Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 3
Notice

Chapter 1
View Online

The Nexus

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own MLP or any of the related media. This is just me having some fun and trying to get a story out of me. By the way, before you guys start reading, can you please go down to the bottom and read that author's note? You'll see why in a sec.

'So, this is what it's like to die? Damn, I thought it'd be quicker than this.' Thought Jarrad, 'Kinda funny if ya think about it.' He might have chuckled had he the ability.

Jarrad lay prone on the floor as the hole in his chest continued to bleed out. A gun shot wound made by a deranged psycho; a drugged up "crack-head" that didn't even need to be holding a gun. His life was ending because of some random act of the Universe. There was no cause for it, no reason for this death. It wasn't noble and it wasn't righteous. It was simply an act of "shit happening". You see why a part of him wanted to laugh, right?

A man of about 50 leaned over him with tears running down his face, somehow trying to save his son. On the one hand he was lucky enough to be a doctor, on the other this wound had no way of being healed. It went right for the heart. He had covered the wound and was attempting to apply pressure, but in the back of his mind he knew there was nothing he could do; his son was as good as dead. The recent nick on his carteroid artery would make sure of that. The old man was holding Jarrad with his head on his lap, trying to keep him awake, to keep him there.

"Jarrad, no Jarrad, stay here!" the man shouted in despair, "Jarrad stay awake!"

Jarrad looked his dad straight in the eye before grabbing the back of his head with his hand. He had one last thing to say and he was going to say it whatever it took. He tried to swallow which was near impossible with all the blood pooling in his mouth. Luckily for him bleeding out didn't mean his throat didn't work.

"Rejoice in those who return to the force, dad." He managed a wheezing laugh, figuring it was the best way to try and assuage his father's fears, and his own, "Tell mom and Sally I'm sorry, I don't mean to hurt them." his wheezed out, "I love you Dad, and I'm sorry."

With that his head lolled to the side and his eyes became vacant.

"Jarrad? Jarrad….Jarrad?" asked the man. He clutched his son's head to his chest and cried. Nothing seemed real to him. His mind couldn't process it; his only son dead. Even when the paramedics and police arrived on scene they almost had to pry this man from his son. He was beside himself in his despair, sinking to the ground and crying till there were no tears left in him. His fiance arrived to help take him home and try her best to console him, however futile it might have been.

But this isn't the focus of our tale. As the old saying goes when one story ends, another is able to take its place. And ladies and gentlemen, we have reached only the beginning of this story.

On another world in another dimension we find the Land of Equestria. It is a land of pony folk and mystical creatures. A place where magic roams free and the imagination can actually affect the outcome of the world. Where the inhabitants live in harmony with nature and the planet given to them by…well, quite frankly no-one knows. You have your gods and rulers, such as Celestia and, up until a thousand years ago, Luna. You even have just regular rulers, like those who reign over the Draconian and Griffon kingdoms. We don't need to discuss them in any detail quite yet, but let it be said that each of these rulers, god or no, is extremely powerful. However, they are not all powerful. Each one is still bound by rules and laws of the universe. Laws such as gravity and light, even the law of conservation of mass and energy. Strictly speaking they are powerful but they cannot create out of nothingness. Hence, using Equestria as an example, it was not MADE by either Luna or Celestia. Nor any ruler or god who came before them, but by something far more powerful and unknown.

Ah, my apologies, I did not mean to pontificate. Anyway, let us simply refer to this grand creator of reality, Equestria and Earth included, as the Source. For the sake of this tale, if for nothing else.

So, what is a good name for the planet that is created here? Well, Equestria is the name of only a continent on that planet so let's refer to it as…Gaia. Yes, that name shall work just fine. It's the name of the mother earth, the spirit that protects and nurtures all her children; a personification of sorts of the Source and all its glory. On this planet of Gaia we have all kinds of creatures, some fantastic and some not so much. Once again, though, we must keep our focus ON the continent of Equestira. We can come back to the others at a later time.

Now to set the stage a bit there needs to be a small history lesson/review on more contemporary events, just to make sure we're all on the same page. We have Celestia as the ruler of Equestria. At least, she is the full ruler at this point. Really she should only be the co-ruler alongside her sister Luna. However after Celestia imprisoned Luna in the moon for a thousand years for attempting to bring about eternal night things got a bit out of sorts. Celestia had to take over as the full ruler of Equestria and raise both the sun and the moon on her own. This would not last forever as after a thousand years Nightmare Moon, or Luna's evil persona, returned to bring eternal night. Her plan was foiled by Celestia's most precious student Twilight Sparkle and the Elements of Harmony.

The Elements of Harmony are magical foci that allowed her to bring forth the pure magic of creation. They were used in order to end the horror of Nightmare Moon; returning Luna to her original form. However as a consequence she was drained of power and was forced to resume a form much smaller and weaker than her original. She now trains along with Celestia in secret to gain back her old power and eventually take up her position as the co-ruler of Equestria: Princess of the Night and raiser of the Moon.

Now that the "quick and dirty" history lesson is over we may begin to talk about the present. You see some time after the "Nightmare Moon" incident Twilight Sparkle began to study in secret and ancient and long forgotten magics. Magics that had been lost for ages and presumably had not been used since Celestia and Luna's co rule. Our story begins some time after attending the Grand Galloping Gala in Canterlot. Twilight has made her way home with a spell book from the personal library of Celestia. Now, if Celestia had forgotten that the book held this particular spell we are about to see or it was part of some "grand plan" that the good witch was concocting we simply don't know. However, the book Twilight had taken as a reward from Celestia held a "Door Spell". It was a spell designed long ago to summon creatures from other worlds. Well, creatures and objects to be specific, but that little translation quirk is actually the reason why we are in this predicament.

To begin Twilight first used a viewing spell*. She wanted to have some kind of a focused summon rather than a simple chanced summon. After all, who would want a giant mawed Xenomorph or a Weeping Angel coming after them for no reason? What she found in one particular world was terrifying. She saw a planet called earth with inhabitants that looked like hairless monkeys. Well, mostly hairless, but hairless by comparison.

She saw their massive towers of steel and iron, their chariots that didn't require something to pull them, she even saw the indoor plumbing. Just by seeing these things she could tell this was a highly advanced and intelligent species. But the more she looked the more disgusted and terrified she became. What she couldn't believe was that such an intelligent race would leave their planet in such as state. Even go as far as to kill others over silly and unintelligible things. Money, ideologies, even gods they could not see or interact with. It was revolting. She knew she didn't want to summon any of these creatures, so she settled for trying to summon an object. She allowed the spell to simply "float" for a bit trying to find something to summon. In a small restaurant in a no name town she saw someone on the ground in the arms of what she would assume was a parent and there was blood. A lot of blood. She couldn't believe what she was seeing; she was witnessing someone's death. It struck her with a morbid sense of intrigue for a moment before she shook it off and continued. Thinking quickly she knew exactly what she wanted to drag into this world: she was going to drag whatever was causing him harm and hopefully help him heal.

Disengaging from her view of Earth she rapidly began to draw runes on her library floor. She had sent Spike out to Canterlot on errand for something or other. In all honesty she was so focused on her work that she completely forgot exactly what it was she wanted. She didn't have the time to think about it right now, she was on a mission.

Once she had finished with the runes she began to picture the person in her mind and lit her horn. Her magic flowed through the room pulling directly from her, siphoning magic from her in order to make the spell work. It was an old spell and powerful and our young pony both underestimated its power requirement and her own abilities…sort of. You see, she had a great deal of power at her disposal, but she simply did not have the knowledge or experience to fully draw upon it and control it. So when she began to feel the raw power drained from her body she fought back. As any ranking mage will tell you; this is a horrible idea. It is quite the same as attempting to lift a heavy object or run farther and faster than you have ever before, without ever training up to that point. You are drained, weak, sore, and can quite frankly die from the sheer amount of strain it puts on the body. Not to mention exactly what can happen to one's magic. Twilight did not care about any of this; only getting away from this vacuum that she felt was trying to suck her whole body out through her horn. Before her pain became enough to cause her a loss of conscious a bright flash and shockwave flung her back into the wall, sending books crashing down onto her.

She was knocked unconscious for over an hour before she was alerted to movement in her library. She forced herself out from under the pile of books and attempted to readjust her vision. Her body hurt all over and she was having trouble thinking clearly. However, once her vision was clear, she wished she hadn't. She thought she had done something wrong when she felt so much power being drawn from her; but the proof of the act was far more terrifying. There, on the floor, was the very human who had been dying. She had drawn a…creature from that world into her own. She had taken something from a world of horror and death and brought it onto Equestria.

Under more normal circumstances she might have fought it, taken time to imprison it so Celestia could examine it, or even gone so far as to try and reverse the spell. But she was hurt and her mind wasn't fully functional so she did the only thing she could think of: she screamed as loud as her lungs would allow.

"AHHHHHHH!" she cried, "HELP! SOMEPONY HELP ME!"

There was no response. It was too late at night and the tree house was far too from another house to overcome that barrier. And unfortunately, whatever spell she had used had healed Jarrad from the bullet wound. He was formerly unconscious and now was being awoken by a very loud scream.

Jarrad jerked awake to see what was going on. He couldn't immediately make out exactly what was happening but he could see someone screaming. They didn't look human and that was all he needed. He was also operating on instinct alone and, given the fact he had just been shot in his world, his mind wasn't able to comprehend the "fight" part of the response. His will to "flight" took over. He bolted for the door and ran as fast as his legs could carry him. Somewhere, deep in the recesses of his mind, he realized a few very important things. He was taller by about 5 inches, had far more defined muscle and less fat, could run further without any kind of hindrance, and was even able to see better than when he had his glasses on. Hell, he could feel everything better, even his own body. However, that wasn't occurring in the conscious mind, it was only a matter of running as far and as fast as possible. Before he knew it he had run straight into Everfree Forest. Given that fact that he had awoken naked and didn't have any form of footwear his running directly into a forest without stopping to see what he was stepping on is quite an amazing thing, wouldn't you say? Of course, with all that adrenaline flowing through a new body it's only a matter of time until one does something stupid or completely runs out of gas.

Fortune decided to shine on him for once; he only ran out of gas. Gasping and weezing at least a good five miles from Ponyville Jarrad fell to his knees. He felt like he couldn't breathe. His whole body hurt and he just realized he had about three or four mild to serious cuts all over him, even a large one on his foot. His whole body felt foreign, almost like he was merely watching himself do these things from another perspective. It didn't take long before it all caught up with him and he began to fall to the ground. Before he passed out, however, he saw a cloaked figure walk tentatively towards him. He tried to fight to stay awake, but his mind was in shambles. The cloaked figure reached him a moment later. Taking a moment to examine him this figure made a noise of satisfaction in some unknown language and nodded its head. It hoisted Jarrad onto its back and moved it into a small shack inside a tree in the Everfree Forest.

This hut was covered in old African looking masks and other trinkets from a far off place. The figure moved with the body into the hut and deposited him on a bed before removing her cloak. It was a mohawked zebra wearing dangling earrings: Zecora. Zecora moved through the hut with purpose. She examined Jarrad for his injuries; adding salve and bandages to help the healing process. She began boiling a concoction to assist in his apparent fatigue as well as assisting his wounds on a more internal level, speeding the healing process. During her examination she came across a tattoo on his left shoulder. It struck her just exactly who this person was and why he was here. She knew this human was important, that he had to get back on his feet and in top physical condition. Even though the situation seemed dire she couldn't help but feel a sense of glee overtake her. He was finally here, and she had been waiting for his arrival for a very long time.

A few days had passed on Jarrad had yet to wake up. The whole ordeal had exhausted his body and his mind; leaving him in need of serious rest. After all, would not dying and bring forced back to life have that affect on anyone? Finally, on the third day, he began to rouse. He moved a bit as consciousness was returned to him. His mind woke first with a very odd thought.

'Why the hell do I feel like I'm on a bed?' it asked. This wasn't right, he should be dead. 'Wait…wasn't I just in a forest?' it was all confusing for him. He remembered the weird creatures and running into a forest, but if felt like a far off dream, still on the fringes of his mind.

Realizing his possible situation his eyes shot open. He took in the room in an instant and did not know what to think. It looked exactly like Zecora's hut from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Wait, that couldn't be right. His mind raced. On the one hand this could really be the great beyond and all of the fights that people had over what was after death were so utterly wrong. But the fact that it was My Little Pony, well, that was the most hilarious thing he could have thought of. The ultimate "fuck you" of the universe. Or it could be that this was heaven simply by his own design; but if that were the case why would it be My Little Pony?

"Was I really that much of a Brony?" he asked. He loved the show, he really did, it was awesome. But…did he really love it so much that heaven was literally forming into My Little Pony? If so then there was some stuff he really needed to worry about. However, realization hit him: he was dead. He was shot by some drugged up crack head and this didn't make any sense. Even though the idea had some level of plausibility…it was too random. Would the universe REALLY make the afterlife like one of his favorite cartoons, "Why the fuck would the universe make death look like a kids cartoon?"

"While I may not be this cartoon, seeing you up and well is certainly a boon." Said a distinctly feminine voice to his right. Jarrad's head swiveled over and saw someone standing in the door to the hut. His mind shut off for a moment in sheer shock. This really wasn't possible. Maybe it was all a dream and he was really alive. Yes, that had to be it, there was no way this could be real. He survived and this was all just some kind of wild nightmare. He was laying in a hospital bed after some extensive surgery? That had to be it, right?

"Zecora? What the fuck?" Jarrad asked. He figured he might as well go along with it for now.

She nodded, "Might I ask how you know of me?".

"….you're a fucking cartoon." Stated Jarrad, as if it should be obvious. I mean, this was his mind, why wouldn't they be aware of it?

" As I have made clear, I am of this "cartoon" you seem to hold dear." Answered Zecora.

"Alright, then can you answer exactly where I am?" asked Jarrad

"You are in the Everfree-"

" I know where I am on this world…but this world can't be real. Hell, I shouldn't even be here I should be-" before he could finish he was hit with a large amount of pain. It was intense and radiating from his right leg. He looked down to see it as well as a few other spots on him bandaged. It struck him instantly: he felt pain far too intense to be dreaming. It was different than phantom dream pain he sometimes got. This was the same pain he felt when he was awake, or aware of being awake, whatever ontological argument one might want to use. He finally realized: this was real…or at least as real as his own world. That scared him.

He stared at Zecora with fear in his eyes, a wild look of an injured animal before sliding back as if attempting to escape her. He hit the wall and tried to slide back even further. When he realized he could he attempted to get up and run before two hooves were placed onto his chest and he was thrown back on the bed. Before he could protest he felt a prick on his arm, then the world went apathetic. It reminded him of a drug he had taken during an out patient procedure years ago. It made him feel like nothing mattered. Even if a t-rex had jumped into the room and eaten his leg he wouldn't have cared.

"I'm sorry, but you need calm. Since you had to fight I had to use a special balm. Now, tell me everything, please?" she asked. He stared in her eyes for a moment and suddenly felt content. He couldn't describe it, but he suddenly felt safe with Zecora; whether this was good or bad remained to be seen.

Taking a few moments to catch his breath he tried to recall all he could. It wasn't a blur but remembering everything hurt; or at least he thought it would hurt if she didn't pump him full of something.

"How much do you know about planet earth? About the religions, cultures, and continents?" he asked.

Zecora stared at him for a moment before dropping her head and walking toward the door. She shut it was well as the windows sluggishly, dreading on letting this person know some of her darkest secrets.

"Of this planet earth I know, because the seeds of vision have been sown. As you can tell by my precense, I am one of a different essence. Not simply because I am a Zebra. But because I serve the great mother." She spoke.

"Who, Gaia?" Jarrad said somewhat jokingly. The look on Zecora's face told him it wasn't a joke at all.

"Your humor is misplaced, even if you have hit it on the face. Gaia, the great mother, is the spirit of the land we are over. She is the planet itself, and she is in dire need of help. She has shown me visions of different planets and their people connected by the source, the multi-verse, all for the one who would arrive here first." She explained.

"Wait…so it was expected that I would come here?" he asked.

"No, not you specifically. Look at the mark on your shoulder." She pointed out.

Jarrad took down the blanket to look at himself only to find an intricate tattoo had been draped across his left shoulder. At the time it only covered his shoulder but somehow, to him, it felt almost..alive.

'It feels like that tattoo thing…the brand, that's it. It feels like that growing brand thing from Final Fantasy 13.' He thought.

"That tattoo marks you as a very important part of Gaia." Said Zecora.

"Wait…what?" asked Jarrad dumbly, his mind began to race with possible scenarios, "What do you mean I'm 'part of Gaia'? Am I a servant like you?"

"No, you are far more important than a servant like me. Rare is there one who is as powerful and important as the. You are a Nexus*." She clarified. By this point Zecora had taken to sitting on the bed across from him, or as much sitting as an equine could do. Jarrad couldn't help but stare at her; her eyes held a somewhat mystic hold. Suddenly he remember Pinkie's song…and it made him laugh.

"Might I ask what you find so amusing, surely you can see it's my story you're abusing." Spoke Zecora, slightly offended.

Reaching a deep note, as deep as he could go, he began Fluttershy's version "She's an evil enchantress and she does evil dances. And if you look deep in her eyes she will put you in trances. And what will she do, she'll whip up an evil brew, and gobble you up in a big tasty stew, sooooooo watch out." Waving jazz hands at the end.

Zecora was struck dumb for a moment. She wanted to smack him for making light of the situation but another part of her found it amusing this person knew about Pinkie Pie's song. It was somewhat refreshing and helped bring a bit of humor on a serious moment.

"Sorry, sorry. I got caught in your stare for a second and I thought of the song." He apologized, Zecora looked like she was blushing for a moment, "Anyway, when you say "Nexus", you mean like a bunch of things coming together? A bunch of lines or something?"

Bringing herself back to the moment Zecora nodded, "You are the center of magic on Gaia."

"Wait…run that by me again. What do you mean I'm the center of magic on Gaia? Like all magic flows through me or something?" he asked.

Zecora nodded. "The shortest answers is yes, but I fear a much more in depth explanation is best. However before I begin to tell you of this, can you tell me what your story is?"

Jarrad was confused for a moment, "You mean, my life story or something?"

Receiving a nod in response he began his own tale. It was a little uncomfortable, but given the drug still working in his system he didn't feel the need to shun her request.

He told her of his family. He began with his mother and sister, detailing his problems with them. How his mother was a neurotic mess who, while she tried her best to take care of him, never seemed to have hear head in the right place. She was both a drinker and a smoker. Not so much that she needed help or harmed them in any way, not at all. But it make talking to her a pain. That and it always seemed to bring out this…cross that she carried around with her everywhere she went. He spoke in great detail on this, almost venting out years of frustration.

He spoke of how his sister was not much more than a lazy ingrate and a slob who didn't seem to have the ability to clean up after her own messes. She just didn't get the world and didn't get herself. It caused him pain to see her as such and for years he had tried to help; but nothing worked. He was fighting a losing battle and eventually, he just gave up. He told of how it caused a massive amount of strife with his family, how he tried and failed many times to help, but it wasn't the help they wanted.

He told of how his parent's divorced when he was only a child, of how his father moved farther away and he barely saw any of him. His father, on the other hand, took on a different tone. It was one of longing and…respect. His father was way for a great deal of time after the divorce so every moment he held with the man was precious to him. What he loved the most about his father was that his father never caused him strife. After so many years of dealing with the "drama" put on him by his mother and his sister spending time with his father was a safe haven of sorts. He didn't have to worry about any of the same stupid and inconsequential junk with his dad that he did with the rest of his family. With his dad he was always able to remember, nothing really matters.

However, his voice changed as he went on to describe in great detail some of the harder times he had with his father, the times that weren't filled with a kind of inner peace. Before he was able to really reconnect with his father a woman came into their lives: his step-mother. This woman had some serious problems and would never put in enough effort to fix them. For years Jarrad grew up thinking he was…wrong. He was never really cared for by this woman, never really shown love and affection; he was only badgered and belittled for things that should have been easy to fix. She may have been thinking she was helping him in some way, but her method was far more hurtful than it should have been. If he was acting weird or having a problem she would simply tell him to "man-up", to quit being stupid, things like that. Rather than sitting down and talking to him she simply attempted to almost force him to be different. It built some horrible habits in him that he still tried to work with and come to terms with.

He had even told Zecora of contemplating suicide a number of times for various reasons. Of course, each reason all was from the same idea: he was tired. He was only about 22 years old and he was completely tired of all the bullshit that he had to put up with. To him it started with is college years studying Philosophy. It had given him a perspective, both on an internal level and external. He began to see the world in a different way than he did years before. And quite frankly; it was exhausting.

It was exhausting and he just didn't want to deal with it anymore. Normally he would simply walk away from situations that gave him stress like that, but the only way to walk away from that situation was to kill himself. He never did it obviously, and he never did anything self-destructive, but damn did he want to sometimes. Every time he wanted to a thought struck the back of his mind: he wasn't thinking clearly. He suffered from depression, possibly as a side-effect of him being neurotic himself, he didn't know and had never been to a shrink to get it "diagnosed". To him he could tell, depending on the severity of the feeling of depression that he wasn't thinking clearly. In the logical part of his mind he knew that there wasn't any reason to kill himself and if he thought otherwise he rationalized it by saying that was simply the way his mind was working at the moment. He thought of it as processing information in such a way that the outcomes were not really his own but a by-product of his disease.

Of course in retrospect getting a psychiatrist to talk to would probably not have done much for him. All a psych is good for is subscribing meds…well, that's a generalization, but you get the point. They give you a pill that's supposed to make everything better, and it might help, but there are other steps that need to be taken. He saw what can happen with that first hand with his now ex-stepmother. Meds only work to change the physical mind and help the process but it's up to the person to actually make the changes within themselves on a mental and spiritual level.

He told her about himself and his own problems. How it was almost a constant struggle every day for him. They weren't major issues and he was mentally stable, comparative a great many people, but he was still ill in some sense. It was always a fight for him to constantly remain aware of himself and his feelings so he could avoid doing something he would regret or ending up in the looney bin somewhere. It was aggravating to see the same thing happen for anyone and everyone he cared about. They all had been so wrapped up in their own bullshit that they never bothered to get their priorities straightened out; and it sickened him. Once again, this was the main reason he wanted to commit suicide. He had gotten so tired of dealing with the same problems day in and day out without any sort of respite…and it drove him crazy. He couldn't stand it and didn't want to deal with it anymore.

By and large finally being able to die was, at the moment in his mind, a blessing to him. He was able to protect his family and wouldn't have to deal with the garbage anymore.

"I mean, what more could I have asked for?" he grew sad, "Now I find that I'm stuck alive once more because some random pony decided to bring me out from my world. Hell, I don't even know how it's possible she didn't drag a fucking body instead of a live person? Do you?"

"Yes, I do. When a Nexus is summoned the magic of Gaia is linked to them, it would not do to have them meet their end." spoke Zecora

"So, basically, I was healed when I was brought here? Or was I given a new body? 'Cause I'm just now seeing you and I don't have my glasses. Hell, I look at my arms and see muscles not there before….I don't even have those damn love-handles from before? 'The hell happened?" asked Jarrad further.

"From what I can guess, it would seem a new body answers best. Gaia knew a new Nexus was summoned by the spell, knew that this person was felled. So she made a new body for them, all that was left was for consciousness to be hemmed." Answered Zecora.

"So…my old body is now back in my world having whatever the hell happening, and my consciousness is now moved to this new body which is laying on this bed?" he began, "Jesus Christ, if I didn't feel every little thing right now I would think I was dreaming. Or at least if I'm dreaming now then I was dreaming the same type of dream I was before. Of course, we're all dreaming in some way, but still this feels too damn real to be a dream."

Zecora gave him a look.

"Sorry, didn't mean to go off like that. The point I'm trying to make is that this feels real, as real as my old world did to me at one point, so if we're all dreaming then I'm having the same type of dream, or this is real. Either way, this place feels just as real as the old one did…so that's the only explanation. I've been summoned into the world of My Little Pony. Fan-fucking-tastic…now what?" he sighed.

"That is up to you. You have seemed to have led a very rough life, and I would not blame you if you chose to end it with a knife. However you must understand, if you choose to die then the land will as well by your hand. No matter how much you do not want it to be true, you are linked to the magic of the world so blue. If you do not live from now and on, the world will not live to see another dawn. Magic will fracture and life shall be at an end, even the great Celestia cannot defend." Rhymed the zebra.

"So, basically, if I die then the whole world will eventually die with me? Can you please explain how all this nexus shit works in better detail? Why is my life so important?" asked Jarrad, his body now working its way through the drug, "I mean, give me the whole school lecture on this. What am I now?"

Zecora didn't say anything. She continued to stare at him, but more intently than before. Jarrad found himself getting lost in that gaze. Then the room melted away and there was just Zecora's eyes. IN a flash they were golden and bright; then it all made sense.

One cannot really "explain" what it means to be a Nexus. It's something one simply realizes. It all makes sense and clicks in their heads, as it were, and enlightenment one could say. Zecora was using a special type of mental magic she had harnessed over the years to "explain" to Jarad exactly what it meant to be the Nexus.

By design, first and foremost, the Nexus was a sort of recurring incarnation. When a Nexus gave up, either his postion, power, or life, their knowledge and essence was kept by the Source. They were never truly allowed to become one with the whole of the universe once the same way others were, because they may be needed again in the future. The best analogy would be dropping a small amount of oil into a large pool of water. There isn't enough to completely make a new layer, but the oil never really gets mixed into the water itself. The Nexus may enjoy the same end result as everyone else, but their conciousness was always "on call" to come back in some way if needed. Each Nexus was able to meet the previous ones at some point in time, but it relied on a few different circumstances. Power, maturity, and situation usually being the most important.

What was truly amazing was that each planet, each world with the capacity for such a thing, were gifted with their own Nexus. Each one operated on slight variations of the rules, but not enough so that they didn't operate on the same wavelength. One could think of it as the source acting through the planets specifically. It created the Nexus for that very reason, so each planet could have a "guide" of sorts to whatever power was there. Agents of the source assigned to one planet, in simpler terms.

But, while the Nexus of one planet could gain knowledge of his or her predecessors, that only applied to that planet specifically. If a Nexus attempted to merge knowledge with another one then the mind would be unable to comphrehend all of the power and majesty of it and shut down, or explode. Each situation would cause a different outcome. They could connect to the source, but only by one path: their path. If they attempted to merge into a larger and more advance version of conciousness then they would simply cease to be. A safety measure to keep a Nexus from trying to become more powerful than they were meant to be. But regardless of this a Nexus was the most important person on the planet at any given time for one simple reason.

Magic moves in ebbs and flows. It will be powerful and potent for a time, followed by periods of either weakness or simply "laziness". Spells, for example, will change. Where once it took a great amount of effort to do something, it would eventually be no more taxing than reading a book. Then it would go back once more. The Nexus kept this cycle going by being the focal point for magic. A breathe to concentrate on during meditation. The Nexus would also be a measuring stick of sorts for magic. If magic was in a time of weakness the Nexus would become, not weak, but not so powerful as they were before. A spell that was once instinct would now take thought and concentration. Of course, this would apply to everyone, so there was no more of a gap between magic practitioners and the Nexus than there was before. Almost a universal constant, as it were.

Now magic, like the universe, takes a long time to start showing side-effects. It's an old and powerful thing beyond normal comprehension, so it works at an agonizingly slow pace. It took time, thousands of years, but eventually magic began to wear down and doesn't begin to recuperate. However there was still some hope left. Nexi are the only ones who can keep magic from descending too far, or bringing it back from the brink if there is enough time left. The opposite can happen as well. And a thousand years ago, when the Goddesses of the Moon and Sun dueled it did. When Celestia imprisoned Luna in the moon for a thousand years she effectively cut off a large amount the potential magic in the world, a Yang without Yin. Because of this magic deteriorated at an exponential rate, falling further than ever before. Even with Luna back she was not at full power for some reason or another. She wasn't ready to take up her former mantle. But, even then, the damage had been done. Magic was falling far and fast. And when it was gone it would be disastrous.

Jarrad realized he was now the most important person in the world. It was in a bad way before, the the goddesses had managed to tip the scales and place it on a one way trip down. Another thing he realized: he could not be allowed to die.

This all hit Jarrad in one moment. He knew Nexi, knew Gaia, he even knew magic. Over the coming years he knew he and magic would become closer and closer. In a way, the more he trained and the further he progressed, the better others would become. Quite literally, the whole of magic on Gaia was tied to him; he would become its personification. If he did nothing magic would stay the same, if he died magic would fade and eventually so would Gaia. Magic kept everything alive, it was the energy that ran through all living things. But, if he trained, if he became a fully realized Nexi…the possibilities were limitless.

Of course when Jarrad finally understood the weight of his importance he did something unexpected. He laughed.

He chuckled at first, mirthlessly, and then began to guffaw. It chilled Zecora to her core. This wasn't a laugh like Pinkie Pie would make; this was one of sadness and despair. In a way it scared her because it was the laugh of a mad man.

"This is fucking hilarious!" shouted Jarrad, "I finally die the way I want to on my own world then I suddenly get dragged here to be this great fucking protector of this one. I'm the most important person on the fucking planet! My god, the powers that be must have a REALLY fucked up sense of humor!"

Zecora did not like that remark on bit. She hooved him, or she would have slapped him if she didn't have hooves. Jarrad reeled for a moment, unbelieving that he had been struck.

"I don't not know why you behave as such, but insult the Source once more and I will grind you into mush." She seethed, she wasn't about to allow this "child" in comparison to insult something so powerful.

"What the fuck do you know bitch?" he answered right back, "I was able to make peace and to finally die and be done with it…but fuck no. This "Source" decided that wasn't enough. That I had to be brought to a whole 'nother world and be put up as the most important fucker on the planet. Oh yeah, karma has one fucked up sense of humor. Hell, if he had it his way, I'd probably be immortal. That'd really be him fucking with me."

He had started to laugh again, harder than before. But Zecora noticed after a few moments that this laughter was something else. It wasn't malice or anger she was hearing now, it was just sadness. She could even see tears forming on his eyes. It was then that the laughter became choked sobs pained wracks of his body. In that moment Zecora felt empathy for this creature, this human. He shouldn't have been a Nexus, she thought, he should have been allowed to rest.

She leaned forward as much as she could and drew him into her, trying to bring as much comfort as possible. Surprisingly he didn't attempt to shun her, just accepted that she was there. Eventually his sobs become weaker and weaker, until she could only hear light and even breathing. He had worn himself back out with his sobs. She knew that this position would be uncomfortable to sleep in, so she laid herself down on the mattress and brought him with her. Keeping her forehooves around his shoulders she positioned him for comfortably and rested her head on top of his.

"I hope that your dreams are far more pleasant." She spoke softly. She knew this person; no, that Jarrad, had a long and heavy road ahead of him. But she knew that she would be there every step of the way to make sure he made it. In some ways she owed him that much. But she couldn't help but feel a connection to him. He was still, even as old as he was, a child.

A/N: Alright, so this is just a rough draft of a story I'm working on. If I get people talking about it on here then I'll start making a new edited chapter to put up…and it may change how the story progresses. So please, while reviewing, keep this in mind. Thanks guys. OmniaetNihlae.

8/8/11-Before you guys do the reviews I want to give everyone a heads up. I know that there are no quotation marks and lot of punctuation is missing. Something about FFN has messed up in the uploading. If anyone knows how to deal with this please let me know. I don't mind being told, but I don't want people to think it's something I missed in writing the story.

8/9/11-Okay, hopefull there are quotations now. I went back and did some editing with the uploaded document. If anyone knows how to avoid this in the future please let me know.

8/12/11-I've updated everything for the most part and added some more meat on here. Let me know how it's going and, well, let me know if you think it's ready to move onto the next chapter. Also, I just realized, I find myself in need of a beta. If you have any experience please let me know.

*-The idea of the viewing spell and the summoning I got from Drax99 who wrote the wonderful story "Angst Much?". I want to give him credit here and say if you haven't read it yet...go read it NOW! ;p

*-The actual concept of the Nexus was developed starting from "The Guardian of Equestria" by David-ism. Again another awesome story you guys should go read.

Chapter 2
View Online

The Nexus

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own MLP: Friendship is Magic. That belongs to Hasbro and the genius that is Lauren Faust… and I make no money off of this.

Jarrad awoke an undetermined amount of time later. He slowly opened his eyes and winced. He had been dreaming; dreaming that he was home. He had vague visions of him being in his own bed and in his own room. He heard sister banging hard on the door, getting him to wake up and get ready because she needed a ride somewhere. He had rolled over to check his phone when the alarm went off, but it never told him the time. It looked distorted, but he didn't think anything against it. When he walked out the door to use the bathroom and suddenly found himself in his martial arts dojo fully dressed in his Gi, he knew this was a dream. He awoke to find himself still inside the small hut he now shared with Zecora. Lying on his back he heaved a sigh and ran his hand through his hair.

"Well, too much to hope this was a damn dream." He spoke. He still hadn't fully accepted the fact that he was in a new place, that while he wasn't dead and gone, he was unable to see his family again. As his mind worked and cogs cranked a thought occurred to him, and it scared him more than anything: Even though he had trouble with his family, a great deal of it in fact, would he survive being alive but being gone. To 'quit cold turkey' as it were? He felt an inhuman chill race up his spine. It was too much, even for him.

'I wonder what they're doing now, maybe planning my funeral or something?' he thought to himself. The thoughts weighed heavily on him; a fairly familiar feeling. He felt lethargic and listless, signs of his depression acting up again.

"Maybe that's why I reacted to Zecora that way," he thought aloud. He knew his depression altered his way of thinking, made things seem worse than they actually were or made him ignore things he didn't need to. It varied depending on what caused it, but he had dealt with it enough times to recognize the signs within himself. He knew he needed meditation, it generally helped him, but he couldn't bring himself to do it just yet. Right now, he just wanted someone, anyone, to talk to… so where was Zecora?

"Zecora! Hey, Zecora," he shouted. He got no response.

Muttering a few curses he got up, his body protesting greatly as he pushed himself out of bed. It felt stiff, sore, and unused. Even bending over caused some discomfort, not only in his joints but also in his tendons. Given the circumstances, a walk or jog to get warmed up was in order.

"Feels like I ain't stretched in weeks."

Upon stepping out of bed," he flinched as he put weight on his foot; he recalled his bandage and injury and grumbled.

Walking was a bit difficult with his injured foot. He made due, but there was a distinct limp in his step. He hoped that would go away soon… having a pimp-limp didn't look all that attractive to him. Searching the hut, in an attempt to get a better feel for his current residence, he stumbled on some clothes that Zecora had left for him. They were very… African looking in appearance. Given the circumstances Jarrad wasn't about to complain. There were a pair of leather sandals made in his size with wraps that went up his shins, more like leather greaves than sandals, really. A makeshift pair of underwear designed for… support and covered by a leather tunic with old designs and symbols similar to Zecora's cutie mark. There was a…vest or muscle shirt of some kind. It looked as if he had warpped more bandages around his body, but it was made of a comfortable cloth rather than leather like everything else. The piece de resistance was a pair of leather straps that went over his hands and forearms and wrapped around them, and a loose leather choker with a small pendant in the middle. It looked like a cross of some sort with a ruby at its center. Jarrad may not have been one for jewelry, but he figured he'd wear the whole thing, if only to humor Zecora.

"Well, at least I won't be flappin' in the breeze anymore." His voice became very aristocratic for a moment, "Goin' in the starkers just isn't for me or anyone."

While he took time to put on the clothes, struggling to deal with the straps and ties over his bandaged body, he examined his new physique. His body was more muscular and defined than before, the fat that had plagued him for years was gone, for the most part. His legs looked more powerful, almost like a seasoned runner. His arms the same, he could make out the divets and dips his muscles took, flexing what he could to see the extent. He looked town his torso to see, as much as he could through the bandages, that his pectorals and abs were even more defined. He still had some level of love handles and didn't look as…cut as someone like Tony Horton or Tony Jaa, but he still had a far level of fitness than years long past.

"Heh… if only Paul could see me now." He spoke aloud, saddened further by the thought of losing a chance to see his friends as well. He wondered for a moment what they were doing, before crushing the thought and moving on; living in those memories wouldn't help him now.

While donning the makeshift clothing a note fell from the tunic. Jarrad bend down to examine it. It was from Zecora explaining where she had gone. Apparently, while on an herb hunt for him in Everfree Forest Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy had all come running up to her in a fright. They had found Twilight the next day and had been told the story of her summoning experiment. They wanted to talk to Zecora not only to get her to help Twilight, but to also to warn her to be on the lookout for some kind of "hairless monkey". Twilight was in a tremendous amount of pain, but she said something about a "hairless monkey" thing and that it was very dangerous.

Spike still had yet to return so there was no way of reaching Celestia within a week, given the regular mail system. So, while Rarity cared for Twilight, Rainbow Dash had gone ahead to talk to Celestia and warn her about the possible threat. Zecora went both to help Twilight and get a feel for where everyone was at. If she could ease him into the conversation then maybe it wouldn't be so bad introducing him to the others. Celestia, on the other hand, posed a problem.

Jarrad's mind was racing with possibilities. He started his speculations on the basis that Lauren Faust's show was very true to the characters here. After much deliberation, he decided that he was going to be in some trouble.

"However the hell she knew the characters or made them aside," he mused as he began pacing nervously, completely forgetting about his foot injury, "that's a whole argument I don't even wanna fucking touch; this could be a problem. If I run into Celestia, what the hell is going to happen?" he began to pontificate, "She's the goddess so she wants to do what's best for all, but she's also Glenda the Good Witch… she's Dumbledore even. She fucking schemes and puts everyone else in her own little chess game… how's she going to react to me? I mean, she knows I need to be alive, that's definitive, so I'm safe in that regard I suppose. If she knows anything about the Nexus, which I'm pretty sure she does, then she knows how badly I'm needed. But, what does she know about humans? If she thinks we're some kind of "great evil" then what's she going to do to me? And if she considers me a threat, then is there some way she can make use of me and still take my freedom? And hell, if she does something is there anything I can do to stop her?"

Jarrad wracked his brain trying to figure something out. In the end, he came up with nothing. His only conclusion was that he did not have enough evidence to form a proper theory. Everything he had was nothing more than pure conjecture and speculation; not any of it had any real basis going. However, it was driving him up a wall. His mind was racing with all the possibilities, none of them good. If Twilight and the others found out about him before Zecora had a chance to talk to them then what was going to happen? Would he be trussed up like a thanksgiving turkey and brought to Celestia on a silver platter? Did he even have the ability to fight them if they did… or even worse, fight them and keep from hurting them if their intentions were simply misguided? He even wondered if he was able to properly judge their intentions.

It frustrated Jarrad to no end, so much so that in order to let out his frustration he slammed his fists down on the table in front of him. He expected the table to hold the force of the blow; it did not. The table shattered into four or five pieces with some falling directly to the ground and others scattering across the room. Given that it did not hold his weight and bounce him back like he expected, added to the obvious fact that he had just broken someone's table irritated him even more. He was about to punch one of the walls to excise his frustrations when he finally came to his senses.

"What the fuck am I doing?" he asked. He wanted to berate himself, to be angry and upset, to harm himself for his stupidity. However, he recognized it a simply an old habit he had yet to drop: self-flagellation. He was still frustrated, but he knew letting it out like this wasn't going to help anything. He let his body go limp and tried to breathe to calm himself. He focused his conscious thought on the movement of his breath in and out of his body. He was still angry and upset, but he had better control over himself and his actions. He had already acted like a petulant child, in his opinion, and he wasn't about to do it again.

"And now I have to replace that damn table… fan-fucking-tastic," he lamented aloud.

"Well ah'll be bucked Zecora, I thought you was jus' yankin' my chain when you said he wernt' happy 'bout bein' here," said a southern thick voice.

Jarrad whirled to see the two of the Mane Six, Pinkie Pie and Applejack, standing in the doorway along with Zecora and Big Mac. Feeling apprehensive and a little scared Jarrad dropped down a bit and assumed a very loose defensive stance. It was more a prep moment for him, simply to be ready in case something happened and bring his full focus on the moment. He highly doubted he could do anything at the moment, especially against Big Macintosh, but he wasn't about to be caught off guard if he could help it.

"Zecora, please explain," Jarrad's voice was full of trepidation.

"Jarrad, you will be fine, I've been talking with these ponies and they believe it is time." spoke Zecora softly.

"Forgive me if I'm not exactly receptive to the idea." Spoke Jarrad as calmly as he could. He was amazed at his ability to seem cool and collected when he really just wanted to run as fast as his legs would carry him, "And besides, if ya wanted to talk, why'd ya bring him? Ya don't bring someone as big as he is to "talk" without saying something loud and clear, no offense."

"We don' mean ta' scare ya. We jus' don' wanna have ya gettin outta control. Ya scared Twilight perty bad a few days ago." Big Mac answered. He knew where Jarrad was coming from; you don't bring somepony as big as Big Mac to negotiations without saying something loud and clear: don't fuck around.

"Well she scared the hell outta me screamin' at the top'a her lungs…and whattya mean 'a few days ago'? Zecora, how long have I been out," asked Jarrad.

"I found you in the Everfree Forest five days past, since we last spoke another two days have passed." answered Zecora.

"So I've been here almost a week," he thought aloud, his eyebrow raising. Zecora nodded.

"Listen sugar-cube, we don't wanna cause ya any harm, hear? We just wanna figure out a little 'bout ya." Spoke Applejack softly

Jarrad wanted to hold his stance or bolt. Every instinct he had was telling him to run as fast as his legs could carry him, but that damn logical mind of his told him doing so would be very counterproductive. First and foremost he had no knowledge of the area; running into it would be very silly. Second, if he ran, that would look bad to the others and would cause him more trouble. And third, he knew this was going to happen at some point, at least he had an opportunity to do and it now in a controlled environment. He dropped his stance and put his back to the wall of the "hut" then slid down onto his butt.

"Fan-fucking-tastic… alright, fine, ask your questions and I'll answer them the best I can," he spoke solemnly.

"Aww…come on, there's no reason to be such a mean grumpy Mcmeaniepants," Pinkie Pie lamented.

"My apologies Miss Pie, but I'm not exactly in the mood to get visitors. This is all happening WAY too fast for my comfort level," answered Jarrad

"Wait, how do you know my name? I've never met you before, and I would remember meeting as weird and awesome looking as you," Pinkie jabbered on.

"Zecora," Jarrad asked, "how much about me and Earth have you told them?"

"I gave them the overall explanation, the main difference between this and your nation," spoke Zecora

Jarrad nodded, trying to figure out the best way to approach this. "Alright, I guess being blunt is the best option. To put it simply I know a great deal about all of you because you're all not real, you're all part of a cartoon series where I come from," he said.

"Wait, I feel real. I mean, I'm as real as anypony else here. See, I can feel, I can see, I can even taste cupcakes with hot sauce on them, so I have to be real," Pinkie pulled on separate parts of her body after each statement to try and emphasize her "realness", "I'm as real as anypony else here."

"Yeah, what do ya mean we're not real," asked Applejack. Mac stood as still and silent as he usually did, although this time he simply trying to take everything in and process it.

Jarrad sighed and ran his hand through his hair, "Without getting into a fuck ton of pontification and ontological arguments about what is really "real" and what is not, for the sake of argument, you guys don't exist as I do in my world. In my world you guys are cartoons, fast moving drawn pictures that tell some kind of a story. How close that story is to real life I have yet to see; but I'm assuming that the show's creator knows a great deal about this world. She's gotten it right thus far, with as little as I've seen. Quite frankly, I don't know the full story behind it, but I know she has somehow taken this world and made a cartoon out of it."

"So, what do ya know about us all," asked Big Mac, his curiosity getting the better of him.

Jarrad heaved a sigh, they were going to be here a while, "First and foremost Zecora, apart from being a zebra, doesn't come from this particular land. While it might simply be another part of Equestria or somewhere else entirely, I don't know, that's never been explained. She has a great knowledge of herbs and healing ointments not readily available her simply for the fact that she isn't from here. She also, and this is a guess, practices meditation. Am I right so far?"

Zecora's nod signaled him to continue. Jarrad went onto explain what he knew about them from the series, starting with the Elements of Harmony and the defeat of Nightmare Moon, going into the Grand Galloping Gala. He attempted to add as much detail as he could based upon speculation, things such as Pinkie Pie's clairvoyance and Big Macintosh's personality; things that had not yet been explained simply for the fact that there wasn't a large amount of backstory on him as well as some other characters. "So…how close am I?" finished Jarrad.

Applejack's mouth hanging mouth was all the answer he needed.

"Then I guess it's safe to say what I know about you guys from the show is accurate here. That's good, that at least gives me a starting point for and it makes speculation a hell of a lot easier," he thought aloud.

"Speculation about what?" asked Big Macintosh.

Jarrad contemplated for a moment, should he really tell them? He hadn't even meant for anyone to hear him in the first place. How would they react to his perspective on Celestia?

"Do you really want to know?" he asked.

"Eeyup." replied Big Mac.

Jarrad chuckled, hearing one of his favorite lines from one of his favorite ponies, "Alright, here it is; I'm worried about meeting Celestia."

"Wait, why are ya worried 'bout that sugar-cube," asked Applejack, "Meetin' Celestia's really gonna help ya out with tha magic 'n everythin' isn't it?"

"Guys, quick question, what do you have in the way of mythology in this world?" asked Jarrad, he needed to work his way into the explanation.

"Well, we don't have much, but a lot of it involved Celestia and Luna creating Equestria. How they created ponies and all other creatures in the world, then their rise to power to help rule over all the ponies they had made. What's really fun is all the fun and parties they had. Ponies have been so awesome since those two stepped into power," Pinkie said in one breath. Applejack and the others were slightly surprised at her overall knowledge of the mythos of Equestria.

"So… is that the stuff you guys learn in school?" asked Jarrad

"Yep, that and a lot of other things about Cutie Marks… and that ugly boring stuff like writing, reading, and *gag* math." lamented Pinkie, sticking her hoof down her throat to emphasis.

"And what about history, where does your history begin, with the birth of pony kingdom as you know it; with Celestia, I mean?" asked Jarrad

"Yeah, it's a lot like that sugarcube… but why do ya keep askin' these questions?"

Jarrad's look darkened, "Zecora, how much of what they learn is true? How much is left out?"

Zecora frowned and looked away, almost in shame.

"That's the reason I'm speculating. I'm going to meet Celestia, being the Nexus it's inevitable. What I've been wondering is simply what kind of person she is," Jarrad explained.

"So, what do ya think? Ah mean, with as powerful as she is, wouldn't that help yah," asked Applejack, voice uneasy.

Jarrad closed his eyes, attempting to find the proper words to voice his opinion. He desperately wanted to be tactful about this, but there was simply no getting around it. He heaved another sigh. "In the myths of my world, old gods were powerful beings who could control the world on a whim. They could not just make it rain and storm but shine light and wonderment all over the land. Each god was responsible for a particular "thing", which encompassed other ruling bodies. There was a god for the ocean and all water in general. There was a god who assisted in the dead in the afterlife. There were even gods for things like war and love. However, these gods were not kind and benevolent. They were stupid, arrogant, and perfect examples of humanity. They did stupid and pigheaded things in the name of getting back at one another for one petty thing or something else. They were more like bickering children than rulers of the world and masters of the universe. They even had battles that raged across the cosmos for sometimes nothing more than minor transgressions. There's a very old saying in my world "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely." When a being has that much power then things can go catastrophically wrong. Quite frankly, I don't trust her as far as I can throw her and I haven't even met her. I don't know what she's going to do with me; she's as much an unknown to me as I am to every one of you. My overall fear is that, for the sake of the world, she is going to use me, not help me," Jarrad's explanation over it left all jaws on the floor.

The only person who wasn't completely blind-sided on this was Zecora, only because of the fact that she was able to see Earth before. Their myths and legends she knew, for the most part. She had a far better perspective than the others.

Applejack was the first to respond, about as well as Jarrad assumed she would. "Who the hay to ya think' ya are," she seethed, "Ya jus waltz on in here without sayn' so much as a 'How d'ya do?' an' start talkin' 'bout Celestia like she was gonna hog-tie ya and throw ya to the wolves. What gives ya the right?" Jarrad face became blank. Big Macintosh tensed up a bit; he could tell that this could get ugly. Jarrad managed to keep his cool and held his fist up then lifted one finger.

"First: I didn't waltz in here. I was fucking DRAGGED from my own world after I DIED! I didn't have a goddamn choice in the matter, and I sure as hell woulda chosen to stay fucking dead if I had!" The next finger went up, "Second: I didn't say one goddamn thing about Celestia 'hog-tying an' throwin' me to tha wolves'. I said I didn't know her and I didn't fuckin' trust her! You asked for it so don't get pissy with me when I give ya an answer ya don't fuckin' like! God fucking forbid I say a DAMN thing about your goddess and ruler simply 'cause I fucking can!" The third finger, "Finally: I have the RIGHT to say whatever I want about whomever the fuck I want because, unlike some people I can name, I'm a free thinking individual who has a mind of his own. THE RIGHT I HAVE IS THE SAME GODDAMN RIGHT OF EVERY SENTIENT BEING IN THIS REALITY; YOU GOTTA PROBLEM WITH IT THEN YOU CAN GO FUCK YOURSELF!"

Big Mac was not about to stand for someone talking to his sister like that. He reared his forelegs ready to charge. "TRY IT ASSHOLE! YOU AIN'T GONNA WALK AWAY FROM IT I PROMISE THAT!" shouted Jarrad, reared in a tighter practiced stance. He knew he probably wouldn't walk away from it either, but he was angry. This whole thing was getting to him a lot more than he originally thought it would. Of course, them pressing one of his big red flashing buttons didn't help either.

"WAAAAIIITTT!" Pinkie Pie jumped in between them, and with incredible balance, was on her rear legs standing almost as tall as Jarrad with her forelegs out between them trying to form some kind of barrier, "Guys, seriously, this isn't how you welcome someone new to Ponyville."

The sheer randomness of that one comment stopped all motion as Pinkie looked toward Applejack and Big Macintosh, "You guys need to calm down with all this. We have a guest to Ponyville who's never dealt with the Princess before. No need to get all angry and grumpy over someone with a new opinion. That's what makes life fun, right?" Applejack and Big Macintosh seemed to calm at her comment. It wasn't what she said, but exactly the fact that she said it that caused the room to stop. The tension in the room dissipated as she dropped down and bounced up to Jarrad.

"And you," she spoke, poking her hoof into his chest. Jarrad was a bit unnerved just for the fact that he was about to get a lecture from someone who's head was barely at his chest, though that was when she was on all fours, "You need to not get so grumpy all the time. The frown looks like it was etched onto your face from the moment you were born. OH, I know! Once we're done getting Twilight back on her feet we're going to throw you a party to introduce you to all the ponies in Ponyville. That'll get that frown upside down into a smile."

The fact that Pinkie's face managed to turn completely upside down and into a smile further unnerved him.

'She's so fucking RANDOM!' a voice in his head shouted.

Jarrad nodded in acquiescence. He knew getting on Pinkie's bad side wasn't a good idea, "Party of One" had shown that fairly quickly.

"Oh, and can ya cut down on that foul mouthiness? I really don't think Mrs. Cake would like me using up all her soap on your dirty little filth mouth, 'kay?" asked Pinkie. Once again, Jarrad only nodded. She'd do it, he knew that much.

Finally finding his tongue once more, "My apologies. I don't mean to upset anyone…but I only use that kind of language when I REALLY want to get a point across. I promise to watch myself from now on."

"Pinkie Promise?" asked Pinkie, her hoof on her chest.

"Cross my heart, hope to fly, and stick a cupcake in my eye." Jarrad recited.

His ability to recite it could not have made Pinkie happier, if gigantic smile and shining eyes were anything to go by. In a way the smile was infectious, Jarrad did start to feel a little better having her around. But something was bothering Jarrad, something felt wrong, then it hit him.

"Wait, what did you mean by helping Twilight back on her feet?" asked Jarrad

The room became solemn once more. He knew it must not be good.

"When Twilight Sparkle summoned you to this place, she acted with great haste. But she never fully understood the spell, so she is not doing all that well. Her magic was taken from her by force to compensate, thus her magic is now leaving her for an undesired fate," answered Zecora.

"Wait, what? Run that by me again?" asked Jarrad

"When she summoned you to here, her magic was not ready for something so severe. She simply did not know the power needed for the spell, thus she was frightened and scared for her life, forcing her body to go through great strife. The veins in her that conduct magic through her body, they have been snapped and broken oddly. The only way to help her plight is for you to be her "white knight"," explained Zecora.

"So, let me see if I get this; the "veins" or pathways conducting magic through Twilight's body are busted, and you want ME to do something about it?" asked Jarrad, pointing at himself.

Zecora nodded in the affirmative.

"Pardon my language, but I've been a Nexus for less than a week and have only spent about three hours conscious, so how the fuck am I supposed to help her?" asked Jarrad sardonically.

"Your instincts. All Nexi have the knowledge of the past, through time it will forever last. If you can harness this ancient knowledge in some way, it will help Twilight to be healed on this day." Spoke Zecora.

"…so I know how to help her without really knowing how to help her," asked Jarrad, his voice conveying his lack of faith, "Yeah, that sounds completely plausible."

"Jarrad, magic knows exactly what it needs to do. If you can move magic through the body of the mare, then it will help her and those who care. All you need to do is make the magic flow through her body once more; doing so will allow her pathways to be fixed as it moves from her core."

Jarrad stared blankly. He was skeptical to say the least. How could he simply walk up and help Twilight by making magic move? He had never even seen magic move in his life. He didn't know what he was doing. He remembered an old friend once telling him, 'No matter what, you just gotta get up and do it.' "Alright, let me make sure I got this. I need to go to Twilight and somehow "touch" the magic in her, the magic she innately carries. By doing so, if I can get it flowing, then I can get her body back in working order and it can repair itself. Or, to put it better, I'm activating her bodies' own self repair "system", is that right," asked Jarrad

Once again Zecora nodded and smiled at his clarification, "Once you touch her magic will take care of the rest, in a way, think of this as your first test."

Jarrad ran a hand through his hair. The logical side of his mind was telling him to simply forget about it, he didn't have the necessary skill. However, the same part of his mind had a thought; he was in Equestria, in what should be a cartoon. Magic was something real here, rather than simply some abstract concept used to explain a world that wasn't explainable.

His eyes widened and unfocused as he examined the possibilities. The rules were different, up could be down, and down could be right, for all he knew. He was operating on a set of rules that were, more than likely, useless. He figured that his best bet at this point was to trust someone who knew far more than he did at the moment; it hit him then. Beginner's Mind, this was it. At this point he had to focus as much as he could on the idea that he could do something, rather than he could not do it, like a beginner. He had to try and forget everything he learned about the world from his classes and from his parents; he was in a place where what he would think was wrong could be exactly right.

In short, he had to let go of old fears and notions until he learned more about how this world worked.

His decision made he turned to Zecora, ready to trust her, "Alright, how do I prep for this? I mean, what do I do, exactly?"

"Meditation will allow you to touch magic. If you can do so in your own body and soul, then you will be able to help the foal."

"Foal? Nobody said anything about a foal," Jarrad looked suspiciously at them.

"Um… well, it looks like Twilight summoned you here without proper know how of the spell. I mean, she knew all the words and symbols and all that stuff, but she made the mistake of bringing you her without knowing exactly what she was doing," Pinkie Pie nervously laughed, her hoof on the back of her neck feeling embarrassed for her friend.

Jarrad stared blankly for a moment, then started to chuckle mirthlessly, this situation just got more hilarious by the second, "So I'm helping the person who brought me here because they really didn't know what they were doing in the first place. Yeah, this is gonna be fun. Alright, tell me what I'm looking for when I meditate."

The shake of Zecora's head told him to be ready for bad news. "I cannot say. Magic is different for each Nexus, the way magic embodies itself will change depending on the corpus. It all depends on you. But you will know what you need to find, it will be buried deep in your mind."

"You mean, like my subconscious? Like I'll know what I'm lookin' for on instinct or somethin'," replied Jarrad.

"Exactly. When you have found touched the magic flowing through you, you will know exactly what to do."

" m'kay, so do I need to do it here and now?" asked Jarrad, his hands motioning to the room.

"While that would be the fastest, it will not be best. There is a place here in Everfree, a leyline of magic you will see. It is there you must find the path to your magic with your mind." She answered.

Jarrad heaved a sigh, a habit he seemed to be building around them, before motioning toward the door, "Let's go."

Nodding in agreement Big Macintosh, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie followed Jarrad and Zecora out of the hut. Jarrad limped closely to Zecora, attempting as best he could to ignore the pain in his foot. It wasn't excruciating, but if felt like his leg was being stretched too far every time he walked. He didn't know that gash was that bad, but he was feeling it then. They trekked further and deeper into the vast expanse of the forest, moving at a much slower pace than Jarrad was comfortable with. He wanted to just go and get this over with, but he knew they were walking….no, trotting slowly so that he could keep up. It bothered him a great deal the further they went on, aggravating his own insecurities and guilt complexes. He remained silent a majority of the way through, not wanting his own problems to weigh down the rest of them.

"So, what's it like where you come from?" asked Pinkie out of the blue.

Jarrad jumped a bit. So focused was he on Zecora and himself that Pinkie asking him the question jolted him back to his surroundings. Needless to say, it took him a few seconds to respond; the others seemed to notice his intense focus.

"What do you want to know?" asked Jarrad. He'd indulge her, it'd make the time go by, and keep him out of his own head.

"Well, what kind of people are there, what are hou-mans like, your family, things like that." Pinkie jabbered on.

Jarrad stopped for a moment. He wanted to figure out a nice way to put it, a kind way to tell Pinkie exactly what his world was like. He might have been upset and angry, at himself and his situation, but seeing Pinkie, he knew he couldn't hurt her purposefully. She had a childlike innocence that never seemed to be broken, more so than the rest of the cast, he couldn't summon in him enough of a bastard to hurt that purposefully. However, he wasn't going to out and out lie to her, not if he could help it.

"Pinkie, my kind has lost their way. We've been able to build towers and monuments taller than mountains. Giant buildings of metal, iron, and steel stretching as far as the eye can see. We've been able to bend some elements, such as fire and water, to our will. Even lightning, or a tamer version of it, is harnessed for our own pleasure. We have taken over nearly every single part of the world that we live in and "civilized" it. There are no other creatures on the planet apart from us with our sentience. Some come close, but even then, it's still no contest. We have control of the world and we know exactly how it should work," he elaborated, his voice heavy.

"Then why do you sound so down about it?" asked Pinkie

"Because, even though we seem to think we know exactly how EVERYTHING in our world works, we have no clue what we're doing," Jarrad came to a stop, "Pinkie, look around you. Look at the forest, the skies, the clouds, the birds and animals, even the feel of this place. Take it all in for a second."

Attempting to follow him she did so, she didn't know where he was going, but she felt a point coming on. She immersed herself in the sounds and smells of it all, the fresh air, chirping birds, the feel of the grass beneath her hooves. Even being a forest of ancient power and possible evil, it still held majesty and respect.

"Now, picture it gone. No, picture it burned to the ground and stomped on. Picture stone pathways made of concrete and mortar. Picture buildings being raised in place of this forest; tall buildings made from science and homage's to human progress. Picture all of the animals hunted down and killed simply because they have decided to make their homes there; no longer being hunted simply for food, but being brought to the very edge of extinction and beyond simply because we, the most sentient race, have decided to make our home there. And finally, if you can, I want you to realize that all of this destruction and carnage was caused in sake of one thing: progress."

Pinkie's face took on a look of abject horror. She had pictured it, or at least as much as she could, and she was scared and rather confused. "But, why would they do that? What would possess them to," She asked.

Jarrad continued walking, "My kind has taken to thinking that because they are sentient and no other creature is that they have the right to do whatever they want, it's damn disgusting if you ask me. They build monuments that show their stupidity and rake down forests, killing wildlife all for the sake of progress. However, on the other hand, some of my kind attempts to stop this cycle, but their methods are crude and baseless. They bomb buildings, destroy offices, and have even killed innocent people, sometimes all for a belief that is not their own. And don't even get me started on beliefs and religions, that's when things get really nasty. The best way I can sum it up is simply that people don't bother to truly THINK anymore. It's all about progress and one sided advancement, coupled with "in the now" thinking. They don't plan for the future anymore, simply hoarding and trying to live now with no thought to tomorrow." Jarrad paused for a moment in his rant, attempting to collect his thoughts, "Pinkie…if you don't mind, I'd like to hold that discussion for another day, I can't even begin to get into all the problems in any logical way, there are too many to mention and they're starting to get jumbled together. My mind isn't working the way it should right now."

"Why's that?" asked Pinkie, having moved right next to him.

"Too much happening too soon. I haven't had time to digest everything that's going on here." He looked solemn, starting to stare into the sky. His mind was like that; too much happening and it went into overdrive, near destroying any way of communicating his ideas in a succinct manner. Pinkie frowned a bit, but accepted the situation. Applejack, on the other hand, couldn't let something fall.

"What do ya think'll happen to 'em?" asked Applejack, her curiosity getting the better of her.

Jarrad stared at her for a moment, slightly offended at her not letting it fall, but he decided to answer anyway, "We'll die, simple as that. We won't take the planet with us, that's for sure, and I'm not arrogant enough to believe something as such. It's been through a lot worse than us over the years. We'll die, and the world will just keep spinning, simple as that."

"What if they do start to, ya know, "think" again?" asked Applejack.

That gave Jarrad pause, "To be honest, I've haven't the damndest idea."

"Well, what about your family? I mean, you miss them a lot, right?" asked Pinkie, her mood soured a bit.

Jarrad didn't answer. He had enough with the questions and simply wanted to make it to the leyline, heal Twilight, and then try and sort out everything. The others seemed to take his silence as a refusal and did not question him further. The rest of the trip continued in a rather uncomfortable. Sometime later they entered a small clearing in the forest; Zecora spoke to break the silence.

"We're here. Jarrad you must follow me with haste, everyone I'm sorry but you need to stay here and wait. We should return soon." Zecora spoke, stopping them in their tracks. Jarrad nodded almost solemnly. He followed Zecora further in for a moment before turning back to the others.

"To answer your question Pinkie: yes, I do miss my family. But they probably miss me more. Before I got dragged into this I was killed…pointlessly." With that Jarrad turned once more and walked further into the forest. He didn't bother to look back at the others, but if he had, he would have seen the looks of sadness and depression on their faces.

"AJ, I… I don't wanna do this anymore." Spoke Pinkie quietly, her eyes fell to the ground, tears dancing on the edges of her vision.

"I know sugarcube, but we gotta. Remember what she said, this is fer his own good and fer everypony else here." AJ spoke, her foreleg around Pinkie's neck attempting to console her.

A few tears fell from her eyes. If there was one thing she hated doing it was keeping secrets and lying to her friends.

Following Zecora further and further Jarrad began to feel a certain… thickness to the air. It was slightly oppressive, as if some unseen force was pressing down on him harder and harder the further he went in. The best he could describe was it was like trying to move through thicker and thicker Jello.

"Zecora, what in the hell's goin' on here?" asked Jarrad hesitantly

"The feeling of the leyline. In this place magic is strong and thick, but do not worry, if you keep moving it will do the trick." Zecora walked with confidence. She didn't seem at all bothered by the change in the air.

"Damn Zecora, don't ya feel that?" asked Jarrad

"Indeed, I do feel it. But as a servant of Gaia, my exposure to magic has been much higher. I can simply move quicker, because it is a sensation with which I am very familiar."

Jarrad shrugged and forced his way further and further through trees and over fallen logs. Given his injury it was now even more difficult for him to keep up. Zecora didn't seem to mind keeping the slow pace, or if she did, she never showed it. Eventually they reached a point where the trees stopped and the setting sun bathed their destination in a brilliant hue of red and gold.

Jarrad stared in awe at the edifice before him. It was old, very old. It had been worn down over the years and the forest seemed to have reclaimed much of it. Vines and moss had all but overtaken the giant structure, and much of what had been in the construction had simply worn away leaving only ruins. However, Jarrad would recognize it anywhere.

"Zecora, the leyline is in the old castle of the Royal Sisters? The place there the Elements of Harmony were held?" asked Jarred

"Yes. In this place the magic of Gaia is strong; here will be the easiest place for you to bond. Once we enter the heart of the leyline, you will be able to feel magic twist and twine. Once we are done here, then Twilight and the others will have nothing to fear." She lectured, leading him under a great stone archway.

From what Jarrad could guess this was the original entrance to the palace. It was connected directly to the forest itself and decorated pathways lined it from all sides. Stone statues, or whatever was left, were sprinkled here and there along the path. Hedgerows had become unmanageable and were now deformed and twisted. They had even begun to grow over and break the cobblestone path that led to the formal entrance of the castle, rather than this outer one.

Even with the degradation and decay the castle still seemed to speak to him. Even he could sense the raw potential in this place. He could guess there was a reason why not only did the Royal Sisters make their home here millennia ago, but also why the Elements of Harmony were stored here. He had seen old castles back in his world, heard of their coldness, the ghosts speaking and often screaming from the past. Each castle had a severe amount of unrest within it, imprints left from lost souls unable to fully move on in one life, leaving pieces of their anger and sadness behind.

Anyone entering a castle could feel this anger and the general sense of unrest upon entering. What struck him the most was that Jarrad felt none of that here. In a way, it disturbed him more than if he had felt the anger from old spirits here. This was, as far as he could tell, a place where a battle between two gods took place. The sheer amount of power generated by these two should have left some kind of an imprint of anger here, yet he felt none of that. Just an overwhelming feeling of peace. Of course, this didn't stop his cynicism.

"Huh, I guess the whole Harmony bit wasn't just for shits and giggles." He thought aloud.

"Come again?" asked Zecora.

Bringing himself back to the present, and attempting to keep from walking into something, Jarrad clarified. "This place literally feels harmonious. I would expect something with so much history, the possible strife and bloodshed, hell even the location of this place, to feel cold and haunted. Like the imprints of people long since dead feeling restless and angry. But there's none of that here, it literally feels like… well fuck, like Harmony."

"Do you believe the Royal Sisters, in all their wisdom, would pick a place that had a chance to be sinister?" asked Zecora, as if it were obvious.

Jarrad shrugged. He honestly hadn't thought about it, but he was glad regardless. He felt safe there, even in the middle of this vast expanse of forest. It was as if the castle, sensing his unease, had made itself feel more comfortable for him. He wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth and kept trekking along with Zecora, until he found himself in a large chamber. The roof had fallen in long ago, giving way to the now darkened night sky. Upon initial inspection Jarrad couldn't hope to make out what the room was so long ago, the time and decay had seen almost all indicators gone from sight. However, toward the back of the room, in the center line, were two thrones. They sat atop an ascending staircase that ended in an arched "dent" in the back of the room. Both opposing in design and color, one set next to the other, and each having one symbol on top as a dead giveaway.

"We're in their old throne room, aren't we?" asked Jarrad

Zecora nodded in affirmative.

Jarrad himself couldn't explain exactly why he said what he did next, "And let me guess, the leyline and my meditation point is right there between those two thrones. And, of course, between those two thrones is a symbol that symbolizes the opposing yet joined nature of the sun and the moon, of light and dark, similar to the yin yang symbol, right?"

Zecora's eyebrow rose, "Yes."

Jarrad facepalmed, "Always the corniest shit."

Zecora's look told him one thing: don't say that again.

"Sorry, sorry. Not meant to offend," Jarrad sighed, "Let's get this over with."

Jarrad moved up toward the thrones and hobbled up the stairs, "Never thought to build a handicap ramp, did they? Nope, gotta make the guy with the gimp move like everyone else."

Zecora couldn't be mad at him, she herself had a chuckle at his complaint.

Upon reaching the top Jarrad looked down to see exactly what he expected to find. Two Alicorns weaving into one another and around each other in a long circle; almost like dragons they looked, rather than simple equine creatures. Their horns finally met in a splendor of light and color, as if their connection was the primordial point and power of creation. Jarrad figured this point of light was exactly where he needed to sit, at least, what would be the corniest thing possible. He figured it was his best bet for that very reason.

Moving into position wasn't exactly the most comfortable thing for him, but he managed. He was even able to find himself able to move into a full lotus position, rather than sitting Indian style as he had done before. Moving his hands into what he knew as the Cosmic Mudra he relaxed his body as best he could and attempted to focus solely on his breathing.

Now, as anyone who has made it a habit to meditate can tell you, starting out is probably the hardest part. The mind is simply running all over the place thinking about one thing or another. The more you attempt to focus the more it seems as if you're being pulled into another train of thought. The key, ironically enough, is to simply let this happen. It seems counter intuitive if you are aiming to focus but it is, quite frankly, the will to keep your mind steady that causes these issues. If you allow the mind to simply do what it does then you will come back to your breathing. It simply takes practice over time but you get it eventually. That was where Jarrad was having trouble.

His mind was running all over the place after everything that had been happening. His mind would wander to thoughts of his family and what they might be doing, to his current situation, to simply him being a bit…upset at his apparent inability to find what he was looking for. He even had a moment of sheer awe at his ability to keep still for so long. A little while longer and his efforts bore fruit.

During one of his calm periods he began to feel a beat of some sort. It was faster and more erratic than his heart beat, almost a constant drum beat. 'Dum-dum-dum-dum' 'Dum-dum-dum-dum' again and again it went. He focused all his concentration on that beat and was rewarded further with a new feeling in his body. It was similar to feeling blood flow but far less subtle. He tried to picture what it looked like, the veins flowing through his body the same was his blood would. He pictured himself standing stock still in his mind's eye, with each beat lighting the inner workings of the body in his vision. It solidified almost against his will and gave him something to "look" at. Focusing even further he found the source of the 'beats': wheels. Well, wheels wouldn't be the correct word, more spirals that could be considered wheels from the proper perspective. He was suddenly reminded of the Chakras of ancient Hindu Text; this was the magic his body possessed and the form it showed him. These wheels he could touch and see were the very thing controlling his magic.

He envisioned them stretching throughout his body, from the crown of his head down to the soles of his feet, touching his joints and hips, with the largest wheel in the center of his abdomen. One was over his heart and another on the opposing side; there were even two on his hands, forearms, and elbows. There were more than he had originally thought, but each one seemed to be smaller and smaller the further it went down, with the largest concentration at the end of his appendages. The motion of the wheels, the Chakras, was steady. Something told him that he needed to make them move even faster, a compulsion he couldn't quite get the source of.

He envisioned each Chakra moving faster and faster, spinning with greater purpose. Each one was cast into overdrive and the beating his was hearing became faster and faster until it was drowned out as one long hum; almost as a humming bird's wings. He willed them to move faster and harder, driving his magic through his body with greater speed. His focus was too drawn to the chakras, so much so that he didn't notice any change to his own physical body. Sweat poured off as if he was under a waterfall, his breathing was becoming faster and deeper, seemingly trying to force the air from his lungs as powerfully as it could.

A hoof to the head brought him back to the real world.

Landing on his side his conscious mind was now working and trying to get himself to breathe regularly once more. His body was covered in sweat, his hair matted, and his clothing slightly uncomfortable. It was almost as if his body had run two or three miles while he was just sitting there and doing nothing. He was slightly amazed at the fact that he hadn't even noticed the changes.

"Jarrad! Jarrad, get up," shouted Zecora, scared he had overexerted himself too soon.

Groaning Jarrad was able to get his breath back under control after a few minutes. He sat up and looked at Zecora. "Holy shit. That was un-fucking-belivable." He smiled. He had never seen or felt anything like it before. He realized that he was running on sheer instinct, almost a childish curiosity guiding him, and everything else simply followed. If he could, he would have kept going. It felt better than anything he could describe. He felt overall healthier than any time he could remember. In so many words his level of homeostasis was now at a higher than ever before. Moving his legs to try to stand he noticed something; his leg and foot no longer hurt. Curious and excited at the possibilities he sat back down and took off his bandage as fast as possible.

The sandal sat next to him, discarded, as he examined his leg. The area of injury was now light pink flesh. It looked new, almost a slight scar, and maybe even a stretch to call it that. He moved the leg around again and again, attempting to feel something wrong with it, not believing that it was real. "Zecora, what did I do?" asked Jarrad

"Something I did not foresee. You have not only touched your magic as we planned, but you now have the ability to control it in hand." She spoke, eyes wide, having a hard time believing it herself.

"What? What do you mean, 'controlling it,'" he asked.

"When a magic user begins to learn, to control the flow of magic is a talent they MUST earn. If they are able to control how fast or slow magic moves through their body, they will be able to learn more of their own magic and keep their control from being shoddy," She lectured.

Jarrad stared at his hand. The image of the Chakras was burned into his mind. As an experiment he attempted to make the one on the palm of his left hand move faster. The result was instantaneous; a soft red glow engulfed his hand moving outward, pushing dust and air way with it. He moved his hand in the air and the glow followed, almost like a small torch, lighting up him and Zecora. "Holy shit. This is just… whoah," He couldn't form the proper words.

"Take time to explore your power at another date, we need to get back to Ponyville before Twilight falls to a terrible fate," Zecora interrupted his childish whimsy.

Being brought back to the present moment he focused on her. The determination in her eyes told him one thing: this wasn't the time for fun. They needed to leave; now. He nodded to her and put his sandal back on. He took a few moments, however, to remove the bandaging on his chest. The wounds on his upper body were gone as well. "Okay, I'm liking this more and more." He chuckled. He saw Zecora moving down the stairs and decided to go after her. He couldn't resist a little more experimentation. He still wanted to see exactly what this new sense of his body could bring him. He envisioned the Chakras in his legs and core and started spinning them faster and found his legs moving even harder. He sped past Zecora and was almost at the entrance to the castle before he realized he had gone so far so fast. In an instant the possibilities were in his thoughts: could he be stronger as well as faster, how strong and fast could he be, what about other magic? He couldn't help it; he started to get giddy with the excitement.

Zecora caught up with him only seconds later, but she was running full gallop. He knew he needed her to lead the way, so he followed as closely as he could without going further. After a bit of work and experimentation he found a speed that worked for him and kept him just a little behind Zecora. It may have taken them half an hour to reach the castle on foot; it only took them five or ten minutes to reach the others.

"So…who's taking the lead back to Ponyville?" he asked, jumping from the bushes.

A/N: Alright, so, first and foremost I apologize. I looked at the date for my first chapter and realized that it had been a month since upload and I needed to upload something. The reason is that I ended up getting to about 30 pages on MS Word and thought I was only two thirds done, so rather than a long update and super long chapter I decided to split it up. I took about 15 of those pages worked them out and sent them to my informal beta nobodyreallyimportant E/N: hi! to take another look into them. So, much appreciated on the assist.

Oh, and some real life stuff got in the way too, but that's not exactly "news". I'm almost done, obviously, with the next chapter, so it shouldn't take as long to get more work in this one.

Chapter 4
View Online

The Nexus

Chapter 4

To most individuals, on the whole, getting into a fight is the last thing one wants to do. Humans avoid confrontation like they avoid fire and dangerous animals. It’s simply something that their society has come to hate and discourage over the years. It’s essentially a knee jerk reaction of a sort that says rather than trying to work with the “animal nature” that is a part of them, they would rather have that animal surpressed because it “isn’t” reall there. Talk about the proverbial elephant in the room. Of course, many have seen exactly how well this aproach works.

On the other hand, there are some who believe that all they should do is fight. They have become the very animals that society tries to repress. And who can blame them? Humans are animals, in the end, and having that instinct put down for so long is bound to have bad side effects. Either for the sake of showing off their own skill or just because they want to beat the hell out of someone, it doesn’t matter. They are purely selfish and instinct driven individuals who wish to cause as much harm as possible for little to no reason other than their own enjoyment. These are the two extremes.

Those who have become trained, on the other hand, who have taken steps to ready themselves should they find that they cannot avoid confrontation, have struck balance. They lay right in the middle of the two extremes, especially those who have found a “talent” for combat. When one trains in self-defense, in the martial arts specifically, there is a particular type of wisdom gained. They animal that is man is not repressed, but tempered; forged. It creates an individual who does not repress the beast but utilizes it, recognizes that this beast is not itself but merely a part of the whole. In doing so this person is much more whole, complete, and flourishing.

On the more practical and applied side of the equation a certain type of ingenuity is cultivated. They learn when the best time is for certain techniques, they learn the effectiveness of a technique based upon what it does to them, cultivating this sense of “ingenuity” when practicing techniques. As such, if something fails or the technique doesn’t hold, the idea is that a trained martial artist will be able to compensate on the fly and do something just as, if not more, effective. In short, they have taken this raging best, and disciplined it, tempered it, into something both useful and necessary.

In Jarrad’s case it gave him an outlet for his own aggression as well as help mold him into a far more flourishing individual. It gave him the necessary mentality to do anything and everything he needed to do to get the job done when it came to his own defense; at least, that was what he believed.

In some sense that was what got him killed. When learning about weapons defenses you always hear people say “Don’t do anything if you don’t need to” or “Use just the right amount of force” but that never seemed to sink in with Jarrad. There was always a sense of indignation and just all out disrespect when someone pulled a weapon on him, really for any reason. A weapon turned what should be just a random fist fight into a matter of survival. It put him on edge and any technique that was used merely for pain tolerance or a light level of incapacitation became used for heavy duty damage and, if necessary, death. He had spent some time trying to mentally prepare himself to take a life if the situation ever arose. This is where he failed.

He had someone pull a gun on him and everyone in the diner. He managed to get close enough and even take the gun from the guy, yet he wasn’t able to kill him. Rather than ending his life he decided to try some kind of pain tolerance by taking a very close range shot to the knee. He simply couldn’t bring himself to kill another individual; and this was his gravest mistake. This…parasite had thought ahead and brought a second gun, the one he used to shoot Jarrad. Someone from the diner managed to get it away from him and beat him into submission, but the damage was done, and Jarrad was dead.

When that Royal Guard took a shot and nailed Jarrad in the gut all those feelings came rushing back. The anger at his death, his situation, and the feel of disrespect he felt when someone took a potshot at him, it all came boiling to a head. It was odd, in a way, that it only took this to push him over the edge. The glossy veneer that held back all his negativity had been shattered.

Jarrad’s vision tunneled, until only the guards were there. His mind focused solely on his rage, and higher brain function ceased. That isn’t to say he became a zombie, but he stopped “thinking” about is movements. One large advantage to proper training is that it “erases” old instinct. If you believe you truly have an innate ability to fight, then go out and pick a fight with someone three or four times your size and see what happens. Experience says you will lose; and that is because your natural instinct is faulty. People train for years and years to cultivate this wisdom and ingenuity by replacing old instinct with new instinct, one that serves a far better function in combat than old instinct ever did or could.

As he ran across the path from the hospital he was blindsided by one of guards. He was taken back a good fifteen feet before he was able to dig his feet into the ground. He halted the momentum and began to push back. The guard reared back to go forward again but Jarrad kept him back. A quick jab with the left distracted the guard for a moment, before Jarrad let loose with, from what he could tell, his most powerful cross. It connected dead center on the chest of the guard, hoping to put his fist through him was the goal, yet it was not met. However the force of the blow was enough to send the guard sailing over the square and into a cart that looked to have been set up for sales earlier that morning. A momentary lapse in amazement at his own power allowed two guards to charge forward and try a similar tactic.

As anyone can tell you having two horses push anything will take a large amount of force to push back. As Jarrad tried to dig into the ground again he found that his own power, even forcing as much as he could, was not adequate to push back the onslaught. But not all force need be pushed back. Jarrad had a great deal of soft-fist techniques at his disposal, rendered useless by the simple fact he wasn’t fighting human beings. You can’t exactly work a technique that requires such precision and intimate knowledge of the body on something that didn’t have the body you trained on, could you? The point of those techniques, though, was still in his core instinct bank. He grabbed both guards, as tight as he could where he could get some kind of grip, with an overhand on both. His left leg went back in a crescent step and he began to spin. It was a little difficult with the Pegasi on his right, but the momentum of the one on the left more than made up for it. The end result was Jarrad spinning in a circle with two pegusi in hands. He tried to build as much momentum as he could before letting go and sending them through random walls of businesses in the town square.

He dropped into a fighting stance waiting for the next attack to come; the guards didn’t disappoint. It seemed that they had decided to coordinate their attacks and time them rather than simply having one or two rush in at once. Jarrad had to admire them; Celestia’s guards were truly a well trained and well oiled machine. Blood pounding in his ears he heard thunder- wait… that wasn’t thunder. Jarrad turned his head slightly to see an earth pony guard galloping toward him. He looked forward again to see the slight movements of another earth pony and three pegasi. His peripheral vision caught the pegasi coming from the left, much farther off. The most immediate threat to be answered came from behind.

Once the earth pony was in distance Jarrad unleashed a vicious back dead center to the soft meat of the belly of the earth pony, who had reared upon his hind legs to go for the head. It didn’t send him back, but it put him on the ground as blood dribbled from his lips. The next threat was the other earth pony coming from the front and, though he was remiss to do so in this case, he wanted to see if he could use this pony against the other pegasi barreling towards him. He rushed forward to the earth pony, matching his speed. He veered to the right and planted his left into the ponies’ face, not as hard as he could, but it seemed enough to break this ponies’ exposed nose and distract him. Jarrad dropped into a very loose horse stance, able to place his hands right on the midsection of the earth pony and bent his back forward so any downward force would be transferred into his legs. He pushed up toward the pegasi as hard as he could, trying to also offset any momentum left in the earth pony as his forelegs hit the ground once again. The plan, though crude and far more base than he would have liked, seemed to have worked.

Two of the pegasi were hit dead on with body of their comrade. The third was distracted by the onslaught and didn’t notice Jarrad jump forward to meet his charge. In any other situation, definitely not as dire, Jarrad would have laughed. He, against all physics and reality, landed a perfect Fist of Judah dead center on the distracted Pegasus. Of course it also went by the name of the famous Randy Cotoure “Superman Punch”, but Fist of Judah sounds far more ancient and powerful.

This onslaught seemed to have made the other ponies reconsider their plan of attack. After dropping the third Pegasus and landing Jarrad looked around to see the guards. They were now scattered around the clearing. It seemed they were learning from their mistakes and were going to be far more coordinated with their assaults. It took them a few moments to reach some sense of formation, and in that time Jarrad’s higher function returned to him; and added some startling realizations.

He felt…winded. He had only used his magic but for a few moments and he felt exhausted, as if he had sprinted almost half a mile. Sweat poured from his whole body, soaking the shirt he was wearing and dripping profusely onto the ground. His attacks seemed to be less effective. Before he had been about to throw a Pegasus guard a good thirty yards, but now, he struggled on his last moments. Even that last attack on the Pegasus seemed to have taken far more out of him than he originally thought and only seemed to do a fair amount of damage, rather than the devastation he was hoping for. If he had to guess he would say his magical “endurance” had run its course, and he was now running on empty. Having no food for the past weeks probably didn’t help matters in the long run, and for a moment, he lamented that the guards didn’t come for him at least a few hours later when he was well fed.

He realized that escaping into the Everfree forest was his only real option. They wouldn’t likely follow him there and, hopefully, neither would Celesita. He didn’t know where he was going to go there per se, but he knew that it was a far better option than simply staying here and waiting to be beaten down and captured. He turned and ran toward the forest as fast as his legs would allow, pumping as much magic as he could into his body, he’d deal with the consequences later.

Unfortunately the guards took this as an opportunity to strike. So focused was Jarrad on escaping that he didn’t notice a guard burst from an alleyway and strike him hard in the side. His body exploded in pain as he felt, he was sure, a few ribs crack. The only thing saving him from having a flailed chest was his own magic, but that was running out. He slammed his fist into the guard, hoping to distract him enough to leave. Somehow, he managed to dent the helmet and knock the guard for a loop, but that was as far as he got. Three more guards surrounded him with one bucking him straight in the chest, the force of the blow knocked him back at least 20 feet. The pain was unimaginable. He landed through the wall of a building, knocking it out and causing some severe damage on the inside.

He wasn’t knocked unconscious, and wasn’t dead, which alone amazed him. What further peaked his curiosity was the feeling his body was projecting. More specifically, he felt pain, but he also felt that he should have had something important crushed. He couldn’t quite figure out exactly why, until he looked down. His entire torso was covered in metal. He shirt that had clothed him for days was now transforming into a smooth silver metal surface. The momentary lapse in action allowed him to feel that the magic in him wasn’t running out, per se, but rather being drained by something. He assumed it was his clothing, which was acting as some type of armor, something he knew he needed desperately. He tried to push more magic into it, but he failed miserably. The magic he had commanded so readily only a day before was leaving him.

His fear was further amplified by the voices on the outside. From what he could pick from the orders given they were going to surround him and try to flush him out and into some kind of trap, if those they sent in first didn’t just find him dead or unconscious. He was no longer angry, but scared, the same as if he were a wild animal cornered by a predator or a hunter. There was nothing he could conceive of to get himself out of this situation.

The royal guards, however, were making a grave mistake. As the great warrior general Sun-Tsu once wrote that it was a mistake to corner a foe. To hold them and encircle them giving no hope of escape. You may win the fight, but it will be far from a victory. The reason for this is that, much like animals, a person’s survival instinct will take hold. They will no longer simply fight for the sake of their freedom or military victory, but fight for their survival. It is at this point the body, in order to survive, removes the natural blocks. And it is at this stage we find Jarrad. Outnumbered, outmatched, hungry, and growing weaker by the minute. The only thought in his mind, as the blood thundered and his heart raced, was that he needed more power. He needed this power to survive the onslaught of guards and escape into the forest.

The royal guards, however, were making a grave mistake. As the great warrior general Sun-Tzu once wrote that it was a mistake to corner a foe. One of the worst things you could is to trap and encircle them, giving no hope of escape. The reason for this is that, much like animals, a person’s survival instinct will take hold. They will no longer simply fight for the sake of their freedom or military victory, but fight for their survival. It is at this point the body, in order to survive, removes the natural blocks. Jarrad had finally reached this stage. Outnumbered, outmatched, hungry, and growing weaker by the minute. The only thought in his mind, as the blood pounded in his ears and his heart raced, was that he needed more power. He needed this power to survive the onslaught of guards and escape into the forest.

He stood on uncertain legs, trying to maintain his balance. His body felt like a lead weight, almost as if the next step would put him flat on his face. He tried to summon more power, tried to make the chakras spin, but it was getting harder to concentrate with the noise in his ears. He didn’t feel a choice in the matter. He had tried to force the power, but it wouldn’t come. In one last act of desperation he fell to his knees and prayed. He prayed to Gaia herself to give him power, to help him survive. His primal fear drove him, and his prayer was answered. The world blanked and he knew no more.

On the outside the others were watching with trepidation. They had gathered outside the hospital at the first sign of battle, too shocked to take any action. However, as shocked as they were, there were three of them who knew exactly what was happening.

“Why…why are these guards attacking him? Hasn’t he not done anything?” asked Twilight.

Zecora was as confused as she was, “I cannot fathom the circumstances, as to why Celestia didn’t come here herself and take her chances. This is not how it was meant to be.”

Rarity’s voice could barely be heard, her shame so great, “Celestia visited us again and told us her real plan…we were told not to inform you.”

Zecora’s face became livid, “What?”

Twilight, not being a fan of her own ignorance, intervened, “Will somepony please tell me what’s going on!”

“A week ago, only a few days after Jarrad arrived and we found you, Celestia showed up and asked us to help her. She wanted to help the Nexus discover some of his power, so we made a plan to show up when he woke up and bring him here to heal you from your dreadful condition. She said that she could do it, but it would be far more beneficial to all if Jarrad performed the magic needed. It would give him a better grasp on his power. Zecora agreed and we brought him here…but Celestia returned a few days later when Zecora wasn’t here.” Rarity’s head was down, her shame in lying evident.

Zecora drove the nail further into the coffin, her voice low and hard, “You FOALS!! Have you any clue as to the havoc you have caused, what could possibly possess you to do this, speak quickly lest my ire have no pause.”

“How dare you! Do you not realize this situation? He’s a dangerous individual, even if you’re too blind to see it; Celestia is merely trying to protect us by taking him under arrest so he can do no harm to anypony,” Rarity’s reply of indignation only furthered to infuriate Zecora.

Before Zecora could further give her a piece of her mind the corner of her eye caught Jarrad stumbling out of the home he had wrecked. He looked disoriented and confused. He squatted down and attempted to walk on his hands for some reason but seemed to find this… non-helpful. He stood straight for a moment, and took a deep breath. It seemed that his actions confused the guards who seemed to have decided to wait for his next move before retaliating. He released the breath, looking surer of his stance, before breaking into a dead sprint toward Zecora and the others. Rarity and the others tensed, ready to defend themselves if necessary. Zecora, however, was relaxed; more curious than cautious.

Jarrad jumped high and landed right in front of Zecora, placing his face inches from hers. Upon closer inspection they could see his body had become overrun with archaic lines of blackest night all over, even his eyes were different. The vibrant blue hue was now pitch black, with no iris at all.

Jarrad looked to study Zecora for a moment before finally speaking, his language now unknown to the others, “Malkia”

Zecora froze at that word; only one person had ever called her that in her long existence.

“Grant…how?”She had trouble finding her voice, so many emotions running through her at once.

Jarrad, or Grant, slowly ran his hand through Zecora’s Mohawk. His face contorted in longing and desire, the look of seeing his lost love.

Grant chuckled a moment, “It seems that this one has activated the Phantasm.”

Zecora, who had leaned into his touch as best she could froze, “How? It has taken far more time for any previous Nexus to reach the Phantasm point.”

Grant seemed to sense her trepidation, “Survival instincts are the strongest, and what is the Nexus if not a conglomeration of old instincts brought into one person? This one… this man’s survival depended upon it, thus his prayer was answered. Zecora, I am so sorry, but I do not have much time left. I long to tell you how much you mean to me, to show you how much your absence has caused me pain, but we do not have time. Please, why has this happened?”

“Its Celestia, she is involved yet again. She has deceived others and has sent her royal guard to capture Jarrad, this Nexus. I do not know what her game is now… but she hasn’t changed in three thousand years,” Zecora lamented.

The calm on Grants face was replaced with a blank stare, as if trying to hold himself back, “She believes she can capture the Nexus and use his powers for herself, does she?”

“I do not know.” Zecora answered.

Jarrad, or Grant, heaved a sigh. He could feel his time was at a close; his consciousness was drawing back into the Void. However, he was going to leave something behind.

“You gave him my armor, correct?”

“Yes, I knew he may need it someday and…”

Grant/Jarrad smiled, “It’s okay Zecora, I understand. I’m going to have to leave now… but I won’t leave him empty handed. He is going to have my armor, my knowledge, and something else. These guards will be an example to Celestia; she shall never have our power.”

Zecora frowned, “What will you make him do?”

“I will make him do nothing, at this point it is all up to him what he does with the power. I’m just going to give a… push.” He leaned in closer, “Zecora, though I return to the Void, know that I will love you until Eternity. Malkia, there will always be a part of me with you.” Grant leaned down and pressed his lips to Zecora’s. His kiss was one of deperation and longing, attempting to squeeze every feeling he had into one singular moment. It left them both wanting, and far more devastating, unfulfilled.

When he drew back his head dipped. After a moment tears began to fall on the ground.

“Zecora…Zecora?” a voice pleaded.

“Yes, Jarrad, I am here.” She soothed. She knew she had to be strong, even though her rock was no longer there.

“Get them out of here… get them to leave.” He sounded scared, “I can’t hold it back.”

Zecora realized now what was going to happen. Grant had left his armor, known as the armor of the Berserker, behind. It was fueled by sheer rage and battle lust, shutting off all higher function. It could be impenetrable if used properly. Added to the power of the Nexus it was a force of nature, a power of the gods themselves. It provided a monolithic defense to a titanic offense. But it came at cost; the user would not stop until his target was destroyed, no matter who got in his way. They lost higher functioning for the sake of pure emotion and instinct. Rage, here, seemed to be the feeling of the day. Jarrad could sense what little control he had over himself slipping. He felt like he was starting to black out again, and whatever was going to happen, he didn’t want it.

“Twilight Sparkle, as the student of the princess, is there any way you can use your position to salvage this mess?” asked Zecora.

“Wha… Zecora, if he’s dangerous, the guards need to do their job, they need to stop him.” Twilight stated. If the Princess said that he was dangerous then it only served to confirm her other beliefs. He was probably just laying in wait for a chance to strike earlier.

This did not sit well with Zecora in the least, “You foals!! Have you no minds of your own! Did the idea ever cross-“

Zecora wasn’t able to finish. A movement below her told her Jarrad had shifted, but he had done so faster than she could follow. She saw him standing a few feet away holding a random guard by the face with his bare hand, and holding him high in their air, his rear legs dangling off the ground. The hand that held him was black as pitch. The armor, or the unformed pieces earlier, had finally come together. Jarrad’s hands and forearms were covered with a plated black metal that seemed to grow from his fingers down to his forearms, and three curved blades out of each forearm. His feet and shins were covered in the same plated overlapping metal pattern from his knees down. His feet themselves were now armored as some kind of claw, with talons like a dragons foot and a wicked hook on the very back. The final piece was an overlapping plate that covered his chest, back, and shoulders. It was formfitting and provided him almost full coverage. The only things missing would be a helmet and covering for his thighs and biceps.

From what Zecora could see he was still in some kind of Phantasm mode, the markings were still there on the body she could see, but Grant was no longer in control. It was Jarrad again, but he was… not himself.

Jarrad landed a vicious blow to the guard’s soft underbelly and then released him. The microsecond that the guard’s hooves touched the ground Jarrad released a flurry of blows to the same area. His fist pounded into the guard again and again before his forehooves touched the ground once again. The guard looked to stand on shaky legs, blood leaking from his mouth, before finally falling over in a heap. He looked near death, a fact which disturbed the girls to no end. Seeing this only added proof to what Celestia was saying. For Zecora this only proved to further her own disparaging opinion of the Equestrian ruler, circumstances forced this to happen, Jarrad simply reacted as best he could.

Jarrad stepped calmly, as if enjoying a spring day. He stood dead center to the guards across from the square, reared back, and bellowed out a roar that could put several dragons to shame. It shook the very foundation of the ground itself; holding rage the likes of which no-one could even begin to imagine. Every single piece of negativity on the whole world was expressed in that one noise. The guards now knew they were staring something akin to a god right in the eyes. It was a battle of wills to keep their composure, and to their credit, not one flinched.

As the roar died down Jarrad’s steps thundered across the small town to meet the guards head on. He had tried to fight himself and that had failed. He had tried to run, but that had also failed. Now, with nothing more on his mind, he pulled every last piece of himself into breaking every. Single. Guard. There.

The first he took care of with blistering close line. His momentum did him a huge favor, allowing him to plow the guard into the ground after spinning hard enough. The next was met with a vicious Muai Thai style round house kick, shattering bones and tearing apart muscle. That guard was launched right into the wall of the closest business, the Quill and Sofa store. If Jarrad wasn’t so focused on killing he would have laughed at the store itself. Two more guards went down as Jarrad hammerfisted them both, their helmets offering little protection against his enhanced fists and gauntlets. Another was treated much like a Frisbee and sent pinwheeling off into the distance.

Jarrad tore through each guard with near reckless abandon. His body had become nothing more than an emissary of his rage. His form was near flawless, a practiced machine meant to bring grievous harm and devastation. The knowledge left to him, or his subconscious mind to be more specific, as well as his few years of training was paying off in large sums here. However, his body would not be able to put up with this much more. His great strength and speed was beginning to take its toll on him as muscle began to break down and tissue was dissolved. Amber fluids and blood began to seep from different parts of his body that the armor covered, it drawing the immense power it needed from his very life force as well as his magic.

(V) (;,,;) (V)

Rainbow dash was speeding back towards Ponyville ahead of the princess and her team of guards. She knew that the two-legged thing that Zecora and Pinkie had been telling her about was there. The princess had filled her in on the details, telling her that this thing was evil and needed to be stopped. She had given Dash free reign to deal with the creature as she saw fit, ‘Which is just the way I like it,’ Dash thought to herself.

She was close enough to see the clouds of smoke rising from the town square. She was nearly brained by a flying unicorn guard as he was flung away from the square at high speed. She jinked to the right and watched him sail past her.

She continued on with a more grim expression on her face. ‘This….thing has to be stopped,’ she thought, ‘and I’m just the mare to do it.’ She could see it now, an armored hulking black monster destroying the legion of guards Celestia had sent to apprehend it. She narrowed her eyes in determination and struck.

(V) (;,,;) (V)

Jarrad slammed yet another guard into the ground with enough force to make the cobblestone crack and send pieces hurtling up into the air in front of him. He frowned at this, only a few more guards left. That was disappointing; he had expected them to last a little bit longer at least. They had gotten slack he supposed. He picked up the fallen guard from the crater and chucked the body at the remaining group of guards with a derisive snort. Then he saw a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye…

Suddenly a blue blur slammed into him at nearly Mach 1. Jarrad was barely able to get his arms up in time to protect his face. The impact sent him flying backwards into what was left of the Quill and Sofa store. He got up out of the wreckage with a savage snarl, glaring at the hovering blue pest.

(V) (;,,;) (V)

Rainbow Dash was beginning to regret being so adamant about going ahead of the rest of the forces and Celestia. The creature was even more fearful up close. It was covered in a mysterious black armor that seemed to have odd runes etched into it. The more she looked at the more her head hurt, but- no, she had volunteered for this and had to beat it, no matter how scary it looked. Not that she was scared or anything, of course.

She started to worry when she felt it grab her legs. She grew more concerned when she began to spin around until her vision was blurring and she felt sick. “LET GO OF ME, YOU JERK,” she shouted back at it.

“Ok, but you asked for it,” the armored monster growled.

“What do you me-AGGGHHHHH,” Dash screamed as she was launched into a brick wall with the force of a missile. She punched a hole clean through the wall and continued going until she smashed through the plate glass window on the Sugarcube Corner storefront.

(V) (;,,;) (V)

Jarrad smirked as he watched the little blue pegasus fly into the cavity inducing pink building. He heard a loud fluttering noise and turned around. There were scores of pegasus guards landing and glaring at him. one picked up a rock and chucked it at him.

But Jarrad didn’t take notice, not until his rampage was stopped by a bolt of lightning hitting him dead center of mass and flinging him across the square. He landed on his back and slid, trying to figure out exactly what happened to him. He looked up to find a creature made almost of pure light staring at him only a few feet away.

She stood at nearly six feet tall and had an air of impenetrable elegance about her. Her body was sheathed in armor a similar style to his, though with solid gold plating, and a far less menacing appearance. Her greaves were completed with elegant sandals showing off a dainty pair of feet. Her chest armor was also designed to show form of the cleavage, form fitting almost perfectly to her buxom bust. A glowing pair of wings extended from her back. Her weapon of choice was a staff with a crescent moon of gold on one end and a spear on the other. Completing the ensemble was a horn that slid through a crown of shining gold, a diamond necklace and metal choker, and ethereal hair the color of the rainbow.

This human looked as if she were Princess Celestia.

While the others looked on surprised, Zecora bared her teeth in defiance. This was the foal who had done her charge harm, who had caused all this chaos, and she wasn’t about to let her hurt Jarrad. She galloped onto the field and stood right in front of Jarrad, her head reared and lowered as if ready to attack.

“Zecora, I thought we had an understanding. I would meet the Nexus to assess him, why do you wish to stand in the way of that?” asked Celestia

“You reneged on our deal, goddess of the sun. You were to meet him on peaceful terms, would you rather watch this whole village burn?” Zecora growled back in response.

“Of course not, but how can I test a person’s skill and potential if they have no training? I needed to meet him when he thought his life was on the line?” asked Celestia

Zecora was struck dumb, “What about your guards?”

“Meaningless collateral damage. I believed they would have been able to handle the Nexus, given his lack of training, but it seems I was wrong. I wouldn’t worry though, Zebra, the Nexus will live. I, as well as everyone else on Gaia, need it to be so. However, I cannot have someone as powerful as him run unchecked, can I? It would be irresponsible as a ruler,” she spoke, her voice conveying nothing.

“Like how you banished your sister to the moon and fucked up the world?” a rasping voice broke in. They turned to see Jarrad’s head raised and staring at Celestia. He onyx eyes attempting to bore holes in her.

Celestia, for her part, seemed a bit unnerved, “How?”

“You talk too much you arrogant bitch,” he seethed. With a perfect kip-up he was back on his feet and running toward Celestia. He threw a punch, and she dodged. He spun with a hook kick, she dodged. He attempted to rain down blow after blow and she side-stepped with impeccable grace, as if she weren’t really trying at all.

In Jarrad’s rage he forgot something very important: anger blinds us, especially to those who are far more skilled than we are. Jarrad, for even his few years of training, still had no real idea of his capabilities or how to fight someone far more skilled than himself. Celestia, on the other hand, did not. She was also completely calm in this situation, leading to a severe advantage on her part.

She grabbed an arm mid punch and twisted it down, bringing Jarrad to his knees. She brought her foot up, kicking him in the stomach again and again, each hit feeling like a sledge hammer, even through the armor. Eventually she threw him onto his back and kicked him into a wall. As Jarrad attempted to get up he felt the crescent moon of her weapon slam into his throat and push him onto the wall. It lifted him up off his feet and put him a few inches taller than Celestia.

“Do you think that you can even touch me, Nexus?” asked Celestia, “I have ages of skill compared to you, what did you honestly think you can do?”

Jarrad’s sneer remained, his eyes hardened even further, and his resolve skyrocketed.

“YOU TALK TOO FUCKING MUCH, YOU ARROGANT WHORE!!” he shouted. He crossed his arms on top of the staff and, using the blades on the gauntlets, snapped it into three pieces. The moment his feet hit the ground he sprung forward. He caught Celestia around her shin and spun her. She became little more than a missile as her body impacted the Library.

The armor on his body seemed to respond as it grew even more. His shoulders now sported plated pauldrons taking a spherical appearance. His forearms and thighs now sported full protection and plate armor seemed to grow from his pauldrons and tulle. The finishing touch was a menacing skull faceplate and helmet that seemed to grow from the back of his breastplate and form fit to his head. Reaching up with his left hand he brought down the skull face plate and completed the armor.

Celestia recovered quickly from the surprise attack, only to find herself with a hand having a death grip on her horn. Before she could react a fist punctured her armor and stuck her stomach. It reared back and repeated several times, each one feeling like a small death to the goddess. Eventually the hand gripping her horn decided it had enough holding her like that, so it ripped the horn right form her head. Her scream was bone chilling. The pain she felt was like nothing she had felt in a few thousand years, not since her and her sister’s titanic battle with Discord. Though her pain was soon forgotten as the horn as stabbed directly into her chest.

Jarrad didn’t know whether or not it would kill her and, quite frankly, he didn’t care. All he cared was that she suffered as much as possible. Now that he had a good grip on her, he could do just that. He brought all his rage to bear as he proceeded to beat down Celestia like she had not been in millennia. She could not longer dodge and could only wait until an opportunity presented itself for her to heal and stop messing around with him.

‘He may not be able to kill me, but he can sure cause some damage,’ she thought to herself.

Jarrad, fortunately for him, managed to incapacitate Celestia. He put all his immeasurable strength into an earth shattering hammer blow that managed to daze Celestia for a few seconds. In that time Jarrad threw her by the throat onto the ground nearby and ran to the Library. Using the building for momentum he leapt high into the air and grabbed his shins. He pulled back until his knees were pointing straight down, right over Celestia. He dropped a good thirty feet with full force behind him, and landed right on top of the sun goddess. The sheer force dug them both into a crater six feet into the ground, and about three feet wide.

Jarrad was the first to crawl of the hole. He got to his feet, but looked as if he was going to fall over. It looked as if his body literally was no longer able to take the abuse he was putting it through. Blood and fluids poured from him and onto the ground as if it were sweat. His movements were jerky and looked as if they caused him an immeasurable amount of pain. Finally he fell to his knees a few feet away, his anger finally beginning to dissipate. At least, until he saw her.

She stepped from the hole looking as if nothing was wrong. Every single thing that Jarrad had managed to do was for naught, as she looked to not have suffered any damage at all. Even her armor looked clean and free of dirt and debris that he had piled onto her. To make matters worse she was smiling as if she had expected all this to happen. As if to taunt Jarrad by saying that she was so much more powerful than him, and she knew it. That there was nothing he could do. Jarrad wasn’t about to take that sitting down. He made to rise and attack again when a voice cut through the chaos.

“STOP!!” a high- pitched voice shouted. Before Jarrad could move a pink pair of forelegs wrapped around his neck, startling him and holding him back. He attempted to shrug off the burden, but it held fast, “Please Jarrad, stop!!”

The voice seemed to be in great despair, pleading from the bottom of her soul. Somehow, against the very laws of the universe, it pierced his consciousness. He recognized the voice: Pinkie Pie. He didn’t know how and he didn’t know why, but somewhere, deep down, it sounded like the most beautiful voice he had ever heard. His mind returned to him in a flash, and with it every last memory of what he had done. His mind was unable to process what he had done, the destruction he had caused, and he blacked out almost immediately from the shock. His body remained on its knees as the armor retracted and folded itself away. It became much like the tattoos on him and seemed to recede into the tattoos coating his entire body.

Once the armor was gone they could see the true extent of the damage. Blood coated every part of him, what looked to be some kind of burn mark run up and around his chest, and cuts were evident all over his body. Eventually, under Pinkie’s weight, he fell to his body fell to the side.

Pinkie was beside herself.

“Jarrad! Jarrad,” she shouted, attempting to rouse him. She jerked his shoulder trying to bring him back. A hoof stopped her.

“Pinkie you need to be calm, this shouting will only do harm.” The smoky voice of Zecora advised.

“He’s bleeding on the ground and just hurt a bunch of the guards, how can he be alright?” a distraught Pinkie shouted.

Zecora was a bit unhorsed to see her making such a fuss, but proceeded regardless.

“Pinkie, listen. Jarrad’s drive for survival unlocked something primal. His need to live caused to him draw on strength that was not his. The previous Nexus, an ape named Grant, he brought back for assistance. In his haste Grant left Jarrad with the power to control his armor. It drew directly from the beaten body of Jarrad, and that is why he looks so dead. But do not fret, dear mare, for there will be no death right here. His body will recover, if there is no interference from another,” Zecora explained.

It didn’t seem to help Pinkie feel better, “So what, I should just leave my new friend here?”

Zecora shook her head, “No. Merely stay with him, and allow the forces that be their whims.”

Pinkie was about to respond when she heard footsteps. She looked to see her friends and Princess Celestia, now in the form of a horse once more, approaching them. She did not take kindly to this.

“None of you come any closer to him,” she screamed at the top of her lungs. “You’ve all done enough!”

The others couldn’t believe what they were hearing. The Element of Laughter was screaming angrily at the top of her lungs at her friends.

“Pinkie, what are you doing?” asked Twilight.

“Yeah sugarcube, we’re just trying to help,” added Applejack.

“Oh, like you tried to help by lying to him? How was that helping? Or how Celestia helped him by sending her guards after him? What were you trying to do?” Pinkie was having no nonsense here.

This time Celestia spoke, “Pinkie, you have to understand, this is for his own good. You have to trust us on this. We’re doing exactly what’s best for him.”

The anger Pinkie had been feeling seemed to bring about some kind of transformation. The formerly bubbly girl, so full of life, seemed almost dead inside. Her cotton candy hair deflated and her eyes grew hard. This was no longer Pinkie Pie, but Pinkamina Diane Pie.

“You can go fuck yourself Princess. You must be on something if you think I’m letting you anywhere near him after what you’ve done,” Her rear legs heighted and she dropped her head as if she was about to charge while pulling a good sized knife out of nowhere and brandishing it at them. None of the others could handle what was happening. This was all too surreal for them.

Somehow, in all the unease, it was the most unexpected pony of all that made herself known.

“Pinkie, please, we aren’t going to hurt him. We just want to help him get better. He needs help, and right now from the way he’s looking. We need to get him to a hospital so he can be taken care of. And I promise, the Princess won’t be able to harm him,” Fluttershy spoke softly, inching her way closer to Pinkie.

“Fluttershy, how can you say that? After all he’s done, after what the Princess said, he even hurt Rainbow Dash!” shouted Rarity.

“I can say it because you forced him into that position. He would have been perfectly fine to just go and do whatever or talk to the princess when he felt like it, or when she called him, but you had to force him to hurt those guards. You made him think that he was going to be imprisoned!” Fluttershy retaliated, she felt no sympathy for those who went after him, though she was saddened by Rainbow Dash, she knew that the mare had brought it on herself.

“Celestia, Goddess of the Sun and Co-ruler of Equestria, I will allow you to come near my ward if you give me your oath that he will not be harmed and will be treated as a patient, not a prisoner. That you will tell him the complete and total truth once he awakens,” Zecora said as she began speaking in a strange language.

“You forget your place Zebra; I am not inclined to make such an oath,” Celestia replied.

“No, you arrogant fool, you forget your place. You are not meant to control this power, nor are you meant to bring him harm. You are meant to render assistance for the good of the world, and what you have done here is deplorable. You also forget what power I can summon as a servant of Gaia and as the Mentor. I can bring you to the brink and hold you there for the rest of eternity if I see fit. So, do you wish me to do so, or will you allow us safe passage and give your word in the Old Tongue that he shall not come to harm, imprisonment, or deceit by you ever again,” Zecora shot back.

“Only if he poses no threat to the people will I agree to this.”

“I will tell you when he does, that is the deal. Know this, sun goddess, you have not only failed today but possibly made an enemy of the Nexus. You deceived him, and I know he will not appreciate that. He may retaliate, he may not, but whatever he does is completely up to him, do you understand me?” asked Zecora. She was beyond pleasantries and idle talk right now.

Celestia seemed to consider this long and hard, before finally acquiescing to the demand.

“I, Celestia, Goddess of the Sun and Co-Ruler of Equestria, do hereby swear the following. I will not harm, deceive, imprison, or attempt to control the Nexus in any way shape of form. However, I shall reserve the power to do so if he becomes a threat to me and my subjects. So I say it, so it shall be.”

A blinding white light surrounded her and the others.

(V) (;,,;) (V)

And Unknown Location

Nothing. That was what Jarrad was feeling, absolutely nothing at all. It was as if the universe had suddenly stopped existing and all his external senses were rendered useless. He had a vague sensation of laying down on something on his back, but that was it.

He came too slowly, as if his body was telling him to go back to sleep, but his mind was telling him he’d had enough. His consciousness returned slowly, confused as to where he was and what he was doing here. After a few minutes all memory of that day’s interactions came back in a flash, and he had trouble keeping himself from throwing up.

He was overwhelmed by a feeling of complete and total disgust with himself over his actions. He had broken, no, destroyed every single one of those guards. Whatever happened to him he let it, he tried to hold it back, but he didn’t have the will needed. And for it there were now somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 guards who might not live to see tomorrow. What was worse was the realization that none of it had to happen. He was going to be imprisoned because Celestia wanted to treat him like some kind of a pawn, rather than a human being. Each one of those guards was only following orders and what did they get for their trouble? The privilege of having the new Nexus sign each and every one of their death certificates.

Jarrad’s body, or at least what he could feel of it, lifted up and settled into a seated position. His head fell into his hands and he began to sob. He had, for the last half decade at least, tried to cultivate a great deal of self discipline. It was hard, but he was able to obtain a level where he didn’t just out and out hate himself for no reason, and he knew himself very well. But to see what he had done because he didn’t have the will to do something, the suffering he caused, it struck a chord somewhere deep in him. All those previous insecurities rushed back to him in a wave.

In the back of his mind he could hear his step-mother’s voice patronizing him for screwing up so bad, almost taunting him, saying he should’ve known better.

“You know, it’s not very polite to keep company waiting for you to notice them.” a gruff voice spoke from the darkness.

Jarrad’s head jerked as he looked up and around. A dull light was now showing; creating the circle of gray he was sitting in. Across from him, only a few feet away, was a giant ape sitting in another circle of light.

This ape was huge. Well, Jarrad’s experience with these creatures was minimal at best, but from what he could tell he looked huge. His fur was black as pitch, with little scars here and there, and some even on his face. He had on large scar in an x directly on the center of his chest. What truly disturbed Jarrad was that this ape was sitting in the clothing that he had been wearing for the past day.

Not expecting such a thing Jarrad scrambled up as fast as he could and tried to jump back, only to find his back hitting some kind of invisible wall.

The ape seemed slightly amused by this, which didn’t sit well with Jarrad.

“THE FUCK IS GOING ON!” he shouted.

The ape didn’t find this nearly as amusing.

“I’ll be happy to tell you as soon as you SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP. AND. SIT. DOWN.” Grant spoke in a voice so full of power yet still so quiet that Jarrad couldn’t help but follow his orders. Even though his mind and body were both in turmoil, human instinct still recognized to be submissive to a far greater power than him.

“That’s better, now, can we discuss this like civilized sentient beings… or am I going to have to sit on you until you’re ready to listen?” asked the ape.

Jarrad only nodded. In most situations he would have come up with something smart ass to say, but given all that had happened, he didn’t want to risk it.

“Alright, so I’m sure you’re wondering what exactly just happened?” asked the ape.

“Yeah, that’d be helpful. So far as I recall I ripped through a whole platoon of guards with my bare hands and some kind of armor, while feeling… angrier than I ever have before… I put guards in the fucking hospital because I couldn’t control myself,” Jarrad lamented, his angst showing again.

This seemed to confuse the ape, “Why do you feel sorry for them? They chose their path, didn’t they?”

“Yeah, but I only needed to escape. I didn’t have to do what I did to them. I completely overreacted to the situation in my physical response. I fucked everything up… didn’t I?” he asked.

The ape heaved a sigh, “You’re way too controlled for your own good. You need to lighten up.”

“Forgive me for having a fucking conscious and not wanting to cause undue harm.” Jarrad seethed.

“They were trying to capture you, you responded quite normally.” the ape replied.

“Alright, then can you explain to me at all WHY they were trying to capture me that makes it so damn justified?” Jarrad asked.

“Well, it’s Princess Celestia. I’ve had dealings with her in the past, as has Zecora; she’s been trying to abus- excuse me, ‘control’ our power for some time. Or at least, as far as I can figure, she doesn’t really trust us with it and thinks she’s the only one who can control it.” Grant spoke slowly, as if trying to keep himself under control.

“Wait…’our power’? You mean, yours and Zecora’s or… yours and mine?” asked Jarrad.

“The latter, what do you think?”

“… then you’re a Nexus?”

The ape smiled at that, “Damn kid, didn’t think the next one would be smart as you are… or at least as observant. You are exactly right; I am the previous Nexus of Gaia. Name’s Grant,” he held out a massive hand/paw for Jarrad to shake.

Jarrad, not wanting to piss off a giant monkey, shook the hand.

“Okay… so let me get this straight. Celestia, in all her ‘wisdom and glory’ thinks she can control the power of the Nexus. She sends some guards to take me back under arrest and… then what? Become her tool or her pet? So far as I understand, I would only be able to serve Gaia, not some random bitch hopped up on power, isn’t that right?” asked Jarrad, trying to grab a hold of the situation.

This seemed to stump Grant as well, “You’ve got a point. I don’t know what her deal is, and it has been, so far as I can tell, about three thousand years since we last tangled, so she may have changed. But she still seems to like to play it close to the vest. If she’s got something up her sleeve it’s all going to go through her, nothing to anyone else, and I don’t think her larger master plan is going to be easy to figure out.”

“When was the last time you fought?” Jarrod asked

Grant sighed before showing Jarrod the memory.

(3,000 years ago, near the Samara Desert/ Bonobo Jungle border)

Grant was sitting on a carved stone dais watching the sunrise. He was waiting for… something? Even if asked he couldn’t tell exactly why he needed to be there, only that he ‘felt’ something in the flow of life and magic that told him he needed to be there. He didn’t dare tell Zecora, at least not yet, but he was far more terrified than he had been since becoming the Nexus.

He wasn’t disappointed.

The sound of something slightly heavy landing behind him with a few powerful wing beats caused him to turn and face the new arrival. “Celestia,” he growled, “why have you come here?”

“I’m taking back what is rightfully mine,” she said evenly.

“Celestia, these lands never belonged to you in the first place. The treaties were signed months ago. You have no right to the zebra kingdom,” Grant shot back, eyes narrowed.

“Then I challenge you for dominance over these lands. You can forfeit and I roll in the troops, or we can fight it out here and now. One way or another, I will have the zebra kingdom,” Celestia stated plainly.

“Celstia, why do you still want the Zebra kingdom? I thought that we had reached a consensus during the treaty…you’re going back on your word?” asked Grant, trying to make her see sense.

“Oh no, ape, not at all. I said that the Regular Army would no longer invade the lands. I never said anything about myself or my ‘royal guard’. We must have a united Equestria under my rule. We must make this land part of a trinity of the ruling bodies of the Dragons and the Griffins.” Celestia explained.

“We only want to rule ourselves, to not be a part of your land, why is that so hard for you to accept?” asked Grant, “From what I’ve been told, your parents ruled just fine like that for centuries, millennia even.”

“Times have changed, Nexus, and we now need unification more than ever. Now, will you move or will this be settled in blood?” she asked.

Grant scowled, knowing he had to fight. The Zebra kingdoms were still recovering from the last war with the Equestrian Collation and wouldn’t stand up to any sort of full scale attack. He knew if he lost this then she would force out the zebras and tear down their ancestral forests to make way for her cites. A sudden flapping of wings caught his attention.

“Sister, I’m so sorry, I hit a headwind and we were delayed. We apologize for our lateness.”

Grant turned to look at the newcomer. It was another alicorn, although this one was blue and seemed to be themed on the night. He figured this was Celestia’s baby sister Luna. He hadn’t seen her before, but there weren’t many alicorns left after the Great Wars.

“That’s ok Lulu, you did your best. Did you bring the scrolls?” Celestia said as she walked over to Luna.

“Yes, we have them. The spell contained within them works,” Luna said as she pulled out a set of two scrolls and gave them to Celestia.

“Thank you; sister, will you stay and watch our fight?” Celestia glared over at Grant as he stood there with a bored expression.

He growled inwardly while maintaining an indifferent expression on his face as she looked over at him. He wasn’t sure what she was planning to do with those scrolls, but it most certainly wouldn’t be good. He took a fighting stance as Luna nodded and went over to sit by the side of the dais.

“Celestia, are you going to fight or not? I don’t have all day,” Grants voice rumbled across the clearing.

“Oh hush, you!” Celestia shouted as she and the scrolls began to glow with dazzling lavender light. The glow became too painful to look at, so Grant covered his eyes while he waited for it to fade. When it finally went out and he uncovered his eyes, he became somewhat confused.

There was some kind of ape-like creature with seemingly no fur and gleaming white skin. It had a horn on its forehead and a pair of white feathered wings on its back. It was wearing golden armor that seemed to be styled after his, much like if his armor were to be made by someone trying to replicate his original set. Its chest armor showed off the creature’s breasts in a provocative manner, proving it was female, and its weapon of choice seemed to be a staff with a golden sun on one end and a barbed spear end on the other. The creature also sported flowing rainbow hair.

It hit him, this was Celestia! She must have used those scrolls to transform herself into whatever that was. He glanced down at the carvings on the dais. They depicted bipedal apelike beings in some sort of prophecy thing. The one word that stood out was the word “Human, you turned yourself in some kind of human hybrid.” Grant growled.

“That’s right, ape. This form is far more versatile and more powerful, and what better to fight and ape than with one of his genetic descendants?” her smile could have burned away the forests themselves, “Now, shall we begin?”

He swung up his forearm to take the blow as she swung the bladed sun at him. The spear end bounced off, leaving a small scratch in the armor. Grant slugged her while she was still overbalanced from the spear bouncing off; she flew back several feet from the force of the blow.

Grant was looking at the small scratch in the armor in fear. The armor was supposed to be invincible, for Source’s sake! What foul magical trickery was this? He was distracted long enough for Celestia to slam the flat of the bladed end of the spear on his helmet.

Grant stumbled back with blurred vision as the helmet rang like a gong. Celestia began raining blows onto him, sending him stumbling back. She finally grabbed Grant and threw him up into the air before flying after him. She reached the apex of Grant’s arc and kicked him into the ground, breaking his armors chest plate in the process.

“Looks like you’re out of touch, ape,” Celestia mocked Grant as he lay on the ground. Grant groaned and attempted to get back up. Celestia walked over to him and was about to kick him until Grant grabbed her leg and threw her through a tree on the other side of the clearing.

“Not as much as you think, horse bitch,” Grant growled as the tree collapsed.

“Sister, art thou alright!” Luna screamed. She bit her lip as she looked at the dust cloud where the tree was.

Silence reigned over the clearing. Grant walked over to the edge of the dais to take a closer look at the cloud. Both Grant and Luna were blinded by an explosion of light from the dust cloud. When their vision cleared, a very angry Celestia stood there, glowing with a reddish corona.

“You damn monkey, I’ll kill you for that,” Celestia screamed. Her spear flew into her hand as she rushed at Grant. He attempted to dodge but she teleported right in front of him. She began slicing at him with the bladed end of her spear, successfully getting through his guard and landing several deep gashes into his chest.

The sheer fact that her spear was able to pierce his armor shocked him, yet as the fight continued he began to understand why. It wasn’t that the armor was any less impenetrable, it was a sign from the source itself. He was meant to die here by her hand. This was the way things had to be. So, Grant did the only thing he thought best, he gave up. He held out for as long as he could with his injuries, but he knew it was coming. He stopped and was able to take it all in, if only for a second. The breeze, the trees, the sun, even the clouds in the sky. He took a final breath.

“Zecora, I am so sorry.” As soon as he finished the thought Celestia kicked him into a tree at the side of the clearing, mirroring his earlier attack as the tree collapsed onto Grant, pinning him to the ground. Celestia walked up to him and held the barbed end as if she were going to stab Grant.

“Sister, have you not defeated him? He is wounded, we should stop this fight. We have won after all,” Luna pleaded. Celestia glanced over at her for a moment before plunging the spear into Grant’s chest. She stared as the light left his eyes, the smile on his face far more disturbing than his rebellion mere moments before.

“No, he had to be ended. He was far too dangerous to be left alive,” Celestia stated as the fiery red corona faded from around her.

A wail from the edge of the clearing distracted Luna from replying.

“No! Grant, you can’t be dead! Zecora, Zecora!” a zebra scout had seen the tail end of the battle and was now running back to the capital settlement of the zebras.

“After him,” Celestia shouted. The two sisters darted after him, attempting to catch him and prevent the word about the battle getting out too early. They quickly lost the scout into the undergrowth, despite their best efforts.

“We have lost him,” Luna panted, “what should we do now?”

“Easy, we fly to the settlement and beat him there. Why didn’t we think of this before?” Celestia mused. The two sisters took off and flew up to the canopy. They circled around for a moment to get their bearings before flying off in the direction of the settlement.

(V) (;,,;) (V)

The midday sun was lighting up the market as the zebras went about the time tested manner of buying and selling their wares. They were interrupted by a bedraggled scout dashing into the center of the market shouting for Zecora.

“I’m here. What’s wrong, scout?” Zecora asked as she walked up to him.

“Its Grant, he’s…” the scout panted for breath.

“Oh no, is he alright?” Zecora pleaded with the scout.

“The ape is dead last I saw, Zebra,” a new, regal sounding voice broke in. Zecora and the rest of the zebras turned to face the new arrivals. Luna and some sort of human- like creature were hovering over the square. Judging by the way the human thing was colored; it was most likely Celestia in some sort of other form.

“People of the zebra kingdom,” Celestia amplified her voice so they could all hear it,” you are now under the control of the Equestrian Collation. As of today you begin paying taxes to support the collation’s army and government forces. That is all,” Celestia finished the announcement.

“What have you done to Grant?” Zecora yelled at Celestia.

“He refused to bow to our wishes, so we were forced to end his life. We couldn’t allow someone of his power roam free while we were trying to unite Equestria.” Celestia grinned.

Luna seemed more sympathetic as she landed and walked a few steps closer to Zecora, “We apologize for your loss, but it was for the greater good.”

“Greater good? You ponies are fools; you know not what you do. You will regret what has transpired today, we will make sure of it,” Zecora glared at Celestia. “We will leave here, but if we cannot have it, then neither can you.”

Many zebras with odd designs painted on them began gathering around her.

They began to chant, “við köllum á frábær móðir Gaia. Við besseech hana í tíma okkar og neyð. Vinsamlegast ó mikill einn, setja þessa skóga aftur í myndina þína. Við bið þig að endurgerð þessa skóga í myndina þína. að verða villt og ótamin ný. Við leitum þetta land að vera eins og svo svo lengi sem einn af okkur enn. Getur verið að þú veita gjöf eilíft líf að sá sem varðveitir þennan skóg. getur þú verja síðustu edifice þinn. Maí þessari vernd á síðasta fyrr en í lok tíma. ”

As they were speaking a bizarre green glow sprang up around them and gradually changed to a purple that became painful too look at. The glow focused on Zecora for a moment before exploding outward in a starburst. The expanding magical shockwave bowled over Luna and continued onwards to the very edge of the forest. It held a moment before retreating. When Celestia was able to look down at the forest again she saw that the zebra village was empty except for Luna who was doing a very good impression of a radioactive log.

“SISTER!” Celestia screamed as she flew down to her. “Wake up, what happened to you?”

The glow surrounding Luna faded as she groaned and opened her eyes,” Art thou alright, dear sister? We were having the oddest dream… Where are the Zebras? Were they not here a moment ago?”

“That doesn’t matter right now, I’m just glad you are alright,” Celestia hugged Luna. “Come on, let’s go home.”

Unknown Location

“And that was how the Zebras fled the forest after cursing it. They made it uninhabitable and teleported the entire population to the harsher desert climate that ponies wanted nothing to do with. The only one who stayed was Zecora as she had to defend the forest and wait for the next Nexus. Luckily, you showed up almost right at her doorstep.” Grant said as he finished the memory.

“Wait, how long had you been the Nexus?” Jarrad wondered.

“About four thousand years…why?” replied Grant.

“Dude….you got your ass kicked. ‘the hell did that happen?” asked Jarrad

“I let myself get killed, ya little shit.” Grant explained, his voice growing heavy, “The more powerful you become the more you become attune to magic and it’s wants and needs. In a way, it’s kinda like the more powerful and aware you become of magic then the more you’ll be able to find the right move to any given situation. That’s why I let myself get killed, I could literally FEEL magic telling me it was my time to die.”

“Sorta like Taoism on my home. You start paying attention to the patterns you start getting a feel for what the right way to handle a situation is.” Jarrad supplemented, “But that doesn’t explain why she went out of her way to kill you. I mean, did the whole unification thing really matter that much to her? Risking the balance of magic itself simply for her own bullshit power trip?”

“To be honest kid, I couldn’t tell ya. She may say she wants to have the whole country unified, but I don’t think that’s what she wants really. There’s something else she’s working on, and I had not clue what the hell it was.”

“But it had to have something to do with you dying? I mean, magic basically told you to follow her wishes….was it timing or something? Or was it a gamble that had to be taken…maybe it was for me?” asked Jarrad

“Whatcha mean?” asked Grant.

“Well, not me personally, but whoever was going to be the next Nexus. I mean, if magic is in such a bad way, wouldn’t that give her reason to back the hell off? Maybe that’s why it wanted you to do, so it could get worse and then force her to let me make it better.”

“Hm, that might be it, but we don’t know for sure. I mean, she didn’t really have a reason to kill me, did she?” asked Grant.

Jarrad looked pensive for a moment before a light bulb went off, “She’s creating a Xanatos Gambit.”

The eyebrow of the ape raised, “A what?”

Jarrad chuckled, actually being able to use a meme in real life, “A Xanatos Gambit is a term coined for entertainment purposes in cartoons, video games… well media and entertainment involving fictional characters. Basically you have a super fucking powerful person who has some kind of master goal. This person is also a master strategian. They are able to see the board about fifty moves before anyone else and recognize the steps to get there. Their Master Goal is always in sight for them, and they realize exactly how people need to react to reach it.”

“Interesting, but why call it a gambit?”

“Cause it relies on other people. Think about it, people aren’t going to do shit for you when you just out and out tell them to. Especially if they think it’s weird or if it’s completely out of the norm for them. However… whispering is another matter. You have to work your ass off to set things up exactly how you want them. People respond exactly how you think they will, and ka fuckin’ boom! You’ve got them right where you want them, with your big ass goal in sight,” his hands went up to emphasis the boom.

Grant scratched his chin, “Good thinking. So, why do you think she’s doing that?”

“She sent her goddamn guards after me. She forced me into a confrontation with them, one where I was already on the brink of fuckin’ dying… but ‘the hell would she do that for?” asked Jarrad, “I mean, I get that as the first step for me…but for what purpose?”

Grant’s eyes widened, “To draw me out.”

“What?”

“Alright, here’s how it works. Nexi have this amazing super-powerful ability we dubbed the Phantasm. It brings the consciousness of a previous Nexi to bear on the current one. It only works on one, but for a small amount of time, that Nexus has the abilities of the one they drew, regardless of their training or their own level of skill. Sorta massive damn cheat, if you get my meaning,” Grant explained.

“So… she put me on the brink so I could draw on you?” Jarrad asked, “Why would she care about that?”

“How long you been Nexus, kid?” asked Grant.

“About a week… and please don’t call me kid. I’m twenty-three,” Jarrad pleaded.

“And I was about four thousand when I died… I can call you kid all I want. Hell, I could call you a baby” Grant fired back, the smugness radiating off him in waves.

“….damn you, old man. How long has this planet been here if there have been so many Nexi living this long?” asked Jarrad.

“…call me old again and I’ll shove my fist down your throat, boy.” Sneered Grant, “And to answer your question, this planet is probably a few billion years old. Far older than that little rock you came from… actually, a lot bigger too. If you put about five earths together side by side you’d get roughly the diameter of Gaia.”

Jarrad’s mouth dropped.

“Yeah, we’re pretty damn big. Anyway, back to the question, I don’t know. She wanted to draw me out, that was clear, but why wouldn’t she just do the dirty work her own damn self? Hell, why’d she go to the trouble of lying to those pony friends of yours that you were dangerous?” he asked aloud.

“She WHAT!” Jarrad shouted.

Grant covered his ears, “Yeah, from what I got on the outside she apparently had a deal with Zecora and the others to come after Twilight was healed. Then she came back later with just those ponies who there the elements of harmony and, from what I can guess, made up some bullshit story about you being super dangerous and how she was going to come back in a week with guards to arrest you. I guess she told them that Zecora had been brainwashed or some nonsense so they didn’t tell her about it, so that they didn’t get their friend hurt.”

Jarrad’s face went ashen, “They fucking lied to me. Every last MOTHERFUCKING ONE OF THEM LIED RIGHT TO MY FUCKING FACE!!!”

Grant didn’t say a word, he could completely understand Jarrad’s livid attitude. He had been lied to directly by people who were posing as his friends. He’d want to rip them apart as well.

“What the fuck were they thinking? Who the fuck do they think they are?” his tirade continued. A few choice words about his foot being forcibly shoved into certain unpleasant areas were included in his rant. In a way this tirade was to keep him from the depressive fact that people who had tried to become his friends had just stabbed him in the back. Well… most of them.

“I think they were serving the only ruler they knew.” Grant sagely advised.

This stopped Jarrad cold. His mind worked overtime at that statement and deciphered exactly what it meant. They were raised, as foals, to believe Celestia was all knowing and all powerful. That whatever she said was for their own good and that she knew best for every last one of them. So when she came and told them this newcomer was bad news, who were they to question? They knew no better.

“That’s a reason, not a goddamn excuse.” He answered.

Grant chuckled, “Oh, I agree wholeheartedly. But hey, who better than someone that laid the smackdown on the bitch to give ‘em a new perspective, eh?”

“If they don’t have the ability to look another way, why should I bother wasting my time?” asked Jarrad, “If they don’t want to learn, why bother?”

“Because some people need to be made to learn is why. They need to see firsthand exactly how wrong their whole way of thinking is before you can get them to stop.”

“Yeah…and then what? Anything I have to say is just going to be drowned out by the whole “Celestia is always right” bullshit. I mean, what else can I do?” asked Jarrad.

“You seemed to get through to that pink one pretty well, kid.” Grant reminded him.

Jarrad’s eyes lost focus as he remembered what she had done for him. She had brought him back from the brink and kept his body from being destroyed, hell, she even wept and worried over him, that had to mean something, right?

Jarrad got the point, “Alright, I guess there’s hope for ‘em… but not Celestia. She made her bed and she’ll fucking lay in it. I want nothing to do with her that I don’t have to… whatever she may have in mind.”

“There’s an easy way to avoid that,” Grant inputted.

“Oh yeah, what?”

“The Mentor.”

“Mentor… you mean like a teacher?” asked Jarrad dumbly.

“No, I mean the cupcake, of course I mean the teacher the teacher you dumbass. God damn… kids these days. Anyway, each Nexus has always been paired with servant of Gaia as a Mentor, or a teacher for those of us who are a little slow. This person’s job is to keep the nasty people away from the Nexus while he, or she, is still developing. They are given a shit ton of power when they need it, and are even able to stop the Nexus if they get out of control. They aren’t as powerful, in the raw sense, that we Nexi are, but they can kill us pretty quick of need be,” Grant lectured.

“Alright… how? Sacred knowledge or some mystical shit like that?” asked Jarrad, somewhat sarcastically.

“Damn right. They know exactly how the world ticks, and their clarity gets better the more pressure is on. That’s the core idea of their power is that they know how things work and can use it to their advantage. We can only feel it… but they can see it. Of course, there are rules, but you don’t need to worry about that right now. The only thing you need to worry about is selecting your Mentor and giving them-“

Grant was cut off as Jarrod firmly stated, “Zecora.”

“What?” asked Grant.

“I want Zecora as my mentor. She’s the only person who’s been straight with me this far… I trust her far more than anyone else,” said Jarrad.

Grant’s face became unreadable for a moment, “Alright. Then the only thing you need to do is acknowledge her in body, mind, and soul as your mentor.”

“How? What do I need to say or do?” asked Jarrad.

“You don’t need to worry about that. When we’re done here my knowledge, or at least the most important stuff, will be implanted into you whether you like it or not. You’ll know the words that need be said and when to say them.”

Jarrad had a thought, “Grant… what was Zecora to you?”

This caught him off guard, “The fuck do you care?”

Jarrad held up his hands, “Dude, I’m sorry. I woke up just as I finished kissing her… or you did, I guess. I just wanted to know why she matters so much to you.”

Grant sighed, “You’ll see. She was a very important person to me…. my lover, my partner, hell, she was my everything. I never felt love like that from anyone or anything in my life until I met her. She became a servant of Gaia so she could be with me… she gave up the ability to age and eventually die so that she could help me and be with me. I don’t know what kind of devotion you’ve seen before, kid, but you’ve not seen anything like this.”

Grant’s head was bowed, reliving every memory. He felt a hand on his shoulder, “No matter what happens, I’ll always be there to help her and keep her safe.”

A watery smile mad its way to Grant’s face, “Heh, you got a good heart kid, don’t let it go.”

He reached up to wipe away the tears, “Alright, enough of the mushy stuff. Let’s get back to it. Now, she drew me out with her guards before coming in… why?”

Jarrad, who had sat back down, thought for a moment.

“Grant… did you ever know any healing spells… and for that matter, how long is the conscious overlap of the Phantasm supposed to take?” asked Jarrad, “because I’ve got a theory that I don’t think you’ll like.”

“Whatdya mean?” asked Grant.

“Well, if the consciousness is merely mean to overlap for a time… why am I taking the knowledge from you directly? Isn’t it not supposed to do that? And hell, this whole conversation we’re having now….is that normal?” asked Jarrad.

“This, kind’a thing? Yeah, I’ve done it a few times when talking to Nexi of the past. A piece of them gets drawn back from the void to talk to you….but you’re something different. Kid, you in just a week, have done more than most Nexi do in months or even years. To draw on the Phantasm is to touch the very core of your being, of the Nexus itself. Hell, it’s the closest you can come to touching the Source and living. So no, this memory thing ain’t normal, but normal rules don’t seem to apply to you. You’ll probably start to remember bits and pieces from different Nexi the more times you use it, but I recommend waiting a while in between.”

“Why? If I can get all that knowledge then… why wait?” asked Jarrad.

“You wanna turn your brain into a pile of fucking leaves or mud?” asked Grant, “I mean, there are plenty of new and exciting things to fill your head with. You could use a dirty dishcloth for all it matters.”

“What?”

“The mind can only handle so much. You put too much shit in there from too many people and you’ll be flinging shit at folks in no time.”

“Oh, like you guys,” Jarrad exclaimed.

Grant slapped the back of his head, “Focus.”

Jarrad thought it was completely worth it.

“Well, I do have to ask, why is it happening at all? I mean, if it’s never happened before, why now?” asked Jarrad

“The best guess I can give is that each Nexus came in during a different time when magic was in a different state. The ones who were able to get powerful really quickly, apart from working their asses off, were there during a time when magic was weaker. The same is true for the opposite. It might be something like that here. Magic is in a bad enough way that it’s giving you every single fucking advantage it can to get you up to speed.” Said Grant.

“Why not just get it’s owns self back up to speed?” asked Jarrad.

“Rules, kid, rules. Magic has to operate a certain way or it causes things to go wrong…horribly wrong. That’s why you’re so important. Magic itself isn’t really conscious the same way we are, but it does have what you could call instinct. And it’s instinct is to instill more and more power into a Nexus to make him more effective quickly.” Answered Grant, “In a way it needs something to follow for a little while before it takes over for itself, even then it still needs some kind of focal point…a manifestation, as it were. You just got lucky an showed up right when it needed it the most.”

“So…my new body was “built” with this stuff in mind, so that’s why I’m able to do this?” asked Jarrad

“Yep. That’s be my best guess at least. Anyway, back on track. Let’s assume, for a second, she knew something like this would happen. Let’s not worry about the how she knew, but what she’s hoping to accomplish?” Grant mused.

“Well, we can’t assume too much. We don’t know her master plan or even her at all really, so assuming too much means we’re going to be way the fuck over there,” he pointed out into the infinite blackness surrounding the pair, then back in between them, “When we need to be right the fuck here. So, assuming she knew this would happen, then what?”

“Well, it’s safe to say ALL Nexi were proficient in some level of healing. But I was one of the better ones… when I needed to be. It seemed to be balanced by the fact that I could take on armies single handed in the Berserker armor… she knew.” Grant gasped.

“What? She knew you’d be the lucky draw?” asked Jarrad

“Well, if she didn’t know she was really fuckin’ sure. That armor, because it was mine and meant so much to me, was acting as a link between my conscious and you. So, if Zecora told her what she planned to do, thinking to trust her, then she must have known I would be drawn out. I played right into her hand,” lamented the large ape.

“She knew you’d send me into a rage and cause some serious damage to the guards without thinking. She also knew she had them brainwashed so well that she could do whatever she wanted to them and they wouldn’t hold it against her,” Finished Jarrad.

Grant had the good grace to face palm himself, “God I’m a fuckin’ idiot.”

“You ain’t the only one. So, we’ve got a bunch of guards who’re in serious condition… and a possible plethora of new healing abilities… aww hell; she’s CHECKING HER GODDAMN HYPOTHESIS!” cried Jarrad.

Grant was on the same page, “However she knew this would happen, she’s making sure that her theories are correct and checking her work. Hell, she’s even assuming you’re going to heal the damn guards, prolly tryin’ to figure out exactly who you are as a person. If you’re worth her time or effort… damn that bitch.”

“She’s trying to make sure I’m made’a the right shit for her to fuck around with… isn’t she?” Jarrad groaned.

Grant heaved another sigh, “That’d be my guess, but remember, we don’t know a lot about what she’s been doing. Heh, I don’t envy you, you got your work cut out for you.”

“So, what do I need to do?” asked Jarrad.

“Only advice I can give is to go talk to Zecora, make her your Mentor, and try to talk to the other ponies. Hell, go heal the damn guards. You at least know you need to be on the lookout for her and damn near anything she says. So what if she knows more about you, you know about her as well. ‘Sides that whole guilt bullshit you’re putting yourself through is startin’ ta piss me off.” Grant said.

Jarrad smiled. It did make him feel a great deal better to be able to correct his mistake… for the most part.

“So… we’ve figured out exactly what’s happened with Celestia, how to heal the guards, more about the Nexus and its abilities, and that every pony in Equestria is REALLY fucking stupid. So, what’s next?” asked Jarrad.

“Well kid, our time here is done. So… you get to wake up… I gotta say, you need to. You’ve been asleep for three weeks,” Grant stated calmly.

Jarrad balked, “What?”

“Yeah, time passes differently in this place. Only a few minutes here could be a millisecond out there or a millennia. It all changes, but you’ve been in a hospital bed for a few weeks. Hell, they’ve even taken to feeding you through a tube,” Said Grant.

“…the fuck are they doing that and how the fuck do you know that?” asked Jarrad, his face taking on an “are you fucking kidding me” look.

Grant smiled toothily, “I still got access to your outside senses for now. They hooked you up and have been feeding you for the past three weeks. Some kinda protein paste that Zecora made. Damn good thing that zebra knows your kinds, otherwise you’d be totally screwed.”

Jarrad smiled, “Yeah, she seems pretty amazing.”

Grant’s face became nostalgic, “Yeah… she was.”

“Anyway, it’s time for you to wake the fuck up.”

With that Grant’s massive fist reared back and hit Jarrad directly on the nose.

Everything exploded into white, leaving him staring at an unfamiliar ceiling.

From the desk of nobodyreallyimportant

Hello everybody, I hope you guys are enjoying the holiday season. Anyway, for those of you who care, the translation for the zebras chant goes as follows:

“we call upon the great mother gaia. We besseech her in our time of need and desperation. Please, oh great one, place this forest back in your image. We beseech you to remake this forest in your image. to become wild and untamed once more. We seek this land to be as such so long as one of us remains. May you grant the gift of everlasting life to one who guards this forest. may you protect your last edifice. May this protection last until the end of time.”

The thing was in Icelandic, in case you guys care. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Have a happy new year everybody (or everypony, for you diehards).

From Solbeowulf 19:

Holy shit Batman….an update!!!

So…first and foremost I would like to apologize for the lack of updates and warn that it might continue for a while. Ya see, I ended up spilling some Dr. Pepper on my computer and it messed up the keyboard. I’m jacking one from work right now and that’s how I was able to finish this thing up. So, it may be awhile before the next one. BUT, never fear, for I shall pursue. So, read, review, and I’ll update again whenever I can.

Oh, and one more thing. I know I usually give a shout out to my beta, nobodyreallyimportant….but I can’t do that here. Quite frankly, there is no possible way I can express my gratitude for him. He helped me tremendously by co-authoring this chapter and digging my ass out of the fire. So, make sure that you give him a big thank you for that when you get the chance. Without him you probably wouldn’t have this chapter even now. So, to nobodyreallyimportant, you are fucking amazing dude. Keep up just being you.

Till next time ladies and gents. Solbeowulf19….OUT!

From Drakon Samael

So yeah, new author name, same story. So, we’ve got some rewrite to this one. It feels and flows better, as well as, to me, making much more sense than before. The relationships between each particular part of the story seem to be more solid than before, rather than relying on something that seemed kinda shaky. ANYWAY, I wanted to make some updates here because a new chapter should be coming soon. I do apologize profusely for the wait, but I finally managed to get a new keyboard and now I’m working even better than before. So…let’s see how this thing goes.

Chapter 5
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The Nexus

Chapter 5

As anyone who has had the pleasure of taking one right in the shnoz might be able to say, getting a huge fist rammed into your face will cause a negative reaction. This reaction is made even worse by the simple fact that you’ve been asleep for three weeks and everything that happened, including said fist, was all in your head. Needless to say, it was an unpleasant way to wake up for all involved.

Jarrad jolted upright in bed, nearly smacking somepony right in the face, and scaring the life out of everyone in the room. Apparently, his return to the waking world was completely unexpected. He had given no real indication of his awakening on the machines monitoring the multitude of signatures from brain patterns to a simple EKG. He literally “just woke up”. His breathing was labored, his mind still in a hazy dream and seeing the fist of a gorilla moving ever so slowly to his face.

He instinctively bent over and tried to calm his breathing. Slowly but surely his mind began to completely awaken as he took in his surroundings. The room he was in was lavish to say the least. Expensive tapestries and paintings hung from the walls and even the ceilings. What looked like Persian rugs and carpets, along with some very large pillows, littered the ground. There were even a few tables and bookcases, no doubt filled with first editions of whatever this world would consider very high level literature. He was even lying in a gigantic four poster bed with frills and trimmings of some sort all around it, and with lavish curtains to boot. At a glance it looked like it was Celestia trying to make up for what she put him through, or throw him off balance; both of which were just plain unwelcome.

‘It’s going to take a lot more to make up for that SNAFU,’ he thought to himself. He took a few moments to see exactly what his status was. Looking down he saw a great deal of his body covered in bandages. There were even a few IV tubes sticking out of him, as well as diodes connected to the measuring equipment. He decided that he needed it off and he needed it off now.

“Alright, can someone get this stuff off me?” he asked aloud. Dead silence was the only response..

“Can someone please get this stuff off of me and let me out of here?” he asked again a moment later.

Somepony finally found the courage to speak up as nurse with a fusia color and a shot cutie mark over a band-aid, “We’re sorry sir, but we’ve been given orders to keep you in here until Celestia is ready for you.”

Jarrad balked at that. ‘That arrogant bitch,’ he thought as he began to become angry. Given the inherent need to get up he was feeling; Jarrad wasn’t about to jump around the issue, “Alright, I’m going to tell you how this is going to work. You’re going to help me get this stuff off of me and I’m leaving to find a certain Zebra. That, OR I’m going to get it out myself, run train on whoever wants to try and stop me, then I’m leaving to find a certain Zebra. Which do you want me to do?” he asked, his voice dropping dangerously.

The nurse didn’t look as if she was going to take that. Her eyes suddenly grew cold and her horn glowed. The next thing Jarrad knew his body was behind held down on the bed, hard. Straps moved around him further pinning him down. He struggled as hard as he could against them, but they weren’t going anywhere.

“How about this? You’re going to stay right here until Celestia tells us otherwise and not do anything, understand?” she growled down at him.

Without thinking Jarrad tried to draw on his magic, but he couldn’t feel it. Come to think of it, the more he attempted to feel his magic, the more it felt completely gone from him. His face must have shown his fear.

“We placed a seal on your back to keep you from using on magic for a while. We couldn’t let you hurt anyone again, could we?” the nurses voice was like honeyed acid.

Whether it was out of sheer rage or simply based on his instincts Jarrad’s focus became razor sharp. He kept trying to feel his magic, to draw it out of him. It felt like a useless battle, nothing was coming forth.

However the more he tried to draw upon it the more he felt something begin to build. It was a completely different sensation than before, but he chose to focus on that. Eventually, he recognized it as a wall breaking. It was the same sensation he felt when he first touched magic. It was breaking through some kind of barrier… the one on his back, no doubt. The more he focused the more his lower back began to burn, as if someone had simply dumped gasoline on him and lit it on fire. He ignored it though; he didn’t have any other choice. He had to break out of whatever it was they had put him under.

The room seemed to explode in the light radiating off him. The ponies were blinded for a moment, only a moment, but it was all the time Jarrad needed. He snapped the strap holding his left arm as if tearing through paper and grabbed the first thing he could find; the nurse’s horn.

He had a death grip on it. He didn’t know whether or not breaking it would be effective, given the debate on the internet back in his world, but he was satisfied at the results regardless. There did seem to be some pain in her eyes, but more fear than anything else. It made sense; she knew what he would most likely do. And what was a Unicorn without her horn? She knew that he could and very well would tear it off without a second thought if he felt the need to. He dragged her over closer to him, pulling her down as he stared hard into her eyes.

“Let’s try this again. Take off these restraints and let me the fuck out of this room,” he snarled softly.

“I can’t… you’ve got my horn,” she squeaked softly. Not only was the surprise of him breaking the seal there, but she was petrified with fear over losing her horn.

“Then get one of them to do it,” he spoke as if it were the easiest thing in the world.

The nurse eyed the other two unicorns in the room, begging them to help her. The tension was palpable, bearing down on everyone. The unicorns knew they could launch a spell, but it would be obvious, and by the time it reached Jarrad might have managed to break of the nurse’s horn. But if they did nothing and let him go, what guarantee did they have that he wouldn’t do it anyway, just for kicks?

“Hmm… I must admit, this was an outcome I did not expect one bit,” a smoky voice cut through the room.

Jarrad looked over the nurse to see not only Zecora but Pinkie Pie there as well, “Jarrad, I believe it would be in your best interest, if you simply give it a rest.”

Jarrad eyed Zecora and Pinkie warily before letting go of the nurse’s horn. He stared at her even harder than before, “If you ever pull this shit again, I won’t just grab your horn. I’m going to reach as deep inside you as I possibly can and pull out your goddamn spine, you understand me?”

The nurse was in tears, but she nodded.

“Good, now everybody but the zebra and the pink one have about five seconds before I break out of these restraints. If you aren’t gone by then Celestia is going to add a few new graves to Canterlot… get me?” he seethed.

They scattered faster than ants. Jarrad’s scowl didn’t move as he lay back down. Focusing again he managed to rip the restraints out one by one, after freeing his other hand. Reaching down he removed the IV in his hand. It healed quickly, and that was a good thing. It meant his magic was back to normal… well, as normal as it could be given the circumstances, but normal regardless.

“Jarrad, was that necessary?” asked Zecora

Jarrad thought for a moment, “No, no it wasn’t. I don’t like to make people suffer if I don’t have to, but I’m trying to prove a point to them. I’m not about to have my every movement controlled by some stupid bitch who thinks she knows everything,” he mirthlessly chuckled. “No one seems to want to leave me the fuck alone and let me breathe for a minute.”

Zecora heaved a sigh, “I suppose it can’t be helped.”

“Well I think it can, you need to stop being such a big meanie pants to everyone here mister. Not everyone deserves what you’re doing to them,” Pinkie Pie intervened, attempting to put a stop to his behavior.

Jarrad couldn’t find himself in any place to disagree. He didn’t need to keep acting like this, but if he kept running into people who were going to do this stuff to him he was going to lose his mind.

Jarrad ran a hand through his hair, “Alright, alright, I’ll try to ease up. But I make no promises. I’m sick of everyone here and their ‘Holier than Thou’ attitude. If I run into it again I’m going to give them a serious attitude adjustment.”

Zecora and Pinkie just looked at one another. It was the best they could hope for at this point. At least he wasn’t going to be openly hostile with anyone. That was a start.

“Alright, so, where are the guards?” Jarrad asked suddenly.

“What guards?” responded Zecora

“The ones I hurt. I need to heal them,” he answered plainly.

“You want to… heal the guards who went after you? Even Dashie?” asked Pinkie, confusion and hope both in her eyes.

“Yes, They may have come after me, but they were pawns the same as me. They didn’t deserve all that I gave them.”

“Wait… you mean you didn’t want to do that stuff?” asked Pinkie

Jarrad paused, trying to figure out the best way to answer, “No, Pinkie. It would be a lie for me to say that I didn’t do exactly what I wanted to each and every one of them. I was angry, I was furious, and I wanted to hurt as many ponies as I possibly could. However, that doesn’t give me the right to. I should have had the control to stop and run. That’s all I ever needed or wanted to do. But I got too wrapped up in the action, even before Grant decided to make his entrance. I need to try and find a way to make amends for that. If I can heal them to make up for it, at least slightly, then I’m going to do it.”

“Jarrad, you don’t know any healing spells,” Zecora pointed out the obvious.

“You’re right, I don’t… but Grant did. I don’t have all of his knowledge… well, I guess I do actually, but I’m still sorting it out here and there. I have a few bits and pieces from memory floating around in my head. One or two of which involve his experience with overall healing spells. Speaking of which, for the sake of my own safety, I need to do this now rather than later.” as he spoke Jarrad stepped forward, bending onto his knee in front of Zecora.

He grabbed her head by the sides with both hands and placed his forehead on top of hers before reciting, “Here we seek to bind two souls through the power of Gaia, the Nexus and the Mentor, Protected and Protector, Apprentice and Master. May the power of Gaia flow through them on their journey together, and may the Nexus grow strong under the watchful eye of the Mentor. For this we ask, for this we demand, and for this we beg. May the magic of life flow through them, until the end. May their connection never fade until the end, until they both find their way back to the Source.”

A wave of… something passed through the room. Yet, as quickly as it came, it vanished. It barely felt like anything at all, but the results spoke for themselves. In the stead of a zebra that once stood the same height as anypony, there stood another almost as tall and regal as Celestia herself. She was certainly taller than Celestia’s younger sister Luna. Pinkie couldn’t believe her eyes, and Jarrad was just as surprised. He had just uttered the words he could remember from Grant’s memory, but he didn’t remember the previous Mentor getting this big.

“Um… Zecora… why’d you grow?” asked Jarrad and Pinkie at the same time.

A deep chuckle me their ears. Her voice was still as sensual as ever, if a bit deeper, “The form you see now, is merely based on what will most likely go down. If you are in danger of any sort, then a new form I will sport. It is all relative, Nexus, based on whatever danger is active.”

“So… you get bigger the more danger I’m in and vice versa? I’m gonna guess that I’m in some trouble right now?” asked Jarrad.

“Only possibly. The form before you is merely for show, only if there is danger will I need grow.”

“…Ya got any other useful tricks?” he quipped.

Zecora merely grinned in response.

“I guess we’ll figure out later,” he grinned. He turned to pinkie as the grin faded away. Here was the moment he had been dreading. It was time to talk to Pinkie Pie about what was happening. He didn’t care much about the others at this point, but he would need to speak with all of them eventually.

He kneeled down in front of the pony, “Hey Pinkie… listen I-“

Before he could try and work out an apology he was cut off by the pink pony latching onto him and bawling her eyes out. “Oh Jarrad, I’m so sorry! We never should have listened to that meanie Celestia!” she exclaimed through her sniffles. Jarrad didn’t quite know how to handle this distraught pony. He was expecting a fight of some sort, at the very least a shouting match, but not this.

He did the best he could, wrapping his arms around her and running his hand through her cotton candy mane. He did his best to whisper in her ear that it was alright and that he forgave her. He bore her no ill will, not anymore. In all honesty, he couldn’t say he really hated any of the others, he would just need to make sure they knew not only where he stood but to never pull something like that again.

“How!? How can you forgive us after what we did to you?” she bawled even harder. Jarrad had to guess she felt she didn’t deserve forgiveness. He wondered why she was being so hard on herself. If he had to guess, he’d say it was for the fact that she was not only an Element of Harmony, but also the Element of Laughter. She was, quite literally, made to bring joy to people, not the pain and suffering that he had felt. Maybe she felt she not only failed him but everything she believed in.

“Pinkie, listen to me,” he spoke softly before taking her forelegs off his shoulders and holding them in his hands. He looked her dead in the eye, “None of this was your fault. You and your friends only did what you thought was right, I can’t fault you for that; not now, not ever.”

“But…we let Celestia do that to you. We didn’t even tell Zecora.” She sniffled out.

“Yeah, but why did you do what Celestia said?” asked Jarrad

“Well…she’s Celestia. She’s ruled Equestria for so long, and she’s hardly ever wrong.” Pinkie thought aloud.

“Yeah, but she’s been wrong before, and she was wrong here. Look, Pinkie, you listened to her because she’s never led you wrong before. She’s never put you in a situation where you would have to choose between your friends or forming a bond with a new friend, much less between yourself and your people. So when she finally does, you trust her enough to make the choice to help her, and you know what, you did the right thing,” he tried to bring her some level of comfort.

“But… how?” she asked.

“If you had said something I would have run. If I’d have run then things would have gone differently, if they did go differently then we wouldn’t be where we are now. Pinkie, I need to be here right now, because of what I am. If you had said something then, that would have made things different and who knows what would have happened not only to me, but to you as well. Besides, Pinkie, does Celestia seem like a pony who’s usually denied what she wants?” asked Jarrad.

“Well… no, I mean, she is the ruler of Equestria,” Pinkie mused. She seemed to have calmed down at this point.

“Exactly…now, hypothetically, what do you think might have happened if you had warned me of exactly what was waiting for me?” he asked.

“Well…” Pinkie couldn’t finish. She could scarcely imagine the horrors that Celestia would unleash on her if she didn’t cooperate completely. Most of them involving the Cakes, her family. She couldn’t bear to think of anything happening to them.

“Exactly, you don’t. You may have lied to me, omission wise, but you sure as hell didn’t go out and decide to fuck up my life for your own reasons. Pinkie, I forgive you,” Jarrad hugged her, “because I want to give you a second chance. Because as much as it pisses me off that neither you nor anyone else said anything, I recognize on the whole that there wasn’t really anything you could do, not in this situation.” This seemed to calm her down a great deal.

Jarrad abruptly became grave. “Pinkie, I want you to do something for me, but it’s going to be something you’re probably going to hate,” he hesitantly spoke.

“What?” she asked, nervous.

“I need you to make me a Pinkie Pie Promise that you won’t ever do anything like this again. Promise me that you won’t ever try to help someone who wishes me harm or their intentions aren’t good. But, if they ask you to, I want you to break it as obviously as you can,” Jarrad spoke in a serious tone.

“W- what?” she looked like she was about to cry again at the suggestion.

“Pinkie, if you break a promise you made to me and make sure I know about it, then I’m going to know something is wrong and ru- no, nevermind. I can’t do that, if it was like this then the same thing would happen,” Jarrad shot down the idea.

“What if I promised to never hurt you in any way, and me breaking that promise would mean something was wrong?” asked Pinkie, catching on to the general idea.

“That, Pinkie, would work wonderfully,“ Jarrad smiled. “If something happens like this again then I can get some kind of early warning and be ready for it, though I’m sorry I have to ask you to out and out break a Pinkie Promise.”

She seemed to think about it for a moment before realizing exactly what that would entail. It seemed to Jarrad that she was disgusted with herself for even thinking of doing such a thing.

“Pinkie, have you ever lied to a friend? Like, a little white lie?” asked Jarrad

Pinkie immediately shook her head. This was, to Jarrad, a good sign. She should have been the element of honesty the way things were going.

“Listen Pinkie, what I’m doing is about the same thing. I know we’re going to make a Pinkie Promise, but I need to realize that if you break it, it’s going to work out for the best in the end. If you break it then I’ll know something is wrong and try to make sure you and myself are safe. It’s for a greater good, but I’m not going to make you do something that you’re uncomfortable with. So if you don’t want to, I’m not going to make you make that Pinkie Promise,” Jarrad hugged her again.

“Thank you Jarrad but, I’m sorry, I won’t ever break a Pinkie Promise…never.” She shuddered, “I just can’t.”

In some sense Jarrad was relieved, he thought he was starting to sound like Celestia. If he focused too much on the greater good, he would miss everything right in front of his face.

“Then just promise me you’ll do your best to be my friend and be there for me as much as you can, as long as I’m not being unreasonable, that you and I can trust one another completely?” He asked.

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” she whispered softly.

Jarrad could only hug her tighter; things would be fine between them.

“Well, that’s one down, now five to go. Hmm... this was probably the easiest one,” he thought aloud. Well…now that his business here was taken care of he had a new task to perform.

He let go of Pinkie and began to walk toward the door, only to stop at two realizations. One, he had no idea where he was going, and two, and this was the most important one, he was buck naked.

Looking down to see all of himself, even some parts covered in bandages, but everything else was flapping out in the open. He reached to cover himself as quickly as he could. Looking up he could see a smile on Zecora’s face, she was waiting for him to figure it out.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re a real Gallager, now, where the hell are my clothes?” Jarrad wrenched out. He was feeling very embarrassed about his predicament.

“Well, dear Jarrad, I’m sorry to say, that all of your clothes left you that day. Everything I gave you from before, was another form of the armor you bore. Once your smiting and destruction had come to an end, the armor decided that it’s power would no longer need to be lend. It resides now in your tattoo, but you do not need to worry, to talk around naked is not such a taboo.” Her reassurance didn’t seem to help Jarrad all that much.

“….great, so my only clothing I have is now armor, and that armor is my brand…great. So, do you have any clothing I could use?” grumbled Jarrad.

“It’s not much, but yes we do,” Zecora motioned over to the other side of the room. There sat a pile of clothes on a chair with a pair of...

“Zecora, where the hell did you guys get a pair of Vibram Fivefingers? And how did you make them?” asked Jarrad

“Well, they were a gift from the princess. She said that she had looked into your head to see if there was anything she could figure out about you and your preferences for clothes. She had some of the designers in Canterlot make the rest,” said Pinkie, “She did a REALLY good job on them.”

“The princess…went into my head…to find out what I liked for clothes?” asked Jarrad incredulously, “She invaded my mind?”

“Not so much, dear Jarrad, not so much. She only took a small amount of time to examine your most shallow thoughts and memories, some of them happened to be of clothing that you had bought. She never went further than she would have needed, for she knew such advances would be completely unseeded,” Zecora explained.

“That bitch having some level of privacy and self-restraint…that’s funny as hell,” he seethed, “Does she think she’s going to win me over after the shit she pulled?”

“It wasn’t that princess,” Zecora said simply.

That one was a surprise, “Wait…it was Luna? Why would Luna do anything for me?”

“Well, according to her, she wanted to help make up for what her sister went and did a few days ago, which I think is just awesome. She also made a Pinkie Promise to me not to do anything even REMOTELY similar to what Celestia did to you,” Pinkie answered, “She also said that she wanted to meet with you as soon as she could.”

“Ugh, she wants something, doesn’t she?” muttered Jarrad

“Of that I do not know, but what do you have to lose if you go?” asked Zecora. Luna may have been an unknown, but there was a more positive connotation to this princess than the other.

“I can think of about a hundred different things, my freedom standing at the top of that list…but I’ll go. If she was willing to make a Pinkie Promise then there’s a good chance she wouldn't try to stab me in the back, I hope. Besides, she’s been fucked over by her sister before, maybe she’s got a better attitude,” he thought aloud as he worked on putting everything on. She had even gone as far as to make the underwear as fitting as possible. Luna didn’t attempt to miss anything, It seemed.

He was wearing now a new pair of Vibrams, dark black cargo shorts, a plain navy blue t-shirt…and his chains.

“….how…these are…” he couldn’t speak properly for a moment.

“She reached into your world and plucked a few items for you. She attempted to take a few things that wouldn’t be missed, she also said that if she needed to, she would be happy to do that again. She’s also etched some runes into that necklace and bracelet,” said Pinkie. “She said it was something like ‘breaking the fourth wall’. “

Jarrad held the chains in his hands, “My father gave me these for Christmas a few years ago…I was wearing them when I died.”

His vision began to blur a bit as tears stung his eyes. He held that chains to his chest and dropped to his knees, he couldn’t hold it back anymore. A pair of legs wrapped around his chest and pulled him in. His vision was blurred by grey and black.

“I can’t go back, can I? Not even to say goodbye?” he sniffed.

He knew the zebra was shaking her head. He was stuck here for the rest of his days. It was something he was just going to have to accept, and he thought he had. But seeing something his father had given him, something from his old life, seemed to have brought everything back to the surface once more. It was odd yet very cathartic for him to cry like this. He hadn’t done it in years, not even when his grandparents had passed away. He would have to see later if this was simply another change, or if it was just that this incident was finally bad enough for him to have this reaction.

He felt another pair of legs wrap around him and join Zecora. He lost count of how long he was there, but he remembered feeling better after it was all over. He knew it might come up again, given how fresh the wound was, but in time it would be far better. Besides, as his father would say, it was better to recognize the emotion and live with it, than try to ignore it completely.

After his cathartic moment was over, Jarrad asked to be shown to the medical wing to see if there was anything he could do to help the soldiers. Zecora looked hesitant to answer, but he wouldn’t be deterred. She finally explained why.

In the three weeks he had been asleep the ponies that could had already been healing, by their own power and a bit of help from the nurses and doctors. However, there were a dozen or so who had injuries so bad that they would be out of it for months, including physical therapy. Some even had life altering injuries that would confine them to some form of handicap status for the rest of their days, including Rainbow Dash. When he threw her he had injured he wing; no, injured isn’t the proper term, he mangled it beyond recognition. He had caused it so much damage that Rainbow would, most likely, never fly again. It even had to be amputated to keep the dead flesh from causing more problems.

“I took away Rainbow Dash’s ability to fly?” asked Jarrad, not really believing it.

Pinkie couldn’t bear to look at him.

“Fuck. The brony community would have my head,” he muttered.

Pinkie looked startled at that one, “Jarrad…how can you say that? She’s my FRIEND and she won’t ever fly-“

“No, no, she’ll fly again, it’s just going to take some time for her to do that. Her new wing is going to need a few weeks and some therapy to get it where she needs to be,” Jarrad shushed her. He didn’t want her worrying more than she needed to, or bringing up his own feelings of guilt and clouding his reasoning. He needed to be as focused as possible if this was going to work.

“How can you do that? Even Celestia said it was impossible.” Spoke Pinkie.

“Yeah, well Celetia says a lotta bullshit, so I wouldn’t trust her on this. If she says it’s impossible either she doesn’t know how to do it and doesn’t want her omniscient image ruined, or she just doesn’t want to do it and wants to see me do it. Hell, I’d guess if I said no, she’d come up with some bullshit method that’s been ‘lost to time’ to deal with it. I don’t think Rainbow was ever in any real danger of permanently losing her ability to fly.” He reasoned. It seemed to put Pinkie at ease, though not by much, “You’ll see what happens, I’ll make her the first one I help.”

Of course, helping would have to come when he was able to calm everyone down enough to do it. Almost immediately after arriving at the medical wing he was met with glares and heated words in his direction. All from family and friends of the soldiers he had hurt. Being here was not a good idea, not yet at least, but he didn’t have the luxury of time on his side. This needed to be taken care of now, before anything else got out of control.

“What do you think YOU’RE doing?!?” a nurse screamed at him. She seemed to be getting nods of approval from everyone there.

Jarrad knew he had to choose his next words carefully, “Making amends and correcting my mistakes.”

Of course, even the best chosen words, can be taken incorrectly. Everyone in the room almost dove for the closest patient and attempted to shield them from whatever he was going to do. Some of the children even glared at him as if they were going to kill him. This was obviously not going to end well.

“Zecora, Pinkie, anything you guys can do would be VERY fucking helpful right now,” he whispered.

Zecora nodded and stepped forward, “Listen, good people, this man wishes no harm. What happened was horrific, but no one here knows the details so specific. What this man wishes is only to heal those he hurt, please trust him and myself as well, we know this can work.”

“How do you expect to heal anyone when the Great Celestia herself couldn’t?!” shouted another pony.

Jarrad knew he didn’t have an argument that was going to persuade any of them. Only action would work, and he wasn’t sure that would work all that well either, but he didn’t have much other a choice.

“Pinkie, take me to Dashie,” he whispered to her, trying to conserve his energy as best he could. Pinkie nodded and walked through the crowd of beds and cots, through the seemingly endless sea of distraught families, to a small bed in the back of the room.

Moving aside the curtain he found Rainbow Dash, minus a wing, with her back facing them. They could hear soft sobbing coming from her, and words meant to soothe coming from Applejack across from her. The orange pony held the hoof of the cyan one, running the other through her hair. It didn’t seem to have the affect she wanted, especially when she looked up to see Jarrad standing there.

She looked to jump right over Rainbow Dash and lay hooves on him, but he put a stop to it. Before Applejack to could any momentum Jarrad had his fist up, glowing red.

“Applejack, I’m here to help her and everyone else in here. I fucked up, badly. I want to make amends for that, and I know I’m the last person you want to see right now. So I’m pretty sure that you’re going to be hard headed and stubborn about me helping. But here’s the deal, you get in my way and keep me from doing my thing, we’re gonna find out which is harder, your head or my fist,” He spoke as calmly as possible. His patience was reaching its limit and he didn’t have it in him to wait for people to get over it.

Applejack sat back down and continued to glare at him. She knew when she was going to face something more powerful than her, especially when it threatened her well being. But a thought had occurred to her, if he was really this determined, could he give her friend her ability to fly back? Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, was not as receptive to the idea.

“So…you injure me and come to gloat?” she choked out, “Come to finish what you started? Well go ahead, you’ve already taken my dreams from me, it’d be easier if you just did me in now. Hell, if Celestia can’t heal me, then I’ve got nothing left.”

Clearly she didn’t hear anything he just said. He didn’t bother to try and reason with her. He simply closed his eyes and focused on a memory. It was an age ago, back when Grant was alive; specifically, when he was there after a battle. There were so many wounded on all sides, so he gave his services as a doctor for a time. In his mind he became the ape, walking through the medical tents bringing one patient after another back from the brink. He focused on the spell in his mind, one designed to bring the body back to full health. It was difficult to preform, but powerful and godlike because it played with nature itself.

It was not like necromancy, no, but like pure life itself. It created a ‘blueprint’ of a person’s body in their DNA. Having that blueprint, it moved the cells and sped up their growth, literally bringing a person back to their full health, curing disease, replacing lost limbs, the works. The amount of power needed to make the spell work well depended on the injury, but when it did its thing, it was a literal miracle. Jarrad focused on the feel, the smell, the sight, the sound, even the taste of the magic in his- no, in Grant’s body. He needed to be like Grant if he was going to use it.

Hell, even the words were important, but they wouldn’t do shit if he didn’t remember everything else. This wasn’t some kind of little Harry Potter incantation, this was an olden wizardry from beyond sort of spell, the kind that requires unflinching focus and dedication. He felt the power flowing through him and brought it forth, doing his best to commit the feeling to memory. He didn’t know exactly what he was going to do, but he knew, or better yet, felt, that allowing magic to do exactly what it needed would be his best option.

Shaking himself back into the real world he brought his hands up and brought his magic to bare. The world shifted a bit and he found himself back in the tent, his hands five times larger. He didn’t have time to do it again, so he kept going. He placed his hands on the bright red unicorn in front of him, missing both a horn and a front leg, and pushed his power through. The words came naturally, as if spoken over a million times before, and the magic followed.

A vibrant green glow surrounded his body and leaked into the cyan Pegasus. His mind filled with images, moving between wings, horns, legs, heads, bodies. It was as if he was healing two people at one time. Each moment was bringing a new image to the forefront of his mind, and it was causing him a great deal of confusion.

He mentally shook himself back and focused on one, just one, putting all energy into her. He could see some kind of…outline of her, the same as he had with Twilight. Only this time, there were wings on her back, rather than a horn on her head. He could only see one, and knew this was wrong. He put a hand in that direction and felt the whole body…shift.

It didn’t shift completely in his field of vision, but shifted the same as if he was pulling on clay or play- doh. He figured that this was his best option. He pulled on her wing stub and tried to draw it out. After a few attempts he was successful, and had the bone structure placed back. For some reason, he knew exactly how long to make it, how thick, how powerful, even what to go with first.

Eventually the bone structure had properly formed and he began to mold the muscle, veins, nerves, and flesh. This was the most difficult part as they were small, very small, and he felt as if his hands were going to be too big to do a proper job. Like trying to fold origami with giant sausage fingers, it simply made things more difficult. However, as much as he was frightened by the prospect, everything seemed to follow and fit as if his hand were literally designed to make them.

He didn’t have any real knowledge, on a “textbook” level, of what he was doing. His hands were guided by some unknown force, compelled to do exactly what needed to be done. Eventually, he began to literally pluck the newly formed limb, to create the feathers. Each one needed to be gently stretched out of the original limb, the soft feathers beginning to take shape and form. After much grueling effort a brand new wing was formed, right before his eyes. His final task, he surged forward with energy, kick starting the magical system and making it connect with everything else. The result was explosive.

Rainbow Dash nearly shot off the bed with that final jolt, she seized up and relaxed only when he was done working. Tears were streaming down her face as the pain of reforming her wing finally took hold. She gained a death grip on Applejack’s hoof, nearly crushing it.

As the excitement and power died down Jarrad backed away, his breathing heavy and sweat pouring from all over. It felt as if he had just jogged 10 miles nonstop. He wanted to drop down and quit for a few hours so he could regain some energy, but he knew he had to keep working. He took at look at his work one time and moved on to others. He would celebrate after it was all over.

What he didn’t know, however, was that he wouldn’t be around to celebrate when it was all over. Everyone was in such shock at what he was capable of doing that they simply couldn’t find it in themselves to do anything as he moved from one pony to the next. Eventually he finished the last one, a father who had his wing broken as well as a leg lost in the fight due to a building having fallen on it. What struck Jarrad even more was that the son of this pony was hovering over him asking if he would really heal his daddy.

“He’ll be as good as new,” Jarred wheezed out. He wasn’t going to give the generic answers that hospitals had to give. He knew he could heal this pony.

But, the second he had finished with the father, the son reached over to give him a hug in gratitude. He never got the chance, as Jarrad collapsed face first on the floor right in front of them. He was just barely able to move out of the way and keep from crushing the son. Whether his mind and spirit were willing to keep going, his body didn’t have anything left in it, and simply gave up. His reward for his hard work was a mouthfull of hardwood floor. And he ate it hard.

Jarrad couldn’t tell exactly how long he was out, only that it was night when he woke up again. He found himself in the same room that he had occupied before, moonlight streaming through the blinds. He jerked up, checking himself once more to make sure he didn’t have any new designs or seals on him, even felt for his magic. Everything was fine and in order, except for the fact that he was back in his underwear; but it was completely different pair than before.

“Do they get some sick pleasure in staring at me stark naked?” he asked to no-one.

“We would think it would be more for the fact that thou had such a sweaty ensemble upon thyself, they wanted you to be comfortable when you awoke again,” a voice spoke from the darkness.

On sheer instinct Jarrad jumped off the bed to the side opposite the voice and brought his hands up, though he was attempting, and barely succeeding, in keeping his stance up. He was about the fall over from exhaustion.

“Well, if that’s how you thank the person who gave you such wonderful clothing, we’d ‘d hate to see what thou would do if you hated them,” said the voice.

Jarrad focused his eyes and saw the silhouette take shape. A dark blue figure of a horse with a crescent moon cutie mark against a backdrop of stars…it was just Princess Luna.

“Princess?” asked Jarrad, his stance tightened, “What do you want?”

She seemed taken aback by the question, “What?”

“I asked what you wanted. I’ve already dealt with your sister. The clothes and the help, they’re appreciated, but I know it’s not going to be for free. What do you want from me?” he asked again, keeping his voice as calm as possible. He knew he was being rude, and very rude at that, but he wanted to get to the bottom of whatever it was she wanted. The sooner it was over the sooner she would be out of his hair.

Luna’s face took on a far colder look, “Why doth our kindness have to come with a price?”

Jarrad pondered that for a moment, “Forgive me my initial assumption, but I haven’t had much luck with gods and goddesses lately. Especially since the last one I dealt with caused a right fucking mess of things.”

Luna nodded at that, “Yes, she did.”

“Then can you explain why you didn’t go further to stop her? You both lose the same…hell, you were sent to the moon for her stupid-“

“Do not EVER presume to speak of things thou doest not understand,” she seethed. Apparently he hit a nerve.

Jarrad relaxed his stance, “Then explain it to me. Slowly. I seem to be hard of hearing these days considering how many people have been trying to yell me into deafness.”

She looked as if she was going to bite his head off, or shove that horn somewhere unpleasant. He could tell he struck a nerve, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He was tired, and he was out of patience about not being told very important things. In a word, he was very cranky.

The more he thought about it, however, the more he realized that he was wasting so much energy in trying to figure out exactly what was going on he wasn’t letting things progress naturally. He was getting worked up and angry over things that really didn’t matter at this point, they were already said and done. So he decided to try and new approach and save himself the trouble; give up.

Heaving a sigh he hobbled forward and sat on the bed, “Look, forget it. I’m sorry if I’m being short, but I’m pretty much at my fucking wits end with information being held from me and people using me for shit left and right. So, please explain to me what you need from me, and why you need it, and I’ll do everything in my power to help if I can.”

“I’m sorry, but that is something I cannot say,” she looked downtrodden.

“Then I can’t help you with it. Now if you don’t mind, I’m tired and I need to get some rest that isn’t brought on by me passing out,” he began to climb under the covers before he heard a sniffle.

He looked back to see tears in the Princess’s eyes. She looked close to outright bawling right in front of him. And if there was one thing he didn’t want to see it was a woman, even if she was an alicorn, crying. It tugged at his heart and made him re think exactly how he had been acting.

‘Goddammit; I know this is gonna come back to bite me,’ he thought to himself, ‘I guess I just need to take a leap of faith.’

He got out of the bed and hobbled forward right in front of her. He went down on his knees and put himself face to face with her. He brought his hands up and, as gently as he could, started to use his thumbs to wipe her tears off her cheeks.

“Luna, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be short, I really don’t. But I can’t allow myself to do anything unless I know exactly what I’m getting into. I was burned by your sister and I don’t want to be burned again…but I’m willing to place some trust in you. All I need is for you to do the same for me,” he spoke as softly as he could, attempting t calm the distraught alicorn.

“I’m sorry, but we…we don’t know how to start or what to talk about. We don’t even know if thou will understand,” she choked out.

“Just, start at the beginning. Give me some details before you get into the whole thing, then tell me exactly how I can help you.”

She calmed down enough to begin, “Some time ago, we can’t even remember how long, we began to notice some…changes in ourself. Our thoughts were becoming much darker and much more horrific. We began to isolate ourselves from our family, from everyone we loved. This was still during the time of our parent’s reign, before my sister and I became the rulers of Equestria,” She seemed to pause for a moment, as if debating on whether or not to share the next bit of information, “ Did you know she is actually our younger sister?”

To say the least, he wasn’t expecting that, then again, it all went back to the same theory: how much did he REALLY know about this world.

“Alright, so why are you now the “younger” one?” he asked, “Also, I’m sorry to ask, but can you please speak in a more modern dialect? I’m having trouble distinguishing the we you’re using from either you and your sister, or just you.”

“Very well, I shall attempt to do so for this conversation…I need to work more on that anyway. But back to the subject, I’m getting to that, it has a great deal to do with my current predicament. Now, as we were saying, we were the older of the two sisters. However, our powers began to become more a burden than a blessing. Something began to…infect me. It crept into my thoughts and mind very slowly and very subtly. It took so long, centuries, before we even began to notice any signs. By then, it was too late, and I did something very VERY foolish,” she said.

“What?” he asked.

“We killed the Nexus to disrupt magic,” she had trouble speaking about it.

“What?”

“We killed the Nexus of the time. A dragon by the name of Kilij. He was a very noble person, a good friend of my family…and I killed him in his sleep when he was at his weakest,” she began to shed more tears, clearly devastated by her mistake.

“How…why would you do something like that?”

“We couldn’t control ourselves!” she shouted, “We didn’t know what we were doing and by the time we had control again it was too late. One of our best friends was dead at our hand…we were devastated!”

Jarrad reached forward, “Luna…it’s okay. You didn’t mean what you did, you can’t blame yourself for something you had no real control of…it snuck up on you too well for you to do anything about it.”

“We know…but we still didn’t understand why we did it…or didn’t then, we do now. Something was controlling me, something had infected my magic. It moved through is without form, not giving anything for either my sister or myself to find when we did our examinations. We simply couldn’t figure out what was causing it. So we did the only thing we could think to do…regress my age and hope whatever it was got regressed as well. At least regressed to the point where we could pinpoint the source and remove it,” it was becoming easier for her to talk to him.

“Alright, so I’m guessing it didn’t work out the way you needed it to?” asked Jarrad

“No, no it did not. Whatever it was, it was smart. It knew we would try something again, so it decided to be even sneakier this time. It was even more subtle in altering my thoughts and ideas. Eventually it got to a point where I was no longer really thinking, but listening to its voice. This was about a millennia after it occurred, just before a new Nexus was chosen. My memories are still fuzzy, but I believe my sister found out. Without my permission she regressed me once more, and wiped me of my memories,” Luna sniffed.

“What?” asked Jarrad, “She did what?”

“She believed that if we were wiped of our memories it would make it harder for this…thing to take over. Once we were regressed she was all we knew, and we thought it best to follow her to the best of our abilities.”

“So, that’s why you let Grant get killed, why you helped your sister.”

Luna was taken aback, “How could you possibly know that?”

“I’ve been ‘blessed’ with the ability to live the lives of the Nexi who came before me. I can see their memeories…potentially. I’m still sifting through Grant’s memories, but I was able to see that one. You let your sister kill him because you believed it was right. I’m guessing the moron didn’t really bother to properly explain everything to you?” asked Jarrad.

Luna let out a humorless chuckle, “An apt term for my dear sister at the time. No she did not. What was worse is that when the Zebras cast their spell on the forest, on what was once our home, it began to unravel the memory spell. My sister never destroyed them, but locked them away. They began to come back in whispers and nightmares. They nearly drove me insane, until I was able to organize them. I finally was the person I was over five thousand years before. However, I could not let my sister know this; at least, I thought so at the time. I never allowed her to know of my plans and began to grow my power, which came to a head a thousand years ago.”

“When you became Nightmare Moon.” Jarrad finished for her.

“Yes. I fought my sister for the crown and power because of her stupidity and mishandling of the situation. She sealed us in the moon for a thousand years. She believed we would be cured afterward, but she could never be sure. So she began the legend of the Mare in the Moon, so that the new bearers of the Elements of Harmony, whoever they were at the time, would have enough in them to face us if necessary.”

“I’m guessing that once they did, the elements regressed you again and put you in a far weaker form?” asked Jarrad

“Yes, they did. We have been slowly but surely regaining our powers since then, but we’ve begun to feel the same way as before. We thought that if we celebrated and surrounded ourselves with friends it would stop, but we are at our end with it, we don’t know what to do. Our last and best option is for you, Nexus, to purge us the same way you did Twilight Sparkle. If you can do that, you may be able to get rid of all traces of whatever has been causing us such pain and anguish our whole lives.”

Now, Jarrad wasn’t going to even think of saying no to something like that. She had come to him, face to face, and asked, nay, begged, for him to do something to help her. As far as he could tell she was being truthful, at least where it counted. She had even confessed to killing the Nexus before Grant. If that were the case, he was willing to go on a little blind faith.

Jarrad sighed and sat down on the chest at the foot of his bed a few feet away from Luna, “Alright, I’ll do it, but I’m going to need something from you: protection.”

“From what? Our sister?” asked Luna. Hes seemed hesitant given his willingness to help so quickly.

“Exactly, Zecora is already there to help, but I need an older sibling type here to talk some sense into your sister. She’s fucked up, royally as far as I’m concerned, so I want her to stay away from me and let me do my thing. I need somewhere that she isn’t going to fuck with me and I can grow and develop exactly as I need to. I can’t be on the run and I can’t keep relying on Zecora to save my ass every three seconds, it would take away from her ability to teach me. So, what can you do for me?” asked Jarrad

“What makes you think we can or will do anything?” asked Luna.

That one annoyed Jarrad a bit, “Because I need you to. I’m sorry but I can’t help you without helping me. Besides, I’m not asking for a whole lot if you think about it, only for me to literally be ME, to be the Nexus; I would hope at least someone here understands what that means.”

“Indeed, we do. We do not want to see you hindered, given the horrors that would create for the whole of Gaia. Very well, I can place you under my flag while you reside in Equestria.” Luna conceded.

“Does that mean I need to remain loyal to you, cause that’s exactly what I need to avoid.” Jarrad claririfed.

“No, I will not ask that of you. You will be under my flag, but I will allow you to do exactly what you need to do and we will only ask of you that which you can give us. Is that acceptable?” asked Luna

“Its great,” Jarrad said, “Alright, so if I’m going to do it, then I need Zecora there with me to make sure nothing goes wrong. Apart from that all I need is rest…I hope.”

“You will need far more than that. You will need a proper place where my magic is most…potent. It will allow your job to be that much easier. For that, we’ll need to go to the moon.”

“You’re shitting me, right?” asked Jarrad.

“No, were are not ‘shitting’ you. And we’ll thank you not to use such language.” She said.

Jarrad held up his hands, “Fine, but you guys are going to have to get used to it. I’m going to curse, especially when something strikes me as REALLY weird. Like someone asking me if I want to go to the moon.”

Luna said nothing, but her eyes said ‘You’d best shut the fuck up.’

“So…when do you want this done?” asked Jarrad.

“Well, for your benefit, as soon as possible. If everything happened as I have been told then my sister needs to know about this at the last possible second. To allow you the rest you need I can take you and Zecora to my palace on the moon and allow you to rest there. Then once you are ready, we can perform the procedure and come back here.”

“Alright, let’s go get Zecora. Oh, and am I going to be able to leave a letter or anything? I want to let a couple of people know that I’m leaving for a little while.”

“Very well. We won’t be very long, and you should be able to see them again sometime soon.” Luna reassured him.

Jarrad nodded. He walked to the desk on the other end of the room and took out a…

“You people use quills? I have no idea how the hell I’m going to write with this…any help?” asked Jarrad.

Luna glared at him a moment before trotting over. He couldn’t tell if she was angry over his language or that she was going to have to help him.

“Actually, come to think of it, there is something I would like to ask of you. Can I train with you for a time?” asked Jarrad

“What do you mean?”

“Well, the way I figure it, I’ve been busting my ass for the past few weeks. I’ve been doing…okay, but I can’t seem to keep up. It’s like my ‘magical endurance’ is garbage. I need somewhere that I can train properly for a time and at least get some REALLY good basics down. At least enough so I can train properly on my own or not run my ass into the ground after only healing a few ponies. From what I’ve gleaned from Grant’s memories he was able to do what I did today a few dozen times over before he got even close to exhausted. I need that kind of control to do whatever it was he was doing. So I would like somewhere secluded to train, at least for a while.”

“Hm.” Luna put her hoof to her chin, “I shall consider this. I can promise nothing at this point, but we may be able to help accommodate you.”

“If you can, can you have some kind of communication line between myself and the Elements, at least, those who wish to contact me?” asked Jarrad

“Why not just talk to them?” asked Luna

“Because, as much as I don’t want to, I don’t have the luxury of sitting on my ass and waiting; I need to get as strong as I can, as fast as I can. Otherwise magic doesn’t get stronger. I need to get the basics down pat, if nothing else. And given how that’s going to be hardest, I figure after I manage to purge your system I can get a head start…if that’s alright.” He explained.

“Very well, we cannot fault your logic. After you have, if you are able, managed to purge our magic and purify us then we will honor this bargain and give you sanctuary for you to train. However, it will come at cost.” Spoke Luna

“That being?” asked Jarrad

Luna’s head dipped to the side and she mumbled something.

“I’m sorry…what?” asked Jarrad

She mumble again.

“Alright, one more time.”

“We need someone to talk to us,” Luna squeeked out.

“You hold my probable future in your hands, the possibility of all magic…and you just want someone to talk to?” asked Jarrad

Luna nodded, her cheeks a bright red.

“Well fuck, I'd have done that without any kind of deal. Hell, as Pip said, you’re my favorite princess.”

Her watery smile was brighter than the sun itself.

“So, can I get a little help with this letter?” asked Jarrad.

She nodded. Her horn glowed slightly and a pen and paper were lifted and placed right in front of her for her to write upon.

“Alright…um…Dear…Pinkie Pie. I’m addressing this directly to you because I don’t know how the others will feel about this, but you can feel free to tell them a about it. I’ve gone with Princess Luna. She needs my help on something very dire, something that I cannot reveal at this point, mainly because it isn’t my secret to reveal. Suffice it to say I’ve taken Zecora with me to help. By the time you’ve read this we’ll have already left. I can’t say where because, once again, it’s not my secret to give. So, I’m going to be gone for a little while. Not permananently. Not at all. But I need some time to learn about magic, to learn about the basics that I need in order to strive and flourish. So I’m going to take this as an opportunity to train. If nothing else I can get a base to go from and things will start to actually move around here. It will also give me a safe place where I won’t have to look over my shoulder hoping something bad will happen. Speaking of which, I’ve spoken to Luna, who’s agreed to set up some kind of communication between us that you guy- ponies can use. I don’t know how long I’ll be there, but as soon as I’m back I’d love to have a party, if that’s okay, I mean,” he chuckled at the last bit, sounding like Fluttershy.

“And… done,” she tapped the paper with the last spin of her quill. It disappeared from the room completely.

“Hey, where’d you that thing go?” asked Jarrrad.

“To Pinkie’s room. The poor dear is asleep after it happened. I don’t want her to wake up and see her friend not be where he was supposed to be. Would you?” asked Luna

“Huh…ya know, I’m kinda upset I didn’t think of that,” Jarrad chuckled, “Alright, let’s get Zecora and I’m all yours.”

A flash and the room was empty once more, save for a small midnight black feather falling gently to the floor, joined soon after by one of pure alabaster white.

From Drakon Samael: So, I figured I’d have this up last week….then Mass Effect 3 happened and well…draw your own conclusions. So, big thanks to nobodyreallyimportant once more for his work here, tell me everything you think about it, and let’s go from there. It may get some edits a little later on, but right now, I kinda like the way it looks…or maybe I’m just so sick of looking at it I’m fooling myself into thinking it’s really finished so I can get it up and posted…..meh, we’ll see. Anyway, let me know how it looks in the comments, and thanks a bunch.

Chapter 3
View Online

The Nexus

Chapter 3

Once Jarrad reached the others it looked as if Big Macintosh, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie all looked ready to fight. It seemed they thought Jarrad and Zecora might have been a threat. They didn’t seem to fully relax until Jarrad revealed himself.

He took a moment to catch his breathe, “So….that worked….now what?”

“

Now, we gets awrselves ta Ponyville.” Applejack answered.

“So…who takes the lead in this one?” asked Jarrad.

Without a work Big Macintosh sped off. He took off in a gallop that was even faster than Zecora’s; Jarrad was almost excited to try and keep up. It worked before, so he envisioned the chakras in his feet and legs moving faster, and he was off. The forest was a blur as he moved through it, dodging and weaving through trees, over logs, through fields and even clearings. He moved with Big Macintosh running as close behind him and he would allow himself so he wouldn’t fall behind and get lost. It took some trial and error, but he was able to keep the pace without going overboard.

He was amazed at his ability, after just touching his magic for the first time he was able to keep up with a horse…track and field be damned. What awed him further was the fact that he was able to keep up and barely be out of breath. He didn’t feel any fatigue in his muscles or his lungs burning for that next breathe. Well, to be more specific, he did feel a bit out of breathe, but only as if he were on a brisk jog, not a dead sprint. If he had to guess he would say that his body was now working on overdrive, but in such a way that it didn’t actually burn anything down. He was running hard, but it wasn’t putting any REAL strain on his system as a whole.

It wasn’t much longer before they reached the edge of the forest and the edge of Ponyville; the Carousel Boutique and Mayor’s office standing out against the backdrop of the starry night. Because they were out of the forest he could slow down to Big Macintosh’s trot. He wanted to wait on the others so he didn’t get lost, or if they had some kind of plan to conceal him.

He heard rustling and turned to find the others galloping out of the forest after him and Big Macintosh, all out of breath and panting. He would assume sweating, if he could see sweat glands under their fur. He waited a few moments with Big Macintosh for them to catch up before turning to walk…and fell straight on his face.

“Holy shit!” he exclaimed as he fell to the ground. His legs felt as if they weren’t there anymore, as if they had given out. He looked down from on his back to see if he was injured and found nothing wrong with his legs on the outside, “What the hell just happened?”

“Big Macintosh, get him on your back. I believe I know what has transpired, your use of magic has caused your legs to expire. Too much overexertion of your abilities too soon, leads you to this place where there is no boon. By the time we get to the hospital you should be back on your feet, though I would not try overexertion until next week.” She said, her voice light.

“…your having a laugh at my dumbass arencha?” he lamented as he was hoisted on Big Macintosh’s back. He was laid across like a rolled up back or a sack.

Zecora’s deep chortle told him all he needed. He was about to retort when the back of his head was grabbed by a pink hoof.

“What did I tell you about foul language mister?” asked Pinkie Pie, her left eye open wide and burrowing into his head. Jarrad was briefly reminded of The Stare.

“Um…sorry ma’am, didn’t mean to do that.” spoke Jarrad.

Her smile returned almost instantly and she bobbed her head up and down, seemingly excited by his agreement. Once she let him go he shifted himself as best he could on Big Macintosh’s back so he was riding him like a regular horse. He really didn’t feel like riding all the way on his stomach, he didn’t feel like he could breathe properly.

A large cloak was draped over his shoulder. So big it covered both him and most of Big Macintosh. He looked down to see Zecora had placed the cloak on top of him with Applejack standing next to her.

“Jarrad, Ah’m real sorry, but we gots ta hide ya. We need ya to lay down on big brother and…put your arms ‘round his neck ta tie that cloak off.” she hesitated on the last part.

Jarrad was confused for a second about why she hesitated. Then he had a thought: she didn’t want him or her big brother to be uncomfortable and being that close might be…well, yeah. To this day one wouldn’t be able to figure out why what happened next happened.

Jarrad continued to stare at Applejack for a few seconds before turning to Big Macintosh, “Well…I can’t say it’d be terrible to have to put my arms around such a…powerful pony. I mean, just look at your coat; soft as velvet, and those muscles…damn, you fine.”

“Speak for yourself sexy.” Said an deep feminine voice in front of him. Big Macintosh’s eyes fluttered a bit, looking as coy as possible. To most men this would be a sign to simply get off and run away. Jarrad took this as a sign: recognition. It was an issued challenge, one he wasn’t about to let Big Macintosh get the better of him on.

“Tell me, could those big muscles of your protect me? Hold me at night and take my cares away?” responded Jarrad, his voice low and husky. He leaned down towards Mac’s face as Mac leaned back into his.

“You’d never worry again.” Big Macintosh whispered as he inched excruciatingly slow to Jarrad.

They moved closer and closer, inching forward in slow motion. Time stood still and the moon shined brightly on the two of them, almost like a spotlight. Their breathe on one another, their noses almost touching.

(Editor's note):

{o,o}

[)_)

" "

*o rly?*

Grunting, Big Macintosh threw his head back to the front away from Jarrad’s, who almost fell off from his sudden movement.

“Dammit.” He lamented, almost laughing.

“HA! I am the king of Gay Chicken!!” shouted Jarrad, hand’s high in the air.

Zecora, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack had to pick their jaws up off the floor. Their minds almost shut down from the sight in front of them. Two were slightly confused, and probably had fantasy fuel for the next few years. The other…well, she was more vocal in her distaste.

“What the bucking hell do ya think u’re doin’?” seethed Applejack.

Jarrad shrugged, “He issued a challenge. As part of the Man code I was obliged to answer and one up his challenge.”

“Gay chicken? Is that a really fun game?” asked Pinkie Pie.

“Nah, it’s just somethin’ that the dumbass colts do fer no reason.” Answered Applejack, glaring at both her brother and Jarrad.

Jarrad knew one thing, he would have bro fisted…hoofed Big Macintosh were he not on his back. With this whole thing about magic and his new powers it was helping him get his mind off of his situation. The fact that he would never see his family or friends again, even though he was still alive, basically. Without the large distraction this was presenting, he might have been acting in a completely different light. But how could he not throw all his focus on what was happening right now?

His childhood fantasies and day-dreams, those pesky little things that reality liked to beat down and smash into dust, then fire that dust into the cosmos were now all possible. He could do things here that he would never dream to be able to do in his world, and the possibilities were amazing. He wondered exactly what the extent of his powers were, and how long it might take him to get there.

Zecora and Pinkie seemed to sense this change in perspective in him. This little view into stupidity helped them see he was either getting better or starting to cope. In the least he wasn’t focusin on his rather depressing situation. He had even gone and found a friend in Big Macintosh. Of course it also fed their guilt; this was going to hurt her when it was all over. But she knew, in the back of her mind and deep in her heart, that it was not only necessary, but it would work out in the end…somehow.

Jarrad patted Big Macintosh on the back before leaning over and wrapping the cloak around his neck. It was fairly uncomfortable, but he could deal with it. And for Big Macintosh, it only looked like him carrying some hay on his back rather than a person. Which was perfect, because to Jarrad’s horror and discomfort, they were stopped five or six times and had to spend a fair amount of time talking. They had to keep somewhat a low profile so that people weren’t scared or frightened. Thus it was business as usual and, from what from what Jarrad could tell, business was about talking about every single tiny insignificant detail about one’s life. Not only was it good, it was BOOMIN’. It reminded him briefly of one of his father’s gripes about his grandparents, or his father’s parents to be more precise.

‘Jared, bein’ a doctor was the best and worse thing that could ever happen to me, especially being the kind’a doc I am.’ Jarrad asked why, ‘Well…you know how your nana likes to talk, right?’ Jarrad nodded to this, ‘See, she likes to tell me stuff about how she’s doing….stuff I don’t wanna know. I mean, good god son, I’ll get into conversations about her sex life with pop…you know I don’t wanna hear a damn thing about that.’

The memory made him laugh to himself. There were things in this world that one would truly be better off not knowing…and that was damn sure one of them. He listened to them chat with some random people for a while and didn’t hear a thing about some kind of ‘hairless monkey’ running amuck in Jarrad patted Big Macintosh on the back before leaning over and wrapping the cloak around his neck. It was fairly uncomfortable, but he could deal with it. And for Big Macintosh, it only looked like him carrying some hay on his back rather than a person. Which was perfect, because to Jarrad's horror and discomfort, they were stopped five or six times and had to spend a fair amount of time talking. They had to keep somewhat a low profile so that people weren't scared, frightened, or otherwise unnerved. Thus it was business as usual and, from what from what Jarrad could tell, business was not only good and booming but it was about discussing every single solitary, insignificant, minute, miniscule, or out and out useless detail of EVERY. SINGLE. PONY. IN. PONYVILLE. It reminded him briefly of one of his father's gripes about his grandparents, or his father's parents to be more precise.

'Jared, bein' a doctor was the best and worst thing that could ever happen to me, especially being the kind'a doc I am.' Jarrad asked why. 'Well, you know how your nana likes to talk, right?' Jarrad nodded to this. 'See, she likes to tell me stuff about how she's doing, stuff I don't wanna know. I mean, good god son, I'll get into conversations about her sex life with pop, you know I don't wanna hear a damn thing about that.'

The memory made him laugh to himself. There were things in this world that one would truly be better off not knowing and that was damn sure one of them. He listened to them chat with some random people for a while and didn't hear a thing about some kind of 'hairless monkey' running amuck in the Everfree Forest.

'Probably want this handled with some subtlety. Yeah, that's gonna go over real well when they find out about me,' he thought to himself. Finally, after an eternity, he heard a door opening and eventually Big Macintosh's hooves on a hardwood floor.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so glad to have you all back here… wait, I thought you said you were bringing the… what was it, Nexus? Yes, I thought you were bringing the Nexus here to help poor Twilight," spoke a melodious voice. Jarrad recognized the tone of "Southern Belle" quickly; Rarity. They had made it to the hospital.

Jarrad slid himself from off Big Macintosh's back and onto the right. His legs hit the ground and he had to grab onto the large draft horse to keep himself from falling. Luckily, Big Macintosh seemed to barely notice. Jarrad's legs felt better, he could tense the muscles again, but they still felt loose. Almost as if he had stretched his hips and legs very hard. He moved the cloak off of himself and took in his surroundings: classic waiting room. A few desks with probably outdated magazines, reception window with a sign in sheet, even creepy/old paintings on the walls.

'Some shit's just cross dimensional,' he thought to himself. He moved his legs up and down, rotating them as if to open his hips in some attempt to get full function and feeling back in them once more. When he brought his knees up to his chest he finally noticed the others in the room. It seemed that Fluttershy and Rarity were both waiting with worn down and bitten hooves for this "mysterious Nexus" who would be able to help their friend. And from the stares it was rather awkward.

"Um… yo, what's up," asked Jarrad, attempting to alleviate the tension with a two finger salute.

He was met with frozen stares. The tension between him and the other two ponies he had just met was palpable. Awkward situations were never his forte, too many chances to offend without reason. He decided to get the awkwardness over then and introduce himself further. "So, name's Jarrad…um, I guess I already know who you guys are."

Fluttershy immediately darted behind Rarity with a small, barely audible, and adorably shy, "eep." Rarity looked at him with a slight amount of fear. "What exactly are you supposed to be?" she asked.

"Well, I'm a hu-," Jarrad began but was interrupted by Rarity trotting over and poking at his clothes with a slight amount of disgust.

"Darling, I don't know what hole you crawled out from, but simply must get you some new clothes. Now if you will come to my boutique later I can…" Rarity began going off on a long one-sided discussion about his clothes. She described, in near impossible detail, how she may dress him up in something presentable rather than the rags and…cloth he had on at the moment, going out of her way to mention how unbecoming it was for somepony, whatever they were, to look so garish. Jarrad was helpless; forced to listen to her prattle on about his choice in clothes, too unhorsed to actually say it was his only choice and that it wasn't like he could just go out and buy a pair of cargos and a shirt designed for a creature not on the planet.

Zecora finally broke Rarity's train of thought, "Rarity! We have a friend in need, or do you not want him to do the deed? Let's go ahead and get to fixing Twilight. I'd rather not have someone's health hanging over my head," she broke in. Zecora nudged Jarrad's hand to get him to follow her further into the hospital. Rarity followed behind looking somewhat abashed with the rest of the group trailing behind her. The hospital was only a one floor affair; apparently a lot of ponies didn't get hurt in Ponyville. Well, either that or they didn't get hurt badly enough to come here often.

'Then again, with magic, who stays hurt for all that long,' Jarrad thought of that as a distinct possibility as to why it was so small. Magic was able to heal, so who needs a hospital with long term care when you have unicorns with magical healing abilities.

‘Then again, it depends on recovery methods themselves. Some wounds they might not want to waste a unicorn on, maybe.’ He thought to himself.

As with the waiting room the whole feel of the hospital was exactly the same. Whitewashed walls and bright fluorescents devoid of any creativity or color surrounded the group on all sides. This place was meant to be a well oiled machine designed for getting peop- ponies in and out with as much speed and capability possible. This place wasn't meant to be comfortable, only functional. The whole hospital felt… clean. Far too clean for his liking; like every germ that could have been there was eradicated. It was kind of oppressing, almost as if he sneezed a troop of armed nurses would assault him and sterilize him.

'Heh, armed nurses,' the thought was pleasant, even if fairly… adult. Skimpy leather outfits and big guns holding him down to…sterilize him, 'No, wait, not here. These are ponies.' His mind acted accordingly and spat out new images for his viewing pleasure.

Jarrad shuddered a bit, "That's an unpleasant thought."

Zecora didn't say anything, whether she noticed it or not. After taking in the small hospital and some of its inhabitants, none looking too worse for wear, they reached the very back room. It was the most spacious and "deluxe" looking room out of the all. The walls were lined with cream colored wall paper, little dots and shapes of odd designs were speckled here and there. The floors were a beautiful hardwood, chestnut or oak probably. Chairs, a dresser, curtains, and a fairly well furnished bathroom were all found there. Well, what Jarrad assumed was the bathroom.

'Dear god, I hope they have indoor plumbing and how the hell…. no, focus on what's important,' his mind put forward. Randomly, mind you, but a valid question given the circumstances.

The curtains were drawn back to reveal of bright white pony with pinkish red hair and a red cross cutie mark with hearts in the blank spots. She was even wearing a nurse's hat. From what Jarrad could recall this was Nurse Redheart, and this was probably going to be awkward.

As the nurse drew the curtain she set eyes on Jarrad, and froze stock still. From the look on her face she probably had been told at least some of what had occurred and how Twilight ended up in this predicament. Jarrad couldn't blame her for being upset or scared, but there were far more important things to worry about at the moment.

"Ma'am, please, you've got nothing to worry about. I'm only here to help Twilight," he spoke as softly as he could. He may have been a bit impatient, but he didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings or make them more uncomfortable than they were.

"Yes… well, that may be, but she wouldn't be in this mess if you had just-," Redheart seemed to have found her voice again.

"If I had just what, ma'am?" asked Jarrad, eyes narrowing.

Nurse Redheart gulped a little, before her eyes grew steely. She wouldn't allow him to intimidate her, not when a patient's care was at stake. "If you had stayed to make sure she was alright we could have gotten to her sooner, the time it took to find her made repairing the damage that much harder." she finished strongly.

"Nurse, my last memory was being shot and killed back on my world before I got shanghaied into this one. The next thing I know I wake up somewhere; I'm scared, freaked out, and some random purple… thing is yelling and screaming almost right in my face. I ran because it was the only thing I could think to do at the time. I'm sorry that I didn't stay to make sure that she was okay, but I had other things to worry about. Like surviving, for instance," he deadpanned, "and hell, this whole mess is her fault. She used that fuckin' spell o’hers without knowing the consequences. She put herself in that bed, not me; I just got taken for the ride."

That one got the nurse quiet. She hadn't been informed of that part.

Walking past the nurse Jarrad looked down at Twilight. He was ready to give her a tongue lashing, a real lecture on the basics of proper common sense. Of course there was going to be yelling involved, he needed to get the point across to her. His anger evaporated when he saw her.

She looked pitiful. Her lavender coat was now a few shades whiter. Her mane was saggy and frazzled; it looked like she hadn't washed it or brushed in days. If he had to run his hands through it he guessed he would find some grease. Her face was contorted into a mask of sheer unbearable agony. It seemed like every part of her body was in near unimaginable pain. He wanted to be angry with her, wanted to see her suffer for what she had done, but he couldn't bring himself to. She had made a mistake. A mistake he had suffered for, maybe, but a mistake she looked like she was dying over.

He kneeled before the bed and brought a hand to her head. He brushed his hand softly down her coat, trying to coax her to consciousness. "Twilight, Twilight Sparkle, you there," he asked, suddenly realizing how stupid the question was.

Twilight's groan of pain told him all he needed.

"Zecora, what do I need to do," asked Jarrad, withdrawing his hand.

"Touch her magic with yours," She replied.

"What? I mean, what am I supposed do," he asked, beginning to sound irritated.

"Jarrad, touch her magic with yours," she repeated, more serious this time.

He knew she wasn't going to tell him much more. If she knew exactly what to do or not she wouldn't tell him. Jarrad tried to break down her statement to see if that could help.

'Okay, touch her magic with mine… touch her magic with mine… the magic I showed at the palace. That could be what she's talking about,' he took his right hand and spun all the chakras inside it. The warm red glow had returned, so he placed it on Twilight; the result was instantaneous.

Twilight moaned aloud at the touch, but not in pain, but in pleasure. If Jarrad had to guess he would say he did exactly what he needed to do. But in his surprise he drew his hand back, the glow subsiding. Twilight literally had tears in her eyes from the loss of contact. The pleasure she felt was denied; her window of normalcy was taken away from her. Jarrad thought himself a bastard for a moment.

Finding his wits again he re-did the attempt. He touched her once more and heard an appreciative moan at his ministrations. From what he could tell he was doing it right, but it didn't feel like enough. There was some niggling thought in the back of his mind that he wasn't doing something right. He placed his other hand, glowing with magic, on another part of her body, but it still didn't feel like enough.

He breathed out, closing his eyes to try and focus more. After a few minutes he heard something. It was the same kind of beat that he heard in the castle. Only, it wasn't coming from him, and it was almost unnoticeable; a whisper somewhere in the night. Figuring the best way was the one that worked before he put all his attention onto the "noise". After a few moments something formed in his minds eye. The more focus he put into it the more the picture became clear, until he was treated to an eerily similar sight.

He realized soon he was staring, from what he could guess, at Twilight's magical pathways. And they looked to be in serious disarray.

They weren't broken, per se, but where as his had looked fairly thick and strong, hers looked withered and old. Like a piece of grass dried out by the sun.

He pushed his magic further and further and found it leaking into her and her pathways. The more he focused on his magic and his own chakras the more he could feel his seeping into Twilight. He even began to see the chakras in Twilight's own body beginning to spin a little. The beat began to get stronger and faster. It moved from a near silent whisper to the steady four note beat he had heard earlier. But something told him to keep going, to make it faster and faster. He was overtaken with the urge to make the chakras spin into one long blur.

He was vaguely aware of his arms moving over her in a loose circular motion. From the tip of her tail over her back hooves and further up her body, onto her flanks, even her head. His arms would move in some kind of a circle, covering a small part of her, then move upward in that same pattern. Every time he reached her head he began the process once more, almost seeming to draw something out of her.

If Jarrad wasn't so focused on the task at the time he would have noticed the ponies on the outside standing as far back as they could. The air in the room became thick and heady pressing down on every one of them. Twilight's previous moaning was turning into almost ecstatic screaming. It was almost like she was close to orgasm. Her horn was even beginning to glow brighter and brighter, almost blinding all ponies in the room.

To Jarrad he could see the coils and veins becoming thicker and stronger once more, but still he kept pushing. It didn't feel right to stop right then, but he was scared if he kept going further then he would end up destroying the veins entirely by putting too much magic through them. It had now be led somewhere, through some kind of outlet. Her horn answered that particular need. He ghosted his hands over her once more and forced the chakras to move as fast as possible, spinning into a blur and humming like a bird. One elongated note that never paused. He pushed all of her magic through her coils and willed it out her horn. In one last drawn out breath he exhaled everything out.

Twilight exploded.

Her screams reached crescendo and her horn gave of a blinding white light. Her body levitated off the bed as bits and pieces of furniture were thrown around the room. At the end the concussive force knocked the curtains off the windows and a few tiles out of the ceiling while Jarrad was thrown against the wall.

Twilight landed with a loud thump. Her body bounced a few times before settling neatly back on the bed, covers strewn about the floor. The others, who had been wise enough to exit the room once Twilight's horn began to glow, rushed back inside to check on the status of their friend. Zecora nearly galloped to make sure that Jarrad was unharmed.

A few tense minutes passed before Twilight gingerly opened her eyes. The pain she had been feeling had made her delirious, as someone on the edge of sleep yet being held on consciousness. Her mind would spin wild images and hallucinations, the pain too great for her. But now the pain was gone, replaced by a feeling of content? Yes, that's the right word, content. Her body not only no longer felt painful, but felt better than it had in a while. As if all the muscle aches, fatigue, and old injuries were not more than something of dreams.

"Twilight? Twilight Sparkle, how do you feel," she heard a voice in the distance ask. After a few moments she was able to force open her eyes, to find Nurse Redheart staring down at her.

"Wha… what's… ah," her voice felt scratchy, It's disuse clearly showing.

"Twilight, its okay, I want you to be calm about this. You've been in the hospital for a week. The magical pathways in your body were damaged severely, that was what was causing you so much pain. But they've been fixed now; you should start feeling better soon," the nurse spoke in an attempt to quell the probable frightening Twilight was feeling. She didn't need her to get scared or upset at what was going on. She herself couldn't believe it, but years of training had steeled her nerves against near anything. Patients always came first, answers could come later.

"Twi, can ya hear me? Ya just need to rest now sugarcube, everythin's gawn be alright," the soft voice of Applejack reached her ears.

"Wait… what about the human? What's happened to him," mustered Twilight. Given the last thing she clearly remembered was him, the trepidation and fear was still there for her and her friends.

"Twi, he's the one that healed ya." she heard Applejack say.

"What… how's that possible?" she asked, curiosity overtaking her pain.

She heard a rustle of wings behind her along with a forceful "Move!" If Twilight wasn't mistaken, that came from Fluttershy.

The human she was concerned about wasn't in the best shape. He had suffered from the concussive blow to the wall and numerous small cuts from flying debris. When Twilight opened her eyes enough she looked over to see him slumped down the wall with Zecora sitting next to him, trying to get him to wake up. She was successful, but he really didn't want to be awake. She heard him groaning and guessed that he might have hit the wall hard enough to have a concussion.

"Zecora, move him down onto the floor, I'm getting a pillow to elevate his head a bit and some ice for him," Fluttershy was in rare form, almost in complete control.

Zecora nodded. She knew exactly what they needed to do, "Nurse Redheart, we need a unicorn for this part."

"Wait, I'll help, just tell me exactly what you need me to do," Rarity had joined the commotion.

Once Fluttershy returned with a pillow Zecora helped lay Jarrad's head on top of it and examined him as best she could looking for any serious open wounds, finding none she was able to move on to the next objective. She needed to get him awake and assess the damage from that angle. She laid the ice down on his forehead and poked him lightly in an attempt to get him conscious.

"Jarrad, Jarrad, are you there?" she said softly.

Jarrad groaned heavily. His mouth felt like he had swallowed a large chunk of lead. His head was in an excruciating amount of pain. He tried to open his eyes but found he had severe trouble focusing, everything looked blurry. He was seeing stars as well.

"Zecora," he called weakly. His mind wouldn't focus and everything seemed a blur. What had he been doing?

"Jarrad, I need you to stay still, you hit your head hard near the windowsill. I know this will probably hurt, but please bear with me if this will work." she attempted to calm him. "Rarity, shine a light on his eyes."

Jarrad's pain increased with the bright light, closing his eyes to get away from it. He tried to move his arms up, but they were sluggish and weak.

"Jarrad please, open your eyes." he tried again but the light was still too bright. Zecora forced an eye open to check for retinal dilation. Each one seemed to dilate fine, which told Fluttershy and Zecora that this should only be a mild concussion.

Zecora worked further, pinching different parts of his body, making sure he was fully aware of everything going on around him. From the jerks his body made he seemed to be fairly conscious. Now it was time to make absolutely sure.

"Jarrad, that's a wonderful name," spoke Fluttershy reassuringly, testing his condition further. "Jarrad, can you tell me something?"

"What?" he asked, tears of leaking from his eyes.

"What happened today, give me the story?" she asked.

Jarrad's headache increased with the act of attempting to remember, "We went to the Palace in Everfree to get me *groan* in tune with my magic. We needed to do that so I could help *gyahhh* Twilight. We ran back to Ponyville… that's all I remember. *moan* How'd I end up on the floor?"

Zecora and Fluttershy shared another looked; partial amnesia. He didn't remember helping to heal Twilight or making his way into Ponyville.

"Jarrad, you've done more than that. You healed Twilight of her plight, but the magical backlash sent you into flight," Zecora explained.

"Did I… hit something?" asked Jarrad, looking unsure.

"Yes. You hit that wall pretty hard." Fluttershy added.

Jarrad groaned, "No wonder I've *ow* got a splitting headache…*hurp* Zecora I feel nauseous… I think I'm gonna-" that was as far as he got before he began to dry heave onto the floor. He hadn't eaten in so long there was nothing in his stomach to put out.

"Fuck," he groaned, his head hitting the pillow once more. The tears had stopped but his eyes were still wet. His head was splitting but his eyes were able to focus a bit better. Instead of just one big blur he was starting to make out individual blurs.

"Rarity, levitate him and put him on that bed across from Twilight," Fluttershy pointed across the room to another large bed, one that should be big enough to hold Jarrad. It was important to levitate him, keeping his movement as low as possible.

Rarity's horn glowed once more as Jarrad was lifted up over and onto the bed. She placed him there gingerly while Zecora and Fluttershy followed.

"Jarrad, tell me what time it is," asked Fluttershy

Jarrad looked outside, "I don't know, but it looks late at night. Possibly some time very early in the morning. How long has it been since I can last remember?"

"Think of how far back you can remember, think specifics, what is the very last thing," asked Fluttershy.

"Uhhh… gay chicken with Big Macintosh." Jarrad answered after a few moments.

A pin could have been heard five rooms down the hall. All sound stopped instantly. Well, not a pin, but a few heads whipped so fast one would have thought whiplash injuries would have resulted.

"Can you… repeat that?" asked Rarity, not quite sure what she heard.

"I played gay chicken with Big Macintosh. *Groan* Won too." he chuckled the last bit.

Big Macintosh was glad his fur was red; otherwise they would have seen the embarrassment.

Zecora could see the indignation and shock on Rarity's face. Even under dire circumstances her sensibilities could be disturbed. Thinking quickly she attempted to diffuse the situation. "I believe that it would be best, given the excitement, for everypony to get some rest. Fluttershy, if you wouldn't mind, I will stay with Jarrad until morning time," she inserted.

Fluttershy nodded, "Do you know the times he needs to be woken?"

Zecora nodded.

Fluttershy accepted this and moved back over to Rarity, ushering her over to Twilight. Zecora leaned down and spoke softly to Jarrad.

"It seems that when you allowed Twilight's magic to come forward, a concussion was your reward. If you wish to rest, the by all means, be my guest. I will need to wake you at some points during the night, but you should be alright come the morning light," her voice, to Jarrad, sounded more soothing than anything he had heard before.

"Thank you, Zecora," he muttered. He was feeling fairly sleepy and it sounded like a good idea. Though, a thought struck him, "Zecora… I haven't eaten in days… or drank anything. Can I at least get some water?"

She nodded. However, it seemed Nurse Redheart was already there, a large water bottle of a sort in hand. It was far too big to maneuver for Jarrad, so Zecora leaned him up a bit to take a sip. Redheart also thought a head a brought a straw, given that the thing might as well have been called a jug. Jarrad drank greedily, almost downing the entire thing. He didn't realize exactly how thirsty he really was.

Jarrad laid back, his thirst sated for the time being. The nurse left for a few moments only to come back with a bin and the jug refilled. She indicated what the bin could be used for if he had the need of it, but his eyes were closed already; sleep had claimed him almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. She smiled somewhat fondly at him.

"I'll help watching him Zecora; I've got Nurse Apos working with Twilight to make sure everything is okay. From the looks of things, he did more than was needed," she pointed out.

"How so?" asked Zecora. She had her own theory, but she wasn't entirely sure if it was true. If it was, then things were progressing far faster than she realized.

"From what Nurse Apos tells me he not only re-established her leylines; but he also purged them. He forced her magic to literally expel itself and anything left behind. They're clean… almost as clean as a newborn unicorn foals would be. Zecora, just who is he? I've never seen someone able to do that, let alone with another person's magic," Her voice was more curious than scared.

"He is important. To divulge more would be unwise, but he may tell you in the morrow when he opens his eyes," she answered. "But do not worry your head, he does not pose a threat."

Nurse Redheart nodded, accepting the answer. She and Zecora stayed with him throughout the night, waking him at certain intervals and asking him questions again and again, making sure he wasn't suffering too badly from the concussion. The constant waking up irritated him to no end, but he realized soon after why they had to do it. Regardless of his annoyance, he was deep down very appreciative of them being there to help someone who was a complete stranger. They even helped him walk on his feet to use the restroom and remove his sandals, hand clothing, and shirt. He made a bit of a fuss when they tried to remove his underwear and kilt. Something about not wanting to flap in the breeze in front of random strangers, medical professionals or no, even if Zecora had seen him. To that he blushed, realizing exactly how she had to treat him. He didn't want to keep that thought in his head for too long. Eventually the sun rose and, still being completely exhausted, Jarrad was allowed to sleep uninterrupted. After watching him for roughly 8 hours, Nurse Redheart and Zecora figured that the worst had passed.

Now, let's rewind the clock a bit and look at this situation from Twilight's perspective. If we want the best look, let's begin soon after Fluttershy and Zecora rush over to check on Jarrad.

"AJ, what happened? He looks like he's got a concussion," Asked Twilight.

"Twi, hold yur questions a bit, 'kay? We need tha get a nurse in here's to look atchya," said Applejack, "Fluttershy 'n Zecora got things handled with him, m'kay?"

With worry still etched on her face, Twilight nodded knowing that if Fluttershy and Zecora were looking after him then the human should be okay. She figured that a concussion was the same on her world as it was there, or at least, hoped that was the case. A nurse unicorn with a dark blue coat and a cutie mark of a winged serpent wrapped around a staff walked in a few moments later. Her black mane, much like Redhearts, was pulled into a bun tightly on the back of her head. She walked calmly to Twilight, pushing past a few of the onlookers on the room.

"Miss Sparkle," she called getting Twilight's attention, her accent a thick German, "My name is Nurse Apos, I'm going to be examining you to make sure everything is okay and see what changes there are in your condition. Tell me, how do you feel right now?"

Twilight nodded and took stock. Her pain was gone, her breathing and heartbeat were normal, and the fatigue in her muscles was gone. She felt normal, actually, even better than normal.

"Nurse, I feel fine, almost better than before." she answered, and then she felt it. Her moving legs caught a feeling of wetness. She felt somewhat gooey between her haunches and, somewhat embarrassed, blushed a deep red.

Nurse Apos took no notice. Her horn glowed brightly as she brought it near Twilight's frame. She began looking through and scanning Twilight's magical pathways to see if they were well and truly healed. What she felt, what she found, was astonishing. She couldn't tell if she was looking at a mere fluke or a miracle of modern magic.

"Miss Sparkle, when was the last time you purged," asked the Nurse. Purging is the act of forcing magic out of the body with the intent of getting "residue" and "gunk" off of the pathways. In much the way one exercises and eats healthy to keep the arteries clean, continued use of magic and the occasional purge allows for the pathways to remain clear.

"Umm… how long have I been out?" asked Twilight.

"A week, dear." replied Nurse Redheart.

"Then it should have been about two weeks ago. Why do you ask?"

Nurse Apos almost fell over in shock. She had never seen anything like this before. She had a bit of trouble breaching the subject. "Miss Sparkle, from what I can tell your magical pathways are working fine again and are completely clean." She answered.

"Is that a bad thing nurse?" asked Applejack

"No, no, not at all. Having clean pathways is a must for a unicorn, but even after a purge there are still small amounts of residue on the pathways. Twilight Sparkle…literally has none. At all. Her pathways are as clean as a newborn foals, as if she has yet to do magic at all." Nurse Apos explained.

That had Twilight stumped, she had been in excruciating pain earlier, but now she was fine and her pathways were clean. Just how had that happened?

"Twi, you 'member how I said that Jarrad done healed' ya," asked Applejack.

"Yeah," she responded hesitantly.

"Well, he did somethin' else. The more he worked on ya the brighter ya got till ya exploded in ah huge flash o' light. Ah think… ah think that's what he did, he "purged" ya." she replied with a pensive expression on her face.

Twilight was baffled, "Why would he help me?"

"Twi, ya never talked with 'im, didja." asked Applejack

"No, AJ, I was too busy screaming my head off," she deadpanned.

"Twi, he's a perty nice fella' once ya get ta know 'im. He decided ta help ya out fer no reason 'tall." Applejack gave Twilight a look; clearly she didn't appreciate the sarcasm.

Twilight was confused; she had seen the world he had come from and the kind of people they had there, why would he go and heal her for no reason.

"Twilight, you gotta get over and talk to him once you feel better. I mean, he may not be the nicest pony in the world, especially when you get him angry, but he's a REALLY awesome guy when he wants to be." Pinkie interjected, attempting to get Twilight over this perceived distaste for him.

All in all, Twilight was anything but impractical. She nodded to Pinkie, "I'll talk to him once we get the chance. It doesn't look like he's going to be in any way to talk soon."

Nurse Redheart nodded, "From what I can tell he suffered a mild concussion from hitting the wall so hard when you… well when you exploded. If you don't mind, I'll leave Nurse Apos to take care of you. I'm going to watch him for the night."

Twilight acquiesced. A unicorn nurse to take care of her seemed a better idea than leaving the human in Zecora's hands. It wasn't that she didn't trust her, but she didn't know whether or not Zecora had the same extensive medical expertise that Nurse Redheart and even Fluttershy had. She laid her head on the pillow and allowed the nurse to continue her examination. Once finished she was cleared completely and ready to leave the next day.

Nurse Apos insisted on her staying the rest of the night and tomorrow under observation; better safe than sorry, ja? The rest of the ponies were hesitant to leave, so Nurse Apos and Redheart discussed having more beds brought in for the other ponies, as well as some new sheets for Twilight. She felt terribly embarrassed, but it was easily explained that such an experience can be both jarring and rather…intense, so it wasn’t something out of the question. They were asked to keep as quiet as possible so Jarrad could rest, or at least get as much rest as he could given the circumstances.

Twilight didn't know when she or the others fell asleep, she only remember waking up to what looked like the late morning or early afternoon sun. She leaned over to see Rarity and Pinkie Pie conversing quietly to her right. To her surprise there, was an uproarious noise coming from the foot of her bed. She looked down to find Jarrad under the covers on the bed across the room putting the phrase "sawing logs" to shame. His mouth was open slightly and she wouldn't have been surprised if he was bringing down the building.

Rarity caught the look on Twilight's face, "It's simply ghastly, isn't it? I've never heard someone who was able to snore so loudly."

"Aw, come on guys; don't be so hard on him. He's been through a lot… and we haven't even had the chance to throw him a party yet," Pinkie shouted.

"Pinkie… why would we throw him a party," asked Twilight incredulously.

Pinkie deflated a bit at that, then remembered, "Oh yeah, you haven't met him yet and you haven't had Zecora tell you about him."

"What did Zecora say?" asked Twilight

"Well, she talked about the world he came from. I must say Twilight, it was simply dreadful. Po- no, people was the term she used, were so mean and hateful to one another. They've completely lost what it means to be part of the world; yet she also said how lucky we were," spoke a saddened Rarity.

"I know, Rarity, I saw his world before I summoned him here. My question is, why is he not under watch from Celestia?" asked Twilight.

"Well Twilight, that's the thing; we haven't been able to reach her. Rainbow Dash took off a few days ago to get her and we haven't heard back from her. And with Spike already in Canterlot… well, you get the idea. But Twilight, he's not as bad as you make him out to be… at least according to Zecora and Pinkie." Rarity answered.

"How do you mean?" Twilight looked toward Pinkie Pie for the answer.

"Well from what he said, he was a philosopher when he was in his old world; and how many of those guys are out to destroy the world? Plus, when you summoned him well…" Pinkie couldn't bring herself to finish.

"When Miss Sparkle summoned him to Equestria last week, his chances at life had gone down far below meek. You had summoned the Nexus to this plane, the life and soul of his body had been torn in twain." Spoke a smoky voice from Twilight's feet.

Twilight jumped a bit to find Zecora standing at the foot of her bed. The zebra looked fondly at Jarrad for a moment before turning her attention back to the unicorn.

"Wait… I wasn't even trying to summon him." squeaked Twilight

"Whatever do you mean, darling?" asked Rarity

Twilight looked deep in thought as she recounted, "Well, I used a viewing spell of some sort to find what I was looking at it as an experiment to bring someone or something over. The first world I found was this Earth place. It looked terrifying and devastating, but I knew I didn't have enough magic to do another viewing spell and the retrieval, so I wanted to find something there, some object, to bring back. Bringing back a person just seemed way too dangerous, especially if it was to have someone from that world here."

"So you decided to bring someone here who was dying here to help him with magic anyway?" asked Pinkie a little giddily.

Twilight frowned, "No, I actually tried to bring back whatever it was that was inside him and causing him pain. I didn't think I had another choice, I mean what else was I supposed to do? Just let him die on the floor by bleeding to death?"

Pinkie looked like she was about to reply before a voice beat her to it, "No offense meant to your kindness, but yeah, I would've appreciated it more."

Four heads twisted to the other side of the room to see Jarrad sitting up and grabbing hold of the pitcher of water next to his bed. He drained it in one go before focusing on the others.

"Wait, you would rather die on the floor than be helped?" asked Twilight, the concept of not being able to survive foreign to her.

Jarrad's look deadpanned as if to ask if she was serious, "I'd be dead so my consciousness would cease to function… so, yeah, I wouldn't care one way or the other. Besides how I die doesn't really matter in the end, but I suppose if I could do it again I'd be happy to die the way I did."

"Why? Why would you want to do something like that?" asked Twilight, still not grasping his perspective. The others chose to remain silent on the matter, wanting to see how this played out.

Jarrad wracked his brain trying to come up with an answer. Then it hit him, her fear. She was scared to death of him when they first "met" because she had seen his world. There was his ticket. "You said you saw my world, right?" he asked. Twilight nodded. "Okay, time for a thought experiment. Place yourself in that world with your current perspective. How would you feel?"

Twilight was silent a moment, her hoof resting on her chin for an answer, "I'd feel trapped."

Jarrad smiled, "Exactly. I had your perspective; I could see the stupid garbage we did. Of course added to the fact that I'm a bit fucked up in the head, but that's not where I'm going with this." He looked a bit nervously at Pinkie, but she didn't seem to mind. "Now let's change it a bit. Think of this as any run of the mill situation; what do you do, or what's simplest to do, when a situation is out of control or causes you stress?"

This time Pinkie answered, "Well, if it were me, I'd leave. I don't wanna deal with some super messy-mess of a situation any day if I don't have to."

Jarrad nodded, "Mm-hm. And here we get to the crux of the matter; if life, to you, is that situation you don't want to deal with how do you "leave"?"

When the answer hit them, it hit hard.

"Yep, you kill yourself," Jarrad leaned forward over his lap, "and this leads into my situation, I could never bring myself to do it. Suicide's an easy out, way too damn easy. And as much as I couldn't stand everything going on around me I knew that it could help make me a better person. That strife and conflict were a necessary part of life and suicide just wasn't the way to deal with it… shouldn’t have read so much Nietzsche. Anyway, when I died on the floor of that diner, or was dying, I figured it was good. I had died defending my father, someone I love very much. I didn’t even die by simply giving up, I was just forced into a situation that I literally COULD NOT get out of. To put it bluntly, I died probably the best way I could think to: my way."

Nopony could say a word. That explanation had them floored, especially Twilight; her notions were preconceived, but she couldn't believe there was someone there who hated his world as much as he seemed to. Somewhere in her mind she wondered if there could be others, and if him being a student of philosophy had something to do with it, but what came to the forefront was a deep sorrow for this person.

"I… I didn't know… I'm so sorry," she sputtered out.

Jarrad held up a hand, "A day or so ago I'd have been royally pissed at you, but at this point I'm kinda giddy. I mean, I can do magic! I can push myself further beyond the limits of anyone on my world; do things I thought were only there in fantasy. I gotta say, the prospect is appealing to me more and more lately."

Zecora smiled, "Your attitude has improved."

Jarrad smiled warmly, "Yeah, I suppose it has. Thinking about it, I guess I've just been suffering from depression as well as trying to cope with dying. I'm far better off now simply for the fact that I've got something to look forward to."

The reaction he got to that was unexpected. Zecora's face didn't change, but Rarity and Pinkie's did. Rarity seemed to have was it guilt flash across her eyes? It was fast, so fast he almost didn't notice it. Pinkie, on the other hand, almost had tears streaming down her face.

"Hey guys, I'll be back later on okay? I just remembered the Cakes need me today. Get well soon Twilight," Pinkie almost heaved out before near bolting from the room.

Jarrad and Twilight both looked confused, "Wait, the hell was that?"

"Oh, I'm sure it's nothing darling. Our Pinkie's just so random, I'm sure she'll be back to her regular self in no time. Anyway, while we're here, how about getting you something to eat." Rarity answered, her high class drawl showing.

It did bother Jarrad to leave it, but he figured he'd find out about what was going on later. Food sounded like a better idea. "Alright, let me get dressed and I'll join you guys. I don't exactly fancy having breakfast in bed today and I need to get up and keep moving around. Oh, and Twilight, if ya don't mind my asking, would ya care to join us?" asked Jarrad.

She shot him a look.

"Well, I mean, you need to get up and move around. From what I heard from the nurse you should be doing much better." he continued, moving up and out of the bed.

Twilight, after much deliberation, agreed. Jarrad was dressed back in the attire Zecora had left him and wondered when he was going to be able to get them washed. If he had to guess, they probably had a fair stench to them. He decided to take up Rarity on her offer of new clothes she had mentioned earlier.

Jarrad, Twilight, Zecora, and Rarity joined Applejack and Fluttershy a few minutes later when the latter had come to see Twilight. Jarrad's stomach growling dictated exactly where they needed to go before anyone asked. There was a problem, however, with this plan. Namely the two Royal Guards standing at the entrance to the Hospital. '….the fuck,' asked Jarrad to himself. Then it hit him, Celestia knew he was there and this was her welcoming committee.

"Halt, by order of her Highness, Princess Celestia, that human will come with us," ordered one of the two guards in an imperious tone.

Zecora looked as if she was about to speak, but Jarrad didn't notice it and spoke first, "I'm sorry, but what the fuck are you blathering on about?"

"Do not make us repeat ourselves, whelp," the other guard growled.

That one didn't sit well with him. Jarrad decided to try and defuse the situation, at least to figure out exactly what they wanted. He slowly made his way toward them, hands up, and made to speak. He was met with a quick, but effective, buck to his unguarded midsection.

He noticed it fast enough to spin his chakras, even if slightly, but it hardened his body enough to take the blow without causing him serious internal injury. It still hurt like nothing he ever felt before. The blow also sent him sailing back and directly into one of the chairs of the waiting room. If the circumstances were different then he would have laughed at such a silly shot, but this was not the case.

To note, everything that Jarrad had been feeling up to that point was rather…fragile to say the least. He was in some amount of turmoil, but there was a nice glossy sheen over it, taking out some of the sting of the whole deal. Yet when that pony hit him everything went downhill from there.

He was furious. And he responded.

Drawing on his power he was almost flew across the room. He jumped and spun, delivering a fierce side kick right into the face of one of the guards. The surprise attack caught the guard unaware and he was near blasted across the pathway to the hospital, landing in a heap almost twelve meters away.

Before the other guard could respond Jarrad had grabbed him by the frilly top to his helmet and rained down one blow after another, denting the Pegasus's armor and caving in a part of his face. His right hand, after letting go of the helmet, reached down to grab the foreleg of the guard and, with super human strength, twisted his body and threw the guard like a rag doll. This one flew farther and even hit a tree, knocking off leaves as his body impacted hard.

The sight that greeted Jarrad, once sense had returned to him somewhat, was of roughly thirty guards in formation around the hospital. Apparently Celestia had anticipated him being a problem… and he was just willing enough to oblige her.

Given the stress of the situation he forgot about the others, only that his life was possibly on the line, and most definitely his freedom. It was between him and what looked to be a small platoon of guards. Some part of his mind thought this whole situation surreal, and therefore allowed his mouth to move before his mind thought. He found himself shouting something completely irrelevant to the situation, and what was probably going to lead to an even harder fight than before.

He leaned his upper body back; arms spread wide and power radiating off him, and screamed, "COME AT ME BRO!"

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The Nexus

Notice

For those expecting the next chapter of this story, I apologize, but that will not be happening. I've been looking at this thing over and over again from all kind of different angles and I keep coming up with the same conclusion: this story is just not worth it. I've been trying to do an epic tale of sorts for the MLP fanon, but what I've come up with is just this stupid/riddiculous "falk in the worest" situation where everything seems to fall apart before it can begin. It went from an epic tale to just some guy writing junk down in an attempt to be cheesy and funny. Hell, the damn thing annoys me to think about even now.

So, rather than trying to keep going or making some kind of edit or overhauling this thing I'm going to go ahead and just out and out kill the damn thing before it takes up any more of myself. The idea, however, still has some merit so I'm going to keep it. I'll be making something new in the near future. Something that I'm going to get looked at by a few people who have far more experience and writing skill than myself.

In the end if I'm going to do this thing, I'm going to do it right. I thank you all who have been there before and helped me make this, but I'm no longer futzing about with this thing.