Far Cry: The Elements of Insanity

The small group of eight moved quickly through the dense forest with ease, before they knew it they were approaching the dimly-lit town. It could easily have been ten at night. Without raising suspicion, and possibly panic, the group slipped into the large library. Jason was gently carrying the unconscious form of Liza in his arms and soon set her down on the soft, small couch.

"Okay, questions?" Twilight started, getting several stacks of paper and multiple sets of quills.

"Why the hell should we trust you? You just up and invite us into your home? No strings? Bullshit." Jason snarled

"Cool it dude..." Oliver placed a hand on Jason's shoulder, which Jason quickly flicked away.

"No! My girlfriend is almost dead because of some fucking green magic shit and you want me to calm down? No! If I get close enough to whatever was fucking using those cannons I'll rip them in half!" Jason shouted, slamming his fist down hard on the table.

"Please, you'll wake the neighbors." Twilight insisted. Jason rubbed the bridge of his nose and sat on a nearby chair to steam.

"Okay, what do you want to know?" Jason finally found his voice again.

"Well...what is your home like? What is life like back home? Is it as friendly as it is here?" Twilight listed. Before Jason could form answers, Daisy cut him off.

"Well, life in California is pretty normal, with the occasional shootings in the bad parts of town. California is in the United States of America on Earth. It's bright, busy, and on occasion, annoying." Daisy shared a quick laugh. "While life there was really great, our past few months haven't been so good..." Daisy drifted off.

"What makes you say that?" Twilight dipped her quill in a nearby inkwell. "I mean, if you don't mind me asking." Daisy remained quiet and let Jason answer this one.

"Let's just leave it as we're stained with blood for a reason." He explained. Twilight's posture and steady pace faltered momentarily.

"Can you elaborate?" She asked

"No." Jason answered sternly. Twilight sighed before continuing to write down what she was learning.

The time flew quickly and Jason and Lyra found themselves to be the only ones left awake.

"So...you're a human." Lyra stated awkwardly. Jason just glared before sighing.

"Gee, you think so?" He quipped sarcastically. This seemed to sting the green unicorn. "Sorry, I'm just not in a good mood."

"And why is that?" Lyra then asked.

"I'd rather not say, I don't know how long I'd stay free in your 'peaceful land of Equestria'" Jason put emphasis on 'peaceful'.

"Okay, I won't push it. Hey, when the sun goes up we, you, Twilight, and I, will take Liza to the hospital, okay?" Lyra put on a smile.

"That sounds good." Jason droned unemotionally. He glanced at the resting form of Liza, watching as her face changed from various forms of pain to relief and back to pain over and over again. It was torturous just to watch. "I'm going out." He announced, he managed to cut Lyra off before she could object. "It's four in the morning, who is going to be up?" And without another word he slipped out the door like a phantom, leaving no evidence, like he was never there.

He walked, silent and without real direction through the middle of the small town. It was quiet, not like the jungles of Rook where there was always a squeal from a tapir or pig, just...quiet. There was the occasional tweet from a bird here or there, but other than that it could be described as the silence from an abandoned parking garage; quiet, yet ever sound echoes. Soon the sun would crest over the horizon and other...ponies would be up and about in their daily lives, like all was normal.

There was no reason not to be, though. They had raised no alarms upon their arrival. With a sigh, Jason slumped his shoulders. he had to stop thinking like this, like everything was still out to get him. Rook was gone, over. Did he really jump right to assuming the two ponies were hostile? Had Rook changed him that much? He investigated the full tatau that stained his arm, the eloquent and intricate designs sickening him. He heard a door creak open and he slide into a nearby space between two houses.

"Rarity...why do we need to get up so eeeaaaarrrlllly." He heard a young, high voice whine.

"Because dear, if we don't beat the morning rush into market I'll never get the good carrots before they're gone. I don't like having to cut my beauty sleep short either." An older, more experienced voice responded tiredly.

"Well then why did you get me up? I don't even like carrots!" The younger voice cracked.

"If I didn't, who would carry them? I just had my hooves done!" The older voice wailed, earning a giggle from the younger one. The pair left quickly and Jason returned to his aimless exploration, he gripped a small collection of tough rope and hoisted himself onto a high roof for a better look around. He peeked his head out carefully from behind a shop's roof-bound advertisement, seeing a growing number of towns-ponies fill the streets. Morning people, another thing he didn't understand. A noise, close to a struggle, caught his attention. It was quiet enough so that the ponies on the street wouldn't have noticed but loud enough so he could. Peeking over the edge of the roof he spotted a rather portly pony with a sharp metal object held in a turquoise aura. A mugging.

So much for the peaceful land of Equestria. Accepting no nonsense he opted to simply draw his pistol.

"Give me your damn bitpurse!" The portly thug demanded waving the improvised knife.

"No! Help!" The women, or rather, mare refused. The thug raised the shiv to strike but had it shot in two by a force he could not spot. He grabbed the sharper end and ran off quickly. The mare relaxed a bit and steadied herself "Erm, thanks whoever you are!" She called out. Jason refreshed his magazine and put the pistol away before going across the rooftops towards the library. He moved unnoticed for the most part, only jumping between the roofs when he knew no-one was watching and staying behind whatever blocked view. He eventually found a larger gap between him and the most outstretched branch on the library. He took a breath and sprinted across the roof and recklessly leaped towards the thick, wide branch. He landed roughly on the course wood but managed to keep his composure.

He found an unlocked window and dove in. How long had he been gone? He cast a glance at a nearby wall-clock and found that he had been gone for three hours. It certainly didn't feel like three hours. He shrugged, time always went fast. He spotted Twilight moving about in her kitchen and stepped in, seemingly startling her.

"Oh, Jason! You were gone for a while so I decided to contact the princess..." She looked crestfallen "I thought you were off being violent like the one in Canterlot so I got scared. I'm sorry, there's a chance you and your friends will be taken into custo-" Jason interrupted Twilight.

"'The one in Canterlot', what 'one'?" He asked.

"There was another human, he had dark skin, a mohawk, a bandana on his arm and a large scar on his head and face." She explained. Jason went blank.

"Talking crazy? Killing people? Ransom?" He continued for her.

"Do you know him?" She then asked, taking interest.

"You bet your goddamn fucking purple ass I do." He snapped. "That bastard...!" He caught himself, he still didn't feel comfortable talking about it. "Er...I mean...Yeah, I do know him."

"Okay...do you know his name?"

"His name is Vaas, and he kills for a living. If you go up against him alone, run." He explained seriously. "Is he still there? In Canterlot? I need to find him." Jason kept a calm demeanor.

"No...sadly, he escaped. He took out a whole platoon of Elite Guards on his way out too..." Twilight solemnly told. Jason sighed. Typical, so close yet so far! Maybe this is how Vaas felt when his attempts to kill Jason only ended up delaying himself? "We speculate he's taken up hold with the Griffons."

"So why not march in and get him? Isn't your Princess the sun-god?...or something?" Jason raised an eyebrow.

"We're at war with the Griffins, so there will be no marching to get anyone." Twilight stated.

"A war for what?"

Twilight looked away "I forget, sometimes. It's for them testing their new technology out on political prisoners." Twilight read from a parchment that looked very formal.

"Where are the Griffins?" Jason asked, looking over the same parchment.

"Their nearest base is in the mountains to the south. The have us surrounded seeing how Equestria is the smallest of the seven nations." Twilight pulled a scroll out of a small, dusty box and tossed it to Jason. It was a map of the world. He read off the names largest to smallest

"Dragon's Wastes, Cavern, Garon, Griffin Mountains, The Hive, Unknown, and Equestria." He read.

"We may be the smallest, but we have the second-best military!" Twilight assured. "We won't go down easily!"

"Who has the best?"

"...The dragons...obviously..." Twilight stated in a 'matter-of-fact' tone. "They're dragons."

"...Okay." Jason's ear poked up at the sound of shuffling in the main-room. "I think everyone is up." He poked his head into the room and quickly pulled back. "There are some ponies in there!" He shouted quietly. Twilight moved out of his line of sight and began talking to someone.

"Hello Princess Celestia, I didn't expect you to come on such short notice!" He heard Twilight exclaim.

"It is very nice to see you again Twilight, but I must get to the point, where is the creature?" He heard a more regal, refined and motherly voice ask.

"He is here now, and he has five friends with him, I'm afraid I jumped the wand on this one. He was just out exploring and familiarizing himself with the town, not being violent like Vaas was." Twilight explained to the owner of the voice.

"Who is Vaas? And there are multiple creatures here?" The voice then asked.

"Vaas is the human that attacked Canterlot. And yes, there are five other humans here."

"Should I get more guards?"

"No! Jason is friendly, and so are his friends. In fact, Jason could you come in here?" Jason sighed as he turned the corner out of the kitchen. He quickly scanned the room and saw fourteen armored ponies and one much larger white one with both wings and a horn; the owner of the voice.

"This is 'Jason'?" The larger pony remarked. "What an odd name..."

"Yes, he told us about humans and I told him about ponies. I have notes, if you would like to see them." Twilight brought out the several stacks of paper she had written on earlier.

"Th-that's fine Twilight." The princess stammered, obviously not wanting to read the notes. "Can this one speak?"

"I can speak just fine. I can assure you I would never harm any creature." How good is she at detecting liars?. "Vaas was...is...just...erm." He glanced at Twilight, clueless as to where to take this.

"Suffering from a massive testosterone problem, he has too much and it causes him to be very violent." She made up.

"Yeah! That!" Jason assured.

"Jason, is it time to take Liza- Holy fuck where did all the ponies come from?!" Jason turned to see Oliver being cuffed by two guards. "Hey! Hands off, I haven't done anything!" He protested.

"Princess this is Oliver, one of Jason's friends, would you mind letting him go?" Twilight asks. The guards remove the cuffs from Oliver's wrists at Celestia's request and apologize.

"Sorry Miss Twilight." The two guards say in-sync.

"I'm sorry Princess, but can this little chat wait? My friend really needs medical attention." Jason's face is begging for the Princess to go ahead and cut this meeting short.

"Better yet, I will have some of my guards take your friend to the hospital while we speak." Celestia goes ahead and orders her guards to do just that. Jason could not protest, as long as Liza got better he had no room to complain. The guards summoned a stretcher and took Liza quickly but carefully out of the library.

"What is it you want to know?" Jason asks the white alicorn.

"I want to know why you are here." She states. Jason was in no mood to beat around the bush.

"We were escaping."

"From where?"

"Rook Island."

"Where is that?"

"Off the coast of east Asia."

"And Asia is where?"

"Not here." Jason was doubting the intelligence of this Princess. "Obviously you're not getting it, princess. Rook, America, Asia, California, they're not here! Shit, is this even Earth?"

"Next question. Why were you escaping?" Celestia isn't listening.

"Because there was shit to run from."

"Specify!" The princess demanded.

"No." Jason stood his ground.

"This is going to take a while, isn't it?"

"Say please and maybe I'll consider the possibility of telling you more." Jason smiled smart-assedly. "Why do you even want to know, anyways? It's not like I'm going to do what Vaas did."

"I like knowing." Celestia answered honestly.

"Well, then yes. This will take a while."