“JAI! Breakfast is ready! You need to be up for school!~” A feminine voice called from outside the door. Jai groaned and turned over pulling up the covers. Ah it was this dream again, one he’d had a few times in Nocta.

“Hmmm 5 more minutes ma…” Jai mumbled. His aunt sighed and cracked the door open to let their dog in. Their German Shepard ran into the room and jumped onto the bed licking him in the face.

“Ocean wants you up too, mister. Go brush your teeth and get ready” His aunt said walking away giggling at her nephew struggling with the dog.

“Agh! Fine, I'm up! I’m up!” Jai screamed in mock despair. Sitting up and yawning, Jai moved the puppy off of him. Petting her he slowly got out of bed and walked to the bathroom. Grabbing his clothes from the chair by his desk on the way out. Setting his clothes down on the toilet seat, he looked at his disheveled appearance in the mirror. His messy black and grey locs sticking up all over his head. His wrinkled black T-shirt, caramel skin, and tired grey eyes looking back at himself, as he yawned.

“I haven't seen auntie Dani since I was 12, man I miss her,” Jai whispered to himself as he sat on the checkered tiles. As he thought about what was happening, his surroundings faded and reshaped once more. This time he was at his high school, in the hallway. From the room to his right he heard his own voice.

“ALRIGHT FINALLY WE’RE DONE!” the dream Jai screamed at the top of his lungs stretching his arms out. Watching his past self finish cleaning the room he remembered this day; it was the second to last day of his freshmen year. He didn’t know he could dream like this but weirder stuff had happened to him. Shrugging he decided to just follow his past self to see if this is what he remembered.

“Dude, shut up. I don’t want to have to deal with Mr. Herbert calling us back inside” Samuel said annoyed. The two of them looked at each other as seriously as they could for a few moments. After about 30 seconds of their intense stare off; they burst into laughter.

“Alright alright my bad Sammy. Let's get out of here and go eat. I'm starving.” the dream Jai said exaggeratedly, wiping a tear from his eye. Samuel nodded in agreement smiling and scanned the empty school yard and all of its now empty parking spaces.

“Make sure you have everything. Your mom will be so mad if she has to bring you back over the weekend,” Samuel said sarcastically.

“Touche man. Your parents would be so happy if they had to grab your backpack from school…again,” Jai shot back.

“It was a bad week man let it go,” Samuel groaned, as Jai snickered at him. As the duo continued their banter, they froze as the sound of brakes screeched. Jai sighed as he realized this was the day he lost Sam. Seeing the scene slowly fade he heard Amore’s voice in his ear.

“Welcome… back…” The voice said, before everything around him turned a blinding white. Then after a few seconds he saw a man with wings that looked like him. He was talking with a pale woman with long red hair.

“Huh, this is new.” Jai said, before both figures turned to look at him. The pale redhead looked at him with grey eyes like his own. She looked heartbroken upon seeing him.

“You poor thing…,” The redhead said, reaching out to him.

“He made it this far, he’s fine. It's too soon to talk with him anyway. Oh tip use a spear not a sword,” The man who looked like him said, before waving his hand and the dream ending.

“AH!,” Jai said, gasping for air and sitting quickly in a cold sweat. He wiped his forehead and swung his feet over the side of the bed. Looking out the window he saw the glow of the sun on the horizon. The colors of the rising Sun reminded him of Amore and their morning walks. Sighing, he looked at the clock on the wall; 06:27.

“Ain't goin back to sleep anytime soon,” Jai mumbled. He got to his feet and put on a black t-shirt and jeans that he’d gotten from Twilight after she saw all of the holes in his clothing. He wondered how she got his measurements to get these made, but then again he was grateful. Making his way out of the bathroom he crept to the bathroom to brush his teeth. As he was finishing up he looked at the door and saw Twilight's little green dragon looking at him. Towel and toothbrush in his claws, the dragon tensed up.

“Ah, Sorry didn’t mean to bother you,” Spike said, looking at the ground. Jai rinsed his mouth out and spit into the sink. Stepping around the dragon he went back to the guest room to grab Dusk, his waist bag, and boots.

“A little cold to the little dragon aren’t ya?” Sombra said, smirking at Jai.

“Whatever, it’s too early in the morning for this,” Jai said, yawning and heading out of the room and towards the door.

“ Mr. Jai, are you ok?” Dusk asked, wiggling in the sheath.

“Coffee shop, first questions later,” Jai said. Making his way out of the door, he paused in the doorway. Waving his hand he left magic letters by the entrance to let the purple Unicorn know he would be back. Nodding his head in approval he sifted through his waist bag to check for the ‘bits’ he was given. Feeling the cold coins he left to clear his head and search for a coffee shop.

“Even black coffee is too sweet,” Jai mumbled, as he took a sip of the drink. Although the drink was much to be desired he liked having coffee for the first time in, apparently centuries. He felt like he was having another existential crisis again thinking about how long he was gone. Taking a few deep breaths he pulled out his journal and began to write and doodle. He’d have to thank Selene if he ever saw her again for this.

“Um whoever you are…can you um…help me please?” A soft unfamiliar voice asked behind him. Jai sighed, and turned around to see nothing behind him.

“Now I’m losin’ it, great,” he mumbled. Then he felt a tap on his lower back.

“Um, down here, eep!” A yellow Pegasus with a pink mane, said. Her hooves over her head as she spoke. Jai tilted his head, and took a sip of his coffee.

“At least I’m not crazy yet. What’s up buttercup?” Jai asked, setting his drink down. He laughed to himself as he said that. It was something his aunt would say to him when he was little. The mare looked up at him with puppy dog eyes. He knew that look, he was going to get an annoying request, wasn’t he?

“Actually I’m FlutterShy and I was wondering if you’ve seen a little white rabbit? His name is Angel and I’m really worried about him,” She said. Jai shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.

“It's a figure of speech, but I haven’t seen a rabbit of any kind FlutterShy,” he said, turning around in his seat.

“Would you min-”FlutterShy began to ask.

“Yeah, yeah. If I see him, I’ll figure something out,” Jai interrupted, waving his hand dismissively. The mare's ears perked up, and she stopped covering her face.

“Oh Mr. Thank you so much,” FlutterShy said, smiling. Jai said nothing and kept writing in his journal. He had enough on his mind this morning and for all intents and purposes, he was stressed. He heard hoof steps walking away from him after a few moments as he finally closed his journal. Putting his journal back in his waist bag, he took a long swig of his coffee finishing it off.

“Dream journal started I guess. Next on the to-do list is to find a nice open field,” Jai mumbled to himself getting up.

“You’re going to look for a bunny… now of all times?” Sombra asked, appalled that this human thought now was the time to cater to others. Jai shook his head as he picked up Dusk, and yawned as he began to wander around Ponyville.

“Nah, since there's nothing threatening my life at the moment. I should stay ready, rather as ready as I can be,” Jai said ,causing Sombra to nod in approval. Strolling through the town Jai watched as ponies went to work, and began their days. It reminded him of walking through the Crystal Empire, man he missed that place. Wandering around town he saw a path that led out towards a forest.

“This is as good a place as any,” Jai said, taking his shirt off and folding it up. He had found a clearing in the forest with a few boulders, and oddly shaped bushes. After stretching, he began to swing Dusk. Focusing his magic around the sword as he did so.

“You haven’t made any progress with my original owner's sword dance. Are you bad at learning or?” Dusk asked, as Jai tripped over himself again. Panting, the human stuck the sword into the ground and sat on one of the rocks.

“I might be, but this is also just hard as fu-” Jai snapped at the sword. Then he heard growling from the bushes that were now forming legs and getting up. Taking the form of dogs, no, wolves fifteen or more circled him.

“Ah, Timber wolves. Haven’t seen these beasts in quite some time,” Sombra said, looking down at the exhausted human.

“Ya know, this is fine. I didn’t want a peaceful morning workout anyway,” Jai whined, as he wiped sweat from his forehead.

“I could deal with this for you, you know?” Sombra suggested, grinning. Jai rolled his eyes and stood up.

“Like hell I need you for this. Push come to shove I’ll use shadow magic,” he said, popping his knuckles and pulling Dusk from the ground.

“Try not to die!” Dusk said, enthusiastically, making the human laugh. Focusing, he felt magic swirl around him, A gold semi halo forming above his head.

“Fought and lived through worse,” Jai said, smiling as the wolves began to charge at him. Swinging Dusk around the human removed limbs and heads alike from each wolf that came his way. After the first 3 the others became wary and circled him. They had realized his limited range and sought to use it. Jai remembered the dream figures words. Since Dusk could change shape, why not a spear? Channeling his magic, his halo turned Silver as he turned Dusk into a simple silver spear.

“You actually had a good Idea. I'm so proud,” Dusk said, vibrating in his hands.

“Whatever cursed weapon,” Jai mocked, as he continued to slaughter the pack of wolves. When he was done, there were heads, legs, and various other timber wolf body parts scattered about.

“Not bad However I would not have taken any bites from those lesser beings. You also could have been messier” Sombra said, scoffing at the bite marks and scratches on the human.

“In my defense asshat. They waited until I was already tired. Thisis fine,” The human said motioning to himself.

“I agree! Your magic is different from my other owners but it's fine,” Dusk said. Jai picked up his shirt and shook off the stray grass and dirt from the fight.

“You say that every time. Ah hell my shirts all messed up,” Jai said, throwing it over his shoulder and relaxing. The halo fading as he walked towards town with a grin plastered on his face. He felt good, despite the minor injuries. Getting some exercise helped set his mind right about his next course of action. First was to wait for Celestia, then find out what happened to Amore and how to get to her. Before all of that however…

“You’ve got an audience if you haven’t noticed,” Sombra said, sitting on the humans shoulder. Jai turned to see four ponies and another dragon goat thing looking at him.

“There you are the- Are you ok?” Twilight asked, rushing through the crowd of ponies.

“Yeah, fine. Just a few scrapes, cuts, and bites. Nothing magic won't heal,” Jai said nonchalantly.

“What happened? I saw your message this morning, but then my friend said there was a problem outside of town and I got worried,” Twilight said, scanning over the human frantically. She needed him alive and well for obvious items.

“Oh uhhh, I think they’re called timber wolves?” Jai said.

“You were attacked by Timber Wolves? Well I guess we’ll have to put out a warning for them,” Twilight said, sighing in relief that he was ok at least.

“They’re dead so don’t worry about it,” Jai said, pointing at a few of the heads that were still intact. Twilight looked around wide eyed as her jaw fell.

“How does your magic work? How did you do this?!” Twilight asked aggressively.

“I believe the words you're looking for are ‘thank you’,” Jai said, lifting up the dirty black tee. It had claw marks and holes all over the front. Twilight huffed in irritation due to her questions being brushed off but she relented.

“Thank…you,” She said, trying to sound grateful; She was grateful but she hated his attitude. How did Celestia ever put up with him?

“Mhm, so who are they? What's with you and being around dragons? I hate them,” Jai said looking at who Twilight had brought.

“I beg your pardon? I am Discord the draconequus and the embodiment of Chaos, not a dragon,” Discord said, crossing his scaly arms.

“I wouldn’t get involved with him and that is coming from me,” Sombra said, frowning at Discord. Jai could have sworn he could see Sombra the way he was looking at him but there was no way right?

“Don’t care. You look too close to a dragon for me. Next?” Jai said, ignoring the pouting draconequus. He saw an orange pony, a blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane, and a white Unicorn.

“Howdy partner, I’m Applejack,” She said, waving.

“I am Rarity. A pleasure darling,” She said, nudging the blue Pegasus.

“I’m Rainbow Dash, I saw your fight with those wolves! It was so awesome, you were like; Swoosh, Zoom, Pow and they were like-” Rainbow said, re-enacting the fight she saw before going to Twilight. Jai facepalmed as he listened to the Pegasus go on and on. He didn’t know if he was pissed that she just watched, or that she was doing an awful job with the sound effects.

“Charmed, Anyway when’s Tia gettin here? I need a shower,” Jai said. Twilight’s eye twitched hearing the human refer to the Princess in such a casual manner. Applejack as if on queue jogged over to Twilight.

“Well we shouldn’t be standin’ around, Twi said the Princess would be here later today,” Applejack said. Jai, content with that answer, smiled.

“Great! One step closer to getting filled in on the time I missed,” Jai said, happily.

“You don't look much younger than us. How old are you for a princess to fill you in?” Rainbow Dash asked, hovering next to the human as he began to make his way back down the trail to town.

“Oh I don't know, give or take a few centuries I guess. Fighting like your life depends on it seems to have kept me young,” Jai said, sarcastically. He tried not to think too hard about that fact again, he’d panicked enough today.

“Ah few centuries? So you don’t age like the princesses?’ Applejack asked. Jai shrugged his shoulders once again.

“Who knows. Maybe the halo keeps me young,” The human said, as he turned Dusk back into a short sword.
"What she didn't tell you about that?" Jai asked, pointing above his head as he channeled his magic.

“How? Huh?” Twilight asked, pulling out her notepad once again and writing what she was seeing.

“Oh, aren't you just a treat? What did you say he was again…a Human?” Discord asked, amused. He was still annoyed that the human thought so little of him, but he could take his time figuring out why.

“Human, yes and stay away. Or don’t I’m ok with a fight,” Jai said, inching away from the draconequus.

“Hmm another time, I have a tea date so, Ta Ta now. Oh and I hope you like the shirt,” Discord said, before disappearing in a puff of smoke. Jai groaned as he looked at his now repaired shirt. The only difference this time, being the atrocious color scheme of the chimera all over the front.

Author's Note

Sorry if the dream section of the chapter is a little confusing, I'll try to fix it if I can. Enjoy another intermission type chapter. Hope it gave ya a chuckle of some kind with a bit of lore drops and character set up. As always dms and comments are open for edits here, if I missed anything. I'll edit this sometime tmr, its 3am rn lmao (I know I missed commas by dialogue please please please don't say anything I'm gonna fix it just lazy)