Pain bounced around the samurai's skull like his brain was in a windstorm, making Jack grit his teeth as he slowly opened his eyes. Regret flashed through his mind when the bright light caused the blazing pain to intensify ten fold, and with another growl the samurai shut his eyes. His body felt like he had been trampled beneath an avalanche, while the back of his head might as well have been split in two from the way it was aching.
'Ugh, this pain is unlike any I have felt before. But yet...I recall battling with Tundrous...and then I was nearly beaten. I prepared myself for his final blow, but then...' The memory struck him like a kick from a pair of hooves, getting the samurai to sit up in a flash while he remembered what had happened. After regretting the motion and taking a moment to suppress the pain, Jack glanced around to find himself laying on a bed in a wooden room. While he didn't remember much, he didn't need his memory to know where the room was. The apples on everything gave it away.
The samurai forced himself to get up before he took up his sword that was lying at the side of his bed, drawing forth the blade and glancing into his reflection to see that his face was convulsed into a look of rage. He did not know who he was angry at more, Applejack for kicking him in the back of the head...or himself for failing once again.
A quick trek around the house revealed that none of the Apples were home, save for Granny Smith who was asleep in her rocking chair. With narrowed eyes the samurai walked out of the house into the brightness of the day, shielding his eyes from the sun with a groan before glancing around to see if he could find Applejack.
His ears perked up when he heard the sound of voices not too far from where he was, turning his attention back to the barn. His ears shifted forward as he locked onto the voice, and he tapped his hoof against the door three times when he reached the barn, eyes narrowing while the voices shushed themselves.
"Excuse me Applebloom, but I am searching for your sister," Jack explained himself when he entered the barn and found the CMC sitting on bales of hay. Applebloom looked at Jack with concern on her face while the other two simply waved at him. "Do you know where she is and if so, can you direct me to her location?" Applebloom bit her lower lip as she glanced away for a second, but then she lowered her head before speaking.
"She went to the biggest apple tree we have. It's nearly impossible to miss," she explained before motioning in its direction. Jack nodded before he turned to leave, but then Applebloom cleared her throat to make Jack turn around. "Jack...don't be too hard on her. She's lost a lot in her life, much more than most. She just didn't...want to lose you either."
Jack said nothing in reply before he left the barn behind, glancing in the direction that Applebloom had pointed to see a large tree off in the distance. The tree towered over the rest of the apple trees, giving Jack a destination in which to head.
The sun had reached the peak of its ark as the samurai began his walk towards the tree, his face calm despite the typhoon of emotions that roared within his mind. He was not sure what he was going to say to Applejack when he saw her...he wasn't even sure what he could say.
When he reached the tree he found the orange mare underneath the shadow of the giant tree, gently placing fertilizer at its roots before sighing and picking up a watering can. Jack opened his mouth to call her name, but then he closed it again before clearing his throat. AJ practically jumped into the air before she spun around to face Jack, her eyes clearly filled with worry while Jack's remained blank.
"So...yer finally awake," she managed to say after nearly a minute of the two just looking at each other. "You've been asleep for nearly a week, but to be honest, after the beating you took...ah thought it would be longer." Jack remained silent and the small smile on AJ's face fell. "Yer mad at me, ah can tell. So go ahead, scream, yell...or just say something. Get it out."
"Why did you interfere?" Jack asked her in practically a whisper, getting a small sigh from Applejack while the samurai's eyes narrowed. "Tundrous was my chance to return to the past, to finally undo the future that Aku had wrought! But, because of your actions I am once again no closer to getting to my home than I was when I got here!" Applejack didn't flinch at the samurai's harsh tone, but her own anger flashed up in her eyes before she walked right up to Jack.
"Don't try and spin it that way. Ah'm truly sorry that ah had to kick you in the back of the head, but don't act like ya stood a chance," she shot back with a calm tone, yet her eyes raged with a fury that rivaled the samurai's. "He was going to kill ya. Ya lost to Tundrous and he was going to kill ya. Ah saved yer life."
"The battle was not yet over! I could still have-"
"No, ya couldn't! Don't ya even remember what you were like at the end of that fight?! Yer body was broken! Ya were barely able to stand, let alone fight!" she snarled back in reply, getting the samurai to widen his eyes in shock at her tone. "But it didn't have to be that way! Tundrous let you go! But ya still tried to fight him, despite just how easily he beat you! Why?!"
"It was my choice to make. As long as there is a chance to prevail, I shall never back down!" Jack informed Applejack with a stern tone, but as the orange mare narrowed her eyes, Jack's face fell slightly.
"That's got to be the stupidest thing ah've ever heard! Yer smarter than that, Jack! Ya knew full well that ya couldn't beat him at that point! To keep battling after that whooping, why, ya'd have to be..." Then Applejack's eyes widened slowly as she stumbled onto the truth--horror filling up her eyes while she gazed at Jack, who turned his head away from her. "No...tell me, ya didn't want to die? That ya kept fighting so that he would kill ya. Please Jack..."
But Applejack's question was answered when the samurai slowly turned away from her, gazing up at the sky which was slowly being filled with clouds. Little droplets of rain began to fall onto the samurai's face as he remembered his dream...and how empty his heart felt now.
"I entered that battle fully expecting to win, Applejack. I did not fight Tundrous with any plans to die at his hands," Jack clarified for AJ before his face fell slightly. "But if I were to die during the battle and finally join my family once again...then it would be a fate that I would not be opposed to. To die in battle is an honorable way to go."
"Ah can't believe ya," Applejack whispered with horror at Jack's words. "Ya...were fine with dying?...You IDIOT!" Jack spun around with confusion at her sudden outrage before ducking under an orange hoof, leaping back as he grabbed at his blade, clearing going to need it with the look of sheer fury AJ wore. "Do you really think your family would be happy with ya if ya died before ya could free the land from Aku?! Ya still need to save yer world from Aku, to banish the monster back into the darkness once again! How can ya allow yerself to think of dying?!"
"You are the one who knows NOTHING!" Jack roared back with a wrath that made Applejack back away. "For so long I believed my quest to be decreed by the gods themselves, that no matter what happened to me I was destined to prevail! But time and time again I have failed, while chance after chance has escaped from my grasp! For so many years I believed that it was part of my journey, that I was still destined to prevail...but now I wonder if I am cursed, that my journey is nothing more than a sick game played on me by Aku!"
"Jack, ya truly can't-"
"How can I not?! So many times I have failed to stop the monster, sometimes by mere coincidence, but that monster always seems to be able to best me whenever he needs to!" Jack roared, but Applejack started to realize that he was not longer focused on her and just seemed to be screaming. "Yet all I need to do is best him once, ONCE, and my world would be saved! Yet I am incapable of doing even that!"
Jack then unsheathed his sword and glared into the reflection that he saw, not seeing a proud warrior that would save his home...but instead that of a failure, who could not even save himself. With another scream of powerlessness he drove the blade into the ground, before collapsing to his knees afterwards. AJ stared down at him with horrified silence as Jack remained motionless for a few minutes, his body shaking with rage as he breathed heavily.
"I am so tired," he finally whispered in an ancient voice, one that revealed how out of time he was. "So tired of this quest, of always coming so close and yet having victory stolen from me at the last moment. And I am tired of being alone. Of being forced to wander a world I no longer know while fighting for my life, all on my own. Aku has truly taken everything from me. He has taken my strength, my home, my family...a chance at happiness. Maybe...Aku truly won all those years ago and I have been too blind to see it."
Applejack couldn't believe the words coming out of Jack's mouth, yet this time the samurai truly did seem beaten. But what made it even worse, was that Jack's blade was slowly starting to lose its shine; that the divine light that shone within it was starting to fade.
"You asked me a long time ago, Applejack if I had the strength to try one last time? Tundrous was my last attempt...and just like all the others, I have failed," Jack whispered in a defeated tone, his voice so weary that even AJ felt tired just hearing his words. "I no longer have the strength to continue fighting this endless battle. Aku's evil is eternal, whereas I am just a fool wielding a his fathers blade. Father forgive me, for I have failed you."
Jack closed his eyes after saying his piece, expecting to hear the disappointed voice of his father strike him down from the heavens. Yet while the samurai was expecting pain in some form, instead he felt Applejack's arms wrap around him and pull him into the tightest hug he had ever been a part of.
"Ah don't believe that," she whispered to him, Jack's face still crestfallen as he dared a glance at Applejack. "Because ah've seen ya face worse. Like when that psycho with the sword on the bridge nearly killed you and stole your blade. Or when ya battled Tirek despite him being one of the strongest magical beings in the land. And that's because that's who you are, Jack." Applejack pulled herself free of the hug as she said this and moved her face directly in front of Jack's, a small smile creasing her face while her eyes shone with belief.
"Ya may get beaten down, crushed by the weight of yer responsibility, and nearly give up on yerself, but then ya get back up. And that's why yer the only one who has ever stood a chance against Aku. Because no matter what the world throws at ya, ya get back up. Ya keep fighting. Who you are, is a pony that won't stop until evil is vanquished and those who were crushed in the grip of that evil are free."
"And ah want ya to look into that blade of yers, Jack and answer mah question. Do ya see a pony that would have gotten as far as he did if he gave up when things seem hopeless? Or do ya see the warrior I see, the warrior whose soul is forged stronger than the blade he wields? The warrior that the great, evil Aku fears?"
She released Jack after saying this and backed away from him, allowing him to lift his blade and stare into his reflection. For a moment he saw the broken warrior, the man that had so many chances to save his home and yet had either failed or sacrificed them for others. And as the pain of that failure gripped at his heart, he closed his eyes with a shake of his head in regret.
"Failure shall be the hardest load to free yourself of by far. Especially since you have made it a part of who you are." Jack and AJ swiveled their heads around to spy Zecora sitting behind Jack, eyes closed as she nodded her head with understanding. "With so little to build yourself upon, there is no surprise that this is how you're drawn."
"Zecora...what are ya trying to say?" Applejack asked the zebra, who sighed slightly before standing up and grabbing the samurai by the ear, and she then began to drag him along.
"Taking the time to explain would be too much of a pain. You two shall come with me, and then you will see." With Jack being dragged along by the zebra, Applejack chose to follow after her, curious to hear the reasoning for her words.
'Ah just hope whatever it is...it can convince Jack that he's not a failure. That he is a noble warrior...and maybe...that he doesn't have to go back.'