Chapter 6:
Leader

Two guards sat next to me on either side while Rainbow and Twilight sat across from me at a table which was located in what I presumed to be a barrack of sorts. My head was still swimming as the blood loss in combination of a unicorn's magic had made me very drowsy. That said, even though my mind wasn't all there, whatever magic was applied was immensely effective at treating wounds. My arm might be stiff as hell, a quick inspection revealed it to be healed quite neatly.

What a medic back home wouldn't do to be able to treat wounds like that... Though it was probably for the best that I was a bit out of it, direct application of magic like that would probably have freaked me out severely.

My gear was nowhere to be seen, except for the pistol and rifles which I knew Dash had in her bag and could see slung around her body after having refused to give them up to the guard ponies. Both Rainbow and Twilight still had traces of camo on their faces as they probably had trouble washing it out. Dash though was still wearing the pants shirt and camo scarf I’d given her.

“You two okay?” I asked them as they silently sat and brooded.

Twilight looked up and raised an eyebrow. “You’re asking us? What about yourself?”

I waved dismissively. “Just a scratch.” My voice was rough as I replied with a smirk, causing Dash to chuckle.

“You’re absolutely insane, you know that?” She smiled.

“Just a bit. Did you two get food already?”

"Yeah, while you were being treated we raided the kitchen of this place. Finally got the taste of wild grass out of my mouth." Rainbow answered.

"And you got nothing for me? These two ain't letting me do shit," I said with mock offence while smirking and motioning towards the guards.

"W-Well, I... Uhm..." Right then the door opened, revealing a guard that seemed more decorated than the others. Twilight certainly seemed to recognise him though.

“Shining!” she shouted as she jumped at the other unicorn.

“Twily!” The two embraced each other but my gaze was drawn to the second pony to enter. A tall, white, winged unicorn with an ethereal flowing hair coloured in cyan, pink, and green. She was wearing a large, gem-studded, golden crown and torc while walking on golden shoes. My skin crawled as an aura of authority just flowed from the large pony. Twilight and Rainbow immediately bowed down in respect, the guards beside me not looking very impressed as I didn’t do the same.

“Rise, my little ponies, there’s no need. I am glad you’re both well,” The angelic voice rang through my ears as she spoke. This was definitely the Princess that had been mentioned before by Twilight and Rainbow. “And you, we have not met before. I hear you accompanied my student and her companion over the last week?”

I gave her a respectful nod but nervously scratched a claw over the table in front of me. “Yes, Your Highness. Jack Grey’s the name.”

“Please, just Princess will do,” the large pony said as she sat down at the head of the table. “My name is Princess Celestia and this is the prince of the Crystal Empire, Shining Armor.” She pointed at the new guard that now sat next to Twilight. “As you might be able to imagine I am very interested in getting to know what happened over the last week.”

“I’d love to tell you but unlike your subjects, I have yet to eat. Could I get some while we explain?"

“Definitely. Steel hoof, could you get our guest something to eat?” One of the guards that sat beside me nodded and walked out of the room at his Princess’ command. “Now, Twilight, if you could enlighten me what happened after I sent you on your way to investigate.”

“Of course Princess,” Twilight cleared her throat and sat up straight. “It started with us arriving at the griffin outpost in the north where I’d estimated the magic pulse had come from. We hired a guide from there to take us into the forest and spent the next week trudging through the thick snow cover.”

“Did you find the site of the pulse?” The Princess interrupted, I kept my mouth shut as I waited for Twilight to answer.

“No, we did not… We found something, or rather, someone else.” Twilight guided everyone’s gaze towards me while I patiently waited. “I am fairly certain that whatever caused the pulse displaced Jack here into our world.”

“Is that true mister Grey?” Celestia asked, keeping her stoic expression up but sounding genuinely interested. “Would you mind telling me about who you are?”

“Of course, I did indeed not come from this world,” I answered, anxiety starting to seriously kick in. “I’m just a regular person and, to be honest, changing into a completely different species and being dumped in a strange world is kind of terrifying.”

“I can imagine that to be the case,” the Princess said, looking at me with a slightly pitiful expression.

“Apologies, but may I ask a few questions?” Shining asked as he seemed to have been holding back. I gave him a nod to ask ahead. “I want to know how in the world you were able to take down all the griffins you did, my guards were pretty clear that they found a bunch of griffins they hadn’t downed that had strange wounds. The same for griffins of the group that cornered the scouting party that alerted us to the main force.”

I looked over to Dash. “Rainbow, could you present the assault rifle?” Dash immediately unslung the rifle and placed it on the bi-pod built into the foregrip. “This is what caused the wounds you found on those Griffins.”

Shining immediately tensed slightly, so did the guard sitting next to me but neither made a move. Their tensing also served to wind me up further. “Continue.”

"I think I told Rainbow and Twilight too much already but the basics are that it fires a projectile at high speed. A bit like an arrow but smaller and much higher speed."

“Why would you need something like that?” Shining asked as he realised the implications for that.

“Because he’s a soldier,” Rainbow answered for me as she slammed the mag back into my rifle. At the same time, the guard that had gone to get food came back in with a plate of... something and placed it in front of me.

“You’re at war?” Shining asked, echoing the same question Twilight had asked and I looked at the unicorn to explain why while I tasted the stuff in front of me before starting to devour it as it was great.

“No, he isn’t. They have standing armies for deterrence and ‘counter-insurgency’,” Twilight recited for me as I wiped crumbs off my beak.

“She’s right, though I must admit that I’m pretty sure I’m missing some memories from before I got here, mainly because of some nasty nightmares, but I’m fairly sure we weren’t engaged in open conflict,” I said before working the rest of the stuff they'd gotten me down.

“Mister Grey, thank you for telling us this but I’d like to know what happened after the train was raided. We got the story of some loud explosions happening in the train from the passengers. May I assume those were from these weapons of yours?” Celestia asked this time, I gave a nod to confirm that.

"The firing of projectiles will produce a bang, and the amount of them is because you can fire multiple projectiles rapidly."

Shining cringed. “That sounds…”

“Awfully effective?” I finished for him, making the unicorn cringe.

“That’s one way to put it,” the Princess said, her passive mask cracking slightly as well. “You must understand I cannot let you run around with powerful weapons like these among my ponies.”

“Nor can I just give them over to you,” I told her while frowning, folding my claws in front of me.

“We could just take them from you,” Shining Armor pointed out in return but flinched as I locked eyes with him and leaned forward on the table.

“Then I hope you’re ready to pull them from my cold, dead claws,” I growled, one of the guards next to me immediately lit up his horn and pulled me back. The unexpected move immediately triggered my fight-or-flight as my heart rate spiked. Twilight had not used magic directly on me and with the doctors I'd kinda been out of it...

...This though made something snap in me as all my old, and some new, instincts were calling for self-preservation.

Before anyone could respond my fist had cracked the offending guard's muzzle, sending him sliding across the floor a significant distance. The second guard found himself below me as I tackled him of his seat but before I could hit him, something smashed into my side and sent me into the wall.

Both the guard I'd just attacked and the one I'd already downed jumped on top of me and pinned me down. A couple more guards from outside rushed in to help immobilize me, strapping my wings to my side and putting on a set of heavy-duty cuffs.

"Jack!" Rainbow had surged forward, helping the guard hold me down. "Look at me, you need to calm down."

My breathing started to slow down again as I got back into control of my body, my claws still shaking from the adrenaline rush.

“Mister Grey, I would like to avoid such drastic consequences, you did do a very large service to me and my student after all. Would a compromise be possible?” Celestia said as the guards backed off slightly, leaving the restraints in place and Rainbow alone to calm me down. “Would you be satisfied if we had them in a locked chest which you hold the key to?”

“I’d rather have the lockbox than the key or have the box somewhere I can check up on it easily to see if there hasn't been any tampering,” I said with heavy breath.

Celestia looked over to Rainbow who was looking between me and the princess with concern. “I see Rainbow carrying your weapons is not presenting that big an issue, would you allow her to take custody of them?”

I looked over to Rainbow to see if the pegasus would be okay with that, getting a little nod from her as she seemed to understand. “That would be satisfactory, yes.”

“Then it is done,” Celestia said, a collective sigh of relief going through the room as you could feel the tension drop. “Now, I wanted to ask you if you have any clue who those griffins were that we found searching for you? The ones we managed to capture have said nothing yet.”

“Other than that they wanted Rainbow and Twilight? Only speculation from a place of experience,” I admitted to the Princess who sighed.

“It was worth a try but if you don’t I’ll get my ponies on the task of finding that out. We should discuss where you will remain for the time being then, while we try finding out the exact means of your arrival here of course.”

“The library has a reserve bedroom he could use?” Twilight offered. “Since I take Jack would like to stay close to that chest with his… tools anyway with Rainbow in Ponyville.”

“Are you sure you’re fine with that, Twi?” Shining armor asked, glancing at me with suspicion.

“I spent three nights in the forest with him, Shiny. If he really wanted to hurt me he’d have done it by now,” Twilight countered. “I’ll be working on trying to figure out the mechanics of his arrival regardless and I feel indebted for him keeping us out of the claws of those griffins.”

Shining sighed. “Just wanting to make sure my little sis is safe.”

Twilight nuzzled her brother in response. “We’ll be fine in Ponyville, I’ll be surrounded by friends over there.”

“Worrying is part of my job as big brother,” Shining said, hugging Twilight.

“We should really be getting back to Ponyville soon, Princess. I’m sure the other girls are really concerned about us,” Rainbow interrupted.

“I sent them an update the moment we found you two, they were on the verge of joining the guard in the search too,” Princess Celestia told Twilight and Rainbow to help put them at ease. “I’m sure they would like to see you two in good health though. I’ll arrange for a suitable chest and train ride down to Ponyville along with some more bureaucratic arrangements. If you could get Rainbow to gather all your weapons up then I’ll get the chest here soon.”

“Yes, Princess,” I replied with a nod as the Princess got off her seat and left the room along with Shining Armor, leaving the other guards to watch over me. Another guard came in with my backpack and other equipment, placing it against the wall. “Dash, please put the weapons on the table and empty my backpack.”

Rainbow placed the rifles and pistol on the table before digging stuff out of my backpack while I pointed to the boxes with ammo that were stored in it.

“Jack, why did you become so angry when my brother suggested taking away your weapons? I mean, I get they’re dangerous but you went ballistic,” Twilight asked as Dash placed the boxes of ammo along with grenades on the table as a guard brought in a box.

“Look, see this from my perspective. I’m sure you think your Princess has the best of intentions but I have no idea of what her intentions with those weapons would be. In my world when you give weapons like this to people who don’t have the technological know-how on how to make them themselves, it usually ends with a lot of corpses,” I explained, one of the guards releasing my cuffs as I verbally lead Rainbow through unloading my weapons. “If your kind hasn’t designed these weapons then I’m going to assume there never was any pressure to make them in the first place.”

“That’s… actually very noble,” Twilight admitted as we finished lining up everything I deemed too dangerous.

“Not really, just don’t want to have something like that on my conscience,” I shrugged.

“Well whatever you call it I still think it’s admirable,” Twilight said, not relenting a bit. She proceeded to carry the chest from there in her magic, explaining that the lock wasn't conventional but magical in nature as well. It would only be openable to Twilight and Rainbow, something I thoroughly tested by doing my very best to try and open the darn thing, only to be bested. I stashed the rest of my gear back into the backpack and put the jacket I’d given to Twilight before on again, the one I’d been wearing had been cut up and bloodied heavily, propping my beret onto my head.

“Hey, why are you wearing that thing? You had it on when we found you as well but it doesn’t really blend in like your other stuff,” Dash pointed out as she looked at my beret.

“It’s the ‘casual’ headwear for a soldier for when we’re not wearing a helmet. Mine is red to signify I’m with an airborne unit.”

“Airborne? You guys fly?” I nodded. “That’s awesome! You should have told me before!” Dash squeed as Twilight led us through the hallways of the building with the guards in tow, finding the princess at the exit to the building along with her other guards.

“I’ll be in contact with you my student, I need to finish some business over here in Manehattan but I'll send two of my stallions along with you on the train. Have a safe journey home.” Celestia said, giving Twilight a hug and Rainbow and me a nod. The two Guards followed us as we got a pony pulled taxi to the train station, Twilight got us into the first train leading inland with the provided tickets and to what would be my new home for the time being.

Author's Note

Hope the little freakout was believable. For now Jack will get a small bit of a reprieve.

Remember that comments are like authors' food, we gain energy from them. Constructive criticism is welcome.