Harmony Through Chaos - Book One: Emberdawn

...so as to accept the one that is waiting for us."

                                                                                                        -Joseph Campbell

The room was dark, but two figures were visible sitting at a small metal table. “Fascinating. What more can you tell me about this ‘Adelphus’ character?” A male voice asked.

“That was everything I know about him. Now when will we be released?” A female voice responded.

“All in good time, Diana.”

“You know that’s not my name.” Diana answered bitterly.

“It is while you’re here.”

“And how long are we going to be here!? She’ll figure it out eventually, and when she does, your world will burn!”

“We’ve taken precautions to ensure that doesn’t happen, and you will remain here until Seth has given us what we want. Speaking of which,” He turned to face a large two-way mirror. “Get him down here. He’ll know more.” He turned back to Diana. “Before you go, I'm curious; what did Luna mean when she said that she was not a good friend? Everything I've heard so far suggests that she was quite an upstanding one."

"That's... a bit hard to explain... and actually quite an understatement. You'll understand eventually."

"If you say so..." The figure briefly looked through a small stack of notes, then back up at Diana. "Thank you for your contributions today. You will now return to your cell."

Two more shadowed figures—Presumably guards—emerged from one corner of the room and escorted Diana through a metal door that was so smooth it was nearly invisible until it opened. Moments later, the guards returned with Seth. He was seated at the chair that Diana had previously occupied. “My turn again, Doctor Faraday?”

“Yes it is.” Faraday answered. “Diana just finished telling us about Mister Florence’s second encounter with Adelphus, and the accompanying incident in Gryphus.”

“‘Diana’? Wait, do you have names for all of us?”

“Diana, Hesper, Sirena, Waneta, etcetera.”

“Clever. Since you’re so good with name references, I assume you caught what Adelphus did?”

“Yes. That was why I sent for you, rather than any of the others.”

“Ah.”

“So he’s—”

“Yes. Now where did she leave off exactly?”

“She had just finished with Princess Luna’s arrival. I would like you to tell me what happened in the camp afterwards.”

“Of course you do. Well, might as well get this over with...”

Jackson woke with a start, displeased to discover that he was a unicorn once again. Ignoring that, he sat up and examined his surroundings, vaguely realizing that this kind of thing was becoming a regular occurrence.

He could tell that night had just fallen, since there was a distinct purplish tinge to the sky along the western horizon. He brought his gaze down and tried to determine his location. Said location turned out to be a cage at the edge of a camp filled with gryphons. In the cage with him was Twilight and Felicia.

Twilight was apparently having some sort of panic attack, which Felicia attempted to remedy by slapping her in the face. Twilight... slapped her back, and then fell over and started to cry. Between her sobs she mumbled, "I just wanted to do something exciting... I don't want to die!"

"Shut up, purple mare." Felicia responded, rubbing her cheek. "We wouldn't even be here if you hadn't gotten captured in the first place."

Jackson stood up and gave gave Felicia a reprimanding swat. "Seriously. Quit being a bitch." He walked over to Twilight... and then slapped her. "STFU!"

Twilight looked up at him in shock and responded, "STF— What?"

"No, 'up'."

"What?"

"Up!"

Twilight stood up, confused. At least she stopped bawling like a foal.

Jackson facehoofed, then mumbled, "Nevermind..." He turned his attention to the door of the cage and said, "I used evil gypsy magic to learn some cool shit while I was out. I'll have this thing opened in no time." He concentrated on forming an orb of lightning on his horn and took aim. Except nothing was happening. "Um..."

When he looked at the others for a response, Twilight simply pointed at her horn, where a small iron band was visible. Jackson reached a hoof up to his own horn to discover a similar one on himself. He immediately started pulling at it. "I don't know how they did it, but they won't budge." Twilight said. "We tried taking them off while you were unconscious."

"What about you, Felicia?" Jackson asked.

The disguised changeling chuckled. "You might be feeding me, but I'm pretty sure me and purple mare would have to make love for me to get enough power to do anything more than keep up my disguise. You aren't exactly a buffet."

Jackson's ears perked up of their own accord, and he looked to Twilight with just the tiniest amount of hope. Twilight was awkwardly examining the ground. This was apparently not the desired response, since it caused Jackson's ears to droop slightly. "I guess that's a no-go on that idea then..."

From the left side of the cage, a new voice yelled, "Will you guys shut up over there!? I'm trying to sleep..."

Jackson leaned backwards slightly to look around Felicia with a raised eyebrow, and saw a vermilion pegasus stallion lying in another cage beside theirs, apparently attempting to sleep. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Phoenix." The pegasus answered without moving.

"Nope, you are most assuredly a pegasus. Sorry."

"And you are most assuredly annoying. Phoenix is my name, dumbass." Phoenix lifted his head to address a nearby donkey. "No offense."

"None taken." The donkey responded before continuing on his way.

...

Wait a minute. Why was there a donkey in the— You know what, nevermind.

"Wait, professor Phoenix? As in, from Canterlot University?" Twilight asked, her troubles forgotten at the appearance of a 'fellow intellectual'.

'Professor?' Jackson thought to himself, 'That dude can't be much older than twenty!'

"Oh great," Phoenix responded to Twilight as he got up, "another Celestia-damned fanfilly... Listen mare, I'm—" He froze when he saw her. "Buck."

"Pardon?"

"You're Twilight Sparkle. This is... not good. Who are these other two ponies?"

Jackson answered for her, "We're not ponies. I'm under a transformation spell, and Felicia's a changeling."

Phoenix blinked at that. "Alllright?"

"Actually, I just got an idea. It'll either get us out of here, or get us killed. Likely the latter, but who gives a fuck?" He walked over to the door and rattled it. "Hey! Guard-gryphon-dude! I gotta talk to ya!"

A gryphon that had been silently standing a ways away from their cage walked over. "Whaddaya want, horn-head?"

Jackson muttered, "Racist prick." under his breath before answering, "I just thought you guys should know that we three probably deserve some special treatment here. I'm a human under the effects of a transformation spell, the brown pegasus is a changeling, and the purple unicorn is the personal student of Princess Celestia." He looked back to see everyone wearing horrified expressions. Oh ye of little faith...

The gryphon looked at the two mares, then looked back at Jackson. "What's a human?"

"You've likely heard of Lord Infernus?"

The gryphon nodded rapidly and visibly paled at the mention of the pyromancer.

...

Wait... Paled? How did— Feathers don't— How the fuck?

"That guy was a human."

The gryphon's eyes widened, and he quickly ran off to alert someone more important than himself. Jackson turned around to find the two mares and Phoenix all continuing to stare at him. Felicia was the first to speak. "You're insane."

Jackson scowled. "How many times to I have to tell you!? I completely agree!"

"How am I supposed to protect you if you keep doing shit like this!"

"You used a human swear."

"A: ponies are basically the only ones who refuse to swear properly, and B: I DON'T FUCKING CARE!" The angry changeling then proceeded to punch Jackson in the face.

In response, Jackson replied, "I'm hungry."

" ... What?"

"Grilled cheese. Grill me a cheese." He then fell over sideways, a small trickle of blood leaking from his nose.

Felicia leaned over his unconscious form and muttered, "Oops..."

"Back so soon?"

"Fuck you. You know I have to get knocked out every time I come here, right?"

"Yes."

"Yeah, you suck."

"Shall we continue where we left off?"

"Sure."

"Great. For your next lesson, electrokinesis. Sure you can create electricity, but that'll use energy; and if you're at all like I believe, you're lazy as fuck."

Jackson glared at Adelphus. "I am not— Okay, yes I am. Shut up."

Adelphus grinned. Kind of... Gimme a break, the dude's made of smoke. "Creating a charge is also rather noticeable, especially in the dark. As long as there's something electrical nearby, you should be able to move the electricity wherever you want."

"Shiny."

"Quite."

Jackson thought for a moment before asking, "How will that be useful here though? A gryphon camp isn't exactly the kind of place that's overflowing with appliances."

"That's... not entirely accurate. The gryphons are actually quite advanced. Much like humans, they used technology to make up for a lack of magic. While they might be using campfires outside, the lighting in their tents is likely electrical."

"Uh... exactly how advanced are they?" Jackson asked worriedly.

"The ones you were captured by are just a small group of slavers, but you'll probably be able to find yourself a gun on a few of them."

"Neat."

"Anyways, let's get started." Adelphus snapped his fingers, and a small electrical lamp  appeared on a wooden table between them. "Take the electricity from this lamp, and form it into a ball."

"'Kay." He looked at the lamp and made a motion with one hand.

"Use the force, Luke." Adelphus said in response.

"Shut up, dickhead. I'm trying to concentrate." He made another motion, causing the lamp to flicker, and a number of sparks to jump into the air above it.

After twenty minutes, "I am your father..."

"Gah! Fuck this bullshit!" Jackson angrily made a grabbing motion, causing the energy to be ripped from the lamp to form a ball of lightning around his fist, which he then used to punch Adelphus in the face.

Jackson blearily opened his eyes. "My face hurts."

Felicia's head suddenly entered his field of vision. "Heheh... Sorry."

"Bitch." He pushed her away and stood up before violently shaking his head. "How long was I out?"

It was Twilight who answered, "Just a few minutes."

"Damn... Adelphus is good."

"Who?"

"Not important. That gryphon back yet?"

"Yeah. he said that we would be brought to their leader in about five minutes."

"How long ago was this?"

"About four minutes."

"Well that's convenient."

About a minute later, the gryphon returned for a second time and opened the cage. "Oh good, he woke up... Alright, follow me. Best not leave Eckard waiting."

The gryphon led them across the camp, where they entered what was by far the largest tent. Just as they were about to enter, a gryphon exited the tent. He was so large that it was clear to everyone that the tent wasn't so big just because he was important. The gryphon had blood red crest feathers, a color apparently stereotypical of evil gryphons. "Oh." He said, "These must be our special guests."

"Yes, Lord Eckard." The guard answered the rhetorical question like an idiot.

"Hmm..." Eckard examined the 'ponies' for a moment before deciding, "Keep the human for studying, leave the purple mare for now. We can have some fun with that one before selling her. Kill the bug."

Before anyone could react, the guard drew a rusted sword and stabbed Felicia in the chest with it, drawing a sharp cry of pain from her. He then twisted the sword before pulling it back out. Jackson and Twilight stared in shock as the changeling stumbled backwards a few steps before falling on her side.

Twilight promptly returned to her new favorite hobby of curling into fetal position and crying. Jackson took a step forward, the sparks jumping along the length of his horn producing a high pitched whine from the inhibitor ring. Then, he calmly and quietly stated, "I am going to kill you."

Jackson had never killed anything in his life, but both gryphons could tell that he was dead serious. Something about him put them on edge, and Eckard took a step backwards at his tone. "G— Get rid of the body, then return the others to their cage. Go ahead and stick them in with the pegasus."

As the guard went to obey the first command, Jackson moved to take up a defensive stance in front of Felicia's body, bringing him far closer to the gryphons than they would have liked. "Don't you dare touch her." He ordered.

The guard nervously looked to Eckard, who said, "Fine. Take it with you then." He was eager to get jackson back in a cage.

The guard waited for Jackson to get Felicia onto his back before escorting them back. When they arrived, Phoenix seemed just as surprised that they were being placed in the same cage as him as he was to see Jackson carrying a dead changeling.

Jackson placed Felicia's body on the ground and stared at it. Twilight waked in a daze to the farthest corner of the cage and continued to cry, and Phoenix held back and gave them both some room. 'This is my fault.' Jackson thought to himself. "I should have just kept my damn mouth shut...'

Two minutes passed with only the sound of Twilight's mourning. Then Jackson realized that he was an idiot. At some point during their walk to Ponyville, Felicia had mentioned in passing that a changeling's disguise would drop when they died. Felicia was still a pegasus. "Twilight..."

Twilight didn't acknowledge him.

"Twilight."

"Just leave me alone."

"Twilight, get over here! Felicia's not dead!"

"What...?"

"GODDAMMIT TWILIGHT, HELP!"

Twilight scrambled to her hooves and ran over, wiping tears from her eyes. "What do I need to do!?"

"Put pressure on the wound!"

As she did so, she asked, "What are you going to be doing!?"

"I am going to love her!"

"Was that a reference to Fluttershy!? How did you—"

"Not now!"

While Twilight continued to do her best to stop the bleeding, Jackson closed his eyes and... thought about things that Felicia probably wouldn't appreciate seeing. At least any future awkwardness would be made worth it if she survived.

Twilight removed her hooves from Felicia's chest for a second to check on the injury, and found that it had started to close around the edges. "Keep doing... whatever you're doing." She said, starting to calm down.

Felicia groaned and moved slightly. Eventually she managed to build up enough strength to speak. "Jackie... just give up. Even if you close that gaping hole in me, I won't... survive the blood loss."

A few tears leaked out from Jackson's closed eyelids. "This is my fault. I won't let you die just because I did something stupid again."

"Oh, don't beat yourself up about it... Heh... We all knew this was going to happen eventually if we stayed around you..."

"Not helping."

Twilight stood up and placed a green-stained hoof on Jackson's shoulder. "Jackson, there's nothing we can do."

"..."

"..."

"I know."

A new voice joined the conversation from outside the cage, one that Jackson was fairly certain shouldn't have been there. "I think I can help."

"Luna? What the actual fuck?"

At the back of the cage, Phoenix went from looking confused at the new arrival, to bowing like it actually mattered that she was a Princess. Luna gave him an incredulous look, then turned her attention to her saddlebags and pulled out the glowing ball that Jackson had given her.

Felicia immediately sat upright and used her invisible horn to pull the ball to her. While Felicia was relishing in her newfound strength, Luna answered Jackson, "I couldn't just leave you."

Jackson did his best to be angry, but it was hard given the fact that Luna had just saved Felicia's life. "You can't be here. If the gryphons find out that there's a Princess here, it could start a war. You said so yourself."

With a wry grin, Luna answered, "The last time I checked, all of the Princesses were alicorns." She then turned sideways to show that her wings were still hidden.

"Clever, but you promised me that you wouldn't do this."

Still grinning, Luna shot back, "Guess you should have made it a Pinkie promise."

"Uuugh... Whatever. Just get the cage open." Luna's magical aura wrapped around the door, shimmering like stars in the darkness... and then caused it to implode into nothingness without a sound. "Damn... Overkill much?"

Luna leaned forward and whispered into his ear, "Have to keep up the Goddess act for the peasants."

"Right, of course. Well now that we're out of there, you can just turn me human again and I can go kill Eckard."

"Who?"

"Their leader."

Twilight spoke up, "Jackson, don't do this. Let's just go while we have the chance."

"No. I'm not done here."

Twilight looked to Luna for backup, but the Princess just shrugged and said, "I owe him a favor." Her horn lit up, and within seconds, there was a human standing in Jackson's place.

He caught the inhibitor ring as it fell from his now nonexistent horn, and placed it in his coat pocket. At the curious glances he received, he responded, "What? You never know when you might need to go up against a unicorn."

Twilight spoke up again, addressing Luna. "Speaking of which, can you get this one off me?"

Luna grabbed the ring in her magic and pulled, succeeding only in lifting Twilight off the ground. She gave a sheepish smile, then placed Twilight down again. "I'm sorry, Twilight Sparkle. It would appear that this particular ring has something keeping it on."

Twilight sighed. "Oh well, I suppose we might be able to find someone who can take it off when we reach an actual city."

All further conversation was ended when there was a short squawk of pain from around the corner of the nearest tent. All four of them quickly realized that Jackson was missing. Twilight, Luna, and Felicia ran in the direction of the sound. Phoenix ran after them, uncertain of what else to do.

When they arrived, they found Jackson searching through the belongings of their former guard, who was now a smoking corpse. He pulled out the exact sword that the guard had used on Felicia. Upon closer inspection, the sword was—like the wingblades—made of sharpened pieces of jagged metal that had been bolted together. Surprisingly, it was nearly as light as the sword Chrysalis had given him.

He held the sword out with one hand and ran a high-voltage current through it, causing the rust and trace amounts of partially-dried changeling blood to burst off of it. The resulting blade could only be described as, 'inexplicably shiny'.

Twilight was staring at the dead gryphon, but none of the others seemed very bothered. Jackson pulled his hand out of another pocket, holding a rather large flintlock pistol. "Damn... that's like the desert eagle of flintlocks..." He proceeded to make a rather pleased face and placed the pistol in his pocket, hoping that it wouldn't accidentally fire and— You know what, let's not finish that sentence.

"Jackson," Luna said quietly, "If you do this, it isn't something you can take back. The faces of those you've killed will haunt you for the rest of your life. I would know..."

"I don't care. They almost killed Felicia. You don’t want to know what they had planned for Twilight."

"Why is this so important to you? They—"

"It's important because you guys are the first friends I've ever had, and I will not tolerate anyone who tries to hurt you. Now wait here. I've got a gryphon to kill."

"Jackie—" She began, but the human was already gone.

Jackson sprinted to the entrance of one of the many beige canvas tents. Inside, a couple gryphons were sleeping on a series of cots. He silently made his way over to them, then plunged his sword into the neck of the first one, severing the spinal cord so the gryphon wouldn't scream. He turned and did the same to the second.

After scavenging some spare ammo from his victims, Jackson found his eyes drawn to the wire that was coming from the unlit lightbulb hanging from the roof on the tent. He followed the wire out of the tent and across the camp, careful not to leave the shadows.

Eventually he came to a primitive steam-powered generator that was in a small clearing, walled off on all sides by tents. With his newfound powers, he could almost see the energy being stored within it. "Alright. Let’s get this party started." Jackson threw his sword to the ground, then stepped closer and made a motion with his hands as though he were trying to crush a round object between them, seeming to fight against an unseen force.

When his hands were nearly touching, he threw his arms wide... and every single light in the camp exploded violently from the sheer amount of electrical current that was suddenly running through them, in some cases setting the fabric of their respective tents aflame.

The sounds of numerous gryphons yelling in shock as they were unpleasantly roused from their sleep rang sharply through the previous quiet. Among these voices, Jackson picked out one in particular. “Someone go check the damn generator!” Eckard ordered.

Jackson smiled. “Yeah... Come check the generator...” The moment the sounds of an approaching gryphon were within earshot, he ran towards them. He dive rolled mid-sprint and grabbed his sword from the ground, holding it reverse-grip in his right hand.

He came upright just as the gryphon walked around the corner of a tent... and immediately stabbed the gryphon through the top of it’s head, killing it instantly. He then proceeded to electrocute the corpse for good measure before twisting the sword—just as the guard had done to Felicia—and pulling it out before kicking the dead gryphon away. He tried not to think about the fact that he had just taken a fourth life. Not like it really mattered; he was about to do a lot worse.

Eckard paced restlessly back and forth in front of his tent. ’First the prisoners escape, now this? How could this night get any worse!?’ He was of course answered by a crack of lightning and the distinct smell of fried chicken. “Someone go check on that trottel!”

“No need!” A voice called from somewhere. Eckard froze at the sound of that voice. He slowly turned and saw a human walking towards the square in front of his tent. The human held a sword in his right hand—it’s metallic surface marred with splotches of blood—and a crackling ball of lightning in his left. “He’s dead. I can vouch for him.” At the horrified expressions of the gryphons before him, he clarified, “He died quickly, I swear.”

Eckard had no response. Every single gryphon in the square was frozen in fear of the being that so closely resembled the monster from history, whose actions had led to the destruction of their entire nation. He came to a sudden realization: Jackson Florence was going to kill him. ’Not if I kill him first.’ “What are you all sitting there for!? Get him!”

There were five gryphons in the square, excluding Eckard. All of them moved to attack. Jackson just grinned. “Bad move.” He spotted one of the gryphons pull a pistol to his right, and instantly sent a stream of electricity at him. It impacted the tip of the gun and arced to the gryphon’s talons, causing its muscles to constrict and grip the pistol tighter. This in turn caused the gryphon to fire the pistol, killing one of its own allies.

Jackson somehow used the electrical tether to pull the gryphon to him, where its throat met the waiting point of his reverse-gripped sword. Why did that actually work? Because magic, bitch. He shoved the gryphon off his sword, and turned around just in time to see a wingblade headed for his face. He ducked out of reflex, then reached up and grabbed the gryphon’s head, using his own strength and what was essentially a powerful magical taser to pull it to the ground. With his other hand, he flipped the sword to a normal grip and plunged it into the side of the gryphon’s neck.

He removed the sword through the gryphon’s throat, then gripped it in two hands as he blocked a sword from his right. He used the momentum of the gryphon’s attack to parry the blow down and to the left, causing it to drop the sword before he used both hands to run the gryphon through its chest. Releasing the sword with his right hand and using his left to pull it free, he spun around, moving the sword to a reverse-grip in his left hand to stab a gryphon who was trying to sneak up behind him.

With his right hand, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the pistol before pointing to his right where Eckard was standing with a shocked expression. "No one hurts my friends." He pulled the trigger. Eckard lost the back of his head, and had a new hole in his face. Jackson ripped the sword from the gryphon behind him and placed the gun back in his pocket. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about that this time. Shitty flintlocks only had one shot. He bent over slightly and placed both hands on his knees, breathing heavily. He spared a glance at Eckard’s body and smiled. “Heh... Dick.”