A Warrior's Peace

Chapters

Chapter 1: Prologue
Chapter 2: Out of Place
Chapter 3: MAN About Town
Chapter 4: Memories
Chapter 6: Everypony Was Kung-Fu Fighting
Chapter 7: Brothers in Hooves
Chapter 5: Too Human

Chapter 1: Prologue

A Warrior’s Peace
Chapter 1: Prologue
By: Ricardo Nixon

The wind blew through his brown robe, jostling the wooden beads hung low around his neck. He made his way through the woods at the bottom of the mountain trail, making contact with the ancient trees that gave shade to the inhabitants of the forest. He felt the life of each tree, feeling the life coursing though each of the trees countless powerful limbs. Reaching the center of the wood he found what he was looking for, one of the tallest of the trees had met its end, and it fell upon him to return her to the Earth, lest she rob the nearby trees of their sweet sunlight. It was part of the natural order of things; he just provided a little kick.

He let out a sullen sigh as he positioned himself before the great plant, placing his right foot behind the left, and placed his left hand to barely touch the tree’s brittle bark with his open fingertips. “ Sorry, my friend.” He muttered as his left hand was almost instantaneously replaced by his right fist, sending splinters of bark and twigs flying, leaving the tree intact. He turned his back and walked away, “ 10….9….8.” , followed by a loud crack. “ 7…6…5…4…” the wood warped as the great tree began to buckle. “ 3…2…1” he turned around to see the canopy of the tree dive below the others, accompanied by the sound of Earth shaking. He admired his work for a negligible moment before the all to bittersweet feeling returned. “ I am a man of peace, those things are behind me.” He told himself, holding back his memories of the men whose lives he had taken. He held no hatred for them, no scorn. They had been bad men, warmongers, drug lords, and bringers of pain and suffering that needed to be eliminated in order to bring peace. “ I did what needed to be done.” He ruminated on this as he was unsure if he was talking to himself about the tree or his past.” “JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!” Jack cringed as he heard his mentor’s shout reverberate from the top of the mountain. “ I must have lost track of the time, Mentor will be most displeased.” And with that he made his way up the trail, back up to the summit.

Jack slowly chewed on his turnip as he observed the ancient figure in front of him. Mentor had long since forsaken his name, believing that it tied him to his less than peaceful past.

“Jack, how long have you been here with me…”
“ Five years, Mentor”
“ And why did you seek me?”
“ I was told you could help me.”
“ Help you… what?”
“ Help me seek peac..”
Before he could finish his once quiet, docile Mentor was upon him, with his knee in his stomach and his calloused hand at his throat.
“ Why are you here!” he shouted as he flung him through the door of the wooden hut.
“ You told me I could find peace!” Jack shouted before unleashing a barrage of well-timed strikes at his mentor, all of which would be deflected.
“ Peace? You’ve killed more men than you can count and now you seek peace?” Mentor struck him in the throat with his open hand causing Jack to land on his back, clutching his now closing trachea.
“I can’t here you!” Mentor yelled, throwing off his cloak to reveal the musculature that might as well have belonged to a boulder.
“ For five years you’ve slept here, but you live in the past, so tell me why have you come to me!” He lifted his leg above his head preparing to end the man before him, only to have it meet solid ground. Jack sprung to his feet to see his Mentor cock his arm to deliver a world-ending punch.
“I don’t know!” Jack coughed out, absorbing his Mentor’s punch and throwing him over his shoulder and onto the ground.
Mentor quickly lifted himself up with his hands, trying at a kick while tossing himself back onto his feet.
“ I would suggest another answer.”
Jack and his Mentor charged at each other in a dazzling display of combat prowess, Mentor locking Jack’s arm and Jack reversing his hold and Mentor tossing him to the ground before dropping his leg on Jack’s chest.
“ WHY ARE YOU HERE!”
Jack stopped moving, and stared straight up at his Mentor.
“ I….am… Tired.”
“Keep going…”
“ I.. I am tired of this world, tired of our race, tired of myself. Every time I found myself hunting down some criminal, or war monger, I thought I was changing the world, proving that a human could change everything, that there was something wrong with them and that they were standing in the way of peace… of harmony. Now I know, it’s not them, it’s me, it’s you, our race, our world is a sad one, and it will always be, there is no peace…”
Mentor removed his foot from his student and held out a hand, “ That is where you are wrong.”
“ What?!”
“ Peace does not exist in… this world.” Mentor said with a smile. “ Peace exists within, meditate on this…my friend.”
Jack stood up and started walking back to the hut.
“ No, not there.”
Jack stopped dead in his tracks. He sensed that this would be the last time he would see his Mentor.
“ Then where, Mentor?”
“ The tree is still alive.”
“ What?”
“ The tree you felled. It was still alive, start there.”
“ Thank you M..”
“ Don’t call me Mentor.” He interrupted. “ Call me friend…”
Jack’s breath grew heavy. “ Thank you… friend.”
Mentor gave his student one last look. “ Peace be upon you… friend.”
With that Jack made his way down the trail to the sight of his transgression. The tree lay there in two, the stump just a foot tall and the rest of the colossal plant slumped over in decomposition. He peered over the stump to find a green center inside the rings of grey, dead cellulose. He put his feet up on the stump and with a sigh, sat down on his fellow living being. He took a deep breath as he emptied his mind, reaching the void that those like him only find in meditation and combat. As he felt himself slip away he could swear he heard chanting…
At the top of the mountain Mentor sat as he peered down at his student, tears in his eyes and his hands buried in the ground, channeling some of the only magic left on this Earth. “ Live well my friend, find your peace.”
Jack looked up at the figure on the mountain and saw it collapse. He began to tear up and the wood around him came to life, wrapping him an a cocoon of living wood as he drifted off into a trance. The tree enveloped him and the top reformed into a great umbrella of leaves and vines

Years passed by. Countries rose and fell. Jack was right, humanity couldn’t keep itself together and eventually they met their end by their own hand, until the hand of fate chose a new successor. After the fall of man came a new species of sentient beings, an equine race that flourished under the wings of friendship, a society completely free of the weakness of humanity. Until one certain orange pony bucked the wrong tree.

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Chapter 2: Out of Place

A Warrior’s Peace
Chapter 2: Out of Place
By Ricardo Nixon

“ Aw shucks Applejack, I didn’t mean it that way.” Shouted the big red draft pony as he chased his sister through Sweet Apple Acres.

“ Why you, thinkn’ I cant buck worth a nuthin’, I’ll show you what fer’.” Yelled
Applejack as she ran deeper and deeper into the sprawling orchard before her. “ I’ll show you I’m the best Applebucker in Ponyville, nah, in all of Equestria!”

She ran, for what seemed and hour before she reached the tallest tree in Sweet Apple Acres, “ Imma show ya what real Applebuckin’ is about!” Before Big Macintosh had a chance to apologize Applejack drove her hooves into the trunk of the behemoth tree in front of her.

“ Sweet Celestia.” Muttered Big Mac as he diverted his attention away from his now smirking sister onto the torrent of apples looming overhead.
“Uh…. oh.” Sputtered Applejack before her brother jumped over her to shield her from the rapidly descending tsunami of fruit. CRAAASH

Big Mac emerged from the pile of red fruit with nothing worse than a bruise or two and found his sister shooting him and apologetically nervous smile. “ Mah bad.”

“ Sorry bout’ jokin’ round wichya’ like that sis, it was darn right mean o’ me ta act like that.”
“Don’t ya worry bout it, I was actin’ as silly as a filly runnin, away like thaaaaaa.!!!”
The ground shook as the pair spun in place to find the massive tree in front of them shaking, the bark chipping off to reveal an ancient wooden door.

“ Whadya’ reckon we should do Big Mac?”, whimpered A.J. trying to keep her composure.
“I figure we best leave it be Applejack.”
“ Nosense, I am not gon’ let a tree scare me outta mah boots!” quipped Applejack, trying to hide her shaking hooves. “ I’ts Probably nothiiiiiiinn!” A.J. stammered as the tree’s massive door collapsed, nearly crushing her, to reveal a nearly desiccated figure sitting inside the trunk of the behemoth tree.

Brown robes hung loosely around the strange figure’s legs making his upper body visible to the two equines. The pair took a step closer only to be shocked to find, under the wooden beads hanging around it’s neck a multitude of vines tapping directly into its chest, apparently pumping some fluid into it.

“ Big Mac, we should go get Fluttershy, she’ll know how ta treat this… thing.”
“ Uh Applejack, we got bigger things to worry about.” Said the red Draft pony, backing up into his sister.
“ Waddaya goin’ on about naw, Big Mac.” Said Applejack, turning around to find a pack of timberwolves closing in on the two.
“ When in the hay did they..” stammered A.J.
“ They prolly, heard someone buck this big ol’ tree.” Quipped Big Mac looking as Applejack with disappointment while taking a defensive stance in front of her. “ I’ll holdem’ back, y’all get yourself outta here.”
“ Big Mac! I can help ya..”
“ Nnnnope. Not this time.” He said, shooting her an ominous glance.

The pack leader took position in the center a few feet from Big mac… he was within pouncing distance. Four other wolves surrounded the pair, two on each side of their leader, forcing them to back up into the tree. The leader dropped it weight onto its hind legs, preparing to sink his fangs into the red draft pony’s meaty neck. Big Mac too fortified his stance, preparing to take the brunt of the assault and hoping that he could buck and escape route for his sister. The timberwolf had waited long enough, his dinner was within reach and it was time to dig in. He vaulted through the air as Big Mac raised his muscled shoulder to avoid a fatal injury.

Aaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiir!

The chief timberwolf squealed as Green blood began to drip from his throat. He gagged and flailed his legs in the air as an unfamiliar appendage crushed the life out of his windpipe. Big Mac, hearing the unexpected cries he relaxed and took in the figure in front of him. The dried out, bony figure he had felt pity for not a moment ago now stood before him, a tower of muscle and sinew, gray waist-legnth hair hanging wildy. It took a moment for the otherwise attentive pony to take in the sight before him. This… creature, was holding a full-grown alpha-timberwolf a good two feet off of the floor.
“ Appleja..” Big Mac turned to find his sister staring at the empty tree where this being previously sat, the vines torn and spewing a strange fluid onto the ground.

Big Mac took another look at the figure who now had his left eye locked onto the work horse.
“ Get back…” Jack whispered, yet his voice hit Big Mac with the percussion of a Sonic Rainboom.

Jack put his right leg behind his left and in one motion tossed the clawing beast into the leftmost timberwolf, resulting in a rolling cloud of squeals followed by limped paw-steps back into the brush.
The three remaining timberwolves checked themselves. They formed up and took position around the human, one at his face and the other two at his 4 o’ clock and 8 o’ clock.

Jack let out a familiar sullen sigh and prepared himself. At once every muscled in his body flexed, giving him the form of a man in a suit of sinuous armor before relaxing into a loose yet still explosive form. In a burst of movement he took a step forward with his left causing the timberwolf ahead of him to brace himself before he spun his body around and blindsided the wolf on his left with the heel of his right foot, sending him reeling.
“ Duck…” said Jack
Big Mac drew a puzzeled look, still trying to process the events before him.
The two remaining wolves assaulted Jack, taking this opportunity to launch a surprise attack. The first wolve’s jowls met air, barely missing the end of the warrior’s grey “mane”. The second however was in for something much worse. His lunge was meth with a soft brown cloth; Jack enveloped him in his robe like a burlap sack before tossing him at the tree, narrowly missing the pair of on looking equines.
The beast dropped as the figure in front of the remaining Timberwolf shook out his his cloak and placed it back on, feeding his arms through the loose-hanging sleeves.

The final Timberwolf mustered up all its courage, it was a proud creature but had just made a grave miscalculation. It backed up, making some distance between him and the creature that had just dispatched the rest of his pack. Jack stood motionless awaiting the creature’s final decision. It accelerated as the human and in 2 seconds had taken to the air, putting all of its energy into its hind legs to propel it at its prey.

“ Watch out!!!” yelled Applejack before her jaw dropped at what she had just witnessed. The airborne predator made contact with the unknown creature before them, and then passed through him.

Both combatants stood in place, the wind whistling through Jack’s now silvery hair before. The proud timberwolf released its breath and collapsed.

Applejack stood motionless, grateful yet horrified at the scene that lay before her, tears welling up in her eyes. “ How couldya just kill em’!”

Jack didn’t aacknowledge her.

“ How couldya even..” cried the orange pony before being interrupted by her brother.
“ Look..” he pointed with his hoof.
All the three of the remaining timberwolves lay on the floor, battered, beaten, and, to Applejack’s surprise still breathing.

“H-h-how… did… ya..” Applejack stammered seeing this creature’s handiwork before turning to face him and dropping dead silent. He had turned to face her and she saw him face to face. He looked what she thought was young, but his hair was as silvery as Granny Smith’s. His chest was adorned with a few large scars, most of which seemed to be of a single sweep with some sharp object. His face was serene, a beard as gray as his hair framed his jawline and upper lip, albeit much much shorter. But what struck Applejack the most were his eyes, they were calm, as if he had everything figured out, yet at the same time sad. Coming from his eyes were two streams of what appeared dried salt, tracing a path from his eyes onto his beard, almost as if he was… crying.

“ Who-o-o, W-what are you.” Stammered Big Macintosh, retaking his stand in front of Applejack.

The orange pony pushed him aside and approached the figure in front of her. “ Y’all right?”

Jack didn’t respond

“Well we’re mighty grateful for whatya’ diiiiid!!” Applejack was interrupted by the loud thud of Jack’s face making acquaintances with the ground below.

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“ What is it?” said a stern feminine voice

“I don’t know”

“Where did it come from?”

“I Don’t know”

“What do you know?!”

“ I Don’t’ Know… eeep.”

“Calm down Twahlight, Fluttershy doesn’t know anymore that what I told y’all” spurted a familiar mare

“ I’m sorry” said a tender little voice

Jack was awake and aware but thought it would be best to take in some information as to his whereabouts.

“How fast did you say he took out those timberwolves!?” shouted a brash voice

“Not now! Rainbow Dash, I have to make sense of this before Celestia catches wind of it. “ said the stern, yet friendly voice with a hint of anxiety.

“ Applejack, darling, you said it was wearing the beads around its neck?” Said a voice much more refined than the others, putting emphasis on her vowels.

“ Sure was, but ah don’t see how that has anything to do with this here situation.”
“ It has everything to do with the situation! Accessories Au Naturale! How did I not think of this before!”

“ Gosh darn it Rarity now y’alls just being silly.”

“ Speaking of silly, where’s Pinkie Pie?” questioned the one Jack guessed was Twilight

“ That would be my fault dear.” Sighed Rarity, “I told her Applejack found ‘somepony’ in Sweet Apple Acres instead of ‘something’ and she darted off to Sugarcube Corner.”

“ We’d best go calm her down, we wouldn’t want this gettin’ around before we know what we’re handling. Fluttershy, will you be alright with this guy?” inquired Applejack

“I’m sure he won’t be any trouble, you guys go find Pinkie, you can leave him to me.”

“ Alright then, see ya later Fluttershy!”

Jack heard the sound of hooves trotting out the door to what he deduced was this Fluttershy’s home. As the sound of trotting hooves faded from earshot, the gentle clip-clop of a single pony became ever so slightly louder.

“Poor thing. You were all banged up weren’t you. But now you’re aaaaall better” sang Fluttershy in delicate, musical voice.

“Thank you.”
Jack thought this would be as good a time as any to reveal himself.

“ Whuuuaaa!!” Fluttershy yelped as she swooped behind a table, utilizing Angel as a makeshift shield, trusting much more in his strength then her own.

“ It’s alright.” He stood up causing Fluttershy to cower further, draping her pink mane over her face in a subconscious attempt to feel safe. Feeling a sharp pain shoot through his midsection Jack sat back down, clutching his stomach with his right hand.

“ Oh.. you shouldn’t stand… not yet at least, you’re still in pretty bead shape Mr… what is your name?” said Fluttershy, her caring instinct taking over, forcing her out of her fortress.

Jack looked up taking in the entire situation. As far as he could tell he was in a strange world where, apparently the dominant species are… candy… colored… ponies, and he was engaging one in conversation. “Jack, my name is Jack, and who might I ask you are.” Jack already knew her name from his eavesdropping, but felt it would be best to be friendly with the kind pony that had possibly saved his life.

“ Oh, I’m fluttersh…..” Fluttershy backed up, her shyness getting the best of her again.

“I’m sorry miss, I didn’t quite catch that.” Jack wondered why he had just called a pony “miss” but quickly wrote it off.

“I’m Flutter…” Said Fluttershy, once again hiding behind her soft, pink mane.

Jack chuckled and decided to defuse the situation. “ Don’t worry miss Fluttershy, I’d be pretty scared too if something like me showed up out of nowhere.”

“ It’s quite alright… what… are you.” Fluttershy lost confidence when she realized how one might take offense.

Jack found it cute how the little yellow Pegasus was so timid. “ I… I’m a human. And, if you don’t mind, may I ask where I am?” Jack spoke, remembering that he knew very little about his current situation.

“ Oh, this is Ponyville, all the ponies here are really nice. There’s Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, oh and who could forget Pinkie Pie.”

“ Thank you very much miss Fluttershy..”

“ Oh.. Fluttershy is just fine.” Said the crème colored pony, blushing slightly.

“ My apologies, so, Fluttershy, I don’t mean to be sound ungrateful, but I think I should be leaving, I don’t want to cause any complications.” Said Jack, standing up and putting on his brown cloak.

“No!... I mean, you should stay.. here in ponyville I mean. I’m sure the other ponies would love to meet you..EEEP!” Fluttershy was interrupted once more by Angel Bunny thumped on her hoof holding his silver pocket watch. “ Oh… we should get going Mr.Jack, I’m sure everything will be fine once you explain to Twilight what’s happened.”

“ Are you sure, I wouldn’t want to..um.. frighten anybody. I doubt most ponies have seen a human. And that Twilight sounded pretty concerned.” Jack said with a tone of shock, scratching his head, having just noticed that his short black hair had become a long grey “Mane”.

“Oh don’t you worry about that..” Said Fluttershy, becoming progressively more comfortable with the human before her. “All kinds of critters live here and get along fine, Earth ponies, Pegasi like me, unicorns, and even a dragon!” Fluttershy found herself thinking, “ How could such a nice….Human.. have done what Applejack told me?”

Jack placed his wooden meditation beads back around his neck as he stood up and straightened his robes, fashioning a tunic to accommodate the warm weather. He still wasn’t sure of where, or more specifically, when he was, but he decided it’s best to just go with the flow. “In that case, let us go.” Jack took his first step forward and found his knees buckling under him. He was about to collapse before a certain yellow Pegasus flew under his arm, keeping him up. Jack shot Fluttershy a grateful look as he hobbled out the door with the graceful, pink-maned Pegasus flapping her wings, keeping his right side up. The pair made their way towards town, Jack thinking, “ I’m still not sure what’s going on here… but.” As he looked over his right shoulder to the smiling, singing, cream colored Pegasus flapping her wings under his arm. “ At least I made a friend.”

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Chapter 3: MAN About Town

A Warrior’s Peace
Chapter 3: “Man” About Town
By Ricardo Nixon

“ So…” said Jack genuinely enjoying the fresh air, colorful architecture, and companionship of this new realm. “ Is everyone here a pony?”

“Well.. yes.. I mean no… I mean, oooh.” Fluttershy stuttered, nearly dropping her limping companion. “ I’m sorry. Here in Equestria most of us are ponies, there are a couple of griffons…” said Fluttershy, having flashbacks to a less than amiable griffon she met. “ …and a few other species, but you’re the first human.”

“ The first human?” That thought made Jack’s stomach turn. “ I really hope I don’t do anything…too human.” He thought to himself.

“ You’re going to love everyone!” Said Fluttershy, eyes widening.” Twilight’s smart, she’s one of the smartest ponies I know, and her assistant Spike is one of the cutsie wootsiest dragons I’ve ever seen!” Fluttershy’s wings flapped in a spur of glee, nearly driving Jack off his feet. “ Oh, I’m sorry.” She said giving him an apologetic smile.

“ Your friends seem like nice peop… ponies…” Jack responded with a smile, still a bit awkward with this change in vocabulary. “ But wasn’t Twilight the one pressing you for information?” Jack said, embarrassing the little Pegasus below his arm.

“ Oh… you heard that…?” she wimpered, once again using her mane to cover her eyes.

“ My apologies, I wanted to learn a bit about what was going of before I scared anyone.” Jack said, now a little embarrassed himself from having flustered Fluttershy.

“ I-it’s quite alright, she gets a bit intense at time, but she means well.”

Jack blushed slightly, “ Yeah, I can relate.” He said, picking a timberwolf leaf out of his hair. “ But keep going.”

“ Oh.” Fluttershy’s ears perked up as she continued her train of thought. “ Well there’s Rarity, she’s really pretty, she owns a boutique in town where she sells really nice dresses. She took an interest in that nice necklace of yours, you should talk to her about it later…that is.. if you have time… if you want.” Fluttershy’s ears drooped back down. “ What does it mean? If you don’t mind…”

“ Oh, these?” Jack said, smiling at the flustered equine supporting him while gripping the brown wooden spheres around his neck. “ These are meditation beads, we… I use them when I meditate, they give me something to hold to help me focus.”

“ That’s sounds nice, I’ve always loved peace and quite.” Said Fluttershy observing the wooden spheres hanging from the man’s neck.

“ I could tell by your home, thank you again by the way.” Jack said, taking some of his weight off of the fluttering Pegasus.

“It’s no trouble, no trouble at all, I like living a bit away from the town, I can get away from all the noise and keep out of troub…” The softly flapping Pegasus was interrupted by a rather obnoxious voice.

“ HEY CLUTZERSHY!!!!!!!” Said a dark brown Pegasus, crashing to the ground, kicking up a dust cloud as two other pegasi, one gray and one light brown landed behind him.

Fluttershy’s wings locked up, causing her to land and forcing Jack to drop to his knee. “ Do you know these… ponies?” asked Jack. Fluttershy nodded yes and backed up behind him a bit.

“ This a friend of yours Clutzershy? He looks like a monkey fell in a laundry basket, haha, uhaha!” Quipped the Dark brown Pegasus, looking for approval from his chuckling cronies.

Jack remained still, still looking at Fluttershy. “ Are they bothering you, Fluttershy?” The timid yellow pony nodded her head as a tear grew in the corner of her eye. By now Jack’s face had turned into a scowl, but now his lips curled into a smile. “ Can you do me a favor?”

“S-s-sure.” Said the teary eyed equine.

“Cover your ears, I don’t want you to hear this.” Jack said with a reassuring look on his face.

“O-o-okay.” Said Fluttershy folding her ears down with her hooves, looking up at her protector who now faced her aggressors with a polite smile on his face.

Unable to hear a thing, Fluttershy saw Jack stand up, his lips began to move, spewing forth words she could not hear. As she turned her focus to the trio of brawny pegasi, she saw their snarky smiles turn into expressions of fear and then into horror. She looked back at Jack to see his chipper expressions still firing off words at the trio, his smile so wide his eyes were barely open. The three once assertive ponies were now huddled together, tears streaming down their muzzles and snot running down their noses. Jack patted Fluttershy on the head, turning her muzzle up to him and waved his hand at the three cowering equines, releasing them from their torment, leaving them to fly away, tails between their legs.

“ It’s alright Fluttershy, you can listen now.” Said Jack, lifting the shaking pony back to her feet.
“ W-w-What did you say to them…” said Fluttershy before giving a telltale “gulp” of anxiety.

“Nothing, we had a nice talk, they’re quite nice fellows, they just had to be put in their place.” Jack said, running his callous fingers through Fluttershy’s soft, pink, mane. Her wings opened and resumed their gentle flapping as she dug her head under Jack’s arm. It was about five minutes before Fluttershy realizes he was walking straight up, but she nestled her head closer and smiled and the headed toward Sugarcube Corner.

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“AAAAAh! Twilight, you’re the egghead here, what does he like to eat, what does he drink, what music does he like!” yelled a certain cotton-candy pink pony, seemingly eight places at once as she bounced around the colorfully decorated bakery.

“ Pinkie pie, you can’t cause to much ruckus we don’t even know what he is yet.” Said a visibly annoyed Twilight Sparkle.

“ Well that’s no reason to be rude, darling, he did save our Applejack from those dreadful Timberwolves.” Said Rarity, brushing her bouncing purple mane out of her face.

“ That’s right Twahlight, If it hadn’t been for that big ol’ fella, me and Big Mac might have been goners.” Said the proud orange Earth pony, tipping het hat to prevent her friends from seeing her embarrassment.

“ C’mon A.J. you know I woulda saved ya’” said Raindbow Dash, putting her hooves up in preparation for a boxing match.

“ Yeah I’m sure ya would of, I’m just glad he showed up when he did.” Said Applejack, shooting Rainbow Dash a sarcastic glance

“Well in that case… I guess it’s alright.” Said Twilight, levitating a ladle into nearby punch bowl and pouring herself a drink.

KNOCK KNOCK!!!

“THEY’RE HERE!!!!” yelled Pinkie Pie, making the final adjustments to her colorful decorations

“ But, we didn’t invite anyone?” said Twilight, “ You don’t think Fluttershy would…?”

“ Hello?...Is anyone home.” Said a sweet little voice from behind the door.

“Well… go ahead dear, let them in.” said Rarity, gesturing the purple unicorn towards the door.

Twilight wrapped her hoof around the knob of the door and with a quick twist of the fetlock swung open the door to the bakery to reveal a pink-maned yellow Pegasus with her head nestled under the arm of a rather tall figured garbed in an Earth brown tunic, sporting a rather contented look upon his face.

“ Hel-hello everyone.” Said Fluttershy taking position in the center of the room. “ this is my new friend, Jack.” Fluttershy said, now embarrassed, considering her actions a bit too bombastic.

“ Hello, nice to mee..!”
“ WELCOME TO PONYVILLE!!!!” yelled Pinkie Pie, drawing her massive party cannon, taking aim, and letting loose.

BOOOOOM!!!!!!!

Confetti and streamers fell to the ground as each pony’s smile twisted itself into a look of confusing. The room became clear, as Jack was nowhere to be found.

“ Where did he go?” said Twilight, scratching her mane with her hoof.

“ Um… Guys…” said Rainbow Dash said, her nose in the air. “ You miiight wanna look up.”

The ponies looked to the ceiling to find the human crouched, suspended on one of the horizontal beams of the bakery. He dropped back to the floor, face turning red as he turned to survey the confused equines before him.

“ Sorry… force of habit.” He said, scratching the back of his head. He made eye contact with a certain blue-eyed party pony and the room fell silent.

“ ……ha…ha..ahaHAHAHAHAA, BWHAAAAAAA!!!” The pair exploded into laughter as Pinkie dropped to the ground rolling on the floor, Jack gripping his ribs trying to stifle his uncontrollable laughter.

Twilight looked at Rarity to find her giving her trademark “ That’s Pinkie” hoof-wave. Fluttershy was the next one to giggle before the whole room broke into laughter, Rainbow Dash hitting the record player setting the whole room into festivity.

TWO HOURS LATER

Jack made his way to the punch bowl, leaning next to a certain poofy-pink pony. “ Thank you very much, Pinkie Pie. This really wasn’t necessary, but it certainly is appreciated.” Jack poured himself some of the sweet pink beverage and passed a cup to his hostess.

“ Unnecessary? Unnecessary? It was ultra-super-mega-redicusuper Necessary! I couldn’t let our newest friend move in without a proper welcoming party, now could I.” said the Pink Party Pony before she downed the whole drink in one swig.

Jack pondered this for a moment. He hadn’t considered the concept of home in a while. His home was always where ever his head fell, even during his years with his Mentor up on the summit, he never felt “at home”, but now…. He didn’t know how to feel, these kind, gentle creatures opened their homes to him and had nothing to give in return. It was the most inhumanly humane thing he had ever witnessed.

“ T-thank you.” Jack said before his view of view was replaced with two great big violet eyes attached to a fluttering cyan Pegasus.

“ Is it true that you took out five timberwolves with you bare hooves?!” blurted Rainbow Dash, on the verge of giving out a little squeak.

“Bare hoo… oh, bare hands.” Jack lifted his hands and showed them to the ogling Pegasus who was now looking at her own hooves, flexing her fetlocks in an attempt to grip something. “ Most of it was a blur, but that Applejack seems like a pretty honest pony so I’d go with whatever she says.” Rainbow Dash shot off, nearly barreling over Applejack in search of more detail

Jack reached for the ladle once more to find it glowing blue and levitating out of the bowl and into a nearby cup.

“Oh, I do apologize, silly me.” Said Rarity, bringing the cup to her lips, her horn glowing the same hue of blue as the cup. “ My good sir, you must tell me where you bought that most elegant robe.” She said, eyes widening at the dark brown cloth wrapped around his body.

Jack chuckled. “ This? Ha ha, I made this myself. Nothing more than dyed cotton.”

“ IIIIDEA!!.” Rarity exclaimed, nearly dropping her beverage. “ Less is more! Why did I not think of this before, ooh Fluttershy will love this, she’s never been one for extravagance.” Rarity dashed off leaving her beverage to drop to the floor.

“ Oh, I’ll get that.” Said Jack, making his way to the kitchen to find a familiar orange mare standing in front of the paper towel rack.

“ Excuse me, Mr. Jack sir? It was a mighty kind thing y’all did for me and my brother earlier.” Said Applejack, gratefully tipping her hat.
“Don’t worry about it Applejack, I’m just glad everyone is safe.” Jack said, grabbing a handful of paper towel.

Applejack placed a hoof on his chest, preventing him from escaping. “ Nah, if y’all hadn’t been there I prolly wouldn’t be here right now. If’n it’s all the same to you, y’all can stay at Sweet Apple Acres, we’ve got plenty of room.”

“ That would be great, I think I might have to take you up on that offer, as I believe I am currently homeless.” Jack said, gesturing her over to the spill. “ But I would hate to be a burden on you.” Jack finished wiping up the spill and tossed the damp rag into the proper trash receptacle.

“ If’n y’all feel that set on getting’ ta work then I got just the job for ya. As soon as ya feel better you get yourself over the orchard I’m sure you can lend a hand durin’ applebuck season. Said Applejack, a confident smile taking up most of her face.

“In that case.” Jack held out his right hand. “ You have yourself a tenant.” Applejack spit into her hoof and placed it in his hand

“ Well alrighty then.” Said Applejack, once again tipping her hat.

“ You seem to be making friends with everypony around here.” Jack turned around to find a certain purple unicorn with streaks in her mane. “ Oh, excuse me.” She tossed her mane out of her face. “ My name is Twilight Sparkle, I’m Princess Celestia’s student and resident librarian here in Ponyville, and this is my assistant Spike.” Gesturing to the short, purple dragon next to her.

“Well it’s certainly nice to meet you, Twilight, and you Spike. Seeing as im a bit naïve as to whats going on, or how I even got here, so if it’s not too much trouble I’ll be requesting your help to assist me in making sense of every…..”

“ WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!”

Jacks head turned to the door then back to Twilight who returned his concerned look. “ Rarity.” Said the purple unicorn before they made their way outside.

“ Rarity what is it!” yelled Twilight at the nearly comatose, marshmallow colored unicorn.

“ M-m-m-maj, M-maj, Major!” Rarity stuttered, her hooves shaking, making a subtle clip-clop with the ground. She stared directly at Sugarcube Corner.

“ Major what, Rarity, what’s going on.” Twilight walked over to the shaking equine.

Jack took off his meditation beads and handed them to Twilight. “ Can you hold these for me?”

“Sure.” Said Twilight, putting her head in the earthen scented loop. “But why?”

Jack turned around tapping Twilight on the flank, causing her to look over Sugarcube Corner and take in an eyeful of translucent purple destruction. The Ursa Major was now gnawing on the roof of the bakery.

“I have some business to attend to. On second thought…” Jack took back his beads and wrapped them around his hair a few times, pulling it back into a long gray Ponytail. “ I might need these.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 4: Memories

A Warrior’s Peace
Chapter 4: Memories
By: Ricardo Nixon

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH.” Screamed Rarity, nearly fainting at the sight of the colossal beast making its way through town.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no..eeep.” Fluttershy was working herself into a panic attack, her wings flapping out of sync, matching the distress on the yellow pagasus’ face.

“ Uh, Twalight, I don’t suppose you read a book about what to do in this situation, didya?” said Applejack, looking to her friend, trying to draw some confidence.

“ An Ursa Major!?” said Twilight, jaw agape. “ What could bring it to Ponyville?!!.” She said, her hooves wobbling.

“ Not what…..WHOOO!!” A high pitched, raspy voice called out from atop the massive, celestial bear. “ This time we haves the Ursa Major, all the pretty ponies will dig for us, ahahahahahah.” From behind the Ursa’s head climbed a thin lanky figure, clutching a massive bridle in his paw-like hands, running around the bear’s muzzle.

“ Not these guy’s again!” cried Rainbow Dash. “ I thought they learned to leave us alone after last time.” She said, spreading her wings, preparing to take off.

Jack took in the sight, the gargantuan bear in front of him, and the small army of canines ransacking the peaceful pony village. “ What are these….” Jack refrained from using the more colorful adjective that humans had come up with. “…creeps?”

“We are the Diamond Dogs!” The leader said from atop his mount, picking up Jack’s voice with his sensitive canine hearing. “ And we’re gonna make all these pretty ponies into workhorses to dig us up precious gemstones, and you can’t do anything about it silly monkey! Unleash the hounds!”

On cue, a battalion of armor clad canines charged out from underneath the Ursa Major, their leader heading off the pack, armed with a wooden club in hand and making a beeline for Jack and his companions.

“Run girls!!” yelled Twilight Sparkle, spinning in place, followed by the other five mares and one purple dragon.

“ NO!” Boomed the robed human.

The small group of ponies turned to meet the gaze of their obviously insane partner.
“ Are you crazy?!” yelled Twilight, her voice cracking. “ Nopony can take down an Ursa Major!” she said beginning to take her turn again.

Jack locked eyes with the purple unicorn, freezing her in place. “ Well then it sounds like you need someone that’s not a pony, now do you want to help me or not?” His stern yet caring voice struck a chord within the young mares, putting some stiffness back into their shaking hooves… that is with the exception of Fluttershy, of course. “ Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Spike, search for abled bodied ponies who can help hold these guys off.” The two nodded, Pinkie giving Jack the first serious look he had seen on her face. “Rarity, Fluttershy, get to somewhere safe and tend to the injured ponies.”

“ We can use my house.” Said Fluttershy, with a certain fire in her eye. “ It’s far enough from Ponyville that the Diamond Dogs won’t attack us.”
The pair ran off, Rarity neglecting to fix her now tattered mane.

“ You two, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, come with me but keep your distance, I need you to take any injured pony to Rarity and Fluttershy.” Jack said, turning to face the oncoming onslaught of canine warriors. ”You leave them… to me.”

Jack analyzed the lead Diamond Dog. “ Their body structures are similar to a human. Save for the legs, but that won’t affect my technique much. This shouldn’t be too much trouble.” Jack took a few deep breaths and prepared for the conflict ahead. His head grew light as an all too familiar rush surged through his body.

The lead Diamond Dog was upon him. “ I’ll show you, you meddling monkey!!!!!” The canine cocked his arm back and swung his wooden club full force at the side of Jack’s head.

“ Arrgggh!” The canine let loose a grunt as Jack’s right elbow connected with his jaw. Jack held the dog’s right hand with his left and grabbed the back of his hand with his right. With a quick 180 degree rotation, Jack hyperextended the canine’s wrist, dropping his armpit onto the dog’s elbow, locking the bone and causing him to bend over and let loose a shriek of pain. Jack then sent his foot sailing into his attacker’s chest and torqued his arm, forcing him onto his face, before dropping his knee on the semi-conscious canine’s shoulder. Keeping control of the beast’s arm, Jack turned it’s wrist a bit more, disarming him of his club.

Jack felt the rough cord-wrapped handle of the weapon, he felt its weight and felt his body adjusting to compensate, making the weapon a part of his being. His head became light as his conscience drifted away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Colombia, 2006
Jack felt the rough cord-wrapped handle of the weapon, he felt its weight and felt his body adjusting to compensate, making the weapon a part of his being. The rain fell on the tempered steel blade, sending shimmering beams of light gleaming down the length of the weapon’s edge.

Jack reached into his pocket, drawing from it the picture of a well-dressed man, dark skin, slick hair, obviously a man of business. His name… or rather, his title was El Tiburon, and at this point he handled 80% of the cocaine trade through South and Central America. His wealth and influence served to keep the developing countries’ governments frail, allowing him to traffic with little to no resistance. He was the source of suffering for many innocent people, and he had to be dealt with.

Jack replaced the slip of paper back into his pocket and looked down off of his tree perch onto the three guards below. “ Three guards… armed…assault rifles…large caliber.” Jack placed his sword back into its sheath on his back, relishing the ‘click’ as the guard met the end of the scabbard. He grasped the beads hanging around his neck and took a deep breath. “ They don’t need to die, they still have hope…or at least I do.”

They stood with their backs to the glass door, defending their employed.

“ Let’s see, three of them, about ten meters apart, automatic weapons… “ Jack grabbed a fruit off of the tree.”…15 seconds.”

Jack tossed the fruit in front of the center guard, drawing him forward, creating some distance from his comrades. Jack then loosened his robe and dropped in front he the guard to the left.

The guard’s eyes widened as he brought the barrel of his weapon to Jack’s face.

Jack redirected the weapon’s muzzle with his left hand while driving his right palm into the man’s nose, shifting his balance back, the wet crack of cartilage reassuring Jack of his precision. “1…2…3” Jack kept the man off balance as he brought his own right leg up and swiftly reaped the guard’s right leg out from under him, dropping him straight to the floor and straight out of consciousness.

The right guard heard the reverberations of Jack’s handiwork and began to turn around.

“ 4…5…6.” Jack dashed at the man meeting him nose to nose, gripping the barrel of his automatic rifle with his left hand and the stock with his right.”7…8.” With a quick twist, Jack turned the barrel up and the stock down, disarming the man before slamming the weapons metal stock into the guard’s jaw, inducing a condition commonly known as getting knocked the hell out.

The final guard turned around, bringing his rifle to eye-level and took aim at the loosely robed man.

Jack met his eyes and took a 180 degree turn, throwing his cloak into the air.

BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG!!

“ Hehehe.” The guard walked over to the smoking pile of cloth to observe his handiwork. “ Whaaa!” he kicked over the pile of clothes as his eyes widened and his arm began to shake.

“9…10”

“ Where are you!” the guard stepped back, nearly tripping in the wet southern mud.

“ Right behind you…” Jack whispered, slamming his left hand into the left side of the guards face, pulling it back with the guard’s jaw in hand. His right hand grabbed the guard’s wrist and, using his stomach as a fulcrum, snapped the guard’s arm, forcing him to drop his weapon. His right hand then shot up to the guard’s left ear, meeting Jack’s other hand as his shoulder supplied a vice-like pressure to the man’s neck.
“11…12…13…14…aaaaaand.” The man’s body went limp and Jack released him, allowing him to drop to his back. “ That’s 15”

Jack turned to face the man inside. Through the glass door, Jack saw the man, El Tiburon, shaking behind his desk, reaching into the drawers.

Jack opened the door, wiped his feet on the welcome mat and proceeded to the desk. The man behind the desk reached a shaking hand into the drawer and produced a rather large revolver, putting it up to feel it meet the forehead of the man who, a mere second ago, was 10 meters away from him. The man’s sinister lips curled into a sadistic smile.

“ The last thing you will hear are these two clicks. The first one is me cocking my gun…” The man pulled back the hammer, letting out and audible ‘click’ “ And the second one..”

“Is me sheathing my sword.”
“Whaa!?”

SHIIIIIIIIING

Jack swung his sword a second time, shaking off the blood as the man’s body hit the floor. He placed the end of his blade in the opening of his sheath and slid it in, SHHHHHHHHHHHH’click’.

WHUAAP!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jack felt a dull pain in the back of his skull as he tumbled to the ground, having taken the full brunt of a Diamond Dog’s paw to the back of the head. He dazedly took in his surroundings, taking in the Dogs and the gargantuan bear chewing off the roof of Sugarcube Corner.

“ JAAACK!” “JAAAAACK!” yelled the pair of cyan and orange ponies, helping a young filly out of a collapsing house.

Jack dropped his shoulder and rolled with the strike, landing on his feet, club in hand. “ I’m Fine, I’m Fine, keep going.” Waving off the two mares with his free hand.

“Alright boss!” yelled Applejack, bucking down a door, releasing the two trapped fillies inside.

Jack let the club rest on his shoulder as he dropped his center, bracing himself for the oncoming attack. He had counted about six more Diamond Dogs in his general vicinity, preparing to attack him.

“Raaagh.” The dog let out a roar as it lunged at Jack, paw outstretched, claws bared.

Jack took a step left, parrying the canine’s strike with his left hand, drawing him in as he dropped his armpit onto the dog’s elbow, placing the Diamond Dog under his control. At that moment that dog might as well been in a crate.

Jack heard rushing steps to his right and turned to see a rather massive Diamond Dog rushing at him. Jack waited for him to pounce before introducing his ribcage to the end of his commander’s club, snapping the weapon in two and causing him to fall back to the ground clutching his chest.

Turning to the closest combatant, Jack gave his trunk a twist, hyperextending the trapped canine’s elbow and causing him to move in front of his rapidly approaching comrade resulting in a rather spectacular collision, the end of which was marked by a swift kick to the jaws of both parties involved.

“ Three left.” Jack said to himself, taking the initiative. He charged the next Dog, clenching his fist, to which the dog responded by guarding his face. Little did he know that the punch would connect with his stomach, forcing the creature to bend over, presenting Jack with an opportunity to toss his off-balance opponent to the floor, before driving his elbow into the beast’s stomach, putting him out of commission.

The next two dogs put forth a valiant effort to double-team Jack, one grabbing him from behind, over his arms, and the other charging full speed.

“ Bad move friend.” Jack dropped his center, slipping out of the canine’s grip, sending his elbow crashing into the dog’s ribs and taking a firm grip of his wrist which he swiftly rotated, giving him control of the Diamond Dog’s arm. Placing the dog’s arm behind his back, Jack braced for impact.
“ You think I’ll fall for that trick.” Said the dog, slowing down, preparing to vault over his opponent’s meatshield.

“Not quite.”, Muttered Jack with a smile. With a rotation of his forearm, he brought his captive to bend down. He quickly rolled over the canine’s back, and upon landing rolled the dog over his hip, dropping him right on the head of his unsuspecting partner. The pair struggled to get up before collapsing back onto each other.

Jack looked up to the great purple Ursa Major, finishing the last remnants of Sugarcube Corner’s roof, now moving on to town hall.

Jack turned to his two partners to see Rainbow Dash holding a young filly and Applejack dragging a coughing mare out from underneath a collapsing house. “ Are you two alright?” Jack yelled, hands cupped around his mouth

“ We’re alright, what about you?!” yelled the cyan Pegasus trying to hold back the fatigue in her voice.

“ I’m fine, I’m gonna go..”

“ Mommy nooooooo!!!” Jack was interrupted by a high pitched shriek originating from a nearby house.

A Diamond Bull-Dog stood hunched, casting a shadow over the cross-eyed gray Pegasus and the blond unicorn behind her.

“You get away from us.” She said, opening her wings to protect her daughter.

“ Flying pony will make good slave, carry gems out of dark cav ..ARRGH!!”
Slobber dropped from his mouth as the pegasus’ gray hoof made contact with his chin.
“ Why You!” the colossal canine raised his massive paw above the pair of ponies, causing the gray Pegasus to clutch her daughter.

“This will teach stupid pony!” The Dog brought his appendage down with force.

WHAUP!

A tear rolled down the pegasus’ cheek as she opened one of the crossed eyes to find the Dog with his paw in the air.

“ Wha-a-a.” a strained gasp escaped the Dog’s mouth as it rolled back on its heels and fell back to the ground, revealing an odd cloaked figure behind him.

“Are you all right?” Jack asked, stepping over the large canine

“T-th-thank you, thank you so much!” the grey mare sprung out, hugging Jack.

“ It’s quite alright. Now you two get to Fluttershy’s house.” Jack said, the grey Pegasus releasing him.

“ D-d-do-dog…” She stammered, crossed-eyes widening as she looked over Jack’s left shoulder.

“ I have you now Monkey!!” The massive dog, now on his feet, opened his arms around the robed figure in front of him. “ Gotcha!” The canine wrapped his arms around the brown-cloaked figure and sunk his teeth into his neck. “Arghh! What is this?!” the dog coughed up a bit of brown cotton and observed the empty garment in his paws, his eyes falling on a pair of unfamiliar arms wrapped around his waist.

“ Gotcha.” Jack dropped his center and lifted, bridging back and dropping the enormous Dog on its neck. His eyes quickly shifted to the pair of ponies at his side. “ After you.” He motioned to the door with his left hand, putting his robe back on with his right.

Jack stepped out of the house, watching the pair of ponies fly away. “ There’s still too many of them.” Jack whispered to himself, preparing to go back on the offensive. He finished tying his robe and locked eyes with a nearby Diamond Dog raiding party.

“ We’re coming for you Monkey!” The dogs rushed at him, jowls slobbering as the built up momentum.

Jack dropped his center and prepared to attack.

“ We’re going to…Arrgh!” The head Diamond Dog was interrupted by a familiar red hoof.

“ Nnnnnnope.” The red draft pony stood in front of his friend, yellow bane billowing in the wind. “ Get em’ fellas.” On cue a swarm of stallions attacked the Dogs, bucking them back.

“Allons-y!!” yelled an odd brown stallion, delivering a hoof to a Diamond Dog’s jaw.

“JAAAAAACK!” Jack turned to find Pinkie Pie on the roof, smiling next to Twilight Sparkle who was magically tossing rocks at the invading canines. “Did we do good?” said Pinkie, a wide smile across her face.

“You did fine girls.” Said Jack, waving at the girls.

“Hey!” Jack turned back to Big Mac, a confident look on his face. We got these mutts, you take care of that.” Big Mac pointed his hoof to the purple leviathan.

Jack smiled and matched the draft pony’s smile, turning and heading toward the Ursa Major. Jack climbed a nearby house, giving his a prime view of the bear’s rump. “ Here we go.” Jack took a running start and jumped, sailing through the air for a few seconds before grabbing a handful of translucent purple fur. He made his way up to celestial bear’s neck, grabbing handful after handful of fur. He took a firm grip with his left and reached behind him with his right, pulling the tightly wound ring of beads out of his hair. Beads in hand, he made his way to the top of the beast’s skull, taking position behind the chief Diamond Dog.

Jack grabbed the canine by the muzzle. “ Call off your Dogs, and take this thing out of ponyville.”

“ Are you stupid! Stupid monkey! You think you can beat Ursa Major?!” The Dog said, shaking the reigns, making the bear buck.

“ No.” Jack tossed his necklace around the Dog’s neck and around the excess around his hand, putting a vice-like pressure on the canine’s neck. ”Just you.”

“Arggh. You won’t beat me that easil..arghh!” The dog tried to turn his head only to be met with a crushing pressure on his trachea.

“ You have two choices. We take this thing back to its cave together…” Jack pulled the dog back, making eye contact with it,” or I can figure it out by myself, I learn fast, but I might just have to… squeeze some lessons out of you.” Jack felt the canine attempt a gulp as he nodded his head. “ Alright, let’s get going.”

The Chief Dog pulled back on the reigns as he shouted through the pressure on his neck,” Diamonds Dogs, Retreat!!!! Back to the caves.” He looked back to see Jack’s smiling face.

“ Big Mac!” Jack called for the stallion’s attention. “ Make sure they stay out.” Jack was able to make out the stallion’s telltale, “ Eeeeyup.”

“Move.” Jack said, twisting the beads in his hand.

The Diamond Dogs followed their leader back to their cave, releasing an angry Ursa Major before taking cover in their underground lair.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Three Hours Later
Jack made his way back to Ponyville, backtracking the path he took to the Diamond Dogs’ lair. The town was silent, although the signs of preliminary repairs were visible

“ I should probably go check on Fluttershy, see if everypony is alright.”

Jack opened the door to the cottage to find all the lights off. “ They must be asleep.” He said, turning around.

CLICK’

Jack turned to find half the town of Ponyville in the brightly decorated cottage. “ Thank You Jack!!” Jack smiled as he was swarmed by an ocean of candy colored ponies. He found himself once again relishing his new home. He felt his stomach grow warm as a smile wrapped around his head as he joined his new family for the festivities.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 6: Everypony Was Kung-Fu Fighting

A Warrior’s Peace
Chapter 6: Everypony Was Kung Fu Fighting
By Ricardo Nixon

The group of Mares, dragon, and human ran outside, into Fluttershy’s courtyard.

“That Must have come from town.” Jack locked eyes with Luna who gave him a nod. Jack turned his gaze to the other six ponies and one dragon, all of them gave Jack a serious nod and the sprinted towards town.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“ Where are the Princesses?!” A Tall humanoid figure clad in shining white armor, followed by two similar, shorter knights, picked up a young orange Pegasus by her neck, as a crowd gathered, awoken by the ruckus.

“Let me go y-y-you b-big bully.” The young orange Pegasus flapped her wings in futility.

“ Tell me what I want to know or you and your friends die.” He tightened his grip in the filly’s neck, crushing the life out of her.

“Let her go! Go Away! Leave us alone!” Shouts from the crowd only served to agitate the armored figure who drew from his back, an axe a big as Big Mac.

“Fine.” The man dropped the young filly at his feet. “Let this serve as a lesson to you!” He raised the axe above his head to the gasps of all those in the crowd.

SHHHHHHHHHHTIK!

The head of the axe embedded itself in the earth as the armored man took in the ghastly expressions of the crowd. Nopony made a noise.

“This is what you get for crossing the Wh..aaah?” The Knight looked down to see his blade had met ground, and nothing else.

“Good work Rainbow Dash.” Jack stood next to his seven equine companions, Rainbow Dash holding the young shaking filly by the scruff of her neck.

The Three Knights focused on the regal alicorn before them, the tallest one spoke. “Princess Luna, mother of the night, what a pleasure it is to see you again.” He replaced his axe on his back.

“You have no business here, leave these gentleponies alone and return to your exile.” The lunar mare approached the trio.

“Re-re-return to our exile? Have you gone senile in our years away? Do you think we would follow your orders like the good little pawns you made us to be? And this, what is the meaning of this, did you make yourself a human slave? Were all the stallions in Equestria not enough for you? Hahaha.”

“Silence! This is your last warning, leave, never return to Equestria, and you may be spared.” Luna opened her wings, showing her ferocity.

“I do not believe we will be able to follow up on those orders your highness.” The two shorter Knights drew short maces from their waists. “But we shall show you what else we can offer you.” The guards charged.

“Stop!” Jack stepped out of the crowd; the two guards stopped and held their ground. “ If it is battle you seek. You shall find it here.” Jack swept the slack from his cloak into the back of his pants.

“What is this?! You must be soft in the head?! Can you not see you are out numbered, out armored and unarmed?” The Lead Knight’s chuckle reverberated in his helmet, as did those of his comrades.

“Your move.” Jack awaited the guards charge, trying to ignore the throbbing in the back of his head.

“Let’s make an example of him gentlemen. Make it brutal.” The two guards laughed as the resumed their assault.

They charged side by side, maces in hand, ready to bash Jack’s skull in. The left guard reached Jack and swung.

Jack ducked his swing. “Did you really thin..uaaagh!” The pommel of the guard’s mace met with Jack’s jaw, stunning him.

The guard cocked back and smashed the head of his mace into Jack’s stomach.

“UAAAGH!” Jack rolled backward to create distance between himself and his attackers. “ Achk!” Jack spit on the ground, which became deep red at the point of contact. “It seems I have underestimated you.” Jack spoke through his cough. “I won’t do it again!” His brain burned like the sun as he was compelled to charge the first Knight.

The knight swung at him. Jack duck and parried the Knight’s pommel strike. He saw the second Knight come in for a swing and pulled the first Knight around, to use him as a shield to take his partner’s blow. Jack’s felt a sharp pain shoot down his spine, causing him to stumble back, releasing his captive who promptly reached out and grabbed his friend’s weapon, spinning it around his head and catching Jack in the back of his. Jack’s body went limp before he hit the ground, clutching his head.

One of the two spoke. “You really think your attacks will work on us? We’re Knights of Order you twit! You don’t deserve the title of human.” The two Knights stood over Jack and drove their metal boots into him repeatedly.

As Jack’s vision grew dark, he heard a distinct laughter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jack woke up in a white room, all white, walls, floor, ceiling, all white.

“Good morning, sunshine.” A familiar voice spoke

Jack stood up still woozy. “What are you doing, are you trying to get me killed!?”

“I thought we had gone over this. Plus I don’t like repeating myself.” Jack turned around to see his doppelganger speaking to him once more.

“What do you want?!” Jack yelled at…himself.

“What I want, nononononono, it’s what you want. You want to hurt someone, you want to kill someone, it’s in your nature isn’t it?” The clone spoke as he approached Jack.

“No! Get out of my mind!” Jack yelled again, still woozy.

“Oh my, they must be doing a number on your head. I guess this is my cue.”

Jack felt himself lose control of his body

“You’ll pay for this...” Jack said as he felt his body being turned over to something else.

“Well, a little too melodramatic for my taste, but that’ll do. You just relax, I’ll do the rest.”

Jack felt his mind grow dark as his vision returned.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THWAK!
THWAK!
TH-INK!

Jack caught the guard’s foot as it came down on his face.

CRAAAAAAAACK!

Jack twisted the guard’s foot, shattering his ankle

“AAAAH! MY FOOT! HE BROKE IT!” The guard fell to the ground as his partner backed up in surprise.

“MUAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Jack laughed as he rolled onto his shoulder and threw himself onto his feet. Jack’s eyes had become wild and red, his irises mismatched in size. He rushed the guard who was on his feet.

The guard swung, but Jack ducked it. The guard brought his mace up for a downward struck, Jack dropped to his stomach. The guard threw a kick as jack flopped over it, still on his stomach.

“What in Celestia’s name is he doing?” Twilight Sparkle spoke from the crowd.

Big Macintosh poked his head out. “I believe that’s the worm.”

Jack flopped on his stomach, inexplicably dodging two more of the guard’s kicks.

“That’s it!” The guard brought his mace over his head, preparing to smite Jack.

Jack put his hands on the ground and lifted his legs up, kicking the guard in the chin before jack reached up with his hands and grabbed the guard’s arms. Jack fell backwards, rolling with the guard and landing on top of him. Jack pulled the guard’s helmet off, revealing the man’s white hair, pale blue skin, and equally blue eyes. Jack’s face curled into a grin as he lifted his fist into the air.

THWACK!
THWACK!
THWACK!
THWACKSH!
SHKACKSH!
SHAKS!
SQUACKSH!

Jack looked at the red dripping from his fist in delight as his victim’s legs stopped twitching.

“ Aaagh!” Jack looked over to see the guard with the broken foot struggling to get up.

Jack rushed over and grabbed the guard by the head and drove the front of his forehead into the nosepiece of the guard’s helmet.

ERRN!
ERRN!
CRACK!
CRACK!
CRACK!

Jack lets go of the guard as blood flowed out of the visor of his now dented helmet. Jack looked at the commander.

Clap, clap, clap. “Well done soldier, well done. That’s what we need, someone with pure animal instinct, raw carnage, brute force. Pity you sided with these foals, although, by the looks of it, I don’t think you will be welcome here any longer.”

Jack looked around and witnessed the horror on the faces of his friends. Everypony was terrified, with the exception of Luna, who calmly observed the situation. What struck Jack the most was the look on Fluttershy’s face as tear filled he eyes and his. He collapsed to his knees as his vision became white.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“WHAT DID YOU DO?!” Jack yelled at his clone.

“You mean, what have we done, I just thought you needed something a bit more… unorthodox.” His clone said with a chuckle.

“ GET OUT OF HERE. I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR GAMES!” Jack walked up to his doppelganger’s face.

“Or what? What will you do about it.” He stuck his nose in Jack’s face.

Jack swung as his hand passed through his target.

“You can’t hurt me here you fool, I’m in your head. MUAHAHAHAHAHA!” The clone laughed as Jack felt himself lose control, his mind being gripped by the darkness once more…

Then Jack heard a noise… its stared softly, rhythmically, like music, a familiar song, starting softly filling the void in his mind.

“HO HOHO HOOOOOOOOOO” Jack listened.

His mind grew quite. He felt his heart flutter.

Jack heard a flute play a familiar tune in his ear. Doodoodoodoo doodoo doo doo doo.

What’s going on here. You cut that out you.” Jack’s doppelganger yelled

The flute came back. Doodoodoo doodoodoo doodoodoo doo doo.

Jack felt a smile grow on his face as he walked over to his clone.

“What are you UAGH!” Jack spun in place and kicked his doppelganger, the back of his heel colliding with its jawbone.

“Whaa! You can’t get rid of me forever Jack, You need me!” The voice yelled as it became less and less audible, fading into the recesses of Jack’s mind.

Jack felt his heart rate slow and a smile adorn his face as he opened his eyes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jack stayed on his knees and made eye contact with his remaining enemy.

“OH, so you are going to fight me.” The Commander drew his axe. “ I’d suggest getting up to do so.”

Jack’s face grew serene as he stood up and took off his cloak, revealing the slashes and bruises against his musculature. He approached the Knight and stopped a few feet from him.

“SO! What is it!?” The Knight grew impatient.

Jack took a bow and made a stand, and started swaying with his hand.

The Knight rushed him, brandishing his axe overhead.

Jack dodged the axe strike and slapped the Knight’s chest armor.

“Ha, your fancy martial arts won’t work against my armor.” The Knight prepared to counter attack horizontally.

Jack blocked the Knight’s attack and slammed his palm into the Knight’s shoulder.

“ I told you. Your attacks are futile.” The Knight brought his axe over his head and brought it down on Jack.

Jack stepped forward and allowed the shaft of the axe to shatter over his head as he struck the Knight’s shoulder, the blade of the axe falling behind him.

“What the AAGH!” Jack jabbed him in the throat with his fingers.

“What are you trying to pull he..re...WHA?!”

CLANK
CLANK
RINGGG

The Commander looked down to see this chestplate and spaulders on the floor.

Jack looked at him, right in his eyes and gave him a wink. “Now, we can have a fair fight.”

“RAAAAAAGH!” The Knight charged Jack. “ ARRGH!”

Jack jabbed him in the throat again.

“Stop that!” The Knight swung. Jack caught his arm and slammed his palm into the Knight’s elbow, shattering it.

“ ARRRGH!” The Knight swung blindly with his other fist. Jack brought the punch in a wide circle as he turned his body around, placing the Knights elbow over his shoulder.

“Please don..ARRGH!” Jack pulled down and heard the familiar “pop” of a ligament being torn. The Knight fell to his back. Jack looked at his opponent, lying still on the ground.

Jack turned around to face the crowd. The ponies were silent.

“ I’m sorry Everypony.” Jack collapse to his knees. “ I’m so sorry, I don’t know what came over me, you didn’t have to see that, you don’t deserve to have to see that.”

“No!” Jack heard a familiar little voice.

“ Fluttershy?” Jack was puzzled as tears streamed down his face

“We love you Jack! You kept us safe when only you could! We Know you would never hurt us! We Love You!” The yellow Pegasus flew onto the battlefield and hugged Jack. Jack wrapped his arms around the pink mane pony, his tears darkening her yellow mane.

“ T-T-Thank you Flutteshy… thank you everyone, thank you all so mu..” Jack’s ears reverberated.

“IT’S NOT OVER YET TRAITOR!” The knight swung his damaged arm with the head of the axe in hand. “This is where you diEE..UGH!”

Jack’s right palm made contact with the Knight’s bare chest as his left gently caught the blade. Jack brought his cheek right next to the Knight’s. “ This is why our people died… we gave in to our selfish desires, our desires to win, to conquer, to rule, to destroy. This place is different, these ponies know how to live, with one another. They love each other in a way we could never understand, a way you never will understand.” Jack took in a breath. “You lived without a heart and now you can die without one.” Jack pushed his palm forward, making a hollow noise with the Knight’s chest.

The Knight gripped his chest, staggered back, and collapsed as his breath slowed to a stand still.

Jack collapsed onto his knees next to Fluttershy as all the other ponies drew in close. Luna parted the crowd and addressed him.

“Thank you Jack, I don’t know what we would of done if you hadn’t..” Luna made eye contact with him.

“No..” Jack put his cloak back on.

“Excuse me?” Luna gave him a confused look.

“You don’t thank for this.” Jack gestured to the three partially armored corpses. “Never for this.”

“But Jack we need you to..” Luna took a step back.

“I said no!” Jack stood up. “I know what you are going to say.” Jack locked eyes with the lunar mare. “ It would be ridiculous to ask me to fight their entire army by myself, you want me to train… ponies to fight. I refuse.” Jack put his hood up.

“B-but..” Luna was speechless, he was right.

“ Don’t follow me.” Jack ran into the woods.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Next Morning

Jack sat in the hollow of the tree that brought him to this time and place.

“Take me back. Tack me back. Take me back!” Jack searched for a way to shut the wooden panel of the tree that had fallen off when he first entered Equestria.

“DAMNIT! DAMNIT! DAMNIT! AAAAAAH!” Jack slammed his fist into the trunk. “I gotta get out of here…” Sweat dropped from the side of his head. “…before I cause any more trouble.” After a while of trying in futility Jack grew silent.

AAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Jack heard a familiar howl; his eyes went to the underbrush.

From the shrubbery a familiar Timberwolf, five round scars around its neck, approached Jack.

Jack smiled and dropped to his knees, he brushed his cloak away from his neck. “ Yes…please…end it.” Jack pleaded with the creature.

It came over, growling, saliva dripping from it’s mouth. I charged Jack, pushing him down and mounted his chest. His breath danced over Jack’s forehead and the creature sniffed his next meal. The creature held his breath and stepped off Jack’s chest.

“Huh, what? What! Kill me! Do it!” Jack pleaded with the Timberwolf who responded by backing up into the underbrush.

“He knows you won’t hurt him.” Jack looked up and saw the yellow Pegasus flutter her wings as she landed next to him.

“You should leave, Fluttershy, before you get hurt. Everyone around me seems to get hurt.” Jack turned away from his friend.

“Jack, please, come back to town, we need you… Luna..” Fluttershy was cut off.

“Tell Luna I’m not helping, I don’t want to pass on the follies of my people, to all of you, you have done nothing to deserve this.” Jack stood up “ I..uagh!”

Fluttershy tackled Jack to the ground, her eyes putting him in a trance. “ Now you listen to me mister! Your friends need you, there are bad men trying to hurt us and you’re going a to let them. Is that what you want? Because if it is, then you might as well go back from where you came from!” Her eyes radiated the sincerity in her voice. “ Oh I’m sorry…”

The grove fell silent.

Tears rolled down Jack’s face. “Ha…haha..hahahahahahah!” Jack stated to laugh, prompting Fluttershy to step off of him. Jack rose to his feet.

“Alright Fluttershy, give me a day, tell Luna that tomorrow morning I’ll be ready to start the training. Tell her to take the day to round up any ‘willing’ ponies. Willing ponies only, you heard me? Tell her to meet me with them at the barn tomorrow morning.” Jack put his cloak back on. “If you need me I’ll be at the barn. For now, I have work to do.”

Fluttershy’s wing opened. “Thank you so much Jack, I’ll see you tomorrow.” And with that she was off.

Jack grabbed the wooden slab from the door and slung it onto his back. He made his way to the barn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Next Morning
Luna approached the big red barn door followed by a small battalion of ponies, stallions and mares alike, Big Macintosh and Doctor Hooves at the front.

“Jack? Jack, are you there?” Luna knocked cautiously…no response. She pushed the door open.

Luna was dazed when she took in the view. The walls of Applejack’s fairly large barn were covered in diagrams of the pony anatomy. They portrayed ponies throwing each other, striking, and dodging. Some showed ponies combating a human target, showing the human’s weak points and how a pony can exploit them. Inside the barn, there was a dozen or so wooden dummies, nail to the ground, simulating a human with arms outstretched. One of the unfortunate dummies was being beaten repeatedly with a sturdy wooden staff, held in Jack’s hands, a pile of shaven wood in the corner of the room as a testament to his craftsmanship.

“Aha, good morning everypony.” Jack said with a smile on his face. “Is everypony ready to begin training?”

Everypony’s jaws were agape. Luna approached Jack. “ I’m glad you feel better Jack, I’m sorry about how I acted.” Luna bowed her head.

“Nonsense. Now I know what must be done, just one thing…” Jack put his head close to Luna’s. “We have to talk later, I feel I will need your help with something.” Jack spun his staff behind his head and walked over to the crowd.

The Doctor stepped forward to address him. “ Jack, how do you expect us to be able to combat humans. I have no clue how you were even able to beat those armored behemoths.” The Doctor gave him an inquisitive look.

“Jujutsu..”

“Pardon me?” The Doctor asked.

“My style, it’s called Jujutsu, it means ‘The Gentle Art’” Jack awaited the usual response.

“ You call that gentle?! You killed them with your bare hands.” The Doctor cocked his head to the side.

“Well it’s gentle for me. Instead of trying to match my opponent’s strength or speed, I use my mind to defeat him.” The Doctor’s ears perked up. “By understanding my opponent’s body and the laws of physics, I can attack his weak points to defeat him, not to mention be able to utilize his own energy and momentum against him. For example I can use a series of Joint-locks to restrain my opponent, or disable one of their limbs to render it useless. Likewise I can apply a strike to an opponent’s weak points to change his balance, make him lean forward or back. From that position I can throw them to the floor where I can control them and do as I please.”

“Thank you sir, while that is fascinating, I don’t see how us ponies will be able to use it to the same extent that you can.” The Doctor was on a roll.

Jack turned around.

“That is true. Jujutsu favors a humans body…”

Jack snapped back to the Doctor.

“But that doesn’t change the principles. I figured I would have to create a different style for you all… so I did. Taking advantage of your fast and powerful hooves, I integrated the lightning fast strikes of Wing Tsun with the applicable throws of Jujutsu and Judo, I call it Pony-Do, “The Way of the Pony.””

The Doctor was befuddled.

“Come here Doctor. Stand on your hind legs.” The Doctor did so. “Now put one hoof behind my head and the other around my arm.” The Doctor obliged. “Now. Turn your body around and pull me over!” The Doctor responded.

BLAM!

The Doctor smiled as he saw his handiwork, Jack flat on his back.

“See. Ugh” Jack coughed as he got up. “So. Who’s ready to get started?”

Jack shot the Doctor a look.

The Doctor rose up on his hind legs. “ ALLONS-Y!”

Chapter 7: Brothers in Hooves

A Warrior’s Peace
Chapter 7:Brothers in Hoofs
By Ricardo Nixon

Jack walked with Luna through the fields of Sweet Apple Acres, observing his new “Soldiers” running their drills. Behind them were Twilight, Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Spike.

“So your plan is to have these ponies fight the White Knights head on?” Luna questioned.

“Not exactly.” Jack said, using his staff as a walking stick. The rewards of his previous beating were taking their toll on him. “While Pony-do will give the Earth Ponies the tools necessary to fight the Knights, it would be foolish to waste the tools the others already have.” Jack turned in place to face the six ponies behind him. “Twilight, I need to ask a favor of you and I’ve heard you are quite proficient with magic.”

Twilight looked at Jack with a bit of flattery in her eyes. “Umm… Sure, what do you need.”

“I need you to take the Unicorns and teach them a few spells, if you would.” Jack shifted his weight onto his staff.

“What kind of spells? Nothing that would hurt anypony right?” Twilight cringed at the thought of teaching anypony any potentially dangerous spells.

“Nonono, on the contrary, I need you to teach them a shield spell, you know, some kind of force field. I also need a simple healing spell and a restraining spell, something that could tie someone up or hold someone down. You think you could do that for me?” Jack took a knee, brining his face to pony-height.

“How will that help us fight?” Twilight asked, visibly confused.

“Trust me, I won’t let anypony get hurt.” Jack gave Twilight a reassuring smile.

“Alright. You can count on me.” Twilight shook her head, straightening her mane.

“Great, now...” Jack turned to the cyan Pegasus in front of him. “Rainbow Dash, I’m going to need your help with the pegasi.”

Rainbow Dash brought her right roof to her forehead. “Right away, what do ya need, what tricks do you want me to teach em’?” The ecstatic pegasus’ wings shot up at the chance to showcase her talents.

“Well, all these pegasi seem to be proficient in flying, now what I need you to do is teach them to preform what humans used to call, ‘airstrikes’.” Jack shot her a little smile. “Show them how to drop nets on targets, keep in mind speed and precision are what we need, keep it simple, nothing flashy.” Jack knew he had little control over the rainbow-maned Pegasus, but it was worth a try.

“Gotcha, I’ll show you the best netting this side of Equestria!” The blue pony shut her wings producing I little gust around her hooves.

“AppleJack…” Jack turned A.J. “ You still want to fight with the other Earth Ponies?” Jack already knew the answer.

“You bet yer hoov… um, hands, um.” The Yellow pony stood in thought for a bit. “Yes, yes I would.”

“Then you can go with the others.” Jack smiled, thoughts dancing behind his eyeballs, like the pieces of a puzzle sliding into place. “I’ve got something planned for you.” He shot her a wink, which she responded to with a look of confusion.

Jack turned to face the remaining three ponies in front of him, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy, hardly fighters, but they had talents and Jack knew that sometimes the most important warriors go unseen on the battlefield.

“Rarity.” Jack addressed her inquisitively.

“Yes darling, how can I be of service.” The purple-maned unicorn cringed at the idea of combat.

“Would it be too much of a stretch for you to apply your dress making skills to make armor?” Jack wasn’t sure what kind of response he would get out of Rarity.

“Armor? Hmm, something functional, practical. I would need a bit of help gathering the materials, I doubt what I have around the boutique would be of any use, but I think that I can do it.” Rarity rubber her chin with her hoof, undoubtedly picturing possible designs for armor.

Jack held out his staff and gave Spike a little push.

“Hey, what was…” Spike shot Jack a look of annoyance as Jack winked at him, nudging his head at Rarity, still in though. “Oh, OH.” Spike’s mouth curled into a sly grin and he shuffled over to Rarity, giving Jack a claws-up.

“Fantastic, remember there’s a decent number of ponies and we need light armor, no use trying to fight through a tin can.” Jack slung his staff behind his neck.

“Then it is done. I’ll have this army looking fabulously furious.” Rarity put her hoof down in determination.

“Excellent, now, Pinkie, It’s come to my attention that you actually make your own fireworks.” Jack prepared himself for the tidal wave of Pinkie Pie coming his way.

“FIREWORKS! I lovelovelovelovelove fireworks! They go booshgadoosh woooooo! There are a lot of different kinds of fireworks you know, there are blue ones and red ones and purple ones and indigo ones and teal ones and aquamarine. Wait, are teal and aquamarine the same, I don’t know, do you, what about Azure or Cerulean or Royal Blue…”

“SO! PINKIE!” Jack eardrums were searing from the sudden barrage of Pinkie Pie. “Can you do me a little favor?” Jack motioned to Twilight. “Twilight, you wouldn’t happen to have a parchment and quill on you, would you?”

“Oh, of course!” Twilight’s horn glowed as she produced a spark that erupted into a floating parchment and quill.

“Thank you.” Jack grabbed the writing implements in his hands and hastily scrawled a few lines. “Here you go Pinkie, you think you can whip that up for me?” Jack folded the parchment a few times making sure it was thick and placed it in Pinkie’s mouth.

“Nr prrblrrm!” Pinkie uttered, trying to keep her hold on the parchment.

‘Smooth move.’ Jack thought to himself as he stood up, his eyes falling on a pink Pegasus hiding behind her pink mane. He balanced himself on his staff as he walked over to Fluttershy and took a knee right next to her. He knew she wanted nothing to do with hurting anypony or anybody else.

“Fluttershy, it’s alright if you want to sit this out, I know fighting isn’t exactly your thing.” Jack placed his hand on her neck he could feel her trembling. “Is everything alright, Fluttershy?” Jack felt her tense up as she picked her head up.

“No.” Fluttershy whipped he hair out of the way. “I want to help…but.” Her eyes drifted back to the ground as she thought of what she was getting herself into. “I just don’t want anypony to get hurt.”

Jack smiled as he hoisted himself to his feet. “You know what Fluttershy, you want to help?” Jack bent over to get closer.

“Mhmm.” Fluttershy nodded.

“Then, you stay out of the battle, let me take care of that, and if anypony’s hurt when they come back, you take care of them. Deal?” Jack knew it was Fluttershy’s instinct to help injured critters, so ponies wouldn’t be a stretch. Nurse Redheart was perfectly capable, but Jack was familiar with Fluttershy’s methods. Sometimes kindness is all a soldier wants when he comes home.

Fluttershy looked up at Jack. “Deal!” She smiled, her wings twitching a bit.

Jack straightened himself up and looked the seven before him. “Well then, let’s get to work!”

With that, Jack was left with Luna among the Fifty or so Earth ponies ready for combat.

“So.” Luna looked upon her new army. “You expect them to be able to defeat an army of Humans?” She waved her hoof at the bunch of ponies tackling each other.

“Not yet, just one more thing to take care of.” Jack took off his cloak and placed his staff on top of it. “Don’t get in the way.” Jack took a deep breath and flexed every muscle in his body, making a series of audible cracks sweep through his body. After working his way up to his neck, Jack walked over to his recruits.

“ATTENTION!” All the ponies lined up, many didn’t know him but Celestia damn it did they respect him. Jack marched in front of his soldiers and spoke.

“Humans are unlike anything you have ever faced before…” Jack searched for weakness in the crowd. “They draw their power from their ruthlessness, they crave battle, they thrive in war, they show no regard for anything else, and most importantly, they will show no mercy.” The intimidation speech worked, Jack knew how to seek out weakness and exploit it, so the slightly quivering lips of some ponies might as well have been written invitations for punishment.

“So…” Jack stood in front of Big Mac. “Does anypony think they have what it takes to take me on?” The crowd fell silent. “ No, then I guess I’ll get this started!” Jack dashed forward and seized Big Mac by the throat, forcing him onto his hind legs. “So?! What is it going to be?” Jack’s fingers squeezed the red draft pony’s neck, gripping his trachea

The crowd of ponies fell into gasps and cries. Jack squeezed harder, turning the red pony purple. Big Macintosh swung his powerful hooves in futility; Jack had his life in his hands. Big Mac’s vision started to blur as he saw shimmers of light in his eyes followed by a large brown streak.

BOOM!

Big Mac fell back, gasping for breath as he got up and saw Jack, flat on his back, pinned down by Doctor Whooves.

“Are you insane?! What is the meaning of this?!” The Doctor had his foreleg on Jack’s throat, pinning him to the floor.

Jack raised his hand as the Doctor cringe, expecting the worst.

Pat. Pat.

“Huh?” The Doctor opened his eyes to find Jack smiling while patting him on the shoulder. The Doctor got up and let Jack up.

Jack dusted himself up and walked over to Big Mac. “I’m sorry friend, I had to make a point.” Big Mac was still skeptical but humored the human. Jack addressed the crowd.

“This is where you get your power. Friendship. Your ability to rely on each other gives you the kind of strength that humans can rarely utilize. This is where we use Pony-Do to its full potential. Everypony grab a partner, your partner is the only thing keeping you from death on the battlefield, and you must protect them. This is the spirit of Pony-Do, this is how we will defeat the White Knights!”

Jack’s speech was met with silence. Jack thought, ‘I screwed this up didn’t I’.

Clop.clop.clop.clop.

Jack turned around to see the large red pony behind him sitting on the ground, clapping his hooves together. “Eeeeyup.” Soon everypony joined in, cheering and clapping, each ignited with the will to fight, the will to protect the brothers and sisters, their friends and family.

Jack felt pride in his students as he walked back to Luna. “Nailed it.” He whispered to her as he went for his things. She smiled as she took in the bunch of ponies that would soon be fighting for the future of Equestria.

“Big Mac, Doctor, Applejack, you three take over for a while, I have to discuss some things with Luna, I’ll be back later.” Jack put his cloak back on as he gripped his staff, hearing a crackle from his knee.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later That Night

Jack sat on a box outside his makeshift home in Applejack’s barn. He sat across from Princess Luna, sitting on his bedroll, a small fire between the two providing a red glow against the dark blue backdrop of Luna’s night.

“Everypony else is asleep Jack, what did you want to talk to me about.” Luna watched the sparks dance off of the fire and disappear as they floated off into the sky.

Jack had his staff resting against his shoulder as he stirred the fire with a downed branch. “Luna, I’ve come to understand that many of the inhabitants of Equestria are capable of utilizing magic. How exactly does that work? Jack removed the burning branch from the fire.

“Well…” Luna’s horn glowed as she tossed a few nearby twigs into the flame. “Unicorns are able to use their horns to channel their magic. They can all learn basic spells, but their magic is always inclined toward their special talent, their cutie mark.”

“Cutie Mark?” Jack gave Luna a quizzical look.

“Well, when a pony learns what their special talent is, their cutie mark becomes a symbol of their skill.” Luna turned, showing Jack the black clouds and crescent moon on her flank.

Jack’s face grew red. “Oh…” Jack wiped the sweat for his brow. “What other creatures can use magic?” Jack’s mind began to drift to the image his horned reflection in his dream.

“ There are some other creatures capable of utilizing magic. Cockatrices have the capability to turn ponies to stone and some dragons have some magic potential. “ A White streak danced behind Luna’s head as she stretched her wings.

“Is there any creature that can… get inside your head… make you act, not yourself.” Jack placed the end of the branch in the flame, the heat drying out the wood and causing it to crackle as it burned.

Luna’s muscles tensed. “Jack…” She looked into his eyes. “There is…was… one being, his name was Discord, element disharmony and…”

“Chaos..” Jack gave Luna a nod and turned his head to a nearby bush. “You know it’s not polite to eavesdrop.” Jack tossed the burning branch into the bush, igniting it.

From the bush, a white robed figure, head wrapped in a blue scarf charged out, drew a large silver dagger and made a beeline for Luna.

Jack reached for his staff…

WHAP!

Jack readied his staff and looked over in confusion. The assassin was ten feet away on his back, hoof-prints on his chest. Princess Luna gave Jack a smirk, “I’ll leave this to you.” She said, opening her wings and taking a perch on top of the barn.

Jack put the staff down and approached the assassin as he got back up. “What are you doing here?” Jack asked. The assassin charged, he held the blade in a reverse-grip and lunged to bury it in Jack’s neck.

Jack stepped in, he caught the Assassin’s wrist and slammed his elbow into the assassin’s stomach.

“AGGGH!” The assailant let out a cry as he wrenched forward.

Jack turned around and threw the man over his shoulder, slamming him into the ground, kicking up a small cloud of dust. “Let’s try that again shall we?” Jack took a step back. The assassin started to get up.

SHINK!

“AGGH!” Jack grabbed his shoulder as he felt a small knife fly into it. The assassin ran at Jack and swung.

Jack dodged, ducking under the silver blade; the assassin grabbed Jack by the hair and put the blade to his neck. “Now you die, traitor!”

Jack swung his hips and elbowed the assassin in the ribs. He then grabbed the assassin’s hand and ducked under it, locking his wrist and placing his arm behind his back, forcing him to drop his dagger. “I think this belongs to you.” Jack pulled the throwing knife out of his shoulder and stabbed the assassin in the hand, pinning his hand to his back.

“Now will you cooperaaaa!” Jack tried to question the assassin who responded with a straight from his free hand.

Jack dodged to the man’s outside and grabbed his wrist while striking him in the neck. Jack then brought his armpit down on the assassin’s elbow, locking him in place and placing him under Jack’s control. Jack walked him over to his box and took a seat, bringing the assassin to the ground while keeping a hold of his arm.

Luna floated down from the roof and sat back across from Jack. “What are you doing here?” Luna questioned the captive assailant.

The assassin looked up. “Filthy alicorn, you’ll find out soon enou…”

CRAAAACK!

“AAAAAAGH!” Saliva flew from the assassin’s mouth as he let out a cry.

“That wasn’t very nice…friend. Maybe we should show the lady some more respect.” Jack held the man’s index finger in his hand, the finger was broken straight back, pointing toward his shoulder. He looked up a Jack with hatred in his eyes.

“I shall ask you again, why are you here.” Luna stepped up toward their prisoner.

The man looked at Luna and sighed. “I was sent to eliminate…Princess…Luna, and the traitorous human.” He glanced at Jack.

“How do they know about me?” Jack asked as he grabbed another finger.

“If I’m the only spy you caught, who’s to say there aren’t more of us observing you equine filth.” The man struggled, but could do nothing to escape Jack’s hold.

“What are you planning?” Luna walked closer to the man, her form casting a shadow over him wit the flame’s light

“Oh Wouldn’t you like t…”

CRAAAACK!

“That’s two. Don’t make me get creative.” Jack let go of the man’s now broken middle finger.

“Alright, alright… they’re mounting an assault…they know Luna is here… they plan on taking her out first along with this town, then they’ll make their way up to Canterlot…” The man looked up at Luna. “And take care of your sister.”

Luna’s eyes narrowed. “How many?”

“What?” The man coughed.

“I ASKED YOU HOW MANY MEN YOU HAVE, ATTACKING AND IN RESERVE?!” Luna used the Royal Traditional Canterlot Voice, something that surprise both Jack and the assassin.

“I Shall never betray my…”

CRAAACK!

“If only your bones where as thick as your skull. Anyways, Luna…” Jack released the man’s broken ring finger.

“AAAAAGH! One hundred men! One hundred will invade Ponyville in three days. The rest are in White Mountain 500 strong…. with….King.” The Assassin spat out.

“King? Who’s King.” Jack questioned his captive.

Luna put he hoof on Jack’s shoulder. “He was the first…”

“Huh?” Jack looked at Luna’s solemn expression.

“He was a first attempt a recreating the humans. He was everything we expected, ruthless, unfeeling, calculating. A perfect Knight of Order.” Luna’s translucent man fell in front of her face. “ We made him the leader of the whole army, and he led them like a well oiled machine. They nearly took care of Discord on their own.” Luna lowered her head. “But when the Knights turned, he felt he was entitled to lead them against us, entitled to rule all of Equestria, and so he named himself….King.” Luna look at Jack. “If he told us about King… that is all we are going to get from him.”

Jack understood Luna’s order. He pulled the Assassin closer and grabbed his chin, placing his other hand on the back of his head. “Good Night….Friend.”

SNAP!

Jack stood up as the man’s body went limp. “So… King.”

Luna looked perturbed. “ My creation. Me and Celestia made him, and now… he may be the death of us all.” Luna’s hooves began to tremble, her ears hanging as she stared at the fire. “It’s ironic isn’t it.”

Jack took his staff in his hand as he approached the Princess.

“The very thing that once saved Equestria is now threatening to tear it apart…” Tears grew in Luna’s eyes. “And it’s all my fault.”

“Yeah, probably.” Jack stood in front of her, staff in hand.

“What?!” Luna looked at him with a mixture of confusion and annoyance, with a bit of anger in there for good measure.

“Well, technically it’s half your fault, your sister did half the work…I’d say about sixty-forty.” Jack smirked at her.

“Is this some kind of human attempt at cheering somepony up?” Luna said wiping the tears from her face with her hoof.

“Nope, just the truth. You done goofed. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make things right. It doesn’t mean we can’t make things right.” Jack turned and walked towards the barn.

“You’re right. Thank you Jack, I… wasn’t feeling myself.” Luna shook her man back into place and straightened her posture. “Now, theirs is a lot to do, we should get to…”

“Sleep.” Jack opened the barn door.

“What?! But you heard him, we only have three days!” Luna said, her eyes wide.

“Hey, we can’t have you making executive decisions without a good nights sleep. So…” Jack grabbed the large swinging barn doors and stepped in. “Good night to you.”

Luna sighed. “Right again…I guess.” She sighed and muttered under her breath. “I guess I should head back to Twilight’s.”

The barn door creaked open. “Hey…. There’s room in here… if you’d like.”

Luna smiled and she walked past Jack, who was holding the door open.

“Thank you Ja… wait… are you still bleeding?” Luna looked at the large red spot on Jack’s cloak.

“I believe I am…” Jack said as his knees buckled. He fell to his back, chuckling.

“Humans…” Luna said as she dragged him off into a corner, wrapping his shoulder in his cloak with her magic.

“Thanks…” Jack’s head fell back, a goofy smile on his face.

Chapter 5: Too Human

A Warrior’s Peace
Chapter 5: Too Human
By Ricardo Nixon

Jack walked through a bright, cool day in Ponyville. A gentle breeze rolled through the trees and danced through his long gray hair and whiskers. Jack slowed his gait to allow himself to take in the day. Each breath refreshed him as they passed through his lungs, giving him an unfamiliar lucidity. He made his way to Sugarcube corner and approached the door. It was locked.

KNOCK KNOCK… No Response.

“ Hello…Is anyone home? Pinkie Pie? Mr. Cake? Mrs.Cake?” Jack pondered where Pinkie or the Cakes were, but quickly wrote it off as one of Pinkie’s shenanigans.

“ Oh well.” Jack muttered to himself smiling at the peculiarity of the situation. It became even more peculiar when he noticed that nopony else was in the streets. Nopony in the café, nopony in the markets

“Hee..hee.” Jack heard giggling coming from a nearby source.

“ Hmm… where could that be coming from…. Ah, Ponyville Park! There must be some kind of picnic today I guess. These ponies sure do enjoy their parties.” Jack made his way to the park, peeking out from behind the trees.

“ Hey everpon….” Jack stopped in his tracks. There was nopony to be found, but the giggling became louder. He followed the source of the merriment to the small pond in the middle of Ponyville Park.He stood over the still, clear water of the pond as he felt his face twisted into an expression of confusion.

Reflected in the water were all his new friends, frolicking with the other inhabitants of Ponyville, their faces conveying the kind of happiness Jack didn’t know until recently. He brought his gaze downward to his own reflection. There was none.

“ You don’t belong here you know.” A shiver shot up Jack’s spine as he spun in place, ready for combat.

His eyes fell upon what can only be described as an exact copy of him, physically identical in nearly every way.

“ You see, this is why we can’t have nice things. Every time there’s a little problem you beat it into a bloody mess.” Jack’s doppelganger spoke, his white eyebrows bushier than Jack remembered.

“Who are you, and what is the meaning of this.” Jack said, preparing to beat the answer out of…himself.
“ Me? Well I’m you…Or rather, you’re me…The point is we’re us. Now back to my… your… our point. You don’t belong here, you know what you are, I know what you are, and we both know that you know that I know that we both know what we are. And as to this current predicament we are in…” Jack’s clone strolled over to the pond and touched it with the tip of his finger, turning the whole body of water into a milky brown. “ It’s merely a metaphor for your current situation, and oh is it appropriate! You, them, in the same place, but on two different planes, oh how delightful.” Jack’s doppelganger was giddily feeding off of Jack’s confusion.

“You don’t know me!” Jack said, holding back his desire to toss the figure in front of him into the pond.

“ Quite the contrary Jack! I know more about you than you know about yourself.” The clone walked around Jack taking long steps, almost as if he were floating. “ You fancied yourself a keeper of justice until you realized how futile it was.” Jack took a step back. “ And now that you’ve found yourself here in Equestria you think you can carve out a niche for yourself.” The clone’s mouth twisted into a smile. “ But from time to time you know that you’ll never truly find your peace here, we’re just too….human.“

Jack’s limb had begun to shake, he knew what he was telling himself was true.

“ But I must congratulate you on your performance so far. You’ve managed to overcome your human weaknesses and find Harmony with these little foals. Unfortunately your human nature provides me with just the opportunity I need.” The Figure grabbed Jack by the face.

Jack felt his doppelganger’s finger dig into his skull, melding him with the creature. As their bodies became one, Jack stumbled over to the brown pond to see his reflection staring back at him, a fang sticking out of the right side of his mouth as a pair of mismatched horns grew out of his head.

“Don’t worry Jackie boy, I’ll be here if you ever need me.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jack woke up, staring at the brown ceiling of the Sweet Apple Acres barn. He could feel the tension in his muscles began to recede as he realized he had just come out of a nightmare. His head pounded as he rose to his feet, donning his cloak and making his way to the barn door.

“ Oh my… that was quite the dream.” Jack said to himself, only remembering snippets. Jack closed the door and turned to meet Applejack face to face.

“ Good morning Applejack, and uh… thank you again for the party last night.” Jack was really truly grateful, despite all the damage caused from yesterday’s Diamond Dog attack, the townsponies thought that they should throw him a party when he got back from town.

“ Good mornin’ to ya, and your mighty welcome, after what you did I’m surprised they didn’t put a statue of you right in the middle of town.” Applejack said as she tipped her hat and stretched her legs.

“Oh no, that would be too much.” Jack smiled; finding the idea of a giant human statue among a town of ponies would be rather comedic. “But speaking of building, shouldn’t we be getting to work on the repairs?” Jack felt bad that he might be shirking his Applebucking duties but felt that the damages where somewhat his fault.

“Yeah about that, Me and Big Mac are gonna be workin’ on clearin’ out all the debris, but until then we figured we should get the good workin’ ponies a good supply of apples for the day. You can go ahead and see Twilight, she’s the one organizin’ the whole repair effort.” Applejack said looking up at Big Mac’s window to see the draft pony getting out of bed.

“Well in that case, you have yourself a good morning Applejack, I’ll be heading into town to see how I can help.” Jack straightened his cloak and prepared to leave.

“I’ll be seein’ later then, bye” Applejack gave him another tip of the hat and was one her way to the orchard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Canterlot-Five minutes prior

“LUUUUUNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”

The dark blue Alicorn’s ears shot up upon hearing her sister’s use of the Royal Canterlot Voice. Luna made her way throught the halls of the palace and pushed open the door to her sister’s study to find a most troubling sight.

Celestia stood with her wings fully open, a usually beautiful sight to behold, sweating and panting, her neck tense and her knees close to buckling.

“ What is it sister?” Luna said, making her way over to the white alicorn.

“ I need you to go to Ponyville.” Celestia spoke, without giving Luna so much as a glance.

“ Why is Twilight Sparkle in trouble?” Luna said, joyfully recalling the events of last Nightmare Night.

Celestia turned to face Luna. The regal alicorn’s usually captivating eyes conveyed a sense of fear that Luna had not seen since they were fillies. “ No… it’s him.”

Luna became soberly aware of the situation and prepared to follow her sister’s orders. “ But how, I thought Twi..”

“ I don’t know sister. I have him locked away in the vaults but… I can feel him, except… It is different. I shall see what I can do here but I need you to keep an eye on Ponyville for me, I have a bad feeling about this and I just don’t want my little ponies getting hurt.” Celestia spoke, her tone conveying her usual tenderness but with a sense of uncertainty.

“ Yes, sister, as you wish. And please… be safe.” Luna spoke to her sister as she turned around preparing to summon her Dark Guards

“Luna…” Celestia’s voice dropped

Princess Luna felt a shiver shoot up her spine.

“I fear… all this activity… has drawn the attention of the White Knights.”

Luna’s eyes shot open and locked on to Celestia’s

“ But sister that would mean…”

“I know Luna, that’s why I need you there. If things get out of hoof you know the repercussions.

“I shall leave at once.” Luna turned to the door turning her neck to give one last look at her sister. She hoped she would never have to see her sister’s eyes like that again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

KNOCK KNOCK

Jack knocked on the door to Twilight’s treehouse. He saw the door open on its own, well at least that’s what Jack thought until he looked down.

“ Good morning Spike.” Jack smiled at the young dragon before him.

“Mornin’ Jack, are you lookin’ for Twilight? She’s in her room, she’ll be down in a bit, can I get you anything to eat?” Spike said, opening the door into the main library section of the house

“ Well, actually..” Jack heard his stomach growl audibly, and from the look on Spike’s face, so did he. “Hahahaha!” The two made their way to the kitchen.

“ So we got some lemongrass, wheatgrass, daisies, some carrots, and oh, a couple of leftover cupcakes from last night.” Spike listed as he went through the pantry.

“I’ll have a carrot if you don’t mind.” Jack spoke with a pained look on his face as he remembered that these ponies’ diets consisted mostly of grass. A carrot was all right though as it was way too early for cupcakes.

“ Catch.” Spike threw him the vegetable and grabbed one for himself.

“Thanks buddy.” Jack and Spike sat down and began munching on their carrots as Twilight Sparkle walked down the stairs, a large scroll in her mouth.

“Grrd mernnn Jrck!.” Twilight put the scoll down on the table. “Good morning Jack, good morning Spike, what’s going on?”

“Good morning Twilight, I heard you were the one organizing the repairs so I figured I would lend a hand.” Jack said, pulling the carrot out of his mouth.

“Oh, I was just finishing my third review of the schedule. If you want, you can help with the roof repairs, we were in need some more brawny stallions, but I’m sure you’ll do fine.” Twilight said, unrolling the scroll with her magic. “You should start here.” She placed he hoof on a house near the center of Ponyville.

“ Well then.” Jack held his carrot in his mouth as he shook Twilight’s hoof and Spike’s hand. “ I’ll be off.” Jack straightened his cloak and gave a little bow out of habit as he left the house.

Jack walked through Ponyville, greeting all the fine ponies that lived there on his way to his station. He couldn’t shake the strange feeling in the back of his head, like a whisper too soft to be understood. It sent pulses of dizziness throbbing through Jack’s skull.

“Uggh… what kind of carrot was tha..BOOM!” Jack found his nose becoming well acquainted with the wall of a house. When his eyes opened they fell upon a familiar grey Pegasus peeking down from the roof.

“ Don’t worry that happens to me all the time. Hey, it’s…it’s you! Come on up.” The derp-eyed mare gestured with her hoof, slipping off the roof before catching herself with her wings.

“ I’ll be right there.” Jack rubbed his nose and walked into the alley between that house and the adjacent building. He placed his foot on the wall and jumped to the next building, planting his feet on the wall and wall-jumping onto the roof.

“ Good morning miss…uh… oh I’m afraid I didn’t catch your name last time we met.” Jack looked at the gray mare, fumbling with a hammer in her mouth

“ Mr Narms Drrpm Hrrbe.” Jack took the hammer out of her mouth. “ My name’s Derpy Hooves.”

“ It’s nice to meet you Derpy, my name is..” Jack interrupted by the bubbly gray mare.

“Jack! How could I not know your name, you saved the whole entire town, and me and my Dinky.” Derpy was ecstatic. “ Thank you again for that, I don’t know what would have happened.” The pegasus pony became visibly upset.

“ Don’t you worry about that, I’m here to help where I can.” Jack’s head started hurting again. “Speaking of helping, I don’t remember this happening to your roof during the attack. Jack observed the massive hole in Derpy’s roof.

“Oh.” Derpy started to blush. “That…that was me. I missed the door on the way back yesterday, I just don’t know what went wrong.” She smiled and let out a little squeak.

“Yeah about that, you can leave the work to me, why don’t you go spend some time with Dinky?” Jack said, marveling at the amount of damaged caused by one little pony. “ I think I can handle this myself.” Jack tightened his grip on the hammer.

“ Really? Alright then, I’ll go pick up Dinky from school, maybe I’ll take her to the park.” Derpy’s wings opened up and stretched.

“ That sounds nice. You go have some fun.” Jack smiled at Derpy as the pain in his head grew stronger.

“Bye Jack.” Derpy flew off, nearly colliding with the passing weather ponies.

Jack waved goodbye to the gray Pegasus and turned his attention to his work. He started by clearing away the broken wood and roofing, turning the hole into a square patch from which he can start building. He felt the shock of the hammer connecting with the nails shoot up his arm. He always enjoyed this kind of work. The repetitive movements coupled with the specific tasks to be completed served as a form of meditation for him. As he poured his body into his work, his mind wandered to his dream.

“Don’t worry Jackie boy, I’ll be here if you ever need me.” The voice reverberated in his mind.

“What was that all about?” Jack had never been one to take dreams very seriously, but this seemed to be too strange to have just been a normal dream, or in this case a nightmare.

DING DING
Jack looked down a found himself banging in a nail with a spoon.
“What the..?” Jack was confused and swung his head around, he was sure he heard a faint laughing. “Well that was…random.” Jack picked up his hammer and went back to work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later That Evening

Jack wiped the sweat from his brow and looked at his work. Derpy’s roof looked like new, and it made him proud to have helped out.

“JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!” Jack heard the voice of a familiar purple unicorn.

“Twilight? What’s wrong?” Jack peeked over the roof to find Twilight Sparkle out of breath.

“Princess…house…Fluttershy…You…” Twilight was panting, trying to get her story out in between gasps for breath.

“Slow down Twilight…” Jack smiled at the panting pony as he dismounted the roof. “Now tell me, what happened.” Jack allowed the unicorn to brace herself against him.

“Uggh, ahem… Princess Luna has come from Canterlot on official business and she has requested your presence. Everyone’s waiting at Fluttershy’s house.” Twilight took a deep breath and stared at Jack attentively.

Jack gave himself a moment to process the information and straightened his back and dusted himself off. “ In that case… we should get going shouldn’t we?” Jack smiled as Twilight who was surprised with his calmness, but nonetheless followed him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Five ponies, an alicorn and one dragon sat in Fluttershy’s cottage; the tension in the room was palpable.

“So, friends, how have you all been?” The princess spoke in her normal voice, covering one eye with her translucent mane. She was still adjusting and had not yet mastered the art of small talk.

“ We’re mighty fine Princess, thank ya fer askin’, what about yerself?” Applejack was obviously the one who would have to break the ice.

“I am at wits end Applejack, we…I think Equestria might be in danger and I need all of you fine ponies to help.” Luna said staring into her empty teacup.

“Why princ… Luna? What happened?” Rainbow Dash flew right up to the dark alicorn.

“Celestia believes that Discord might have found a way to escape.” Luna said, brushing her starry mane out of her face. ”But right now that is the least of our troubles…” The princess took a moment to observe the confused looks on all the ponies’ faces.

“What could be worse that Discord?!” Rarity cried, nearly spilling her tea. “That ruffian was THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!” Rarity fell back on Fluttershy’s couch and looked up at the dark alicorn before her who hadn’t moved a muscle.

“ You are all familiar with the story of how my sister and I defeated Discord for the first time, are you not?” Luna let her mane fall back onto her face.

“ Of course we do.” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “ You both used the Elements of Harmony to turn Discord into stone.” She smiled and backed up into a corner, realizing how much of a spectacle she made of herself.

“Yes, but before we perfected the magic necessary to form and utilize the Elements of Harmony we tried… other approaches.” Everypony was on edge, awaiting Luna’s revelation.

“Discord became too powerful, he twisted the minds of everypony he encountered and drove entire cities to madness. He became so powerful… Celestia and Myself were powerless to stop him, we watched as Discord massacred our best warriors and tore our beautiful kingdom asunder.” Luna took a deep breath. “We needed something capable of the same chaos and destruction Discord and Celestia knows that nopony has that in them. So we scoured our histories and found rumors of an ancient civilization, a civilization that lasted only a few thousand years, but in that time managed to be constantly engaged in a series of cataclysmic wars. They were called…Humans.” Luna picked her head up to survey the room. Everypony was troubled. “ Celestia and I were able to harness ancient magic, a precursor to the Elements, to create artificial Humans, We gave them our magic and gave them one purpose…to keep order. We named our army of order, The White Knights. They fought valiantly, like nothing we had ever seen, and held Discord back long enough for us to further develop the Elements into a form we could use to directly seal Discord away.” Luna took a deep breath.

“ Then why are they so dangerous.” Pinkie asked, cocking her head to the side.

“ Well, after Discord was subdued, we had no need for an army, so we tried to introduce them into pony society.” Luna’s expression became grim. “But there was something that we did not find in our research…”

“Human nature…” Jack stood in the door, Twilight sparkle at his side.

Luna stood up allowing Jack to see just how much taller she was than everypony else. “You must be Jack, Twilight’s friend. It is a pleasure to meet you, we are… I am Princess Luna, but you may call me Luna.” Luna held out her hoof before the human.

Jack kneeled and kissed the alicorn’s hoof. “ Yes, your highness, I am, and while it is a pleasure to meet you I find myself asking why you are not surprised to see me, a human, after all you just said.” Jack rose to his feet, awaiting a response.

Luna brushed her mane out of her eyes. “ From the things your friends have told me, I concluded that only a human would be capable of your actions.”

“Fair enough your highness, it seems I have underestimated you, please, finish the story.” Jack was sincerely surprised by Princess Luna’s powers of deduction, but decided to listen to what she had to say for now.

“ Where was I… oh yes, we tried to integrate them into our society, but equestrian had no place for humans.” Luna spoke, regaining her place.

Jack withdrew into the corner.

“ Without Discord’s chaos to combat, they turned their sights on all of ponykind, figuring them to be the next largest source of chaos.” Luna sat back onto the couch, prompting Jack to have a seat.

“ Celestia and I were unable to combat them, they were just to powerful, and since our magic was the same, we could not banish them. So we had some of our best Unicorns work on an alternative.”

Twilight was enthralled,” How did you stop them, princess, what kind of spell did you use?”

“ During their final assault, we utilized the magic of the Elements, not to stop them, but to stop time around them.” Everypony’s eyes widened. “ With their armies frozen in time, we were able to bury them, creating a mountain to house them for all eternity. But then again, that’s what we said about Discord.” Luna’s voice grew shaky. “ And now that Celestia and I are no longer connected to the Elements, we believe that the recent doings of Discord have released them from their prison.”

Luna’s gaze fell upon Jack. “It is no coincidence that you appeared at this time Jack, and I’m afraid I have to ask something of you that I should never have to ask anyone, I need you to stop the campaign of the White Knights, even if that means using lethal force.”

Jack felt a bead of sweat roll down his neck and the pain in his head started to throb.

“ But prince…” Jack was cut off by a loud scream.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

Jack looked at Luna, who nodded her head and spread her wings as the eight set out through the door.