MickeyAdaptus

The battle was growing bleaker by the second, the royal guard had fortified the train into a defensible interior after the civilians that remained has been evacuated. And it proved to work quite effectively in staying alive, but it was not going to hold forever, some unicorns had attempted to raise a magical shield around the train, but that magical shield had ended up breaking from all the gunfire that the orks where doing it, and they needed all other unicorns to fire ranged attacks back at the orks while the ones with bows and crossbows where also doing their part in firing back. It, however, was not going to be enough, orks throwing stikk bombs occasionally towards the fortificaiton, one of them exploded straight into the train, causing around 3 royal guards to die from that. On the other hand, the melee orks where trying to fight their way straight into the train, the royal guard was managing to keep the orks at bay to some degree, as the orks proved to be quite hard to push back from the sheer determination they were displaying. When the ballista's fired, it was raining down very larg sharp projectiles, some of the orks getting killed by the rain of those things, other orks where spreading out, while the more brutish orks simply ignored the danger of the raining projectiles and continued engaging their enemy regardless, it did prove to be a good manoeuvre however at it was keeping the orks a bit more at bay.

"Indeed, we should get going, it should be 30 with flying, Ember, could you carry me again? We are going to need a good pace if we want to make it there in 30 minutes or even less." Jack said. "I wonder how Evelyn is-" Suddenly Jack felt something. "Well speak of the devil, i can feel her life force pretty close, but not that near, seems she is making a pretty good pace at will, tough i am not sure if she will catch up to us."

"Well, I can't say its a really big problem, even if the fur won't regrow, it will serve as a memory, as do all of my other scars." Jack admitted. "Heck, I even have a scar that serves as a good reminder to my friend Wiliam, me and him both made a cut in our right hands as a sign of eternal friendship." Jack said as he showed Festus the scar. "Perhaps it is an odd way as a reminder, but I and he were very good friends, all before... the entire mess happened." Jack said. "Aren't there dragons out there who also take their scars as a sign of pride? From ponies, it doesn't seem very likely except for their most hardened and toughest warriors, for gryphons it would be alot more in that pride I presume, given their overall attitude and all." Jack asked them, wondering if it were the case. Jack also wanted to start moving but he was wondering about this question first.

Hey there! Do you think you could perhaps do one of my oc? It would be really awsome if you could! (Only if you want ofcourse, i can imagine it being pretty hard to do so much after eachother)

The battle at the train was looking dire, the ponies in the attacked cabin had all been killed, the royal guards themselves had fought back against the orks, they had managed to kill 3 of the stormboyz, but had suffered 10 casualties during the act, but this was understandable as those royal guards stationed on that train had been rather new recruits, and at the time had been the only ones available to guard that train. Eventually the last 2 orks on that train had been slain when a royal guard detachment came to the aid, however... Celebrating was far too early, orks never attack such targets with only a number of 5, and it was then that the Royal Guard was ambushed, and while most had remained behind to stand against the ork ambush, a few had left their detachment to escort the remaining ponies out of the train and into the forest, hoping to evacuate everypony from the train, and make it to Canterlot in another way. True to their word, the royal guards were holding their own against the ork horde for quite a while, but how long would they last against the orks, who vastly outnumbered them? It would only be a matter of time until more orks would join the fray, at this point for the royal guards it was either fight to the death or surrender and still get killed, for the Orks would not leave any survivors. Running would not work for them, for the orks would catch up to them with ease, even the pegasus guards would be shot down by the ork gunners if they would attempt to escape, unless outside help would come, they could turn the tide of the battle, but without help, all these guards would perish. What would happen? Would there come any help? And how much help? A few soldiers would make not a big difference for the orks where vastly outnumbering the royal guards. Where the royal guards had about 35 soldiers, the orks had around 235 soldiers, for they where known to attack in hordes, it was by the advantage of fortifying and using the abilities from both earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns that they where managing to keep their stand, for now.

Jack looked at his hand with a bit of confusion. "It.. really burned? I was hoping my magic would stand the heat, guess that spell didn't really work that way it seems.." Jack said with a bit of shock. "For some reason, i don't really seem to feel the burn in my left hand, it just feels absent." Jack said. He then looked at his knife. "But well, i wanted to create these 3 sharp points at the left side of my knife, that way slashing will become a whole lot deadlier, i presumed this method would be the best since i didn't have any tools with me." Jack stated. "I grew up in the most dangerous places after all, i have learned to use things that i can have at my disposal." he said. 'Still, i wonder why i din't feel it, was the burn so bad that it went past my feeling? I guess i will never know.' Jack tought

Jack smiled. "Thank you, now I can get to work," Jack said, he enveloped his left hand in magic, and then suddenly did something rather bizarre. He grabbed the heated part with his hand, a burning sound was coming when he was gripping the hot metal. He used 3 fingers from his left hand to then put a good amount of pressure on the hot metal, including the force from the magic, which caused some of the metal got small dents in it from the left side. Jack let his left hand go and then smashed the dented side of the knife straight on a very hard rock. While the rock got a small crack in it, the knife itself now had 3 very sharp points on the left side of the metal, which almost made it look like a tiny saw with a very sharp edge on top. "Man, that actually did hurt, but the end result is what matters." Jack said as he was blowing at his hand from the very hot touch that it had exposed.

"I was thinking, do you still want that grow thing that I had been talking about earlier? I am not sure when i can gather the supplies that i need in order for you to help your wings grow faster." Jack asked him. Jack suddenly got an idea, he drew his knife out of the sudden. "Festus, could you heat up my knife with your fire breath?" Jack asked him, wich sounded a bit weird for asking that so out of the sudden.

"You got that one right!" Jack said with a laugh to Embers joke. He then sat down for a moment. "You are right Festus, at first I thought there was no longer any need since for your wings were already capable of flight by the time but it went past my knowing that it would benefit if your wings would grow faster from that process regardless. I guess I should learn more about a dragon's body structure in general, at first I could only speculate it from Vernomian body structures." Jack admitted. "Just tell us when you are rested up enough and we can continue our travel." Jack as he was inspecting his roasted scorpion.

"That depends, it perhaps would if we would want to escape another one's of Celestia's cake rampages, entire shops boozed clean." Jack joked in which he couldn't hold his laughter. After a few seconds of just laughing like crazy, he calmed down a bit. "I don't think it should be more then 30 minutes travelling by now if you want to rest for a moment, i don't have a problem with it," Jack said, his face is a bit red from all that laughing.

"I can imagine, I remember when we had to walk our way through this desert and suffice to say it was not that great..." Jack said, "But if I were to get stuck in the desert for some reason, I would be capable of surviving about 8 weeks without food or water, but that is excluding all the sickness, diseases and just overall being." Jack said. He looked a bit around until he saw some sort of tiny scorpion crawling trough the dunes, this however din't seem to be infected or from an actual strain. Jack wasted no time and blasted the animal with his magic, and then picked up the roasted and burned scorpion by its tail. "Atleast there is some food source in the desert, even if its not that good." Jack said with a laugh.

"I did tell her the location, but she didn't seem to recognize the name, although she should be able to sense my life energy with her powers, that she should be able to find us. But just in case to keep her update." Jack said to Ember. 'Evelyn, giving you a heads up, apparently Ember is already carrying me towards our destination, she seemed very hyped, my question is, do you still want to come? If you are then you should be able to follow my life energy, just like I can feel yours, then you should be able to find us.' Jack thought to her. "Festus is having a little bit of trouble with keeping up with us." Jack noted.

"That is alright with me Festus, Friends always help each other after all." Jack said with a smile to him. He couldn't help but smile at Embers enthusiasm. "You will see something really good, he won't fail in meeting up your expectations, that I can assure you! We do have to wait for Evelyn to meet up with us, she should be here any moment." Jack said with as smile. He looked up at the sky, hoping to spot her.

"Well, you are right when it comes to the instincts Ember, our instincts would be similar to dragons when it comes to the feral instincts, but there is something even deeper about it. Not only would I have to learn and tap into that state, I would have to manipulate my brain and regain but a very small portion of control from myself in that very state, so I could technically still maintain my real self but still have those benefits of this state." Jack said with a smile. "Suffice to say, it is very dangerous, but without taking such risk I will never reach my full potential, getting strong is one thing, but being able to overcome the limits of my own body will make it even better in the end." Jack noted. "In fact... My mentor could show you guess an example of how it looks like once we arrive there, he was the one who suggested me to learn this in the first place."

"Magic is pretty strong and all... But I have decided to take it a step further." Jack as he drew knife and inspected the metal. "If there is one that I have been taught, it is that I could turn from a novice into a killing machine if I can tap into full instincts and let them control me, it is one heck of an advantage since then anticipating my enemy's movements happens almost subconsciously that state. I guess that is an advantage that all Raukan, Terrans and Eldritch seem to possess that trait by default, but then I guess the question is how stable for someone it is, not everyone can learn to control it, but would rather lose control and let their instincts become the dominant part of the body for a period of time." Jack explained. "This knife and my body is all i will need for this." Jack said with confidence as he was waiting for Evelyn for to arrive.

Jack couldn't help but smile at Festus his enthusiasm. "We will have to head out of the city and to someplace further away in the desert called Grimnar's edge, should be a big ghost town, which we will have plenty of work for our training," Jack noted. 'Evelyn, we are heading towards a place called Grimnar's edge, it is a big ghost town a bit further into the desert, could you take me there? The others will be following us right behind.' Jack thought to her.

'I am thinking about both, give me one moment to talk it through with them.' Jack thought to Evelyn. "You are right Festus, we still need to try that thing out, how about you and Ember join me? By intensive training, i mean the type of training i always used to when i was younger, go into a part of No man's land, use the infected as target practice, the thrill of battle helps me train faster then usual practice training, we only have a few hours, and normal training won't cut it for me." Jack asked him.

5 hours later... The citizen of Ponyville was busy evacuating, while the others had arrived at Canterlot. The evacuation well, so far atleast, as massive groups of ponies where walking through the dense terrain while others were taking the train, it was a long journey for both, because for those on the train it did not seem so safe as it seemed... For the ponies on the train, hell broke loose when suddenly a few things slammed straight through the interior from one of the train cabins. It were Ork Stormboyz... One of the stormboyz who had crashed into the train cabin looked around, the ponies around him screaming in terror with looking at the scary ork. "Hey! dis mov'n trukk iz not full uv loot, but dose kolourful grass eaters!" The ork called out to his fellow Stormboyz. "Lets get ta stomp'n' Boyz!" One of the other orks shouted back. And for the poor civilians, it was a cruel fate, they had no way of escaping as the door cabins had been locked during the train ride for safety purposes, only this proved the very death trap for those civilians, being trapped in a cabin with a bunch of orks. The ork WAAAAAGH warcry rang out throughout the area, followed by the screaming of atleast 20 to 30 ponies, one by one they were killed, screams echoing all across the train cabin. It din't make it any better that the Royal guard ponies happened to be stationed in a separate train cabin, as they would have never expected their enemies to literly crash trough the train walls.

Jack was silent for a moment. "Alright, I am not leaving you guys, but I would like to make one thing clear when I do go in combat, I don't want any complaints or excuses when I choose the people I prefer to work together with and the ones who I don't work as well with, Ember is right because I let these problems go on for long enough." Jack said. "I am made for fighting and I should no longer let that factor be undermined. Now I am going to do some training, intensive training. I will see you all in 5 hours when we will gather for the attack at the City gates." Jack said. "I won't leave you Luna, but i do feel betrayed with the entire revelation, i really hope you will leave up to your word." Jack said to Luna, now with a bit more sadness. He did not know whether to feel sad, happy, angry, or scared about this entire situation, he had mixed feelings, but the only thing he could show was seriousness and straightforward emotion, it was how he could only feel now. 'Evelyn, are you there? I need you to take me somewhere.' He thought to her.

Jack said nothing for a few moments until he then responded. "You finally told the thing that I have been wanting to hear for 5 months Maple... I respect you for that, I really do." Jack said, not looking at her. "But I don't have a reason to lash out at you, I now know the truth. For all this time I thought there was a hope, that there would be at least one planet where it at least care for others, to see the light and do what is right, but I realise that Equestria doesn't care for the outside races, but does so that it will remain standing in the end while everyone else perished.. You don't know how much it hurts to feel so betrayed, for months I tought all of you actually cared at first, but my suspicions were getting truer as the time went on..." "Do you know what is the worst part Maple? Many of us are still fighting to this very day, instead of all trying to flee and hide among the further sectors, we instead decided to remain ad stand our ground, buying time at the same time so many other races could evacuate while we had to pay the price because others did not care for us. And now it is this all over again." Jack said, he was talking a rather cold but calm tone at the same time, which gave a disturbing edge to it. He then looked at Maple, his face revealing a mixture of sorrow and a scowl. "How can I live among those who will happily leave my own race to rot and die like that? I can't, you want to know why I sometimes discard my death as nothing? Because then I will meet those who at least do care, those who I truly felt at home with, i would be with them again... That is what means to be one of us, many may look down upon us... but if there is one thing we take in stride, it is that we will all die with our honour intact." He then suddenly stood up. "I am leaving, i am going to handle things my own way from now on, like i have always done, atleast my mentor was the one who spurred me on to fight on, the very person that some of you accused, i won't forget those accusations, because i am the only friend he has got." Jack said, giving Maple one final glance, before walking away.