Author's Notes:

Sorry if things here seem kind of rushed halfway in, my mind was working faster than my fingers. Also, the comedy dies down a bit and we get to know a little more about Jack's past. Feels may or may not happen

This was the moment, that magical moment in every new couple's lives that would determine just how much further the relationship would go. It would be hard, but hope was still there. As the two gazed at each other they attempted to read the features of the other. Jack, staring into the bright shining face of the stallion who was revealed to be Twilight's brother, Shining Armor. And Shining, staring into the brightly colored abyss that was Jack's furious eyes.

As they watched each other in silence the two mares, Cadence and Twilight, could do naught but watch them. Shining took a breath and held out a hoof with a smile, better to be a man and show the conduit that there was no reason to be uncomfortable. "It's nice to meet you, I'm Shining Armor. How are you?"

Jack watched the hoof reach out to him, he could tell already that he wasn't going to like this guy. Here he was putting on a show that would make him look like the approachable big brother. This show would also make it appear that he was comfortable with the humanoid from another world when really he probably wanted nothing to do with him.

Regardless, Jack held out his hand and grabbed Shining's hoof. The sound of sizzling flesh filled the room. The stallion pulled his hoof back after yelping and attempted to shake off the pain. "I'm Jack, or as others might call me, The Phoenix."

Shining was tempted to jump the conduit for burning his hoof, he was sure he did it on purpose, but he kept himself composed after using a bit of healing magic to numb the pain. "It's nice to meet you." He said with a hint of venom in his voice.

Jack did not intentionally burn the stallion, he wasn't complaining that it happened, but it was not on purpose. When it came to people he didn't like his body temperature would shoot up a few hundred degrees. Like a rattlesnake shaking its tail, this was a warning for others not to cross him. "I'm sure it is."

Cadence walked over to her husband, with a look of concern, to aid him in his attempts to fix his hoof. He was a powerful unicorn, but his power was nothing compared to his alicorn bride. "Are you okay, sweetie?"

He smiled at his wife as she helped him. "I'm fine, dear, but thank you." The two gave each other a loving smile before sharing a quick but tender kiss.

The conduit heaved a bit, almost throwing up in his mouth as he watched this. Twilight walked over to Jack. She had learned how to read the signs that his body gave off and she knew he already didn't like her brother, which made her slightly nervous. "Please, Jack. Play nice." She whispered to him. "My brother means the world to me and I'd hate it if you two didn't get along."

He wanted to argue against this so badly, but the mare managed to work him over with puppy dog eyes and a trembling lower lip. He bit down on his tongue hard enough to draw blood before submitting to her. "Fine, but don't expect me to be all buddy, buddy with him."

Twilight smiled and kissed Jack's cheek, burning her lip slightly as she did so. Right, he was still angry. Remember to double check that next time.

"So what happened in here?" Cadence asked as she looked about the wreckage within her sister-in-law's castle. "It looks like you've been hosting Minotaur boxing matches."

They have those? Jack daydreamed a bit of what going to one of those would be like. More importantly, how many matches he would survive. He'd have to try it some time.

"I can help you make repairs if you'd like." The pink alicorn offered, being more than willing to help out.

"Please, Cadence. Don't worry about it, I can take care of it by myself." She assured, but Cadence wasn't having it.

"Nonsense. Let's, you and I, get this place cleaned up. Besides, your brother would like to have a chat with Jack in private."

Twilight looked over to her brother who nodded, confirming that he did wish to speak with Jack. Her nervousness only grew at this. She didn't know what he was going to say or how Jack might respond. All she could really do though was hope for the best as she went with Cadence to do repairs.

Jack looked over at Shining who was beckoning for him to follow. The two walked off down one of the many long hallways in the castle. Once he was sure they were far enough from Twilight, Shining stopped, causing the conduit to follow suit. "Listen, I just want to say that I know there is something going on between you and my sister. I don't know a lot about you so I can't say whether or not I approve of it. Just let it be known that if you hurt my sister, in any way, I will come for you with the whole royal guard at my back."

Shining took his sister's feelings and well-being very seriously, it was his job as a brother, so he wanted to ensure her safety by any means necessary, even if it did mean threatening this thing from another world.

There are many things you should never do in this life if you wish to survive. Don't walk out in the middle of traffic, don't attempt to charge a tornado, don't jump into an oncoming tsunami; but more importantly, do not threaten Jack.

Shining felt the area around grow warm, no not warm, it was getting hot. He could see the heat coming off of the conduit and took a few steps back as it took a few steps forward. "Listen here, Shining Dick-hole. You come after me, or send anyone after me, I will personally see to it that they are disposed of. Sir, you are right, you do not know me. You have no idea that I have literally vaporized thousands of my own species for my own survival, I've created fires strong enough to wiped whole cities off of the face of the planet, and even without my powers I have brutally murdered people with my bare fists."

Jack watched as Twilight's brother's eyes became filled with a mixture of a thousand emotions at once, before continuing his rant. "Sir, this is the one and only thing that'll determine whether or not you live or die, so listen carefully; I fucking dare you to come after me..."

With that Shining took off down the hallway, his body pouring with sweat, which was mostly from the intense heat. As he made his way back to his sister and bride he pointed back toward the hallway that Jack was in. "Twilight, you need to get away from that thing and stay away from him!"

Cadence and Twilight stopped what they were doing and trotted over to Shining. Cadence was the first to question him as Twilight stood still, taking in his worried and angered expression. "Baby, what happened?"

"It doesn't matter; what does matter is that we get Twilight out of here and away from that monster!" Shining said, determined to get his baby sister somewhere safe.

Twilight took offense to Jack being called a monster. Her brother had his opinions of him, but he didn't know Jack like she did. He has no right to speak that way about him. "How dare you call him a monster!" She screamed.

Shining was shocked that she had not only spoken against him, but that she actually yelled at him too. "Twilight, do you not realize what he has done? Just the small things he told me are more than enough to tell me that he is a beast. He kills with little to no remorse. He doesn't care about anything or anypony."

"You're wrong!" She argued. "He cares about me, I'm his best friend. And you know what, I'm actually his marefriend." The couples eyes widened at her words. Cadence knew that she held strong feelings for the conduit, but had no idea that they had actually gone for a title. "He has never done anything to intentionally hurt me, in fact, he has actually protected me! He's saved my flank more than once already. And how can you say he doesn't care about anypony? You don't even know him! He cares about me and about his family."

"Twilight, please, listen to me." Shining begged. "Even a blind stallion can see that he has no love in his heart for anypony. I bet he doesn't even care whether his family were to live or die."

Just as those words left his mouth the castle doors shot open, revealing two other bi-pedal creatures. One of them was holding the other up, while the other looked almost like a corpse.

Twilight turned her attention from her brother to the conduits standing in her doorway. "Sebastian, Tumor?" She quickly analyzed that Sebastian was the one holding Tumor up and worry started to fill her features. "What's going on? Is Tumor okay?"

For the first time ever, Twilight saw an expression on Sebastian's face. It was a mix of worry and sadness. "Twilight, where is Jack? We need him."

Jack walked out from the hallway to see one of his brother's holding up the other. "What the fuck is this?"

Sebastian turned to face Jack, knowing that he was the only one that could help. "Jack, it's Tumor. He's done something to his body, I don't know what to do. Please help!"

Jack pulled off his jacket and threw it to the floor as he walked over and started inspecting Tumor, he was barely even breathing. He couldn't seem to find out what had happened to him until he found a what appeared to be medicine bottles in one of his pockets. He picked up the bottles, all of them with several different names and purposes.

The fire conduit felt his heart skip a beat, his brother had taken a shit-load of drugs for some reason. Conduits heal fast, but drugs were a hell of a thing, especially in mass doses. He looked down at his zombie-like brother before grabbing him by the hair and punching him in the mouth.

They all stared at him as he did this before grabbing Tumor and throwing him over his shoulder. "Sebastian, follow me. There's going to a very important lesson to learn here today." He took off sprinting down the hall until he reached his bedroom. With his anger still flowing he kicked down the door and threw his brother onto the bed.

Sebastian followed Jack into the room and stood off in the corner while the three ponies stood outside the door and silently watched.

Jack pulled out the bag that he had when he was brought to this world and started sifting through it before pulling out some sort of plastic stick with a yellow tip. "Sebastian, sit him up and hold him still."

The Demon obeyed, floating onto the bed and forcing Tumor's body into an upright sitting position while holding his arms to keep him from struggling too much after whatever Jack was going to do.

The Phoenix jabbed the plastic stick into Tumor's leg and it made a loud click, letting him know that the hidden needle came out. He counted to thirty before tossing the stick aside and rubbing the spot where he had stabbed Tumor. "Come on, come on!"

After a few seconds the pigment in Tumor's skin returned to normal and he started gasping for air. As the world around him started to become clear again he was met with his brothers fist to his face. However, thanks to Sebastian holding him up, he didn't move more than a couple of inches.

The ponies jumped as they watched Jack hit Tumor for the second time in under five minutes.

"What the fuck were you thinking!?" Jack yelled, "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

Tumor looked up to his brother with tears in his eyes. "I'm-I...I just don't know..."

"Don't know what? How to deal with life? How to fucking not off yourself!?" Jack continued screaming. "Do you have any idea what those can do to you, how about how this will effect your family you stupid sack of shit! Look at Sebastian! You had him scared to death!"

Against his better judgment, Tumor looked over to Sebastian who was actually crying. He hadn't seen his brother so much as grin in years yet alone let himself break down like this. He turned his head back to Jack who raised his fist, ready to swing again. Tumor flinched at this and closed his eyes, but surprisingly, nothing happened.

He opened his eyes to see Jack with steam coming out of his eyes. He knew Jack was about to break down too, but the guy was too tough to allow it. So instead he watched as the water tried to work its way out of his face, only to evaporate from the heat in his body.

Jack threw his arms around Tumor, pulling him into a painful embrace. "You are going to be a father for fuck sake, you can't be doing shit like this."

Tumor's emotions were all over the place, especially with the idea of having a kid. That's why he did what he did. His psyche just couldn't handle the idea of having his own child. "Like you're one to talk, you-"

He was silenced as Jack punched him in the stomach before continuing his forceful hug. "I know what I did in the past, I lived that life. I wasn't fucking happy about it. Yes, it made the pain go away, but then you run out and everything is so fucking miserable." He removed himself from Tumor so he could look him in the eye. "Don't you remember all the times where you had to come visit me in the hospital. I almost died, what? Over a dozen fucking times!"

Jack stopped and took a moment to recollect himself. "I don't want you to end up like that...I don't want you addicted to some fucked up shit that'll just make you pray for death day after day, and year after year..."

Shining was baffled by this behavior completely, especially with how he kept hitting his brother after he had almost over-dosed. Cadence and Twilight were in tears. They could see through the anger and the hate in Jack, they could see the love he truly held in his heart for his family.

Jack hugged Tumor once more, this time doing his best not to hurt him. Tumor eventually submitted and returned the gesture. "I swear to the great fucking clown in the sky...if you ever do something like this again, I'll snap your little neck..." He said between silent sobs.

Twilight wiped the tears from her eyes before turning her attention to Shining who looked back at her in disbelief. "Still think he's a heartless monster."

He stuttered as he tried to reply, but Twilight held a hoof to his mouth to silence him. "I don't wanna hear it. Just leave."

Shining wanted to say something, anything that could fix this, but he knew that she wasn't going to listen. As much as it hurt him to do so, he left the group and exited the castle, taking a seat in the chariot he and his wife rode in to get here.

Cadence soon followed, beckoning Twilight to follow to allow the conduit's to have their moment in peace. She followed her to the door where they both stopped and Cadence gave her a hearty smile. "I think you've made a good decision being with him."

Twilight looked up to Cadence in shock. "You do?"

"Yes, I am the princess of love after all." She explained, "When I looked at Jack I could see a lot of anger, but I also see a very broken past. Deep down inside he's suffering, which is why he behaves the way he does." Twilight frowned at her words, knowing the alicorn who could literally read ponies like a book was never wrong. "But there's hope for him."

This made Twilight's features pick back up slightly. "Really?"

Cadence nodded, "Yes, there is. Despite all of the anger in him, I can still sense a great deal of love in his heart. The only problem is; He doesn't know how to use it. How can he show love if he's never had the opportunity to put it to use?"

She was starting to understand now. He always acted like a brute, but whenever something was wrong with his family or friends, his demeanor would change. Yes, he would still be aggressive, but he showed subtle hints that he cared. Like when Tumor was kicked out of Carrot Top's house, he practically begged her to let him stay so he wouldn't be out on his own.

Even with this knowledge though, she wasn't sure how to use it. "How can I help him? What can I do to let him know it's okay to love, to help bring it out?"

Cadence smiled warmly to her before giving the young princess a light nuzzle. "Show him how."

Twilight accepted the nuzzling and when the y broke apart Cadence had one last thing to add. "And please, don't be so hard on your brother. He is a bit single-minded, trust me, I know; But he's only trying to look out for you."

She sighed, "I know, but I just didn't like how he-"

"I know, Twilight, I didn't either." She explained. "Take as much time as you need, just don't lock him out of your life. I know how much he means to you."

She smiled at the love goddess, " I won't, I promise."