//------------------------------//
// A trip to Filly part 4 
// Story: Secrets of a Wanderer 
// by Nero_Nova 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 21 A trip to Filly part 4

Maud, Pinkie, and Twilight were quiet as they walked back to Tall Tail University, each needlessly thinking about the strange possibility that Jax may have actually witnessed the musicor of a small town he helped build in China. Twilight levitated a scroll she had taken notes on trying to look focused as she struggled to think of a way to bring up the subject to Jax in a way that he wouldn't sidestep the question like he always did. Pinkie hung her head a little lower than normally walking close to her sister, practically touching shoulders, thinking how lucky she was to have such good friends and family, and how Jax may have lost his friends that fateful day in china. Meanwhile, Maud way trying to think of a reason why a survivor would be left out of the reports of the tragedy. Thinking back to her studies, the reports had been extremity detailed, giving horrifying descriptions of the sickening mutilations of the attentions. More research uncovered comments from local dragons that had planned on attending the ceremony but were unable. She even found images of what was left of the town, most of it still burning while dragon guards loomed over the sight. For a moment Maud thought why the culprits were never caught, seeing as dragons can identify each other with claw mark much like ponies can with hoof marks. Thinking back to the pictures of ponies slashed to ribbons and burned to a crisp, it must have been impossible to get a good look at the claw marks. The tragedy was so horrific, that Celestia kept most of the facts about it out of the public news, fearing the impression it would give of dragons to ponies that did not know better. If there was a survivor, then that pony would have bee seen as a beacon of hope in such a dark tragedy, and the construction of the town may have started up again, yet, no survivors were reported.

The feeling of Pinkie accidentally grazing her shoulder snapped the gray mare out of her thoughts and drew her attention to the pinkie mare that hung her head low. Maud bumped her sister's shoulder to get her attention and offered a reassuring smile, the same smile she always gave her sister's when they were feeling down. Pinkie, still feeling concerned, smiled back meekly as she raised her head in response to her older sister. The Two earth ponies stopped at a crosswalk outside of the university as a yellow light started to flash on one of metal posts. Twilight, who was still deep in thought, kept walking, having not noticed her two friends waiting on the sidewalk. Suddenly Pinkie Pie felt an odd twitch in her tail accompanied by tightness in her shoulders and a strange desire to pop her neck. 

Realizing what these sensations meant, Pinkie playfully hopped into the street ahead of twilight, only to push her back to the sidewalk. "What? pinkie?" The alicorn said in slight protest to her odd friend slide her backward. The two mares stood with Maud again as if nothing had happened, seemingly just waiting. "What are we-"

"Wait for it," Maud said cutting off the alicorns question. seconds later a large gray truck came speeding down the street coming straight from the university. 

"You're welcome," Pinkie said as Twilight stood there dumbfounded realizing that if she had kept walking she would have been dead center of the trucks path. Looking past the purple mare, Pinkie noticed Maud staring at the speeding truck with a hoof to her chin, "Something wrong Maud?"

"That truck is from the university," The gray mare said stating the obvious, "It's used to transport items from the lab."

"Really?" Pinkie asked, "Isn't it going a little fast for stuff that belongs it a lab?"

Twilight Ran a list of items through her head going over them at a mind-boggling speed, each one a piece of equipment that she would use in her own lab and some that she remembered from the university lab. "Yeah," She said agreeing with Pinkie, "I don't even let spike run when he carries my lab equipment across the room, something's bound to break if somepony is driving like that."

Maud nods in agreement having gone over her own mental list of possible equipment that could be in the truck, all of it breakable when paired with reckless driving. "I'll see if I can talk to somepony about the drive-"

"Stop that truck!" called out a stallion sprinting toward the girls at a breakneck pace, skidding to a stop at the end of the street. "Did you see where it went?" The stallion asked looking back and forth down the street, "The truck was stolen!" The stallion added before any of the mares could respond, each of them now wide-eyed.

"What was in the truck?" Twilight asked concerned. 

"It was the foreign search material, you know those big rocks," The stallion replied.

Pinkie gasped and looked over to her sister, "That's not good," Muad said, "A lot of the labs research material comes from around the world, and no pony was even sure if we were going ti get to see any of those rocks let alone so many of them. Losing them could destroy the university!" Maud added a hint of alarm in her voice.

Pinkie gasped again, "Twilight! We have to......." Pinkie stared for a second at the open space where she thought the purple mare would be standing. "Twilight?" she questioned aloud looking around.

"STOP YOU THIEVES!!!" The pie sisters heard the purple mare cry out. Pinkie sighed in response before speeding off in the direction of the truck, Maud waved good-bye to the stallion and followed soon after.





Twilight flew just overhead of the speeding truck mentally going over what she knew about motor vehicles. Concluding that taking out the tires would be the best corse of action, she charged her magic and took aim. Her mind flashed back to the conversation she ad with Pinkie and Maud about how fragile lab equipment could be, and quickly dispelled her magic, worried that a sudden jerk of the truck could damage anything inside. Instead, she thought the best way to slow the truck, was to get in the drivers seat. The young alicorn flapped her wings as hard as she could, flashes of her rainbow maned friend yelling at her to go faster flooding her mind. Twilight nearly flinched when she touched down on the truck, surprising herself that she actually caught up with it. The purple mare quickly realized that her landing had not gone unnoticed as the truck started to go faster, nearly blowing Twilight off the roof of the truck. Now holding on for dear life, Twilight screamed in slight panic clinging to the slick metal with her hooves.





Twilight Quickly regretted her landing on the truck and let go, opening her wings to take flight as she did so. Back in the air with the truck slowly speeding away, The mare could think of nothing to do but follow the vehicle and hope she can get back the research material when it stops. "Twilight!" She heard a stallion call, the voice fixed with the wind. Looking to her left she spotted him, a light green stallion running on rooftops, keeping pace with her.

"Jax?" The mare questioned just before flying closer to the stallion in question, keeping her pace and an eye on the truck. 

"By the Ancient Twilight," Jax said, his voice full of concern, disbelief, and oddly frustration. "What is that thing, why is it moving o fast, and why are you chasing it?!"

"You've never seen a truck before?" She questioned.

"Somehow I have a feeling that's not what we should worry about right now." Jax said in response, "So come on catch me up."

"Right," Twilight said, "That's a truck, in summary, it's like a carriage that run's on a type of fuel instead of ponies. The drivers stole it and the research material inside from Tall Tail University. If the university loses the research material, it will ruin them."

"What?" Jax asked, "you're chasing down a contraption that goes's almost as fast as Rainbow Dash for a schools reputation?"

Twilight grimaced at the question, "One, Dash is may times faster than a truck," Twilight said in a defensive tone, "Two, that research material is priceless, rare and possibly one of a kind, if the university loses it, they will have to relievers the owners!"

"Point's taken," Jax said looking down at the speeding hunk of metal, "So what do we do?"

"We need to stop it, or at least slow it down," Twilight said looking over the vehicle again.

"Just use your magic," Jax said 

"I can't, if the truck shakes around too much, it could damage the material," Twilight responded.

"Then don't shake it," Twilight nearly slowed down at the strange response Jax gave, "Ugh, levitation is your best spell Twilight, so grab on to it somehow and pull!"

Twilight Face hoofed, momentarily frustrated that she did not think of such a simple idea. the purple mare flew low as close to the truck as she could trying to think of the best way to grab hold of it. She considered grabbing the whole truck, but the smaller she could make her magically grip, the more she could pull back on it. The schematics of the vehicle formed in her mind as she mentally went over each piece in her reach faster than any of her computers could have done shown her. Her ears twitched as she set her sights on, what she remembered as, the rear axle of the truck. Pulling there would not only give her a good grip but also give her a chance to slow down the back wheels of the truck, if not rip them off completely.

Jax could barely see the glow of magic from under the hunk of metal, but he could tell by the sudden tension in Twilight's flying that she had taken hold of something with her magic. With seemingly no magic of his own, Jax saw no safe way to help and could only follow from the rooftops, or so he thought until he looked further down the street. The truck had been speeding down the art district where he and Discord were hopping from store to store, with so many performers and shops to see, ponies must have preferred to walk there since there was a saver lack of taxi carriages and the street was mostly clear. However, they were reaching the end of the street, where the hustle of one carriage after another filled the streets, requiring crosswalks so ponies could cross the street safely. 

Jax sighed to himself, "Why can't I go to a country and not get involved with the crazy one's that get into trouble," he picked up his pace, a slight shimmer coming from the metal bands around his ankles. "Every time, everywhere I go, someone does something stupid and I just can't hold myself back, I just have to jump in." The stallion leapt from roof top to roof top with long strides quickly moving ahead of the truck, "I swear, days like this I wish i had some of Lin's cheap scotch so I could just ignore everything, Jax leapt from the buildings and landed in the path of the truck, the impact cracking the asphalt under his hooves, "Oh yeah, I tried that once," Jax raised his hooves standing on only his hind legs, "Didn't work." Twilight had managed to slow the truck down considerably, but the force of the truck was still enough to push Jax back as his hooves hit the hunk of metal. His hooves dug into the front of the truck and the asphalt as it forced him backward further and further. Taking a peek over his shoulder, the stallion noticed that not only were ponies crossing the street at that moment, but they had yet to notice the truck. Are you kidding me? I was less oblivious with Deedee in Russa! Seeing that the truck would not stop in time Jax protective instinct kicked in. he took one hoof from the truck and moved it under the front bumper, with one mighty pull, he lifted the underside of the truck, forcefully tipping it onto its side. Jax now forced his side against the truck pushing with all four hooves into the ground. The sound of scraping metal filled the air as the surrounding ponies became aware of the dire situation and quickly got out of the way. Local police filled the streets as the truck came to a screeching halt in the middle of the intersection. "Know what, When I leave, I'm spending the rest of my time at the bar." Jax popped his neck as he took his weight off the truck and Twilight joined him in front of the vehicle, Pinkie and Maud finally catching up with the pinkie mare somehow out of breath.

armored carriages arrived with more officers shortly as ponies swarmed Jax and Twilight, praising them for stopping the truck. Twilight defaulted to her classic smile and wave she had come accustom to since assenting to the title of princess, all the while ponies surrounded her taking pictures and asking for autographs. Jax on the other hand desperately tried to hide behind the purple mare, staying away from as many ponies as possible. The portion of the crowd surrounding him mostly consisted of the ponies that has first seen him in front of the truck as it came to a halt, and assumed he had stopped it himself. The green stallion did his best to keep calm, wanting to be respectful to the ponies who were only trying to thank him. Lucky for him Pinkie noticed his ears twitching with anxiety and his left rear hoof starting to tap. He was getting very uncombable, so she pulled a random piece of rubber from her mane and started to blow into a nub on its side. The piece of rubber quickly took shape into a pony-sized ball that she jumped atop and began to balance on.

"Hey, everypony, ok over here!" she called to the crowd as she danced around on the ball acting as silly as possible making every strange sound her voice could muster. The crowds did not watch for long, finding the current heroes of the day more interesting than a silly pony on top of a ball, but it was more than long enough for Jax to slip away behind the tipped over truck.

Twilight joined him soon after and the two looked and quietly laugh at how relaxed the two of them became away from the crowds. "Wow Jax," Twilight said, "I knew you were fast, but I had no idea you could outrun a car. How did you do that?"

"You didn't see?" Jax asked slowly to which Twilight shook her head, her smile never wavering. The stallion sighed in relief, "Well you did slow down the truck a lot, and we were really pushing the pace."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Twilight said with a slight chuckle in her voice as she became aware of a soreness in her wings.

Maud approached the back of the truck with the intent of looking inside but was stopped by an officer pony. "This truck was stolen from Tall Tail University," she said before the officer pony could say anything. "I'm a student that was studying the research material that is currently inside it. If any of it is missing or damaged, the university could be in big trouble, so I would like to check on it before it's moved,"

The officer scratched his chin for a moment, "I'd like to see some I'd first," Maud complied with the request and pulled out a lanyard the had her student ID attached to it. content with her identity the officer waved her by to check inside the truck.

Muad reached up and undid the latch of the truck and stepped back to let it fall open, but as it did so, she heard something snap and as the door fell open she saw one of the glass containers fall and open. "Oh no, not that one," she thought to herself as her eyes shot wide and she jumped to the side. The glass container, stronger than it seemed, did not break, but the bright yellow get that sat inside it fell out and on to the street with twice as much force as one would expect. It began to bounce around, ricoshaying of the street, into the walls of the buildings and even in the stores after breaking through the windows.

The sound of breaking glass is what caught Jax and Twilights attention and they finally saw what was going on, "What is that thing?!" Jax questioned as the yellow gem jolted around.

"It's the lightning stone!" Twilight answered as she narrowly avoided being impaled by the sharp point of the flying stone. "It's one of the research materials, it's just going to keep getting faster as it jumps around, we need to stop it."

Jax watched as Pinkie jumped around trying to catch the stone out of the air as it quickly became a blur. Looking around he tried to think of a way to slow it down and his eyes landed on a fire hydrant. Pinkie somehow kept track of the flying gem and stood in front of the truck where she knew it would fly, intending to catch it. Luckily her sister knew better and pushed her out of the way, just as pinkie asked why, she saw the yellow blur rip through the underside of the truck and out the other side, leaving both mares speechless. The sound of clanking metal filled the air as the fire hydrant was ripped from the concrete with one kick from Jax causing water to rush out like a geyser. "Twilight the water!" Jax called to his alicorn friend. Twilight looked on in confusion for a moment before having to dodge the yellow blur again, causing Jax to grunt in frustration. "Gather the water in a big ball," he called to her, "we need at least ten feet of it!"

Twilight caught on to Jax plan and rushed over dodging the flying gem once more. she wrapped as much water in her magic as she could gathering it all into a ten-foot tall floating orb, content with the outcome Jax ran back to the truck and sat in the middle of the street covering himself with his cloak. The lightning stone had already exhilarated faster than the eye could see, so Jax closed his eyes and used his own tactic. He formed the world around him is his mind, stripping it of all detail leaving a world of white planes and surfaces in a void of black. He could hear the stone bouncing off the crumbling walls and street and tracked its movements in his mind, which took shape as a bright yellow light flashing back and forth. He focused more and soon the light went faster than the stone, tracking every possible movement until Jax noticed one that landed close to him. The stallion's eye's shot open and the world moved in slow motion, his bands shimmered faintly once again as the Lightning stone flow just to his left after bouncing off the street. He raised his hooves to meet the stone, slamming his left foreleg into the side of the flying stone and reinforcing the blow with his right. He could feel the stone absorb the force of his blow and redirect it back at him, causing a loud cracking sound as it bounced off him, its course redirected to fly right into Twilights levitated water.

Everypony let out a held breath of relief as the lightning stone came to an almost imitate halt in the center of the water ball and floated motionless for all to see. What few ponies that did not run in fear of the destructive gem cheered and stomped their hooves in applause, praising the green stallion and the princess for seemingly saving the day once again. Maud carried over the glass container for the stone to Twilight who gently returned the stone to its rightful place, additionally filling the container with water to reduce the chance of another accident, to which Maud gave a smile of approval. Jax limped over to the two mares, pinkie joining soon after as the crowd surrounded them again.

Pinkie, again knowing that her green friend would not be at ease around so many ponies pulled Jax leg to hide him behind her, in doing to, she felt foreleg how the foreleg of the stallion had quickly swollen and taken on a light red tint. "Jax! You're leg!" Pinkie said in alarm taking the leg in a gentle grasp with both hooves.

Jax Head turned toward the worried mare, "What? oh..." he said seeing his numb and once again broken leg, "Well that's going to hurt later today..." was all he had to say as Maud and Twilight turned their attention away from the crowd.

"Jax! Are you OK?!" Twilight asked almost as alarmed as Pinkie.

"Can I take a look?" Maud asked, taking a step toward Jax, she closed her eyes and tenderly felt around Jax foreleg for a moment, being sure not to add any more presser then needed. "I don't think it's broken, I took a medical course this semester and learned how to tell the severity of  an injury, to put it simply, I think it's just a little cracked, you should be fine in a few days."

"Thank," Jax said, "Umm... who are you?" he added tilting his head at the strange gray mare.

"Maud pie," she answered in a seemingly emotionless voice.

"My big sister!" Pinkie added, grasping the gray mare in a hug.

For a moment Jax looked back and forth between the two mares while Twilight stood behind them nodding her head, confirming the relation between  the two mares. "Well... you two have got to be the third weirdest pair I've ever seen," Jax said, the words leaving his mouth before he knew it. He covered his mouth with a hoof, worried he had just offended the two mares.

"Huh," all three mares said in unison.

Just as Jax raised a roof to respond a flash of light appeared on his left and with it an annoyed Discord levitating the stallions bags and holding his tea set under his lion arm. The draconequus opened his mouth to say something but then caught  look at the building behind the stallion, it's wall's crumbling with several holes punched through it. Looking around he finds that most of the surrounding buildings are damaged in the same way, as well as a tipped truck with several holes of its own. "Did I miss something?"





"Are you sure you're ok?" Twilight asked looking at Jax leg, once again wrapped in a sling.

"I'm fine Twilight," The stallion assured her, "Besides, had to be done, right?" He added as the two sat in a carriage heading back to the university lab. Maud had made a call to the Dean of Tall Tail University and requested the elemental stones be stored away in the lab for an extra day, for safe keeping while a new truck was required for their transportation, a suggestion the Dean was happy to take. Jax, Twilight, Pinkie and Discord all tagged along to ensure the items in question were safely returned to the lab without any further miss haps. The Cab ponies, as well as the Team of police ponies following them, pulled into the lab parking lot where other students and campus security were waiting to take the stones back to the safety of the locked down testing rooms. "What I want to know," Jax said as he exited the carriage, "Is where in Tartarus you found Alchemic Celtic stones.

"Celtic... Stones?" Twilight questioned.

"Yeah," Jax responded, "Oh by the way," Jax added reaching into his saddle bag and pulling out a yellow book and handing it to the purple mare, not seeing the red box that fell out. "New book," was all he said as he approached the glass containers that were being unloaded from another carriage.

"What do you mean?" The alicorn asked, not looking at the book and following her friend, "None of these are from that part of the world. China, Germany, Africa..." Twilight said pointing at each store as she listed its origin, "Each somehow formed naturally in its own environment."

"That's not right..." The stallion said as he walked over and opened the container that held the earth stone. "These stone's are made with an ancient magic that is only found in the temples ruins in Scotland and Irland, no other civilization ever developed this kind of magic before."

"Huh?" was all Twilight could say as she tilted her head in confusion, "Ok Jax, I know you've been all over the world and seen things that even I haven't read about yet, but these stones have been through a lot of tests and labs, studied by young and old minds alike. you can't honestly expect me to believe you know, off hoof, something that dozens of other ponies couldn't figure out. That's a little much even for-" Twilight held her tongue, her mouth agape as Jax blow on the earth stone, causing it to crumble into dust at the gentle breeze, a quality of the stone no pony had told him.

"I would never assume to know more than a well-educated pony twilight," Jax said digging his hoof into the dust as if looking for something, "Unless I know for a fact that I'm right." He pulled his hoof from the dust and presented a smooth white stone, clearly engraved with what a set of overlapping black lines, a Celtic Ruin. "I don't know much about these stones, but what I don't know is that these stones are not made by nature. Somepony made these, all of them."

Maud and Pinkie, who had overheard the conversation now stood with Twilight, their mouths wide open in both contemplation and astonishment. Twilight was cataloging every scrap of magic she knew, trying to find anything in her vast mental collection of knowledge that could even be comparable to this bizarre possibility. Maud through back to the many tests she had done on the stones and the tests she had overseen. She could not think of a single time that a pony actually reduced the earth stone to dust, let alone dug around in it. Pinkie was simply blank minded as she had no idea what to think. Instead, she simply hoofed back the small red box that she saw fall out of Jax bag.

"Oh, thank you Pinkie," Jax said dropping the stone back into the dust and taking the box. On contact the dust came to life and swirled around the white stone, reforming into a solid stone.

"B-but...how... where?" Twilight shuddered

"I met someone with a personal library when I was in Scotland," Was all Jax said, Discord meanwhile snuck up behind him eyeing the little box in Jax hoof. While Jax was still watching Twilights face twist into strange expressions, still trying to think of anything she had come across even remotely similar to this new kind of magic, Discord flicked the small box. The box opened and accidently fall out of the stallion's hoof, "Discord?!" Jax said looking upset at the mischievous creator who just shrugged his shoulders and smiled.

As the box hit the ground, it contents fell out and tumbled over to Maud's hooves. The item was a smooth pink oval shaped gemstone, rimmed with silver and attached to a thick silver chain. She picked it up and hung it in front of herself which drew the attention of both her sister and Twilight. "The sister's stone?" She said looking over the gem.

"I didn't know you liked Jewelry," Pinkie said

"I don't," Jax responded as maud returned the neckless to its case and then it to Jax, "It was a gift from Luna."

"Really?" Twilight questioned, raising an eyebrow, "What for?"

"Don't know," Jax said with a shrug.

"Oh a gift from the moon princess," Discord cooed playfully, "Perhaps it's her attempt to confession her-" He was silenced with a green hoof to his lips.

"I'm going to stop you right there Discord," The stallion said, "The chances of anymare falling for me is about as likely as Celestia forgetting to raise the sun for a full day."

"Actually..." Twilight whispered nervously rolling her eyes, "She did do that... once... it was shortly after she took the thrown"

Jax wide-eyed expression showed nothing but surprise, "Even still, there's no way" He said, "she was just being nice thinking I would want something to have to remember my time here." 

"Right," Discord said sarcastically, "And your instant denial of the suggestion is so not because you considered that idea," Jax frowned as a light pink came across his face.

"Really, you're going there," Jax responded, his crimson eyes like daggers pointed at the Spirit of Chaos. He sighed, "I don't know about you guys but I'm tired and would like to get home." Twilight and the others looked at the sky and noticed the sun beginning to set over the mountain range. With all the excitement of the day, no pony had noticed how fast the time had gone. "Maud it was nice meeting you," Jax said as he put away the small box and went to wait for the girls in one of the taxi carriages.

Pinkie and Twilight said their goodbyes to Maud, and Pinkie again promised her sister that she would visit home more often, to let them know how she is and remind them what they mean to her. Discord decided to head back to ponyvill with his magic, offering to take Jax things with him, dropping them off at Twilight castle so he didn;t have to carry them oh a bad leg. Jax gracefully accepted the help, but not before making the mischievous creature promise to leave the bags with spike and not to look inside them. Like a child who just had his toy taken away, Discord promised and was gone in a flash. Less than an hour later the three ponies were on the train home, Jax and Pinkie fast asleep on the seat across from Twilight. As the alicorn rummaged through her saddle bag for the list of books she had made, she spotted a thick yellow book, the one Jax had given her at the university. to distracted by Jax claim of knowing the origin of the elemental stones, she had unconsciously slid the book into her bag without looking at it. Taking it out, she examined the back of the book and then turned it over, wondering why Jax would get her a book. He question was answered when she saw the cover. Twilight didn't need to read the title to understand, for the cover of the book was an image of Daring Doo with a katana sword strapped to her back, she stood in an open field with a mountain in the background. Upon further inspection, she recognized the mountain, it was Mount Fuji, in Japan.

Twilight looked over to the sleeping stallion, thinking of everything that had happened that day. The town in china, chasing the truck, the elemental stones, and Daring Doo's newest book, a week before it's release date no less. "Jax, who are you?"