When the sun rose from the shady depths behind the horizon, J´zar started walking. He walked towards the main plaza, and silently looked at the market stands, still unmanned at those early hours. J´zar felt like he was back in the XII century in the middle of a marketplace. He remembered those good days where you could see women washing clothes in the streets and men plowing the fields.
"Hi there!" a voice called J´zar from behind.
J´zar turned around to see a brown-colored pony standing at the side of a cart.
"Hello" J´zar mumbled "¿What are you doing here so early, sir?"
"I have problems sleeping, and a morning stroll is good for my legs" The pony answered "I’ve heard a lot about you. Everypony is speaking about a stranger which has come here to defend us ponies from a conqueror"
"Well, that one should teach Celestia not to give state secrets over to a young mare…" J´zar sighed with displeasure. "Adolescents would never change." J´zar thought.
"My name is Eduard" The pony introduced himself, handshaking J´zar.
"My name is J´zar, Eduard". “¡Finally someone with a normal name!” J´zar blissfully thought.
"¿And is it true? ¿Are you here to save us?" Eduard asked.
"I’m following orders. If they involve saving you all, then yes. But right now, I need to set off in a journey." J´zar hurried himself.
"Of course. I understand" the pony said with a dejected smile.
"Farewell" J’zar said before walking down the main road, trying to find Twilight’s house.
Curiously, all of those names and locations felt somehow familiar, as he had been there a long time ago. J´zar tried to remember where he had seen those houses, where had he heard those names. Yet he couldn’t remember.
J´zar walked aimlessly for hours, unsure of where to go, or who to speak to. Some hard-working ponies were already on the streets preparing themselves for the upcoming day. He eventually came across a forged iron fence with similar iron letters integrated into an arch which acted as entrance. “This must be a farmhouse” J´zar told to himself. Behind the fence J’zar could see a barn, and behind that, he could see plowed fields, and all around him, wherever he looked at, he saw trees filled to the brim with apples.
"Hello, sir, ¿can ah do anything for ya?" a deep voice said behind him.
Turning around for the third time in two days, J´zar saw behind him a stocky and muscular red-coated pony with straw-colored mane and tail. He had his flank adorned with a transversal cut of a green apple and seemed to be biting on a piece of straw.
"Good day, mister," J´zar told the stallion "I am looking for a mare named Applejack"
"¿Mare? She’s just a little bit older than a big filly an’ she’s already tellin’ everypony she’s a mare…But anyways, mah sis is on the house, helping grandma with preparing the cart for the market." The red stallion explained.
"Thank you. Have a nice day" J´zar said, then slowly but surely walked away.
"¡If ya need anything else, the name’s Big Macintosh!" the stallion yelled at J´zar as he walked away.
J´zar walked for several minutes before seeing the countryside house ahead. Applejack and a much older pony were performing several tasks around a cart which was loaded to the very brim (and even more, probably) with apples and apple food derivatives.
"¡Applejack!" J´zar yelled at her from the top of the hill he was standing on.
Applejack looked up to the mountain and said something which J´zar could not hear to her grandmother before galloping up the hill to meet J´zar.
"¿How’ ya doing Mister J.?" She asked J´zar while regaining her breath.
"I’m fine, thanks". “¿Mister J.?” J´zar thought annoyed. "I would like to ask for your help on something"
"Yeah, sure ¿What is it?" Applejack asked, anxious to help.
"I need you to reunite your other friends in the entrance to the Everfree forest, but specially Twilight Sparkle" J´zar said. It was time to set the gears of the plan in working order.
"Sure, I’ll do it right away, Mister J." Applejack said, and she did not waited a minute before rushing down the hill to find her other friends.
J´zar calmly walked all the way to the Everfree forest, where he waited for several hours before the six mares appeared. He greeted them coldly, and harshly asked them why they took so long.
"Oh, you know Pinkie Pie made a “good bye” party since we don’t know when we are coming back and we just
couldn’t…" Twilight started explaining.
"¡Wait a bloody second! ¡¿Are you telling me you kept me waiting here for seven hours just for you to stay at a party!?"J´zar yelled, drowning any attempt of rebuttal "¿¡Don´t you know what’s at risk!? ¡Your entire universe will probably be conquered if we do not hurry! ¡Every hour that passes is an hour Ix has to open the portal! every second brings us closer to damnation! ¡Now move, you pack of draught beasts!"
J´zar then furiously stormed inside the forest, leaving the six manes to hurry and follow him.
The group cautiously walked through the forest, except for J´zar, who advanced ahead of all others, uttering terrible insults against the mares with every step. His thunderous voice scared off all the wildlife, and his heavy steps made even the manticores run away to hide in their caves.
After walking for a few hours, J´zar remembered he would have to leave vengeance for later, for he needed a question answered.
"Tell me, Twilight Sparkle," He asked "¿where are the oldest books stored?"
"Well" she said, trying to remember something "They are probably in the castle"
"¿Which castle?" J´zar asked, not wanting to go back with Celestia.
"That castle" Twilight said pointing her hoof at a thing behind J´zar’s back.
For the third time that day, J´zar turned around to find him looking to what seemed to be an old bridge leading into a ruinous castle, whose towers where crooked or destroyed.
"Then that’s where we are heading for" J´zar said with confidence.