Chapter 9: A New Threat To His Sanity

James slowly came back to awareness. He rolled over to.... nothing.

'Strange. Coulda swore....'

He quickly dismissed the thought and got up to put his top and boots on. Finished, he called up to the loft.

"Hey, Dash! You awake yet?" No answer.

He climbed up for a look. Nothing was there. She must have gotten up earlier and went home. Then he noticed how bright out it was.

'Crap, I'm late. Applejack must be mad.'

James ran outside to find either AJ or Big Mac. Searching the orchard didn't turn up anything though. Shrugging, he made his way to the Apple's house. Outside resting on the porch he saw Granny Smith relaxing in a rocking chair. She spotted him and waved him over.

"Well good mornin' uh, Jamie, Jim, no, James! Good mornin' James, how're ya doin'?"

"Good morning Mrs. Smith..."

"Aw, yer practically part 'a the family now, just call me Granny dear."

"Oh, ok Granny. Excuse me, but have you seen Applejack or Big Mac? They aren't anywhere in the orchard."

"They're around somewhere, probably in town or picnickin' or whatsit."

"Don't we have work?"

"Shucks young'en, can't work every day. Y'all'd run yerselves ragged that way. Today's a day off! Go do somethin' fun fer Celestia's sake."

"Alright then, thanks Granny!"

"Yer welcome Jibbers!"

James remembered Rarity's offer and decided to head over to her shop after washing up and throwing on some clean clothes. He would have to be cautious and sneak into town though. After last night, there could be ponies on the look out for him. He started off towards the general direction of Carousel Boutique at a light jog.

It wasn't easy, but he managed to make his way to the back door with out being seen in broad daylight. He knocked a few times before it was answered by Sweetie Belle.

"Hey James! How're you doing?"

"I'm doing alright. Yourself?" She nodded with a bright smile. "Hey, your sister wouldn't happen to be here, would she?"

"Oh yeah, she's upstairs in her 'idea room'." She informed while rolling her eyes.

"Great, is it ok if I came in?"

"Of course!" She turned and trotted over to the stairs as James entered. "Rarity! James is here!"

"All right, I'll be right down!"

James waited a minute before Rarity came clopping down the stairs.

"James! So nice of you to come. Please stand on that pedestal over there and we'll get started."

He did what he was told and stood there as the fashion pony made measurements of his arms, shoulders, legs and waist, using her magic to manipulate a tape measure. She scribbled down a note or two every once in a while.

"Oh this will be so fun. I've never had a challenge quite like this before. Now, is there anything you want specifically?"

James thought for a moment. "I just want something practical. You know, nothing fancy, I'm not really a fancy kind of guy. And absolutely NO sparkly gems please." He added, noticing the majority of the garments in the room were 'bedazzled'.

"Well, of course. I always take my customer's preferences into consideration. Any thing else darling?"

"No, that's it. I trust you."

"Why, thank you! Now, it will take a day or two before your clothing will be ready."

"Alright, and thanks again, I owe you. You need help with anything, don't be afraid to ask." James offered, turning to leave.

"That's very gracious, I'll remember that dear. Ta-ta now."

James slipped out the back again and returned towards the farm. When he got there he spotted Applejack walking towards the well.

"Hey Applejack, what's up?"

"Not much sugarcube, how're ya enjoyin' the day?"

"Alright I guess. When do we get back to work?"

"Not for a few days now. Th' zap apples are comin' in a few days and we can't harvest them 'til they're exactly ripe. So if'n ya got somethin' to take care of, now'd be th' time ta do it."

"Ok, thanks for the heads up."

'The hell are zap apples?'

He couldn't think of anything else to do besides checking up on Rainbow Dash and he hadn't seen her all day. He couldn't even go to her house because of his inability to fly.

"AJ, could you do me a favor?"

"Sure hun, whatcha need?"

"Can you make sure Dash is ok? She had kind of a rough night yesterday. She got home ok, but she ran into some trouble. I haven't seen her all day and I got some things I need to do."

"Sure thing sugarcube, I'll ask Fluttershy to see if she's home." She promised, seeming concerned.

"Good. It's good that she has friends like you guys." James complimented, walking away.

James headed back to the old barn, only one thing in mind. Meat. It had been so long since he's had it. James thought that if he went far enough into the forest and he buried his kills, he could avoid scaring any of the locals. Not to mention the six friends he had made. He donned his tac vest and ball and a boonie cap he always kept on him. It was way more comfortable sniping in that than a heavy kevlar helmet. He threw a couple of the MRE's he had left, the NVGs, the solar recharger, his iPod and some spare mags of ammo into his rucksack. Then he jumped below and removed a couple of flashbangs. Just in case. The only weapons he took were his knife and trusty pistol. He didn't really like going anywhere without his pistol, last night being the only exception. The last thing he did was leave a note by the door with his spare radio. He had taught Twilight how to use it after she had walked in on him tinkering with it, trying to get some kind of signal, last week. He was taking his throat mic with him.

'To who ever finds this, I'll be back in a couple of days. I just need to take care of a few human related things. Don't worry about me, I know how to handle myself well enough around here now. See you all again soon.'

- James

James left the farm and trod down the road that ran near the Everfree. About two miles down, he turned and disappeared into the dark foliage.

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James continued through the brush. He had been marching through the forest for half the day now, but he didn't know how far he should go. He remembered that he had found Sweetie Belle, Applebloom and Scootaloo about a two hour's trek away from the edge of the forest a few weeks before. He would have to go much deeper before he could start his hunt. About an hour before James had met a strange rhyming zebra. She met Twilight's description of the forest dwelling potion maker he heard about. They had even talked for a bit.

"What is this strange creature here? No wonder the animals flee in fear."

"You must be Zecora. Twilight told me about you."

"That indeed is who I am, but who are you and of what land?"

'What a strange way to talk. Twilight didn't mention any of this. But I guess it didn't really matter.'

"I'm James, and I'm currently Equestria's only resident human."

"It's nice to meet you James and I've a surprise, the items you carry match those I've found nearby."

"Huh? What do you mean by that? You mean like my clothing and equipment?"

"Clothing is but one form I've seen, also there have been monstrous machines."

James asked her for more details and she told him of a place that sounded like it was not far from where he had first woken up. She gave him some quick directions and he was on his way. This little trip was turning into much more than the simple hunt he had planned. He kept going until sundown, when he made camp in a small clearing. He slept until the early morning hours where he ate a quick breakfast of some raspberries he found and two vegetable crackers from an MRE. Afterwards, he resumed his journey. After a while, he could spot what appeared to be little paths through the forest. At first James believed them to just be game trails. Until he found a low broken stone wall. And then he noticed that some of these 'games trails' had been paved at some point in time, cobble stones poking through the grass here and there.

'I wonder what this could be. It looks like some old ruins. And some of these trails look like they're converging somewhere.'

James started to follow the path cautiously, scanning the environment around him for threats. The cacophony of the forest started to fade before becoming eerily silent. James now knew something was off here. He kept going down the old path, but stopped when he saw something glinting in the underbrush. Drawing his sidearm, James approached warily. Slowly he pushed aside the plant growth to reveal an old broken watch. He recognized it, it was man made with certain cartoon mouse featuring big round black ears, his own arms acting as the hands for the watch. Upon closer inspection, James noticed that the watch wasn't all that old, just exposed to the elements for what seemed like only a few years.

'But how did it get here?'

This wasn't looking good. Nevertheless, James pushed on, his curiosity piqued. After about thirty yard he came upon half a building. It was missing the roof, it's walls made of stone, though half of them had collapsed long ago. James decided to explore a bit and found a back room with scorch marks in one corner. There was a metal object laying on the floor where the scorch marks were originating from. It was in the shape of a revolver. James picked it up and bushed of some of the soot that had caked on to it. What he revealed shocked him. Underneath the blackened dirt and soot was ornate scroll work. That wasn't what shocked him though. What shocked him was that he recognized it, he had seen this before. It was his lieutenant's sidearm.

'Now what the FUCK is this doing here? How can this be possible? He lost this only a year and a half ago, how could it have gotten here?'

The weapon had been a gift to Lieutenant Bellis from his wife, years ago. But the Lieutenant had lost it during a raid on South American drug cartel a little over a year ago. James' team had been sent in when the cartel had kidnapped some American peace corps volunteers and demanded ransom. As he recalled, after extracting the hostages, they left nothing but a smoldering crater.

James shoved the revolver into his rucksack and pressed onwards toward the source of the paths. Soon he emerged from the thickest brush and stopped, stunned, at what he saw. They were ruins. Aged, dilapidated, weather worn and over grown with plant life as the forest sought to reclaim this place. It was a broken down castle, centuries old. Gazing around, James determined he was standing in a courtyard of sorts.

'How did I miss this? Even from the air, I didn't see it. Well, it is pretty overgrown, I could have easily over looked it.'

Suddenly, he heard a noise off to his left and shifted to a crouch, his pistol snapping to the ready in a fraction of a second. James slowly moved towards a broken down section of wall for cover, never taking his eyes off the spot he heard the noise come from. A minute, then two passed without anything happening. He lowered his weapon, but still kept his guard up. Something felt wrong.

Warily he approached a beautifully carved archway. Striding inside he noticed bas reliefs set into the stone to his left and right. They featured two ponies posed regally, crowns set upon their heads and flowing manes. They were different from other ponies James had seen though. Both had a horn and a set of wings. The only difference between the two was their 'cutie marks'. One featured a large sun symbol while the other had a crescent moon set against background resembling an ink blot. James followed the scene down the hallway which depicted the two interacting peacefully. That is, until he had almost reached the end. The one featuring a moon on her flank was seen rising to power, smaller ponies despairing beneath her, the moon high and large in the sky. Then the royal sun pony intervened. A battle was fought, ending with a sequence showing the pony of darkness being sent to the moon itself.

'Wicked. I wonder if these are the two princesses Twilight told me about. But that would be impossible, this place has to be at least hundreds of years old.'

James continued down a large vaulted passageway that was partially open to the element, dead leaves and shards of glass were strewn all around the cold stone floor. Then he heard the tinkling of broken glass being moved across the ground. James snapped to the ready again, his heart rate starting to rise. He approached the space he thought it came from firearm raised, he also unsheathed his knife with his other hand, just to be prepared. As he neared the entrance to the room, a powerful rotting stench suddenly hit him like a slap to the face. Something here had died.

James flattened him self against the wall adjacent to the doorway. He peeked around the corner and saw a most gruesome sight. Blood was splattered all on one side of the room, entrails leading back to a hollowed out deer carcass in the corner. Laying about here and there were crude knives and even a sword or two made of black steel. James had seen other such weaponry scattered about the ruins earlier. The difference was that those were more refined and heavily rusted. These laying before him weren't. they were jagged. And they had been used recently.

The next thing James noticed was tracks. They were humanoid, but instead of toes they sported claws. He spotted a bloody hand print, again ending in claws instead of fingers. He didn't like this. James began to back out when he heard a low growl behind him. He whipped around and brought his weapons to bear. Before him was a large bipedal creature with yellow and brown mottled skin, standing at a little over six feet. Yellowed and cracked teeth the shape of jagged rocks grimaced from a ragged mouth. A flat nose sat beneath two red eyes with pupils black as tar that bespoke a savage and carnal intelligence, a top it's head was greasy mane of obsidian locks sat unkempt it's ears resembled cauliflowers. It's feet were bare, tipped with claws. The rest of it was clad in a mismatch of rusted metal plate attached with strips of leather. It clutched in it's hands two of the jagged swords James had seen in the other room. It grunted and tossed one of them to James' feet. James brought his pistol up, ready to take a shot, when heard another bellow above him and off to his right.

James looked up to see another one of the terrifying creature training a nasty looking crossbow on him about fifty yards away. He scanned the rest of the room and spotted another two standing at his only known exit with spears in hand. James felt like a child to have been ambushed like this. It was embarrassing to say the least.

'I've gotten rusty while living here. I should be dead.'

James under stood the challenge. If he used his own weapons, he'd take a crossbow bolt to the chest. James had fast reflexes and they'd save his ass several times before, but he didn't know if he could dodge a bolt. He pocketed his sidearm, sheathed his knife and dropped his rucksack before picking up the dastardly weapon at his feet. The crudely made hand-and-a-half sword didn't feel right in his hands. He hefted it and gave it a few practice swings, trying to get used to it's weight. Fortunately he had taken some martial art classes in the past and was familiar with swords, but he had never actually fought with them before except for sparring matches with the other students.

James brought it to a ready position, studying his opponent as it mimicked his movements. The creature was muscular in a brutish way, as if it spent most of it's time surviving in some hostile environment. That's when the creature lunged at the special operator, bringing it's sword down in an arc upon his head. James quickly reacted and caught the sword with his, inches before it cleaved his forehead in two. The blow almost drove him to a knee. James countered with a kick to it's stomach. The tactic worked and it was shoved back a few feet. James immediately followed up with a downward diagonal slash at it's neck, but it almost effortlessly blocked it and shouldered it off, following through with a swing at his midsection. James jumped back and drew his own stomach inward, barely escaping disembowelment. As he performed this move his arms shot forward for balance. The monster brought it's own blade down on James', knocking it out of his hand. Now he was weaponless.

The creature started hacking and slashing with wild abandon. James could hardly duck and dodge the deadly metal singing through air. He couldn't keep this up much longer. Finally the retched beast made a mistake. It swung at James in a wide arc, intending to halve the human. The elite warrior caught it's wrist with his left hand and grabbed it's shoulder with his right. Then, placing his leg between the thing's legs, threw it on it's back. As it fell, James stripped the sword from it's grip and in one motion, swung the sword high over his head and brought it down directly upon the creature's face. Blood splattered out to the sides as the blade burrowed it's self into flesh and bone.

The two blocking the entrance with their spears wailed in anger and charged. The sword was stuck in the skull of the first beast so James retrieved the one he had dropped. The first one to approach stabbed at his belly. James swatted the spear tip aside and slashed at it's exposed arm, lacerating it. The second tried to bring the spear into an upward swing, James countered it by kicking the shaft of the spear and bringing the sword up into the sick warrior's throat, blood spilling everywhere and staining his arms. The other recovered and stabbed it's weapon through the meat of his right calf. James cried out in anguish as the crossbow wielding creature aimed to take a shot. But then the unexpected occurred.

"JAMES!!!"

In the archway stood Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie. Time slowed to a crawl. The ugly crossbow wielding creature shifted it's aim towards the new comers, thick brow furrowing in concentration. James had only a second to react. Swiftly he drove the sword through a gap in the spear monster's armor and fluidly drew his 1911 and lined up on the shooter. He steadily pulled the trigger, the firearm emanating a sharp, massive roar and launching a lead slug strait through the creature's cranial vault, dropping it instantly. It was beautiful. In but a moment it was all over and James sank to his knees, head bowed. As the girls galloped towards him in a panic, he reached behind himself and snapped off the head of the spear that was still lodged in his calf, pulling the shaft out the other side. The shocked and concerned mares gathered around him in a half circle.

"I'm a monster."

His hands started to shake.