or shit like this. Sorry for language."
"It doesn't matter. Can I see closer your arm?" Jacob nodded. Celestia's horn started to glow with golden light. Jacob's right arm also started to glow. Veins started to be normal again and the black mark disappeared. "This should stop the progress of the curse." Celestia assured. "But, not for long. Dark magic, concentrated inside you, has to be released, or else your body will die slow and painful death."
"So what? I will have to tell this demon, that I agree on his training, just to not die?" Jacob asked with anger.
"There's the other way." Celestia said.
"I'm listening..." Jacob said, interested.
"My sister, Luna, knows about Dark Magic more, than anypony else. She will help you."
Jacob sighed. "I guess, that I don't have much choice... But, promise me one thing, Princess."
"What is it?"
"Do you promise to find the rest of Athena's crew? I need to know, if they survived." Jacob asked. He really wanted to see his brother again. Even after this, what happened on Athena.
"I promise." Celestia said in official tone. "Now, come with me, Mr. Dracons."
Chapter 4: Train-ing and ship-ing.
Engineer Jacob was in the company of 7 ponies: 1 unicorn, 2 earth ponies, 2 pegasi ponies and 2 alicorns. They all were in train, on way to Canterlot, Equestria's capital city.
Princess Celestia, one of Equestria's rulers, was still afraid of their alien guest from planet called Mars. She was observing Jacob, who was sitting alone and fixing something. On opposite seat was sitting Twilight Sparkle, her former student and Princess of Friendship. She was reading on device, what Jacob gave to her.
"Twilight, if you had to describe this... 'human' in one word, witch one would you chose?" Princess Celestia asked, still looking at Jacob.
"I would say, he's... 'unpredictable'. We barely know him, so he can do anything. Actually, I know about him pretty much." Twilight showed Celestia informations about Jacob, what she found on tablet.
"Okay, let's see... 'Pvt. Jacob Dracons. Talented engineer, bionics specialist and Project New Genesis' member. Achievements: None. Family: Dr. David Dracons- father, bionics specialist; Martha Dracons- mother, philosopher. Col. Raymond Dracons- brother'. Nothing, what could tell us anything more about him." Celestia said with resignation.
"Lower are movies, what are telling more about him. They are recorded by other Athena's crew members." Twilight said. Celestia played the first movie.
"So, what do you think of Pvt. Dracons, Dr. Sky?" Someone in the background said.
"Well, he's... trying to make everyone around laugh with his 'humor'. It's kinda cute and interesting, because he was through a lot in childhood. He was born without left arm, he lost his father, he had a lungs cancer... He's lucky, that he's alive and it's a miracle, that he doesn't have depression. I'm happy to have someone like him in crew."
Celestia turned on another movie.
"What do you think of Pvt. Dracons, Prof. Nate?"
"He's just another kid. He never cuts his hair, he lives in junkyard, what he calls his room and leaves his 'creations' everywhere. But, at least he eats healthy and don't believe in any superstitions or fairy tales."
"For now, some interesting facts and habits..." Celestia commented and played next video.
"Off. Stone, what do you think about Pvt. Dracons?"
"About Jacob? Best guy, I've ever met. He can fix, literally, everything. Once, he fixed a hundred years old motorcycle. He called it Raptor. Jacob promised me that when we land on the potential colony, he will let me drive on this beauty. I can't wait."
"What's a 'motorcycle', Twilight?" Princess asked, curious.
"It's some kind of vehicle on two wheels on Jacob's planet." Twilight explained shortly. Celestia raised an eyebrow and turned another video on.
"Sgt. McCain, what do you think about Pvt. Dracons?"
"For now, I don't have my opinion."
"Well, that was short..." Celestia said surprised and played the last video.
"Col. Dracons, what do you think about Pvt. Dracons?"
"As his brother, I love him and I would die for him. His jokes are cheesy but it's nice, that he tries to make someone laugh. I don't like them very much, honestly. As soldier, I see a milk drinker, who disobeys orders and does everything, what he wants. He only listens, when he has to fix something. That makes him great engineer, but awful soldier. But, we need engineer, like him, on Athena. I'm done."
"And?" Twilight asked.
"He's... interesting. I hardly believe, that Sombra could make him his student." Celestia sighed and looked at Jacob.
When Princess Celestia was watching video's about him, Jacob was trying to fix his plasma pistol. Energy core was untouched, so it just needed working barrel. After repairs, it looked like XVII century flintlock pistol. When Jacob finished looking at it, he noticed, that on opposite sit was Pinkie Pie. She was staring at him with weird look.
"There's something on my face?" Jacob asked.
"Where's your scar?" Jacob felt confused about Pinkie's question. "And coat made of dragon scales?"
"What scar? What coat?"
"Woopsee, wrong universe." She said and giggled. Jacob had no comment.
Pinkie, what did I tell you about breaking the 4th wall?
To do this anytime, I want to?
First, my failed fanfic, now this?
Don't forget, do it better. No Gary Stu.
Weird conversation was broken by Rainbow Dash. "I see, that you fixed your... what was that?"
"Plasma pistol. It's a stopgap, but it should be fine. Wanna see it in action?"
"Sure!" Rainbow responded excited.
Jacob looked at Celestia and smiled. "How much money, that I will shoot off Celestia's crown and she won't notice?"
"100 bits and mug of cider."
"We have a deal."
Jacob pointed Celestia's crown and shoot it with blue streak of plasma. The crown rolled in the air and landed quietly on the sit, next to Celestia. Princess didn't even notice, that she don't have crown on her head.
"Awesome..." Rainbow was very impressed by Jacob.
"What was that noise?" Celestia asked. Jacob quickly hid his gun in Pinkie's mane.
"No idea." Jacob said with shrug. Celestia raised an eyebrow and returned to tablet. Jacob giggled and started to look for his gun. He found there cake, chocolate, dynamite and cannon. He finally could feel his gun. "Jackpot." When he grabbed it, gun fired and plasma went far through the train, puncturing Applejack's hat, Rarity's mane and wagon's wall.
"What in tarnasion?" Applejack asked scared and confused. "Ra-Rarity..."
Rarity looked up and screamed, like someone was torturing her. "WHO! DID! THIS!" All ponies looked at Jacob.
"Eee... Pinkie! I told you! My gun is not a toy!" Jacob tried to get out from this situation.
"No, silly. You tried to find it in my mane, when you hid it, after shooting Princess' crown." Pinkie said that, like it was no big deal. Celestia checked her head. There was no crown. Luckily, it was on seat. Celestia took it with her magic and placed back on her head.
"Mr. Dracons. I'm warning you. If you will hurt anypony, you'll suffer the consequences. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, Your Highness." Jacob responded with remorse. He knew, that pissing off the princess isn't the best idea.
"For now, I will confiscate your weapon. I will return it, when we will trust you enough. Now, could you give this to me?" Jacob had weakness for asking for permission, so he took it from Pinkie's mane and gave it to princess.
"Be careful with trigger. It's very..." When Celestia grabbed the gun with her magic, it fired again, but in second direction. "...fragile." Jacob finished the sentence. "My fault. I forgot to lock it." Jacob grabbed it, locked it and gave back to Celestia. Her eyes looked like broken bulbs, when she accidentally fired.
"I've changed my mind. You can keep it but make sure it's secured." Celestia said, still with scared and surprised face.
"As you wish, Your Highness." Jacob said with smirk and put his gun in holster. Everypony left Jacob alone, except Twilight.
"May I look closer at your weapon?" Twilight asked, pointing the gun. Jacob gave it to her. She sit next to him and started to study alien weapon. "How exactly does it work?"
"It absorbs air around it, warms it to very high temperature, to ionize it and fires it with great speed. Everything in one second." Jacob described. "In brief, it shoots with plasma."
"Like beam from unicorn's horn?" Twilight asked.
"I... think so." Jacob doubted.
Jacob was looking at Twilight with curiosity. For someone from less advanced civilization, Twilight was very intelligent and talented. She quickly learned many things from tablet, what he gave her. Jacob was thinking about teaching her bionics' arcana.
Jacob quickly started to treat ponies more like humans, not animals. Since he heard them speaking English, saw, that they have civilization, even monarchy and technology (pretty primal, but still), he knew, that this place has something special.
"So, you say, that you're an engineer..." Twilight started a new topic. "Maybe you can teach me a thing or one about this?
"Actually, I wanted to ask you about the same thing." Jacob said, little embarrassed. "Sure, with pleasure."
"Great!" Twilight screamed with happiness and impatience. "When do we start?"
"Tomorrow morning." Jacob said with smile of excitation.
"I can't wait to start..."
Without any warning, train started to slow down and hit something. Jacob realized, that train is falling on the left side. Twilight brought everyone close to her and created giant bubble around them. When everything ended and train was 'stable', Twilight took off the bubble.
"Everypony okay?" Twilight asked.
"We're okay, Twilight." Princess Celestia assured.
"What the fuck just happened?" Jacob was angry and scared. "Nevermind, I'm gonna check by myself." Jacob broke window above him and climbed on it. When he saw the obstacle, what stopped the train, he was little surprised.
All ponies left the train and jumped down, except Main 6 and Princess Celestia, who stayed next to Jacob. Ponies below were staring at Jacob and whispered about him.
"What is this?" Applejack asked.
"Looks like a piece of Athena. I guess, that gravitation of this planet does it's work." Piece of the ship was pounded right in the mountain.
"Can we remove it?" Pinkie asked. "It shouldn't be a problem."
"We're gonna need all Cloudsdale to take this piece of metal from this mountain." Rainbow was really destroyed by Pinkie's logic.
Jacob jumped of the train and walked to the wreck. "Meet me on the other side." Jacob took from his backpack laser burner and welding goggles. "I wanna check something there." Engineer put goggles on and started to make himself an entrance. After a few minutes, wreck was open. In the meantime, Celestia and Main 6 were on the other side, except Twilight, what was standing behind Jacob.
"I'm coming with you." Twilight said. Jacob was scared by her sudden speaking.
"Fine, but don't touch anything without my permission. Well, except air and floor."
Twilight and Jacob started Athena's wreck exploration. Twilight used her horn as flashlight. Jacob used to this... flashlight from his backpack.
"Dark, cold, scary... Like in my ex's house."
"Even now you say jokes?" Twilight said with little dose of anger.
"I just want to make our tour little more... like not being in haunted house?"
"You... have a point." Twilight tried to look around, but she barely saw something. "Do you know, where are we?"
"Crew's cabins." Jacob read a note on the wall. "Second door, left." Engineer pointed his room and opened it.
"I see, that your cabin is not okay after the crash..." Twilight commented mess in Jacob's room.
"Nah, It looked like this always." Jacob said and walked in. Twilight was after him. Jacob opened the cupboard and took from it a sport bag. Inside were his clothes.
"Ew..." Twilight said, feeling a slice of rotten pizza on her hoof. "How can you live, like that?"
"It's my Feng Shui." Jacob explained. Twilight wanted to clean her hoof with a nearby wipe, but it was sticky.
"Why is it so sticky?"
"Well, you don't want to know..." Twilight screamed and quickly took the wipe of her hoof. Jacob grabbed his tools and left the room. Twilight was after him, trying not to stick to anything else.
"Can we go somewhere else?" Twilight definitively had enough of Jacob's room.
"If we're lucky, below are docks. We can find there pretty nice stuff." Jacob said, rubbing his hands.
"What exactly?"
"Jeeps, motorcycles, fighters... standard equipment."
Jacob found elevator's door and tried to open them. "Of course, no power. I'll have to use an universal key." Engineer started to look for a crowbar in his backpack. Jacob quickly found it and tried to open the elevator with it. "Twilight, could you give me a hoof?" Twilight joined with her magic. After a few hard seconds, elevator was open. Actually, it was shaft. Luckily, elevator was below, so they could just jump on it. "Ladies first." Jacob said, pointing the door. Twilight jumped down and Jacob was after her. "Piece of cake."
"Now what, genius?" Twilight asked, looking at the 'floor'. Jacob took laser burned and made an entrance.
"MacGyver can bite me." He said, jumping down.
"Who's MacGyver?"
"Guy, who can destroy the whole town with match and bag of jelly beans." Jacob explained in most illogical way.
"This is impossible." Twilight said with confusion.
"Nothing is impossible." Jacob said, opening elevator's door.
Twilight's eyes whitened, when she saw the docks. They were full of equipment and vehicles. Jacob went to the one under blanket.
"What's this?"
Jacob took off the blanket, showing a black motorcycle with chromed parts. "Original Harley Davidson from 1978. It belonged to my great-grandfather. It was old, but I gave this beauty a new life. I replaced some things, I changed old, gasoline engine for new, electronic one and... everything's working."
"Is this a motorcycle, what you promised Oscar Stone to drive on?" Twilight asked. Jacob already knew, what's going on here.
"You saw videos, don't you?" Jacob asked with little sad face. "So, you know something about my past, already?"
"Y-yes. I'm sorry." Twilight was sad, saying those words. She thought, that she hurt Jacob, but he just smiled and gave Twilight scratch behind her ear.
"Twilight, those things happened years ago. There's no reason to mention them. We shouldn't live past but we also can't forget about it. It's true, I miss my dad, I've never had left arm and I have fake lungs. Past makes us people, who we are in present. Sometimes weaker, sometimes stronger. And this is beautiful in life."
"You mean, life is beautiful, because it's unpredictable?" Twilight deduced. Jacob answered with nod.
"Life is one big Butterfly Effect. One detail can change whole universe."
"Actually, you reminded me about very important think."
"What exactly?"
"Me and my friends got our cutie marks because of one thing. Sonic Rainboom."
"That atomic blast, what Rainbow Dash can make?" Jacob asked surprised and Twilight nodded. "My mind... hurts as fuck..."
"Boom. Butterfly Effect."
They both started to giggle. Jacob stopped and prepared his gun.
"Jacob, what's wrong?"
"I've heard something." Jacob started to study docks. "Is that you, Sombra? SHOW YOURSELF, COWARD!" Jacob's mood quickly turned into deep anger.
"Something's moving behind this jeep." Twilight noticed. Jacob loaded his pistol and walked to the mentioned jeep.
He saw there familiar, blond shag. "Sarah? Is that you?" When Jacob touched her hair, she shouted like haunted and threw herself on Jacob, trying to bite and tear him. "Not on first date!" Twilight hit Sarah with magic beam, throwing her on the wall. She had familiar, green glimmer in her eyes. Sarah charged, but Jacob shoot her knees and arms, to immobilize her. "What happened to her? She acts, like fucking zombie. I think, I shit down my pants."
"It's King Sombra. He cursed her." Twilight said. Jacob felt, like he was in some cheap horror. Engineer decided to end Sarah's suffering and shoot her head.
"Rest in piece, old friend..." Jacob started to study her. Sarah had black veins all over her body, pale skin, sharp teeth and nails, plus greenly glimmering eyes. "If he did the same thing to my brother...." Jacob noticed something in her pocket. Jacob grabbed it. It was silver amulet in the shape of celtic dragon, curled around amber.
"Jacob, you can't rob someone, who just died." Jacob quieted her.
"It's... Draco Insignia. My mom's amulet." Jacob was surprised, because he thought, that she never was taking it off. "How did it appeared in her pocket?" Jacob put it on the neck, to don't get lost it. "This planet's getting weirder and weirder... Let's get the fuck out from here..." Jacob said, with impassivity. Twilight casted a spell, what teleported them outside. Jacob took with him a motorcycle.
"Jacob, what is this?" Rainbow asked.
"I want to be alone." Jacob sat on the ground. "I'll catch you later." Ponies knew, that something's wrong, but decided to leave human alone.
"Um... Twilight... What happened there?" Fluttershy asked. Twilight sighed deeply.
"Inside was Athena's crew's member, corrupted by King Sombra. Also, I moved very delicate topic. Jacob seemed optimistic, but I saw sadness and longing in his eyes. He was through a lot and he hides his true feelings behind joker's mask. I know that but he don't want to show it. Please, don't tell him I worked him out." In Twilight's voice was easy to catch sadness and worrying.
"Don't worry, Twilight. I won't tell anypony." Fluttershy promised with smile.
Twilight felt sorry about Jacob. She read some books about psychology and knows, that someone, like Jacob, should spend much time with friends and family. That's why Jacob tries to draw everyone's attention with his humor. To turn his sadness into happiness. Well, that was Twilight's opinion.
In the meantime, Jacob was thinking, what Sarah was doing on the ship? He saw, that escape pods are leaving the ship. This was a giant mystery for him. After a few minutes, Jacob stopped felling sorry about himself and decided to return to his new friends.
Chapter 5: There's nothing like siblings.
After one hour walk, Jacob, Main 6 and Princess Celestia were at Canterlot Train Station. There were a lot of ponies, mostly unicorns. Some of them had golden armors and were standing in line. They were Canterlot Royal Guards, waiting for their princess' arrival.
"It looks like Luna is already worried about me..." Celestia said.
One of the soldiers walked to Jacob and started to study him. "Is this... some kind of monkey, Your Majesty?" Royal guardian asked. Jacob was bored of being called a monkey, all the time.
"It's a human, major. His name is Jacob Dracons. He's an emissary from the other planet." Celestia corrected. "Did my sister send you to escort me?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. Some wild creature appeared in Canterlot and kills everypony, what it sees."
"Let me guess... It had my posture, armor and screamed, like reprobate?" Jacob described this potential danger.
"That... is correct..." Major said. "Those ponies are waiting for a train to leave Canterlot, as soon as possible."
"They're gonna wait pretty long. Tracks are blocked by my ship's wreck."
"For now, let's head back to my castle."
Ponies and human were walking across the streets of Canterlot. This place was completely abandoned. Ponies were at the train station or locked tight in their homes.
"Mr. Dracons, what can you tell me about this armor?" Celestia asked, knowing that Jacob is her biggest hope in this situation.
"'APH v.3.2.0' is the most advanced space suit in M.S.T.F. It was created specially for soldiers, what take part in Project New Genesis. It's light and comfortable, yet very durable. To destroy this armor, we need 10 KN or 5000 K."
"So, it's technically... indestructible?" Twilight asked.
"Well, we had a weapon, what can create that big temperature. Sniper Rifle 'CSR-2 Paladin'. I'm afraid, it left in Athena's armory what left in space or landed on the other end of the planet. So, we're boned..."
"Can it get any worse?" Rarity lamented.
"Well, if it's Marcus, you better find a new capital..." Jacob knew every implants in himself and Athena's crew. Marcus was the most wired from them all. Even Jacob didn't have that much implants."He has every special implant. Grasshopper, Bull, Armadillo... He's gonna turn as all into atoms."
"Then, I guess, I have no other choice..." Celestia said with dramatic tone. "I've never thought about saying those words, but... I'm going to do something about this." Everyone gasped, except Jacob. "Anypony, who will say word about it gets one way ticket to the Moon."
"It's surprising, because Celestia didn't do anything in 7 years." Pinkie whispered to Jacob. "She always used us. You don't know that from me."
"Now, I'm going to say that. CAN IT GET ANY FUCKING WORSE!?" Jacob cried out, knowing, this is the worst day of his entire existence. Like out of spite, is started raining. "I hate this planet..."
"Um, it was me. I wanted to cool you down." Rainbow Dash said from above the cloud. "We, pegasi ponies, control the weather."
"Excellent. Now, I'm pissed off, tired, hungry and wet. SOMETHING ELSE, YOU GOT THERE, UNIVERSE!?" Jacob was hit by the thunder.
"I'm sorry, sir." Said a gray pegasus with squint. "I just don't know, what went wrong."
"Derpy, could you leave us and grub a muffin?" Rainbow asked.
"I love muffins." Derpy said and left.
"Can we finally get to this castle, before I'll be hit by a meteor?" Jacob had enough of this day.
Ponies and human arrived to Celestia's Castle, without meeting 'monster'. On the stairs was dark blue alicorn with mane like night sky and dark turquoise eyes. It was Princess Luna, Celestia's younger sister and second Equestria's ruler.
"It's good, that you arrived all save, sister." Princess Luna welcomed her sister. Her eyes quickly turned on Jacob. "I guess, that you are Jacob Dracons, a comer from the space? It is a real honor to me."
"For me, either. We, younger siblings, have to keep together." Jacob said, walking to her and embracing Luna's neck with right arm.
"Take your... limb... of the Princess, human!" One of the guards screamed.
"It is okay." Luna said with calm smile. "Our guest is quite right. Also, I have a very surprise for you, Jacob Dracons." Engineer was confused. "It's waiting in my bed chambers." Now, Jacob was completely out of his mind. She just met him and already drags him to bed?
"LUNA!" Celestia screamed.
"I-It's not, what you think, sister!" Luna said with blush, realizing how this sounded. "I don't want to copulate with our guest." Jacob and Celestia sighed with relief. "Follow me, Jacob Dracons."
Jacob followed Princess Luna thought the castle's corridors. Jacob was thinking, what surprise Princess Luna prepared for him.
"How is your right arm?" Luna asked.
Jacob checked it. "No black veins, so... I guess, it's okay." Jacob answered. "So, you can help me with my little... problem."
"Indeed. My sister doesn't know about Dark Magic as much as me. We are the opposites. She is the day, I am the night. She controls the Sun, I control the Moon. She is light. I am darkness."
"I guess, I don't want to see, when you two are arguing..."
"When I was arguing with my sister, 1000 years ago, I ended on the Moon, because I couldn't control my negative emotions."
"And you became Nightmare Moon?" Jacob asked. "Twilight told me about this. How did you feel, when you became it?"
"I felt only negative emotions. Sadness, anger, planting... jealousy. I don't want anypony else to feel my pain."
"Well, the worst arguing with my brother ended up with one year in military prison. For me, of course. I just asked for a permit to visit my dad's grave. Older siblings are sometimes..."
"Unfair." Luna finished. "I just wanted an hour or two for my night. I wanted my subjects to see beauty of my night. Was it a crime?"
"Well, on my planet, day and night are variable. It's not a big deal, if day or night would last a hour or two longer. Why she couldn't agree on that?"
"I... don't know. She just disagreed with my idea. I thought, that she wants all authority for herself at day, when at night everypony was sleeping and not bothering about anything. I started to lose control on my emotions and... Dark Magic took the lead...."
"If you don't want to talk, don't." Jacob sighed. "I know, how does it feel, when older siblings gets all the fame for themselves. When I was in high school, Raymond was fighting with rebels in New Washington, our capital. When I finished education, he became national hero. I wanted to equal him, so I joined M.S.T.F., studying in the same time. I was engineer there, fixing our vehicles and bionic implants of our soldiers."
"Like your mechanic limb?"
"Yes, like my arm."
"You liked this?"
"It runs in our family. We always fix stuff. My great-grandfather had watchmaker workshop on Earth, later it was my grandfather's. My dad became famous bionics specialist. He created even some of his own, like Memory Resonator or Shield Matrix."
"What does the second one? The first one probably saves more memories and knowledge in brain."
"Exactly. Shield Matrix is an arm implant what creates, well, shield made of light. It works on basically the same like those magic bubbles."
"Fascinating. I see, that your father left the great legacy. Did you made implants by your own?"
"Actually, I'm working on a new special implant. It's called Eagle. It suppose to sharpen eyesight about 10 times. It could be used by people, who have problems with eyes or people, who work with very precise things. But I can't get requested materials, since I live here. I wanted to take care of it after mission, but... you see."
"It's a shame. I think, that you could help many people on your homeland."
"Yeah, like it would change anything. Mankind is so stupid, that they destroyed their own planet. I joined this mission to grab some rest from my kind. We still judge people with different skin color, breed animals to eat them and use so much energy, that we could power the whole Solar System. Sometimes, I hate humanity for what they did to their planet and might to do with the next ones." Jacob felt much better, telling this to someone. Luna didn't say a word about it. She was too disturbed, hearing about species, who destroyed their own homeland.
"Then, why do you still help your kind?"
"Because, I hope that they will start to think about something more than themselves but it's only kid's daydream."
Until they reached Luna's bedroom, Jacob and Luna remained silent.
"So, what do you have for me? I hope it's nothing weird."
"I found the member of your crew." Princess Luna said, opening the door. On her bed was unconscious human in blue armor, covered in blood, oil and dust. Jacob recognized this armor, immediately.
"RAY!" He screamed and ran to his brother. "Is he alive?"
"He's just unconscious, but in bad condition. I tried to heal him with my magic, but I couldn't take off his armor."
"It's genetic lock-down. Only armor's proper user can wear it and take it off. We have to wait, until he wakes up. Anyways, thank you for saving him and doing the best."
Luna smiled. "You are welcome, Jacob Dracons."
"Just Jacob." Jacob checked Ray's arm interface. "60 beats per minute. Pretty normal, but still weak." Jacob looked closer at the armor. It had only some scratches. Jacob thought, that he got hit by something but, before that, he was fighting. "I don't think, it's his blood. He could fight with something. Or someone... Did he have any weapon? Like mine?" Jacob asked, showing his plasma pistol.
"I found some kind of spear and crossbow without arms. They are in this chest." Luna pointed the chest in front of the bed.
Jacob opened it. "Assault rifle MR-8 and sniper rifle CSR-2 Paladin. You were pretty well armed, big brother." Jacob grabbed both rifles and closed the chest. "You know that monster, outside?"
"Yes, I've heard of it."
"This might be part of my crew, cursed by King Sombra. With this sniper rifle, we can take care of him."
"How do you know, that he might be cursed by King Sombra?" Luna asked confused.
"I've killed member of my crew, changed by Sombra. He might be in the same condition."
"I could help him." Luna proposed.
"If your healing magic couldn't help my brother, then any magic can't help him as well."
"Trust me, I'm more powerful, than Sombra."
Jacob started to see sense in this. If Sombra's Dark Magic could curse his crew-mates, then Luna's Dark Magic can cure them as well.
"Fine." Jacob agreed. "But, just in case, I'll keep sniper rifle prepared." Jacob made a step, but he fell on the ground, feeling huge pain in his legs. "Fuck..."
"Are you okay?" Luna asked.
"2 hours of peace and now they are reminding about rest. This is side effect of using one of the special implants. Fuck, it hurts, like someone was riping skin off my bones!" Jacob cried out.
Luna's horn started to glow in deep blue color. Princess pointed her horn on Jacob's legs and the pain disappeared.
"Can you stand up?" Luna asked with hopeful smile.
"Can I stand up?" Jacob stood up like spring. "I feel, like I can run for the rest of my life!" Jacob's legs never felt better. "It's like..."
"Magic?" Luna finished.
"You called it."
"Now, let's handle our 'monster'."
Jacob was watching on castle's tower with sniper rifle on spyglass' tripod. Princess Luna was searching for a feral Athena's crew member. She created a telepathic bond between them, to communicate.
Jacob never used a sniper rifle, earlier. He usually uses assault rifles, pistols and shotguns. He never had weapon, like that, in hands, so he placed it on tripod, where earlier was Celestia's spyglass, to keep it more stable.
"Mr. Dracons?" Celestia said. Jacob jumped, hearing her voice from nowhere. He gasped and grabbed his chest.
"You want me to die on heart attack?" Jacob asked, scared.
"I-I'm sorry. What are you doing with my... where's my spyglass?"
"I... think, that I left him..." Jacob searched his backpack, still on his back, and found the meant object. "...here." He said, giving spyglass to Celestia. Princess grabbed it with her magic and put it aside.
"What are you even doing on my observation tower?"
"I'm searching the city with your sister, looking for 'monster', what attacks your citizens." Jacob said, returning to sniper rifle. "Remember the sniper rifle, what I told you about?"
"I guess..." Celestia gave an unsure answer.
"Well, your sister found it. With my brother."
"I'm happy to hear this but... where's Luna?"
"I see, that on some kind of... market or square... Looks like, she's in mood for shopping."
"Very funny, Jacob." Luna said in Jacob's mind.
"I have my moments, Luna." Jacob said.
"You two created a telepathic bond?" Celestia asked surprised. "It's impossible, if bonded aren't siblings."
"Yeah, Luna broke some rules and used Dark Magic."
"I banned her this, since Nightmare Moon's defeat." Celestia said, very angry.
"We have a saying on our planet. 'There's no rules on war.' And now, Sombra declared war to you and Mars. Deal with it or hate it, we will not judge you."
"You're right..." Princess Celestia sighed. "If Sombra wins, Equestria will fall. I should have send Luna, instead of Twilight. I was so stupid..."
"What do you mean?" Jacob inquired.
Celestia sighed. "When Sombra returned, Luna begged me to send her, instead of Twilight. I didn't listen, because I wanted to make sure, that Twilight is ready to become an alicorn. It was stupid decision."
"Why she requested it?"
"Dark Sorcerer can be destroyed permanently only by the other Dark Sorcerer." Celestia explained. "Luna is the only pony, who can control her emotions enough to not fall into the abyss of darkness. But, I'm not sure about this, since Nightmare Moon incident and the beginning of the Sun Era."
"Sun Age... it lasted like... 1000 years?"
"Indeed. Now, it's the 7th year of the Harmony Era. Let's not change the topic..."
"Anyways, it's kinda your fault, that she changed into Nightmare Moon."
"I know..." Celestia said, feeling guilty. "Since the day, I banished her, I've been blaming myself for causing this..."
"I'm sorry, that I recalled it."
"It's... nothing..." Celestia assured, cleaning tears of her eyes.
Jacob found the feral human, after a few minutes. He was massacring one of ponies. His armor was orange and red from blood. He took of the helmet and started to eat pony's guts and meat. "Oh God... It's Oz..." Jacob whispered, trying not to throw up. "Sombra, you're so dead... Luna, I found him. He's nearby... clothing shop?"
"It's Rarity's boutique." Celestia explained.
"I hope, that bloody red is now on top..."
"There's no time for jokes, Mr. Dracons."
Jacob sighed and prepared the rifle to shot. "Okay, Luna. I'm giving you 2 minutes. After that... you know the rest."
Luna walked to the feral human. Luna felt sick, seeing a human, eating a blue unicorn with orange/yellow/purple mane. Oscar noticed her and rushed on her. Luna stopped him with her magic. Her eyes glowed greenly and mantled with dark, purple mist.
"DARK POWERS OF KING SOMBRA! LEAVE THIS HUMAN'S BODY AND RETURN TO YOUR DARK LORD! I ORDER YOU TO BEGONE! BEGONE!!!" From Oscar's mouth and eyes flowed dark energy. His skin and eyes returned to normal colors. After the process, Oz fell on the ground and Luna's eyes stopped glowing. "It is done." Luna said to Jacob.
"SUCK IT, SOMBRERO!" Jacob screamed and started screaming of joy. It didn't last long, because, in his head, he felt the same pain as always, when Sombra was sending him messages.
"Beware of the Moon, kid. You chose the wrong teacher." After hearing those words, Jacob fell on the ground, unconscious...
Chapter 6: A Moment of Peace.
Jacob was lying unconscious on balcony. Princess Celestia tried to wake him up.
"Mr. Dracons, can you hear me?" Celestia asked, trying to reach him.
"Just five more minutes..." Jacob responded and started snoring.
"Looks like, he had long day." Celestia said to herself.
Princess didn't want to leave him on cold balcony, so she took him to one of many guest rooms and lied him down on bed. Celestia thought, that his headache was caused by King Sombra, so, just in case, casted on him another protection spell. She started to look on Jacob with curiosity. Maybe he was from different planet and species, but he acted, like her pony subjects. Although, she was still afraid of mysterious being. It was so unnatural for her, seeing artificial limb in so good coordination.
Curiosity won and Celestia started to study Jacob's bionic arm. Hand was the same, like the natural one, but in index finger was a lighter. Wrist had build-in watch with date, fazes of moon and picture of dragon in the background. Celestia read the date. "03-21-2076. That's... pretty long." On forearm was some kind of flap. Celestia opened it. Under it was a console, used by Jacob to control his implants. Princess closed it and looked at the upper arm. Inside of it was little storage for little things. "Pretty practical..." Celestia found inside a box full of straight, white sticks. "What is this? Some kind of snack?" Celestia put it back on it's place and closed a case.
Celestia's attention attracted Jacob's necklace. Except amber and silver dragon, Celestia noticed on it mysterious sentence. "'Pouco lapa nunca vai'." Celestia read, taking the amulet. "What does it mean?"
"'Little flame never goes'." Celestia jumped, seeing Jacob's open eyes.
"You're awake? I-I'm sorry... I didn't mean to..."
"It's okay" Jacob calmed her down, sitting on bed. "Can I have my necklace back, please?"
"O-of course." Celestia gave a necklace back to it's owner. "What's this sentence?"
"It's my mom's family motto. 'Little flame never goes'. It's written in dead, Gallic language. This amulet has over 2000 years, but it's in my family like... 700 years?"
"So, you're are a member of some kind of... nobility? This amulet doesn't look cheap..." Celestia asked.
"Not at all. It's a long story..." Jacob scratched back of his head.
"Can I hear it?"
"Well, if you want..." Jacob cleaned his throat. "Year 1359, England on Earth. In little village, which name I don't remember, lived girl, named Anna. When she was playing with her friends, she stumbled on stone, what proved to be a little chest. Anna dig it up and opened it. Inside was this amulet." Jacob said, looking at the meant necklace. "She decided to keep it. 10 years later, she met rich merchant, fell in love with him and started to live with him in London, England's capital. Anna thought, that amulet was some kind of lucky charm from God and, thanks to it, her life changed for better. When she gave birth to her son, she gave amulet to him on his 10th birthday. Since then, this necklace was passing for 700 years and ended in my hands. But, Ray suppose do get it. He's older than me."
"Then, why do you have it?" Celestia asked.
"I found it in Sarah's pocket. I don't know, how it appeared there. Mom never took it off earlier, not telling about giving it to someone out of our family." Jacob put a necklace back on his neck. "Well, finders keepers."
"Shouldn't you give it to your brother?"
"Ray doesn't even notices it. He says: 'Jewelery is just waste of money and time'. Even if I would give it to him, he won't accept it. Besides, it matches to my eyes."
"If you say so..." Celestia said.
"Anyways, where are my things?"
"Twilight took them with her to the throne room."
"Oh it's ok... WHAT!?" Jacob screamed. "I have there really delicate things."
"Twilight said, that you have clothes there."
"Not only them..." Jacob said and ran to the throne room.
"Um, it's in the second direction..." Celestia corrected him.
"Like in cheap comedy..." Jacob commented and ran in good direction. Celestia followed him, to make sure, if he doesn't have anything dangerous in there...
Main 6 and Princess Luna were in castle's throne room. They were waiting for Jacob and Princess Celestia.
"Oh my..." Rarity groaned, feeling the smell of Jacob's clothes. "How long was he waiting with laundry?"
"Like... 3 years?" Twilight said. "He was hibernated, so he didn't have much time for it."
"I wonder, if there's anything else inside?" Rainbow thought loudly.
"Rainbow Dash, ya' can't look inside someone's bag." Applejack said.
"Thinking isn't a crime." Rainbow mumbled.
"Everypony, please calm down." Fluttershy said. "I don't want to make our guest uncomfortable."
"What's that bag, darling?" Rarity asked, pointing Fluttershy's mysterious bag.
"Oh, it's Jacob's armor. He forgot it and I decided to take it for him. I forgot to give it back to him." Fluttershy explained. "I must say, it's very light."
Without any warning, into the throne room ran Jacob and Princess Celestia just after him.
"INSIDE MY BAG IS A BOMB!" He screamed.
"What!?" Everypony started to scream and ran around. Jacob was just standing with smile. Then, he started to laugh. Ponies stopped this nonsense.
"It was just a joke?" Twilight asked.
"I can't believe, that you really believed in it." Jacob said, cleaning tears of laughter. Suddenly, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash started to laugh, as well.
"What's so funny?" Rarity asked them with fire in eyes.
"I- It was the.. the best... best... prank... what he did so far..." Rainbow said, pausing with laugh.
"Looks like, we have a partner in crime." Pinkie said, lying on Jacob's side with crossed forelegs.
"I must say, that my humor can be pretty... explosive." Mares started to laugh once again. "Good to be back..."
"Still making jokes, don't you, Jacob?" Everyone in the room looked at the entrance. It was Jacob's brother, without helmet.
"RAY!" Jacob cried out and hugged him. "It's good to see you alive."
"The feeling's mutual, Jacob." On Raymond's face appeared little smile. After some time, hug broke. "King Sombra... He changed half of my crew into zombies and fired all of our escape pods... I had to kill Prof. Nate. Sombra killed Marcus. What about Off. Stone and Dr.Sky?"
"Sarah didn't make it. Oz is safe." Jacob said sadly.
"At least he survived but we don't have scientists. We failed the mission... We're stuck. I failed our homeland. At least, we landed on civilized planet." Ray said, looking around. "I hope, that this bastard burns in hell..."
"It's not very possible..." Princess Luna said. Ray jumped a little, surprised.
"Wow. I forgot about talking horses." Ray saluted. "Colonel Raymond Dracons, Captain on Athena, M.S.T.F. soldier and Mars ambassador. According to regalia, you're some kind of royalty."
"Indeed, colonel." Princess Celestia answered. "I am Princess Celestia. This is my sister, Princess Luna. We're both rulers of Equestria. You can ease." Ray stopped saluting.
"I hope, that my brother didn't make much trouble, Your Highnesses."
"I must say, that your brother is very... interesting po... person." Luna said. "But, it is not the end of our troubles. King Sombra is still a big danger for us, our subjects and you two. That is why I am taking your brother as my personal student."
"What?" Ray asked.
"In Jacob's body is King Sombra's Dark Magic. I cannot release it, like I did it with Off. Stone. If I would try something, like this, it would kill him or damage him physically and mentally. Jacob Dracons must learn, how to control Sombra's powers. Without it, he can die, as well."
"I can stop the progress of this curse..." Celestia said.
"It's not a simple curse, sister. It's something beyond your powers. If you will cast more protecting spells, it could only make it worse. Please, sister. I know, that you don't trust me, when it goes about Dark Magic, but... I don't want anyone else to be killed by this demon. Will you trust me this one time, sister?"
Celestia sighed. "I agree. But, it means, you're responsible about him. I don't want any Dark Magic bursts."
"I promise, sister. What about you, Colonel?"
Ray looked at Jacob. "Jacob is only family, what I have now. Don't fuck it up. Both of you."
Jacob started to cry artificially. "My big brother said the 'F' word... I'm proud of him."
"Jacob, do you agree, as well?"
"Well, I don't have much choice. I trust you, so I can start this training."
"I'll go prepare everything." Luna said, walking away. "When you will feel ready, meet me in my chambers..." The door locked behind Luna.
"Okay, what now, big bro?" Jacob asked.
"We need an outpost, where we can live. Have you got any equipment, Jacob?"
"There's a lot of stuff in Athena's wreck, on tracks to Canterlot." Jacob said.
"Can I have a map of this land?" Ray asked, don't knowing, what else should he do. Princess Celestia used her magic and created the giant map of Equestria. "I guess, this is Canterlot..." Ray said, pointing the castle on mountain. "We can build something, like this. Some kind of citadel."
"Citadel... Nice name for an outpost..." Jacob commented. "I saw the mountain with cave, on my way here." Jacob pointed meant mountain.
"It's an old dragon's nest." Twilight said. "If you want, you can start to build there."
"Thank you... um..."
"Twilight, colonel. Twilight Sparkle, also princess."
"Thank you, Princess Twilight." Ray ended the sentence. "Have you seen in that wreck any building drones?" He asked his brother.
"Three chests... Also jeeps, fighters, motorcycles... Everything untouched. Mostly..."
"Great. I will go check on this. For now, you talk with Princess Luna about this training. Be careful."
"Aren't you injured?" Jacob asked.
"It's only flesh wound, Jacob." Raymond sighed and left.
"Now, if you excuse me..." Jacob said, fell on the ground and fall asleep.
"Not this again..." Celestia murmured.
Jacob woke up in complete darkness. He involuntarily stood up and started to look around.
"Is that a revenge for that bomb, Celestia? If it is, it's pretty good..." Jacob said, thinking, what he just said. When no one responded, he started to be afraid.
Jacob grabbed a flashlight form his backpack and turned it on. What he saw, made his heart jump to his throat. "SATAN!"
"Nice to see you again, kid." King Sombra greeted. "I hope, that my spells didn't harm you too much...
"You can try on, Sombra. I'll never be your student. Especially, after what you have done do my friends." Jacob said. He seemed brave, but he was really scared.
"Ah, yes. I wanted to show you, what power you can receive, if you will join me, as my personal student. Besides, friendship is for weak. It blinds you and keeps you away from your goals."
"Yeah, yeah, shut up. This chat is so cheesy, that it stinks as fuck. Tell me something, what I don't know, Mr. Cheesy Villain."
Sombra sighed and looked with disappointed face on Jacob. "I'm just another cheesy villain for you?"
"I've seen many villains, like you. Darth Vader, Voldemort, Thanos, Davey Jones... You're just one villain from many others. You think, you can do better? Go on, surprise me..." Jacob challenged him.
Sombra's eyes stopped greenly glowing and dark mist disappeared from them. His horn was all gray and mane stopped being like smoke. Coat looked like, it was made of... crystals. "Finally, it let go..." Sombra said in more gentle and higher voice. "Forgive me, Jacob."
"Is that another trick, Sombra?" Jacob prepared to grab his gun.
"I didn't mean to scare you. Or turn your friends into zombie-slaves. My real name is Prince Star Diamond. It's nice to meet you, without being controlled by that... thing."
Jacob's mind was jumbled. He thought, it's too much for him. "Is he good or bad? Can anyone explain me, what's going on here?" Jacob thought. "What do you mean by 'controlled'?"
"Let me explain." Darkness disappeared. Jacob and Prince Star Diamond appeared in city, made of crystals. "This is Crystal Empire, over 1000 years ago." Prince started. "I was ruler of these lands. I really cared about my crystal subjects. You see, I belong to the family of rare and powerful crystal unicorns. Our characteristic attribute is curved horn, different from normal, straight horns. My kingdom was in deep and good relationship with Royal Sisters. We helped them in their war with Discord, Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony. Now, he's reformed and doesn't cause any damage in Equestria, so don't worry about him."
"Copy that." Jacob responded.
"Anyways, my scouts reported me about mysterious, dark mist." Image changed. It showed Prince Star Diamond, in front of giant mist. "I was investigating it, when..." The mist moved forward. Prince Star started running from it , but it was too fast. Prince disappeared in mist. After a while, mist faded. In the middle was known and (un)loved King Sombra. "The mist was a remnant of very old and powerful Dark Sorcerer, Sombra. His power flowed into my body and... changed me. I turned against my own subjects and enslaved them." Star started crying, They weren't fake tears. Prince was sad. And scared.
"I'm sorry." Jacob said. "It has to be hard, knowing that you betrayed your own kingdom."
"You have no idea... Thank you for listening."
"It's fine. Unless, it's not Sombra's trick."
"I'm not that demon. I have an advice for you. Whatever Sombra will say, don't listen."
"Don't worry. I'm never listening. Of course, there are some exceptions..."
Star Diamond disappeared and everything turned black again.
Jacob woke up in the same chamber, like earlier. He decided to not wait and ask Celestia about this all 'Prince Star Diamond'. Engineer decided to check in throne room. Like he thought, Celestia was there.
"Good evening, Mr. Dracons." Celestia said. "This time, you slept little longer. If you're looking for your brother or Twilight and her friends, they are in Ponyville. My sister is waiting for you."
"Well, actually, I wanted to ask you about something. Well, somepony..."
"Ask away."
"Do you know a unicorn, named Star Diamond?" Jacob didn't play in half measures. He never liked that.
"Well, he ruled Crystal Empire, before King Sombra. How do you know about him?"
"When Sombra talked in my dreams, I saw him. Sombra and Star Diamond are the same ponies."
"What? This is impossible."
"Well, Sombra lived much earlier, but he left his powers and awareness in the form of mist, what flowed into Star Diamond and now they share the same body. Any more questions?"
"Can I faint?" Celestia asked. Jacob nodded. "Mother of me..." Celestia stuttered and fainted.
"Um, service to throne room?" Jacob joked.
Luna prepared her chamber for the training with Jacob. She was waiting, when somepony appeared inside.
"What do you want, Sombra?" Luna asked.
"I just wanted to remind about myself. He's to emotional. You'll never be able to tame his powers. I can."
"You will use them to attack Equestria. I cannot allow for such a thing."
"He will come to me. Like I came to you..."
"I still don't know, what I saw in you." Luna hissed.
"Talented unicorn with big magical potential. An inheritor. Somepony, who you fell in love..." Sombra said, walking around Princess.
"I was young and fool, demon. I would never fall in love with you, if I knew, what will you do."
"I wonder, what Jacob will say about our past relationship..." Sombra said with smirk.
"SILENCE, YOU MONSTER!" Luna screamed and attacked Sombra with dark beam of magic. Before it reached him, Sombra disappeared, laughing. Luna was hardly breathing. "We will stop you, Sombra. Me and my Inquisitor..."
Chapter 7: New friend, new problems.
Jacob decided to grab some air in castle gardens. He needed to think about all of this, what happened. In his mind, nothing appeared. Engineer abandoned this topic and started to think about his future here. Even if he said, that he hates this planet, Jacob started to feel like home here.
After some walking he sat on the nearby bench and looked above. Night was warm and quiet. Jacob enjoyed the real sky, instead of generated on glass copulas on Mars. The rain, what he felt here, was also a nice change for him. Jacob never felt the real rain. He never had an opportunity, because on Mars there was no rain or snow. On movies from Earth, he saw a lot of it. It was a shame for him, that he couldn't feel it by himself.
Jacob's wondering was interrupted by some creature, climbing on his leg. Jacob looked at it. It looked, like armadillo, but it's armor looked like scales. It also had long tail and front claws. Jacob never seen a creature like this.
"Hey there, buddy." Jacob said. "Can you talk?" The creature was silent. "Right." When it climbed on Jacob's leg, it lied on his knees. Jacob started petting it. Then, he reminded about his training with Luna. Engineer wanted to take down an animal, but it climbed on his arm and sat on his light shoulder, wrapping its tail around Jacob's neck. "Wanna go with me, pal? Fine." Jacob said and made his way to Luna's chambers.
Main 6 and Raymond were on the mountain, in front of the cave. Colonel took from the ship one jeep, three chests of building drones and personal things. In jeep was laying down unconscious Off. Oscar Stone.
"It will be perfect." Raymond said.
"If ya' say so..." Applejack commented.
Ray took a remote to the drones and activated it. "'Password requested.' I guess, it's Jacob's idea..."
Ray tried to write Jacob's favorite word. 'Fuck'. "Password denied." This time, he tried the last word, what Jacob would think of. 'Order'. "Password denied. One chance remained, before system lock-down."
"Jacob, sometimes I hate you..." Ray whispered. "Looks like, I'm sleeping outside tonight."
"If you want to, you can sleep at my castle." Twilight proposed.
"I appreciate that, princess, but... I don't want to be a bother." Raymond said.
"Well, I thought you're the smart one in your family." Twilight said.
"Don't try to use reversed psychology on me. But, if you insist, I'll accept your offer." Ray gave up, saying those words.
Raymond sat to the jeep and Twilight sat next to him. Ray turned on the vehicle and started driving. After a few minutes, they arrived to Twilight's Castle.
"That was quick..." Twilight said, leaving the car. Raymond also left and took his things.
They both walked inside the castle. Twilight showed her guest way to his bedroom. Raymond thanked and walked inside.
"Of you need anything, call me or Spike." Twilight said and closed the door.
Ray changed his armor into a pyjamas and lied down on the bed. "Very comfortable..." He said and fell asleep, after long and exhausting day.
Jacob and his new animal friend went into Luna's chambers. Princess was sitting on the floor with closed eyes.
"Um, Luna?"
"Good evening, Jacob." Luna responded and opened her eyes. "Oh, I see that you found yourself a friend."
"Yeah, I think, he likes me. What is this, anyway?"
"It's a pangolin. We have some in our gardens. They eat termites and ants. If you want, you can keep him."
Jacob scratched his new friend's head. "I think, I'll call you... Cone. You like it?" Pangolin licked Jacob's cheek with it's long, sticky tongue. Jacob responded with snicker. "I guess, you do." Jacob grabbed Cone and put him on nearby table. "So, what will we begin with? Telepathic, illusion, smoke... oh, I know. Black holes."
Luna giggled. "Let's start from something simple..." Princess pointed a nearby plate. "Try to use levitation spell on it."
"Well, always a start..." Jacob pointed the plate. "Up." He said, moving his hand up. Nothing happened. "Fly..." This time, Jacob used both hands. Again, nothing. "Can I ask for some clues?"
"Stay calm and don't think only about this plate."
"Right." Jacob took a deep breath and locked his right arm on the plate. "Use the Force... Uuuuse the Force... Wait, wrong story. What the..." Jacob's hand was covered in amber aura. Plate in the air, too. Jacob moved his hand right. Plate followed. The same thing happened, when he moved left.
"Very good, Jacob." Luna said. "Now, place it on the table, next to Cone."
Jacob nodded and moved his hand. "You know, I have a better idea..." Jacob moved his hand closer to his face and quickly jerked it forward, throwing the plate through the window. He heard it cracking.
"WHO THREW THAT!?" Somepony screamed.
"Um, do you accept Credits?" Jacob asked joyfully and checked his pockets. "I have... 90 Credits... chewed gum... and... cigarette end."
"Keep it. You're doing quite a progress."
"Really?"
"You only reached foal's rank." Luna crushed Jacob's dreams of being a very first human magician. "But, there's a lot to learn. Besides, levitation spell at the first day of training is still a progress. I thought, you will levitate the first thing after... a week." Luna looked at the window. "It seems, that your potential is much bigger. I'm a little surprised..."
"Still, this is awesome..." Jacob said, looking at his hands. "Give me a lightsaber and call me Luck Skywalker."
"Who?"
"A character for old Earth movie. So, what's our next step."
"For now..." Luna didn't finish, because of weird noise outside. "What was that?" Luna opened a balcony and saw a weird, metal creature, what looked like silver bat. "What on Equestria is that?"
Jacob looked at it. "Oh, it's a scout drone. We had some on Athena, to use them for searches in dangerous area." Jacob explained and walked to it. "A.S.D. U1, report."
"Target locked. Eliminate." Drone said.
"Wait, what?" Jacob asked. Drone unlocked the weapon and targeted Jacob. "...oh fuck. DUCK!" He screamed and hid behind the wall. Luna did the same, when machine started it's series of laser blasts.
"YOU SAID, THAT THEY ARE SEARCHING, NOT EXTERMINATING!" Angry Luna screamed.
"Looks like, this one has an flaw..." Jacob saw his pet rolling on the table. "Cone, over here." Pangolin heard and ran to Jacob. It was running, like T-Rex. Cone climbed on Jacob's shoulder.
Drone flew inside and started searching. Jacob hid behind a backdrop. He thought, during the crush, this drone was damaged and it's memory card failed. Cone was shivering on his shoulder. "Sh, everything's fine, pal..." Jacob said, petting him.
Drones were made of special, mirror steel, so his weapon was useless. When Cone calmed down, Jacob saw a chest, where Luna put Ray's weapons. Jacob used telekinesis to move it above the drone. "Go to hell, can." Jacob dropped it on a drone and crushed it. It made a little screech and turned off. Jacob left his velvet hideout, moved the chest and examined the drone. It was turned off, but untouched. Luna looked at it, as well.
"I see, that you took care of it. Thank you." Luna said, little terrified.
Jacob found inside a memory card. "Weird..." Engineer sighed.
"What is it?"
"Memory card is untouched, so... it should have recognize me. Something stinks here... Cone, can you look after it?" Pangolin grabbed the memory card in it's tail. "You're pretty smart." Jacob continued the examination. At the end, he took off the energy core, so it couldn't turn on again and hid it in his backpack. "Everything looks fine." Jacob stood up with drone in hands. "I'll check the memory card later. Maybe there will be something." Engineer put a drone to his backpack. Actually, he pinned it to it, because he had no place for it.
"I guess, that our training should be ended. I'll prepare a guest room for you." Luna said and left.
In the meantime, Jacob sighed and sat on Luna's bed. He looked at his pangolin friend. "Hard night, eh, pal?" Cone didn't answer. "Yeah, for me, too. Nice, I'm talking to animal from other planet. You can call me 'insane'."
Luna returned quickly and escorted Jacob to his room. "Have a good night, Jacob."
"Thanks, Luna." Jacob said.
Luna closed the door and turned around behind her was Celestia, staring at her with investigative look.
"I see, that you're on first name terms with each other." Celestia said.
"I'm just being kind to him, nothing else." Luna replied.
"With Sombra was the same thing. You took him as your student and... it ended, how it ended."
"It was 2000 years ago. Equestria wasn't even existing and we weren't princesses."
"It was your idea to create Inquisition." Celestia poked Luna with her hoof. "Dark Mages against each other was the worst idea, what you have ever had. It almost destroyed our planet."
"At least I tried to do something with Black Plague, when you were sitting and guttling yourself with cakes."
"Don't protect yourself with my eating habits. Besides, teaching, an alien creature, the Dark Magic? Are you insane!?"
"I'm doing this with little steps, sister. First, standard unicorn spells, like levitation, teleportation..."
"And magic beam?"
"Trust me, sister. Everything is under control." Luna said with smile, putting her left hoof to her chest.
From doors looked Jacob with Cone on shoulder. "You know, that I'm trying to sleep? I had a very long and fucked up day. Can I ask for some quiet talking or whispering?" Jacob asked with tired anger.
"Don't worry, Jacob. We are leaving. Right, sister?" Luna said.
Celestia sighed. "Yes, we're leaving. Mr. Dracons..." Celestia walked away a bit.
"I... think, that Celestia doesn't like me..." Jacob said, looking at Celestia and pointing at her.
"She's still afraid, that I will do something wrong. Anyways, what have you heard?"
"Something... something... Sombra... something.... cakes... something... planet. That's all." Jacob answered. "Okay, have a good night, Luna." Jacob said and closed the door.
Engineer walked at the balcony. Cone was sleeping in bed. Jacob took from his little storage, in his bionic arm, box of cigarettes, took one and lighted it, taking a deep breath. From his mouth, flew out a cloud of smoke.
"Um... Jacob..." Jacob looked right. Fluttershy was next to him. Jacob jumped, surprised.
"Wow. Who are you, an assassin for rent?" Jacob joked.
"I... I want to give you back your armor." Fluttershy said, placing a bag on the balcony.
"Thank you." Jacob said. "Why are you not with your friends?"
"Oh... I wanted to help Rarity with her boutique. Her assistant, Sassy Saddles, was... um... a victim of your... friend."
"I saw it. I still can't snap out of it." Jacob said, taking another breath of cigarette. "It was horrible view..."
"Sombra is a monster." Fluttershy said with anger. "I wouldn't wish anypony to die, like this. I would get this demon and turn him into big pale of bull's crap." Fluttershy gasped. "Forgive my language..."
"If you call it a language, you haven't heard a real curses. But, I know, you're angry. Me too..." Jacob looked at his cigarette. "Want to take a breath?" Jacob said, offering a cigarette.
"O-okay." Fluttershy said and took a deep breath. After that, she coughed loudly. "How can you do such a thing?"
"Smoke from this calms me down. I don't have real lungs, so I can do this without any worries. I just wanted to be nice." Jacob said, taking another breath. "You can get used to it."
"Um... I'll leave you... Goodnight." Fluttershy left. Jacob wanted to stop her, but he was tired and needed to be alone, being reminded about today's incident. Fluttershy probably needed rest, as well.
Jacob finished his cigarette, lied down on the bed and fell asleep. He had enough of this day.
Raymond woke up in his room in Twilight's castle, laying on the right side. In front of him were two ponies. One had light purple coat, dark purple mane with mint strand. Second one had blue coat and light blue/silver mane. They both were unicorns.
"Do you think, he understands us?" Blue unicorn asked.
"Twilight said, that he knows our language." Purple one answered. "Um, are you awake, sir?"
"Y-yes." Ray answered with tired voice. "Who are you?"
"I am THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!!! And this is my best friend, Starlight."
"Colonel Raymond Dracons." Ray said, standing up. "Are you Princess Twilight's servants?"
"I like you. You're quite a joker." Trixie said.
"If you want to hear jokes, talk to my brother."
"I'm sorry for her." Starlight said. "I'm Twilight's student. Trixie is just paying me a visit. Besides, Twilight is waiting for you in the map room. I'll lead you."
"...Princess Twilight." Twilight finished the letter, when Raymond went inside the room. "Good morning, colonel."
"Good morning, princess." Ray replied. "Why did you call me?"
"I wanted to tell you, I sent a letter to Princess Celestia with request for Jacob's arrival in Ponyville."
"Good to know." Raymond looked around. On thrones, around the table, were symbols, like on Twilight's and her friends flanks. "Is this some kind of the meeting room?"
"Well, you see, colonel, between me and my friends is mysterious and magical bond, caused by the Elements of Harmony, artifacts created by Pillars of Equestria, first protectors of our land.
"So, you and your friends are their... reincarnations?" Ray asked.
"I don't think so, because they were locked in Limbo for a 1000 years and now they are around us."
"This planet is weird..." Ray said to himself. "What exactly are those Elements of Harmony?"
"We don't know very much about them, but we know, what they represent. Honesty, kindness, laughter, generosity, loyalty and magic. The original meaning was: strength, healing, hope, beauty, bravery and sorcery. For now, we locked them in magic vault in Canterlot, to keep them safe."
"I'm guessing, that... You're the magic, Pinkie is laughter, Rarity is generosity and Fluttershy is kindness. I'm not sure about Rainbow Dash and Applejack."
"Rainbow is loyalty and Applejack is honesty."
"What is your use for them."
"Usually, we use them as our last hope, when we are fighting with villains."
"Have they failed anytime?"
"Never."
Ray sighed. "If my brother will be out of control and you will use Elements on him... what would happen?"
"There are three options. One, the Elements will tame his magic. Two, he will be sealed in stone. Three, he will be banished and locked somewhere."
"I understand..." From Ray's gauntlet something ringed. Ray opened it. "It's message from Jacob. 'Ray, password to the remote is Suckmydick2.' Yeah, it's Jacob's style. 'I'm staying in Canterlot. I'll pay you a visit, when you finish building. XOXO J.D.'" Ray turned off his gauntlet. "Looks like, I have some work to do."
"Can you stay for breakfast?" Twilight asked.
"Of course."
Ray was little angry at Jacob, but he thought, that Jacob's trainings are very complicated and long, so he had to stay.
Well, reality was different...
Chapter 8: Unexpected guest on Breakfast.
Jacob woke up in the second day of his stay on Terra-2. Engineer already felt better, knowing that yesterday have finally ended. He looked at his pangolin friend. Cone was still sleeping, so Jacob decided to don't wake him up. Quickly, yet quiet, Jacob walked to the bathroom to shave and take a shower. If they have one. Luckily, ponies invented them already.
Jacob took off his clothes walked to the cabin and... someone knocked. "Dicks..." Jacob said then put his boxers on and walked to open the door. When he opened the door, he saw a pegasi mare in maid outfit. "Good morning."
"Um... Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are requesting your presence on breakfast." Maid said, staring at Jacob with fascination and fear.
"Tell them, that I'll be in 20 minutes."
Maid nodded and walked away. Jacob closed the door and took a shower, before anypony else will knock.
Jacob had big number of shampoos and soaps to use. "What is it, pharmacy?" Jacob decided to use honey
Cone was already awake, when Jacob finished. "Hey there pal." Jacob said. "Hungry?"
Princesses Celestia and Luna were waiting in the dining room for their human guest. Luna was playing with fork and Celestia was reading letter from Twilight.
"Twilight wrote me, that Jacob has to go to Ponyville." Celestia said. "His brother needs a password, what only Jacob knows."
"Well, speak of the devil..." Luna said, seeing Jacob walking inside the room... with armor on and Cone on the shoulder. "Good morning, Jacob."
"Morning." Jacob replied.
"Why are you wearing this armor?" Celestia asked.
"Well, I just wanted to get used to it." Jacob said, sitting to the table. "Besides, I have bad feelings today..."
"Should I bring ants for your... friend?" One of servants asked, giving a cup of coffee, plate of pancakes and maple syrup to Jacob and princesses.
"If you can. Also, I would like some cream and sugar for my coffee."
"As you wish, sir." Servant said and walked away.
"Wow, I'm getting used to live here."
Celestia choked with her coffee. "What do you mean?"
"As you know, I'm Luna's student. I don't want to drive around only for lessons. That's why I'm staying in Canterlot."
"Well, I received a letter from Twilight. She wrote, that your brother needs a password for a..."
"Done." Jacob said, closing communicator on his gauntlet. "I sent everything, so I can stay." Celestia's right eye started to have tics, while Jacob was pouring maple syrup on his pancakes.
"Wasn't with Twilight the same situation?" Luna asked.
"Similar, but he's not Twilight and not my student."
"Details..." Jacob snorted.
Servant returned with plate with jar of ants, jug of coffee cream and sugar-basin. "Here you are, sir." Servant said, putting it on table.
"Thank you." Jacob said, when Cone was walking of his shoulder. Jacob opened the jar. "Bon appetit, pal." Cone started to catch ants with his tongue. Jacob sugared his coffee and poured cream into it.
"Fine, you can stay..." Celestia sighed. "But, there are some rules, what you have to follow."
"No killing, find a job and socialize?"
"Y-yes. How did you..."
"Standard procedure in case of meeting an alien civilization." Jacob said, munching a bite of pancakes. "Shit, those pancakes are great."
"I... made them by myself." Celestia said. "I don't know, what fruit you eat on your planet, so I gave you just maple syrup."
"Still, they are great." Jacob said, taking another bite. "Oh, I like all fruit, except raspberries. They're too... seedy."
"I'll remember about this."
Jacob tried to not tell an 'Old' joke. "Can I ask about something?"
"Ask away, Jacob." Luna said.
"How does it feel to live so long? You have like... 1000 years?"
"Even more..." Luna said. "It's... interesting. You see, how your subjects are living, developing and... dying. It's beautiful, yet sad."
"Is immortality boring?"
"No, it isn't..." Celestia said nervously.
"It is, right?" Jacob said with raised eyebrow.
"You have no idea!" Celestia moaned, then hit the table with her face. "Everyday the same thing." Celestia looked back at Jacob. "Meetings, smiling, raising and lowering the Sun... You can go crazy."
"Well, not for me." Luna said with smile. "I can watch dreams of my subjects and protect them from the nightmares and themselves, by giving them advices. Every dream is different, every night. Only sometimes they are the same..." Luna said, reminding about Twilight's dream of books. Celestia had face, like 'I need vodka and pills', hearing Luna.
"Can we leave this topic?" Celestia asked, having enough of this. "Maybe you will tell us more about your home, Mr... Jacob."
Jacob cleaned his throat. "Mars is... weird for me. Maybe we have all planet, but we live only on 27% of it, in City Copulas. The rest is an endless, red desert, where sun can turn you into dust. I lived in Ares City. It's big city, full of life. I've always been wondering, how fast they build it. But... we don't have, inside those copulas, weather or real sun and moon..." Jacob's tone turned from casual into sad. "I've always wanted to get out of this red prison. Project New Genesis gave me hope for better life. I wanted mom to go with us, but they needed scientists, engineers and soldiers, not philosophers. I had plan, that me and my family would stay on the planet and have a simple life. But, mom's on Mars, Ray is loyal to the Ares Senate and on the planet is pony devil." Jacob took a sip of coffee to calm himself down. "In short, my planet sucks, so I moved here but not everything went well."
"So... you don't miss your home planet, am I right?" Celestia asked.
"I would return there only for my mom. I don't even know, if she's still alive. I was voyaging here for over 2 years. Everything could happen. Another war, copula's damage, revolution... Humans are more like wild animals. They're unpredictable, greedy and stupid."
"Why do you call your own species 'stupid'?"
"Would you call a race, what destroyed their own home planet, smart?" Jacob said with anger. "Mars is only a colony. 30 years ago, humans lived on planet Earth. Now it's a wasteland, caused by mankind's stupidity and greed. And they want more and more. That's why they sent us here. To get more... And, knowing our logic, only the richest and stupidest humans would come here, to turn this planet into another money maker. If I had to kill my own kind for money, by someones will, I would do this for free." Jacob took a deep breath. "I'm sorry... I let my emotions go for a bit... I didn't mean that... It's just... overtired engineer's talking."
"It's okay..." Luna said. "Everyone needs to vent sometimes..."
Jacob smiled and took a sip of coffee. "Thank you for understanding."
"Luna, can I ask you for a minute?" Celestia asked.
"As you wish, sister."
"What do you mean, I can't teach him?" Luna asked with indignation.
"His emotions are to hard to control and you're only adding fuel to fire." Celestia said, cautioning Luna. "With Sombra's magic, he could kill us all."
"I told you, that I have everything under control."
"We could use the Elements of Harmony to heal him. Your method is to risky."
"It's the only way to get rid of King Sombra for good." Luna reminded. "We need an Inquisitor, now!"
"We need no more Dark Sorcerers. Besides, the Elements could help Sombra as well. Or... the pony what is imprisoned in his mind."
"What do you mean?"
"Jacob told me, that Sombra possessed old ruler of Crystal Empire, Prince Star Diamond."
"But, you will only suppress him inside, like Elements did it to my dark side." Luna placed her hoof on her chest. "I still can feel Nightmare Moon inside me..."
"Then why you don't take care of King Sombra?"
"I could have, when he returned for the first time, but you had to send Twilight and check, if she's ready."
Celestia sighed. "You're right. I should have sent you... For now, let's return to Mr. Dracons..."
When Celestia and Luna went inside the dining room, they saw, like Jacob was facing King Sombra.
"No matter, what do you say, the answer is still 'no'." Jacob said to Sombra.
"Looks like, the princesses decided to join us..."
Jacob looked behind. "Good timing. I could use some help with him."
"This time you won't escape, Sombra." Luna said.
"I came here to make a...-" Sombra summoned five necklaces and one tiara. "-...deal. Elements for Jacob. What is more important for you? Life of simple soldier or some ancient stones?"
Princesses stuck. They didn't want another evil Dark Sorcerer, but they also needed the Elements. Celestia preferred to keep the Elements, but Luna wanted to keep Jacob in Canterlot. But, before they chose anything, Jacob said:... "I have a better idea." ...then, took his gun and shoot Sombra's horn, causing him to drop the Elements. Jacob grabbed them with telekinesis and gave them to the princesses. "Go, now! I'll buy you some time!" He screamed. Celestia nodded and ran with her sister.
"I see, that your smarter, than you look, kid." Sombra said, regenerating his cracked horn. "But, you're still making stupid mistake, trusting them."
"At least they gave me compassion and hospitality. What did you give me? Zombificated friends and empty promises."
"Celestia is afraid of you. Can't you see it?" Sombra asked with smile.
"I see it enough. I would be scared too, if someone in my surroundings was a black mage. That is why I want her to stop being afraid of me... I'm not a demon like you. I'm a human. I'm Jacob Dracons, Princess Luna's student...-" In Jacob's eyes appeared green glow and purple/orange mist. "-...and I'm going to defeat you."
"Silent Power!? This is impossible, your emotions are to strong!" Sombra screamed.
"Maybe they are..." From the floor, around Jacob, grown up dark orange crystal spikes. "But I know, how to use them."
Jacob raised his arms to his shoulders level and raised the crystals up. They started pinning around him and, when they had enough momentum, Jacob threw them in Sombra's direction. Sombra managed to dodge most of them, but one pinned him to the wall.
"We'll meet again soon..." Sombra said and disappeared in the smoke cloud.
Jacob closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them, they were normal again. "Wha- what happened?" Jacob said, grabbing his head. He noticed Cone. He was still eating ants, not caring about anything. "Celestia, Luna, are you here?"
Princesses didn't go far. They were observing all the battle.
"Silent Power, fascinating..." Luna said.
"Wh-what's Silent Power?" Jacob felt, like he was always last to know.
"It's a spell, used by Dark Sorcerers, what stabilize their power. But, they have to tame their negative emotions, what are the Dark Magic's fuel. Last time I've seen it 2000 years ago, during Black Plague."
"Black what?"
"Black Plague was a very destructive war." Celestia said. "Dark Sorcerers wanted to rule the whole planet. We tried to defeat them, but they were always returning. On both sides were fighting all species of our planet: ponies, dragons, griffins and even changelings. When we were at the edge of the failure, my sister found a solution."
"I created a special union, called Inquisition. They were Dark Sorcerers, but on our side. They were masters of the Silent Power. With them, war ended in one year."
"I guess, that something go wrong..."
"Celestia ordered me to kill all Inquisitors, to not risk another Black Plague. She had a point. I've killed all Inquisitors. Except one... Sombra."
"Let me guess. You loved him and you weren't strong enough to kill him." Jacob thought.
"How did you know?"
"I saw it in some movies. It's something, like... the Stockholm syndrome, but without kidnapping."
"He wasn't evil, when I met him. He had very good heart. I was even thinking about turning him into an alicorn, after what he did for us, but... I couldn't do this or kill him. I had to exile him. It was the biggest mistake. He returned and started to manipulate ponies, causing them finally to separate from each other. All three kinds were divided. 'Cause of him... Soon after that, he died as an old pony, ponies found Equestria and lived in peace."
"Wait, so... Equestria isn't a name of this planet?" Jacob asked feeling cheated. "So, what is it's name?"
"We just call it our planet." Celestia said. "What is your name for it?"
"Terra-2. But, it doesn't matter. I guess, that I'm the newest Inquisitor."
"If Sombra could reach the Elements of Harmony, we don't have much choice." Celestia said. "After what I saw, I see that we can trust you. Maybe you can even be able to resist your dark needs."
"My only need is to find home. And I guess, I found it already." Jacob smiled warmly. "So, are you still afraid of me?"
"Not as much as earlier... Can we have a walk in the gardens?"
"Some fresh air would be nice..." Jacob said and took Cone with him. In the meantime, Luna took care about the Elements.
It was very beautiful morning in Equestria. Birds were singing, sun was shining, flowers were blooming... like in little paradise.
Jacob enjoyed the fresh air, during the walk with Princess Celestia.
"This place is so beautiful..." Jacob sighed. "Isn't it, Princess?"
"Yes, it is." She responded, looking at the sky. "But, King Sombra can ruin this place, if we won't stop him."
"Aaaand, the climate's fucked up..." Jacob commented Celestia's words. "I've read a lot of books, played a lot of games and watched a lot of movies, where bad guy always loses and good guy becomes a national hero and gets a girlfriend."
"But, life is not a book or... game."
"Life is a giant game, where every choice changes it. Small decision can save or destroy the whole nations. Like pressing a single button. This is how Earth ended. The guy presses button, bomb detonates and humanity has to leave their own planet. Sorry, I'm being dramatic. Again..."
"I should apologize..." Celestia said with guiltiness.
"For what? You didn't do anything."
"Well, I... judged you wrong. You stood in our protection, without knowing us very well. It means a lot..."
"I'm just a soldier. It's my duty to protect others."
"Nice, talented and modest... It's very rare combination."
"Am I that easy to read?"
"Mostly... I still can't believe, that you're still refusing to Sombra's temptations."
"I'm not an idiot to believe a villain." Jacob said, then sighed. "I've seen this scenario so many times, that it makes me sick. Villain offers you help to get what you want, then he kills you, when he doesn't need you anymore. And I want to live at least 40 years more. To have a job, what you leave to return to your home, where your wife and children are waiting for you."
"You want to create family?"
"Like everyone else..." Jacob petted Cone on his head. "For now, my only family is my brother, Ray. And Cone. But, until Sombra is alive, it's impossible... That's why I want to defeat him. To fulfill my dream... What about you?"
"Huh?"
"Do you want to create a family?"
"I was thinking about it, but... It's hard to find love, when you are a princess. Besides, am I not to old, to be a mother or wife?"
"Come on, you're looking like you were only about 20 years old."
"Ah-I..." Celestia responded with blush. "Don't play games with me."
"I'm not playing any games. I'm just honest..."
"Uh, can you shut up already?" Familiar dark voice said. It was Sombra, who appeared in front of them.
"God fucking dammit, who are you, a pop-up add?" Jacob said annoyed.
"I see, that my attempts to make you my student failed. So, I have no more use for you." From Sombra's horn fired dark magic beam, what hit Jacob, turning his armor into pieces. Jacob somersaulted about 20 meters and landed on his chest in torn clothes. In front of him, again, Sombra appeared and grubbed Jacob throat, lifting him to his eye's level. "I can't leave anything for Luna."
Celestia stunned Sombra with magic beam, causing him to drop Jacob. Between a dark unicorn and alicorn the battle flared up. Jacob tried to stand up, but pain was too strong. Before battle started for good, he lost his conscious...
The first thing, what Jacob heard, was beeping. Beeping of EKG monitor. It sounded stable. Stable enough, that he could open his eyes. He saw Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Raymond.
"Am I dead?" Jacob asked, still in mood for jokes.
"It's good, that you're awake." Ray said.
"His armor saved him." Luna said. "Without it, he could turn into a cloud of dust."
"I always believe my guts first. Thank you for saving me, princess. Also, how are you?" Jacob said to Celestia.
"You're welcome. And I'm fine."
"How long was I sleeping?"
"Two weeks." Nurse said, walking inside. "You had 3 broken ribs, broken arm, metal bits all around your body and low level of iron. If princesses didn't bring you here, you could have died."
"How did you put me back together?"
"Your anatomy is very similar to pony's. You had 26 operations. Here's the bill." Jacob took it. His eyes whitened.
"100,000 bits? I don't even have a one bit!" Jacob cried out. "Well, Rainbow Dash owes me 100 bits, but still..."
"We will settle this debt." Luna said with smile. "He saved the Elements of Harmony, after all."
"Quicker than shadow, harder than stone." Jacob snickered. "I'll check something..." Jacob looked under his hospital clothes and saw a lot on scars. "Holy fuck..." He lowered it. "At least I'm alive. What about Cone?" Then, he felt sticky tongue of his pangolin friend.
"He jumped off your shoulder in the last second. Cone was lucky, that he survived." Celestia said. "Fluttershy took good care of him."
"I guess, that I have to thank her for this." Jacob replied, scratching his pet's chin. "Anything else happened, when I was sleeping?"
"Sombra was quiet. For now..." Luna said with skepticism.
"Can I talk alone with my brother?" Ray asked.
"Of course." Celestia said and left with her sister and nurse.
Ray wanted to say something to his brother. Something, what he wanted to say for a long time. "Jacob, listen. Back there, on Mars... I was a complete jerk. I treated you like a little baby. But, you showed, that you're a real man. Now, I'm proud, you're my younger brother. Will you forgive me?"
Jacob smiled. "Of course, I will. Brothers forgive each other." Jacob stood up. "Awkward sibling hug?" He asked, spreading his arms.
Ray sighed. "You serious?" Jacob made puppy eyes. Ray sighed again and made a little smile. "Awkward sibling hug." Brothers hugged for a while and broke it.
"Also, where's Oz?" Jacob asked. Then, Ray's eyes whitened.
"Well, he... disappeared." Ray admitted.
"What?"
"When I wanted to get him inside Twilight's castle, another day after landing, he was gone."
"LET ME GO!!!" Oscar Stone screamed, hitting cell's door. Oz was a prisoner. King Sombra's prisoner. Since then, he was a subject of his experiments with Dark Magic. "Can I, at least, have a glass of water?" No one answered. "Anybody? Captain? Jacob? Please, someone say something. I'm nuts here!" Still no answer. Only dark crystal cell and darkness. Then something grabbed his leg. "No, not again... NOOOOOOO!!!" He screamed, while being dragged into darkness.
"Soon, darkness will banish light...
End of prologue...
Chapter 9: The Oath of Inquisition
Today, in Canterlot, was a very important day, After a month of training, Jacob was going to take an Oath of the Inquisition. Everyone important came on that ceremony. From famous ponies, through delegates from other countries, to the members of royalty. The quest of honor was Jacob's brother, Raymond and the Main 6.
Celestia was preparing herself with her sister for ceremony.
"I'm impressed so many guests arrived today." Celestia said, still in shock.
"Me either." Luna agreed. "Maybe because there are also guests from a different world. Besides, Jacob is the first Inquisitor for 2000 years."
"I still think, this isn't the best idea."
"Jacob is strong. I believe in him."
"Maybe your right." Celestia sighed. "Oh my, I'm so nervous."
"I am the one, who will be the main princess here so I'm nervous like never before."
"Just take care of this and we can call it a day."
"Don't worry, sister. Everything is alright."
Everyone was on place. Princesses were standing by the thrones, all of them in beautiful dresses. Guests were nervous, especially Raymond. He didn't want his brother to act like an idiot now.
Luna cleaned her throat. "Greetings and thank you all for coming today, in this special day. We have very important guests here, in Equestria. One of them, is today's guest of honor. Colonel Raymond Dracons came here to find a new home for his kind. However, his mission failed because he was attacked by our old and powerful enemy. King Sombra." Guests gasped and started to whisper about this. "But do not worry. Our second guest is our new hope. He's capable to defeat this enemy. Let me introduce you Jacob Dracons!" Jacob walked through the gate. He's had worn the black robe without sleeves, armored slacks, sport bandages on hands and forearms and chest plate with runes. The guests cheered in his honor. Jacob walked with dignity and poker face. He quickly reached the princesses.
"Your Highnesses..." Jacob said bowing with fist on his heart.
"Jacob Dracons, are you ready to take an oath?" Princess Luna.
"I am."
"Kneel and repeat my word." Jacob knelt on one knee. "Where light can't reach, shadow will help. "
"Where light can't reach, shadow will help. "
"When darkness falls, our force rises. "
"When darkness falls, our force rises. "
"We protect those, who light can't safe "
"We protect those, who light can't safe "
"We are the Inquisition. Guardians of Light, Warriors of Darkness. "
"We are the Inquisition. Guardians of Light, Warriors of Darkness. "
"In the name of our kingdoms, I announce you Jacob Dracons the Inquisitor. Protect the light, fight in shadow."
After the ceremony, there was a little party. Dracons brothers have met other rulers of different nations.
"So, you're that Inquisitor, am I right?" Asked Ember, the Dragon Lord. "I didn't expect a squeaker."
"My voice isn't that high." Jacob said, feeling resentful. "Maybe it is, but I bet that I can beat you up in 5 seconds flat."
"If your brother want you dead, then we'll see."
"We're not here to fight, Jacob." Raymond reminded him.
"I know, I know... I just want to have a real battle, not fight with dummies." Jacob excused oneself.
"That doesn't give you permission to challenge someone."
"You're right, colonel Dracons." Agreed Thorax, the leader of Changelings. "We're not here to fight but unite against the same enemy, King Sombra."
"Bug Pony right. Yaks will beat up Dark Pony." Said Prince Rutherford, Yaks' ruler.
"I must agree, that Sombra is the one to beat." Ember added.
"We all want to defeat King Sombra, but it's not an easy task." Celestia said. "First, we have to learn as much as we can about him. His location, plans and everything what we can."
"That's why we're sending Jacob to the Crystal Empire." Luna said.
"We have a supposition, that King Sombra has a hidden chamber in Crystal Empire, under the palace." Said Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, ruler of the Crystal Empire. "Jacob might be capable to find it, using his abilities."
"Unless, Crystal Heart won't let me in." Jacob said.
"In that way, I will take Heart and, when you'll be in, I will spread a magic barrier, what will protect us from Sombra's attack." Cadence said. "Shining Armor and Twilight will support you."
"I can agree with this. They know castle better than me." Jacob said, remembering himself about being knocked out by Sombra. "But, for now, let's celebrate this moment of peace."
Party was quiet and very snooty. Jacob has got used to this kind of company during his stay in Princesses' castle. Ray wasn't grumbling, too. On Mars, he was a participant of many parties of this kind. Only Main 6 wasn't in good mood being here.
Jacob have decided to talk with Twilight and her friends. He saw only Twilight, when she was coming on her bionics lessons.
"I thought, that you will be wearing something more... official." Rarity complained.
"Actually, I have under my chest plate a noble robe, modeled on Polish outfit, called 'Kontusz', from XVII century." Jacob explained.
"Jacob likes to learn about old cultures from Earth." Twilight added. "He mostly likes the Slav culture. Whatever it means." Twilight murmured.
"It's not only a simple clothing. It's also interspersed with carbon fibers, 5 times stronger than steel, yet 2 times lighter."
"So you ordered it?" Rarity asked surprised. "Darling, you should have ask me in person."
"I wanted to keep it in secret. You've done great, Rarity."
"I-it really suits you." Fluttershy added.
"Little edgy, but still..." Rainbow said.
"Anyways, how are you, girls?"
"We're fine, sugarcube." Applejack said for the others. "How's ya' goin'?"
"Can't complain. Celestia and Luna are nice and they've gave me a free hand, if it goes with my hobby."
"You mean 'DIY'?"
"Not only that, Rarity. I have other hobbies."
"Like what?"
"You know, collecting stamps, fencing and my powers."
"It's magic, Jacob." Twilight corrected him.
"I rather call it 'powers' instead of 'magic'. If you don't mind."
"I don't but it's still magic."
"Stubborn as usual, I see... Well, I have a date with buffet and a barrel of cider so... Have a nice day. Unless, you want to join."
"Actually, Ah'm lil' hungry, but I rather to grab some Granny Smith's apple pie." Applejack said and walked to her family, what came to the party with her.
"Anyone else is leaving?" And everyone else left. Everyone, except Pinkie. "Beggars can't be choosers..." Jacob said to himself. "Come Pinkie, let's grab something to eat."
Jacob walked to the buffet with Pinkie Pie, jumping behind him. At the buffet Jacob noticed someone familiar.
"Shining, you old son of a gun. Long time, no see."
"Good to see you too, Jacob." Shining Armor said, brofist-hoofing with Jacob.
"How your little Flurry?"
"Small and full of energy, as always." Shining replied, taking his daughter off the baby carrier.
"How are you, little snowflake?" Jacob asked. Flurry Heart replied with giggle.
"Wait a second, you already know each other?" Pinkie asked surprised.
"Shining and Cadence visited Canterlot, week after I woke up from a coma. Shining and I quickly became pals. We also had a little sword duel."
"You almost defeated me."
"I'm still learning. Maybe one day..."
"How do you feel about tomorrow?"
"Positive. Except a trip to the city in the middle of an ice desert."
"Don't worry. In Crystal Empire is very warm."
"I heard from your wife it's pretty... how to say that... lovely place."
"Yes, it's lovel... wait a second. It was a joke, wasn't it?"
"Fuck, I thought you won't catch it." Jacob said with disappointment.
"Is that because of Crystal Heart, what is powered by love of the crystal ponies?" Pinkie concluded.
"Yes, it is." Jacob agreed. "I just hope that crystal will see me as an ally, not enemy. Or else, I will end like Sombra four years ago. Wait, crystals can think or see? Maybe we live in Matrix, where things have feelings and consciousness and we are only sparks in their life? Or maybe they were hiding it from us and revealed it by this crystal?" Pinkie and Shining looked at Jacob like he was someone crazy. "I had 'crazy' faze again, am I right?"
"And I thought I was the one, who talks crazy things."
"Pinkie said, feeling that her craziness goes on a vacation." From nowhere appeared creature, what looked like a cluster of many different creatures. It was Discord, Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony. "Thank you for introduction, narrator. Don't screw up this time."
"Who are you talking to and who the fuck are you?" Asked Jacob.
"Like narrator said, I'm Discord, Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony. You must be Jacob, that Inquisitor. Weird, you don't look, like Spaniard. And you don't speak Spanish. Let me fix this." Discord snapped his finger.
"No pasó na... Que? Hablo Español? ARREGLARLO IMMEDIATAMENTE, HIJO DE PUTA!" Jacob said 'Nothing happe... What?I speak Spanish? FIX THIS IMMEDIATELY, WHORESON!'
"Fine, fine." Discord snapped again.
"I speak norma... Yes, it's English." Jacob started laughing. "THAT WAS AMAZING!!!"
"I think, we can find common ground."
Jacob made a tricorn from a nearby napkin and put it on his head. "Just find a ship and let's find it."
"If you were a girl, I would give you a kiss. Wait a second..." Discord turned Jacob into a girl. His, or hers, hair was longer and goatee disappeared. Plus, on armor were visible two B size breasts. "May I... Jacklyn?" Discord laughed madly.
"Honestly, it's not bad. I'll come back soon." Jacob/Jacklyn disappeared and returned after 15 minutes. "I must admit... Girls enjoy it much better."
"Enjoy what?" Pinkie asked.
"You don't wanna know. Now, turn me back. I feel, like a complete idiot." Discord nodded and turned Jacob back to his normal gender. "I'm no longer a pussy. Now, I'm a dick."
"Vulgar, yet alluding to the situation. We should talk later. Ciao." Discord disappeared by snapping his fingers once again.
"It was nice to talk, but I want to talk with Luna and my brother. See ya' later."
Raymond decided to have a talk with Princess Celestia. Mostly about Jacob.
"I hope my brother wasn't a bother for you, Your Highness." Raymond asked before taking a sip of wine.
"Not at all, colonel Dracons. Jacob is little... childish, but that's all."
"That's my brother for you. He always acts like a big child but he made me proud today. He acted like a real man."
"I was surprised, too. I thought that he will go there doing moonwalk or this kind of thing. But, he did it, how he should have. Proudly, seriously and respectfully."
"But, this armor... where Jacob got it?"
"Luna ordered it for him. It's made of the same metal, like your space suits. Twilight have found the way to make it malleable."
"She's very intelligent. I wish her best of luck in the future."
"Anyways, Jacob's childishness wasn't that bad at all. Actually it brought some life into this castle. Being a princess is a big responsibility and it gets boring after over a 1000 years. Jacob always knew how we could have fun after a long day of duty. He build many devices from your world, like television, disk players and consoles."
"Jacob have brought from Mars a lot of movies, games and music. I guess you like human kind entertainment."
"You have very big imagination if it goes to this topic. Personally, I liked 'Harry Potter' movie series. Albus Dumbledore reminded me my old teacher, Star Swirl the Bearded."
"I'm still better than this human. He got killed by his own friend. Besides he wished for it." Said Star Swirl, walking next to Celestia and Raymond.
"Jacob would now say something like 'someone got grumpy in old age'." Said Ray, looking at Star Swirl.
"Star Swirl has been like this, since I know him. He raised me and my sister."
"What about your parents?"
"We've never known them." Sighed Celestia.
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"You don't have to. Now I have all the family what I need. Luna, Cadence, Twilight... This is my family."
"Dad used to say: 'Friend are family with what we aren't related'."
"Funny. Jacob has told me the same thing."
"I guess we agree with that one thing."
"Let's change a topic. How do you feel in Equestria?"
"Very good. Citadel is a good place to live. I often walk to Ponyville to meet the locals and do shopping. I've even made some friends. Octavia Melody- local cellist, Starlight Glimmer, Rarity..."
"I see, that you rather more... formal company."
"Maybe it's true but, a couple of days ago, I noticed some green lights in Everfree Forest. I thought this might be Sombra but I found there nothing."
"Green lights, you say... Thorax, could you come here?"
"What is it, Princess?" Asked Thorax, walking towards Celestia.
"Was one of your Changelings in the Everfree Forest, a couple of day ago?"
"No, I wasn't sending there any Changelings. Do you think, it's her?"
"It's very possible."
"Excuse me, but who's 'her'?" Ray asked confused.
"Before I became the leader of Changelings, there was a different ruler. Her name is Chrysalis. Back those days, we were brutal creatures what feed on love of innocent ponies. Now, we're completely different and Chrysalis was exiled."
"And now, she might have returned." Ray concluded.
"First Sombra, now Chrysalis. We're living in the dark times." Celestia said.
"I can check on this." Ray volunteered. "I have a thermal imager so, even if she turns invisible, I can easily detect her."
"It's very noble of you, but you shouldn't go alone."
"Twilight's friends should be a good company."
"Then, you will go there, when Jacob will leave on his mission."
"I will."
Jacob was leaning on the column, holding a glass of wine. He had in mind the night, when he was attacked by this drone. When he regenerated, after Sombra's attack, he checked on drone's memory card. The bizarre thing was, it had no data on it. Like it was cleaned after taking damage. Jacob, at start, thought it was Sombra's job, but it happened before he dropped tempting Jacob. Engineer's had no idea what to say about this situation.
"Something on your mind?" Jacob gasped a little.
"Luna, I told you. No sneaking to me." He said, grabbing his chest. "About your question, no, it's fine."
"Was Sombra talking to you again?"
"Nah. Even if he try, he will be stopped by the metal plate what I installed in my head, 3 weeks ago." Jacob said, hitting his head. "Can you tell me what should I look for when I will get there?"
"For anything connected with Sombra. If you'll be lucky you might find The Void Judge."
"It tells me something but... Could you remind me, what is this?"
"It's one of the Artifacts of Darkness, weapons used by the Dark Sorcerers during the Black Plague."
"But, what exactly is this?"
"It's a sword made of the Dark Magic itself. It's easy to recognize. It has a guard in the shape of three claws pointed above, half moon head and white wrapper."
"Eagle arm, your ass tattoo and bandages. I'll remember."
"Jacob, this is serious."
"Jeez. I get it. It's my first serious mission, so I won't fuck up. I promise."
"I hope so."
"But, what is so important about this sword?"
"Sombra knows spell, called Combat Symbiosis. It makes him immune for every kind of physical attack and makes every attack return to the attacker."
"So... If I'll try to hurt him with my sword, I will hurt myself."
"That is correct. You can figure out the rest."
"I can but why do I need this sword if I've got my powers?"
"You haven't finished your training yet. This weapon might be very helpful for you."
"Youuu... have a point there."
"Jacob, you're our first line of defense. If we lose you, Equestria... the entire planet is going to be in a great danger."
"Isn't it already pretty fucked?"
"It is but things always go worse when we don't expect it. It's like you said. By pressing one button too many you can destroy the entire world."
"Then... let's stop the hand from pressing it." Jacob grabbed a class of wine more and hand it over to Luna. "I'm suggesting a toast. For the better future of Equestria and the entire Terra-2. Cheers."
"Cheers."
Jacob and Raymond have finally found time to talk to each other. They've met in Jacob's room/workshop. On the pile of schemes was sleeping Cone. Next to him was jar, earlier filled with ants and termites.
"It's been over a month since we landed here and I still don't feel here like in home." Ray said with crossed arms. "Everything doesn't make... sense. The history, natives, flora, fauna... I wish our scientists were here to do some research."
"Look on the bright side. We're alive, we have home, friends and even job. Wasn't that the reason why we came here?"
"No, it wasn't!" Ray shouted, throwing off the table Jacob's stuff. "We've had more people, more equipment and everything planned! This isn't home. It's prison. We're prisoners on this fucking planet!"
"Don't say you want to go back on that Galactic Shithole called Mars?"
Raymond giggled. "It was just a test. And you passed it. A+, lil' bro."
"You've got to be shitting me..."
"This place is great. Even if we've stuck here for the rest of our lives. I just wanted to check if you're still that crazy bastard whose I call my brother."
"You think some politics and nobles can change me that easy?"
"I've heard from Princess Celestia that you're the one who's changing."
"It can be boring here. Not only for me. Celestia and Luna are always exhausted after their shifts and they need some entertainment. Luna really likes video games. Sometimes, even to much. One time, when she lost with boss, she destroyed the entire room. "
"You really like Princess Luna, don't you?"
"She's a great friend and an amazing mentor. That's all. And I've heard that you're going to hunt for Changelings when I'm gone."
"I'm just doing my job. I'm a soldier so I serve to my land. Earlier, it was Mars. Now, it's Equestria."
"I thought you still want to go on with this mission."
"I have a new mission now. Live here."
"That's Ray, who I knew and loved!" Jacob said, hugging his brother.
"Okay, that's enough." Ray said, pushing Jacob.
"Sorry, I forgot that you hate when I'm hugging you too much. How's your life in Citadel?"
"Nice, yet boring. I want to go on the mission. I have an opportunity tomorrow."
"Haven't you hunting for Manticores or Timberwolfs?"
"I have but then Fluttershy gave me... 'The Stare'." They both shivered.
"I hate when she does this. It's like looking into oblivion. It's even scarier than Sombra."
"Yeah, about Sombra. I want you to be careful. He's very dangerous."
"I was trained to fight with him. Don't worry. Now playing games and watching movies for years will find it's use."
"I withdraw every time, when I called it a time waster. Those repeating things about villains can be useful for once. But still be careful."
"I will, big brother. I will..."
Jacob heard knocking on his door. He opened it and saw Emerald Feather, the maid what usually calls Jacob for breakfast with princesses.
"What is it?" Jacob asked.
"One of Crystal Empire guards has appeared in Canterlot. He's brought very distressing news. Princesses are calling you and your brother to the throne room."
"Lead the way." Maid nodded, then brothers started following her.
"What is going on?" Ray asked confused.
"You're not the only one confused here. But I know who would be the reason of this news..."
