Chapter 55: Ease Of Knowledge

"What do you mean he was saying weird stuff about him?"

"It was all stuff about hurting people and doing bad things, I think he said something about kids too! *gasp* What if he's a murderer!"

"Now Pinkie, don't git jumpin' ta conclusions, you know how that's worked out for ya before."

"I don't know AJ, he didn't really deny anything..."

"Oh fluff, I'm sure it was all just talk, he's been nothing short of a proper gentlecolt since he's arrived."

"I agree with Applejack and Rarity, we've known James for over a year now and everything he's done has been to help out others."

"But that's the thing Twilight, we barely know anything about him from before he got here."

"Listen Pinkie, I've been going out with him for a while and believe me, even if he did do any of that stuff, he didn't like it. He wakes up sometimes in the middle of the night. One time, he woke up screaming."

"Rainbow Dash, why didn't you mention this before?"

"Well... because 'Twi, he asked me not to. Besides, I think Flash and Sparks already know."

"C'mon girls, I think we need to go talk to him."

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"Thank you for coming back over again, y-you didn't have to..."

"It's alright Fluttershy, I just wanted to see how you were doing. Also, I have something I have to deliver to you."

James sat on the small couch in the living room of Fluttershy's quaint cottage. She sat across from him, on the other side of the coffee table, sipping a small cup of tea she had just finished making. It was the morning after James' short confrontation with the man who sought to wage war on his newfound peaceful home. James studied the kindly pegasus mare, her eyes were still red and slightly puffy and she kept avoiding his own when he looked at her. He thought she might have been crying again before he arrived.

"W-what is it?" Fluttershy asked, staring down at her cup.

"Well, last night we went through Feather's things and found a few letters. One was a will he'd written out out, one to us, but the last one was addressed to you."

"To me?"

"Yes. I'm sorry, I didn't know you two had gotten so close."

James grabbed his bag and reached into it, pulling out a creme colored envelope and slid it across the table to her. She carefully opened it and pulled out the piece of paper that was inside and started reading. At first her expression was one of sadness. Then it softened a little, the corners of her mouth turning up ever so slightly. Then suddenly, her face snapped to a visage of shock, mouth gaping wide. James was shocked too, as her eyes rolled up and she fell over backwards to the ground.

"Fluttershy!"

James jumped up from his seat and and leaped over the table to her side, "Fluttershy, are you ok?"

The pink maned mare was passed out on the floor of her house. James knelt down and put a hand to her neck and checked her pulse with a finger to make sure she was ok. Relieved, he felt the steady throb of a healthy heart. At that moment, the door burst open allowing Pinkie, Twilight, Rarity Rainbow Dash and Applejack to walk in.

Pinkie gasped at the scene, "See, he's attacking Fluttershy!"

James turned his head at the sudden exclamation, "Wha-?"

He began to stand back up, but was tackled back down by a hyper, pink blur, smashing into a cabinet against the wall behind him. Twilight, Rarity and Rainbow Dash trotted over to check on Fluttershy while Applejack ran over and pulled Pinkie off the human.

"Consarnit sugarcube, he ain't tryin' ta hurt her, she jus' fainted is all, now leave him be!"

"But why did she faint? He was probably being mean!"

"No Pinkie, that wasn't why she fainted," Twilight said, she was now reading the letter she had found on the floor next to Fluttershy, "she fainted because of this!" Using her magic, Twilight held the letter in front of Pinkie's face so she could read.

Once she finished, the pink party mare gasped all over again, "Holy spimoly! That's a lotta bits!"

James was now standing and currently dusting himself off, "Hey, lemme see that."

Twilight obliged and sent the letter over to him. James snatched it from the air and began to read.

Fluttershy,

If you're reading this, then it means the worst possible thing has happened to me. I'm sorry I didn't say goodbye, but I would have if I could. We didn't spend much time together, but the time we did was probably the best of my life. You're the only one, I feel, that I could really talk to about anything. You brought a kindness and peace to me that I never thought I'd ever experience and for that I am grateful. I don't really have any family so I'm giving my savings to you. Enclosed is the last statement from my bank and the password to access my account. To the kindest, most sweetest mare I have ever known; I love you.

Yours now and forever,

Feather Touch

Taped to the bottom was a small piece of paper with the password and a very large number.

"Ho-ly shit. This has to be his entire life's savings!" James said loudly to himself.

"R-Rarity? Twilight? What are all you doing here?" Fluttershy had finally come to.

"Hush now darling, everything's all right. You just had a little spell is all." With her own magic, Rarity lifted Fluttershy up and placed her on the couch along with a pillow and blanket, "There, all better."

"T-Thank you."

"Ok, so he wasn't triyng to hurt her," Pinkie pouted, "but you still got some 'splainin' to do mister!"

James was confused, "Huh, what is she talking about?" He asked the rest of the girls, "Dash, can you tell me what's going on?"

"Uh, James, we need to talk..." She replied.

"Huh? About what?"

"About your past." Said Twilight.

"My past? Like what, how Earth was or--"

"No, we mean what you did."

"Look, Fluttershy is stressed out and needs some rest, we should probably--"

"James, stop deflecting!" Twilight ordered.

"Fine! Fine, you know what, you want to know exactly what I did? I fuckin' shot peoples' faces off for a living, okay! I was a goddamn glorified assassin! I wasn't some security consultant or a guard or even just a soldier, it was my job to hunt people down with my team and kill them. Anybody that shot at us or tried to stop us died too. Even when we were sent to go help or rescue someone, people still died. I have too much blood on my hands..." After his outburst, James went over to a stool in the corner and sat down, arms on his knees and head down.

"What was he talking about when you said the 'helli cop-ter' was broken?" Pinkie asked almost hesitantly.

"That? You want to know about that? Fine. You wanna know what happened?" He brought his shivering hands up to his face, "Me and my friend Jackson went picked for a milk run, a low priority mission. We just supposed to provide a sharpshooter overwatch for some kind of meeting in case something happened. Nothing did, we were going home without even firing a shot, it was supposed to be an easy day. Then while we were on our way home, some kid, just a little fucking kid, with an AK on a roof decides he wants to take potshots at our chopper. He shot up the bird and one of the pilots got a slug in his pelvis, Jackson almost went flying out when they lost control. When they finally got the bird stabilized, he was still firing at us so... I took the shot. I fucking killed him. The worst part is, when I think about it, I didn't really have to. I could have just shot around him, tried to scare him off, but no. I just fucking killed him, took his life like it was nothing. And now I'm doing the same damn thing here, only now I'm getting my friends killed..."

The girls just stood there staring at him, eyes wide, all at loss for words on hearing his confession. James kept his head down, afraid to see their reactions at what he'd just told them. He felt the familiar sensation of overpressure in his eyes as they tried to cry, but he couldn't. He hadn't been able to shed even the tiniest tear no matter the situation for years now. All he could do was hurt. To his right, he heard the shuffle of fabric and tensed his shoulders as he felt two forelegs and a pair of soft feathery wings suddenly embrace him. A warm, wet sensation started spreading on the back of his shoulder. James opened his eyes and got a face full of soft pink hair.

"Why would anypony go through something so horrible!" Fluttershy said in his ear with her soft voice.

James returned the hug, "Because my world is filled with horrible people," He replied matter of factly, "and now they're here in yours."

"N-No, you're a good pon- person James. I-I can feel it." Fluttershy stuttered out.

"No. Not entirely. I followed orders. And orders can still be disobeyed. Yet not once did I ever." James whispered softly.

*SMACK* A hoof past swiftly across his jaw.

James ignored the pain and looked up into eyes of rosy shades inches from his face.

"If Fluttershy says you're a good person, then you're a good person, understand?" Dash said quasi angrily.

James just locked his eyes of blue and yellow star burst with her shades of maroon and sanguine red and simply nodded. Satisfied with his reply, Dash embraced him with the same style and warmth Fluttershy had. After a moment, they both pulled away.

"Sorry about your shirt." Fluttershy apologized with still moist eyes.

"No worries, it'll evaporate." James said with a half smile that did not reach his eyes.

A puffy pink maned mare trotted up to him, "I'm sorry I just assumed stuff about you, I didn't know you had to do all those icky things."

"It's alright Pinkie, you couldn't have known."

James started to get up from his seat, forcing Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash to stand, "Thanks for the talk girls, but I think I need some time alone right now, put things in perspective." He walked to the door and opened it, but briefly turned back be fore stepping out, "One more thing, Feather also left a little something for the team in his will. A nice little tidy sum, the directions only said; 'not for funeral, for party,'" Pinkie's eyes lit up at the mention of the word, "you should all come."

James stepped out and closed the door behind him. He wasn't far down the road when the door opened again behind him, Pinkie's jubilous shouts of 'PARTY!' could be heard before it closed again. Twilight trotted up beside him.

"I really don't feel like answering any more questions Twilight." James said to the lavender librarian.

"I'm not here about that, I want to talk to you about the 'situation' in the forest. The area you arrived at."

"Oh... that. What about it, have you found a way to stop it?"

"I have found another barrier spell that doesn't require as much energy and lasts almost three times as long, but still nothing permanent."

"Ah. Well at least that's an improvement." James said dryly.

"Yes, at least there's that," Twilight continued, "although there are some interesting things I've found."

"Like what?"

"Like why energy is still coming through and the opening hasn't closed yet."

"And why's that?" James inquired.

"Well, whatever energies brought you here were extremely powerful, more powerful than anything even the princesses could create."

"Right, Celestia did explain that much to me when we met. She said it was something like an act of nature. Random."

"That's the thing, these same energies shift objects into our world all the time, but leave the fabric of magic that binds and blankets our world intact. Usually when something passes through, it does make a small tear, but it quickly gets stitched back up. However, whatever brought you through is displacing the fabric, keeping it from closing up, and allowing some kind of.... malevolence to seep through." Twilight explained.

"You wouldn't happen to know what it is, would you?"

"No, not really. But it feels.... familiar. Like I've encountered it before..."

"Hmmm... Well, at least you have something to go off of. Keep up the good work."

"Thanks!"

"No Twilight, thank you. With your brains and enough luck, we might actually fix this."