"...And fer generations mah family has been living on that farm, growing apple trees and supplying apples to ponies all across Equestria," Applejack finished with a large smile. Jack smiled as well before glancing up at the warm sun that was casting its rays upon the both of them, mixing perfectly with the cool breeze that danced around them. "Now are ya sure ya don't want me to pull that cart fer ya?"
"I can handle it just fine, but thank you for the offer," Jack politely declined. Applejack shrugged her shoulders in response before casting Jack a quizzical glance, one that was not lost on the samurai.
"So, what about yer family? Aside from the fact that yer lost, ah know practically nothing about you," Applejack pointed out with a raised eyebrow, getting Jack to sweat slightly before he gave her a polite chuckle.
"Oh, there is not much to tell. My life is...one that does not need telling," Jack tried to deflect, but the stare that Applejack gave him showed that she had seen clean through his ruse.
"Jack, when ah found ya, you were fighting a giant rock monster in a kimono with a sword that Twi said hasn't been used in centuries. Ya have quite the story for me, don't ya?" Jack wondered how he would manage to keep his secret without lying to Applejack, who he still felt he owed greatly, but once again providence smiled on him and the samurai spotted the tips of skyscrapers off in the distance.
"Is that the city that you were speaking of yesterday?" Jack asked Applejack, who removed her piercing gaze from Jack and turned towards the buildings.
"Yep, that looks like Stalliongrad alright. We sure got there much quicker than ah thought we would," AJ muttered before shaking her head and walking to Jack, unhooking the cart from him before attaching it to her back. "Ah'm grateful that ya pulled it all this way, but ah'll take it from here. After all, ah am the face of the Apple family brand after all...besides mah granny."
"From your tales, it seems that your family is indeed an interesting one," Jack said with a polite laugh, but his punishment for speaking up was another suspecting gaze from Applejack.
"So, what about yer family Jack? Surely ya have one in that far off place that ya won't tell me about," Applejack tried to pry, but when Jack's face fell slightly she could tell that she had touched upon a sore spot.
"My family...has been gone for a long time," Jack finally admitted, waiting for Applejack to ask another question, yet it never came. When he looked up at her he found the orange pony staring off into the horizon with a look that mirrored his own.
"Ah'm sorry. Ah know how ya feel," she whispered. The rest of the walk into the city was done in silence, with the two only glancing at each other once or twice. But Jack found that he couldn't keep his thoughts on his family for long, for when he entered into the city his eyes were widened by the sheer number of multicolored ponies that walked, ran or flew through the streets.
"I was not aware that so many ponies lived in these cities," Jack said aloud, glancing up at the pegasi flying overhead with wonder. While the cities that he had seen, when he was transported to the future were far more impressive in scale, Jack could feel a kindness and joy floating through the air that he had not felt in what seemed like centuries.
"Yeah, it can be a little jarring at first, especially when ya come from a small town like me," Applejack agreed with a nod before looking over at Jack. "Well Mr. Jack, it was nice to meet ya but ah figure this here be where we part ways. Ah need to drop off this last batch of apples to the market and ya need help finding yer way back home."
"See that building with the golden roof over yonder?" Applejack continued as she pointed down the street, Jack turning to find the large building with the golden roofing almost immediately. "That there is the mayor's office, but it also doubles as a library. So even if the mayor can't help ya, ya can guarantee that there'll at least be a map that ya can use."
"Thank you for all that you have done for me, Applejack," Jack said to her as he bowed his head low, getting AJ to roll her eyes slightly before smiling gently at the samurai. "But I fear that I have not yet repaid my debt. Surely you could use my help for a little longer or-"
"Jack, whatever yer reason is, getting home to ya is important. So important that ya would try to hide why from me," Applejack pointed out and her words caused Jack to rub the back of his head slightly. "Ah can do just fine without ya, but ya need to get going. But who knows? Maybe one day ah'll run into ya again and ya can by me lunch or something. Then yer debt will be repaid."
"Very well. Thank you again," Jack bowed once again. Applejack turned with a wave and walked into the crowd of ponies, Jack watching her go until all he could see through the rainbow of ponies was here hat, and even that quickly vanished amongst the crowd. Jack then turned with a face filled with determination as he marched towards the building, ignoring the strange looks that his garb and weaponry gained him.
He reached the building within moments, a building that he discovered was made of marble and had a large number of ponies in black suits patrolling the perimeter. Jack ignored the suits as best he could, but when he tried to walk up the marble steps towards the entrance, three of the suits rushed in front of him.
"Halt there stranger," one of them demand and Jack obliged them with a smile.
"Hello. I am trying to find either the mayor or the library. Is this where they are located?" Jack asked the three politely, yet all he got in response were cold stares from behind sunglasses.
"And just why do you wish to visit the mayor with such a weapon in your possession?" one of the ponies asked him, getting a confused look from Jack while one of the ponies studied his sword.
"He's obviously here for the mayor. Secure him and relieve him of his weapon," another one of them said, the third nodding before reaching out for Jack's sword. In an instant, Jack had wrapped his hoof around his sword and glared at the suit with a look that made him step back as if struck.
"I do not wish to cause any trouble, but I would ask that you refrain from touching my blade," Jack said calmly, yet with underlying hints of danger in his voice. "If you would please let me explain, I-" The suits whipped out batons that had electricity crackling along them in response to Jack's words and lunged for him, but in a flash of motion Jack drove his hooves into the necks and stomachs of the suits. He then started to walk up towards the building when the suits collapsed behind him without another sound. Yet the samurai's troubles were not over.
"Hey, you there! HALT!" another voice roared out from behind him. Jack turned to see that numerous ponies in armor were flying down from the sky, all of them holding the electric weapons that Jack had seen the suits use. The samurai eyed the ten pegasi in armor carefully as they surrounded him. "Drop your weapon slowly and put your hooves up."
"Please, I do not want trouble. All I wish to do is speak with your mayor," Jack replied honestly, yet his words and actions were lost on the guards when one with a horn raced up beside them. Jack raised an eyebrow as a strange light glowed from the unicorn's horn, and a moment later she gasped with horror while staggering back.
"This pony has a class ten magical item on him! That's up there with the Elements!" she informed the other guards, who immediately backed away from Jack with looks of fear and rage in their eyes. "Take him down now!" Jack narrowed his eyes before turning and sprinting past two of the guards, who leapt at him at the same time and ended up colliding into each other for their efforts. Jack heard a bellow for the guards to catch him while he sprinted into the streets, weaving past ponies and obstacles with a speed that the guards couldn't keep up with on hoof.
'Forgive me noble soldiers, but I cannot let my quest be impeded!' Jack thought as he looked behind him to see that numerous pegasi had taken to the skies and were now tracking him through the crowds. Knowing that he would not be able to shake them on hoof, he dove into a back alley that led to a different road. Along the way, he grabbed any discarded items of clothing that he could find, quickly adding them to his person before he burst out into another street.
Jack then slowed to a dead walk and moved at the same speed as the other ponies, except now he wore a turban and a large coat that covered both his kimono and his sword. A thin smile crossed his lips when he saw the guards land and look around in confusion, yet he felt their eyes glance right over him without so much as a pause.
'Now that I have managed to elude capture, I must find a new location where I can gather information,' Jack pondered while he glanced around at the numerous street signs that were lit up with bright neon lights all around him. He saw numerous ones for insurance, a few for magical solutions and even one for something called horn reading, but it was only when his eyes rested upon a wooden sign that hung over a beaten up door that he had a destination.
"Ah yes. This business has always provided most useful for information in the past," Jack smiled before lifting a hoof to open the door...and jump out of the way a moment later when the door was nearly kicked off its hinges by a large stallion that stalked by Jack.
"Little so and so's, only offering that much money when the job's practically a suicide run?" the stallion grumbled to himself as he stormed past Jack, not noticing the turban wearing pony. "Good luck finding a pony crazy enough to go after that magic talisman. I swear everypony now adays..." The pony continued to talk, but at that point Jack had slipped into the bar and was out of earshot.
The first thing Jack did when he walked into the bar was instinctively glance at the board where the wanted posters were supposed to be, just in case his face was the first one on there. But to his surprise, he found that not only was his face not on the board, but also that there was no bounty board in the room at all. The second surprise came when he closed the door behind him and none of the drinking ponies so much as turned their heads towards him, let alone glared at the samurai.
"A small water please," Jack asked the bartender when he sat down at a stool, ears on high alert as he listened in on each conversation that was going on in the bar. To his left a pony was wailing about how his wife left him, while another across the room was yelling at a newspaper that seemed to have something upsetting. Yet Jack's attention was completely drawn away from all of the other conversations when a certain string of words caught his ear, words that sounded awfully familiar to what the pony who had left was grumbling about.
"Well, that was the last bruiser in here that we tried, and he's just another that said no. For the last time Cloudburst, if you can't find a bodyguard to go with us on this expedition of yours, then I'm quitting too!"
"Look, I know that the mission seems bad, but I have it on good authority that the Wish Master talisman is within that temple! All we need is a pony either brave enough or foolish enough to help us get it back!" a white pony with blue patches on his coat growled, glancing over at Jack with a curious expression that Jack noticed in the reflection of his glass. "Look, a new guy just walked in and he looks tough. Maybe he'll help us?"
"Him? Are you kidding? He looks like he got his outfit out of a dumpster."
"Well it's him or bust. Now be quiet." Jack watched in his glass while the pony stood up and walked over to Jack, waiting until the pony was right behind him before he decided to speak.
"You are trying to locate a magical artifact and you are in need of a strong pony that can protect you in a temple filled with traps," Jack repeated for the pony, who was stopped dead in his tracks as Jack turned his head slightly so that the pony could barely see his face. "I believe that I may be able to help you, if you require my aid?"
"Y-yes, you're completely correct," the pony stammered out with both fear and approval in his eyes. "Please, come with me and talk with the rest of the crew. Then we can talk details." Jack nodded as he rose up and followed the pony back to his table, where a green pony with an electric yellow mane raised an eyebrow at him and his apparel.
"This is Hurricane. She's the archeologist of the two of us. And I'm Cloudburst," the white pony smiled as he extended a hoof to Jack, who shook it with a raised eyebrow at the look he was getting from the mare. "It's a pleasure to meet you...uh..."
"They call me Jack."
"Okay then Jack, so here's the details," Cloudburst began as he unrolled a parchment onto the table. The parchment had a strange object in the center of it with what seemed like a map to a dungeon etched along the outer part of the paper. "In a temple not too far from here is the Wish Master talisman, an item that is said to be able to grant three wishes to anypony that holds it."
"The only problem is that the temple has far more booby traps within it than any other temple that we've ever encountered before," Hurricane muttered as she pushed her glasses back up her nose. "We've already lost one bodyguard to the first few traps and all the others we've tried to hire are driven away either by the danger or the pay, which isn't that great. So why would you show an interest in this job?"
"Because I have a need of a wish," Jack said in a far off tone as he thought back to his land, his people, his family: all of whom were still in the clutches of Aku in the past...and how if he could secure this item, then his quest would finally be at an end. "And I am willing to face any obstacle to get that wish."
"Well, it seems we've got another suicidal fool with us," Hurricane said with a shake of her head, yet Cloudburst only had a huge grin on his face.
"Wonderful! Soon we'll have our hooves on that wish and then the world will see that we're not just second rate history nerds! We'll show them all...that we can unearth history!" he said with a laugh before tossing some gold coins to the bartender with his smile growing to incredible sizes. "Bartender! A round of drinks for all the ponies here! I've got a good feeling that soon we'll have more money than we know what to do with!"
The ponies all around let out a cheer as they each lifted their drinks to Cloudburst, toasting him before they all downed their drinks all at once. The only one who did not join in the festivities was a certain samurai, who was replaying his very first battle with Aku over in his mind, making sure that when he got ahold of his wish that he would know exactly what to do to defeat the monster.
'But what if I fail once again? What if I cannot secure the talisman?' a part of his mind, one that was far too weary from his journey and failures, asked him.
'No. I shall succeed. For too long I have been on this journey to fail again,' Jack roared back with confidence as he clamped his teeth around his glass and downed the rest of his water in one gulp. 'For after I retrieve the talisman, my quest is finally at an end.'