//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Too Human // Story: A Warrior's Peace // by Ricardo Nixon //------------------------------// 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.