Shattered Past

by thunderclap

Blind Fury

Jake walked down the worn path of the forest trying to guide his mind away from what had just happened. ‘I can’t believe that she just fainted like that.’ Jake thought, rekindling his depression. ‘Then again she was easily startled and I did just drop out of that tree. I hope she’ll be okay. What are you thinking, Jake? You know her friends, even if the experience was hard on her, her friends will help her through it.’ The conclusion seemed satisfactory to Jake, but he still felt a knot form in the pit of his stomach. ‘This must be guilt. Huh, it’s not a good feeling.’

Jake shook his head for a moment and remembered what he had wanted to do today. ‘I was going to explore the forest today, but all I’ve managed to see is the same clearing and Fluttershy’s cottage.’ Now that his mind was effectively cleared he trudged on into the forest. He had very little trouble while exploring and getting his bearings. Every now and then a few small creatures looked down at him inquisitively but otherwise didn’t react. At one point he almost ran into two manticores at once. Jake was fairly certain he could handle one again, but two would push him to an extreme that could kill him. Instead he calmly climbed a tree and proceeded onward by jumping from branch to branch. If the manticores did hear the disturbances that he was causing they would hopefully assume he was a squirrel or something, and therefore not worth their time.

Once Jake was sure he was out of the manticores’ line of perception, he slid down a tree to rest. Jake glanced up to the sky and guessed it was sometime around noon based on the shadows the trees were giving off. ‘How do I know something like that?’ Jake thought bitterly. ‘I can guess the time of day using shadows, but if someone asked me to tell them what interests me, or the name of my family I’d be stumped.’ “IT’S NOT FAIR!” Jake practically screamed causing several birds to take flight. In the distance he heard two animals roar in unison.

The manticores must have heard Jake yell and were now on the hunt. “Why should I care?” Jake wondered aloud. “Is my life even worth living? The only peo-… ponies that know about me and accept me are three children. What if all the other ponies react the way Fluttershy did? What if I’m hated and despised just for looking different? That’s not fair; I don’t even know who I am!” Jake’s depression continued on like this for a few moments, tears falling down his face until his cheeks were damp. Then, his depression changed. Anger soon swelled up inside of him. “Why? Why can’t I remember?! Why am I all alone?! Why is it that the only memory I do have leaves me with more questions than before?!” Jake sprang up to his feet just in time to be greeted with the tails of the manticores’. Jake narrowly escaped the lightning fast strikes and glared at the two behemoths before him.

“You two just picked the worst possible moment to mess with me.” Jake hissed at the manticores. They both growled at him to show that they held no fear of him, circling him and waiting to for the perfect moment to strike. “You know what? Come at me you overgrown pussycats.” Jake replied with his own growl, drawing his knife while he did. ‘Cause the way I see it this will end one of two ways. One: I’ll die and at least one of you will get to eat me. Or, two: I’ll kick you’re asses and when I’m done with you there’ll be nothing left. You better hope it’s one because I personally don’t care at this point.”

The manticores weren’t used to facing prey that showed no fear towards them. They almost seemed scared themselves at the prospect of such a thing. They quickly recovered from the initial shock and attempted to pounce on Jake from his left and right. Jake didn’t need his telepathy to anticipate the maneuver. He wasn’t even using the ability at this point. Instead: rage, reflex, and adrenaline fueled his actions. One of the manticores whipped its tail in a deadly arc toward Jake while the other snapped at him with its large jaws. He quickly sidestepped away from both attacks and brought his knife down into the bridge of the nose of the manticore that had attempted to bite him. The manticore went into a rage fit as blood sprang flowed heavily from the wound. Before Jake could stab the creature again, the first one knocked him off with one of its claws and sent him flying through the air. Luckily the claws were retracted to avoid causing further damage to its hunting partner. Jake flipped in mid-air and landed in a crouching position facing the manticores, and began to pant and sweat slightly.

The manticores charged at Jake with unrelenting fury. The manticores had decided to flank Jake again, but this time they were using everything in their arsenal. Claws, teeth, and tail were desperately attempting to hit Jake. His instincts kicked in and told him to only avoid the deathly blows. Unfortunately, that still left Jake with a lot of work. He knew that one hit from their tails and jaws and he would be a goner. Small wounds opened up along him as their claws swept over his body. Jake was sure he would die when he finally found an opening. One of the manticores had made a wider strike with one of their claws. This gave Jake ample opportunity to duck under the attack and dash between the manticore’s legs. The confused beat tried to reposition itself, but Jake had already jumped onto its back to cut off the thing’s tail.

The manticore bellowed in pain, and its companion responded by swiping one of its paws at Jake. Rather than dodge, Jake grabbed onto the paw, blood oozing out of his sides where the claws were digging into his flesh, and flipped onto the manticore’s foreleg. From there Jake threw his knife at the thing’s face where it dug itself hilt deep into its eye. But, Jake wasn’t done yet. He jumped off the foreleg and grabbed onto his knife with both hands. Gravity soon wretched the knife free, causing a mixture of blood and eye fluid to spout out of the wound.

Jake landed with a dull thud and rolled away from the manticores’ stomping feet. Jake tried to pull himself back to his feet. Every muscle groaned in protest as he did. In the end adrenaline won out over his overexerted body and he was soon back on his feet. In a last ditch effort Jake charged at the confused manticores and began to hack and slash at any place on their bodies his knife could reach. Eventually the manticores died but Jake didn’t notice for a moment or so.

When it was all over Jake allowed his body to collapse between the manticores. It took all his remaining strength to put himself into a sitting position to examine the amount of damage the battle had done to him. He had received dozens of wounds from the manticore’s claws, but none were very deep and could be easily ignored. The only other injuries Jake could discern were what felt like a few sore areas. Then Jake looked and saw the state his clothing was in. His shirt and pants were barely more than ribbons being held together by some benevolent force. What was left of his clothing had accumulated vast amounts of blood and dirt so that very little remained of their original white color.

The fight had managed to calm Jake down and now a feeling of remorse hit Jake, stronger than when he had killed the first manticore. At the time it had been imperative to kill it. It was either that, or allow it to kill the Cutie Mark Crusaders. He knew he could label it as self-defense again, but this this was just pointless bloodshed. Jake knew that there were plenty of times he could have escaped the fight, but his frustration at not knowing his past had blinded him. Jake sighed at the pain he had just caused. “I’m sorry. This shouldn’t have happened. I would give you two a funeral as well, but I don’t think I can stand up, let alone gather wildflowers in these woods.” A smile crept along the corners of Jake’s mouth as he said this. “It’s funny, even though I’m still hopelessly confused about who I am and why I’m here. It doesn’t infuriate me that I don’t know anything. Maybe this fight gave me some perspective. I should still try to find out the answers to my questions, but there’s no need to rush it. Things like this take time. If my emotions get the better of me then bad things could happen to me…” Jake turned his head towards the two corpses and finished with, “…and whatever’s around me for that matter.”

Jake continued to rest for a while. Although now his head was clear as opposed to swirling in one extreme or another with questions about his past. For the first time in the two days he here he felt at peace. After an hour or so he was able to pick himself up and continued on his exploration. He walked for about half an hour, the air cooling down with the approaching evening. A breeze wafted through the trees and left Jake feeling chilled. He felt his stomach rumble telling him something that he already knew. That he needed food. He stopped to pick some berries and edible plants in an attempt to appease his stomach. Jake ate and continued to walk when he was relieved to hear the sound of rushing water.

Jake ran to the edge of the forest to find a river in the middle of his path. He could already tell from a glance that it was too deep to walk across. “I guess I can wash my clothes before I head back.” He told himself. Jake peeled his shirt knife, and makeshift bandages away from his chest exposing his body to the cool night air. He took a hesitant sniff of himself that caused his nose to scrunch up. “And, maybe I should wash off some of this stink while I’m at it.”

Jake had just finished washing off his clothes and had spread them out on a nearby boulder to dry off. Now he was washing himself off in the gentle current. He had almost gotten comfortable when his mind came into contact with a strange presence. He scrambled to the shore and saw a large reptile breach the surface.

The thing had a long undulated body that spread far out into the river. It had dark purple scales, long orange hair and a mustache that came out of the sides of its snout. Jake was about to try and defend himself and reached toward his knife when the thing called out in a flamboyant voice. “Well hello there, I’m Steve the river serpent. May I ask who you are and why you’re getting my home so filthy?” Jake knew it was impolite but he couldn’t stop himself.

“Wait you’re name… is Steve?” Jake asked between fits of laughter.

“Yes is there some sort of problem with that?” Steve asked, confused and possibly offended.

“I’m sorry; it’s just that I was expecting something like Slipperyscales or Fishtail after my experience with the ponies back there. Okay, I think I needed that. I’m sorry but I’ve had a stressful couple of days and that really helped.”

“It’s fine, but you still haven’t answered my questions.” Steve said, softening his expression a little.

“Oh, right. My name is Jake Valentine, and I was cleaning my clothes and myself off.

“And you laughed at the name Steve. That being said you’re clothes are absolutely atrocious! Have you ever heard of a little thing called style?” The river serpent cried indicating Jake’s drying clothes.

“They looked a lot better before my fights with manticores and those strange wooden wolf things.”

“You fought manticores and timberwolves and are still alive? Talk about deceiving appearances.” Steve said while examining Jake before his eyes stopped at his shoulder wound. “Oh no, you poor thing you’re hurt aren’t you? I think I know someone who can help. Her name is Fluttershy and…”

“Don’t worry about this, I’ve got it covered.” Jake stopped the river serpent before he went any further. “You know you’re the first thing here that hasn’t reacted like I’m some weird monster. Have you seen something like me before?”

“No I haven’t, after living in this river for so long things just don’t surprise me anymore.” Steve apologized, sympathy in his eyes.

“That’s alright; can you at least tell me what’s on the other side of the river?”

“I believe there’s some old castle or something, if you’d like I could give you a lift.”

“That would be great, thanks.” Jake said, quickly getting himself dressed. Once on the other side he waved Steve the river serpent goodbye and made his way down the path that would lead him toward the abandoned castle.