The clouds were clearing up, revealing the sun as it made its ascent through the sky. Under the sun was a town of moderate size, probably less then a thousand living in it one would guess at first glance. The unpaved roads were wet from yesterday’s rain. Ponies, griffons, and even the odd minotaur were going about their business as the only lamplighter in town went and stifled every corner's lamp. The fishers were heading off to their boats to start their work in the calm ocean. Everybody was making their rounds through the town, greeting each other and buying what they needed.
The further from town you went the sparser the houses became. Eventually the buildings became sparser, most of them being simple, hastily built stone towers acting as fortifications that were poorly up kept. Around these parts there were farms that had people toiling on them every day to produce enough food to make a profit.
One particular house however, was different. Instead of a farm, there was a quaint garden where flowers and vegetables grew. The house was made of the same wood as the other houses, however one that inspected the wood closely could tell that it was newer then the surrounding houses. The front of the house had a porch that the owner had built himself. The house had a chimney that rarely saw any smoke come out of it. An extremely subtle difference however is that on the mailbox in front of the house, there is a strange name painted on it. “Jackson Frank”.
The truth is however, that the house belonged to somebody that the world hasn’t seen before him.
***
Jackson Frank, contrary to many of his friends, was a morning person. The second he woke up he felt energized and ready for the day. This suited his job as the lighthouse manager, as he would be ready to switch off with his friend and coworker Grendel for his shift at five in the morning. Or at least Jackson calls Grendel his friend, while in reality Grendel and him only interact with each other when they pass off the light house. But he’s a good guy, as Jackson fondly remembers as he was given a turkey sandwich one time when they were trading off.
Jackson slowly opened his eyes, staring out the window seeing the sun up past the horizon. Startled, Jackson flung off his blankets and tried to jump up. This resulted in him tripping over the blanket and falling down onto his floor. He groaned as he opened his eyes. “Right, vacation”
He slowly picked himself up and cracked his back. He scratched at his itchy wool shirt as he picked up his nice and warm cotton blanket from the floor and placed it on the bed. He picked up his clock and stared at it. “Eleven o’clock, I’m feeling naughty,” Jackson thought as he smoothed out his blanket.
Putting his pillow back, he nodded at his work, slipped on his worn leather shoes, then made his way out of the tiny bedroom. Opening the door he was greeted with his lovely living kitchen dining entrance room, the only other room in the house. Furnished with a table, two chairs, cupboard, counter, and a very nice blue vase with no flowers in it. One of Jackson’s most fond memories is having a working bathroom inside his house. Unfortunately, there are no pipes that run out this far. Thanks mayor.
Jackson approached the pantry, opening it up and took bread, jam, and a packet of tea. Freshly packed by a tea maker at the start of the week, as he actually had standards, unlike the other heathens in the town who bought their tea from traders who claimed it originated from a town that he couldn’t be bothered to remember. At ten bits a packet. Ten bits!
Putting the kettle on, the human grabbed a knife and a plate from a drawer and walked across the room to the empty table with two simple chairs around it. He sat on his favorite chair, the one that doesn’t have a single short leg, put his meal down, and started to prepare his bread. He bit down on his meal as he began to reminiscence. “I miss my toaster, it may not have been top of the line, but it was good enough. I miss most of my stuff and the fact that I can be assured that it isn’t a test product like Butter’s magical hair dryer. I prefer to be assured that my luxuries don’t explode, thank you.”
The whistle brought him out of his thoughts causing him to stand up and make his way over to the kettle. He grabbed a cup from his drying rack, two pieces of wood that he placed his plates and bowls upside down on, and poured the water inside the cup. He walked to his chair and sat back down, plopping his tea bag inside his cup as he waited. Jackson enjoyed the relative silence, as he ate his breakfast, thinking about the agenda for the day.
“Let’s see, Postal said that he had my mail, probably junk once again. Damn scammers, relentless enough to get us out here across the ocean. So got to pick that up today, or wait, was the deadline next week? Can I get away with waiting? No, I better get the mail today so that I don’t have to get it while I’m coming back tired. Don’t want it to get thrown away. Then what else after that? Do I have anything else I have to do in town today? I guess me and Key--no wait, he’s working today. Why can’t we all have the same day off? Just put off the activity of the town for the day. That’s a good idea. Actually, that might be a bad idea, I don’t know. This is why I’m not an economist. Or a politician. Or anything that requires high brain power. I’m not a smart man. God, why didn’t I go to college? Because I thought that high school was enough and that I could make a living with that.”
He chomped on his last piece of toast and meticulously chewed it. “Should’ve gone to Europe, could’ve gotten it for free. Aren’t there rules against that? Probably, but who cares, not like I’m going to fucking Europe anytime soon. Let’s ask a boat if they can take me to Europe. What a joy that conversation would be. Arr matey what be the purpose that you have come to my docks? Yes sir, I’d like a trip to Europe. Love to see the look on his face. Speaking of ships, didn’t Sea Shells need her boat cleaned? She said she’d pay twenty for it. That’s a good paycheck. Yeah, get my mail, go clean the boat, come home and uh, tend my garden! Yeah, that’s a good idea, sure some plants need the attention.”
Satisfied, Jackson picked up his second piece of toast and carefully jammed it. Once the jam was proportionally spread across the toast, he put the knife down and smiled.
“Mr. Jack! Mr. Jack! Are you in there! The mayor sent me around town to tell everyone that he was calling a meeting immediately at the town square! Mr. Jack! Mr. Jack are you in there?”
Jackson threw his toast back on his plate and stomped towards the door.
“Mr. Jack! He told me to wait till I was sure everyone was”— Jackson flung open his door to look down upon the tiny form of Burrow.
The colt smiled up at him. “Good thing you’re up and I didn’t have to throw a brick through your window like last time!” Burrow shuffled around embarrassed. “Sorry about that by the way, didn’t think that it would break it.”
Jackson had to resist the urge for a second to tell him what actually happened to his puppy out in the forest.
The two stared at each other for a second before Burrow said, “Well, time to go and tell the others!” Burrow saluted before he ran over to the next house.
Jackson stood still for a second as it finally sank in that he wasn’t going to be able to relax. Sighing, he made his way back to the table and inspected the tea cup. Smiling at its coloration, he picked it up and gulped it down. Jackson hesitated for a moment before picking up his toast and exiting his abode, scarfing it down as he made his way to the town square.
***
Jackson’s years taught him something. Sure, he’d only really been talking with the natives for about five years, but that’s plenty of time to learn the customs and mannerisms of the creatures of this planet and learn how to combat them. For example, ponies are either looking at you 24/7 or they aren’t at all. So if you see that they are looking to the side, you’re perfectly safe to drown them out most of the time and think of something important. Like if it was really a good idea to accept the offer for a cup of coffee from a random pony you met off the street.
“Damn it, why did the tailor make all of my clothes out of cotton,” Jackson thought as he furiously scratched at his pants.
“And so I actually did it! I... Jackson, are you listening?”
“Shit.” Jackson thought as he tore his gaze from the ocean and looked at the stocky yellow pony next to him. “Huh?”
“That’s what I thought!” The pony huffed. “And you wonder why there’re bodies in town who dislike you! This is what I’ve been saying, we need to go out for a day, walk around and go to the park! I’ll learn you how to speak to bodies! That’s what my pa did when I was young! You know, I met a nice girl at the park, we’ve been going out for 3 months now! I credit my victory all to my pa! He was a real nice man you know? When he found out that I had a fear of public speaking, he signed me up for a public speaking class and made me go to the park every day. There I found plenty of bod- err ponies that were extremely nice! We lived back in Manehatten while I was young, so there weren’t many other species; anyway, I eventually got enough confidence that I could start a conversation with anyone on the street, even someone as aloof as you! My pa really was a major influence on how I am today!”
“Maybe he taught you a little too well,” Jackson thought as he rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry Butter, I guess I just get distracted easily.” he said trying to keep any negative tone out of his voice.
Butter nodded. “That’s for sure! If I’m not looking at you, you’ll start to go off in whatever direction your mind takes you!”
Jackson ignored the glares that he usually got when he hung around Butter. You get used to it eventually. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Do you even know what Mayor Trot called us out here for?”
“Not really,” Jackson said looking around for anything that could stop the endless chatter of Butter.
“You’re hopeless! Hopeless! I tell you, you need to get out more! Talk to more bodies, then you’ll actually know the pressing issues of our town! I’m sure you’d find a nice female, maybe they’d like your short hair and those beady brown eyes! I don’t know, bodies like weird stuff like that! Anyway, he called us out here to talk about, ‘a pressing issue that threatens,” Butter giggled at his impression, “the sanctity of our village!’ What a load of hay! Remember the time that he called us out because his cart of expensive spices came into town and it hit a hole spilling the spices? After months of us complaining to him he finally addressed that we need paved roads! And look around us, look at all this progress!”
Jackson felt more heads turning towards them. “Alright Butter, maybe you want to tone it down?”
“Nonsense!” Butter shouted, “I have my opinion and I have a right to voice it! Why, I bet that this is going to turn into another--“
Jackson felt relieved as the crowd started applauding, overcoming Butter’s resounding voice. He looked up to the front of the crowd and saw the pony mayor hobbling over to the box that acts as the stand. Nice box, onion one, actually has been used for about three months now. At this point there are probably other boxes that are better for standing on but Jackson thinks that everybody’s getting attached to it. Upon arriving at the box, the mayor stepped up and cleared his throat. “My friends,” he said adjusting his collar, “It is my regret to tell you today that there is a danger that threatens every single one of you out here today.”
The crowd mumbled at the mayor’s words. Butter scoffed at him. “Yeah right, the biggest problem we have now is that poor Little Light’s cat died and now she won’t leave her room. Did I tell you that Jackson?” He glanced towards the stage, “I’ll tell you later.”
“I’m sure that you all remember the month of raids that we had from bandits last year.” The crowd murmured in affirmation. “And I’m sure that you all remember the brave heroes of the local guard that fought in the battles and all of those that fell. Their heroism will be etched forever in this town’s history.”
“I’d hope I remember,” Jackson thought scanning the crowd, looking for Geralt.
“Not only that though, you must remember how we hired the White Talon Mercenaries after three days of debates. We settled on eight hundred bits for protecting our town and driving the bandits away.” The mayor paused, his eyes searching across the crowd. “My friends, our deadline for payment is only four months away, and the mercenaries are demanding much more than they originally offered. Interest they claim. They now ask for a staggering eighteen hundred bits. We cannot possibly pay that amount in the time span we have.”
Shocked silence. Nobody moved. Butter whispered something inaudible.
“And there goes my Tuesday,” Jackson thought.
The mayor glanced downwards before staring forwards. “But there is hope. Somebody can go to the capitol city Canterlot and pay a visit to the crown. There you can request something for the town. Military assistance, a loan, anything to save us from the Talons. The person that volunteers today will make a difference that will save this town.”
He cleared his throat. “It will not be an easy task, you will have to cross the ocean, pass through the mainland, then wait in the dreaded line for court, but it is—“
“I’ll do it,” Jackson said as he stepped forward.
Everyone turned to look at him. The mayor stopped and stared, “Err, Jackson, well, I’m sure that you are eager to go, but—“
“Mayor, I believe that I am the most qualified person to go. I’ve traveled for a long time before settling here and I have enough experience in battle to protect myself if need to be. My position is not so important that someone else can’t fill for me.”
“Well, I mean, you might be but...” the mayor trailed off looking off into space.
He sighed before saying, “You’re right. Ladies and gentlemen, we have our volunteer!”
Jackson looked over the crowd. Some eyes were hopeful. Others were hateful. It was silent for a moment before the crowd starting cheering. In the ruckus Jackson saw Tulip stomp up to the mayor and started yelling at him. Probably demanding that the diamond dog mutt couldn’t go. Bitch. He could see his friends cheering him on, wanting him to succeed, depending on him to save their town. Geralt was nodding his head, Butter was crying, Postal was clapping extremely loud, Grendel didn’t even show up. Virtually everyone was counting on him.
“Should’ve just stayed quiet.”