Revenge and Justice

by Y1

Rating: mature
Tags: Romance, Gilda, Princess Celestia, Human, Main 6, Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark
Length: 82219

An evil creature from the past awakens it's up to the mane six to stop it with help from a stranger

What was once believed to be just another statue in the royal gardens turns out to be something much worse. Two brothers are brought from thousands of years in the past to a modern more peaceful Equestria than the divided one they lived in.
The younger brother Xath is a psychopathic killer with multiple personality's and the power to threaten even Celestia herself.
The elder named Kain is a soldier who is barely capable of basic human interaction and has a violent grudge to settle against his younger sibling.
When Xaths' insanity threatens hundreds of lives it falls to the Elements of Harmony, under the harsh tutelage of Kain, to stop him. But Kain is not an innocent party. Indeed in many ways he's a worse person than his brother. It soon becomes clear that Kain is in some ways just as dangerous to the elements as his brother.
Gilda comes to ponyville with the intent of restarting her friendship with Rainbow Dash but somehow gets dragged directly into the middle of these events. Now she has to desperately tread water caught between the less than benevolent Celestia and other more sinister forces.
I'll be adding at least five thousand words to this every Monday.
Humanized Ponies and OCs.
There will be a shipping subplot involving two characters who at this stage will go unnamed because I can't honestly believe I'm seriously pairing them.
Will be adult situations involving sex but it will be off screen and for the sake of plot and humor.
Rated M for violence. Nothing insanely gory but there is one scene that made me cringe to write.
The only reason the characters are humanized is for my convenience as a writer.

Published 2012-04-08 07:04:02 UTC
Last updated 2012-06-19 07:43:18 UTC

Chapter 1. Not a statue

Chapter 1: not a statue

This story is set after the events of both seasons and is a similar kind of idea to a human in Equestria fic but it's not one of those. The appeal to me of the human in equestrian fic has always been the contrast between the regular plain old human and the insanely bight, friendly and colourful world of Equestria. This story is set in Equestria but it's humanised, All the names are the same and the characters are the same but Earth ponies are called earth folk, unicorns are called the mystic folk or horned folk depending on the situation and who you talk to and the Pegasus are either the sky folk or winged folk depending on how formal the situation. Alicorns are called the great folk.

Anyway without further blabbering here it is:

In the gardens of Celestias' palace there is a small curving section of path that winds it's ways between a large number of statues. Most of these statues were just statues commissioned by Celestia to decorate her garden. Some of the statues weren't. The most famous statue in the garden for example was discord. But of course it's now known that discord wasn't a statue. There were other statues in the garden that were similar to discord, in that they weren't actually statues, but rather other people from ancient times imprisoned in stone by powerful magic. The oldest statue in the garden was just that. A prisoner statue. This prisoner statue was around for a thousand years before discord himself was first imprisoned. Indeed when Celestia first found the statue she thought it was a prisoner. But after almost two thousand years the statue had not changed at all. It seemed like a prisoner statue in that it was exquisitely carved and incredibly detailed similar to the discord statue. But after two thousand years and not a sound Celestia had come to believe it was just a regular statue that was simply incredibly well made.

The statue in question depicted two men. One man looked like a regular earth folk who was swinging a sword towards the other man, but was being stabbed through the middle by an oddly thick short sword. The other man depicted looked like nobody alive today. The man had two large wings behind his back. Not like the feathery wing of a sky folk or a great folk but large and leathery with pointed tips. He also had horns, not the regular single point of a mystic folk or the sharpened tip of a great folk but rather two horns that curved back over his head.

Many who wondered through the garden wondered what it represented or why Celestia even kept such a violent depiction in the first place. The statue had no label and no artists' signature and didn't appear to have any great significance other than it was exquisitely carved, with such detail that every line of fabric or dent in the steel was visible. But despite the grumblings Celestia always kept it in the gardens for no reason other than it was an enigma to her. A small puzzle that she'd never quite figured out.

One night after over two thousand years of doing nothing a crack appeared in the leg of the statue. This was followed by a crack in the arm of the statue then in an explosion of stone the two men who had been imprisoned together for so many years where released.

The one, who had been stabbed, finished the ark he'd swung his sword in that he'd started two thousand years ago, officially setting the record for the slowest sword swing the world has ever known. Despite this record the blade move whip quick and the strange horned man had half his throat cut before he jerked away leaving his short sword inside the normal earth folk. The winged horned one fell off the base of the statue with a gurgle and both hands going to his throat. The man with the sword inside him smiled down at his vanquished foe for a second before he noticed the sword lodged inside his gut and collapsed to his knees before also falling off the base. He landed on the ground head first and was knocked unconscious.

A guardsmen that had been patrolling nearby heard the explosion the "statue" had made and came around the corner to see what had happened. Upon seeing the two wounded figures on the ground grabbed a whistle that was around his neck and blew a long pure note that was heard by other guardsmen nearby who heard the whistle and they also raised whistles to their lips and blew. A short time later a bell was rung and the entire palace guard was patrolling the gardens in force. Princess celesta was awakened and both injured parties were attended by a doctor. Princess Luna who had also been awakened by the racket was in the palace private hospital watching the normal earth folk who was handcuffed to the bed. He was currently unconscious.

After a while the doctor having done his basic look over said to the princess 'He'll be fine. He just needs time to rest up and recover.’

Luna thanked the doctor and continued to watch the unconscious man. The man was obviously not from Equestria. His hands had swordsman's calluses and his face was lined with deep scars and his skin was the dark colour of an earth folk who had spent his life in the sun. He looked to be in his early thirties. His clothes were rough and travel worn before the doctor changed them for a patients robe. And even though he was unconscious the man looked dangerous and far from peaceful.

Celestia opened the door and stepped in. She stood next o her sister for a second before she spoke 'The doctors say the other one will be fine.'

Luna nodded and said 'Can you feel it?'

Celestia nodded 'the other one is powerful, almost as powerful as you little sister.'

'Do you know what it is?' Luna asked in a quiet voice.

Celestia shook her head. 'My question is how was an earth folk able to wound a creature with the power to rival one of the great folk?'

Luna was about to respond when the man on the bed shifted. They stared at him for a second before he sat bolt upright and was jerked to a stop by the hand cuffs around his wrist. He said nothing for a second while he took in the room. He ran a calculating eye over the two princesses before asking a three word, three syllable question: 'Is he dead?'

Luna answered. 'No. He's hurt but recovering.'

The man nodded before saying 'How bad is he hurt?'

It was Celestia that answered 'He's in worse condition than you. When you cut his throat his lungs filled with blood and he had no oxygen in his brain for a minute'

The man nodded. Then he very calmly said 'You need to finish him before he wakes up.'

Luna and Celestia exchanged glances. It was Luna that responded 'What's your name?'

'Kain' said Kain.

Celestia spoke this time. But when she spoke there was an undertone of cold anger that would make any of her subjects quake in their step. 'Why do we need to kill him?'

Most folk at this stage would behave as demurely as possible but Kain spoke without fear. Partly because he didn't know who Celestia was, partly because he'd just recovered from being unconscious but mostly, it was because there were few things in the world that could make him afraid anymore. 'Because he's killed thousands' He said this looking Celestia dead in the eye 'and if he wakes up, which he will in a couple of hours, He will escape and kill thousands more.'

Maybe it was because Celestia had no trust for anyone that was imprisoned in statues, or maybe it was because Kain had spoken to her without any of the courtesy and respect she was due, but when she spoke she said something that she would later for all eternity wish she could unsay.

'I will wait till he awakes and hear his side of the story'. She said as she walked out the door leaving Luna alone with the imprisoned Kain.

'You have to kill him.' he insisted once the door closed.

Luna looked at him. 'I will respect my sisters' decision.' She said. Luna thought he looked sincere, but she didn't want to countermand her sister. 'Who are you?'

'Kain Artun…. A soldier'. Kain looked at her 'Who are you?'

Luna wasn't surprised to hear he was a soldier, he certainly seemed like one 'I'm princess Luna.'

Kain nodded. 'What's the date?'

Luna new that he was really asking "how long have I been imprisoned?" 'You were still trapped in that statue a thousand years ago when my sister first built this palace. When she found you you'd been imprisoned for a long time before that.' She paused for a second 'Who is he?'

Kain spat 'He's an abomination, a murderer, a sadist and a fiend and his name is Xath.'

Luna asked 'how did you did two get imprisoned together?'

'Do you know what the elements of harmony were?'

Luna nodded 'Are', she corrected him.

Kain smiled, 'They're still around? Good. I was allies with the people who at the time were the elements. They helped me in the final fight against him. The fight didn't go well. None of them were particularly good fighters but they had the magic and I needed them. We fought him for some time but eventually it became apparent he would win.'

'Was he more powerful then the elements?' Luna interrupted concern in her voice.

'No he wasn't. It was just whenever they tried to cast the spell he would attack the element of magic and break the spell before it could be cast. Eventually I deliberately let him stab me to buy them time to cast the spell. It worked a little better than I planned because I almost killed him with my counter strike. But they cast the spell and both of us were imprisoned. I thought it would kill us rather than imprison us.'

Luna was a little shocked by this 'You were willing to die so that he would too?'

Kain looked at her 'Princess, I would do whatever it took, no matter how many people got hurt, to see that monster ended.'

'And what if that makes you just as bad as him?'

Kain thought for a second before responding 'Then I would hope that someone would do the same for me'.

Luna didn't respond. She just left.

In another room in the hospital a thing awoke. His enhanced healing powers waking him hours before the doctors predicted. It wasn't instant healing but it would heal most wounds in a couple of hours. Xath his name was. He rose up slowly to an upright position, a lone doctor was in the room with him. he had his back turned and hadn't noticed Xath sit up. Xath was handcuffed to the bed he was lying on. His horns absorbed light for a second while the handcuff chains silently broke. He rose silently off of the bed and walked up behind the doctor. He reached over the shoulders of the doctor and grabbed the man's throat. He lifted the man up one handed and turned him around examining him with a curious eye. The was dressed strangely and Xath was in a strange place. Xath wanted to know why. The man he held was one of the mystic folk.

'Where am I' he asked the struggling man in his hands.

The man in his hands was flailing and kicking and trying to breath. He tried to cast a spell but for some reason he just couldn't use magi

'You'rgghhe in Ccchanterloht private' the man struggled out.

Xath didn't like this answer. It wasn't very helpful. So he broke the man's neck with a squeeze of his hand. He dropped the corpse and stepped over it to the door before stepping out into the corridor There were two guards posted across the hall watching his door. When the guards saw the door open and Xath step out they drew their swords. When they saw the doctors body beside him one of them charged Xath and the other blew this whistle around his neck. The first guard, the one that charged, swung his sword at Xath. Xath almost laughed at the clumsy imprecise stroke. Xath calmly stepped around the blow and punched the man in the throat with a quick but powerful jab. The cartilidge in his throat collapsed and the guard fell on his back gurgling. The sound was pleasant in Xaths' ears. Xath took the sword from the dying guard and moved with such speed that the guard who was blowing the whistle only saw a dark blur as the sword removed the head from his Shoulders.

Xath giggled at this. Then he stopped giggling and looked at his hands. They were coated in blood.

Xath fell to his knees 'I'm still alive!' he began sobbing uncontrollably 'Why can't I just die! He killed me. I saw it he cut my throat I'm dead and it's over and I'll stop hurting people and everyone will be better. I'm dead and this isn't real. Oh god why won't I die!'

'Oh shut up you whiney bitch' He answered himself in a different voice. 'You're alive and that's the way it should be.'

Then a third voice piped up 'Yeah it wasn't like we killed everyone you ever loved.' Then Xath broke into a fit of giggling.

The giggling soon turned into sobbing 'Get out of my head! Xath shouted. 'Leave me alone!'

The giggler answered 'But we love you Xath. You mean the world to us. If only you could return that love. Oh it's so sad how one sided some relationships can be.'

'What the h..'

Rage Xath looked up and saw a guard staring at him with a look that combined horror and confusion. To Rage Xath this look seemed a little judgemental. This made Rage Xath angry. So he leapt across the room and jammed his fingers through the guard's eyes. The guard fell to the ground with a scream as he covered his bleeding eyes with his hands. Rage Xath looked at the blood on his claws. He decided that he didn't like this place. The people here were annoying.

He walked through the hospital for a while trying to find a way out. He got lost pretty soon but he noticed that in all the rooms were sick and wounded people. He wondered why they were all dumped here. He encountered a few more of those useless guardsmen posted outside a door and killed them too. He felt curious as to why they were outside this door so he poked his head in and saw something that pleased him greatly. Hand cuffed to a bed was his old friend Kain.

Kain looked up and saw Xath. 'Oh hell'.

Giggling Xath responded 'Well hello there.'

Kain started yanking his hands cuffs trying to get free or jerk them lose. 'You son of a bitch I'll kill you yet!'

Giggler Xath responded 'Oh? Will you just? As I see it our last encounter left you in worse shape than me.' Giggler Xath walked forward and through the hospital blanket off Kain. 'Look at this' he exclaimed 'They stitched you up well.' He chuckled at that 'I might have to stab you again' to emphasize his point he raised one of the two bloody swords he'd used to kill the guards. 'But then you are so much fun, you know except for that one part where you cut my throat' He finished as Rage xath took over halfway though the sentence. 'I want you to know how much fun I had butchering that son you were so proud of. He was a very strong little boy.' Rage Xath's eyes sparkled with joy at the memory 'I'm just sad you weren't there to see him squeal like pig'.

Kain didn't respond. He new if he tried the only sound he could make would be a strangled croak.

Xath laughed Giggler returning. 'You need some help with those cuffs' he chuckled while lining up his sword with Kains right wrist Right above where he was hand cuffed. 'Let me get that for you' he said as he swung the sword down

Kain saw the movement and threw his body weight to the left. This caused the bed to rock briefly and lined the hand cuff chain up perfectly with Xaths cut. The sword was fairly sharp and in the super human hand of Xath it cut into the chain. The links were bent horribly out of shape allowing Kain to wrench his right arm free. Kain then jumped over the left side of the bed flipping the bed over in the process. Xath took a step back from the upturned bed.

'You were always the better swordsmen then I was, weren't you?' he chuckled.

Kain stood up from behind the bed. He didn't reach his full height because he was still chained to the bed.

Xath swung his sword at Kains neck but it was blocked buy one Princess Luna. She'd teleported into the room just in time to block the sword stroke. Xath used a flap of his wings to pull himself out into the corridor. He could feel her strength. It was greater than his own. This unnerved him. Giggler Xath changed into Rage Xath.

Luna appraised him calmly. She was a greater folk. Their magical power was unrivaled and their strength and agility was superhuman. She could feel the magic coming off this creature. She knew he was powerful but was certain she could simply over power him with magic.

She shot a lance of lightning at him from her glowing horn and he did something she had never seen anything ever do before. He caught the bolt with his hand and tossed it back at her. She blocked it with a barrier of her own.

'You're a real powerhouse lady…. You reek of magic.' Rage Xath said. 'I hate that smell.'Xath wrinkled his nose in disgust

'Don't cast spells on him he can redirect and control the magic of others.' Kain said 'Defensive magic will work though'. Luna nodded her understanding. 'He's also an expert swordsman and has super human strength.'

Rage Xath smouldered 'I'm a master not an expert! I killed my master and took his sword. Just like you did!'

'That was after your transformation and at that age he hadn't touched a sword in five years.' Kain answered the contempt clear in his voice.

Rage Xath shouted 'It doesn't matter he's dead and I'm here, and you're about to join him!' he roared.

He charged forward and he swung one sword at Luna who blocked it with her own before he spun past her and chopped at Kain. Kain did the same thing he did last time, maneuvering himself so the blade cut through his other handcuff while at the same time with his free hand he jabbed the nerve ending In rage Xaths' wrist. This caused Xath to drop one sword. Kain grabbed it up and swung it at Xath. Xath ducked back. Right into Luna who ran him through with her sword. It went through the stomach and far from a graceful attack. Giggle Xath decided to take over. He grabbed the sword blade and pulled it the rest of the way through his stomach and held it in his hands. Lunas' sword was wrenched from her hands and she was forced to duck back as Xath stabbed behind himself at her with his original sword. She ducked back out the door as one of Xaths' wing whipped out and buffeted her in the face. She ducked back into the corridor Xath swung at her but had to pull his attack short to avoid a stab quick from Kain.

He combat rolled into the corridor just as Princess Celestia was heading up it to see what the commotion was. He saw Luna and Kain battling Xath with swords. She intervened in the worst way possible. Princess Celestia, the second most powerful magical force in the Equestria other than the elements of harmony shouted a warning to her sister Luna and cast a spell at Xath. Luna heard the warning grabbed Kain and teleported him and herself down the corridor out of the path of the magical assault. The assault itself was a beam of bright white energy that traveled down the corridor obliterating everything in its path. Xath caught the beam and formed it into a ball which he flung to his left with a grunt of exertion. The ball blasted through several walls before bursting into the outside night. Xath being wounded and tired decided that rather than fighting two creatures more powerful than him, decided now would be a good time to escape. He flew through the hole he'd created and escaped out into the night.

Luna stepped forward next to her sister. Kain stood back for a second catching his breath.

After some time Celestia was the first to speak 'What… was that?'

Kain spoke up still panting from the pain in his recent stab wound and the exertion 'That, was Xath…. My younger brother.'

They were in Celestias' throne room now. Celestia and Luna were seated on their thrones and Kain was seated on a chair that had been brought in for him. As he sat there, he thought he could feel the scrutiny of the two princesses on the throne.

'Tell us your tale from the start.' Ordered Celestia.

'Gladly but could I have some water. The tale is long and I'll need a drink' Celestia waved her hand and a table appeared next to him with a jug of water and several empty glasses next to it. 'Thanks' he said.

He sat down and began his story. 'I grew up at least 1000 years ago. Probably more, I don't know. I was the eldest of three. I was named Kain, my younger brother was named Xath and the youngest my sister was named Thae'ah. We were born under the regime of one of the greater folk named Gallerion. Galerion ran a class based racist society. Mystic folk were high class. The sky folk were soldiers and the earth folk like me and my younger siblings were farmers or trash. We couldn't do magic, we couldn't fly and all we could do was grow food so our betters may eat while we starve. However my youngest sister was born the element of honesty. So my family was elevated above its peers. Me and My brother were apprenticed to blade masters. My brothers master was a gruff but kindly veteran and mine was a bastard who enjoyed hurting me.'

He stopped to take a sip before he continued 'As time wore on Gallerion made life even harder for the earth folk and Sky folk. Eventually a revolution broke out. The sky folk and earth folk united against the mystic folk and the few greater folk. The war was short lived. With most soldiers and generals siding with the earth folk it was soon obvious the winners would be the rebels. My sister being the element of honesty was one of the few earth folk who sided with the mystic folk. As the war went on her loyalty slowly changed and me and my brother decided to defect along with her. Gallerion found out and afraid of losing control of the elements of harmony imprisoned her. Me and my brother escaped and vowed to free her. The war eventually hit a snag when the greater folk recalled their soldiers to several well defended fortresses that the rebels could not penetrate. As the stale mate lased it became apparent the rebellion was wearing itself out. As long those fortresses contained greater folk we could not penetrate them. We needed a way to overcome the greater folk or we were doomed to a slow defeat. That's when my brother left. He didn't return for several months but when he did he was as you see him now. But he wasn't crazy yet. With his help we won the war. His magical deflection allowed him defeat the greater folk. We rescued our sister and we both slew our blade masters in the final battle, claimed their swords and earned the title blade master.'

He stopped for another drink 'After the war was over peace settled in. Over time my brother started to behave strangely. He kept muttering to himself. One day He snapped. He killed an entire village full of people. 121 people in total. Then he turned himself in for justice. That night he broke out of his cell and killed another 48 veteran soldiers. After that he roamed the world as he saw fit and killed suddenly and indiscriminately. I tried in vain to stop him on my own but without any magical power to speak of I was unsuccessful. The only power I knew of that could overcome his magical manipulation were the elements of Harmony. The problem was they were as divided by the war as the kingdom had been. Four followed the rebels and two allied with the Greater folk. I had to find them and get them to agree to work with each other first. And I did. It took years but eventually I found them in all the different corners of the globe. In that time my brother had killed thousands more and the two mystic folk elements only agreed to work with me on the condition that they would be allowed to execute me after as a traitor. I agreed. I returned and learned that my brother had killed all my family other than my sister in my absence. I worked with the elements of Harmony to destroy Xath but rather than kill him we were imprisoned in stone. They must have thought we were both dead anyway. Now however many years later the spell broke and we were released. Then the events of tonight happened.

Kain turned a critical eye on the two princesses 'You fools should have listened to me, and killed him when you had the chance. Now he's on the loose and has to be stopped again.'

Celestia didn't appreciate anybody calling her a fool. 'You will watch your mouth in the presence of the Princess of Equestria in future.'

Kain snorted 'I'm sure I will.'

Celestia ignored his comment as she pondered the predicament in front of her. 'It sounds to me that in order to defeat him we need the elements of Harmony and someone of equal power and skill to him.'

Luna weighed in 'I'm of slightly higher power and strength than him.'

Kain laughed 'Lady she said power and skill, not power and brute force. Believe me when I say if he came at you alone he would kill you. Other greater folk during the war made the mistake of thinking of strength and skill as the same thing. No, to beat him you will be needed, but other things will be needed from you in order for that to happen.'

Celestia examined Kain and said 'I take it you have a plan?'

Kain nodded. 'Last time I tried to kill him the effort was rushed and sloppy. I was the only person fully prepared to face him. This time we need to go in prepared and have a stronger team and plan in place. In order to do this I'll need a few things. First I'll need three to six months. I'll need either her or you' he pointed at Luna and Celestia 'I'll need enough armour and weapons for at least 8 people. It would be better if its custom forged. I'll need a way to travel fast and lastly and most importantly' he paused for a second thinking how to phrase the request.

'What?' Celestia asked suspecting she knew the question.

'You still got those elements?'

End of chapter.

If you liked that chapter then read the next. Otherwise please review and tell me what I'm doing wrong.

Chapter 2. First impression

Chapter 2: first impressions

Pinkie Pie skipped her way down the street without a thought in her head about anything that would make sense to you or I. That's not to say Pinkie Pie was absent minded, though usually she was, but rather that to Pinkie the world was a wondrous and magical place full of interesting things and adventures to be had. Given that the land she lived in was Equestria she wasn't far from the truth. But today she saw something that made her take notice of the world. As she was hopping down the street she saw a person she'd never seen before. This exited her.

She skipped over to him and landed in front of him with a very loud 'Hello!'

For some reason the man hadn't seen her coming. Which was funny because Pinkie Pie swore she wasn't even trying to be remotely quiet.

Mind you she was able to sneak up on and surprise most people without even intending to. And this was despite having bright pink hair and wearing bright pink Shorts and T shirts. Her hair was a puffy train wreck that burst uncontrollably in all directions. She was a little chubby, not fat by any means but the fact was Pinkie ate large amounts of sweet foods and regularly, the only reason she wasn't actually fat was her extreme hyper activity, so while she was a little chubby she was really in quite good shape.

Pinkie noticed, when she'd surprised him, that the strangers hand had went underneath his coat. He pulled his hand out of his coat and left whatever it was he'd intended to pull out inside the coat.

'Hi' he said with a polite smile. If Pinkie Pie understood normal human behavior she would've noticed that the polite smile and curt greeting were a polite way of saying "go away". But even if she did know what it meant she would've ignored it anyway.

'I'm Pinkie Pie! What's your name? Is it Mac? I know someone named Mac! He's Applejacks’ brother! He's doesn't say much, kinda Like you!'

'No. My name is Kain.' He paused for a second and pulled a note from his pocket. He read through it briefly and said 'Did you say your name was Pinkie Pie?'

Pinkie Pie smiled 'Yep I most certainly did. Why do you have trouble remembering names? I'm pretty certain there's a name for that condition. Do you have that condition which I can't remember the name of? Do I have that condition which I can't remember the name of?'

'No' He crossed something off the list in his hand. 'You mentioned someone named Applejack right?'

'Oh yes I did! She's one of super-duper-ultra-special-uber friends. Not like you, your one of my super-duper friends, if you want the ultra you'll have to attend one of my ultra-parties.'

'Maybe later' Kain said in a noncommittal way 'Can you take me to see Applejack?'

Pinkies' brain exploded with the possibility. He'd said "maybe later" which in her mind meant absolutely. Also she now had a chance to take this man to see Applejack which meant helping him. Which meant he might smile and Pinkie lived to see other people smile.

'I'd love to take you their' she said 'Follow me' she said and hopped down the street.

Applejack breathed out for a second before she Charged forward and slammed into a tree with her shoulder. She was able to apply an impressive amount of force when she hit the tree in spite of only having a two-step build up. When she hit the tree apples fell out aplenty. She bent down and began tossing the apples into baskets. When she was done she moved the baskets onto a cart already filled with an impressive amount of full baskets and pulled it behind her until she reached the next tree. She then charged that tree and started the process again. This process was called apple bucking. It was a farming method almost entirely unique to the apple family.

The truth was that apple bucking was under normal circumstance a poor method of farming. It was tiring and had little guarantee of knocking an appropriate amount of apples from the tree and if most folk attempted to do it they'd just hurt themselves. But the Apples weren't normal people. No one knew when or why the apples had started apple bucking, but for some reason they had. Now almost all of the apple family were large built and strong. The only person In Ponyville stronger than Applejack was big Macintosh and he was Applejacks' older brother. Most Apples grew up being able to reliably Charge trees and collect apples. The Apple family was distinguishable from others by their wide shoulders, broad upright backs, thick arms and tree trunk legs.

Applejack matched this description perfectly. She was tall, being above six feet, and had arms knotted with tight bunches of muscle and her shoulders were as wide as two people put together. She had blond hair, emerald green eyes and darkly tanned skin. Most people wouldn't consider her beautiful but there was an undeniably attractive aspect to her. Her face was pretty and freckled and in spite of her intimidating size she was always able to attract a dancing partner when she wanted one. Today she was dressed in loose fitting stereotypical farmers' clothes. Her stetson was pulled low over her eyes and her shoes were work boots.

She was lining up another tree when a voice exploded in her ear 'HEY APPLEJACK!' Applejack jumped in surprise and fought down a shriek.

She turned and looked at Pinkie Pie with a slightly amused expression.

'Sugar what did ah tell you about sneaking up on unsuspecting folk?' Applejack said sounding very patient.

Pinkie stopped her on the spot skipping 'To not do it?'

'That's right and what happened the last time you snuck up on me like that?'

Pinkie appeared deep in thought before she burst with an answer 'Was that the time you slipped in mud and landed on a cow pie?'

Applejack sighed and buried her face in her palm 'No pinkie. That was the time before. I'm talking about the time ah hit yah when ah spun around and you landed on a rock and yah had a concussion.'

Pinkie Pie brightened up 'Oh yeah that was fun! Well right up until the concussion but before that it was all woosh! And me flying through the air. I wonder if that's how winged folk feel when they fly!'

'I doubt that very much' Applejack said in a voice as dry as tinder.

Pinkie then looked at Applejack 'Oh yeah there was his person in town today who wanted to know my name and I told him my name and I think he has trouble remembering names so I thought I should take him to you cause he asked me to and now he's here' she said and pointed up the road a small way to a bemused Kain.

Applejack wiped her hands on her denim jeans before she walked up to him and offered him a handshake.

'Howdy, you wanted to see me?'

Kain nodded and said 'I did' but made no move to shake the outstretched hand.

The silence lasted for a second before applejack put her hand down and asked 'What about?'

'Why do you harvest apples like that?' he said gesturing his hand towards the cart.

Applejack looked at him strangely 'why do you ask?'

Kain shrugged nonchalantly 'It doesn't strike me as terribly efficient'.

Applejack looked at him oddly 'Well no, for regular folk it wouldn't be, but the Apple family has been doing it this way for generations and two Apples working this way can harvest twice the amount of any ten man work team with ladders and pickers.' She wasn't bragging at all. She simply recalling statistics. There was another awkward silence between them before she said 'Is that all you came out here to ask me?'

'No' Kain said quietly. 'I can see your busy, I'll just comeback later.' And with that he turned and walked away.

Applejack stared after him for a second 'Huh…. Weird'. Then she turned around and saw Pinkie trying to catch a butterfly with her mouth.

Applejack chuckled to herself 'Certainly not the weirdest folk I met today' she commented as Pinkie caught the butterfly.

Fluttershy was trying to convince Angel, her pet rabbit, to come out from under her lounge when there was a knock on the door. She sighed and dusted herself off as she stood up.

She was an average sized girl standing at 5'4 and her overall appearance most would describe as pretty. Not sexy, she was too… It was hard into put to words, most people who looked at her thought she was attractive but nobody wanted her in that way. Something about her smothered all thoughts of indecency. She was fairly thin with chestnut brown hair, of which one strand was dyed pink, and chestnut brown wings, her eyes were light blue and her complexion was delicate. She wore a light yellow turtle neck sweater even though the day was fairly warm.

She opened the door slowly. Standing outside the door was a stranger.

'Can I help you?' she asked quietly.

The stranger looked her up and down 'You're Fluttershy?'

'Y-yeah. W-why?' Fluttershy asked hesitantly.

The stranger looked her up and down again 'Mind if I come in?' then he barged in past her without giving her time to speak.

Fluttershy was startled by this. She panicked inside her head as he walked past her. He cast a calculating eye around her room. It was fairly messy though he could tell Fluttershy cleaned regularly. He'd just barged in at an inconvenient time.

He walked through the living room into the kitchen where he found the kettle filled it with water lit the stove and put it on to boil. He then opened her pantry. He searched through it for a second before closing it.

He turned to Fluttershy 'Where do you keep you tea?' the stranger asked in a deliberately over friendly voice.

Fluttershy went pale the moment he spoke to her. She muttered something he didn't hear and pointed at the window sill. He followed her pointing and saw a jar of teabags on the windowsill.

'Thanks' he said and started to make himself tea.

It took a while for the water to boil, but when it did he did he poured himself a mug of black tea. He picked up the mug and sat down comfortably on Fluttershys' couch and started sipping the boiling beverage. He put his legs up on her coffee table.

It was another incredibly awkward minute before Fluttershy spoke 'What do you want?' she asked quietly.

'A cup of tea' he answered and raised his mug to her before sipping it again.

Fluttershy opened her mouth and was about to speak when a voice called out 'Hey Fluttershy!' From outside the house.

Rainbow landed gracefully outside Fluttershys' house. She saw the door open and wondered what was going on, so she decided to land. Fluttershy would never leave her door ajar.

Rainbow Dashes' hair was its trade mark multicolour and she was currently wearing a cyan blue tracksuit. Though she usually wore a denim jacket and cargo shorts. She was of above average height though not particularly tall. Most considered her very attractive if not downright sexy. She was very athletic looking with muscle tone over her whole body. The shirt she wore under her tracksuit was coated in enough sweat so that it is was all but see through. She had a lean six pack of abs and she was wearing a sports bra. She wore no jewellery other than a single stud through her left nostril. Her hair was cut short and boyish because she found it more practical with her lifestyle. No risk of tangling and blinding was acceptable when you were moving fast enough to seriously damage yourself if you crashed.

Rainbow Dash walked in and saw Fluttershy standing in her living room watching a man calmly sit on her couch and drink tea.

Fluttershy turned and saw Rainbow dash enter and hurried over to her.

'He barged in and he's not leaving' Fluttershy half squeaked half whispered.

Rainbow dash looked at the man angrily 'Who are you?' she said aggressive in an aggressive tone.

'Kain' the man said in-between sips.

'What do you think you're doing here?' Rainbow glared at him.

The man sipped the tea before answering 'drinking tea'. He stopped and evaluated Rainbow dash. 'What's your name?' He said pulling a sheet of paper out of his pocket and looking it over.

'Why should I tell you?' retorted Rainbow dash.

'Are you?' he stopped and chuckled 'Rainbow dash?'

'Who wants to know?' Rainbow asked angrily.

'You got some seriously fruity names around here.' Kain said in an accent that sounded a little odd to Rainbow dash.

He put the sheet on the table and out of his pocket he pulled a quill and some ink. Rainbow saw the sheet had a list on it. On the list were six names. The names were Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Twilight Sparkle. The names applejack and Pinkie Pie were already crossed out. She watched as he crossed Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash off the list.

'What are you doing with that list?' Rainbow demanded 'Who are you?'

He put the list away and stood up 'Thanks for the tea' he said to Fluttershy he stood up and walked out

Rainbow dash stepped in front of him to block his path. He looked down at her with those same calculating eyes.

'Move.' He ordered her.

'Not until you tell me what's going on.'

'Listen birdy, you don't want to see were this path goes.'

Rainbow Dash had never been called birdy before but something about the way he said it made her hackles rise. 'Tell me or else-'

'What? What are you gonna do to me?' He leaned in close to her face and said in a real violent sounding voice 'Get out of the way kid before something gets broken.'

Fluttershy then spoke up 'HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO MY FRIEND THAT WAY' Kain looked at Fluttershy in surprise 'GET OUT OF MY HOUSE RIGHT NOW AND APOLOGIZE TO RAINBOW DASH!'

Kain looked at her with a very surprised expression on his face.

Rainbow wasn't certain she heard right but she thought she heard him mutter 'So there is iron in you after all.'

He walked to the door and shut it behind himself without another word.

'What was that about?' Rainbow Dash asked Fluttershy 'What did he want?'

Fluttershy calmed herself down visibly before answering 'I don't know he just came to my door and barged in. He was drinking tea when you showed up'.

Rainbow thought for a second 'Fluttershy could you please go check to see if Pinkie Pie and Applejack are okay?'

'Why?'

'That creep has a list with our names on it. Pinkie Pie and Applejack were crossed off.'

'Okay' Fluttershy said 'What are you going to do?'

'He's still going to see Twilight Sparkle and Rarity. I'm going to warn them he's coming.'

Rarity was in the Carousel Boutique doing a stock take. She was checking what supplies she was currently supposed to have and how much had been lost or stolen over the past six months. Rarity bent forward to count how many untouched roles of white silk she had left.

Rarity was by anybody's standards downright beautiful. She was of a normal height with long flowing brunette hair. Her body was graceful and curvaceous and her face was perfectly proportioned. Almost every man in Ponyville had at one point or another wondered if she'd be open for a go around. She however was a lady and had turned down almost all offers for dates or drinks or what have you. She dressed fashionably and usually wore pale colours. Rarity was fairly pale but not in a pasty unattractive way. Her nails were carefully manicured and her dark blue eyes were always focused.

A knock on the door brought Rarity to her feet. She opened the door and their stood Rainbow Dash.

Rarity smiled at her friend 'Hello Rainbow, come in sit down. I'm just doing stocktake but we can still chat for a bit.' She said waving her friend in.

Rainbow shook her head and closed the door behind her 'No time for that Rarity. There is a guy coming named Kain and he's got a list with all our names on it. He just barged into Fluttershys' house and now he's on his way here. Don't let him come in. have you got anywhere I can hide so if he tries anything I can surprise him.'

Rarity took this rush of information very calmly 'you can go upstairs. If you sit still he won't hear you and you can listen in.' Rainbow nodded and flew upstairs.

It was another minute before another nock on the door summoned Rarity. When she opened the door a male earth folk stood there.

'I'm sorry but we're closed you'll have to come back later.' Rarity said. She felt rood saying it but Rainbow had said not to let him in and Rarity trusted her friends.

The man in the door looked her up and down 'You're Rarity?'

Rarity nodded cautiously. He appeared unimpressed.

'You own this store?' he asked.

'Yes, can I help you with anything? I'm really quite busy.' Rarity said.

He gave her a flat look 'I'm sure you are…'

He then slid his foot in the half open door and opened it all the way. Rarity had the door handle yanked out of her hand and was almost knocked off her feet when he pushed past her.

'What do you think you're doing?' Raritys' voice filled with anger, 'Get out of my store. We're closed!'

Kain gave her a smirk that combined contempt and disbelief 'What? You don't open to folk who got greater concerns than what to wear in the morning?'

Rarity didn't really understand the statement 'What are you trying to suggest?'

'Come on. Everybody knows horned folk don't like to associate with other folk, might hurt their social standing.' He walked over and picked up the list of items on her stocktake 'You know you're a living breathing stereotype.'

Rarity crossed he arms 'what are you talking about?'

He with a smirk on his face 'You're a fairy who runs a fashion shop? You're the spitting image of the frivolous and judgemental fairy.'

Rarity had never been called a fairy before but something about the way he said it made her feel intensely uncomfortable. 'Just get out.' she folded her arms.

Kain stared at her for a second 'Yeah I've seen all I need to see.' And with that he barged past her and out the door again. Rarity was almost knocked off her feet again.

She closed the door behind him.

Rainbow Dash came down stairs; Rarity turned to her and said 'What was that?'

Rainbow shook her head 'I don't know. Did you hear the way he called you fairy?'

Rarity nodded. 'Something about the way he said it was just plain wrong.'

Rainbow nodded 'He called me birdy when he came over to Fluttershys house earlier. It sounded just like that. Anyway he's going to Twilights' house next. I'm going to go warn her he's coming.'

Rarity nodded 'I'm going to join you. I don't trust that character.'

Twilight Sparkle was reading a book about astronomy when Pinkie Pie burst into the room along with Applejack and Fluttershy. Twilight was a little annoyed that they hadn't knocked before walking in. Spike was out for some reason Twilight hadn't given much attention to.

Twilight was thin and pretty. She had shoulder length black hair and dark brown eyes. She was the shortest in her group of friends and looked young for her age. She envied Rarity just a little bit in that regard because Rarity was often mistaken for being older than she was, were as Twilight often had trouble convincing bouncers she was nineteen when Pinkie Pie or Rainbow Dash dragged her out to go dancing. She wore reading glasses at the moment but she usually didn't wear glasses. She dressed more often than not in a purple shirt with black shorts. She was pale from her time spent indoors so people sometimes mistook her for a goth or emo.

'HEY TWILIGHT!' Pinkie announced enthusiastically as she bounced in. Twilight was lying on her bed at the time so she teleported downstairs to greet her friends.

'Hello Pinkie.' She said in a voice that was both amused and irritated 'Applejack, Fluttershy.' She said nodding at each 'What's the occasion?'

Pinkie answered 'There was this guy n town today who has trouble remembering names and he asked Applejack about apple bucking and called Rainbow A birdy but I thought that was strange because she's not a birdy and then-'

'Pinkie!' interrupted Applejack. 'I think it would be best if Fluttershy explained what happened.'

Pinkie stopped talking then suddenly shouted 'Okay!' then plopped herself down onto the floor in the expectant position a child would sit in when waiting for the teacher to tell a story.

Fluttershy then started to tell her tale in a quiet voice. When she was done Applejack told the tale of her encounter with Kain. Applejack had just finished her tale when Rainbow Dash and Rarity burst in.

'Oh good! They've already warned you.' Said Rainbow Dash evenly.

'Thank Heavens we got here before him' said Rarity in-between loud pants. She had just run all the way from Carousel Boutique and was looking quite puffed. Rainbow Dash on the other hand looked fine.

They closed the door and Rarity told the tale of how she'd encountered Kain. She was just about finished and had caught her breath when there was a knock on the door. Five of them lined up facing the door while twilight opened it cautiously. She pked her head around the side of the half open door.

Sure enough, standing there was Kain who was eating a sandwich he'd stopped to pick up on the way over.

'I can't believe everyone in Equestria's now a vegetarian' he said before taking another bite of what looked like a cucumber sandwich. 'I miss beef already.'

Twilight was a little shocked by this sentence to say the least. She recovered and asked 'Can I help you?'

Kain said 'Yes' and barged in past her in an all too familiar manner.

It was only when he'd pushed the door all the way open that he saw the other five lined up facing him with unhappy expressions on their face. He hesitated a second before stepping all the way through into the room. He noted the shelves lined with books and reached the correct conclusion that Twilight was something of a shut-in.

Twilight closed the door behind him and said 'What do you really want?'

Kain ignored her question and calmly walked through the line of friends. He shouldered is way past Applejack and Rainbow dash who were at the centre of the line, only he didn't really shoulder past Applejack as much as Rainbow Dash. He pulled himself up a seat and calmly resumed eating his sandwich from a seated position. He ate for a minute under the glare of the assembled five. All the while pretending to not even notice.

Twilight teleported from the door to directly in front of his face 'Tell me what you're doing in Ponyville now!' she demanded in a threatening voice.

He looked at there for a second before putting down his sandwich and reaching into his coat. He stood up and with a ringing "Shing" drew a short sword. The assembled five responded immediately. They all got ready to attack him. He dropped the sword on the table and reached into his coat again. He got out the list of names and put it on the table. All the names but Twilights were crossed out.

'I assume you're talking about that?' he said calmly.

Twilights' horn was currently glowing with the magic she has preparing to use. 'Yes'.

Kain nodded calmly 'I got stabbed recently so I was hoping to face you all individually. But you know what? Why wait?'

Twilight was confused 'What?-' was all she had time to say before his fist slammed into her temple knocking her unconscious.

He then stood up. The Rainbow Dash and Applejack charged. Rainbow Dash was the first to reach him but he spun around her and then slid under the heavy blow Applejack sent his way. He came up out of his slide and did a spinning kick which landed on the side of Rarity's head. She fell to the ground unconscious. Pinkie Pie screamed and charged him, he tripped her with an odd spinning slide and put her face on the ground. Fluttershy enraged by the attack on her friends was about open her mouth to yell at him when he hit her in the stomach and winded her. She collapsed to the floor with a groan and struggled for breath. He turned around and faced Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

They moved forward more cautiously this time. When they attacked Applejack swung at his face while Rainbow charged under her blow. Kain ducked back out of the range of both attacks before he stepped forward and… he had been about to counter their attack when Rainbow in a sudden burst of speed pushed forward and landed a blow on his stomach. Right where he'd been stabbed recently. Paralyzed by pain for a second he barely blocked the blow that Applejack put into his chest. He wasn't badly damaged by the attack but it did have the effect of knocking him off his feet into a book shelf.

'Owch' was the comment he made as he stood up. That was an understatement. His wounded stomach felt like it was on fire and his back was coated in shelf shaped bruises. He nodded at Rainbow Dash and Applejack with a smile on his face.

'That was the result I'd hoped for.' he said to the two of them.

Applejack moved forward to shoulder charge him apple bucking style. An attack that may have broken his neck.

'Wait!' he shouted and held up his hands.

Applejack slowed her charge and stopped it before she hit him. She did however grab him by the throat with one hand and raised her other hand into a threatening fist.

'Why did you attack Mah friends?' she growled into his face.

He smiled and reached into his pocket and pulled out a small scroll sealed with Celestias' personal seal. 'I'll explain it when your friends wake up.' He said with a smile still on his face.

When the others did wake up Kain was tied to a chair and the others were reading the note he'd given them from Celestia. Twilight and Rarity had ice bags pressed against their heads where he'd hit them.

Twilight read the note aloud.

"My most faithful student

The man who bears this note is an ally. I do not know exactly what he intends to do, but I ask you to not attempt to harm him. He has been sent to Ponyville to instruct you and the other elements. He will explain more to you. When you get this letter send me a letter detailing what he did when he met you, I do not entirely trust him. I advise you to keep a close eye on him; he will explain things more clearly.

Yours sincerely Princess Celestia"

When she was done Kain chuckled 'I don't think she knew I planned on attacking you. I'm going to get yelled at for that.'

Twilight fixed him with a death stare 'All right tell us what's going on.'

Kain nodded. 'Mind untying me first?' he shifted uncomfortably.

'I do mind' said Rarity giving him a hate full look.

Kain shrugged 'Fine. My name is Kain Artun. I'm apparently the only real blade master in Equestria since Princess Celestia has succeeded in making a perfect peaceful nation. I've been sent here to teach you how to fight, with the eventual goal of saving hundreds of lives.' He looked at them and calmly observed their reactions.

Just then the door opened and Spike stepped in. He had a towel slung over one shoulder and his purple scales glittered in the sun. He froze when he saw everyone crowding the room and Kain tied to the chair. A couple of the girls spared him a glance but mostly they were too shocked by what Kain had just said to pay much attention to Spike.

'What going on?' Spike asked.

Nobody answered his question.

Kain stood up and the rope that he'd been bound with fell apart. 'See this is a perfect example of why Celestia sent me. You tie me up and don't even check me for knives.' He said waving a thin blade in his hands about. Rainbow Dash and Applejack stepped forward to stop him. He calmly walked around them and sat at the table he'd left his sandwich on. He picked it up and took a bite.

Twilight looked at Spike 'Spike could you watch him and warn us if he does anything … unfriendly.'

Spike shrugged and nodded. He walked over and sat next to Kain. When he sat down Kain asked him 'Hey… do you know where I could get ay beef?'

'Uhhh... No?' Spike answered sounding very confused.

Twilight called her group of friends together and talked while Kain was distracted by Spike.

'Do you think he's genuine?' Twilight asked the group.

'I sure don't. Anyone who's seen it could fake the princesses' seal.' Said Rainbow Dash.

'True' Twilight answered 'but how many people do you know that have actually seen it?'

Rainbow stopped to think 'Just us and Luna but he could still have faked it.'

'It's plausible' twilight agreed.

'Um… Now that Spike's here couldn't we…uh... Send the princess a letter asking if he's real?' asked Fluttershy.

Twilight looked at her 'Now that you mention it, it's the obvious thing to do.' Twilights' face heated and she felt quite foolish.

Twilight teleported upstairs and grabbed some quills ink and paper. She wrote a letter asking the princess if she did in fact send Kain and also described the way he'd treated them including the rudeness and the unprovoked attack. She then teleported back downstairs.

'Spike send this letter to the princess please.

Spike was in the middle of an animated conversation with Kain. He sighed took the letter rolled it up and burned it with his breath.

'Anyway as I was saying' Spike continued 'So Twilight looks at me with mud all over her face and says "Spike, where are the lab rats?" and I look up at her and say "I have no idea"!' then Spike burst out laughing and Kain joined him with a throaty chuckle.

Spike laughter was interrupted half way through by a burp of flame as a response from Celestia appeared.

Twilight picked it up and read it out aloud.

"My most faithful student

I did send Kain to school you, I was however not aware that he planned on attacking you and your friends. I will be arriving in Ponyville tomorrow to have a word with him about that. He said he wanted to meet you all anonymously, before anyone announced who he was, to get an unbiased understanding of you all. In the meantime tell him I order him to explain the situation truthfully and in its entirety. Again I do not trust him, but after he explains things do as he says. He truly is the only real blade master in Equestria. The skills he teaches you will be needed in the near future and will possibly help you in your later tasks.

Yours sincerely Princess Celestia"

Twilight rolled the letter up and looked at Kain. 'You've been I ordered to tell us what's going on.'

Kain nodded 'And I will do as the boss lady demands. I recommend you all pull up a seat though, it's a long story. Also can someone get me a drink? I'll want to clear my throat before it's over.'

So with some grumbles and mutters everyone pulled up some chairs and listened as Kain told the tale of where he was from and why he was here in-between sips of water. When it was done he asked 'Any questions?'

Twilights' hand shot up in the air instantly. She was brimming with curiosity and dying to ask questions about life in ancient times. Pinkie put up her hand a second later.

'Yes, you.' he said pointing at Pinkie.

'Your mean! We're not friends!' she shouted at him.

He nodded 'Ok then. Any actual question?'

Twilights hand remained firmly in the air.

'Yeah I have two.' Said Rainbow Dash.

'Ask away.' he said sitting back in his chair.

'First one, why did you attack us and act all creepy and weird?' Rainbow asked.

'I attacked you all to get an idea of your strengths and weaknesses, of that test only you and Applejack did well. I acted "all creepy and weird" to get an idea of your characters'.

Rainbow nodded 'My second question is why do we need to learn how to fight, why can't we just zap this Xath guy with the elements of Harmony like we did the other villains we've faced?'

He smiled at her 'Because the last time I tried that, the elements almost got killed, he didn't die and I got stabbed through the chest. This time when we go after him, we're going to be prepared and the elements won't be as helpless as they were last time.'

Applejack raised her hand 'How come yah didn't act all creepy like with me or Pinkie Pie? Ah thought you were a little odd but not scary or nuthin. '

Kain thought for a second. 'It was simply because I thought I had a pretty good impression of you without needing to press much harder…. Anyone else?' Twilight still had her hand in the air. 'No? Good.' He took in a breath before he barked out like a drill instructor 'Everybody line up now!' They all just stared at him with shocked faces. 'I'm not kidding ladies, get yourselves in line right now!' they all jumped up and stood in line.

'Good, when we're in training you will all learn to do exactly what I tell you to, the instant I tell you! Anyone who doesn't earns themselves a full contact session in the ring with me. This punishment will also serve as a possible advancement test. If you think you're good enough, you can try me in the ring! If you can last a full five minutes with me or beat me, then you advance up to the next rank! I don't expect to turn you all into blade masters, but by the end of this you will all be able to hold your own.'

'Celestia will arrive tomorrow and my brother may arrive at any time. If that happens, there will be very little to stop him from destroying this little town. Indeed because of your and my presence here he may be attracted to this town. Because of this, when Celestia arrives here tomorrow she will very kindly post a small force of fifty of her guards here to help protect the town if my brother show up before we're ready.'

'I know many of you have personal business to attend to and your own homes to worry about. That's why I will generously allow each and every one of you the first half of the day, which is right up until twelve O'clock, to keep things running around your home. After that every minute you are late will earn you an extra hours training after sunset with me. If there aren't enough hours in that night to cover the missing time then you can spend enough hours the next and the one after that. If you think I will tire out or let you off then I think I should warn you that during one battle I was awake for 5 days straight. Most of this was spent either marching or in combat. I will outlast any of you in matters of mental endurance.'

'There are more things that you should know but I will bring those up as they become relevant. In the meantime you're first practice session starts tomorrow at the Apple farm at twelve O'clock. Don't dress in anything you don't want to get stained or torn. I also advise against jewellery of any sort, you can lose an eye that way.'

'By the end of these three months we have together most, if not all, of you will hate me. You may however learn to enjoy the lessons I provide. It is undeniable fun to fight with and compete against your friends. Whatever your feelings on the subject you need to remember one very, very important thing. This is not fun and games, nor is it for my personal amusement. The lives of thousands of innocents the world over are at risk, and you six are really the only people that are in a position to save them.'

'Xath is out there and he needs to be stopped.'

Author insert:, and that's the end of chapter 2.

I only noticed after I wrote the scene with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash that Kain is a racist. This was a fortunate accident, because it gives Kain a stronger and less stereotyped character ark than the one I'd originally intended. Plus it makes sense that he is racist having grown up in a racist society and fought all his life against Mystic Folk. He's less racist towards the Sky Folk having fought alongside them but still maintains personal bias towards them for serving the Mystic Folk and only turning on them when things got harder for themselves. I hope to explore more of this side of his character in future chapters.

Chapter 3. informal arrival

Chapter 3: informal arrival

Celestia arrived in Ponyville the very next day. She announced her plan to post a small force of guardsmen to help protect the town from the dangers of the nearby magical forest and as way of thanking the folk of the village for being so warm and receiving to her apprentice. This announcement was met with much cheering. The people were excited by the idea that maybe six months would go by without their homes being destroyed by some rampaging monster.

An impromptu party was organised and held in the town hall. Almost everyone was in attendance. Even Twilight had been dragged to the party by her friends. Alcohol was served and the music was played by non-other than the towns' resident DJ: Vinyl Scratch.

Twilight, Rainbow, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rarity and Applejack were all in attendance. They were dressed stylishly and provocatively and were all standing in the middle of the dance floor. They danced to the music and stuck together. They were pleased by the number of young men who'd hit on them but so far they'd turned down all offers. Rarity looked stunning and all the straight men and gay girls were watching her with drool forming in the corner of their mouths. The group was trying to avoid alcohol because they were going to be training tomorrow and being hung-over while Kain tortured them sounded even worse than Kain torturing them. Pinkie had wanted to get seriously hammered at first but the others had convinced her this wasn't the best idea. They were feeling good right up until Kain walked in.

Kain was dressed in a trench coat of all things and he still had a sword slung on his hip. He spotted the group at the same time they spotted him. When he saw them he gave them a smirk that was contemptuous and made all of them feel like they were pathetic.

Fluttershy turned around under the gaze and whispered in Rainbow's ear 'Can we go?'

Rainbow nodded and led Fluttershy away from the centre of the dance floor. The other girls saw the two leave and shortly joined them.

Kain made his way across the crowded dance floor towards the girls when he was intercepted by a pretty girl in a pink beret.

'Why have you got a fake sword?' she asked with a smile 'Are you wearing a costume or something?'

Kain looked her up and down and smiled 'It's not a fake' he said and drew it.

'Ohhh… Cooooool' she said touching its edge. 'Can you like, do anything with it?'

He smiled and nodded. Just then a he got tapped on the shoulder. He turned around. It was a guardsman.

'Celestia wants to see you.' He said. 'Come with me'.

Kain nodded at him and turned to the girl 'When I come back I'll show you what it can do' he said with a smile.

'Okay' she said with a smile in response 'Why does Celestia want to see you?' but he didn't hear her question and was led away by the guard.

Celestia was upstairs in a small room that had two guards stationed outside of it. The party donce stairs could still be heard but it was a dull thump thump. The guard opened the door and Kain stepped through. Princess Celestia was dressed in a white dress that Rarity had designed at Celesitas' request. The dress was stunning on her and it really showed how good Rarity was at what she did.

Kain saluted as he entered 'Boss Lady'.

Celestia glared at him. 'HOW DARE YOU ATTACK MY STUDENTS?' She said in a voice that allowed no answer.

Kains' smile disappeared 'It was just a test. I did it to help me improve their training.' He answered.

'Training? Do you think I'm still going to let you train them? AFTER THIS!' her voice was hard enough to make lightning change directions and strike somewhere out of her line of sight.

Kain swallowed before answering 'You know as well as I do that there is no one else in Equestria who could train them. We need them to defeat Xath and without me Xath will kill them. If I'm harsh on them it's better that I am, because Xath would rip them limb from limb. That's not an expression. Xath often killed people by ripping them apart at the joints.'

Celestia looked sickened for a second 'Truthfully?' she asked looking pale.

Kain sighed and looked down as he answered 'And that's not even the worst thing that he's done. When he killed my family there was nothing for me to bury. He'd destroyed the bodies so much that if I had tried to bury them I would have needed a bucket.'

Celestia gave him a horrified look 'Truly this man is a beast' she gasped. 'You're okay with talking about that?'

Kain sighed and seated himself in a chair. 'When they died I'd been searching for the elements for a long time. I hadn't seen my wife or son in over three years. In that time she'd divorced me and remarried. That said when I learned of their death I grieved for a week. After that it was time to kill Xath. It took another four months to find him. By that time I was done with mourning. It's been over two thousand years since I burned my home down with their corpses in it. But for me it's been closer to four months. Yes it still hurts, but I had to put it behind me then and I have to do it now…. I'll manage.'

Celestia was silent for a minute after he'd finished. 'Do you think you can train them?' she asked quietly. 'Do you think they'll ever be able to defeat him?'

Kain stopped… 'I Don't know. With the amount of time we have….. Some of those girls have remarkable potential, others will need allot of work. I can't even begin to guess at our chances…' He looked up at her 'What could help though is if you spoke to them and explained the situation to them. They just think of me as some guy nut but coming from you they'll hopefullt take things more seriously.'

Celestia nodded. 'I'll do that right now.'

Kain got up to leave.

'Kain' Celestia said. Kain paused at the door 'you've been hurt badly by your brother. I can see it still haunts you. You've been damaged and you need help. You need to find someone you can talk to. That can't be me. I won't be here all the time. Find someone.'

Kain didn't respond he just closed the door behind himself and headed back down to the party. He spotted the girl he'd been talking to earlier leaning against a wall sipping on a drink. He made his way over to her.

'Still want to see my sword?' he asked.

She looked at him and grinned.

Twilight was chatting with her friends when a guardsman tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around 'Yes?' she said with a polite smile.

'The princess wants to see you' he said.

'Okay. Guys I'll be back in a second' she turned to follow the guard.

'Actually the princess wants to see all of you.' The guard said loud enough for everyone to hear.

Twilight turned to her friends 'Okay come on guys.'

The group followed the guard across the floor and up the stairs. As they climbed the stairs they spotted Kain standing in a corner with his sword drawn. He was using it to cut pencils in half down the middle while they were still in mid-air. He stopped, downed some whiskey and said something which made the crowd that had surrounded him cheer.

'I hope he cuts himself' Rarity muttered to Twilight as they neared the top of the stairs. Twilight giggled at the thought.

The guard led them to the room Celestia was in and opened it for them. When they all entered he closed the door and waited outside.

'Princess' All the girls said in unison. They bowed low.

'Oh, stand up. Enough people bow to me all day. You girls don't need to do that. Stand up find a seat. I'm afraid we have important matters to discuss.'

The girls all pulled up seats around the room. 'Do these matters involve this "Xath" that Kain spoke about?' Twilight asked.

'Yes. I'm sad to say it, but Kain spoke the truth when he explained the situation. A creature named Xath has been unleashed on Equestria. My guards have already found several corpses on isolated roads and in remote farms that have clearly been his work.'

'Well than what are we sitting around for?' Rainbow dash asked 'We need to stop him before more people get hurt!' she stood up.

'Sit down Rainbow Dash!' Celestia ordered.

Rainbow sat down.

'Good. Now… Xath is as you know Kains brother. Xath is not going to come after the whole kingdom the way Luna and Discord did. He's going to prey on isolated innocents. This means we can't simply defeat him as you suggested. We'd need to find him first. He can fly. So he could be anywhere in Equestria. To find him I would need to scatter our soldiers out on every road in Equestria. They themselves would be attacked if they did find him and could be killed. The only people with the strength to stand up to him are me and my sister Luna. But he is an expert swordsman and if we tried this he would probably defeat us. He is immune to all magical attacks except the elements of Harmony. If I sent you out to kill him you'd never find him and if you did he'd probably run away or kill you before you had a chance to use the elements.'

'Well then what do we do?' asked Twilight.

'Kain has told me that about once every three months Xath goes on a killing spree. When he does this he kills close to a hundred people before he runs off into the wilderness and waits another three months before he does it again. Kain told me that the night before he was imprisoned in stone, Xath completed one such massacre.'

'That means we have a little over three months give or take before Xath goes on another rampage. Kains' proposed plan, which I agree with, is to train you all for the next three months, and if you're not ready by then he will train you for longer. At the end of those three months, if you're ready, he will make his location known to Xath by some means which he hasn't fully explained to me. Xath will arrive for the massacre and try to kill Kain, you six will use the elements of harmony to stop him. Any questions.'

'Yeah I got one.' Rainbow asked leaning forward in her chair 'Why don't we just call him here before the three months and do it now?'

Celestia looked Rainbow in the eye as she answered 'There are two reasons. One is that we can't guarantee he'll go after Kain before the three months. And two, if Xath were to come now there's a good chance that we wouldn't be able stop him.'

Rainbow Dash nodded and leaned back into her chair in thought.

'Good. Now to discuss Kain and the training he will provide. Normally I wouldn't want a man like Kain to be the one training you. But unfortunately he is the only real blade master in the Equestria so he'll have to do. You need to heed his warnings and pay attention during his lessons. He may be gruff or even cruel but if you want to defeat Xath you're going to need to listen to him. He tells me that he attacked you yesterday with good reason. I don't know if that's true or not but I'm going to have to trust him. He hasn't made any promises to be gentle with you so, I expect he'll offer similarly harsh tutelage in the future. I truly hate to do this, but I do believe this is the only way we're going to stop Xath.'

Twilight spoke up 'We'll do whatever it takes to stop that monster. We can live with a few lousy months if it means saving lives.'

Celestia smiled at her student 'Good. I was hoping you'd say that. I recommend you all get a good night's sleep. He's going not going to be gentle with you.'

The group all smiled and thanked the princess for taking the time to see them. They all went back downstairs. Kain was still in the corner with the crowd except now there was a mostly empty whiskey bottle behind him and an impressively large pile of destroyed pencils in front of him.

They all said good night to each other and left for home.

Kain tipped another shot of whiskey back and enjoyed the burning sensation it made as it ran down his throat. He readied his sword and said 'Throw three.'

The girl in the pink berret nodded and tossed three pencils at him at once. Kains' sword moved but nobody watching could really say they saw how it moved. Two of the pencil slid directly in half but the third landed on the ground unharmed. It was the first one he'd missed all night. Everyone made a disappointed sound.

'And that's all I'll be able to cut tonight' He gave an apologetic look to everyone as he sheathed his sword 'Sorry folks'. The group dispersed slowly until Kain was left alone with the girl in the pink beret.

'Hey, want to come back to my place for some drinks?' she asked with a suggestive grin.

'Sure I-' Just then someone bumped into the girl and knocked the beret of her head. He saw the horn on the girl and instantly seemed a thousand times more sobre 'Maybe another night.' He said with a polite smile. She looked disappointed.

'All right then. I'll see you tomorrow?' she said with a smile.

'I won't know until I see you. Will I?' and with that Kain walked out of the building leaving a confused and disappointed girl behind.

The moment he was outside Kain ran to the nearest garbage bin and threw up in it. The smell of alcohol and bile was overpowering to him even in his inebriated state. He pulled back when he was done and wiped his mouth was his coat sleeve.

'Well ain't that ah sorry sight.' A southern accent called out.

Kain turned around and saw a disgusted looking Applejack watching him. She'd donned a coat and her hands were in its pockets.

'Ah saw you getting drunk and thought ah better see if yah had somewhere to sleep.'

In his drunken state it took Kain a second to comprehend what she was saying. 'No I don't.'

Applejack sighed and said 'Course you don't. Come on. Ah'll put you up in mah guest bedroom.'

Kain smiled at her 'That's generous of you. But I'd hate to impose more than I already am. I'll just rent a room at the inn.' With that he turned around and started walking in the wrong direction.

'Idiot' Applejack muttered and went after him. She caught him quickly because he was staggering drunkenly. She put his arm around her shoulder and walked him out to the Apple farm. The walk was fairly long and he sobered up a little.

'How do yah think tah teach us in the morning when you're hung-over?' she muttered angrily when he made her stumble for the fifth time.

'Hah this? This is nothing. I used to get twice as drunk as this the night before a battle.' He boasted 'And during the battle I'd get twice as drunk again!' he burst out laughing.

'Ah doubt that very much.' Applejack grumbled sounding irritated.

'Yeah it's a good thing that you do… That was a lie' he muttered sounding tired. 'Thanks for giving me a place to sleep' he said sounding much more sober 'I know that I ain't gonna remember this in the morning and I'm not going to say it then. But the stuff I'm going to put you and your friends through… It's for your own good. Like Xath…. If he came into town now…. We'd be dead…. All of us. But if I can get you ready before he comes…. Maybe...' he didn't finish that thought.

Applejack didn't say anything. She just kept walking. Eventually they arrived at the Apples' farm. Applejack guided him upstairs to the guest bedroom. He sat down and took off his boots and coat. He sat on the foot of the bed and unbuckled his sword.

Applejack saw he seemed to be taking care of himself and decided to leave him alone. Applejack closed the door and walked to her own bedroom.

And that's the end of chapter 3.

Chapter 4. Training begins

Chapter 4 Training begins

Applejack woke up early to do her chores. She usually woke up pretty early anyway. Today she rose about an hour before sunrise. She did this because she wanted to give herself extra time to get the odd jobs around the farm done by twelve.

She had a shower and dressed in some work clothes. They were less than fancy but if they got stained or damaged it wouldn't matter.

She went downstairs for breakfast and was surprised to see Kain already sitting there helping himself to a bowl of cereal. This was surprising given how drunk he had been last night. Applejack suspected his head must feel like it got ran over by a carriage.

'Mornin.' Applejack said cheerfully.

When she spoke Kain winced and put a hand to his head.

'Morning' he said in a voice that was barely above a whisper. 'Thanks for giving me a bed last night.'

'No problem' Applejack said in a voice that was a little louder than it needed to be.

Again he grimaced at the voice but he voiced no complaint. He finished his breakfast and put his bowl and spoon in the sink.

'I won't need your guest room again.' He said very quietly 'I'll get my own place' he promised.

With that said he walked upstairs and came back down a minute later better dressed and cleaner. He put on some shoes at the door and stepped outside. Applejack didn't see him for the rest of the morning.

She worked right up until a quarter to midday and waited outside for Kain. It was a couple of minutes before all the other girls showed up. Kain himself must've timed it because at exactly twelve he came walking down the path towards them.

'Come on Ladies. This way!' He called out.

He wasn't wearing a shirt or shoes and he had a different sword to the one he usually strapped to his hip. When Applejack got closer she noted his eyes were insanely blood shot but he gave no outward signs of discomfort.

He led them down a short path to a clearing he'd selected. The clearing was fairly large and there were three circles marked into the ground with smooth white pebbles. Applejack didn't know where the pebbles had come from. She knew that there weren't any stones like that on Apple acres. Next to the rings was a rack of wooden swords of varying sizes and shapes.

'Alright ladies, line up! I don't care what order you're in.' Kain ordered. The group lined up as they were told. 'Alright. These are the rules.'

'The first rule as you already know, is anyone who disobeys an order gets a full contact session in the ring with me.'

'The second rule is maintain you're equipment. I don't care how tired, drunk, or half dead you are, at the end of the day you clean it and you sharpen it. At this stage we are only using wooden swords weighted with lead but I still expect you to run through the exercise. Any questions about rule two?'

Nobody responded.

'Good. Rule three is the simplest of them all. This' he pointed at one of the circles on the ground 'is a ring. And this' he pointed at a line on the ground he'd marked in pebbles 'Is THE LINE.' He said with great emphasis. 'When I tell you to get on THE LINE I want you to stand on this line. I don't care where you are or what you're doing, when I say get on THE LINE you run to this line. When I say get in the ring, you can get in a ring. I'm not worried which one. Any questions about rule three?'

Nobody felt the need to ask any questions about rule three.

'And lastly we have rule four. Until I say you can, you will not use wings or magic. Any questions?…'

'No? Good. Other rules will be explained as they become relevant.' With that he looked at the lined up folk. 'Today I'm going to focus on testing your limits so we can see what areas you're already fine in and what areas you need work in. At the end of today I will assign you all a sword. You are going to wear this sword everywhere you go. The purpose of this is to adapt you to the weight of it sooner. The only time you're allowed to take it off is when you bathe or swim. Any questions?'

It was Rarity that spoke up 'So I understand we are to wear one of those Swords, everywhere?'

'Yes that's exactly what I said.' Kain said in a very deadpan voice.

'Even when I'm at work or at home?'

'Especially at work and home.' He said with a grin 'You'll soon get used to it. Eventually you'll feel naked without it. Though getting used to it will come first. I'll be checking up on you all during the day to see if you're wearing it. I also expect you to keep an eye on each other.'

After that the day became hell. First he showed them hand to hand combat drills and explained there uses. Then he expected them all to practice them on each other. He partnered the girls off. Applejack was partners with Rainbow, Fluttershy was partnered to Rarity and Twilight was with Pinkie. Applejack and Rainbow did well with the drills, enjoying the competition of it and had good fun throwing each other around.

Pinkie did fairly well at it but constantly burst into fits of giggling. This giggling made it impossible for her or Twilight to perform the drills on each other because they found themselves constantly bursting into uncontrolled gouts of laughter. This was stopped when Kain made each of them choose to either stop giggling or step with him in the ring for a full contact session.

Fluttershy and Rarity though…. They did it half-heartedly at best. He warned them to take it seriously or suffer a ring session. Rarity thought he was bluffing and prompted for a ring session. He proved that he wasn't bluffing. After that she started taking the combat drills with some enthusiasm and Fluttershy hoping to help her friend avoid such sessions in future also started to perform more enthusiastically. However Rarity had a slight limp for the rest of the day and this slowed her down.

After that Kain had them all individually perform the drills with him. By the end of this everyone was bruised but Kain himself. While in the ring with him anyone who made a mistake was mercilessly punished with a sharp blow and a new bruise. Applejack faired the best in this being harder to bruise than any of the other girls. Then things took a turn for the worst.

Fluttershy was the last to practice the drills with him. The first mistake she made she caught a sharp blow to the eye that made her shriek and tear up. At that all the individual members of the group except Rarity challenged Kain to the ring in objection. Applejack was the first to enter to ring with him. Despite her strength and the fact that she was the larger of the two people in the ring Applejack was beaten soundly. Perhaps because of the fact that Applejack had suffered some nasty blows to both Kidneys and had a numb arm, Rainbow Dash was eager to get in the ring with Kain. Fluttershy, wanting to protect her friends, stopped them and endured the rest of the drills with Kain. Though she was terribly bruised by the end of it.

After that he led them all on a run through the Running of the Leaves course. This was particularly hard on Pinkie Pie who usually was bursting with Energy but at the end of it was hardly able to stand.

Then he proceeded to put them through a new set of combat drills, both partnered and again individually with him. After that he had them swim laps in the Apple acres dam. This was the closest they got to a rest for the day. The swim served to sooth their aching muscles and ease the pain in their bruises. When they emerged shivering from the surprisingly chilly water he put them through some aerobics and muscle stretches before leading them through another combat drill.

After that time blurred and it seemed like the whole world shrunk to just the vey next action. Taking the next step was all that mattered. That step ceased to matter when all that mattered was the one that came after it. And then your life depended on the success with which you took the next one after that.

Eventually they came to a stop, once the sun was about to set, in the clearing they'd started in at Sweet Apple Acres.

Everyone was tired but some were worse affected then others. Twilight and Pinkie had trouble standing up once they finally sat down and Raritys' eyes had glazed over and taken on a very distant look. Fluttershy seemed okay enough, although she was lying on her back and breathing hard.

Applejack and Rainbow though were both dedicated athletes and while tired stood on their feet in an unspoken competition to see who between them would break down first. They'd been that way throughout the whole day measuring themselves against each other privately in their own heads. They'd competed against each other in the past and this was just another example.

Kain was breathing hard too but he spoke clearly in the same commanding voice he'd used earlier. 'Ladies nicely done. You almost did well enough to outlast my GRANDMOTHER! And it's worth noting that she DIED TWO THOUSAND YEAR AGO! Girls this is just pathetic! One hard day and most of you aren't even on your bloody feat! Let alone able to fight!' He looked at the ones on the ground contemptuously.

'You honestly think that this is hard?' he laughed 'No hard is when you're under siege and you've been awake for two days straight! You've spent all night running along fortress walls and dodging arrows. Hard is when you've hacked into so many people that you've lost all feeling in your arm. And you're still expected to hold that sword and you're still expected to do it a hundred times again!'

'Ladies… Some of you did well' he glanced at Applejack and Rainbow 'Others did slightly better than expected' he glanced at Fluttershy 'The rest performed as expected.' He gave a contemptuous glance at Rarity, Twilight and Pinkie.

He looked around the clearing 'Time to get you your swords. Girls stand up.' Rarity and Fluttershy got to their feet but Twilight and Pinkie stayed on the ground 'Applejack, Rainbow Dash help them up.' Rainbow and Applejack pulled Twilight and Pinkie up and gave them a shoulder.

Kain walked over to the rack of swords and pulled out two. He held one in each hand. He tossed one to Fluttershy and one to Rarity. They were both the same size and shape. They were both the same size, fairly small compared to the other ones on the rack and they were halfway between being a long sword and a short sword. He got three more swords off the rack. Two of them were the same and were smaller than a short sword, the third one was a short sword. He gave the two small ones to Pinkie and the short sword to Twilight. Lastly he retrieved a large two handed sword and a regular long sword from the rack. The largest one he handed to Applejack and the regular one he handed to Rainbow.

Applejack looked at the large wooden sword in her hands 'It this meant to be a club?' she joked moving it around in her hands and feeling the weight of it.

Kain smiled at her joke 'No that's a hand and a half. I'm not quite sure whether to go up a size or leave it as it is. We'll so how you do with it tomorrow.'

Kain turned to address the group 'I'm going to train you all in the basics of everything on that Rack, but these will probably be the swords that I'll have the castle smiths forge when you've gotten good enough.'

He walked over to the rack and pulled out a bunch of belts. He slung them over his shoulder and returned to the group. He passed them out. They were simple belts with a loop in them. Their purpose was obvious and all the assembled strapped them on and put their swords through the leather hoop. Except Applejack who was given a strap that went over her shoulders. The sword handle stuck over her shoulder once it was in its place in the loop.

'Go home now and rest up. Think today was bad? Tomorrow will be worse.'

Applejack and Rainbow Dash were still awake. They were still playing there unspoken game of "be less tired than the other person". Having no desire to drink, because of Kains' warning about the next day, the two girls had at first relegated to a club for a dance. They soon found the weird looks they got because of the swords they had strapped on combined with the aches and pains they already suffered from to be incompatible with a good nights dancing. Plus the two had never really been party animals in the first place.

So in the end they just sat at the bar eating peanuts and making casual and strained conversation. Both of them really wanted to go home for some sleep but neither was willing to let the other win this endurance game they'd made up.

'Sooooooo… What do ya think of Kain?' Rainbow asked.

Applejack snorted contemptuously 'He ain't nothing but ah bully. See the way he treated Fluttershy? Hitting her around like that was just wrong. The girls probably gonna have ah black eye come tomorrow.'

'He sure kicked your ass.' Rainbow said in a tone that was obviously hoping to dig up some kind of reaction.

'He sure knows his way about hurting folk…' Apple replied bitterly not taking the bait.

'Yeah Whatever! If Fluttershy hadn't stopped me I would have taken him apart.' Rainbow bragged leaning back and crossing her arms behind her head.

Applejack gave her a flat look 'Ah seriously doubt that. When he was running us through them combat drills he hit you as hard as anyfolk and don't tell me that it didn't hurt. Ah saw yah blink back ah few tears after that nasty way he twisted your arm around.'

'Whatever I could have taken him.' Rainbow replied sullenly 'If it wasn't for Celestias' orders I'd have beaten the snot out of him.' She shifted uncomfortably and repositioned the sword at her hip 'Damn these stupid things. Why do we have to wear these things anyway?' Rainbow complained.

'He said something about….' Just then Kain stepped through the club door. 'Speak of the devil' Applejack said not finishing her answer.

Rainbow turned and spotted him.

'Dammit. What's he doing here?' she said sounding annoyed

His sword was still on his hip. And he wore some normal clothes you'd expect to see at a club. He looked around and saw them. He made his way across the dance floor towards them.

'Why's he coming over here?' Rainbow Dash said sounding annoyed.

He was about ten metres away from them when he was intercepted by a girl in a pink beret. Applejack couldn't hear what was being said but could tell by the way the girl was standing that she was into him. She kept fiddling with her shoulder length blond hair and gave other similar small signs to give away her intent.

'Maybe we'll get lucky and she'll take him home' Rainbow said hopefully.

Unfortunately for Rainbow Dash that didn't happen. He said something which caused her to start pouting. She then smiled and danced back into the crowd

Kain then came over and sat at the bar next to them. He waved his hand to get the bartenders' attention but the bartender was distracted by other customers. They sat in awkward silence for a few very long seconds before Applejack spoke.

'Why'd yah turn that girl down back there?' she asked.

He said nothing. But Applejack saw him wrinkle his nose in faint disgust.

'Yeah she was hot. I wouldn't have turned her down if she were coming on to me.' Rainbow said joining in with the conversation.

Applejack gave her a flat look and a few seconds to realise what she'd just said.

At the end of those seconds Rainbow Dash blushed 'Oh! Well you know if I was…' she seemed distant for a second 'Anyway why'd you turn her down?' she asked changing back to the original topic.

Kain didn't say anything.

Rainbow continued her one sided conversation 'Also while I'm at it, I noticed today you weren't staring at any of us today. You know, the way that guys do. You were surrounded by some fairly cute girls. I mean Rarity had her shirt plastered to her body with sweat, and it was all but see through when it got wet! You didn't even glance her way once!'

Kain shook his head 'Not my type' he muttered. Kain tried again to attract the bartenders' attention but to no avail.

'What do you mean she's not your type?' Rainbow asked 'Rarity's the sexiest thing on legs. Hell I'd do her!' Applejack gave Rainbow another long flat look. Rainbow blushed 'You know if I was…' there was awkward silence before 'Whatever! What's your deal?' Rainbow asked.

Kain shrugged and finally managed to wave the bartender down 'Whiskey please. Leave the bottle' and he put some bits in the bartenders hand.

The bartender nodded and came back a moment later with a cheap looking bottle of whiskey and a shot glass. Kain ignored the shot glass and drunk straight from the bottle.

'Are you like… Gay or something?' Rainbow asked.

Kain coughed on the whiskey and put the bottle down. He took a second to clear his throat before answering 'What?' he said staring at her.

'I mean are you into guys?' Rainbow asked.

He stared at her blankly for a minute 'Didn't you hear the part where I was married?'

'Well you could've been closeted or something.'

He gave her a look that screamed are you stupid? 'I promise you I'm not gay, or in the closet, or even in the least bit bi. I've just got some…. More important Issues on my mind.'

'So are you homophobic? Because I heard somewhere that homophobes often harbor gay feelings and are usually overcompensating' Rainbow asked.

He shook his head slowly.

'Then I don't get it… What's your problem?'

He sighed 'It involves that whole thing I mentioned earlier, you know the one about the horrible deaths of innocent people and my brother Xath. The reason I've been training you in the first place? Ring any bells?' He asked sounding irritated.

Rainbow frowned 'Still doesn't explain why your-'

'LOOK!' He said with a snarl 'Who I do and don't sleep with in no business of yours! If I wanted to screw a cat it would be none of yours! Got it!'

Rainbow looked taken aback 'Sorry' she mumbled and an awkward silence descended.

He tipped the bottle back and took a long swig. He was about to tip it back for another when Applejack snatched the bottle from his hand.

'What the hell do you think you're doing?' He said turning to her and sounding angry.

'It may not be mah business who ya'll sleep with but it is mah business that mah supposed teacher is acting like ah raging alcoholic. Yah ain't gonna be of any use teh any folk if you can't stand up in the morning. Now get on your feet and we'll walk yah home.'

He looked at her for a second. Tension built for a moment. It broke when he cracked a grin 'OK ma'm' he said copying her accent 'Escort me to mah home'. He stood up.

Together they walked towards the exit when again he was stopped by the girl with the pink beret.

She looked quite annoyed. She stood with her arms crossed and her hips cocked. She glared at Applejack and Rainbow.

'So you don't want me? Is that it? If you didn't want me then why'd you come onto me last night? Huh? Did you just want to mess around with me? You just told me just you'd had a hard day and were going to have an early night. But I turn around and you've been drinking and pick up some dumb sluts? Neither of them are even as hot as me!' she looked furious.

'Listen sugar-cube' Applejack said sounding irritated. She did not appreciate being called a slut but still did her best not to let her anger get the best of her. 'He didn't pick us up. And we are certainly not sluts. No he's our teacher and were taking him home so he'll be right in the head for tomorrow. Believe me when ah tell you we have no interest in him. He'll be here tomorrow night and you can have your fun with him then. For now we got lesson in the mornin and he needs to be there for em.'

The girl in the beret suddenly smiled and said 'Oh! Okay then I guess I'll See you tomorrow!' Before she suddenly ran off into the crowd.

'Id totally do her…' Rainbow realized what she'd said again and blushed. She changed the topic 'That was a mood swing and a half though. This girl seems to me like she has a few screws loose. Either put her down now or start treating her seriously. What's her name anyway?'

'No idea' Kain grumbled.

The three of them walked out the door. They walked in silence for a while. It was Rainbow Dash who eventually spoke up to reduce the awkwardness. 'So you knew the old elements huh?'

'Yeah' Kain said slowly. 'Why?'

'I was just wondering what they were like.'

Kain thought for a second and shrugged 'Well I didn't know them all that well. My sister Thae'ah was the element of honesty and she was sort of like Applejack here, except she was more girly… She was way more naive too. I didn't really get along with any of the others at all. The element of magic hated my guts though.'

'Why'd she hate you?' Rainbow Dash asked getting curious.

'Well… I did kill her father… He was my blade master.' He seemed deep in memory 'But also even before that, we were just always opposite to each other. I mean for example when we were working together to kill Xath she always wanted to do it differently to the way I'd planned it. Maybe her way would've been better in the end; after all, Xath never got killed.' He sighed in a tired sounding way 'But other things like I always preferred to deal with people directly but she always tried to keep people distant with letters and messages. She always tried to avoid seeing people. I always was a source of strain on her and my sisters' friendship. The elements of Harmony only work if all the elements get along, so in the end I drove my sister away so she could get along with the element of magic easier.'

'What were their names?'

'My sister Thae'ah was the element of honesty, Riquel was magic, Ferna was kindness, Tiahan represented loyalty, she was a Pegasus like you, Murna was generosity and laughter was named Kinya.' He chuckled and said 'Kinya was funny. There was this one time that Kinya-' He cut himself short and suddenly stopped walking.

'I just realized that they're all dead. I mean I knew that they were dead but I didn't….' He started walking again only this time he looked like he was somewhere else entirely. 'I've just realized that the last thing I ever said to Thae'ah was that I didn't care whether she lived or died…' He rubbed at his eyes. 'I never went to her funeral, or saw her get married or-'

He then slapped himself suddenly. 'HERE NOW!' he said to himself violently. 'You're here! Deal with now!' he slapped himself again.

'You okay?' Applejack asked concerned by his strange behavior.

'I'm fine.' He said sharply. 'I'm fine!' He repeated to no one in particular and walked past the two girls rapidly. Applejack and Rainbow exchanged looks before they caught up.

They walked in tense silence for a while before Rainbow spoke again. 'How could you hit Fluttershy like that?' she asked him.

He blinked at her in confusion 'I don't understand your question.'

'Well Fluttershy is the nicest and kindest person I know and you gave her a black eye. I mean how could you bring yourself to do that?' Rainbow asked.

He thought for a second before he answered. 'Fluttershy had to learn that if she screwed up than it would get her hurt.' He looked at them as if it was the most obvious thing in the world 'Would you rather that I didn't do it and she didn't learn anything? When Xath arrives it's not going to matter how nice or generous she is. All that's going to matter is how well she'll be able to function as a swordsman.'

Rainbow nodded though she looked like she wasn't happy with the answer. They walked along for a while before they arrived at a small cottage.

'This is where I'm staying.' He smiled at the homely little cottage. It had a small path leading to the front door. It looked quite small from the outside. 'Good night girls.' He called over his shoulder as he walked up the path.

After he was gone Rainbow and Applejack looked at each other. They stood there awkwardly for a minute before Applejack spoke up 'What do yah wanna do now?'

Rainbow shrugged 'I don't know about you but I could go all night' she tried to sound boast full but her voice cracked when she said "all night".

Applejack heard the strain in Rainbows voice as she said that. They both realized very suddenly the ridiculousness of the game they'd been playing.

'Rainbow, have you been… Trying to see if you can stay awake longer than me?' Applejack asked.

'Umm yeah… Have you been too?' Rainbow coughed awkwardly as she said it.

'Yeah..' Applejack answered. They both looked at each other and started laughing at the stupid situation.

'Man we're such idiots' Rainbow giggled. 'I'm going to bed. This does not mean you won though.'

Applejack grinned at that 'whatever you say sugar. I'm going home. See yah tomorrow.'

She turned around and walked away. Rainbow Dash took off her jacket and unfurled her wings. The shirt she wore had holes cut in it for wings but Rarity had been scandalized when Rainbow had wanted to cut similar holes into the jacket, so Rainbow decided not to do it for her friends' sake. She launched herself into the air and let her wings take her weight. She breathed a sigh of relaxation as she flew up to her cloudy home. No matter what she'd said to Applejack Rainbow had had a hard day and the moment she lay in bed she fell asleep.

Kain watched impassively as Xath killed another victim. He tore the screaming ladies' head off with his hands and rolled the head like a bowling ball to join a pile of similar heads. Xath then turned to Kain and laughed.

Kain strode forward and drove a sword into Xaths' heart. Xath laughed at him all the more. Kain wrenched his sword free and Xath still laughing fell to his knees. Kain grabbed a handful of Xaths' hair and cut off the kneeling man's head. He laughed to himself as Xaths' laugh finally ended. Xaths' body fell backwards limply and before Kains' eyes the wings that were sprouting out of his back disappeared and the body shrunk in size until it was the body of a child.

Kain looked at the head in his hands and saw it to had changed from the grinning beast his brother had become into the face Kain remembered his little brother having as a young child. The mouth hung open and the eyes stared blankly.

Kain looked at the dead body and saw water, not blood, dripping from the wound. The water pooled around Kain. Kain looked at his reflection in the water and saw that he had a pair of horns growing out of his head and large leathery wings sprouting out of his back.

He looked about and saw the six elements he'd known, in ancient times, staring at him in horror. His sister, the element of honesty, Thae'ah looked at him with disgust and contempt rather than loathing. He saw that behind them was the burning home of his family. His son, named Kurt, walk out of the house on fire. He walked like he was drunk, in one hand he held a bottle of whiskey in the other a bloody sword.

Thae'ah looked over her shoulder and saw Kurt she turned to Kain and said 'Like father, like son'.

Kurt tipped the bottle back and flames came out of it and consumed him.

Kain felt a pain in his chest. He looked down and saw a blade sticking out of his heart. The sword was the one Kain had picked up from his defeated blade master. The sword was pulled out of his chest. He turned around and saw the six current elements of magic. They all had their hands on his blade and stared at him blank eyed. He fell to his knees dying.

From behind them a shape emerged through the smoke. It was Celestia. In one hand she held a large ceremonial sword. The Elements parted before her and she ignored them. She stared at Kain with contempt in her eyes. She handed her sword to his sister Thae'ah who had walked over from the other group of spectators.

'Put him down' Celestia ordered with a voice that dripped disgust.

Thae'ah smiled and raised the sword she now held. She raised the sword directly above her head. Thae'ah swung it down. He saw happiness, true unabated joy sparkling in her eyes as the sword moved down.

The sword hit him and he saw black.

Kain heard a voice he recognized as his own say 'I would do whatever it took, no matter how many people got hurt, to see that monster ended.'

Another voice responded 'And what if that makes you just as bad as him?'

He answered 'Then I would hope that someone would do the same for me.'

Kain sat bolt upright. It was the middle of the night mere hours after Applejack and Rainbow Dash had left. The dream returned to him and he sighed. He leaned back down into his bed. 'And that's why I drink' he muttered to himself.

And that was the truth. Kain drank hard and often as a way to deal with grief of losing his loved ones, the stress of near constant battle, the fear and the self-loathing that had characterized his existence for the past four years. Well it was actually two thousand years but he was unconscious for those.

Kain tried to get some sleep but for the rest of the night merely tossed and turned in his bed.

'I'm never spending another night sober' Kain muttered to himself.

Ooh dream sequence. And that's the end of chapter 4. Next chapter I'm going to try and make things seem a little more intense. I'm going to from now on start uploading one chapter every Monday. That's Australian Monday, because live in Australia.

Also I should mention that there will be no romance sup-plot or any shipping.

Chapter5. Training Continued

Chapter 5 Training Continued

The next morning Rainbow Dash woke up feeling even worse than when she'd fallen asleep. The bruises she'd taken yesterday had turned ugly yellows and browns. When she stood up her legs felt stiff and the arm Kain had wrenched behind her back felt particularly ripe.

She got out of bed stripped down and had a shower. She then got dressed in her jogging suit.

She then flew out on her morning exercises. She wanted to be a wonder bolt after all and to do that she'd need to be at peak physical condition. Yesterday had been tiring true but no more so than a regular day of hard exercise. No the real trouble was the thousands of little aches and pains Kain had so carefully placed.

She finished her morning routine of flights and exercises and made her way back home. When she got there she changed into a grass stained tank top and shorts. She checked the time and realised it was already almost midday. She must have slept in later than usual.

She flew to the Apple farm and hovered above the clearing where the white pebbles and rings had been laid out. Everybody was already there. She then realised she'd forgotten her sword when she'd taken it off for her shower. She quickly flew back to her house and strapped the sword on before speeding back. By then she was two minutes late.

When she landed Kain called out 'You're late! By a few minutes if my watch doesn't lie. You can make those up in hours tonight. Also if you forget your sword again I'll make you regret it. Now line up behind everybody else.'

Rainbow saw that all the girls were already lined up. She stood at the back of the line like she was told. Everybody had the swords he'd given them strapped on. None of them looked very happy at all. Fluttershy in particular looked miserable with one black eye. Raritys' limp from yesterday had gotten worse. Though Rainbow did note that even limping Rarity had a sexy saunter.

'All right today is going to be spent mostly ringside. Today were going to practising with the swords I gave you. But first a gentle spar with me to see how well I chose you're weapons. And also I want you to take off your shirts.'

Fluttershys' head snapped around at this 'Why?' she asked louder than her usual barely above a whisper. 'I d-d-don't want to do that.'

Kain smiled at her malevolently. 'Because a blow from one of these will hurt more on bare skin. Also if you're feeling shy don't worry. I'll be dressed the same as you anyway.'

Rainbow could tell he wasn't saying any of this to make them feel more comfortable. Rainbow had to admit that the thought of being in a ring with him all but naked was uncomfortable to say the least.

'Plus any folk that doesn't want to do this can have a much less gentle full contact session with me.'

The girls did as they were told and removed their shirts. Fluttershy slowly and hesitantly slipped the turtle neck she wore over her head. Rainbow watched as she did it and couldn't help but note that because she did it so slowly it only made her seem more attractive. Applejack for some reason put her hat on after she was done. Rainbow didn't understand. The girl was all but naked and she still insisted on wearing that dumb hat!

The first person in the ring with Kain was Pinkie. He was as gentle as he said he would be and Pinkie left the ring without a new mark on her. Applejack was next. Almost the moment they started he called a stop and took the sword from her hands. He went over to the rack and took out a larger one He gave it to her and they started again. He again called a stop and this time gave her a regular sized long sword. He didn't like this either and by the end he'd given her back the hand and a half sword she'd started with. He still didn't seem satisfied with it. Twilight entered the ring and left with a slightly thinner and longer sword than her original. Rarity kept her sword but Fluttershy ended up with a short sword like Twilights old one. Rainbow was last and kept the sword he'd given her first. True to his word he had been gentle and none of them had been hurt.

That soon changed. Kain broke them off into the same pairings as yesterday. Kain put them in the rings, then he went about showing them the basic techniques you used when fighting with all their various types of swords. Things worked out similar to the way they did yesterday with Applejack and Rainbow Dash digging into each other whole heartedly, Pinkie and Twilight only taking things seriously because of Kains' continued presence and Fluttershy and Rarity half-heartedly running through the motions with each other. This did not please Kain.

He broke the partners up and repartnered Applejack with Twilight, Pinkie with Rarity and Rainbow with Fluttershy. This didn't improve the situation at all. Rainbow and Fluttershy were completely unwilling to hit each other. Pinkie and Rarity were no better and Applejack and Twilight were also just going through the motions.

He broke the partners again and partnered Applejack with Fluttershy Rainbow with Twilight and Rarity with Pinkie. This was even worse. The main problem was Fluttershy. Anyone who partnered with her was unwilling to hurt her. Kain was frustrated. He ranted and raved and threatened but no matter what he did no one was willing to hit Fluttershy, nor was she willing to hit them.

Then he happened upon the solution. He realised that Fluttershy was the element of kindness. He realised Fluttershy was more concerned about others being hurt then getting herself hurt.

'Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash get over here. Applejack partner up with Twilight.' He sounded odd as he said this. Like he was about to do a particularly unpleasant task. 'Rainbow, drop your sword and hold your hands behind your back.' Rainbow looked at him confused for a second but did as she was bid. 'Now Fluttershy I want you to hit Rainbow Dash.'

Fluttershy looked at him and hesitantly readied herself to hit Rainbow. She hit Rainbow but it was a pathetic blow without any force behind it. Rainbow didn't even flinch as the wooden sword tapped her on the shoulder.

'Noooo…. Hit her harder.' Ordered Kain.

Fluttershy hesitated again and lightly tapped Rainbow Dash with the end of her sword. It was barely a harder strike than the first.

Kain sounded like he was getting annoyed 'Properly strike Rainbow Dash or I will, and I'll keep doing it until you join in.'

Fluttershy looked at him with a confused expression. 'What?'

Kain didn't answer. He just drew his sword and used the flat of his blade to give Rainbow Dash a solid whack on the arm. Rainbow Dash yelped at the strike. He pulled back to strike again.

'No stop!' Fluttershy screamed. 'Don't you dare touch her again! Or else I'll-'

'Or else you'll do what?' he said contemptuously 'You'll glare at me? Come on! The only way for you to help your friend is to man up hit her!'

He raised the sword again and Struck Rainbow Harder than he had the first time on her stomach. Rainbow grunted in pain but held her position. She knew if she moved things would only get worse for herself and Fluttershy.

Kain raised his sword again but Fluttershy cried out 'Wait!'

Fluttershy glared at Kain hatefully. With tears in her eyes she raised her wooden sword and hit Rainbow Dash. It was a solid blow and Rainbow definitely felt it but it wasn't as hard as either of Kains' blows and she bore it stoically.

'That's it!' Kain cried triumphantly 'Now hit her again!' he said.

Fluttershy did so with just as much force.

'Now, Rainbow, you hit Fluttershy.'

At first Rainbow objected. But by the end of it Rainbow and Fluttershy were practicing on each other vigorously. Fluttershy though had angry tears streaming from her eyes and Rainbow kept staring at Kain defiantly.

Kain then went on to convince the other four girls to always practice one each other this way. He used similar threats of hurting their friends if they failed to comply.

Once he'd demonstrated to everyone he said 'This is as hard as I want you to fight each other. Hit each other this hard unless I say otherwise.' He sounded very satisfied.

After that the day was much less dramatic. It was a series of practice fights with a variety of partners with him occasionally stopping them to show them what they were doing wrong or teaching them something new. If anyone seemed to slack off he threatened that persons' partner rather than that person. It was effective in keeping them motivated. He was merciless and had no compunctions about hitting any of them. By the end of the day he was hated by all of the girls.

When the sun was about to set he called it a day. 'Ladies you've all pleased me today. Go home and get some rest. Tomorrow won't be anywhere near as hard as today. Now Rainbow Dash I seem to recall that you were two minutes late.'

All the girls left except for Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

Fluttershy had decided to stay to make sure that Rainbow was okay. Kain ignored Fluttershy and went about teaching Rainbow Dash some extra sword drills. A painful two hours later Rainbow Dash was extra tired and extra bruised.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew together in awkward silence. Ranbow flew a little bit ahead but she flew slower than she usually did so that Fluttershy could keep up.

'Rainbow… I'm sorry about... Earlier when… I'm sorry.' Fluttershy said quietly.

Rainbow dropped back to get closer to Fluttershy 'That's ok Fluttershy. I don't blame you.'

They travelled in silence for a while.

Rainbow broke the silence 'So am I flying you home or you flying me home?'

Fluttershy answered quietly 'I'd really like it if you flew with me to my home.'

'No problem' Rainbow smiled back at Fluttershy 'but I'd like to stop at Carousel Boutique and Sugar cube corner. Kain was really rough on Pinkie and Rarity.'

'Yeah that's probably a good idea.' Fluttershy said.

'How about you? Are you feeling okay Fluttershy?'

Fluttershy didn't answer. They flew the rest of the way to Sugar cube corner in silence. Rainbow flew slowly alongside Fluttershy. When they arrived they knocked on the door. It was Pinkie who answered.

'Oh, hey guys!' Pinkie said perkily. 'Whatcha doin here at this hour?'

Rainbow answered 'I just got off my after hours with Kain. We just came here to see how you were doing. He was really rough on you today.'

Pinkies' perkiness faded a little. 'Oh that? He's just a bully. I'm fine. I wouldn't let a meanie pants like that make me feel bad. Besides he was meaner to both of you than he was to me. What kind of a silly person would I be if I let anything he did get to me?'

Rainbow smiled 'Ok then, we just wanted to make sure.'

Pinkie smiled 'Ok bye then. Have a super awesome night!' and closed the door before Rainbow or Fluttershy could respond.

The two then flew to Carousel Boutique in silence. It was a little out of their way but they were worried about their friend. They knocked on the door. It was Sweetie Bell who answered.

'Hi Sweetie, is Rarity around?' Fluttershy asked because she was better at handling children than Rainbow.

Sweetie nodded at Fluttershy then frowned 'Hi Fluttershy. Yeah, she came home all sad. Did something happen today?'

'Nothing happened' Fluttershy assured her 'I'm just wondering if we could see her?'

Sweetie smiled 'She's having a bath. I could take you to see her if you wanted but she might get angry.'

Fluttershy nodded her understanding 'Okay we'll leave-'

'Wait a minute' Rainbow interrupted 'Shouldn't we check on her? I mean Sweetie did just say she came home in bad shape, and maybe we should see if she needs anyth-'

'No Rainbow' Fluttershy firmly cut her off 'Rarity values her privacy and barging in like that will not help her'.

Rainbow thought about it for a second before she consented. 'Ok we'll just have to talk to her tomorrow.'

Fluttershy turned back to Sweetie 'Let her know we stopped by will you?'

Sweetie nodded 'Ok. Why do you have a black eye?'

'Good night Sweetie.' Fluttershy said ignoring the question.

'Night.' Sweetie said and shut the door.

Fluttershy and Rainbow then flew back to the town centre and headed towards Fluttershys' home on the outskirts of town. They saw Kain sitting on a bench in the middle of the park. He still had his sword strapped on and in one hand he had a bottle of whiskey. He was drinking straight from the bottle.

They hurried on past him without saying anything.

'What's he doing?' Fluttershy asked. 'It's night time and he's all alone'

'I think he's an alcoholic.' Answered Rainbow.

'Really?' Fluttershy asked.

'Yeah I talked to Applejack about it and she said he was heaps hung over on the first day he trained us. Apparently He's been drinking every night he's been in Ponyville.'

'Why?' Fluttershy asked.

'I don't know.' Rainbow said. 'I think he's just a jerk who enjoys hurting people, and when there's no one else around he hurts himself instead.'

Fluttershy thought that didn't make sense but decided not to say anything. They continued their flight in silence. Eventually they arrived at Fluttershys' house.

They landed and stood at the door awkwardly for a moment before Rainbow said 'Well... Good night.' And started to turn away.

'Rainbow wait!' Rainbow turned back to Fluttershy.

Tears appeared in Fluttershys' eyes 'I'm really really sorry about…' She broke down into sobs.

Fluttershy rushed over and threw her arms around friend.

'It's ok' Rainbow said while awkwardly wrapping her arms around Fluttershy. She tried to do what she thought Applejack might do in the same circumstances. 'Let it out. It's ok' she said gently into her friends' ear, awkwardly patting Fluttershy on the back.

Fluttershy buried her face in Rainbows shoulder 'I never wanted to hurt my friends…. I never thought I'd….. How can one person be so cruel?' she asked pulling back and looking in Rainbow Dashes' eyes.

'I don't know…' Rainbow answered 'I just think there's something wrong with him.'

Fluttershy buried her face in Rainbows shoulder again 'I don't know how I'm going to face his brother if I can't even face him' she started to cry again.

'That's ok Fluttershy… Everything will be fine.' Rainbow assured Fluttershy despite not being certain herself.

'Rainbow Dash?'

'Yeah?'

'Would you please stay with me tonight? I don't want to be alone.' Fluttershy asked and looked up at Rainbow Dash.

For some reason Rainbow Dash blushed. But she answered quickly. 'Yeah, yeah. No problem Fluttershy. I understand.'

With that Fluttershy broke off the hug and inserted her key into the door and unlocked it. The house was fairly clean and she'd taken care of the animals before her training had started. When the door opened all the animals in a variety of cages started barking and mewling and making a thousand other types of animal sounds.

'I've got to get them dinner' Fluttershy raised her voice slightly to get above the racket 'But you can shower up stairs and you can borrow some of my pyjamas if you have to.'

'Thanks Fluttershy.' Rainbow said and walked up the stairs.

Fluttershy went about feeding all the animals in their cages. It wasn't hard. most of them just wanted some food and a little attention. Fluttershy did the job quickly and was almost done by the time Rainbow came downstairs rubbing a towel into her hair. She was wearing some of Fluttershys' dull pink and yellow shorts and a shirt. They fit well because both the girls were of about the same size but on Rainbow Dash they made the toning on her arms and calves stand out a lot more.

'Where am I sleeping?' Rainbow asked.

Fluttershy waved a hand at the couch 'The couch turns into a bed, we'll just have to move the coffee table.'

'Cool' Rainbow said and walked over to the couch.

She lifted the coffee table and moved it by herself. She set it down next to a wall and went back to the couch. She fiddled with the couch for a bit before she figured out the mechanism and folded it out. The mattress was bare so Fluttershy went upstairs to get some pillows, sheets and blankets. She came back downstairs and made the bed.

Fluttershy then made a simple late night dinner of salad and some other assorted vegetarian foods. It wasn't particularly nice but Fluttershy noticed Rainbow ate her meal ravenously. They ate in silence and when they were done Rainbow helped Fluttershy wash the dishes.

This done Fluttershy went upstairs for a shower and Rainbow lay down gratefully onto the bed. Despite the fact the lights were still on Rainbow fell asleep almost instantly.

Fluttershy came downstairs a few minutes later. She noticed Rainbow was asleep so Fluttershy decided not to disturb her friend, as she turned off the lights and went upstairs. Fluttershy lay down in her bed and fell asleep.

On an isolated road not too far away from Canterlot three friends camped together by the side of the road. They had a fire crackling merrily and were cooking a delicious smelling stew of carrots, potatoes and herbs. They ate together and laughed happily.

They were traveling traders. The friends were one earth folk, a winged folk and a mystic folk. The three had met and became friends at business school in Canterlot. None of them had enjoyed it at all and dropped out to become traders together.

The new job made nowhere near as much money as they could've if they'd completed business school, but all three of them enjoyed travelling together and sleeping under the stars. As long as they had food at night they weren't very worried about cash. They were young and free and simply loved the life style.

The conversation they were in the middle of died suddenly when a strange folk landed in the middle of their small campsite with a 'whump' and a flap of wings. The stranger was tall and had two curved horns stretching out from his forehead. He also had wings but they definitely were not the normal feathery wings of a sky folk or mystic folk. The man for some reason was wearing a dirty and torn hospital gown.

'Mind if I join you?' the figure asked.

The young earth folk had noticed the hospital gown and had decided the man might be crazy. He might be an escaped mental patient or something. He glanced at his friends and could see they were thinking the same thing.

So he politely smiled answered 'Good evening. I'm sorry but we've only cooked enough for three.' He hoped the man might leave them alone if he thought they had nothing to give him.

The man smiled and said 'It's ok. I understand.'

His horns then turned a deeper shade of black than the dark night around them. They seemed to absorb the light from the fire. In his hands a thin black rod appeared.

He hurled the black rod, like a javelin, at the horned folk who was seated between his two friends. The black spear went through the mans' eye and killed him instantly. The spear evaporated and the other two folk could only watch in horror as their friend tipped over backwards. They continued to stare in horror as a pool of blood spread out from the underside of his head.

The man walked over and grabbed the leg of the corpse. He moved it and sat right between the two stunned folk.

He smiled at them and said 'Now there are three of us.'

A day later a regular patrol of fifty guardsmen arrived. They found one earth folk with broken fingers and toes sitting alone at a burnt out camp site in a state of shock. Near the camp fire they found the desecrated bodies of a sky folk and mystic folk. The two had been killed, the bodies skinned, then butchered and the meat cooked over the fire. The skins of the two victims were never recovered but a dirty hospital gown would later be found at the camp site by police investigators that were brought in from Canterlot.

The incident was reported to Celestia and the bodies were returned to the families of the deceased. The surviving earth folk would later be admitted to a psychiatric hospital where he admitted to having eaten some of the meat of his friends after being forced to, under pain of death, by the murderous stranger.

Similarly disturbing reports of a murderous stranger would slowly filter into Canterlot for months to come. But all the reports that came after the first one described the "Back road Butcher", as he would eventually come to be known, as wearing a pair of rough self-made leather pants. Reports from survivors of the attacks said that at some of the killings the Back Road Butcher would stop and skin some of his victims before moving on. One survivor reported that the Butcher had tanned the skins of multiple victims and had used the leather in the morning to stitch together a crude jacket similar to the leather pants he was already wearing.

Kains' eyes flashed open. He was on the floor of his bedroom. He groaned and put a hand to his head as he rolled over. He was in the same clothes he'd been wearing last night when he passed out. He noticed the smell and realised he was sitting in a pool of his own vomit.

He sat up groggily and looked out the window. From the position of the sun it was almost midday.

He got up and prepared to face another day with a hangover.

Fluttershy stood in the pebbled clearing at Sweet Apple Acres with her friends. All six of them were there and it was already midday.

Fluttershy and Rainbow had arrived at the clearing early and found Rarity already there. Fluttershy had checked to see if Rarity was Ok after the harsh treatment Kain had dealt to her and Rarity had reassured her friend that she was fine. Fluttershy thought Raritys' answer had been a little vague but believed that her friend was fine.

Her other friends slowly arrived at the clearing and chatted together while waiting for Kain to show up. The rack of swords that usually decorated the clearing wasn't there and Fluttershy figured he'd taken it home with himself after last nights practice session.

About twenty minutes after midday Kain showed up. He smelled like bad liquor and his eyes were heavily blood shot.

'You're late!' Twilight accused him the moment he came into range.

He grimaced when she spoke but otherwise ignored her and walked over to a tree where he took off his shoes and shirt. He stood up and turned around when he was done and found his way blocked by a particularly angry looking Applejack.

'You were drinking.' She growled with her arms crossed. 'Now you're late. What yah do in private is yer business but when it starts to affect our training then Ah'm going ta get involved.'

Kain stepped around her and walked over to one of the practice rings.

He called over his shoulder 'Ladies shirts off. Like yesterday were going to spend today ringside.'

Everybody grumbled and took their shirts off but Fluttershy noticed Applejack did so in silence. She put her hat back on when she was done.

Kain then called out 'Partner yourselves and go over what we did yesterday, but if I catch any of you pulling that half-hearted crap again, well… Just know that you've been warned.'

Everybody did as instructed. Applejack deliberately partnered herself with Fluttershy.

'Fluttershy are you okay? Ah meant to ask you yesterday but-'

'No I'm fine' Fluttershy smiled 'I was feeling pretty bad but Rainbow stayed over and made me feel better.'

Applejack returned Fluttershys' smile 'That's ok then. Rainbow you say? Didn't know she was the type ta offer someone comfort like that.'

They started their practice. It was obvious to anyone watching Applejack was the better of the two, but Fluttershy fought pretty well too. Applejack won most of their rounds but Fluttershy won a surprising number before the partners were switched again.

The day then boiled down to a series of combat drills and sparring sessions punctuated by an occasional yelp and crack when somebody messed up while Kain was watching. They didn't learn anything new they just set about perfecting what they did yesterday.

Everyone in the clearing actually had a surprising amount of fun. Even the least competitive among them enjoyed the rapid nature of the duels and even found themselves laughing when they lost or won a close fought round.

By the end of the day it was clear that Applejack was the best at it among the girls. She won more rounds then she lost no matter who she was partnered with, much to Rainbow dashes' annoyance.

Rainbow got the best of everybody she was partnered with other than Applejack. When she fought Applejack she became rapidly frustrated and at one point spread her wings for flight to give herself an edge. The moment they reached full span, about twice as wide as her arm span, Kain intervened. He struck her sharp blow to her kidney and Rainbow collapsed to the ground in Pain.

'You broke rule Four.' he leaned down next her. 'Now rule one comes into effect.' He then all but dragged Rainbow Dash to a ring.

The two faced off against each other. Rainbow held her sword steadily in the proper position Kain had shown them yesterday. He took up a difference stance to the normal one he'd shown them.

'Feel free to use your wings during this session.' He said 'Though I warn you, it's not as good an idea as you think it is.'

The moment the fight started and it was obvious who the winner would be. Kain moved forward and struck like lightning at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow blocked the blow and barely blocked the second one that whipped around for her face. She then used her wings to pull herself up into the air and out of his immediate reach. She knew she'd done it too slow and expected to be struck for her efforts but Kain for some reason allowed her to take flight. He stepped back and watched as Rainbow Dash flew up for a second before she dipped down suddenly to try and sneak in a surprise attack. It didn't work.

Fluttershy who was watching along with the others wasn't entirely certain what happened. All she saw was that Kain moved violently and suddenly and Rainbow Dash was taken out of the air and put on her back. Before she could rise Kain struck a blow to Rainbows' wrist which caused Rainbow to drop her sword, he then rapidly struck her in the face and stomach. When he was done he leaned down and gave a winded Rainbow Dash a hand up.

'You're progressing nicely.' He assured her 'But don't think that wings will help you in just any fight. If you're indoors for example you'll be better off keeping them furled up. Even in a setting like this flight is not always the best idea. When you fly you make every attack and move you intend to use clear to your enemy. For example right before you flew down at me you changed your body position to help you change your direction. This was a subconscious act that immediately let me know what you intended.'

He then spoke up making it clear he intended everyone to hear 'Wings and horns can be a big advantage when used right. However don't try to use them in combat until I instruct you all in "integrated combat" as my brother used to call it. This is combat which involved the sound use of both magic and flight. I will show you all how to use it as per your individual traits and also show you how to defeat it. I will teach you this when I feel you're all ready for it and that won't be for some time yet. Understand?'

Everybody assembled nodded. Except Rainbow Dash who was still badly winded.

'Good. Everybody back to the rings and if I catch any of you breaking rule four again then I won't be so gentle.'

Everyone returned to their rings and the rest of the day passed without incident.

When the sunset Fluttershy was taken aside by Applejack who practically dragged Fluttershy away from the rest of the group.

Applejack didn't waste time getting to the point 'Fluttershy, Ah'm going to talk to Twilight and Spike about sending a message to the princess. Kain's getting out of hand. He showed up late this morning and he hasn't stopped drinking since he's arrived in Ponyville. Ah also wanted to tell the Princess about what Kain did to you and Rainbow yesterday. Before ah did that though ah thought ah'd better check to see if you didn't mind me telling someone else about that. Ah already talked to Rainbow and she said she's fine with it but ah wanted to check with you as well.'

Fluttershy looked Applejack in the eyes as she answered 'I'd like to talk to the Princess about him as well.'

'Why's that?' Applejack asked.

'I'm just not sure that Kain is ok. I think he needs some time with a psychiatrist or something. I'm worried he might hurt someone.' Fluttershy answered quietly.

Applejack thought for a minute 'ok we'll both go to Twilights' house later and see if she's not to busy to help us.'

Fluttershy nodded and the two separated.

Later that night they met up at the door to Twilights house. They greeted each other and it was It was Applejack who knocked on the door.

Twilight answered the door 'Oh. Hi guys what's going on?'

Applejack responded 'Hello Twilight mind if we come in?'

'Uhhh... Yeah sure, it's just kind of a mess right now.' Twilight held the door open and allowed the two of them to pass through. 'So why are you here?'

Fluttershy answered 'We wanted to send a letter to Celestia about Kain.'

Applejack nodded 'He's been out drinking every night he's stayed in Ponyville and the way he's been treating some of us is just plain wrong. Ah don't care if it's supposed to be tough love or somethin'. He needs to be given a serious talking to.'

Twilight nodded 'I agree, I was thinking of sending a letter to Celestia about him anyway.' She then turned around and went upstairs. She came back down with, some ink, some paper, a quill and Spike, who was busily rubbing sleep from his eyes.

Together they composed a letter which voiced their concerns about the Kains' mental health and the state he'd showed up to practice in twice in three days.

When that was done Spike burned the letter with his breath. It was a few minute before Spike burped out a response. This was surprisingly soon given the time of night.

Twilight read it aloud. It didn't have the usual formalities and was apparently hastily written.

It said

'Thank you for sending me this letter. I have read and understand your concerns about Kains' behaviours and will discuss it with him. In a minute Spike will receive a letter which will be a formal summons for Kain to come to Canterlot to speak with me. I'll dispatch a flying chariot to pick him up tomorrow. For now though I advise you all to get some sleep. It is fairly late.'

It was signed at the bottom with Celestias' signature.

Shortly after Twilight had read the letter out Spike burped out another. It had the Princesses personal seal on it and it was addressed to Kain. Twilight set the letter aside to be delivered in the morning without opening it.

Applejack and Fluttershy thanked Twilight and Spike for their help and left for their own homes. Twilight then shut the door and she and Spike went upstairs for bed.

That's the end of chapter five. At the moment things are progressing slowly. I plan on speeding things up a little in the near future.

Also I thought I should mention now sooner rather than later that this story will have no shipping and no notable Romance sub plot. Those scenes with Rainbow Dash were me just joking around about the… Varied… nature of her sexuality according to the fan community. If sex does happen it's going to be off-screen and it's going to happen for the sake of humour or plot and character development.

Also last time I uploaded a chapter I said that I plan on uploading one chapter of this every Monday. I hate to go back on that promise but rather than uploading one chapter of this every Monday it's going to be one chapter (five thousand words) of something every Monday. So if there isn't an update for this next Monday check my profile because something else MLP related may have been uploaded.

Chapter 6: Actions have Consequences

Chapter 6

Twilight woke up early. She always woke up early out of habit. She’d picked that habit up when attending Canterlot academy and even though it had been over a year since she last visited there she was still waking up early.

Spike was still sleeping. Twilight didn’t really care about disturbing him and made plenty of noise as she got up. She got dressed and made breakfast for herself. She woke Spike but he just grumbled and went back to sleep.

The sun was only just rising and the air was still a little chilly in the early spring. Twilight enjoyed the nip as she wondered through town towards the little cottage that Kain lived in.

When Twilight arrived she immediately noticed one strange thing. The door was hanging ajar and the lock was broken.

She called out ‘Hello?’

She was worried that Kain may have been attacked by wild animals or something. Concerned she pushed the door open all the way and cautiously stepped into the doorway. The living room was in a complete mess with flipped over chairs and the smell of alcohol thick in the air.

‘Kain, are you here?’ Twilight called out again.

She heard a loud groan and something being muttered before some loud footsteps. Kain walked out of what Twilight assumed was his bedroom. He looked awful. Just awful. Twilight could smell him from where she was standing.

‘What are you doing here?’ He half whispered at her. He sounded awful too.

‘Good morning’ Twilight said in as chipper a tone as she could muster. ‘The princess sent this mail for you in the night.’

She held out her hand. In her hand was the scroll with the princesses’ seal. Kain walked forward and snatched it from her hands. He tore open the seal and mumbled the letter under his breath.

‘Dear blah blah blah. Alcohol may be a problem blah blah concerns over mental health blah blah blah come see me today.’ He dropped the letter on the floor and turned to Twilight ‘You whined to the boss lady about me?’ It was clear from his tone that this wasn’t happy news.

Twilight maintained her smile with some effort. His breath smelled like he had week old dead flesh caught between his teeth.

‘We were becoming concerned by your alcoholism and thought it might be best if she spoke to you.’

He thought about this for a second. It was clear he didn’t believe her but in the end it shrugged.

‘Fine. I needed to go to Canterlot soon anyway. Come in. I’ll draw up a plan for how you can practice while I’m away.’

Twilight followed him inside. Kain walked inside his room and she heard the sound of some closet doors being opened and shut before he came out wearing fresher and slightly less smelly clothes. He was carrying some writing materials. He stopped over a desk and scrawled some things on a sheet of paper. He then took out a new sheet and scrawled a few things on that.

He turned to her and said ‘Make sure everyone hears this’ he handed her one sheet ‘And make sure Applejack gets this.’ He handed her the other.

‘What do you want to say to Applejack?’ Twilight said taking the second sheet and quickly reading through the first.

‘It’s not private. Feel free to read it’ He then walked to the door and noticed it hanging ajar. He stared at it puzzled for a second before a look or realisation dawned on his face.

‘What happened to your door?’ Twilight asked curiously.

‘I was too drunk to get the key in the lock, so I kicked it open.’

‘Ohh.’ Twilight though that didn’t make much sense but decided not to give her opinion voice.

Kain turned to Twilight and said in a force full tone ‘Now if you’ll excuse me I have an appointment with the boss lady.’

He then all but shoved Twilight out the door and closed it behind him. Or he would have if the door hadn’t swing open because it had no lock. He shut the door and Twilight heard the sound of something being moved. The door then stayed shut. Twilight guessed that he’d leaned something against the door

Twilight walked away from the smelly cottage and back to her library. When she arrived Spike was still asleep.

It was around twelve when Twilight arrived at the clearing. All the other girls were already there. Twilight, out of respect for Applejacks’ privacy, had decided not to read the letter Kain had written for Applejack.

They must have already had some idea of what was going on. Applejack and Fluttershy probably explained it to Pinkie, Rarity and Rainbow.

‘So are we getting a new teacher or what?’ Rainbow asked when Twilight got in range.

‘I don’t know for sure. Celestia has summoned him to the palace.’ Twilight answered. ‘To be honest though I don’t think so. There isn’t anyone else who can teach us these skills. Equestria hasn’t seen full scale war for hundreds of years. Such skills aren’t really needed. The closest thing we have to blade masters are fencing clubs and according to the books I’ve read those really aren’t the same things at all. I think we’re stuck with Kain’.

Rainbow nodded in understanding ‘Well than is Celestia at least going to talk to him about some of the things he’s been doing?’

‘I think so Rainbow Dash. But in the meantime Kain has left us a lesson plan of sorts. These are his instructions:

“Girls I’ve been ordered to Canterlot by the boss lady so while I’m gone I want you all to face each other in a best two out of three sparing session. I want you to make sure that everyone verses everyone else in these sessions at least twice. When you win or lose I want you to consider what made you win/loose like you did. Also I urge you not to use flight or magic while my back is turned. Somebody could get badly damaged.”

And it’s not signed.’ Twilight finished reading it out. ‘Also Applejack he asked me to give this to you.’

Twilight handed the letter to Applejack.

Applejack took the letter and read it aloud.

“Applejack ah don’t want you to participate in the sparring today.  Instead ah want you to watch and oversee the others to make sure no one gets hurt. I also want you to help correct any mistakes and to point out to them any mistakes they make.”  This one’s also not been signed.’

Rainbow Dash crossed her arms ‘Why would he have you correct our mistakes?’

Pinkie answered ‘Ooh I know! I know!’ Pinkie hopped up and down on the spot ‘It’s because she’s better at it then us!’

Rainbow looked at Pinkie annoyed ‘No she’s not, both me and Fluttershy beat her a couple of times.’

Pinkie nodded enthusiastically and then shook her head just enthusiastically ‘Yeah but Applejack beat you twice for every one time you beat her. Also she never had to be shown the same drill twice and gets corrected way less often!’

Rainbow looked ready for an argument ‘Yeah but-’ whatever she’d been about to say was cut off by Twilight.

‘Girls!’ she shouted before resuming speech in a more level voice ‘Stop arguing about who’s better than whom and let’s just do what the letter says and so we can go home early and get a decent day’s work done! I don’t know about you, but all this training has left me behind in my studies and, I’m hoping to use today as a chance to catch up.’

Rainbow looked like she wanted to argue the point but in the end nodded and said ‘Fine.’

The girls then partnered off. Because of the odd numbers it was Pinkie vs Twilight and Rarity vs Rainbow while Applejack and Fluttershy watched.

Twilight readied her short sword and faced Pinkie. This wasn’t the first time they’d sparred. Twilight knew that facing Pinkie was strange. Pinkie always somehow seemed to know what was going to happen next and dodge or block any attack that you sent her way. She also had this strange effect where you could be fighting her and suddenly you would simply lose track of her. She wasn’t hiding or sneaking or anything but you just block a sword one moment and look straight through Pinkie the next and barely block the strike she sends your way from nowhere after that. Beyond that though Pinkie wasn’t a particularly fine swordsman. Her attacks were generally ill thought out, her blocks clumsy and her strikes, while surprising, where usually slow.

Twilight herself was just plain bad at it. True she’d only been using a sword for a few days now, but even in comparison to the rest of the class Twilight was behind. She was never fast enough or hard hitting enough. She was at the moment thought of as the worst in class by Kain.

Unsurprisingly Pinkie won the round. Applejack came in and pointed out to the two of them some of the mistakes they’d made and had them fight the round again. They completed their three rounds before being partnered off again.

It was only about an hour before every one had faced everyone without much incident other than a few sarcastic comments from Rainbow to Applejack which resulted in Applejack getting in a grumpy mood.

They all versed each other again for a second run through like the letter said and by that time it was two o’clock. By the end it was clear that Fluttershy and Rainbow where better than Pinkie and Rarity who were both better than Twilight. Applejack had plenty of small corrections for everybody and Twilight felt like she might have improved a little bit under Applejacks gentle tutelage.

As the group was walking away from the clearing Rainbow Dash said aloud ‘Hey girls, you know tonight could be the last time we get a night to ourselves? Why don’t we do something fun?’

‘Like what?’ Twilight asked.

Rainbow had apparently already though of the answer before the question had been asked ‘I want to go clubbing. We could all go! It’d be so badass!’

Pinkie immediately started bouncing up and down at the idea ‘Oooh that sounds like fun! I love clubbing! Clubbing is like a party but where all the music is like dooshka dooshka dooshka’ She paused for a deep breath before resuming the dooshka’ing.

‘I hardly think so.’ Rarity said. ‘I really don’t think such a place would be fun for all of us. Plus techno is really not my forte.’

Applejack nodded ‘Yeah ah gotta agree with Rarity on this one.  Clubbing ain’t exactly mah thing.’

‘What about that time a few nights ago?’ Rainbow asked Applejack ‘You were willing to go clubbing then.’

‘That’s only ‘cause we were playing that dumb endurance game.’

Fluttershy weighed in ‘I d-don’t really want to go clubbing either.’

‘Oh come one guys!’ Rainbow shouted in frustration ‘Tomorrow Kain’s gonna come back and make things suck. Tonight may be the last not sucky night we have. This town is pretty small and there’s not a lot that we can all do together. So let’s just go out and try to have fun even if it’s not exactly what we all wanted. Besides, DJ P0N-3 is at the club tonight and she’s awesome.’

‘Who’s P0N-3 again?’ Applejack asked.

‘You know she used to live in Manehattan but she moved here. Her real names Vinyl Scratch and she always wears those sunglasses.’

Applejack thought for a minute ‘She the one with the blue hair?’

Rainbow nodded ‘Yeah that’s her.’

Applejack nodded in understanding. ‘Oh… Ah still don’t want to go.’

‘Oh come on!’ Rainbow vented in frustration.

Twilight decided to weigh in ‘Guys I think we should go. Ranbow’s right. This may be the last chance we have to do anything fun together. So let’s all just take this chance and try to have fun.’

Kain stalked into the throne room angrily.

He ignored the voice that introduced him to Celestia ‘Kain Artun. Soldier of the realm here at your request your highness.’

‘Thank you’ Celestia said evenly ‘but I thought I told you to send him in an hour. I’m currently in the middle of something.’

Celestia was actually in the middle of debriefing a soldier who had come to report a disturbing double murder his troop had encountered on the road. Kain didn’t care, he was pissed off.

He shouted at her ‘You drag my ass all the way from Ponyville and, that’s a trip that takes hours by the way, and then you make me sit in the lobby for two hours before this sad excuse for a soldier shows up and you let him right in!’

‘This soldier has important news. You could afford to wait. Now if you don’t mind I’ll get to you when the time comes’ Celestia said in a firm voice.

Kain ignored her tone and pulled up a chair ‘What sort of news did he bring? I didn’t know there’d be any news in this perfect kingdom of yours that’d need a soldier to deliver it.’

Celestia decided to let Kain in on the matter because it was related to him ‘There was a double murder by the roadside last night. The corpses had been skinned and one survivor was found.’

Kain grimaced for a moment ‘Sounds like Xath.’

Celestia nodded ‘I thought so too.’

Kain asked with concern in his voice ‘What did he do to the survivor?’

The guardsmen answered ‘The survivor had all his fingers and toes broken, Sir.’

Kain shook his head ‘You can bet he suffered more than that. When you get around to interviewing him, you’ll find that he’s been hurt in a lot more ways than just that.’

‘What do you mean?’ Celestia asked.

‘You’ll find out’ Kain promised her.

Celestia turned to the guardsmen ‘You can leave now. Stay in the palace for now. We may need to discuss this later in a less open setting.’

The soldier stood and bowed ‘As you command you grace.’ Before turning and leaving.

Once he was gone Celestia turned to kain.

‘Now to deal with the other brother.’ She said to no one in particular ‘Do you know why you are here?’ she asked Kain.

Kain shrugged ‘You said you were concerned about my health or something. I just skimmed the letter.’

Celestia repressed the urge to shout at the man ‘You’re here because I’m concerned about my student and her friends.’

Kain smiled at her ‘Well in that case you’ve got nothing to worry about. They’re fine.’

Celestia said to him ‘That’s not what they say. They say that you are clearly not in your right mind.’

Kains’ smile stayed firm ‘The young are always prone to exaggeration.’

‘Not this time. You’ve been drinking every night you’ve been in Ponyville correct?’

Kain hesitated before answering ‘Yeah but-’ He got cut off before he could finish.

‘My student reports that you’ve been abusing them and humiliating them in front of each other as part of their tutelage. Is that correct?’

‘Yes but-’

‘I’ve also been told that you deliberately implied actions of sexual nature when you ordered them to undress.’

‘I was just trying to get under their skin. It’s not like-’

‘Listen to me very closely Kain. I checked the history books. I know what you did during that “civil war”. You took part in the massacre of over a thousand innocent horned folk refugees. The modern word for that is genocide. I would have had you executed the moment I found out about that if you weren’t all the way in Ponyville. If I’d known that when I saw you in Ponyville three nights ago I would have killed on the spot!’

Kain crossed his arms ‘That “massacre” was justice. The filthy unicorn loyalists had done the same thing days earlier.’

Celestia snorted in derision ‘So you carried out your “justice” on an entirely different group of people? Your civil war divided Equestria. It was only on hearts and hands day hundreds of years later that the damage you and your ilk caused was finally repaired. Kain I don’t trust you. I would not put any act of violence past you. Simply put: if it wasn’t for the situation we’re facing I wouldn’t let you within a thousand metres of my student or her friends.’

Kain just glared at her and let the tirade wash over him. He honestly didn’t care about her opinion and he was confident that she needed him enough not to try anything. So he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms behind his head in a very deliberately casual and relaxed pose.

‘What are you trying to say exactly?’ he said with a sneer.

Celestia smiled at him and said one thing.

‘Catch.’

Celestia tossed a small metallic copper coloured ball across the room to Kain. Kain deftly caught it and examined it in his hands. He was suspicious of her smile. It was a small ball about the size of a dice that was copper coloured and had numerous engravings on it. It looked familiar but he didn’t know why.

‘What is this?’ he asked Celestia.

‘That’s the first half of the penance.’ She said.

‘What does it do?’ Kain looked at her.

‘This.’

Her horn flashed and the device in Kains’ hand burned like it was red hot. Kain yelped and let go of it but it stuck to his hand. It then burned its way in and under his skin. Kain was a tough man but he screamed in pain as he felt the ball burning its way up the inside of his arm. The ball made its way to his chest before rising up into his head. It felt to Kain like the inside of his skull was burning. His eyes were rolled back up into his head and the white of his eyes were  visible as he fell to the ground writhing in agony.

Eventually the pain stopped and Kain resurfaced from the back of his mind. He was on the ground and spittle and white foam coated his lips. His burned hand was fine and there was no visible marking of the pain he had just experienced. He wiped his mouth and stood up. He drew his sword.

‘What the fuck did you just do to me you fucking whore!?’ he shouted at her.

Celestia shook her head sadly and said ‘Your language is unacceptable. From now on you will not curse or insult anyone like that ever again.

Kain snarled at her and said ‘Why the fu-’

He was cut off as red hot pain consumed the inside of his skull again. He fell to his knees but this time he fought down the urge to scream. His sword fell to the ground with a clatter.

Celestia got up off her throne and walked down to him ‘The penance is an artefact that was left over from an ancient civilisation well before your time. Its function is to enact justice upon a criminal, like you, while giving them a chance to serve a purpose greater than themselves. I would have used it on you sooner had I the chance. The rules are simple. Every time I give you an order made on morally correct grounds you will have to do as I say or the penance will punish you. The penance only works on the guilty. If ever you get to the stage were you become a morally upstanding individual than the penance will cease to work. For now though you must do as I say.’ Celestia raised her arm and showed a copper bracelet around her hand similar to the ball that was currently buried in Kains’ skull. ‘As the bearer of the second half of the penance if I were to tell you to do something based on selfish reasons or morals that I consider wrong, than I will be punished.’

‘You bi-’ Kain stopped himself before he tried to insult her again. ‘What right do you have to do this? Do you have any idea who you are fu… Messing with?’

‘Oh I know who I’m “fucking” with. Kain be seated.’

Kain got up and sat in the chair glaring daggers at Celestia.

‘Now then. You will never, drink alcohol again. You will never hurt Twilight Sparkle or her friends again. You will protect them with your life. That means physically and mentally. You will not deliberately start any fight either directly or indirectly unless it means following my previous orders. You may continue to spar with my apprentice and her friends but you will not hurt them or debase like you have in the last few days.’

Kain looked like he was resisting the urge to try and kill Celestia.

‘and you are not to try and harm me, or anyone I care about, in any way shape or form. You are also not to lie to me. Ever.’

She then walked up to and sat on her throne.

‘You may hate me for this. I certainly would in your situation. But I truly do believe in second chances and I truly want to give you that chance. But I cannot trust you. You’re too unstable to be relied upon completely. I want you to get to know Twilight and all her friends. I order you to spend time outside of practice with them and I order you to make an effort to get to know them better.’

‘Damn you.’ Was all Kain said.

Celestia ignored his statement.

‘Now you never explained to me certain details of your plan to deal with Xath. For example how do you plan on luring Xath to where you want him to be?’

Kain glared at her sullenly but knew if he didn’t tell her she’d just order him to and he’d have to anyway. He reached under the collar of his coat and took out a thin lead coloured chain. He raised it so Celestia could see it. Every link on the chain was engraved with some kind of writing and she noticed the chain itself sparkled too much for it to be made of real lead.

‘When my brother left during the war he never said where he went to receive his powers. After he went crazy I learnt from his journal that he’d travelled overseas to a strange land. I travelled to this strange place to find out what I could about where he’d gotten his powers. This land was inhabited by a strange race of striped folk. I learnt from some sort of… shaman or witch doctor or something like that, that my brother had come this way and that he’d returned as he is now. On his return he’d given this chain to the shaman. The shaman gave it to me and told me that it was called a “Pact”, that’s a close translation anyway; I had learned to speak their language during my stay, and he warned me that if my brother ever got his hands on it, the consequences would be catastrophic. He also told me that if ever a time came to try and defeat my brother I could “call”, a loose translation, I could call my brother to me by dripping folk blood on the chain. The first time I tried it I wasn’t ready and my brother almost killed me. He never learned that it was me who called him with the chain though. The second time I had the elements of harmony and you know how that turned out.’

Celestia beckoned him over ‘Bring it to me.’

Kain stood up and took it off his neck as he brought it up to her. She took it out of his hand and examined it.

‘I don’t know this language’ she said.

‘Neither do I.’ Kain said in a deadpan tone.

Celestia took the chain and placed it in her pocket ‘I’m going to keep this in the royal vault. I order you not to touch this until I give you permission.’

Kain glared at her but didn’t say anything.

Several hours later Kain was in the flying chariot back to Ponyville. While he’d been in Canterlot the queen had questioned him more about the details of his plan. She ordered him around some more and he had no choice but to accept it. He hated orders. He’d barely tolerated them during the civil war and those orders were coming from people he’d respected not some jumped up greater folk that had convinced the world to act all sweet and nice.

‘Damn her!’ he shouted out loud and slammed his fist on the chariots railing.

The winged folk who were pulling the chariot ignored this outburst and Kain settled back into a more comfortable position. Every single time he tried to disobey one of her orders his brain felt like it was slowly sizzling and when he did actually disobey her orders it would burn white hot until he did as he was ordered. For a few seconds there Celestia actually looked sorry for him.

History books? Who wrote them? Why would anybody bother to tell his tale? It was nowhere near as remarkable as that of his brother or sister. It was true that he’d earned something of a reputation during the war for being a cold and merciless killer but he’d never earned a high rank and he’d never done anything to earn more fame than his heroic brother. During the war Xath had been the embodiment of the ideals that they’d fought for while Kain had been its dirty poorly kept secret.

Who the hell would write about the Kull gorge massacre anyway?

Kain had spent some more time in Canterlot after his session with Celestia. He’d placed an order at the royal blacksmiths for a variety of new swords that the girls would use when they were ready. The smith had been surprised by the last thing on that order. Kain was surprised the man even new how to make one but the smith had proven it by bringing one out from the back of his shop. Kain knew fine workmanship when he saw it and was glad to know that at least one thing had gone surprisingly well that day.

When he touched down in Ponyville he ignored the winged folks polite fare wells and headed towards his cabin. But every step he took he felt heat growing inside his brain. He then remembered he’d been ordered to spend time every day with at least one of the girls. He would have cursed to himself if the Princess hadn’t forbidden it. He had to go and find one of the girls before the night ended.

The girls had gone out dancing like they said they would. The six of them walked onto the club floor together. They were all dressed sexily except Applejack who Rarity had been unable to convince to wear anything more than a well-fitting pair of jeans and a clean loose white shirt. Rarity was stunning as always and Fluttershy had been half bullied by Rainbow and Rarity into wearing something other than a turtleneck.

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were both regulars at the club and both were familiar with the various people that ran the establishment. The bouncer at the door greeted them with a warm smile and let the group of friends in without having to wait in line. When they entered they were able to get a table without any trouble.

They spent their night between the dance floor and resting at the table. The music was techno and dance but despite that everyone in the group had a surprisingly fun time. Pinkie was insanely (more so than usual) exited and enjoyed it more than anyone else. She kept dragging the people who tried to sit down for too long onto their feet and into the middle of another dance.

Rainbow also had a particularly good time. She was loose friends with DJ P0N3 and always loved the tracks she played. Rainbow waved at her friend up in her booth but Vinyl didn’t notice and Rainbow suspected her eyes were closed under her purple sunglasses. The DJ had both hands busy and she bounced up and down with the beat. Rainbow often wondered why she didn’t just use magic.

Rainbow felt a tap on her shoulder and she turned around. She was shocked when she saw the face of the person that had tapped her on the shoulder. Rainbows’ good feelings disappeared the moment she saw that face. Rainbow crossed her arms and stared at the source of her new found unhappiness.

‘What do you want Gilda!?’ Rainbow tried to shout over the music.

Gilda put a hand to ear and shook her head. She then grabbed Rainbows’ hand and jerked her free thumb at the exit. Rainbow looked at the exit and realised Gilda wanted her to go outside with her. Rainbow wasn’t worried that Gilda wanted to fight or something because if she had Gilda would have attacked already. Rainbow looked to see that her friends were watching her with concern on their faces. They recognised Gilda from when they met her a year or so before. Rainbow thought about it for a second before she nodded and let herself be led out of the club.

The Griffon led the way. Griffons looked a little like the winged folk in that they had wings but a griffons’ wings were larger than a sky folks and were almost always brown. Also rather than hair they had feathers growing out of their head and their hands ended in birdlike talons, but they still had opposable thumbs. They also had a long tail. Gildas’ feathers were white and her wings were brown. Like most Griffons she was taller than the average folk coming just short of being the same height as Applejack.  Gilda was fairly brawny too but not all griffons were. She wore a plain white tank top and her wings were folded as small as she could make them.

They eventually made it to the exit and Rainbow noticed that Gilda was unusually gentle with the people who got in her way. They walked out the door and the bouncer nodded at Rainbow as she went by. The two girls made their way down the stairs and to the street.

They both stopped and stared at each other for a second.

‘So… how are things?’ Gilda asked awkwardly.

Rainbow didn’t want to put up with Gildas’ deliberate casualness and cut across her ‘what do you want Gilda?’

Gilda stared at the ground and shuffled her feat awkwardly.

It was a few seconds before she answered ‘I wanted to…’ she took a breath and said ‘I’m sorry.’

Rainbow raised an eyebrow at her ‘What? You’re sorry? Sorry for dragging me out of the club or sorry for not seeing me in a year or are you sorry because you abused my friends and me?!’

Gilda continued to stare at the ground during the tirade ‘I’m sorry for all of it… Look I know it wasn’t cool of me to not speak to you in a year or whatever and then to come back and expect us to be friends again but…’ she stopped herself.

It was a few seconds before Rainbow got frustrated with the silence ‘You were the one who dragged me out here. You do the talking or I’m going back to hang out with my real friends.’

‘All right then. Rainbow…’ Gilda paused ‘You are, or you used to be my only friend. And I honestly haven’t got any others. When we were at that summer camp we were best friends. And you always stuck by me even when I gave you shit or dragged you into some dumb stunt and we got caught or whatever. And when my parents kicked me out because I was a lesbian you gave me a place to sleep when I had nowhere else to go even though I was nothing but a... And when people started to call you a dyke for hanging out with me you ignored them and kept doing it anyway. When I started to go out with that bitch and you warned me about her I never listened. I always told you to fuck off or something. Then when you were right you didn’t say I told you so, you just welcomed me back even though I’d been horrible to you.  And then last year when I needed a place to stay you were the first person I turned to.’ She took a deep breath.

‘I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m sorry for being such a useless fuck up. There it is. In this friendship I was always in the wrong and I just want to say I’m sorry for being such a god awful bitch.’

Rainbow Dash crossed her arms unimpressed. ‘Gilda… That’s not good enough.’

Gilda nodded and continued ‘I know it isn’t… Rainbow... You mean too much to for to just move on and I just really want to be friends again but-’

‘But what!’ Rainbow shouted at her ‘I gave you every chance. EVERY bloody chance I could. I knew you had shit tons of baggage and a really fucked up situation at home. So when you saw me last year and asked for a place to stay I said sure. I’ll give her a chance to meet someone nice. People that wouldn’t use her or abuse her and maybe could even become friends with her the way that I am. But then you…’ Rainbow visibly fought down her anger. She took in a deep breath before she continued ‘I’ve seen you get that angry before. I think if I wasn’t there you probably would have seriously damaged Pinkie. Now you’re standing there and asking me to give you another chance. Another chance to do what? Fuck up and kill someone this time? I can’t even rely on you to not do that!’ Gilda looked hurt but she didn’t interrupt or object. ‘I cared about you. And now I don’t. You fucked up one time too many Gilda. I think you should-’

A voice interrupted them.

‘What’s going on here?’

Neither of them had noticed Kain walk up.

Rainow sounded annoyed when she spoke ‘What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in Canterlot?’

‘The boss lady let me go early. What’s going on?’ Kain waved a hand in the direction of Gilda.

Rainbow sighed and uncrossed her arms ‘Kain this is Gilda. She was just leaving.’

Gilda objected ‘But-’

Rainbow cut her off ‘No Gilda. I wish we hadn’t met tonight. Go home.’

Gilda hesitated again. ‘Rainbow I-’

Kain stepped between her and Rainbow. ‘She wants you to go.’

Gilda shouted at him angrily ‘This isn’t your business. Go away. I just want to talk.’

‘She doesn’t want to talk. Leave now. Or don’t leave and someone can drag you to the hospital when I’m done with you.’

Threatening Gilda definitely wasn’t the way to get her to cooperate.

‘Are you threatening me?’ She growled at Kain the feathers on her head standing up.

‘Listen…’ Kain growled back except when he spoke it sounded much more dangerous ‘I’ve had a really REALLY bad day and I would be more than happy to de-stress by beating someone into the ground, so please for my sake, stay here.’

‘Kain!’ Rainbow exploded.

Kain turned around to face her.

Rainbow Dash was the element of loyalty and even if she said she didn’t she still cared a little bit about Gilda. Kain threatening Gilda like that was exactly what it took for Rainbow to side with Gilda. Kain threatening Gilda had changed her in Rainbows mind from being a potential source of trouble for her friends to a potential victim of someone she hated.

‘This is my own damn business. I don’t need your help. Fuck off!’ Rainbow said to Kain as firmly as she could.

Kain appraised her for a second ‘Do you want to talk to her?’

‘No I don’t but-’

Kain turned back around to face Gilda before Rainbow was done speaking ‘leave.’ He ordered her.

He started to unsheathe his sword.

‘Listen buddy. She doesn’t want you involved. This is her business. Go away and let us talk alone.’ Gilda said as calmly as she could manage but her voice still sounded aggressive.

Rainbow then realised Gilda wasn’t going to leave and that Kain was really going to hurt her if she didn’t. She realised that Kain was in his own weird way trying to protect Rainbow. She realised that the only way to protect Gilda from Kain was to convince him Gilda wasn’t a problem.

‘I want to talk to her!’ Rainbow shouted.

Kain turned back to appraise Rainbow.

‘I want to talk to Gilda’ Rainbow repeated less loudly.

Kain glanced at her and back at Gilda ‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes.’

Kain put a hand to his head and seemed to ponder her response for a second before he shrugged. Rainbow could have imagined it but she could swear that he suddenly looked relieved for some reason. He turned and walked up the stairs to the club, the bouncer let him pass without question. Rainbow had no idea why.

‘Who was that?’ Gilda asked.

Rainbow wrinkled her nose in disgust as she answered ‘Just some prick.’ She looked at Gilda and Rainbow just sounded just plain tired. ‘Gilda… Fine. Come over to my house tomorrow and we’ll discuss this then when I’ve had time to calm down and think it through a little.’

Gilda smiled at Rainbow ‘Are you saying-’

Rainbow interrupted her ‘I’m not saying anything. Come over tomorrow and well talk about it then. For now I just need to be alone.’

Gilda looked so relieved when she heard Rainbow say that.

Rainbow didn’t even bother saying anything to Gilda when she turned away.

Gilda called out a good night but Rainbow ignored her. She went inside the club and found her friends. She told them she was tired and wanted to go home. They knew she was lying but let her get away without any discussion.

Rainbow went outside and unfurled her wings. Gilda was gone. Rainbow flew up to her cloud house.

She showered and went to bed.

Chapter 7. Early

Chapter 7

When Rainbow awoke she had temporarily forgotten Gilda. It was fairly late in the morning and Rainbow had over slept. This was unusual for her. Rainbow decided that she’d gotten enough exercise with all the sword practice she had to do anyway and it wouldn’t matter if she missed her morning routine just this one time.

Rolling out of bed and on to her feet Rainbow rubbed sleep from her eyes. The sky folk had fallen asleep wearing only her underwear and it smelled pretty bad because of it. On a whim she went downstairs and stepped out the front door of her house onto the cloud porch. She surveyed the view of Ponyville and smiled to herself softly.

She extended her wings to full span and stretched contentedly. This stretch brought on a yawn and she didn’t bother to cover her mouth but instead held her arms out to either side of herself. Joints popped satisfyingly as she arched her back. Finished stretching Rainbow returned to a normal position feeling contented.

‘Nice.’ A voice Rainbow recognised said from her right hand side.

Rainbow turned to her right and saw Gilda standing there to the right. The griffon had been standing there the entire time apparently and she had a faint smile on her face. Rainbow hadn’t seen her when she was stretching. Memories of the night before returned and Rainbow remembered that she’d invited Gilda over.

Rainbow shrugged and said in a deliberately uncaring tone ‘Nothing you haven’t seen before.’

It would be lying if Rainbow she said she wasn’t a little worried Gilda had seen that display. If Gilda was attracted to her then she wasn’t the first person, and Rainbow was proud of her body, but still it was unnerving. Rainbow tried to not show how uncomfortable she actually was.

Gilda nodded her head and said ‘Yeah but it’s still a nice view.’

Rainbow walked back inside and Gilda followed her in.

‘How long had you been standing there?’ Rainbow asked.

Gilda shrugged ‘About ten minutes. I was just trying to decide whether waking you up would make things worse or  waiting at your door would seem more pathetic.’

Rainbow nodded and said as uncaringly as she could ‘I’m going upstairs to change.’

Rainbow started up the stairs, without waiting on the griffons’ response, and came back down a while later in her usual attire. Gilda was sitting on the couch and awkwardly tapping her feet. She looked nervous to Rainbow but the moment Gilda saw her coming down the stairs the tapping stopped and the casual air returned. Rainbow could still see how nervousness her houseguest though really was though.

Rainbow ignored her and went into the kitchen and made herself a bowl of cereal. It was a high nutrition low flavour brand grain mix. She hated it but it was cheaper than any other brand and being the weather folk of such a small town really didn’t pay that well. Plus the job wasn’t exactly a fulltime position. The weather didn’t need to be constantly managed. More often than not they just let nature run its course.

Rainbow came out and sat on the couch and began eating her food. Gilda remained seated and tried awkwardly to maintain her casual air that Rainbow could see straight through. Rainbow enjoyed the discomfort she was causing Gilda. It was a little revenge for Gildas’ massive perv from earlier.

After she was done Rainbow went into her kitchen and put her bowl in the sink and left it there. It could be cleaned later.

The sky folk turned to Gilda and said ‘Alright.’

Gilda looked hopeful ‘Alright what?’

‘I’ll give you another chance.’ Rainbow said.

Gilda broke into a huge grin ‘Awesome… I mean, you know, cool and...’

Rainbow crossed her arms ‘Don’t try to act like this doesn’t mean a lot to you. You made it pretty clear last night that you pretty much need me.’

Gilda looked at the ground and shuffled her feet.

‘Now. If you want to be friends with me, you need to be friends with my other friends. I’m not going to put up with it if no one else can stand you.’

Gilda looked a little daunted at this ‘that’s not gonna be easy. I don’t think any your friends will want to be friends with me after last time.’

Rainbow shrugged ‘I know. But that’s your problem. Just remember that this isn’t just your second chance here Gilda. I’ve stuck my neck out for you in the past and pretty much every time I did you messed it up. This is your last chance. I’m asking you stick your neck out for me for once.’

Gilda nodded in understanding. ‘Who are your friends again? I remember that Pink one…’

Dash rolled her eyes ‘Her name’s Pinkie. You met my all my friends at that party she threw, remember?’

Gilda nodded ‘I remember meeting them but I don’t remember any of them.’

Rainbow sighed ‘Alright. Before you meet any of them again you should apologise to Pinkie. I mean a sincere apology. I’m not going to be there to hold your hand so you’ll have to do it for yourself. You can find her at sugar cube corner. If you don’t know where that is you can ask anyone for directions. After that you can meet me back here at about half past eleven. If you can handle that we’ll see about reintroducing you to my other friends.’

Gilda nodded ‘Kay. I can do that. Sounds easy.’

Rainbow snorted ‘Gilda, if it were anyone else I’d agree, but seeing as how it’s you, I got the odds counted at about fifty fifty.’

With that Rainbow turned and flew out the door without saying good bye.

Pinkie hated manning the counter. It was the absolute most boringest part of her job. Well that wasn’t completely true. It could be really-really super boring in the mornings when almost no one came in but during lunch and afternoons it could be uber fun. But at the moment it was early morning, so it was boring.

Because of her afternoon training sessions Pinkie now only ever had the stupid morning shifts. She much preferred to be in the back baking with Mr or Mrs Cake but today was her day on the register so she had to man the dumb machine.

Pinkie was banging her head was on the counter and when the shops’ door rang open. The pink haired girl looked up with a smile, hoping to see one of her friends but was disappointed to see Kain stepping in through the doorway.

Pinkie didn’t like Kain. Not at all. Normally she was given to love and tolerance but Kain was just really mean. The man hurt people and didn’t see anything wrong with it, he was rude and aggressive, he wasn’t nice to anyone and worst of all he abused Pinkies’ friends.

The hopeful smile vanished off her face entirely as the man approached the counter. There was no reason to bother pretending to be happy to see him. Kain stopped at the counter and a tense silence was in the air for a second while the seated Pinkie stared up at the larger man.

It was Pinkie who broke the silence ‘What can I get you?’ she asked in an uncharacteristically flat voice.

Kain seemed undecided about something.

Eventually he spoke ‘I’m not sure what it’s called.’

Pinkie was interested to hear this. Even if she didn’t like Kain she still loved to help people.

‘That’s silly. How can I help you if you don’t even know what you want?’

Kain thought about it for a second ‘I’ve only had it once. It’s a… roll or something that’s filled with custard and has chocolate on top.’

Pinkie thought about this description for a second. The pink haired baker went over to the arrayed baked goods and selected a box of the described treats. Pinkie came back, placed it on the table and opened the lid.

‘Is this it?’ she asked.

Kain smiled and nodded. It wasn’t one of Kains’ normal smiles where he was laughing at you silently or just plain old smirking at you; rather it was a simple smile of genuine happiness. Pinkie had never seen him look like that and she beamed the smile back at him. It was obvious this particular treat had some meaning to him.

‘It’s called a Profitto Roll. What’s so special about it?’ Pinkie asked and was genuinely curious.

Kain ignored her question and asked his own ‘how much are they?’

Pinkie knew the price off the top of her head ‘It’s just five bits for two.’ Kain reached into his pocket for the money. ‘But if you tell me why it’s so special to you… I’ll throw in a third one for free.’

Kain thought about it for a second.

He shrugged and answered ‘It’s a fairly long story.’

Pinkie waved a hand at the empty bakery ‘I’m not super busy right now.’

The man thought about it for a second before he said ‘Alright then.’

Kain placed five bits on the bench and took three of the rolls.

Walking over to an empty table Kain sat down comfortably in one of the chairs. A bite was taken from one of the rolls and his eyes glazed over. The rolls were delicious Pinkie could guarantee that.

Pinkie put the coins in the register and sat in the chair opposite him. After he finished the first roll he began his story.

‘It was the largest battle in the entire war. It happened before the winged folk joined the rebellion. I was younger back then but already a veteran of a fair few battlefields. We earth folk outnumbered the opposition drastically but they had better tactics and magical support. It was a miracle that we won at all. We fought for a city on the coast. It was called Haven. The battle would later be called The Battle for Hopes Coast. Haven was the second largest city in the land. It was the one city that the rebellion managed to take from a greater folk before Xaths’ change.’

‘The battle lasted five days. I was on the frontlines the entire time. I have a clear memory of that first day. After that everything fades together into a series of assaults and raids and temporary defences and counter attacks. It was hell. The mystic folk rained fire down on us and the winged folk made retreat impossible. I was awake constantly for all five days. I took part in the final assault on the cities palace.’

‘That greater folk there killed damn near a hundred men before he was put down. The man that killed him died doing the deed. When he fell we declared victory. Everybody cheered except the men who’d been there at the start. Very few soldiers who went in on the first assault survived to see the end. I didn’t cheer. My sword arm was numb from hacking through armour and limbs, my vision was blurred, my legs hurt from near constant running and marching, my ears were ringing, blood and sweat mingled together to stain my skin and armour and I had thousands of bruises and scratches that made every movement painful.’

‘Instead of celebrating I just wandered out of the palace into the ruins of the burning city. I wandered alone for hours before I eventually found a bakery.’ His voice took on a more nostalgic tone ‘The building was beautiful. Large two stories and made of stone. It looked like a rock in the storm. I went inside and found that it had been ransacked. All the food had been wrecked or eaten by rats. All but one jar sitting untouched and perfectly preserved in a pile of broken glass and rotten food. I picked up the jar and opened it. Inside were four, just four of these’ Kain raised one of the rolls in his hand. ‘They were stale and a little off but I hadn’t eaten in over two days. There used to be a saying that hunger is the best seasoning. It’s true. To me they tasted like… Words don’t describe it.’ He indicated the rolls on the plate ‘These are beautiful but they… They were perfect in every way.’

‘I think to this day that I’ve-’

The story was interrupted when the bell on the door rang. They both turned and saw Gilda enter. Pinkie stood up from her seat and walked over to behind the register.

Gilda walked towards the counter purposefully. Pinkie smiled at her widely. Kain watched and quietly chewed his food but Pinkie noticed him wrap his free hand around his sword handle.

Gilda arrived at the counter and began to speak ‘Hi-’

She was interrupted by Pinkie who shouted out excitedly ‘hey Gilda! Long-time no see. Well actually I saw you at the club last night so it wasn’t very long for me but I don’t think you saw me so it was a long time for you. Are you here to apologise to me?’

Gilda was a little overwhelmed by her exuberance but she managed a hesitant answer ‘Um… Yeah. How did you know that?’

Pinkie giggled ‘It’s pretty obvious. You want to be friends with Rainbow again. Rainbow wouldn’t be friends with someone her friends hated. You were mean to me last time you were here so obviously the first thing you’d do would be to try and make it up to me.’

Gilda blinked seeming confused. She decided to push past the oddness that was Pinkie.

‘I’m sorry.’ she said as plainly as possible.

Pinkie smiled and reached forward and grabbed Gildas’ hand. She started shaking it enthusiastically. It took all of Gildas’ willpower not to jerk her hand away from the overly enthusiastic earth folk.

‘Apology accepted!’ Pinkie said exuberantly ‘Any friend of Dashie is a friend of mine.’

Gilda only heard the most important part of that sentence ‘Wait… Dashie? Did you just call Rainbow Dash?… Dashie?’

Pinkie nodded ‘Uh huh.’

Gilda laughed ‘Dashie?’ her speech was broken up by fits of laughter ‘Oh man I wish I knew that was her nickname before! Hah! If you tried to call her Dashie in flight camp she’d probably have killed you!’ Gilda shook with mirth.

Pinkie didn’t understand what was so funny about that name but she laughed along with Gilda purely because she was the element of laughter.

‘Anyway’ Gilda continued when she had better control ‘I gotta go see “Dashie” and tell her how this went. See you around Pinkie.’

Gilda turned and walked towards the door.

‘Okay then. Bye-bye Gildie!’ Pinkie called exuberantly after her.

Gilda heard the “Gildie” part of that and her posture stiffened visibly. The griffon very slowly turned and stared at Pinkie. Gilda opened her mouth like she was about to say something but she stopped herself closed it, turned and walked out the door.

Pinkie walked back over and sat at the table with Kain who took his hand of his sword.

Kain picked up the conversation ‘Do you always deal with Rainbows’ exes?’

Pinkie blinked at him confusedly. ‘Huh?’

‘I mean do all Rainbows ex-girlfriends come through here?’

Pinkie shook her head and said ‘Oh… No Gilda isn’t Rainbows’ ex.’

Kain looked confused ‘Than what was with that lover’s argument I overheard last night?’

Pinkie shook her head ‘I don’t know but Rainbow and Gilda never dated.’

‘Are you sure?’

Pinkie nodded again ‘Yeah. Rainbows not into girls for one thing.’

‘Rainbow’s not gay?’ Kain asked confusedly.

Pinkie nodded slowly ‘Yeah… Why would you think she is?’

Kain shrugged ‘Well with the hair and that voice and her being a tomboy… Also when I overheard those two arguing last night I sort of assumed.’

Pinkie was horrified ‘That’s stereotyping!’

Kain shrugged. ‘Whatever. Are you sure she’s not gay then?’

Pinkie shook her head ‘No she’s not and it’s wrong that you would assume she is because of something like her hair.’

Kain rolled his eyes ‘I don’t care. Who is this Gilda to Rainbow anyway?’

‘She’s one of her old friends from high school’ Pinkie answered.

Kain tilted his head at her ‘Wait… You’re saying Rainbow’s… educated?’

Pinkie looked at him oddly ‘Yeah. So am I and pretty much everyone who lives in Ponyville.’

Kain reacted to this strangely. ‘Huh… Things have changed.’

‘What do you mean?’ Pinkie asked.

‘Back in my time only people born rich could afford an education.’

Pinkie giggled ‘Well that’s a bit silly. You mean you never went to school?’

‘Sort of. I went through blade training and in order to do that I learned about the history of warfare and in order to do that I was taught to read and write.’

Pinkie nodded though she was still a little confused. Old times were weird.

Kain continued the conversation ‘I’m actually really good with languages. I can speak four different tongues on top of this one. Funny how this language stayed the same after all these years.’

Pinkie was glad to hear Kain had some talent other than hurting people ‘Huh… What other languages do you know then?’

Kain seemed a little sad when he spoke ‘Well they’re dead languages now but I spoke in the tongue of the striped folk, high and low Troteerian and Kambi.’

Pinkie was curious ‘What are those?’

‘The tongue of the striped folk is pretty obviously the language the striped folk spoke, or at least they used to, I don’t know if they do anymore. Kambi was from eastern Grazia and Troteerian was from my home land. It was broken up into two sub dialects, high and low, to help distinguish social status; they were both practically different languages. The high born folk refused to learn low and the low born were not allowed to learn high so the differences grew even more over time.’

Pinkie nodded in understanding. Normally she didn’t care or history but talking to someone who was actually part of that history was way more interesting than any of Twilights books or lectures.

Kain had finished the last of his rolls so he stood up.

‘Thanks for the meal.’ He said to Pinkie. ‘I’ve got to get today’s session ready.’

Pinkie wilted visibly at the mention of the upcoming and sure to be painful session. Kain left the bakery without saying goodbye.

When Rainbow left Gilda she didn’t honestly have anything to do so she just flew around town for a while. Rainbow loved flying and this morning couldn’t have been better for it. The sky was clear, the sun was warm, the wind was low and the view was spectacular.

Rainbow flew around like this for a while until she spotted something a little unusual; sitting alone at a café was a certain blue haired mystic folk.

Vinyl was rarely seen during the daytime. The career path and life style she followed meant she was all but nocturnal. To see her awake before lunch time though… that was just unheard of. Maybe she might drag herself out of bed at about four in the afternoon but never would she be awake this early in the morning.

Overcome by curiosity Rainbow landed in the street near Vinyl. The two of them were loose friends so it wasn’t all that unusual for Rainbow walked up and said hi to Vinyl. That said the two of them were in the middle of an awkward phase and Rainbow had been nervously avoiding talking with Vinyl for some time now.

When Rainbow said ‘hi’ and Vinyl looked around and saw her.

With purple sunglasses in place over her eyes Vinyl grinned her trademark daredevil grin at Rainbow.  In one hand she had a steaming cup of coffee and in her other hand she had a photo that Rainbow couldn’t see. As Rainbow approached Vinyl sipped her coffee and put the photo in her pocket.

‘Hey Lover’ Vinyl said to Rainbow once she got closer.

Rainbows jaw tightened when she heard Vinyls’ terrible nickname for her but she tried not to give Vinyl any indication she was displeased by it and sat down in the seat across from Vinyl like nothing was wrong.

‘How’d you enjoy last night?’ Vinyl asked before Rainbow had a chance to speak.

Rainbow shrugged ‘It was alright. Your music was better than usual.’

Vinyl shook her head and her grin widened ‘Only alright? I thought it would have been better than that.’ Her voice dripped with suggestion.

Rainbow cocked her head in confusion ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean I saw you get picked up by that griffon chick. Nice… very exotic dude. Never been with a griffon before. What’s it like?’

‘No-no-no.’ Rainbow shook her head ‘That was just Gilda, she and I-’

‘So you remember her name? You plan on seeing her again I take it.’

‘No! She’s not-’

‘Nice catch dude. Brawny and tall ain’t usually my thing on a chick, but I’m sure you can live with being the bitch in bed.’

‘Vinyl!’ Rainbow shouted in frustration.

‘Course I ain’t one to judge.’

‘Shut up!’ Rainbow snapped.

Vinyls’ talking ceased but it was clear from the grin on her face she was enjoying the reactions she was getting from Rainbow. Rainbow couldn’t even remember why she ever wanted to talk to Vinyl in the first place.

The DJ continued ‘I’m a little hurt Lover.’ Rainbow cringed at the nickname. ‘I thought you came to see my show and instead you walk out at the first pretty tail that comes your way.’

‘It’s not like that and you know it isn’t. Gilda is an old friend-’

‘Ohhhhh. I get it. She’s your ex.’

‘No she’s-’

‘Nah it’s cool. I understand now. She wanted to pick things up with you and you turned her down to spare my feelings. I’m flattered really.’

Rainbow decided not to say anything, because anything she did say could and would be used against her.

Vinyl continued undaunted ‘But seriously Rainbow you gotta get over me. I mean, I know I rocked your world but come on, you gotta move on.’

Rainbow rolled her eyes. She decided to change the topic ‘What are you doing up this early?’

Viny shrugged and her grin dropped. ‘Don’t change the subject, were talking about you Rainbow.’

‘There’s nothing to talk about.’ Rainbow said vehemently.

‘You know there is.’ Vinyl grinned once more.

‘Nothing happened.’

‘Nothing we can talk about in good company.’

‘For Celestias’ sake Vinyl! WE DID NOT SLEEP TOGETHER!’ Rainbow shouted louder than she probably should have.

Some of the folk they were sharing the outdoor Cafe with stared at her in surprise. Rainbow looked down sheepishly. Vinyl laughed openly at Rainbows outburst.

Vinyl picked up the conversation when she was done laughing ‘I’m not teasing you now dude, but we totally did it.’

Rainbow was frustrated by that memory or rather the lack of that memory. She went dancing one night and got really drunk. She woke up in the morning sharing a bed with Vinyl and having no memory of the previous night. Vinyl also had no recollection of what happened. For some reason Vinyl wasn’t wearing anything above her waist other than her sunglasses which she was still wearing. Rainbows’ bra was missing even though she was otherwise fully dressed.  Since then Rainbow had found things between her and Vinyl really awkward. The DJ however laughed her ass off at Rainbows’ discomfort, teased her relentlessly about it and gave Rainbow the awful nickname of Lover. To this day Rainbow said they hadn’t slept together and the DJ insisted that they had.

‘Dude. If you shared a bed with me then we did it. That’s just the way I work.’

‘But it’s not the way I work.’ Rainbow argued ‘I wouldn’t have slept with you.’

Vinyl shook her head ‘We’ve had this argument before dude. I say we did it, you say you wouldn’t have because you’re straight, I say you’re as gay as they come, you say “no I’m not”.’

‘Because I’m not!’ Rainbow said loudly.

Vinyl sighed and resigned herself to repeat the old argument ‘Who was the last guy you dated?’

‘You know the answer to that.’ Rainbow answered angrily.

Vinyl asked the follow up question ‘Who was the last guy you slept with?’

‘You know the answer to that too.’ Rainbow retorted.

Vinyl continued her argument ‘Never happened on both accounts. Who was the last girl you dated?’

Rainbow shook her head and said ‘No one.’

‘Who was the last girl you slept with?’ Vinyl asked.

‘I’ve never slept with anyone’ Rainbow grumbled.

‘Other than me.’ Vinyl said sassily.

Rainbow ground her teeth in frustration.

‘You hang out with five other girls all day and you never go after any guys. You’re totally crushing on one of them. I just don’t know who yet.’

Rainbow gave up ‘I’m changing the topic. I don’t want to talk about this again.’

‘Fine dude. However you deal with your feelings.’

‘Why are you up so early?’ Rainbow asked.

‘It’s not that early.’

‘For you it is.’

‘Fair enough. I’ve got a gig in Canterlot next week so I’m trying to get into a better sleep pattern.’

Rainbow shook her head ‘That doesn’t make much sense. You can go all day and all night if you have to’

‘As you know from experience’

Rainbow ignored the irritating interruption ‘sometimes you actually play better when you’re tired as hell.’

Vinyl shrugged ‘Alright then. I guess its cause I’m meeting someone and want to be fully awake for it.’

‘Who?’

‘Musician.’

‘Who?’ Rainbow repeated the question.

Vinyl waved her hands in a vague way ‘Some classical player named Octy…. Oct something. I didn’t really pay attention.’

‘If you don’t even know her name then why are you trying to make a good impression?’

Vinyl just grinned at Rainbow even more widely than before.

‘Wait… You want to?... Do her?’

Vinyl nodded and took out a photo ‘This is her.’

Rainbow looked at a picture of a beautiful but severe looking woman in her early twenties. She was staring at the camera with a serious expression and wearing a pink bow tie.

‘Come on Vinyl that’s just ridiculous. You’ve only seen a photo of her and you’re determined to screw her? You don’t even know if she’ll swing that way.’

Vinyl shrugged nonchalantly ‘I like a challenge. Besides, if she turns me down then I’ll just pick up some lucky guy or girl at a club.’

‘Have you ever even been to Canterlot? I have and there aren’t any places in Canterlot like the clubs you’re used to.’

Vinyl looked at Rainbow curiously ‘Rainbow. Are you jealous of my soon-to-be hot date?’

Rainbow sighed in frustration and stood up. ‘That’s it. I can’t deal with you anymore. I’m going.’

Vinyl said laughing ‘That’s not a denial.’

Rainbow rolled her eyes ‘Because that’s not even worth a response’. With that she turned around flew away.

Rarity was waiting in the clearing with everyone else. These practice sessions were loathed by her. Most of her work was behind because of them. Constantly coming home muddy and bruised and having to deal with Sweetie Bell and the cutie mark crusaders didn’t help things. The thing she hated most of all about the sessions was the teacher.

Kain was rude, aggressive, unsympathetic to anyone and worst of all he made an impressive effort to make these sessions as unpleasant to everyone involved as humanly possible. Yesterday when he hadn’t come Rarity had wanted to leap with joy but her carefully maintained composure had prevented her from doing that.

Also hated was the fact that they were being taught to kill. In the end that’s what this was; a dedicated effort to kill one man. This clashed with her moral values to say the least.

Rarity was already in a bad mood when Kain walked into the clearing with a wooden sword on his hip.  The mood was worsened when five minutes later Rainbow followed him in with Gilda at her hip. Rarity definitely wasn’t happy to see Gilda. Kain wasn’t either apparently.

‘What the fu…’ he stopped himself ‘what is this?!’ He yelled the moment he saw her.

‘This is Gilda. You met her last-’ Rainbow answered and was cut off.

‘I know who she is! What I want to know is why she’s here!’ He looked really angry.

Rarity was worried that he was about to force Rainbow into a ring.

‘What’s with this douche?’ Gilda asked Rainbow out loud.

Everything in the clearing quieted. Kain looked ready to murder. He stepped forward towards Gilda in a very threatening manner.

Then something happened that made the situation worse, So much worse.

A ‘whump’ and a flap of wings rang from behind the assembled folk. Kain turned around looking ready to shout at the source of that noise. Whatever he was about to say was never vocalised.

Standing there grinning evilly was a man with two curved horns on his head and two large black leathery wings growing out of his back. The man was above 8 feet tall and was just as tall as Celestia herself and garbed in nothing but a pair of badly stitched leather pants. The man was well muscled and in very good physical condition. Where Kain had lean but functional muscles this man was brawnier and was also unarmed.

Rarity made the logical leap that this was Xath and she suddenly felt quite scared.

‘Hello brother.’ Xath said loudly enough for everyone to hear.

‘Everybody get behind me.’ Kain ordered the group.

Rarity complied and stepped behind Kain with the others.

‘Trying to protect the woman and children?’ Xath laughed ‘I’ve never known you to be so noble.’

Kain didn’t respond. Everyone was now standing behind him. Kain had a wooden sword in his hands. Everyone else in the clearing drew their wooden swords as well. Rarity knew the swords be useless and the wood in her hands did not reassure her at all.

‘I see two winged folk, two horned folk and two earth folk. Let me guess… The bearers of the elements of harmony right?’ Xath giggled a bit ‘This scene is familiar. I remember last time. ‘Course these ones don’t have the elements with them so…’ he shrugged indifferently.

He started forward across the clearing and everyone else stepped back.

Gilda spoke up ‘What the hell is with this guy? What the fuck is going on?’

‘Gilda, shut up.’ Rainbow answered the tension causing her voice to crack.

‘A griffon? What are you doing here? You’re not a bearer.’ Xath tapped his chin thoughtfully ‘You’re a long way from home little bird.’

He was toying with them. His steps were slow and deliberate. The way he smiled at them playfully frightened Rarity and she couldn’t help it, she shivered.

The sadistic smile suddenly disappeared and was replaced with a look of absolute fury.

‘Where is it?’ Xath asked more quietly then before.

Kain didn’t respond.

Xath suddenly leapt the rest of the distance between him and Kain. Moving so fast he blurred. swinging his sword Kain tried to hit Xath. Catching it with his hands Xath yanked the blunt wooden object out of Kains’ grip. Tossing the sword away contempt fully Xath slammed an open palm against Kains’ chest. Blocking it Kain was launched off his feet through the crowd of girls knocking Rainbow Dash, Gilda and Applejack to the ground. Rarity barely had time to bring up a magical barrier before Xath slammed himself into her. Thrown across the clearing Rarity landed on her head and was briefly knocked out.

When she recovered and sat up Xath was the only person on his feet. Rainbow and Gilda were both unconscious with blood trickling down the side of their head, Pinkie was face down and not moving, Applejack was on her back and Xath was currently holding Fluttershy in a stranglehold.

Pulled herself to her feet Rarity charged to her friends’ aid, she wasn’t the only one. Applejack also climbed to her feet and charged. Xaths’ horns darkening,  Rarity felt something wrap around her ankle and she was swung violently into Applejack. Applejack was knocked over. Raritys’ face hit the ground and she lost track of everything again.

When she recovered Applejack was on the ground with Xath standing over her. His foot was pressing her face into the mud and he had a hold on her arm.

‘You’re a strong one aren’t you?’ He chuckled.

Xath wrenched her arm sharply and a thunderously loud crack rang out across the clearing. Applejack screamed in pain. Rarity was still dazed from the fight and Applejacks’ scream sounded like a distant nightmare. She tried to get to her feat but fell to the ground.

Leaving Applejack Xath walked to where Kain was just starting to stand up. Reaching out one handed and grabbing Kain by the throat Xath effortlessly lifted him off his feet.

Applejack had stopped screaming and was now sobbing under her breath. The farmer kept trying to climb to her feet but kept slipping and falling back into the mud broken arm.

‘Where’s the Pact?!’ Xath shouted at Kain. ‘I can smell it all over you.’ Kain couldn’t answer with his airway being blocked as it was ‘You used to have it but someone else has it now. Who has it?!’

Rarity saw Twilight disappear from where she was on the ground in a flash of violet light. She reappeared next to Applejack and both she and Applejack disappeared. Reappearing near Rarity, Twilight teleported herself and Rarity into Twilights’ library.

Twilight started disappearing and reappearing. She teleported in with Rainbow Dash and Gilda then Fluttershy finally with Pinkie. Everyone except Kain. Disappearing one last time Twilight reappeared a few second later. Kain wasn’t with her.

Collapsing to her feet in exhaustion Twilight clutched her head. Rarity knew using so much magic like that was extremely draining.

Applejack had stopped sobbing though tears were visible in her eye; she was clutching her broken arm to herself and trying to stand up again. Fluttershy rushed over and forced her to sit back down then went about attending the wounded arm.

Pinkie seemed mostly unhurt but she pulled herself into the foetal position and cried to herself. Rainbow and Gilda both remained unconscious. Twilight appeared mostly fine but looked like she was having trouble standing up. Rarity was still woozy from being thrown at Applejack like that so she stayed seated.

Twilight shouted out ‘Spike! Spike!’

Spike came running down the stairs ‘Twilight what’s wrong?’

‘Go get the guards.’

‘Why what happened?’ he said looking around at the battered bunch.

‘Spike, go get the guards, right now!’

Spike hesitantly nodded and ran outside.

Rarity was the first one to speak after he’d left ‘Where’s Kain?’

Twilight shivered ‘I couldn’t get to him.’

‘Why not?’ Rarity asked.

Twilight shook her head and shivered ‘When I got close he did something to my spell. It teleported me back here and now I can’t use magic.’

Rarity then realised the full weight of the situation. Kain was alone with Xath at Sweet Apple Acres. Sweet Apple Acres was too far to get there quickly even for Rainbow Dash. Rarity looked at Rainbow and saw that she was completely unconscious along with Gilda. The two of them were their fastest fliers. So in effect Kain was stranded alone with a psychopathic supernatural mass murderer in a remote field at Sweet Apple Acres. There was no way they could reach him in time and even if they could there was no way they could rescue him from the murderer.

Rarity hated herself for her next thought.

It’s a good thing none of us will miss Kain.

And that’s chapter 7.

Sorry about the end completely losing its formatting. My computer chose that time to screw me over.

Chapter 8. Early part II

Chapter 8

AN: This chapter’s going to get pretty grimdark; just a warning.

Sweet sweet air filled Kains lungs. A ragged breath passed through his lips and the buzzing in his brain died down. Nasty finger shaped marks encircled his throat and Kain knew they were going to bruise. That was assuming he survived past today. Pushing himself to his feet, and ignoring the dizzying spinning sensation he felt while standing, Kain turned to face Xath.

Twilight had only just teleported into the clearing and Xath had tossed Kain away in order to deal with her. Looking at Kain then at Xath, Twilights horn started to shine with magic, at the same time Xath leapt forward and grabbed her horn. Twilight gasped and disappeared with a flash of magic.

Kain felt all his hopes die with the disappearance of the unicorn. Now he had no hope of escape. Xath could fly so any attempt to run would be foolish and even if he couldn’t Xath was endowed with superhuman speed and endurance.

There wasn’t even a chance that he could beat his brother in a fist fight. Without a sword there was no conceivable way he could damage his brother. Kain could punch and kick his brother all day long with all his might and would still barely bruise him. The most he could do with his hands was hit a few nerve endings and that would achieve little more than a loosened muscle at a convenient moment. Even then Xaths’ healing ability would return the damaged area to working order in a matter of minutes.

Why of all days did I choose today not to bring my real sword?

Xath turned around to face Kain looking furious.

‘You let the elements escape!’ Xath shouted.

A grin sprouted on the Xaths’ face ‘That doesn’t matter. We only wanted the Pact anyway.’ He chuckled. ‘And I know how where going to find it’ He said pointing at Kain.

Xaths’ smile disappeared and he screamed in frustration ‘The elements could imprison us again!’

The grin returned and Xath answered himself ‘What those little girls?’ he giggled ‘Please, they barely managed it last time and these new ones are nowhere near as dangerous as some of the old elements were. Besides if it makes you feel better we can hunt them down later.’ He giggled once more ‘I want to make the big one scream again.’

After a while the giggling stopped and Xath looked furious again.

‘Very well then’ he growled angrily.

The grin returned and Xath advanced towards Kain.

To say the least, Kain was confused by what he’d just witnessed. Xath had just had a full blown argument with himself. Kain had long known that his brother was insane but seeing that destroyed all of Kains doubts that Xath might be clinging to some shred of sanity.

Bringing his mind to present circumstances Kain considered his options. Looking across the clearing Kain saw his shirt and his boots.

My boots!

Kain always kept a knife hidden in his boots. He usually kept a variety of other blades on his person but today he’d left those all at home. Still he did have a knife. He’d just need to get across the clearing past Xath, retrieve his knife and then he’d have a chance, not a good one but a chance.

Kain decided that ambush was his best option. Retrieve the knife without Xath noticing, lure him over and cut something important while Xath still thought he was unarmed.

Kain adopted a fighters’ pose and Xath just laughed at him.

‘Do you honestly think you stand a chance?’ Xath lowered himself into a similar pose.

Kain considered Xath. In his head he ran through a series of scenarios and likely outcomes, few of them didn’t end in his violent demise, but he kept returning to one that seemed possible to succeed. He decided it would have to do.

Kain moved forward and fired a quick jab at Xath. Not even bothering to block the attack, Xath brought his own fist forward to hit Kain in the stomach. The fist hit air, Kain sliding around the blow, entering under Xaths’ guard and ramming his knee into Xaths’ crotch. The move didn’t hurt Xath but he still reacted instinctively. Pulling back in shock Xath failed to block the attack Kain sent flying into his face. Blinded for a second Xath was pulling back when he felt his ankle catch on Kains’ foot. Tripping over onto his back, Xath rolled backwards with the momentum and landed on his feet and one hand. Kain was now standing slightly to the right.

Snarling Xath and launched himself forward and Kain stepped to the right again. Circling around Xath, Kain mentally noted the position of his boots. They were directly behind him. The fighters had circled around into each-others old positions. The horned man looked even more furious than he had before. Kain deliberately slipped a little, briefly presenting an opening which Xath charged into. Normally Kain would’ve reacted differently to such an attack but in this case he was allowing Xaths’ blow to connect with him. Xath slammed a fist into Kains’ chest launching Kain off his feet and into his boots.

Kain feigned enormous pain while fumbling around as he silently slipped the knife out of his boots.

Xath giggled walking forward ‘You know… It’s kinda sad how bad I’ve gotten over the years. Back when we were still human I wouldn’t have gotten tripped up like that. What’s even sadder is despite the fact you’re better than me I’m still going to win this fight.’ He giggled again.

The giggling was replaced with a scowl ‘Get to your feet!’ Rage Xath ordered.

Kain had actually taken that punch very well and he wasn’t in much pain at all. He hoped his act was convincing enough. He pretended to struggle to his knees in pain.

Xaths’ patience grew thin and he stalked forward to grab Kain like he had before. Reaching forward and closing his hand around kains’ throat Xath lifted Kain up, or he would have if Kain hadn’t suddenly slashed open the upper veins of Xaths arm.

Dropping Kain in shock, Xath reeled back. Kain seized the advantage and stepping forward and ramming his knife up to its hilt in Xaths’ stomach. Drawing the knife down Kain intended to disembowel Xath. Xaths’ fist struck Kain in the side of the head and Kain was knocked unconscious.

Celestia was in the middle of court with a petitioner when a green flame appeared over her head. A scroll fell out. Celestia caught it and opened it. The princess read the letter with a grim look on her face. She dropped the letter and stood up.

The petitioner who had moments before been nervously stammering through a request for funds fell silent when he saw the look on the princesses’ face.

‘Cancel all appointments for the rest of the day. The court is closed for now. Awake my sister and summon the guard.’ Celestia turned to the petitioner ‘I’m sorry but this will have to wait for another time. Something urgent just came up.’

The petitioner nodded and bowed his way out the door very quickly.

‘Milady?’ One of the guards said in a questioning tone.

Celestia turned and looked out the window of her throne room.

‘We’re going to Ponyville.’ She said with grim finality.

Rarity pulled herself to her feet, She was still in the library with the others. It had been over half an hour since they’d teleported in and the guards had arrived. The situation had been explained to them and they now patrolled the streets of Ponyville in force. The lady had voiced the opinion that they’d needed to go rescue Kain but the guard captain had told her that their orders were to protect the elements not their teacher.

This answer did not satisfy Rarity. The element of generosity was unwilling to leave Kain, or anyone for that matter, to die at the hands of that monster.

Having thought about it long and hard she’d come up with a plan. A vague plan that still needed a lot of the details worked out but a plan she thought might work.

Applejack had a cast wrapped around her broken arm and was unconscious after Rarity had used a sleeping spell on her at Fluttershys’ request. Fluttershy herself was busy trying to calm Pinkies badly damaged nerves. Twilight was still having trouble with her magic and was now staring at the ceiling blankly in the aftermath of an adrenaline rush. Rainbow and Gilda had both awaken from unconsciousness and seemed to be fine.

When she’d awoken Rainbow had wanted to go after Xath immediately but a stern warning from the guard captain had prevented that. The weather folk now sat and glared sullenly at the guards that patrolled the room. The griffon handled the situation much more calmly and was now sitting next to her friend. Rarity approached them and considered the best way to get what she needed.

Rarity said with as much tact as possible ‘Rainbow, would you mind helping me in the ladies room?’ She hoped that Rainbow might pick up on the hint that what Rarity actually wanted was to talk with her.

Rainbow gave her a confused look and said ‘Ew. Why do you need me to help?’ Not picking up the hint at all.

‘Rainbow. Please just follow me.’ Rarity said exasperated and making an obvious eye motion to a nearby guard.

Realisation dawned on Rainbows’ face ‘Ohhh…. Yeah sure.’

She stood up and the griffon stood up with her.

‘No Gilda you stay here I-’

‘Actually it would be better of Gilda could help too.’

Rainbow looked at Gilda and shrugged ‘Alright then. Come on.’

The three of them turned and started up the stairs.

‘Where are you three going?’ A Guardsman called out.

Rarity turned around ‘To the restroom if you must know.’

‘All three of you?’ he said sounding confused and suspicious.

Rarity rolled her eyes visibly ‘I’d hoped to do this with subtlety but if you must know someone has made a mess in the restroom and we three are cleaning it. So unless you enjoy the aroma of…’ Rarity let the words hang.

The guardsmen nodded ‘Oh… Alright.’ And returned to where he’d been standing.

The three girls walked into the bathroom and closed the door.

‘Alright Rarity what did you want to talk about?’

Rarity ignored her and cast a spell. It was a simple spell she’d learned from twilight that was used to muffle sounds.

When she was done she turned to them and said ‘We need to rescue Kain.’

Rainbow nodded and said ‘I agree.’

At the same Gilda crossed her arms and said ‘No fucking way.’

Both Rainbow and Rarity turned to stare at Gilda.

‘Why not?’ they both asked in unison.

Gilda shook her head and said ‘Well for one thing I’m not sure we can rescue him. From what you told me of this Xath guy he’s not just some average folk I could beat in a bar fight. He’s a professional soldier with the power of a princess! I wouldn’t want to fight a soldier let alone one of the fucking princesses.’

‘Two, why the hell should I rescue Kain at all? You might not remember it but that guys a douchebag and he threatened to kill me just last night! I’m not sticking my neck out for him!’

‘Three, we don’t even know where the hell they are. Xath can fly. He could be anywhere within thirty miles by now and that’s assuming he’s a bad flyer.’

‘Four, we could get killed. Not just me not just you, but all three of us. Personally I don’t want to see either of you get hurt.’

‘Five, and this is the most important one, Kain is probably already dead. I’m not risking my life to save some dead guy!’

Rainbow looked at Gilda with disgust and barely veiled contempt ‘Fine. You stay here like the big fat chicken you are and me Rarity’ll go save him.’ She put special emphasis on the word chicken. Rarity was shocked to hear such a strong racial slur come out of Rainbows mouth.

Gilda looked shocked too. ‘What the fuck Rainbow!’ she shouted ‘That’s not cool!’

Rainbow folded her arms and looked unimpressed.

Gilda looked between the two of them. ‘I’m not going to let you guys do this. You try to leave I’ll stop you and I’ll get the guards. There’s no way I’m going let you get yourself killed Rainbow.’

Rainbow opened her mouth to speak but Rarity shushed her with a wave of her hand.

‘So that it then?’ Rarity said.

‘What’s it then?’ Gilda asked.

‘You’re going to just let an innocent man die.’

Gilda shook her head ‘No I’m not going to let my only friend kill herself.’

‘So the proud griffon is too afraid to help us.’

‘No I just said-’

Rarity interrupted her and continued ‘I thought griffons were meant to be proud and fearless. Not helpless children. Gilda you are a griffon! You’re supposed to be one of the fiercest predators out! Your kind is supposed to be one of noble warriors without peer! All I’ve seen is a bully and a coward. You shame yourself and you disgrace your species. Maybe we don’t stand a chance. Maybe we will get killed, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re abandoning your only friend. Turning us into the guards will be an act of betrayal. Don’t come with us and it will be an act of cowardice.’

Silence hung in the air and Gilda absorbed what had just been said.

After a while Gilda spoke ‘Fucking fine then! I’ll go with you but on one condition.’

‘What’s that?’ Rainbow asked.

‘You listen to me and do what I say. I’m a griffon, we know how to hunt by instinct. I was taught how to hunt and track by my father so I’m even better than the average griffon. I can help you find Kain but when I say hide or run or whatever it’s because I know what I’m doing and because there’s danger.’

Rarity thought that sounded reasonable. Plus she knew they sort of needed the griffons help because neither she nor Rainbow knew anything about tracking.

‘I can agree to that.’ Rarity said.

Rainbow had apparently also been having the same thoughts. ‘Fine.’

Rarity nodded ‘Now we just need to get past these guards.’

Kain awoke groggily. Shifting uncomfortably he tried to put his hands to his head. The movement was blocked and Kain realised that both his hands were tied above his head. He looked up and saw that he was suspended by his hands from a thick branch. Looking around he realised he was suspended half a foot of the ground and was but naked in a clearing in the middle of a forest that he suspected was the Everfree. In the middle of the clearing was a fire place and seated next to the fire was Xath running a whetstone along the edge of Kains’ dagger. Kain must have made a noise because Xath turned to him and grinned.

‘Ahh… You’re awake.’

Kain looked around and felt growing panic rise inside of himself. Thoughts rose in his head unbidden.

It’s ok. I’ve been in worse before

No I haven’t. This is the worst situation I’ve ever been in.

I just need to escape.

With what? I need a blade to cut the ropes and a way to outrun Xath even if I do.

I’ve been in worse before, I’ll manage.

No I haven’t... no I won’t.

Kain started struggling with the ropes as Xath approached him.

Speaking with a wide grin on his face Xath neared Kain. ‘Contrary to popular belief, torture is not a complicated process. There’s no art form to it, no secret method or special formula. The fact is you can punch the average folk a few times and they’ll usually tell you what you want to know within a few minutes. Most people can’t even last through that basic a pain. If beating them doesn’t work you simply moving up to breaking fingers. If that doesn’t work you start pulling out nails. If that doesn’t work then we burn them. After that we upgrade to… Well you get the idea. You just escalate the pain steadily. Nine in ten will break in under a day. If someone doesn’t break in the first day then I usually just kill them and find someone else who knows what I want to know. Unfortunately for you, you’re the only person I know who knows where the pact is. So if you last today, then we’ll just have to continue tomorrow.’ Xath held up the knife Kain had used ‘You almost gutted me with this. I should’ve remembered you always carry an extra knife.’

Xath buried the knife up to its hilt in Kains’ left thigh. Kain gritted his teeth in pain. He felt his muscle twitch and rub against the blade and blood drip down his ankle.

Its ok I’ve had worse before.

True but that was in the middle of a battlefield not a torture session.

Xath returned to the fire. ‘We both know that you’re as tough as they come so I think we’ll skip past beating and go straight to burning.’ He said holding up a handful of red embers with magic while his horns darkened. ‘Tell me where the Pact is.'

Not an option. He’ll torture me regardless of what I say.

Then stall him.

‘I slept with your wife!’ Kain shouted at Xath.

Xath stopped and stared at Kain. He was no longer grinning but he didn’t seem furious either.

‘No you didn’t. She’s dead. I killed her.’

Kain laughed in an obviously strained way. ‘No. It was before you came back. She thought you’d left her so she came to me.’

Xath shook his head again ‘No you were married at the time.’

Kain nodded and grinned at the pain he was causing Xath ‘Yeah. It was an affair. I slept with your wife who was married to you while I was married to another woman.’

A grin appeared on Xaths’ face ‘That’s pretty funny.’ He chortled.

Rage replaced the grin ‘The bitch got what she deserved in the end.’

The anger disappeared and Xath stood there with a hurt look on his face.

The red hot coal from the fire was pressed into kains’ gut.

Kain screamed this time, he screamed until he went hoarse. The smell of burning flesh filled the air and his mind was filled with nothing but pain. When the pain faded Kains’ thoughts returned.

I’ve been burned before.

Not like this.

It’s not so bad.

This will cause permanent damage and scarring.

‘I’m going to kill you!’ Kain shouted hoarsely at Xath.

Xath giggled. ‘Lest try that again but in a more sensitive area.’ Another handful of embers were picked up from the fireplace. The glowing embers floated through the air towards Kains’ exposed genitals. It took Kain a second to realise what Xath meant when he said “Sensitive area”.

No! No! No! Escape, I must escape!

Heat radiated off the embers and Kain felt his organ shrink in an effort to protect itself.

I can’t escape.

His hairs started to sizzle as the handful of coal got closer.

This can’t be happening.

The bonds were struggled against furiously. He saw the coals getting closer and closer. Time slowed to a crawl and he could already feel himself burning in the few milliseconds before the coal touched his skin.

It is.

Then it touched.

Kain shivered uncontrollably. His body was coated in burns and bruises, his left eye had been burned out and several toes on his left foot had been cut off, his manhood had been destroyed with fire and somehow that wasn’t the worst part of it. The worst part was it wasn’t even finished yet. It had only been a day. One measly day. He hadn’t told Xath were the pact was but he knew he would break sometime tomorrow.

The night was darkening and the sun had long since gone down

‘I think that’s enough for today,’ Xath giggled ‘We’ll pick up again tomorrow.’ He turned and examined the fire which was burning low. ‘I’ll go get tonight’s meal. Let’s see how you enjoy the taste of one of the girls I met this morning.’ With that he turned and flew away.

Kain watched him fly away.

This is my chance to escape.

I can’t escape without a blade.

Kain looked down at the knife that was still buried in his thigh.

I have a blade.

Not in my hands.

Kain looked up at his arms. They were both undamaged. Using all his might he lifted his lower body up to be level with his arms. It took a lot of effort and Kain was sure that desperation was the only reason he could do it at all. Kain gripped the knife hilt with his hand and slid it out of his thigh. He felt his muscle tighten as the blade passed out of the hole it created. Once that was done he lowered his legs back to their hanging position.

Using the knife he started to cut the rope. The rope gave way and he fell gracelessly to his feet before falling flat on his face. Pushing himself to his feet kain limped his way to the fireside and grabbed his clothes. Pulling them on and wincing at the pain it caused him Kain paused when he went to put on his boots.

The three small toes one his left foot had been cut off. The wound needed to be treated or it would fester. He glanced at the fireplace.

Cauterise the wound.

No fire! Never again, no Fire!

The logical side of Kain won out and he cauterised the wound with red coals from the fire place. He pulled his boots on slipped the knife into his right boot. Still shivering Kain turned in the direction Xath had flown away in and began limping in that direction.

Gilda led Rarity and Rainbow through the darkening forest. It was night and the sun had been down for a while so the tracks where harder to find. Not that they’d been easy before. Gilda was a fairly good hunter and could track most animals. That said it was almost entirely different to hunt something that can fly, she’d had to make a whole lot of guesses and assumptions in order to follow the vague direction she believed he was in.

Rainbow had noticed the griffons’ lack of certainty and had immediately called into question Gildas’ helpfulness, but for once Gilda didn’t bother to respond. She knew she was headed in the right direction and if Rainbow thought she could do better than she was welcome to try.

Rarity on the other hand had been much more helpful to the Gilda by lighting the path when things got dark and offering plenty of encouragement to the griffon. That said she was a bit of a whiner and constantly complained about mud and brambles and sap stains on her dress and a thousand other things Gilda couldn’t really listen to. It was starting to grate on her nerves but overall Gilda was impressed with the horn folk, not that she showed it though.

They’d been walking for a while when Gilda heard something. She stiffened and listened carefully. It sounded a little like flapping wings. Gilda decided to take no chances so she grabbed the other two girls and dragged them under a bush.

Rainbow yanked her arm out of Gildas’ grip and ‘Gilda whats?-’

‘Shhh’ the griffon interrupted her.

Rainbow fell silent. A second later and the sound of wings were audible to everyone. It was powerful and consistent “whump” that sounded at regular intervals. Nobody moved a muscle. A few tense seconds later and the sound passed overhead. Gilda saw a blur of large leathery wings through the bush. He was gone but they still waited under the bush. It was about a minute before Gilda signalled to the girls that they could come out of their hiding places.

‘Well… Now we know we’re headed in the right direction’ Rainbow stated.

Gilda rolled her eyes ‘I knew we were headed in the right direction before now.’

‘Well we didn’t. I’m not sure how much of tracker you really are.’

Gilda was hurt that her friend had so little faith in her but she tried to not let it show ‘Did you just hear that? That proves I’ve been taking us in the right direction. Besides which the guy can fly! You have any idea how hard it is to track something that can fly?’

Rainbow must have noticed something in Gildas’ voice because she looked like she was about to spit out an angry retort but her anger dissipated and instead she said ‘Yeah you were right. This is the right way.’

Rarity then voiced her opinion ‘I think we should keep going.’

Gilda disagreed, now was probably their best chance to turn back, but decided not to voice her opinion.

They continued walking for about five minutes until they came across a small campsite. It was nothing special just a fire pit in a small clearing.

Gilda immediately noticed a few unusual things. For one thing there was the smell of burnt skin and hair in the air, another thing was the broken rope hanging from a tree branch. Under the rope was a pile of ash and a fair few blood spatters. The griffon walked over to the hanging rope, she bent down and examined the pile of ash. She put her finger in it and brought it up to her face, it smelled strongly of burnt flesh. Suspicion creeping into her mind, Gilda followed a trail of foot prints to the fire place. The steps were unevenly spaced and limping. Bending down next to the fire she noticed that it was still giving off warmth. The footsteps then led off to the right and she followed them to the edge of the clearing. She looked over her shoulder and noticed Rarity and Rainbow Dash had been following her.

Gilda stood up and dusted off her hands. She wasn’t sure exactly what had happened here but she had an idea. This was Xaths’ temporary camp; he’d taken Kain here and suspended him with the rope. Kain had been tortured with fire. For some reason Xath had left the camp and Kain had managed to cut his ropes. His left leg had been wounded badly judging by the footprints, he’d stopped by the fireplace before limping away into the bush.

‘Kains alive.’ Gilda said aloud.

Rarity and Rainbow both smiled looking relieved.

‘But he’s hurt. Badly. Come on he went this way.’

She started to lead the girls away from the clearing in the direction Kain had headed in. It was the wrong direction if he was trying to get back to Ponyville.

‘How do you know he’s hurt?’ Rarity asked after a few minutes walking.

Gilda found these tracks much easier to follow than Xaths’; the wounded man hadn’t made any attempt to cover them and he was wounded enough that he seemed to be stumbling into damn near everything.

Gilda looked at her and said ‘Just trust me. When we find him it won’t be pretty.’

Eventually they found him. He was limping along drunkenly just ahead of them. Blood stains soaked his shirt and he was mumbling to himself under his breath.

The three girls broke into a run to catch up to him. When they caught up to him Rarity let out a horrified gasp.

His entire left eye had been burned out. There was blood seeping through his clothes and he smelled of burnt flesh. From the fevered mutterings he gave and the way his good eye kept darting around he was obviously delirious.

Rainbow immediately put her shoulder under his left arm and lifted the weight off of his left foot. Gilda only stared in shock while Rarity immediately tried to attend his wounds but had trouble because he continued trying to limp along. After she recovered Gilda thought about it and decided on what she thought would be the best course of action. Walking up to him the griffon wrapped her arm around his neck in a choke hold she’d practiced in many a bad bar fight.

‘What are you doing?!’ Rarity shrieked.

Kain didn’t even struggle as he slowly fell unconscious. He flopped into Gildas’ arms and Gilda lay him down.

‘He would have hurt himself if he kept walking. Now we can see how badly he’s been hurt and do something about it.’

Rarity glared at Gilda but didn’t say anything. The lady bent down and ripped open his blood stained shirt. She gasped again at what she saw. His chest was coated in horrible burns that had scabbed over and cracked and were leaking blood. Rolling him over Rarity found many similar wounds on his back.

Gilda then noticed a blood stain on Kains’ crotch. Rolling him over and lifting up the brim of his pants to get a look, she turned pale at what she saw.

‘Holy fuck.’ She gasped.

Pulling her hand back she tried to remove that image from her memory. Rarity saw her turn pale and reached out to see for herself but Gilda grabbed her hand and shook her head.

‘No.’ was all she could say.

Something in her eyes must have said what Gilda couldn’t and Rarity didn’t make any attempt to view the wound. There was very little they could do to help patch him up so in the end they just picked him up. Kain was held up between Rainbow and Gilda who wrapped his arms around their shoulders.

Rarity had already formulated a plan apparently ‘Alright. He needs medical attention so you two fly him back to Ponyville and I’ll stay here. You can’t carry us both so I’ll continue towards Ponyville.’

Gilda didn’t like the idea of leaving someone behind and was about to voice that opinion when Rainbow agreed to the plan.

‘Ok me and Gilda will drop him off and then come back for you.’

Gilda didn’t think that was a good plan at all but didn’t voice her opinion, instead she said ‘Yeah that’s a good plan. While where gone keep walking in that direction’ Gilda pointed the direction she knew Ponyville was in. ‘Avoid bushes and mud because they’ll make it easier for people to follow you. The Everfree can be dangerous at night so if you think you’re being followed you probably are. If that happens find a rock you can put your back against or a cave with a small entrance. Try to stay quiet and listen carefully for any sounds. We’ll be back soon.’

Rarity nodded her understanding.

Gilda and Rainbow took off and between them carried Kain back to Ponyville. Gilda nervously kept an eye out for Xath but he was never spotted. After about half an hours flying they arrived in Ponyville and dropped Kain off at the hospital. The nurses were panicked and confused when they saw his wounding but Gilda and Rainbow didn’t stick around to explain.

They just took off and headed back to the Everfree to find Rarity. It took a bit longer but they found her unharmed and carried her back to Ponyville. The flight was hard on the two fliers having carried two people in one night after a fairly rough day but they managed.

They landed with Rarity near the library. The guards where still there and they looked angry at the sight of the two of them. Inside the library she could hear shouting. One guard walked inside and said something. A moment later the door burst open and an absolutely furious Celestia stalked out. Frighteningly she had a large red blood stain on her otherwise immaculate white dress.

‘How dare YOU!’ She shouted at them.

The three girls trembled at the greater folks’ voice.

‘You two are too important to risk your lives for someone of the likes of Kain! And you’ she rounded on Gilda ‘I don’t know what part you played in this but you can bet were going to have a serious discussion.’ She turned to the guards ‘Make sure these three are kept here tonight and see if this time you can manage to keep three teenagers confined to their rooms.’ She turned back to the girls ‘Unfortunately I have to raise the sun tomorrow and that’s no simple task. I need my rest so you’ve escaped my wrath for tonight. But tomorrow the three of you can expect no light treatment. I’d be punishing you right now if you hadn’t actually saved a man’s life. Yes I received word from the hospital when you dropped him off. You three, inside, right now.’

The girls walked inside demurely and the door was closed behind them.

Only a handful of guards were inside and everyone else had gone to sleep apparently. They were separated into different rooms and guards were posted at their doors. The library wasn’t huge so they had to share rooms. Rarity had to share a room with Fluttershy who was already sound asleep. Gilda shared a room with Rainbow.

Gilda lay there going over the events of the day in her mind.

‘Hey Gilda?’ Rainbow said from across the room.

‘Yeah?

‘You were pretty awesome today.’

Gilda paused ‘Yeah I know.’

Rainbow chuckled at that ‘I think this was a good step in becoming friends with Rarity.’

Gilda nodded though Rainbow couldn’t see it ‘Yeah… That girl’s seriously hot.’

Rainbow just laughed at that. ‘Good night.’

‘Yeah, night.’

I hoped to make Gilda seem more capable then she’s usually portrayed as being. If Griffons are predators by nature then it only makes sense that they’re natural hunters. Also in my fic Gilda’s homeless so she has to get her meals somehow right?

I also wanted to get across the fact that Kain is one tough mother f***er. After… that was done to him he still had the presence of mind and strength of will to escape. That said he would have undoubtedly died if he hadn’t been rescued.

Also I hope that grimdark scene didn’t stop people from reading. That’s the worst this is going to get. Mind you I can’t think of too many fanfics that get worse than that. I promise that I will not do another grimdark scene.

Chapter 10. Reactions

Chapter 10

Sitting bolt upright Kain scanned the room he was laying in. A woman in a nurses’ uniform backed away from him looking shocked and a little afraid.

Unarmed, no combat scars or calloused hands. Not a threat.

Instincts kicking in Kain rolled out of the bed and stood up despite the nurses repeated protests that he sit back down. Kain checked the room but the nurse was the only other person in it. It took him a moment to recognise the room as a hospital ward like the one he’d first awaken in.

I’m unarmed. Xath attacked me at the last hospital I stayed in. I need a weapon.

Kain searched around the room for a sharp object.

‘Sir I need you to get back in bed!’ the nurse ordered.

Kain ignored her and kept searching. He saw the door leading through to the bathroom attached to the room. Stalking across the room the blademaster threw open the door. The bathroom was fairly plain with a sink a toilet and a mirror. Spotting no potential weapons Kain walked over to the mirror and smashed it with his elbow, the glass fell to the floor and the nurse behind him screamed in surprise. Kain carefully selected a large piece of glass from the ground; it reflected the light from the windows as Kain examined it critically in his hands. The piece was long and thin and sharp enough to cut his hand while he was holding it.

Short, fragile, hurts to hold. At least it’s sharp. Better than nothing.

Barely.

The nurse ran to the door leading out of the room and into the hallway and screamed ‘someone help me he’s gone crazy!’

Kain ignored her and headed back over to the bed where he ripped a length of bed sheet and wrapped it around his hand.

Now he could hold the glass without getting cut. Just then the door to the hallway burst open and three men came through the door; a doctor and two male nurses.

No combat scars or obvious weapons, medical personnel, three of them, all with hostile intent. Notable potential threat.

‘Drop the glass.’ The doctor ordered Kain.

Lowering himself into a combat ready position, the blademaster waited for one of the men to make the first move. One of the men tried to grab the hand Kain was holding the glass with. Slashing the mans face with his armed hand and reaching out with his free hand Kain grabbed the mans’ arm and twisted it so the man was now facing back towards his friends. Switching his grip on the man, Kain pressed the broken glass against the mans’ throat hard enough to draw blood. The muscles in Kains’ arm tensed as he prepared to drag the makeshift knife across the mans’ jugular.

‘Let the man go!’ A voice from the hallway instructed.

Kain recognised the voice and had no choice but to immediately release the man.

Princess Celestia strode into the room glaring at Kain angrily. ‘Drop the glass.’ She ordered firmly.

Kain hesitated despite the penance in his brain starting to warm up.

‘Kain, I’m ordering you to drop the glass.’ She repeated.

The penance flared to life and Kain could no longer ignore the burning sensation, he immediately dropped the glass to the floor where it shattered into smaller pieces.

‘Now get back in the bed.’

The sizzling inside his skull forced Kain to take a few steps backward and slide under the bed sheets, though he still looked like he was about to attack at any second. His one eye was still jumping back and forth between the different people in the room but always they’d return to Celestia.

Unarmed, lying down. Not a combat ready position. At a disadvantage.

Greater folk, unarmed, powerful in magic, very dangerous.

The three men immediately went to restrain him but Celestias voice rang out again. ‘No! stand back.’

The three hesitantly obeyed and stepped back keeping a wary eye on Kain.

‘Kain answer me. Where are you?’ Celestia asked but ordered at the same time.

The adrenaline flowing through Kains’ brain made it difficult for him to think. It took a few seconds for him to digest the question and a few more for him to find a suitable answer.

‘Hospital.’ He said with a frown of thought on his face.  His eyes still moved rapidly but there was an uncertainty in them.

‘Why would you be in hospital?’ Celestia asked stepping closer, her voicing taking on a calming and reasoning tone.

Kains frown deepened as he thought harder ‘I was wounded. Needed medical attention.’

Celestia nodded and continued. ‘Now who are these people?’ she gestured at the rooms other occupants.

Kain glanced at them before returning his stare to Celestia ‘Healers.’

‘Why are they here?’

‘To heal… me…’ he then slumped back in the bed, normal reasoning returning to him.

This wasn’t combat, Xath wasn’t going to arrive at any moment. Kain had been wounded and needed help, someone had brought him here.  His mind exhausted all other possible lines of thought before it returned to being wounded. Slowly and painfully he ran through the things that had been done to him. Putting one hand to his face he touched the blemished skin that had grown over the space his eye had used to occupy, he didn’t need to check himself to know what other wounds he’d suffered.

Celestia stood by the bed watching him but made no move to reassure the man as a tear rolled out of his remaining eye. Kain didn’t make any move to rub the water away he just slumped back into the bed and chuckled to himself bitterly.

Another tear appeared and Kain wiped it away. ‘Freaking pussy.’ He muttered to himself still chuckling. ‘Damn it.’ His laughter stopped and he turned to face Celestia. ‘Who saved me?’

Celestia answered ‘Rarity and Rainbow. And Gilda.’

The man thought about that for a second ‘I might have expected that from Rainbow, but not that bloody horned folk.’

‘Well it’s because of that “Bloody horned folk” that your even here at all.’

Kain nodded but didn’t say anything.

‘Are you able to finish training the girls?’

Laughter came out of Kains lips but it sounded like a funeral procession ‘If it means seeing him dead then I’ll train the whole town.’

Celestia nodded. ‘I’ll return tonight when you’ve had time to think things through.’ She turned to the doctor ‘Explain the injuries to him and what they mean.’ Then she stood up and walked out the door.

The doctor bowed at the retreating princess and turned to Kain.

Picking up the clipboard hanging off the end of Kains bed the doctor said ‘Ok. There were multiple burns on your body mainly on the chest, stomach and back but there were several burns on your legs and a deep laceration to the left thigh. The most significant injuries were to your genitals and your left eye. We had a full circle of thirteen unicorns on staff to heal you but with burning like this there’s no avoiding permanent damage. You will be permanently blind in your left eye but there are…’

The doctors rambling faded into background noise as Kain shifted to stare out the window.

Damn you.

Gilda knocked on the front door to Carousel Boutique and waited for some response from inside. It took her about a minute before she remembered this was a shop and open for business.

Stepping inside to the sound of the bell on the door, and feeling like a home invader or something, Gilda examined the luxurious interior of the shop.

Classy place for classy rich pricks

Then she remembered that Rarity was the one who ran the shop and felt guilty about thinking so poorly about what was clearly a labour of love for the fashion obsessed horn folk.

Sitting at the counter was a young horned folk girl who looked really bored. When Gilda stepped through the door the girls eyes narrowed and she examined the gryphon shrewdly.

‘I remember you.’ She said to Gilda ‘You were the bully who made Fluttershy cry last year.’

Gilda coughed ‘Yeah… That might have been me.’ She shifted awkwardly and repositioned the duffle bag slung over her shoulder ‘Hey is Rarity around?’

Sweetie Bell ignored her question ‘You’re mean. Don’t tell me that you’re the one who’s going to be staying with us?’

Gilda didn’t like the kids tone and glared her response back at her ‘Yeah that’s me. What of it?’

The child shrank back under the glare ‘Nothing.’

‘Where’s Rarity at?’ Gilda asked a bit more forcefully than she may have needed to.

Sweetie answered quickly ‘She’s upstairs making a guest room for you.’

Feeling satisfied that Sweetie was appropriately demure in her response, Gilda headed up the stairs. The kid had a point though, what Gilda had done to Fluttershy was pretty mean and she had to make an effort to try and get along with these people now. Deciding to make a point of apologising to the timid winged folk, Gilda was thankful that Dash hadn’t heard about that particular event or she doubted that the brash weather folk would have even listened to her at the night club.

The griffon heard the sound of humming and followed it to its source. A door let her into a room that she presumed was to be her guest bedroom. It was a nice bedroom and Gilda enjoyed the thought of sleeping in a nice bed for once but what truly caught her attention was the sight of Rarity in all her beautiful glory standing in the middle of a cloud of bed sheets pillows and garments all floating around her.

Damn…

Rarity was dressed casually in a white summer dress but the way it was cut, it hugged her perfectly and revealed absolutely nothing while sending the imagination into over drive. Her perfect figure was silhouetted by the glow of the magic that surrounded her and her brunette hair cascaded around her shoulders and sparkled in the sunlight streaming through the window. The song she was humming was catchy and light hearted and she would occasionally sing a few lines revealing a very nice singing voice.

I want that voice screaming my name.

Back turned to Gilda she hadn’t noticed the griffon walk in and Gilda was glad about that. The chaotic mess of objects in the air all coalesced and floated around the room to their rightful spots. The sheets and pillows created a perfectly made bed and the sideboard was lined with a variety of hair brushes and hair products, though Gilda wondered what the hell she was supposed to do with a hairbrush and a head of feathers.

Satisfied with her work Rarity turned around and gasped in shock seeing the griffon standing there watching her. ‘Oh!’ She put a hand to her chest. ‘I thought I was alone. I told Sweetie to let me know when you arrived.’

Gilda shrugged ‘Well she didn’t do that.’ she was enjoying the shocked reaction Rarity gave but made no sign that she cared at all. ‘So this is where I’m sleeping?’

Rarity nodded ‘Yes. I’m sorry it’s a bit of a mess but I only put it together at the last minute.’

This is short notice? What would it be like with preparation?

Nodding casually Gilda took a step towards the bed and said ‘Where do I dump my stuff?’

A beautiful Smile lit up Raritys face and she indicated the cupboard and drawers. ‘Well you may be staying with us for a while so feel free to unpack it into the cupboards as you see fit.’

Gilda tried not to but she couldn’t help but grin in response to that dazzling curve of perfect red lips and shining white teeth. ‘Thanks. I’ll do that.’

Whatever, every now and then you have to let people know that you’re glad they’re around.

They stood there smiling at each other awkwardly for a second before Rarity said ‘Well… I’ll just leave you to unpack.’ And walked out the door and headed downstairs.

Dropping the dufflebag onto the bed, and instantly ruining the work Rarity had done to make it so perfectly, the griffon unzipped the top and started to unpack her few possessions. The duffel bag and what she was wearing represented all of Gildas' possession in the world. It didn’t take long for Gilda to unpack what little there was. A weeks’ worth of clothes that all carried the themes of worn and travel stained, but at least they were clean at the moment. Some thin cords that Gilda used as a snare when she went hunting rabbits or some other small creature, a few jars of disinfectant that she made herself for cleaning wounds, a couple of knives that were used to skin and clean foods, a battered metal pot and a few tins of processed meat that specialist retailers sold to carnivores or as she liked to call it; slop crap.

Gilda looked at herself in the mirror and realised that she was wearing the same clothes she’d been wearing since the morning Xath had attacked. Thinking about how badly she must smell Gilda grabbed a change of clothes and headed down stairs.

‘Hey Rarity!’ she called out.

The elder horned folk poked her head out a door ‘Yes?’

Gilda stopped halfway down the stairs ‘Mind if I take shower? I haven’t gotten a chance since yesterday so I must smell like shit.’

Rarity cringed. ‘Fine but please remember that we share this space with my little sister and I’d appreciate it if you watched your language with her around.’

Realising that she’d cursed, Gilda thought to herself that the high class folk must have an aversion to such language ‘Oh shit, I’m sorry.’ Gilda cringed right after she finished that sentence and put a hand to her mouth.

Rarity merely raised an eyebrow at her.

Gilda chuckled sheepishly ‘Um… Sorry. I’ll try not to.’

Rarity nodded and returned to what she’d been doing.

Gilda headed upstairs and into the bathroom. When she saw the shower she smiled to herself. Eagerly digging off her clothes she threw herself under the shower head the moment her skin was bare. Turning the hot water on she received a blast of cold but after a few seconds the water started to heat up and Gilda turned the cold water up to match it. This was it. This was the single greatest achievement of civilisation.

Hot. Fucking. Water!

Gilda almost moaned with pleasure at the warm water cascading down her toned body. It had been so long since she’d had a shower. Bathing yourself in a river was invigorating sure, but it was never going to match the sheer comfort and joy of a hot shower.

I could go the rest of my life on only dog chow and not a taste of fresh meat if it meant a hot shower every night.

Celestia observed Kain from the door for a few seconds before entering. The man looked bored and really not at all like he’d just suffered through a traumatic experience or like he’d nearly killed an innocent just a few hours earlier. Turning towards the sound of footsteps he observed her as she approached him.

‘Boss lady.’ Kain nodded at her.

Celestia sat down in the chair next to his bed.

‘What did you want to talk about?’ he asked her.

Celestia considered for a second. ‘Did you make any observations about Xath while he had you captured?’

Kain barked out a laugh ‘You know, the more time I spend with you the more I realise this whole benevolent loving queen persona that you’ve got the whole world believing is just an act. You’re a real cold one aren’t you? This’ he pointed at his eye ‘was done to me just last night and you’re asking me to relive the experience?’

Celestia gave him a flat look ‘I know you’ve already gone over it yourself so don’t pretend that I’m the cause. Tell me, that’s an order.’

Kain sat back in his bed and thought about it. ‘Honestly our chances are better than I thought they were. Xath is clearly insane, he has at least three different personality living inside his head. More than that, they don’t always get along. That means he’s unstable so there’s a chance we can turn him against himself.’

‘When I fought him he was sloppy. I was always the better fighter but he was far from a bad one.  But yesterday he’d been genuinely terrible. I don’t think he’s been keeping up with his practice. I think he’s let himself go because of his superhuman nature. He was always disciplined but now I think the personalities are letting themselves get overconfident.’

‘Also I’m surprisingly pleased by the six girls. Twilight’s the only one I would consider genuinely bad or not worth training under normal circumstances, but even then she has the sheer magical power to back it up.

‘Pinkie Pie and Rarity are pretty mediocre to be sure but I’ve seen Rarity working with magic and I’ve known few horned folk who could manage so many complicate telekinetic actions at once while still maintaining so much dexterity with each individual action. Heh, I can only imagine how many swords she could keep in the air at a time… And Pinkie while she’s not great, she is still highly unusual and unusual in a good way, a dangerous way.’

‘Fluttershy is surprisingly good overall, she could become a blademaster with time and effort, although she’s not quite aggressive enough, still a good edition though and under normal circumstances I’d be happy to train her.

‘Rainbow Dash is great, with just a bit more discipline she could easily become a blademaster, she has a problem with getting carried away and overextending herself but that can be fixed. She’s also insanely fast, which is a big help and she has a natural aggression none of the others really possess. And lastly we have Applejack. Does she have a cutie mark?’

Celestia nodded ‘Yes. In farming.’

‘Huh… Sure it’s in farming? Cause that girl’s a freaking prodigy with a blade.’ His voice took on an enthusiastic tone as he spoke. ‘She has more raw talent than I ever had and not blowing my own trumpet or anything but that’s a big statement. I was considered one of the five best swordsmen around. I would love to see her continue training after the three months have ended. She could be a blade master in half a year. I never have to show her anything twice and she’s disciplined and focused. Normally when you’re talking about larger swordsmen all the strength advantage they have is often undermined by the fact that their idiots but not so with Applejack. She’s in the moment constantly and reacting appropriately instantly but she still has foresight and planning. I see it when she fights any of the others or even me. Every move she makes is part of a larger strategy as she draws you to where she wants you to be, where she has the advantage. That is a talent that you only pick up after months with the sword and she has it after only a few days. It’s hard to explain the details to someone who’s not also a swordsman, but she has insane potential and I would love to have her as my full time apprentice.’

‘In the end the six of them could become very dangerous with a year or twos training. I think we actually have a good chance of beating Xath at the end of these three months.’

Celestia nodded, she was glad to hear their chances had improved, but she was more than a little concerned about how easily some of the girls were picking up these skills. Celestia had worked long and hard over the past thousand years not just to end war, but the means of conducting it, and that had included the martial arts. Even her guardsmen had limited training; just enough to overcome the average folk should they cause trouble. And here was Kain excitedly talking about how easy it would be to convert the elements of harmony into a well-disciplined killing machine.

Damn Xath and Damn Kain. I will not allow that knowledge to return to the world even if I must use it for now.

‘That reminds me.’ Kain spoke ‘We’re going to have to move the girls out of Ponyville. Xath now knows who they are and he’ll come after them.’

Celestia waver her hand ‘That won’t be a problem. Xath won’t be returning to Ponyville for at least two months.’

Kain examined her for a second. ‘Why?’

Celestia ‘That’s none of your concern.’

Kain considered her for a second. ‘You used the pact didn’t you? Somehow you figured out how to use it properly. What did you do?’

Celestia narrowed her eyes at Kain ‘I did what I had to and that’s all you’ll ever know. Do not bring this up again with me or anyone else. If anyone asks you simply say that the princess took care of it.’

Kain glared at her but Celestia knew the penance would force him to comply with her wishes. ‘Xath was trying to get the location of the pact out of me. I hope you know how dangerous it could be if he got his hands on it.’

Celestia ignored him ‘One last thing. You’ll have a new student.’

Kain seemed angry now ‘What?! Why, who is it?’

‘Gilda, the Griffon.’ Celestia stood up ‘I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at what she has to offer.’ And with that she turned and walked out the door.

Kain shouted after her ‘I don’t get enough one on one with them as it is and you want to throw in another?’

Celestia ignored him and kept on walking.

Fluttershy sat on the couch in her living room and fought back the urge to start crying. For the past hour since she’d gotten home all she could do was relive the horrible memory of yesterday again and again. No matter how she tried she couldn’t stop hearing the sound of Applejacks’ arm breaking and the screaming that followed it.

But worse, much worse, was the memory of how Applejack had been sobbing and trying to stand back up and all Fluttershy had done was watch. Yes, she’d been stunned and in pain at the time but she couldn’t remember the last time she’d reacted so poorly when a friend was in danger.

And the worst part, the absolute worst part was that Applejack had been trying to save Fluttershy when it had happened. Poor helpless Fluttershy had been the reason that her friend was hurt. If Twilight hadn’t been there Fluttershy didn’t know what they would’ve done.

Now all she could do was sit here and not cry, because crying would make her feel better and she didn’t want to feel better. The guilt was deserved and she had no place trying to feel otherwise.

Just then a knock sounded at the door and startled Fluttershy. Standing cautiously Fluttershy approached the door and peeked through the peephole. Outside was Gilda who, as Fluttershy watched, shrugged her shoulders and turned away.

Fluttershy opened the door and Gilda turned around at the sound.

‘Hey. I came by because I- woah!’ Gilda broke off when she saw Fluttershys’ face.

Fluttershy guessed that some of her internal emotions must be readable on her face.

Blinking in surprise Gilda continued like nothing was wrong ‘Umm… Anyway. I heard that you sometimes take in wounded carnivores, and well I was wondering how you fed them… Because, you know, I’m a carnivore and there isn’t anyone around here that sells meat. So I was wondering if I could like, buy from where you’re buying from or something.’

Considering her request for a second Fluttershy nodded and stepped back to allow Gilda to come inside. Gilda looked confused for a second before shrugging her shoulders and stepping through the door. Fluttershy led her through her house to a small room were Rarity had a desk and a light set up. There was a lot of paperwork involved in any kind of medical work and wounded animals were no exception. This room was set up purely for this reason. Reaching over a bundle of paperwork Fluttershy found the business card for a company that provided supplies for vets. Applejack also bought cans of dog food for Winona through them. Fluttershy handed the card to Gilda who took it and wrinkled her nose in disgust at it.

Handing it back to the winged folk the griffon said ‘Yeah… no thanks. I’m a step or two above eating dog food. I’ll just have to get my hunting license renewed or something.’

Fluttershy felt disgusted that a sentient creature would go hunting rather than face an alternative which meant she wouldn’t directly harm living creatures. Dropping the card on the table, Fluttershy walked to the front door and Gilda followed her.

The griffon spoke to Fluttershys back ‘I sorta have another reason to be here as well. I remember when I was in town last year I sort of roared at you and made you cry. I just thought I should say that, you know, that wasn’t cool and I was out of line and you know, I’m sorry and stuff…’

Fluttershy didn’t buy that for a second. It was obvious Gilda was just saying that to try and get closer to Dash. Stopping at the front door Fluttershy waved a hand at Gilda indicating she should leave.

Gilda stopped at the door and turned to Fluttershy ‘So… Are we cool?’

Fluttershy decided on something right then. No she was not going to be helpless anymore, and that meant starting right here, right now.

‘No we are not “cool”.’ Fluttershy rounded on Gilda who looked shocked ‘You’re only saying sorry to me because Rainbow Dash is making you. If you were actually sorry I would be willing to forgive you but at the moment your nothing but a bully! A bully who’s just trying to get closer to Dash so you can just screw up and hurt her again. I’m not going to help you do that!’ she shouted at Gilda her voice cracking as she finished.

Gilda blinked in surprise. ‘Dude… Rainbow doesn’t even know about this. If she did know about me making you cry she’d probably have tried to kill me.’

Fluttershy felt something inside herself snap. In her first real effort to stand up for herself she’d lashed out at someone with genuinely good intentions. It was all too much; the overwhelming guilt she’d felt earlier combined with the new horror she had with herself for shouting at the innocent Gilda combined to create a crushing despair. At that moment she did the one thing she could do.

Choking out sobs Fluttershy fell to the ground and started to cry heavily.

The griffon could only stare at her for a few seconds before she realised that this was for real. ‘Oh-uh-shit… Umm… It’s not that bad uh… Come on get up, let’s go inside.’

Gilda put her hand around Fluttershys arm and dragged the girl to her feet. Fluttershy barely supported her own weight so Gilda pretty much had to carry her inside before setting her down on the couch. Once Fluttershy was seated Gilda straightened up, she was still unsure what to do. In the end she settled for resting a hand on the sobbing folks shoulder while kneeling down to look her in the eyes.

‘Yeah uh… Dude it’s not like that. You don’t have to feel bad about what you said to me. I would’ve thought the same thing if I were you.’ Gilda shuffled her feet awkwardly. ‘Listen. I’m really shit at this heart to heart and emotions stuff but you really don’t need to feel bad. I only really apologised to you because well… I’m going to be joining you in Kains’ lessons and I didn’t want there to be anything between us cause we’re going to have to work together and stuff. I admit that I’m really not that sorry about shouting at you. Yeah I was being a douche, but I totally expected you to get angry at me rather than running off and crying. But that doesn’t change the fact we do have to try and get along. So really, you’re not in the wrong here and I uhhhh… sort of am. So you shouldn’t feel guilty and I should but I don’t. So umm… Please stop crying because now I’m actually starting to feel bad and-’

‘What the hell is going on here?’ a heavily accented voice shouted from the open door.

Gilda jerked to her feet like she’d been burned. This only made her look guilty.

Applejack strode into the room angrily ‘What did you do to her?’ she waved a hand at Fluttershy.

Gilda spoke out ‘No dude it’s not like that. I came over to speak to her about meat but she only had dog food and then I said sorry, she shouted and I said she was wrong and then she started crying and  then I tried to make her stop and I swear that’s it.’

Applejack blinked at the griffon. ‘Sugar, I’m pretty sure that story made sense to you but I’m not sure what you’re trying to say to me.’

Gilda sighed in frustration ‘Look. I’m pretty sure it’s not my fault she’s crying. She seemed pretty fucked when I got here and she’s just hit her limit or something when she shouted at me.’

Applejack blinked again. ‘Fluttershy shouting?’ she turned to Fluttershy and kneeled in front of her ‘What’s wrong sugar?’ The earth folk asked gently and placed her hand on the sobbing sky folks shoulder.

Staring into Applejacks eyes Fluttershy threw herself into her friends arms. ‘I’m so sorry. I’m sorry. Oh it’s my all fault.’

‘What’s all yer fault?’ Applejack gently repeated and wrapped Fluttershy into a deep hug.

‘Your arm and what happened to you and everything!’ after that everything Fluttershy said was incomprehensible between sobs and deep breaths.

Applejack looked over to Gilda ‘Ah think ya better go.’

Gilda nodded and headed out the front door, closing it behind herself.

Appleack refocussed her attention on the folk in her arms ‘Flutters, it ain’t cher fault. It ain’t no-ones fault other than Xath himself.’

Fluttershy shook her head ‘But if you hadn’t tried to save me then you wouldn’t have had your arm broken.’

Applejack spoke sternly ‘Listen sugar. What ah did was dumb, charging in shouting like an idiot. Ah’m just lucky that Celestia decided it was important enough to call in the horned doctors or my arm would still be broken. Ah don’t blame you for that and you shouldn’t neither. And ah know Rarity ain’t mad.’ Her tone become more light hearted ‘Now rub your eyes clear and stop thinking you’re so special that everything ah do happens cause a you.’

Fluttershy giggled at that through her tears.

‘Come on girl.’ Applejack stood up and pulled Fluttershy up with her. ‘Let’s talk this out. I’ll be here for as long as you need me.’

Gilda sighed with relief the moment that door closed. How the hell were you supposed to deal with something like that? Shaking her head she started down the path leading back towards the centre of town.

What the fuck? What was wrong with her? How can anyone just break down like that in front of a stranger?

All she could think was she was so glad that Applejack had shown up when she did.

Kain came out of the bathroom dressed in his usual attire. The doctors had cleared him to leave and he’d immediately gotten up to change out of the paper thin gown that had been forced on him. When he’d changed he’d checked his wounds and couldn’t help but remember how each of them was made. All he kept thinking that he was glad that he wouldn’t need to be put on hormone replacement therapy. Though he’d never sleep with another woman in this lifetime.

Stopping at the bed he noticed the eyepatch lying on his pillow. Next to it was a note.

Picking up the note and flipping it open, it simply read: ‘Put it on.’ it was signed by princess Celestia. Seething at taking orders from her even when she wasn’t in the room Kain slid the eye patch on. Vision suddenly returned to his left eye. It was blurry and he couldn’t focus it but Kain decided that the magical eye patch was a superior alternative to complete blindness.

Returning to the bathroom and checking himself in the now repaired mirror Kain stared at his new reflection. The eyepatch covered most of his scarring but blemished skin still showed around the edges. Raising his hand Kain touched his reflection.

‘I’ll end you.’ He promised Xath. ‘No matter what it takes, you will die.’

Chapter 11. A bad freaking day

Chapter 11 Hi everyone, I changed the ending of this chapter because I thought of a much better scene to be used in later chapters. For those of you who already read Gilda's backstory then try to forget it because I might be change it between now and then.

Sorry to be a douche and edit it like that but I was really unsatisfied with the way Gilda's big emotional reveal wasn't all that big or emotional.

Not limping at all, Gilda confidently strode out of the evening air and through the doors of Carousel Boutique. Ok maybe she limped a little. Mind you, anyone would be limping after having Applejack slam a wooden sword against their leg, hell; few people would still be standing without support.

‘Are you sure you don’t need help?’ Rarity asked concern in her voice.

And maybe Gilda wasn’t striding as much as she was just refusing to admit that her right leg should be taking shorter steps than the other and maybe it should be taking less weight as well.

‘I’m fine.’ Gilda snapped back at Rarity.

No Gilda absolutely did not need anyone’s help climbing up the stairs to the bathroom. About halfway up the stairs the muscles in her legs cramped up and she fell forwards and barely caught herself on the railing.

‘Oh!’ Rarity gasped running up the stairs to aid Gilda.

Rapidly climbing back to her feat Gilda pulled herself up placing most of her weight back on her left leg. Coming to a halt behind the griffon Rarity put a supportive shoulder underneath the Griffons arm.

‘I don’t want your fucking help!’ Gilda shouted and stumble jumped away from Rarity. Seeing the hurt look on Rarity’s face Gilda sighed and lowered her head. ‘I’m sorry but… I Just… ergh…’ Gilda turned and continued up the stairs.

Rarity followed her at a distance concern painted on her face, staying just close enough to help in case Gilda stumbled again. Arriving at the bathroom door Gilda turned back to Rarity.

‘I know you’re trying to help, but just… give me a minute.’ And with that the griffon turned around and limped through the bathroom door closing it behind her.

Sighing and leaning back against the door Gilda let herself sink to the tiled floor and basked in the relief of taking the weight off her bad leg. Burying her head in her hands Gilda went over the events of the day in her mind.

To think today had started so well.

Flipping through the morning paper, Rarity delicately placed a square of whole grain toast in her mouth and chewed a small piece off before returning the rest of the toast to a plate. Heavy footsteps alerted her to the presence of Gilda.

‘Hey Rarity?’ the griffon asked.

Looking up and removing her reading glasses Rarity answered ‘yes?’

Gilda held up a tin ‘There anywhere I can heat this up?’

Nodding Rarity answered ‘Yes, you can use the kitchen stove.’

Gilda nodded and turned away while Rarity returned to her reading. A moment later Sweetie Bell came rushing into the room.

‘Morning Rarity!’ she said cheerfully.

‘Morning Sweetie.’ Rarity answered while distractedly turning the page.

Rushing to her sisters’ side Sweetie asked ‘Did Derpy drop off the mail?’

Rarity nodded absently ‘yes.’

Sweetie stood next to her sister waiting for her to continue; when no more information was forth coming she nudged Raritys’ shoulder with her hand.

Sighing and looking up from the paper, Rarity took off her reading glasses. ‘Yes?’

‘Was there anything for me?’ Sweetie asked.

Turning to the right, Rarity picked up three letters from a counter with her telekinesis and floated them over to herself. Rarity caught them out of the air and handed them to Sweetie.

‘One of them was sent from Applebloom, the other two are for Gilda.’ She said before returning the, glasses to her face and turning her attention back upon the newspaper.

As distracted as she was Rarity failed to notice her younger sister taking all three of the letters.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Gilda came back in carrying a steaming bowl of tinned meat. Sitting across from Rarity, Gilda began to eat. The elder sister couldn’t help but notice the awful smell of the food. Looking up, Rarity watched as Gilda blew on a warm spoonful of gruel.

Noticing her audience Gilda smiled at Rarity ‘It tastes about as nice as it looks... Or smells.’

Rarity wrinkled her nose in disgust.

It must indeed taste awful.

Gilda took another mouthful before she continued speaking ‘My dad always used to joke about how he joined the guard for the fine dining.’ Chuckling Gilda kept eating.

Rarity blinked. That sounded like it was supposed to be some kind of joke. ‘I don’t understand.’

Pausing Gilda turned to Rarity and seemed to be deciding whether Rarity was making fun of her or not. ‘This canned junk is the only meat that retailers will stock and believe me, there’s no way you can get it fresh without a hunting license or an illegal session in the woods. So for a law abiding Griffon without a license, all their meals taste like cra… they taste bad. But in the guard, all soldiers are given their food prepared, so if a griffon joins they’re put on a special diet, and they can get fresh meat every now and then. So for most griffons, military rations literally taste nicer than a home cooked meal, which is ironic, cause you know, army food’s notorious for being cra… Terrible.’

Rarity nodded in understanding and smiled politely. It was kind of ironic when you thought about it and under different circumstances it may have been a funny joke, but no joke is funny if you have to explain it. Rarity returned to her newspaper and Gilda resumed eating in silence.

Sweetie spoke up breaking the silence ‘Hey Gilda?’

Turning to face the child, Gilda swallowed the food she had in her mouth. ‘What?’ she asked impatiently.

‘Why have you got a letter from Celestia?’ Sweetie asked innocently, holding the opened letter out to Gilda.

Gilda snatched it out of her hands and glanced over it quickly. ‘A better question’ she said looking up and fixing a glare on Sweetie ‘is why the hell where you reading it?’

Rarity heard this and looked up ‘Gilda!’ she snapped.

Gilda turned back to Rarity ‘you’re right, language, sorry.’ Before turning back to Sweetie ‘That other one for me too?’

Sweetie nodded cautiously. Gilda held out a hand and waited for Sweetie to give her the letter, glaring all the while. Hesitantly Sweetie placed the letter in Gildas’ hand, snatching her hand back suddenly, Gilda made Sweetie flinch.

Rarity watched this exchange with concern and decided to speak up ‘Sweetie you know better than to read other peoples mail. Now go to your room and get ready for school.’

Sweetie nodded enthusiastically and bolted to her bedroom and Rarity returned her attention to the Griffon who was now eating calmly.

Noticing that she had an audience again, Gilda hesitantly stopped, spoon halfway to her mouth. ‘What?’

Putting down the paper and taking off her glasses Rarity focussed her attention on Gilda. ‘What was that about?’

Blinking Gilda answered ‘What was what about?’

‘That, with Sweetie, just then.’

Gilda shrugged ‘She shouldn’t have been reading my mail. Besides it’s not like I did anything.’

Rarity nodded but continued to stare at Gilda.

But you made her think you were going to do something. I thought you were going to do something.

‘What was your family like?’ Rarity asked.

‘What?’

‘Tell me about your family.’ Rarity said pleasantly, like she was just making conversation.

‘Oh… well… There isn’t much to tell’ Gilda shrugged in a manner Rarity knew was deliberate. ‘I had two parents and a younger brother, standard family I guess.’

Rarity nodded but pressed on; there was something here that Gilda was swaggering casually about.  ‘Oh I’m sure it’s more interesting than that. You mentioned that your father was in the guard.’

Gilda shook her head ‘No he was retired when I was born. That or they kicked him out; he was never clear on the details.’

Rarity continued along this line of questioning ‘So he was a military sort of man?’

‘Yeah, he was a real old school griffon, warrior pride and all that.’ Gilda stood, up her food finished, ‘I’ll just go drop these in the sink.’ She said raising her spoon and now empty bowl.

Now she’s running, there is definitely something she doesn’t want to talk about.

Standing up Rarity followed the griffon into the kitchen. ‘How about your mother?’ asking as though she was just heading in the same direction. If Gilda was threatening Sweetie then Rarity was going to find out why.

‘Um… She was way less strict then my dad. Wasn’t too worried about what we did.’ Gilda shrugged.

Again that shrug. Has it ever worked on anyone?

‘Did you get along well with your parents?’ Rarity asked.

Gilda gave Rarity an “are you stupid? Can’t you take a hint? Leave me alone please.” look. ‘I got along with them just fine.’

Ignoring the subtext of what was said Rarity pressed on ‘Tell me about your younger brother. How did you get along with him?’

Gilda scratched the back of her neck and looked at the ground ‘Um… Not so well, he was a bit of wuss so… Hey! I forgot to read my mail!’ and with that the griffon left the kitchen and returned to the dining room.

Now she’s changing topic, there is definitely some family history going on here.

Following Gilda into the lounge room Rarity watched as the griffon tore open her second letter. A look of confusion gave way to happiness as Gilda read its contents. Pulling a rectangular piece of plastic out of the envelope, the griffon put the card in her pocket and grinned. Then looking at the first letter, the one that Sweetie read, her face darkened as she read it, when she was done Gilda crinkled up the letter and shoved it in her pocket.

‘Bad news?’ Rarity asked.

‘No… Not really, just… There’s a package for me at the post office that I better get.’

Rarity blinked in surprise ‘Isn’t it a little soon for you to be ordering packages to this address, or getting mail for that matter?’

‘Yeah it is, isn’t it?’ Gilda said absently while pulling on her brown leather jacket.  ‘I’ll be back in like ten minutes.’

Rarity nodded absently as she watched the griffon leave.

What’s she hiding?

Pulling herself back to her feet and off the tiled floor, Gilda limped over to the bathroom mirror.

Ok maybe this morning hadn’t been that great. Why was Rarity asking all those bloody questions?

But good things had happened that morning. For one thing waking up in a nice bed, plus getting a providers hunting license in the mail was pretty awesome, and she hadn’t even had to fill out any paperwork. A providers license translated to pretty much all the meat Gilda could hunt, yeah there was technically a bag limit, but there was no way Gilda would be able to work through an entire families monthly meat supply. Mind you the licenses’ awesomeness had been dampened a little by the letter from Celestia that accompanied it.

I’m not your fucking agent!

Gilda put her hands over her eyes and started to feel overwhelmed again.

How the hell did I get caught up in this mess?

Reaching into her pocket Gilda retrieved the scrunched up letter from Celestia, just reading it made Gilda want to put her fist through something.

“Gilda, working for me always comes with certain benefits, this hunting license is just the start. Please me and I can promise you, that you’ll be rewarded. Please me greatly and you’ll be surprised to find out the sky is far from the limit. Disappoint me and the trust I’ve placed in you, and a truly memorable cell will be reserved for you in Tartarus.”

The letter then went on in more detail to explain what Gilda was supposed to do in relation to her new job as Celestia’s “agent” in Ponyville. Some of it was downright frightening; for example what was expected of her if Xath arrived again or if Kain tried to hurt an element. Scrunching up the letter and dropping in the sink, Gilda turned on the water and reduced the paper to a sodden white pulp.

I just wanted to be friends with Dash again! Not end up with a fucking prison sentence hanging over my head or be personal agent to a fucking monarch!

Gilda unzipped her Jacket and dropped it on the floor, she was about to take off her travel worn white shirt when she noticed a new brown stain covering her collar. Stopping to examine it, Gilda recalled the memory of the events of that morning. That hadn’t been so bad either. A little annoying perhaps, but kinda nice in a weird way.

Normally she’d be skipping through the centre of town, but these weren’t normal circumstance at all. No today was one of those once in a blue moon days, were instead of joyously skipping everywhere she went, Pinkie trudged through town dejectedly.

Since the afternoon that Xath had arrived Pinkie just hadn’t been feeling herself. Her smiles just seemed so… limp after that. Like she didn’t actually feel happy but was instead she was smiling because that’s what she was supposed to do; Birds fly, fish swim and Pinkie smiles. Today though it seemed that fish were flying and birds were swimming because Pinkie was definitely not smiling.

The Cakes had been so concerned that they told her to take the morning off. Everyone else she’d met had avoided her the moment they saw her face. Hands in her pockets and staring at her feet she barely noticed it when she accidently found herself standing outside the post office. It was a good thing she was there because at that moment Gilda came out of the post office with a package under her shoulder.

‘Weird fucking way of overcharging.’ the griffon muttered under her breath.

Looking up Pinkie noticed Gilda.

Oh… it’s her.

Normally Pinkie would be happy to see petty much anyone but today all she saw was the bully, Pinkie was just in that kind of a mood. All Pinkie could think about right now was how mean Gilda was and how much she was going to make fun of Pinkie for crying. Turning around Pinkie started to walk away.

That must have alerted Gilda to Pinkies presence or something because the griffon looked up.

‘Oh, hey dude what’s up?’ Gilda asked approaching Pinkie. Then she saw Pinkies face ‘Oh… Shit! Not again...’

Looking around for some reason Gilda sighed and said ‘Fuck…’

Grabbing Pinkies arm, Gilda dragged her towards an outdoor café. Stopping at an empty table for two, Gilda pulled out a chair and dropped Pinkie in it before pulling out a seat and dropping into it herself.

Dropping the package onto the ground next to herself, Gilda leaned back into her chair and glanced over at Pinkie. ‘Fuck you Celestia.’ she muttered before leaning forwards to speak to Pinkie directly ‘What’s up?’

Pinkie just watched Gilda feeling confused.

What does she want?

Watching Pinkie for a reaction, Gilda leaned back into her chair ‘Come on dude, don’t make this hard on me. What’s got you sad?’

Pinkie blinked.

Is she trying to make me feel better?

The awkward silence was painful as the two merely stared at eachother.

‘Ahem.’ A polite cough came from their left.  A waiter stood there ‘your orders please.’

‘We’ll order in a minute.’ Gilda said to him.

The waiter nodded and walked away as Gilda turned her attention back to Pinkie ‘Come on, what’s the problem?’

Painfully awkward silence returned as Pinkie continued to refuse to talk.

‘Hey Pinks.’ Another voice interrupted and Pinkie turned around and spotted Vinyl standing there, a cup of coffee in hand and trade mark sunglasses and grin firmly in place.

Strolling over and pulling up another seat Vinyl sat down ‘I noticed you two lovers lost in each other’s eyes and though I better kill the moment.’

Gilda looked at Vinyl relief flooding her voice. ‘Are you Pinkies’ friend?’

Noticing the sombre mood at the table Vinyls grin faltered ‘Yeah I guess so.’ Glancing at Pinkie she continued ‘Did somebody die or something?’

‘I don’t know’ Gilda said turning back to Pinkie ‘She’s sad and I can’t figure out why.’

Examining Pinkie critically, Vinyl appeared deep in thought. Leaning forward Vinyl snapped her fingers in front of Pinkies face. Eliciting no reaction from Pinkie Vinyl leaned back and sipped her coffee. ‘Dude you broke her.’

Gilda blinked ‘What?’

‘You broke Pinkie. What did you do?’

‘That’s it? “Your broker her”?’ Gilda asked sounding angry ‘That’s all you’ve got to say? Some fucking friend you are!’

Vinyl shrugged ‘What about you?’

‘What about me?’

‘Aren’t you her girl friend or something?’

Gilda sighed in frustration.

Just then the waiter appeared once more ‘Excuse me ma’am, your order please.’

‘Fuck off!’ Gilda snarled.

The waiter bowed away again.

Turning back to Pinkie, Gilda took a moment to collect herself. ‘Pinkie, we’re… friend’s right?’

Taking a moment to consider the question Pinkie hesitantly nodded.

Gilda continued that chain of thought ‘So... that means I’m supposed to make you feel better when shit happens right?’

Pinkie nodded again.

‘So… by refusing to tell me the problem you’re making me a bad friend. Cause, then I can’t help you.’

Pinkie nodded ‘We wouldn’t want you to be a bad friend now, would we?’ she murmured.

Gilda smiled and leaned back. ‘That’s right. Help me out and tell me what’s wrong.’

Pinkie nodded and smiled.

Just then the Waiter reappeared ‘Excuse me ma’am but can I take your order please.’

Rounding on the Waiter the griffon shouted ‘GO  THE  FUCK AWAY!’

Bowing out once more the waiter left them alone.

Looking back at Pinkie, Gilda asked ‘What’s the problem?’ much more calmly.

Pinkie thought about it. ‘I’ve just been feeling down since Xath.’

Gilda leaned back looking relieved ‘Oh… That’s all it is.’

‘That’s all?’ Pinkie said ‘We almost die and “that’s all”?’ she started to feel angry. Here she’d thought Gilda might actually care about her and when she explained the problem the griffon said “that’s all?”.

Gilda blinked ‘No not what I meant. I mean, I’m just real shit with dealing with emotions and stuff so I was worried it might be like, a problem with family or relationships or something that I wouldn’t be able to help with. Nah it’s perfectly normal for you to feel down after something like Xath.’

‘What’s a Xath?’ Vinyl asked sipping her coffee.

Gilda looked at Vinyl and said ‘I think you better go.’

Vinyl shrugged and stood up just as the waiter reappeared.

‘Excuse me ma’am but if you’re not going to order anything then I’m going to have to-’

‘Finish that sentence I fucking dare you!’ Gilda shouted standing up and coming face to face with the waiter ‘Passive aggressively approach this table one more time and I’ll crack your mother fucking skull open!’

The waiter stumbled back in shock and accidentally knocked the coffee out of Vinyls hand. The coffee sailed through the air and landed perfectly on Gilda’s face. The coffee rained down and soaked into her shirt, staining it brown. Silence descended on the four only to be broken by Vinyl laughing.

Gildas’ jaw tightened as she wiped the coffee out of her eyes, her eyes narrowed and the feathers on her head stood up as she stared at the waiter. The waiter gulped nervously as Gilda walked closer to him.

Leaning in real close to his face, Gilda said in a very low, very threatening growl ‘Get. The fuck. Out of here.’

The Waiter then turned and bolted like his life depended on it and as far as Pinkie could tell, it may have.

Turning back to the table Gilda glared at the still chuckling DJ. ‘What’s so fucking funny?’

‘You got coffee on your face.’ Vinyl snorted, completely failing to take the hint.

Sitting down again Gilda turned on Pinkie ‘Dude, after shit like that, feeling down is perfectly fucking normal. After the adrenaline wears off your left feeling pretty shit and most people perk back up after about a day, but you’re not used to feeling so bad so it’s going take a bit longer for you than most people. Add to that, that your friends almost died and you got a bloody legit reason for being depressed.’

Vinyl sat down at the table ‘Wait… Almost died? Seriously what the hell happened?’

Gilda fixed her glare back on the DJ before returning it to Pinkie ‘This is one of those things that usually just goes away on its own, but in your case I’d say it may be a bit more of a problem. What I suggest is you just take the day off and go find yourself something to feel good about. Alright? I’ve been there and I promise that if you try to feel better eventually you will.’ Standing up and dragging Pinkie with her Gilda picked up her package. ‘Come on, let’s go find something fun.’

Pinkie then couldn’t help but see Gilda in a new light. Normally Pinkie was an affectionate person, used to giving and receiving happiness from those around her and now Pinkie remembered why she was always so bouncy and friendly. Really Gilda hadn’t handled this very well at all; she’d gotten angry and frustrated and approached the situation like it was some kind of job. But the fact was she’d taken the time to help Pinkie for no reason other than concern for Pinkies wellbeing and more importantly she was willing to do what it took to make Pinkie smile again.

It was all the pink haired earth folk could do; she jumped at Gilda and wrapped her in a big hug. The griffons’ initial reaction was to try and push her off, but Pinkie determinedly clung on.

After a moment Gilda sighed ‘Whatever’ and wrapped her free arm around Pinkie.

Vinyl sniggered ‘That’s so lame.’

Gilda turned to her ‘Who the fuck are you anyway?’

Sighing Gilda began to peel the stained shirt off.

I don’t like hugs! But… That was kinda nice.

Gilda took the time to examine her reflection in the mirror. There were marks all over her skin, some of which were already darkening into bruises.

That training session was fucking awful. It wasn’t even a training session it was a bloody beat down!

Sighing and turning away from the mirror Gilda gingerly took off her pants, careful not to put any unnecessary pressure on her wounded leg. Hissing as she gently examined the thick black bruise underneath her skin, Gilda carefully stood up and limped under the shower. Turning the water on she tried to enjoy the warmth of the shower like she usually did, but right now, she couldn’t get any enjoyment out of it.

Now Applejack hates my guts. That’s the last thing I needed.

Applejack watched the fight with some concern, it looked to her like both Rainbow and Gilda were getting way to rough with each other. On the other side of the ring stood Kain and in the background Rarity and Pinkie were in another ring practicing their drills. Off in another ring Fluttershy and Twilight faced off, wooden swords clacking together as Twilight slowly but steadily lost another round. Applejack was without a partner so she stood here watching the new blood take on Rainbow.

The fight was interesting to say the least. It was obvious somebody at some point had taught Gilda to fight, and the griffon obviously had gotten experience from somewhere else. It was unusual because Gildas style seemed to be a weird combo of bar brawler and short tight movements designed to do as much damage as possible. Rainbow on the other hand was a blend of the techniques Kain had taught them and another weird style that Rainbow claimed was Karate. Turns out Rainbow lied about being a black belt, but she’d had lessons in the past and knew more about hand to hand on her first day then any of the other girls had.

The fight ended with Gilda putting her fist in Rainbows gut before following it up with a knee to the face sending Rainbow sprawling onto her back.

‘Round over, Gilda wins.’ Applejack called out.

‘Yeah!’ Gilda exalted ‘That’s what you get bitch!’ walking over to Rainbow, Gilda helped her back to her feat. ‘Told you that Karate was a load of shit.’

Rainbow smiled good naturedly at the banter ‘Hey! I won the second round!’

‘Yeah but I won the first and third’ Gilda smiled back a Rainbow ‘and I was totally blinded by your lame ass hair in the second one so that totally doesn’t count.’

‘Bull shit!’ Rainbow shouted ‘I won that round fair and square. Besides I-’

‘Ladies enough with the flirting.’ Kain called out making Rainbow blush and Gilda roll her eyes ‘Rainbow partner up with Twilight and send Fluttershy over here.’

‘Fluttershy?’ Gilda snorted as Rainbow walked away ‘you want me take her on in a fist fight?’

‘No.’ Kain shook his head as he appraised the griffon ‘I can see you can hold your own in hand to hand, now we’re moving up to swords.’

Gilda snorted and raised her arms ‘Hands or swords, Fluttershy? Come on.’

Kain just smiled at her ominously.

Applejack felt a little worry stir inside her chest at she thought of putting Fluttershy in the same ring as Gilda. That last bout with Rainbow had been dirty and viscous, Gilda did not hold back. Fluttershy could end up hurt.

Striding over to the rack, Kain pulled out an average sized wooden long sword which he tossed to Gilda. Catching it out of the air on the blade end, Gilda changed her grip so she was holding it by the handle. Applejack could tell that she’d never held a sword before.

Walking around the ring to Kain Applejack leaned in close to his ear ‘Are you sure this is ah good idea?’ she asked glancing over at Gilda. ‘There’s a fair difference between fist brawling and sword fighting. She ain’t even holding it right.’

Kain waved her away ‘I know.’

Applejack stared suspiciously at the eye patched man before returning her attention to the ring. Fluttershy approached the ring and took up her stance. Gilda didn’t have a stance to take up so she just copied Fluttershy.

‘Round one… Start!’ called Applejack.

Swinging her sword at Fluttershy like a club Gilda opened up with the first attack. Blocking the attack, Fluttershy countered with a quick poke to the gut with her own sword.

‘Round over! Fluttershy wins.’

‘What!’ Gilda shouted ‘Fucking bullshit! That didn’t even last five seconds, she barely tapped me!’

Kain smiled and nodded ‘Exactly, with a sword it barely takes a tap. Get stabbed in the gut like that with a real sword and your fight's over. Do it again; best two out of three.’

Gilda scowled and turned back face Fluttershy.

‘Round two… Start!’

Round two lasted longer than round one by about thirty seconds. Gilda managed to actually block an attack or two this time before Fluttershy caught the griffons hand with her sword and made the griffon yelp in pain and drop the wooden sword. To add insult to injury Fluttershy then gently placed her sword against Gilda’s chest.

‘Round over! Flutterhsy wins. Two in a row makes two out of three, Fluttershy wins this bout.’ Applejack announced.

‘What!’ Gilda screamed. ‘Fucking bullshit, there is no way in hell I just got fucked by this pussy!’

‘Well that what just happened.’ Kain said aloud. ‘Have another round, see if you can at least claim one round against fluttershy’ He said stressing the name.

Gilda seethed. It didn’t take much to see that Gilda was pissed.

‘Kain, I think you better stop this now.’ Applejack said to Kain.

Kain turned and glared at Applejack ‘who made you their mother? If I say they go again then they go again.’

Worry growing inside her Applejack turned to face the ring.

‘Round three...’ She reluctantly called ‘Start!’

At first neither party made the first move, simply staring at each other for a second or two, before Gilda moved forward rapidly swinging her sword in an oddly hesitant way. Countering the seemingly poorly conceived attack Fluttershy moved forward to get inside Gilda’s now open defence. Swinging her sword around for a tap to the neck Fluttershy was surprised when she felt Gild grab her sword arm and rob it of momentum mid swing. What was even more suprising was when Gilda used the hold to push Fluttershy away briefly before pulling her back towards Gilda. Applejack watched with horror growing inside her as the fist that was holding the sword slammed into Fluttershy’s face.

The punch connected solidly and Fluttershy was caught between two points of momentum; her movement towards Gilda and Gilda’s full shoulder and arm swing combined to lift Fluttershy off her feet and drop her to the ground. It was a brawler’s move, not requiring any finesse at all but that didn’t matter when it connected. A punch like that could break necks. Applejack stared in shock as Fluttershy hit the ground and didn’t move.

Gilda moved forward and placed her sword at Fluttershys’ neck.

Panic filled her and Applejack rushed into the ring to see if Fluttershy was unhurt. ‘Fluttershy!’ kneeling down next to her friend Applejack cradled her head.

It was a second before Fluttershy stirred and groaned ‘Ow…’

Applejack breathed a sigh of deep relief before standing up to face Gilda ‘What the hell is wrong with you?’

Gilda shrugged her shoulders ‘She’ll be fine.’

‘Fine!’ Applejack shouted ‘look at her, she’s lucky you didn’t break her damn neck!’

Gilda snorted ‘I’ve hit people before, I knew not to hit her too hard. What, do you think I’m an idiot?’

‘Ah think you’re a step short of being a murderer!’ Applejack shouted.

Rolling her eyes, Gilda deigned not even to respond to that.

Applejack felt an anger unlike anything she ever knew roll through her like a wave. How dare she? How dare anyone, hit Fluttershy and not even have the grace to be sorry about it. This griffon had known how delicate Fluttershy was, she’d seen her break down over almost nothing and now she was standing here moments after almost killing her and acting like it was no big deal.

Oh... if I ever get my hands on her she’s going to regret it.

Kain walked forward into the ring new. ‘New bout’ he called. ‘Applejack and Gilda, swords.’

‘What!’ Gilda turned to Kain, then glanced at Applejack then back at Kain ‘You haven’t even told me how to fucking hold this thing!’

Applejack strode forward and grabbed Gilda by her collar and threw her bodily towards the ring. ‘Get in the damn ring!’ she ordered.

Halting her stumbling Gilda stopped then looked at Kain then back at Applejack. ‘Son of a bitch.’ she murmured a look of realisation dawning on her.

Applejack didn’t care what Gilda had just realised; all she knew was that Gilda was about to learn what happens to people that hurt members of Applejacks’ extended family.

‘Round one… Start!’ Applejack shouted out.

Gilda shivered at the memory, that look in Applejacks eyes had said it all. ‘I’m going to beat the living shit out of you’. And she did. The rest of day for Gilda had been spent in sword bouts and practices with Applejack who had beat the crap out of her. After just one day Gilda new one thing for certain.

I fucking hate kain.

Kain had played her like a freaking fiddle. The bastard hated Celestia and because of Celestias’ orders he hated the fact that Gilda would now be training with them. Thanks to the pact he couldn’t do anything directly, so instead of simply beating the shit out of her himself, he’d manipulated Applejack into doing it for him. Kain wanted Gilda gone and he was making these training sessions as hard as possible for her.

Knowing that Gilda was going to get frustrated with Fluttershy he’d deliberately pitted the two together to give Gilda a chance to screw up bad, even going as far as to push for a third round. And of course it had been Applejack who was un-partnered at the time. When she hit Fluttershy Applejack went into full mother bear mode and wanted nothing less than to teach Gilda a lesson. So Kain just happened to partner Gilda with Applejack for the rest of the fucking day!

How the hell did I not see what he was doing! I didn’t have to hit Fluttershy like that, I’m such a fucking idiot!

Kain wanted Gilda gone, and because of the Pact he couldn’t go after her directly, so he was now setting up others to do it.

Turning off the shower and drying herself with a towel, Gilda stepped out of the shower. Her leg still hurt but it felt better after the shower. Dressing up again Gilda stopped in front of the mirror once more.

Tomorrow will not be a repeat of today.

Heading out of the bathroom and into her guest room, Gilda lowered herself into her bed. A moment later a knock sounded on the door.

‘Come in.’ Gilda said loudly.

A moment later Rarity came inside with a bowl of steaming slop.

‘I thought I better bring you dinner because you’re clearly having trouble walking. I’d recommend getting Fluttershy to look at that but for obvious reasons that may not be a good idea.’

Gilda smiled gratefully and propped herself up ‘Thanks Rarity… Yeah… about what happened with Fluttershy.’

Shaking her head Rarity set the bowl in Gilda’s hands ‘No I actually understand. I believe Applejack behaved quite brutishly in fact. You were in the middle of a sword bout and you conducted a move that allowed you to win. Perhaps it was over the top, but Fluttershy’s fine and the person most harmed was yourself.’

Gilda chuckled ‘Yeah… Something like that.’ She dug a spoonful of gravy soaked gristle out and slipped it into her mouth.

Rarity sat down on the end of the bed. ‘I had a talk with Pinkie.’

Gilda coughed a bit ‘What about?’ she asked once her throat cleared.

‘She says she had a great time in town with you, and you helped cheer her up.’

‘Oh that?’ Gilda shrugged ‘That was no big deal, she just basically needed a little cheering up after getting down after a hit of adrenaline. I was just glad it wasn’t something serious like family issues or whatever. If it had been than I don’t know what I would have done.’

Rarity smiled politely and nodded. ‘Speaking of family issues.’ Gilda froze spoon in mid-air. ‘I’m concerned about yours. I can’t help but notice the way you’re treating Sweetie. I was actually considering asking you to move out until I spoke to Pinkie.’

‘You were gonna kick me out?’ Gilda put the bowl and spoon down on the bedside stand.

‘I was considering it. But no, I don’t plan to do so. That said I’m still worried and I would like to know why you aren’t getting along with Sweetie.’

‘No Sweetie and me get along just fine.’

Rarity raised an eyebrow.

Gilda knew that wasn’t going to cut it ‘Ok maybe we don’t get along so well.’

‘Why not?’

Gilda sighed and leaned back ‘She just… reminds me of my little brother too much.’

‘How so?’

‘Look, it’s a long story and I-’

Rarity interrupted ‘Gilda. Please… tell me.’

Gilda sighed 'Look Rarity, I'm sorry about the way I've been treating your sister and I'll try to be nicer to her but I'm not gonna tell you about my family.

Rarity looked disappointed 'Why not Gilda? It's obviously bothering you and I think you may need to get it off your chest.'

'It's something I've never told anyone. And if things go to plan I'll never have to tell anyone.' Gilda looked at Rarity desperately hoping for her to understand what she wanted 'It's a bad story with a worse ending and I'm not gonna dump my problems on you. I promise I'll be nice to your sister but please let me keep my privacy on this one.'

Rarity nodded and stood up. For some reason the griffon still felt like she wanted to hold Raritys' hand.

Shut up, no I don't!

'Good night Gilda.' Rarity said as she headed towards the door. 'Just know that if you change your mind, I'm your friend and I'm here to listen.'

Only once the door was closed did Gilda realise how alone she felt whenever she was by herself.

And that’s the end of that chapter. It’s a bit longer than my usual chapter (just shy of seven thousand words).

This week I decided to experiment a bit with back and forth story telling and messing around with the linear order of events. I’m not sure if it added much to this chapter. I’m also not sure if  made the time jumps clear enough.

I’ve decided to upload this chapter a day early for no reason other than I can.

Chapter 12. What it Means

Chapter 12

Rainbow did not like being here, not in the slightest, stuff like this was absolutely outside her comfort zone. Under normal circumstance she’d either let the problem solve itself or let someone like Twilight or Applejack handle it, but in this case Applejack was the problem so that ended that option and she’d let a week go by before she said anything so there was that option gone too. Rainbow hated getting involved in her friends business but this time she felt it was necessary. Applejack was getting out of hand and Rainbow knew that someone had to rein her in.  Rarity had done enough by taking Gilda in, Fluttershy was part of the problem, Twilight had refused to see that there was a problem and Pinkie was… well Pinkie was Pinkie, you couldn’t expect much in the way of seriousness from her.

Am I really doing this?

With a sigh Rainbow raised her fist and knocked on the door. Waiting a few seconds and hearing no response Rainbow raised her fist and knocked again. A moment later the door opened from the inside and the massive form of big mac loomed there.

‘Miss Dash.’ he said with a nod.

‘Hey Big Mac, is AJ in?’ Rainbow asked.

‘Eeyup.’ Mac was openly staring at Rainbows face, Probably because she had a massive black eye.

‘Can I speak to her?’ Rainbow asked trying to ignore his uncomfortably intense gaze.

‘Eeyup.’ He then turned away and closed the door. Rainbow could hear his heavy footsteps as he walked away. Turning her back to the door Rainbow waited at the edge of the porch. It was a nice night and Rainbow stared at the stars to pass the time.

They’re pretty enough but I’ll never get how Twilight can spend all night watching them.

A few moments later and Applejack walked out onto the porch. ‘Hey Rainbow. What brings ya out here this evening?’

Rainbow turned around to face her friend feeling determined to see this through ‘Hey AJ, We need to talk.’

Applejack sighed and crossed her arms ‘Is this about Gilda? ‘Cause ah know what you’re gonna say.’

Shaking her head Rainbow answered ‘No this isn’t about Gilda, though it is part of the problem.’

‘What problem might that be?’ AJ said crossing her arms.

Rainbow stopped and considered her words.

How do you tell your best friend that they’re acting like a bitch?

‘Alright… I’m not gonna beat around the bushes, and I’m just gonna say it.’ Rainbow took a breath of air in ‘I think you need to stop treating everyone like they’re made of glass.’

Applejack blinked ‘Pardon?’

Rainbow sighed ‘You don’t even realise you’re doing it do you? Look, just today you dislocated my shoulder and had to help me pop it back in. What did you do to Fluttershy this week?’

‘Ah don’t understand your point.’ AJ said shaking her head.

Rainbow started to feel irritated, the way she always felt when she couldn’t quite get the point across.

Is it really so hard to understand?

‘Look, with me at practice you don’t hold back at all, with Gilda I think you’re actually trying to hurt her, but again you’re not holding back, but with everyone else you barely tap them.’

‘You’re complaining that Ah’m not hitting my friends enough?’ AJ said with what sounded like disbelief.

‘Yeah pretty much! I’m saying that you’re coddling them, I don’t know why Kain’s letting you get away with it.’ Rainbow continued.

‘You’re saying you want me to hit Fluttershy?’ Applejack said completely deadpan.

‘Yeah!’ Rainbow said feeling satisfied that Applejack finally understood.

Applejack just stared at Rainbow for a second, she opened her mouth to say something but then closed it. Eventually she spoke ‘Rainbow, sugar…’ That sentence was never finished, she just shook her head looking confused and walked back inside, closing the door behind her.

Rainbow had a sinking feeling that AJ didn’t understand what she’d been trying to say.

Damn it. I’ll have to corner her later.

Kain strode through the door of Carousel Boutique feeling quite angry. The bell rang as Kain burst inside out of the night air.

Rarity was in the room taking the measurements of a women that Kain didn’t recognise.

‘Where’s Gilda?’ Kain asked aggressively.

Rarity glanced over at him before returning her attention to the customer in front of her ‘It’s not business hours Kain, if you’re going to come in you must knock.’

‘What about her?’ Kain said waving his hand at the lady being measured.

‘Bon-bon’s a friend of mine, and she also knocked.’ Rarity answered.

Bon-bon? Seriously? Her name is Bon-bon? What the fuck has Celestia done to the world!

‘Whatever. Where’s Gilda?’ Kain asked.

‘Upstairs in the kitchen. Why do you need to see her?’ she turned around but Kain was already gone.

Halfway up the stairs Kain noticed a smell in the air, something he hadn’t smelled for too long; meat, glorious meat. Following his nose Kain burst into the kitchen and saw something that made his mouth water; a piece of steak cooking in a frying pan. Standing over the stove was Gilda turning the meat with tongs, hearing the sound of the door opening Gilda glanced around smiling but her grin dropped when she saw Kain.

‘What are you doing here?’ she asked coldly.

Kains’ stomach chose that moment to growl. ‘Where did you get meat?’ he asked.

Glancing back at the stove Gilda turned to face Kain with her whole body ‘I have a hunting license? Why do you want some?’ she asked with a smirk while crossing her arms.

Looking between the sweat delicious meat and that shit eating smirk Kain prioritised why he was here ‘No. I came to ask you about this.’ He slammed down a letter with Celestias’ sun symbol emblazoned on the back.

Stopping to pick up the letter with slightly greasy hands Gilda read it briefly ‘What’s the question? She’s basically telling you not to take any of my stuff. I thought even you’d be able to understand that.’

Kain gritted his teeth ‘You know there’s more to it than that. Why do these orders only apply to you? Why did she send them now?’

Gilda shrugged in a frustratingly deliberate way ‘How should I know?’

‘You know because you’re Celestias’ agent in Ponyville!’ Kain shouted. ‘You know as well as I do that the bitch set you here to keep an eye on me!’

‘Celestias’ agent? Do you even here yourself man?’ Gildas’ sneer widened ‘You sound completely fucking paranoid.’

‘Don’t play dumb!’ Kain snarled ‘What has she given you that she doesn’t want me to have!’

Gilda shrugged. ‘No clue what you’re talking about.’

Kain seethed. Gilda was a terrible liar; Kain knew that she was just trying to make him angry so he decided to take another approach.

‘How did it feel?’ he asked sitting down on a stool.

‘How did what feel?’ Gilda asked with an irritated look.

‘Killing someone for the first time.’

Gilda looked shocked ‘What?’

‘When you killed for the first time, was it part of some sort of initiation?’ Kain asked carefully gauging Gilda’s responses.

‘Initiation? Into what?’ Gilda asked sounding confused but a little afraid.

‘I don’t know the details, but I imagine it had something to do with becoming her agent.’

‘What the fuck are you going on about?’

Kain continued as though uninterrupted ‘At first I believed your story.’

‘What story?’

‘You were just a child hood friend caught in the middle of a bad situation. It sounded reasonable, but over this past week I’ve noticed some things about you.’

‘What things?’ Gilda asked exasperated.

‘For one thing there’s the way you fight. It’s a highly unusual technique, at first you just seem like a dumb brawler, dirty shots, heavy punches, grabbing people and throwing them around in general. But then you throw in a different move, a really sharp punch or kick, short but fairly powerful, uses low energy, high efficiency but low payoff. The sort of attack a guardsmen is taught but taken to the next extreme, a lot more aggressive and crippling. What at first seemed like a brawler actually has a good defence, which you just underestimated and now your arm is hurt or you’re unsteady on your feet, a perfectly baited trap. You see the brawler move in closer for a big blow, but instead of that, they’ve moved inside your defence, and you’re taking quick jabs everywhere, it’s all you can do to hold them off. Then they move back and you know you’re not just fighting some idiot. Now you try to approach them differently, expecting more jabs, but what you get is a heavy blow that you just didn’t see coming. And that’s it, the fight’s over and you lost.’

Gilda blinked ‘Yeah… That’s how I fight but what’s that got to do with anything?’

‘It’s much too effective for just anyone to know. You were taught to fight this way, and you’ve backed it up with personal experience. Obviously no one taught you to use a sword but I bet you’re handy with a knife.’

Gilda laughed when she realised what Kain was implying. ‘You think I’m some kind of hand reared agent for Celestia? Part of some… Secret police or some shit! Dude that’s completely insane.’

Kain shrugged ‘It may sound that way, but I wouldn’t put anything past Celestia if it means protecting her people. Another reason I suspect you is you’re a woodsman and not just a decent one; you were able to track someone who was flying, through the Everfree forest, at night time. I know damn near nothing about tracking and even I know that takes a lot of skill. Skills that aren’t taught to anyone anymore, because the whole world’s vegetarian now, and nobody needs a nice piece of venison.’ He waved a hand at the meat roasting oh so deliciously in the pan.

‘Dude, I’m a griffon, a carnivore, we hunt by instinct.’

Kain nodded ‘True. But what you did that night was well beyond the abilities of the average griffon even in my time, and the families that I knew always taught their sons how to hunt, not their daughters. Then there’s the fact that you’ve killed before. Believe me I can tell.’

‘I’ve never killed anyone’ Gilda shook her head ‘anyway your theory is retarded. I’m childhood friends with Dash remember? Known each other since flight school.’

‘True…’Kain paused ‘but then you could have been planted there by Celestia for all I know. It wouldn’t surprise me if Celestia knew who the elements were from birth and surrounded them with people like you to help keep them safe.’

Gilda actually looked amused by this ‘So because I can fight and hunt I’m some kind of undercover agent for Celestia? Placed near Dash since childhood and now I’m here to do what exactly?’

‘Keep the elements safe from me and Xath, or anyone else for that matter. I think it’s pretty convenient that you accidently came to town the week that I arrived.’

Gilda shook her head ‘You’re fucking insane.’

Maybe.

Kain continued ‘I don’t know if you are what I suspect or not, but I know Celestia put you here, and I know that she knows you’re a killer.’

Gilda hesitated ‘I’m not a killer.’

Kain smiled ‘If I can recognise that look than you can bet she recognised it too.’

Gilda just shook her head ‘I don’t know what you’re really doing here but you’re getting kind of annoying.  If you’ll excuse me I want to eat my dinner.’ Then she turned around and took her venison steak off the pan.

Kain stared at her back for a second then glanced at the meat, he felt his stomach growl.

God I miss meat.

Kain turned and walked out the door.

Celestia sat in her office reading various reports about a handful of different situations that all required intervention in Equestria and the rest of the world. Just a hundred years ago the pile of reports would have been several times the size of the one before her, but Celestia’s careful hand had calmed the world down considerably since then. Now her job was much easier, war was almost non-existent and crime was rare throughout most nations. Of course she still had to maintain her network of spies and infiltrators the world over but it was far less urgent now than it had ever been.

The memories of the long nights spent under candle light, rooting out organised crime, sending orders to end the lives of war starters and unravelling endless political schemes all with the goal of keeping Equestria safe. Her goal eventually was forced to grow as a side effect of her desire to see Equestria safe. Now that goal was to keep everyone, everywhere, as safe as possible. No matter how hard she tried there would always be crime in the world, and nations other than her own would always try to start something but overall every nation in the world was doing better than ever before.

Sacrifices had been made, innocent people had suffered, certain paths of knowledge were destroyed never to be discovered again and Celestia had done things that would never be known by anyone. But the world was safer than ever before, and if that was the price of keeping Equestria safe, then that was the price she had payed and wold pay again.

A knock on the door distracted her.

‘Come in.’ she called out in her regal voice.

The door opened and a servant came in. ‘A letter from Ponyville your highness, it was sent via the machine you had delivered.’

What does Gilda want at this time of night?

Celestia frowned and picked the letter out of the man’s hand with her telekinesis, it unravelled in mid-flight as it floated towards her.

Celestias’ frown deepened as she read the letter:

“Celestia, Kain stopped by Carousel Boutique wanting to know about the letter you must have sent him. He rambled a bit and wanted to know about the stuff you sent me. I didn’t tell him anything but I think he might break in or start spying on me or something. If you want to keep the stuff you sent a secret you may want to send him orders telling him not to look but I really don’t know why you’re sending me this stuff so I don’t know if him knowing matters or not.”

“Also can I ask you to send me a bow stave? You’ve been sending me all this other stuff over the past week and I know a lot of it couldn’t be easy to get so I figure asking for a black yew bow stave wouldn’t be too out of line, because I am working for you at the moment and this is the first thing I’ve asked for. Not that I’m ungrateful for some of the stuff you’ve been sending me or anything but why are you sending it to me? I’ve been reading the books you sent like you ordered but why do you want me to read them?”

Celestia summoned a quill and ink pot as well as some blank paper. Kain wasn’t too much of a concern but she would prefer to keep some of the things she was sending Gilda fairly quiet for the moment. It wasn’t so much Kain knowing about it that concerned her but Kain getting his hands on… the gauntlet, for example, would be a bad idea. Still it wouldn’t do to have Kain try to break into Carousel Boutique or start following Gilda around all day.

What Celestia found concerning was Gildas’ comment about not knowing why she was sending her equipment and materials. The griffon obviously knew but didn’t want to admit it to herself. Gilda definitely had the potential to be an effective tool in Celestias’ hands, but she needed a few of those rough edges sanded down.

Putting pen to paper Celestia wrote:

“Gilda.”

“I will send orders to Kain via Twilight regarding your concerns, thank you for the warning, caution is a trait I always encourage.”

“Regarding your request for a black yew bow stave I can provide that. Feel free to request equipment or objects from me if you think they will aid you in the task I’ve set. But know that this is not an offer to be taken lightly, anything I send you should be for the benefit of your mission, not personal amusement.”

“Finally regarding your question about why I’m sending you this equipment: don’t be foolish. You know why I’m sending them to you and don’t pretend otherwise. The books I’ve provided are educational and will help you learn some of the things you’ll need to know while working for me. The equipment will help you should problems arise and I expect you to learn to use that gauntlet effectively. Some of the skills you need to learn can’t be taught via books but we can cross that bridge when we arrive. Do not make the mistake of thinking that you can pretend this is anything other than it is. You work for me, and that’s all there is to it. I expect you to learn these skills and to do as I say with those skills I’ve provided you with.”

“Princess Celestia.”

Using her magic Celestia burned the letter and sat back to think about the situation at hand.

Her network of spies and infiltrators had been growing smaller and smaller for the past twenty years. They simply hadn’t been needed as much. Celestia had been willing to let that happen but the changeling invasion of Canterlot had convinced her that in order to protect Equestria she would always need her spies and informers. The events of this month had convinced her she’d need something else as well. Gilda was the start of that something else. If the griffon couldn’t be forged into the tool that Celestia needed, than she would find someone who could and leave Gilda to rot in Tartarus.

The next evening Rainbow was once again waiting outside the Apple family home. Last night’s talk had definitely not gone as planned as far as Rainbow could tell. Todays practice session had been the worst one yet in regards to AJ acting like a mother hen. Now she was trying to protect Fluttershy not just from Gilda but Rainbow too!

Throughout the whole day AJ had deliberately been partnering herself with Rainbow and Gilda and when Rainbow finally got in the ring with Fluttershy, AJ had been watching the whole time.

Kain hadn’t even payed any attention to it, he seemed very focused on Gilda, who despite his best efforts was actually improving with the sword. Rainbow and Rarity had been trying to catch her up in their spare time and Gilda had improved drastically from her first day of flailing the sword around like a club. Now she was better than most of the girls and starting to approach Fluttershy in terms of skill.

This only freaked out AJ even more and it had gotten the worst it had been yet when AJ knocked Gilda flat out unconscious. Normally Rainbow tried to let people handle their own problems but no one else wanted to get involved on this one and she felt like someone had to intervene.

Knocking loudly, Rainbow waited for a minute before the door opened and Applejack herself stood there wearing her trademark hat.

Seriously! Indoors at night and she’s still wearing that dumb thing!

‘Hey AJ.’ Rainbow smiled as she said it.

‘Rainbow.’ Applejack said with a nod but didn’t return the smile ‘What do ya want?’

‘Get your boots on. We’re going for a walk.’ Rainbow responded. A walk obviously meaning a long talk… Right?

Applejack examined Rainbow for a second ‘Ya know what? Why not? Gimme ah minute ta find ‘em.’

About three minutes later the two of them were walking down the path back towards Ponyville together. It was a fairly cool early spring evening and even though the sky had been clear all day the evening could get fairly cold.

Applejack opened up the conversation ‘Rainbow I got something to say to you about Gilda.’

Rainbow nodded ‘That’s not why I’m here but yeah we need to talk about that as well.’

‘Gilda’s a bully.’

Rainbow laughed at that ‘Actually I’d call you the bully right now.’

‘What!’ Applejack exclaimed.

Rainbow looked back at Applejack ‘Yeah you heard me. On her first day here you beat the crap out of her. From the moment she got in the ring with you to the end of the day you did nothing but try and hurt her. I was the one who eventually had to show her how to hold the freaking sword right!’

‘She hit Fluttershy!’ Applejack exclaimed.

‘That’s another thing.’ Rainbow argued ‘Let me ask you this. If Gilda hit me like that, would you have reacted the same way?’

‘… Well that’s different-’

‘How’s it different?’ Rainbow pointed her thumb at her black eye ‘Gilda did this to me just yesterday and you didn’t even blink. Fluttershy didn’t even get in the ring with Gilda before you started freaking out. I could see you watching the whole thing out of the corner of your eyes. Don’t pretend you weren’t.’ she accused pointing her finger at Applejack

‘Ok maybe ah was. What of it?’ Applejack crossed her arms.

‘I’m saying it’s been more than a week since Xath and you’ve been treating everyone except me like they’re made of glass. Fluttershy especially.’

Applejack didn’t say anything.

Rainbow continued after a pause ‘For some reason you’ve been acting like an overprotective mother and I’m telling you to stop because you’re not helping anyone.’

‘Well what am ah supposed to do? Just watch when that feather head nearly kills Fluttershy?’

Rainbow nodded ‘Yeah pretty much. Look, when Gilda gets out of line, we’ll call her out on it, what we don’t do is beat the crap out of her.  Fluttershy can take care of herself AJ and she’s not going to stand on her own two feet with you standing over her.’

Applejack didn’t respond.

Rainbow continued ‘Yeah I agree with you that Gilda’s being a bit rough on everyone, I’m gonna speak with her tonight, but at least she’s treating everyone the same. She fights me, just as hard as she fights you, just as hard as she fights Fluttershy. You on the other hand, you’re fine with me but you seriously try to hurt Gilda and everyone else you barely tap. It’s not fair, by treating them like that you’re showing that you don’t respect them.’

‘Of course I respect them!’

‘I know you do, how couldn’t you after what we’ve been through together? But the point is you have to start treating everyone the same.’

They walked in silence for a minute.

‘Well?’ Rainbow asked.

‘Ah’ll think about it.’ Was all AJ responded with.

Rainbow nodded. Applejack knew she was wrong but was just too stubborn to admit it, but hopefully by tomorrow she’ll start trying to stop patronising everyone

‘Ok that’s all I’m asking. I’m gonna go see Gilda, do you wanna come?’

Applejack shook her head ‘No thanks. Ah’m sure you figured it out already but me an her ain’t exactly seeing eye to eye.’

Rainbow nodded. For the moment Rainbow could live with that but one way or another all her friends were going to be friends. ‘Alright then I’ll see you tomorrow.’

‘Bye.’

Turning and flying away into town Rainbow let herself breathe the night air deeply.

Luna sure knows how to make a nice night.

Landing just outside Rainbow walked up and knocked on the door.

‘Who is it?’ A voice Rainbow recognised as Rarity’s called out.

‘It’s me’ Rainbow shouted back ‘Can I come in?’ Then she heard something that sounded a bit like Gilda shouting but she couldn’t tell what was being said.

A moment later the door opened and Rarity was standing there saying something loudly over her shoulder ‘Don’t be ridiculous you look fine.’ She turned back to Rainbow ‘Come in.’ then in a hiss she added ‘Don’t laugh.’

Walking in feeling curious about the cause of the shouting, an idea began to form in Rainbows mind but she quickly crushed it as ridiculous. When she saw what she wasn’t supposed to laugh at Rainbows first reaction wasn’t to laugh but to stare open mouthed. Never in all her years on this earth had she ever imagined she’d see this, she’d heard stories but had never quite believed them until now. They’d just seemed so… impossible but here was the evidence standing before her.

‘Don’t say a fucking word.’ Gilda said as threateningly as she could. Of course in her current state it wasn’t very threatening.

‘Language!’ Rarity pouted but Gilda ignored her instead focussing her intense gaze on Rainbow. It was clear that the griffon was trying to be as intimidating as possible but it just wasn’t going to work in her current state.

Rainbows left eye twitched.

Control yourself Rainbow.

‘You’re wearing a dress.’ She said dumbly.

‘That’s right. What of it?’ Gilda asked right back.

It’s pink! The dress is pink, ohmygosh, ohmygosh, this is the greatest moment of my life!

‘Nothing of it.’ Suppressing the urge to smile but not succeeding Rainbow tried to carefully school her responses.

It has flower patterns! And ruffles! How did this happen? What godly forces conspired to create this moment!

‘It looks perfectly… fine… on you.’ Stop twitching that eye.

‘Fine… I’d say she looks Fabulous?’ Rarity said looking cross.

Fabulous. Gilda looks fabulous…

Rainbow couldn’t help it; a thin guffaw escaped her lips before she controlled it. Then that it was it; Rainbow broke down laughing simply unable stand anymore.

‘You’re in a dress!’ Rainbow shouted out as she finally gained enough control to stand ‘I’ve met your mother and heard the stories but I never dreamed of this moment.’ Wiping a tear from her eyes she smiled at Gilda ‘How are you in a dress? It’s like a… I have no words. How the hell did anyone convince you to…’ Turning to face Rarity ‘What did you threaten her with? Has she got a phobia I never knew about?’

Rarity shook her head and put her face in the palm of her hand.

‘Alright that’s it; get me out of this thing right now!’ Gilda shouted. ‘Rainbow I’d strangle you but I know I can’t run in this thing.’

Rarity sighed as she used her telekinesis to help extract Gilda from beneath the layers of cloth. No sooner was she done then Gilda dived into her usual garb, it looked like a homecoming when she pulled the leather jacket on.

‘Why were you wearing a dress?’ Rainbow asked with her vicious grin firmly in place.

‘It’s my job’ Gilda said as she yanked the zipper up on her jacket ‘Remember? I work for Rarity.’

‘It took me all afternoon to convince her to try that on!’ Rarity pouted ‘I needed a model and now thanks to you it’ll be ages before I’ll be able to convince her to wear another dress for me!’

Gilda sighed ‘Look Rarity, I know you’re my boss and all but there’s got to be something else for me to do around here.’

Rainbow input ‘Why don’t you just do some sowing or something?’

Rarity shook her head ‘because she doesn’t know how to sow.’

‘Yeah she does.’ Rainbow said not noticing the glare she was receiving from Gilda ‘How else do you think she made that Jacket she’s wearing?’

Gilda hissed ‘Rainbow… remember how back in flight school how I didn’t want anyone to know that? Well that hasn’t changed.’

‘You made this?’ Rarity asked as she approached Gilda looking quizzically at the Jacket.

Rainbow ignored Gildas’ protests and answered Rarity’s question ‘Yeah back in flight school Gilda made herself a new jacket from some leather she tanned and a bunch of parts she harvested from another jacket she brought from a store.’

‘Why?’ Rarity asked. ‘Why not just wear the jacket from the store?

Rainbow shrugged ‘I dunno. But she did it like once a year. She’d go out hunting and come back with leather and fresh meat. Then she’d spend a day breaking apart a different jacket into its materials, write a bunch of stuff down about how it was stitched together and how big each piece of fabric is before using the instructions she just wrote and all the pieces to create basically the same jacket but out of leather. Then she’d burn the instructions and what was left.’

‘May I see?’ Rarity asked Gilda who glowered between Rarity and Rainbow before reluctantly taking the Jacket off again and handing it to Rarity. Examining the Jacket carefully Rarity muttered under her breath before handing it back ‘That’s not bad actually. It’s far from the most complex piece of attire to create and you just copied someone else’s work but still, it’s not bad for what it is.’

‘Thanks’ Gilda muttered as she snatched it back and put it on once more. Turning to face Rainbow she asked ‘What are you here for anyway?

‘What?’ Rainbow blinked her purpose here completely forgotten. ‘Oh right!’ She exclaimed once she remembered. ‘Yeah Gilda I need to talk to you about well… It’s not a big deal but basically could you hold back a bit in sword practice?’

‘Hold back?’

Rainbow nodded ‘Yeah, I mean just yesterday you gave me a black eye.’

‘Sorry about that.’

‘Nah its fine.’ Rainbow said waving her hand ‘But just dial it back a little you know? Like we don’t need to kill each other before we get in an actual fight.’

‘Why? Did someone complain?’ Gilda asked with a look of faint surprise.

Rainbow shook her head ‘No one did, but the way you’ve been coming to practice, someone could get hurt more than they need to you know? Plus Applejack might lay off you a bit if you hold back a little.’

Gilda shrugged ‘I guess I can do that. I honestly hadn’t thought it was an issue.’

‘It’s not really but it could become one.’ This was much easier than talking to Applejack had been. Rainbow stood up ‘It’s been fun and I’ve seen things that I will never forget but I better go home.’

‘You better not tell anybody about the dress.’ Gilda warned looking serious.

Oh there’s no way that Pinkie’s gonna find out every last detail about this situation, and there is clearly no way that I’m going to use this moment to pull an epic prank on you.

‘Don’t worry dude. See ya.’ And with that Rainbow left the boutique.

The great and powerful Trixie was absolutely terrified. Her magic wasn’t working, she was being held down by some unseen pressure and the horned face that stood above her grinned ear to ear in a truly frightening way.

‘Let Trixie go or you shall feel her wrath!’ Trixie demanded.

The face only grinned more as it leaned in closer and took the hat off her head. The horned man didn’t say anything as it walked away from her and started to do something to her hat. Trixie couldn’t tell what was being done in the flickering fire light but she could see beyond the fire three more people sitting passively in hunched over positions. The fire light was reflected in lines of tears leaking down their faces.

The grinning monster returned a moment later and placed that hat back on Trixies’ head. That was the last thing she remembered before she blacked out.

This chapter was uploaded a day early because it was more or less finished by last Thursday and I had nothing better to do. I do not plan on making early updates a habit, so don't get used to it. Also would someone please leave a freaking comment? just to let me know I'm not posting this stroy here for no reason.

Also with the bit with AJ and Gilda some of you may think I'm bringing up an issue and resolving it in the same chapter, believe me I'm not. Next chapter things are gonna get worse between the two of them. Much much worse.

Chapter 13. Attack Dog.

Chapter 13

Muttering to himself under his breath Kain put the pot under the tap and filled it with water before transferring it to the stove. This was becoming a morning ritual for him ever since that night he’d seen Gilda cooking meat. It had been a week ago and he still couldn’t forget the fact that she had meat and he didn’t, the closest thing he had to meat was eggs. Boiled, fried, scrambled anyway he could figure out how to cook them; eggs!

The water came to boil and Kain dropped two eggs into the pot and stepped back.

At least it’s better than salad.

A nock sounded at the door and Kain went to answer it. Nobody ever really visited him at his little cabin so it was a bit of a surprise that someone wanted to see him this early in the morning.

The man standing on the other side of the door was a winged folk, he was dirty and unkempt, his clothes were a dirty brown and he had grime coating his face. Stranger yet though was he had a thin strip of leather wrapped around his head. The leather was adorned with some black writing and a few strange runes. Also interesting was the fact the man had tear streams rolling down his face and one of his grey coloured wings was broken and twisted at an odd angle.

Reaching behind his back the man drew a knife and stabbed at Kain. Hopping back Kain drew his sword as the man stabbed at him again. Or the winged folk would’ve, if his hand wasn’t suddenly missing, or his head hadn’t just detached from his shoulders. The body collapsed to the floor as blood spurt from the stump of a neck.

That’s why I always carry a sword.

Cleaning his now bloody sword on the dead folk’s shirt Kain rolled the headless man over.

Why did this man just try to kill me?

Gilda sat in behind the counter at Carousel Boutique and waited for something to happen. Working for Rarity kinda sucked as far as this griffon was concerned. Not that Rarity was a bad boss or anything but none of the duties involved were very exciting or interesting to Gilda. For example manning the counter while Rarity was out the back making clothes was seriously boring, it was no wonder that Sweetie always tried to get out of it.

In her hand was a book that Celestia had sent her and fuck it was a boring read. It was dry, uninteresting and worst of all educational, the sort of book that Gilda would never read if she hadn’t been ordered to.

For the past two weeks since moving into Carousel Boutique Gilda’s time had been divided pretty heavily. Six hours out of everyday was taken by training with Kain, in the evenings she’d take the time to hunt out meat for herself, a lot of her morning was spent working for Rarity or completing one of the various homework assignments Celestia sent her.

Yeah that’s right, homework from a fucking princess. Every night the princess would send Gilda a bunch of questions about the various books she’d sent and the griffin was expected to submit the answers alongside her usual daily reports on Kains’ behaviour. Gilda was yet to fail to submit the answers because honestly, she didn’t want to know what the punishment for failing to do so was. The princess was training her.

Most of the books were about various types of magic’s but some of them were about different languages or reading people’s emotions and schooling your own reactions. The book currently in her hands was called “The Uncommon Magics” by Bright Spark. It was about the various types of magic in the world other than those of the folk. It covered Changeling magic, the dragons breath and ability to consume gem stones and a thousand other forms of magic that weren’t typically practiced by folk. There were several other books about magic that Bright Spark had written and Gilda was now being forced to read and boy was he a dry writer.

Still some of the stuff was Kind of interesting, like the parts about how a non-magical race like a griffon could become “magically contaminated” by prolonged exposure to any one kind of magic. Turns out that griffons don’t naturally have the ability to cloud walk, it was only because she knew so many sky folk that Gilda could cloud walk and if she ever spent a significant time away from them that ability might wear off.

Note to self: spend more time with Dash.

Then there was the stuff called antimagic, apparently it was what Xath used when his horns turned dark. Prolonged exposure to antimagic was actually toxic to most species including the various types of folk, Griffons were ok with it though. Apparently it was basically the antithesis of regular magic in that it could manipulate and control most magics. This was why Xath could apparently control other people’s spells. It wasn’t common at all so no one knew too much about it. There were a few artefacts out there that could be used to channel it, mind you if a folk tried to use one than it would make them sick so that meant it was researched very little inside of Equestria. That raised the question of how Xath was able to use so much of it without any negative effects, according to Kain, Xath just used to be a regular earth folk, and an earth folks inherit earth magic should react poorly to sharing a body with any amount of antimagic. That basically meant that Xath couldn’t be a folk anymore or he’d have died already.

Rarity came in carrying a new dress fitted over a manikin. ‘What are you reading?’ She asked casually.

Gilda glad for the chance to distract herself dropped the book ‘It’s about-’

The bell on the door rang and two men entered the shop, a horned folk and an earth folk. They were both quite dirty and travel stained and oddly enough they both had a piece of leather wrapped around their head. The earth folk was almost as big as Big Mac and looked a little like him too with sandy blond hair and sun darkened skin and green eyes. The horned folk was smaller and thinner with brown eyes and dark hair. They both had tears in their eyes.

‘Can I help you?’ Rarity asked sounding concerned.

The moment she spoke the larger blonde man dived towards her and tackled her to the ground. Jumping over the counter to aid Rarity, Gilda was blocked by the horned folk who stabbed at Gilda with a knife, forcing the griffon back. Stabbing again, the thin mans’ knife hand was caught by Gilda who twisted it around spraining his wrist and forcing him to drop the knife. Ramming her knee into his stomach Gilda swung him around and sent him face first over the counter.

Turning back to Rarity, Gilda saw her face turning purple as the large earth folk strangled her. Knowing that Rarity wouldn’t be able to use magic without concentrating, Gilda jumped forward and used her body weight and momentum to knock the big man off Rarity.

Tumbling to the floor together in a heap Gilda managed to climb to her feat first, just in time to dodge a stab from the horned man who was now wielding the knife in his undamaged hand.

Why’s he not using magic?

The big man was climbing to his feat near the winded griffon and charged past her to get at Rarity, but was knocked back to his knees by a chair being telekinetically flung at him.

Circling wearily around her own horn folk foe Gilda rushed forward, ducking under his knife swing, Gilda slipped her ankle around his and pulled him off his feet. Turning around just in time to get knocked off her feet by the earth folk who was flung into her by a magic push. Falling backwards Gilda was dazed as the horned folk got to his feet again and came at the griffon with his knife once more. The horned folk was yanked off his feet with a telekinetically controlled bail of cloth by Rarity, giving Gilda enough time to get back on her feet. Rarity was distracted and failed to block the punch the large earth folk laid into her stomach.

Wanting to help Rarity Gilda was forced to dodge back again as the horned folk returned with his knife. Stepping back as the man lunged forward and stabbed again like a duellist or something. Gilda side stepped and slammed her foot into the side of his outstretched knee, breaking it and making the man drop to the ground. Looking back to Rarity, Gilda saw her get picked up and thrown by the big man. Charging across the room and smashing her fist into his face, Gilda felt his jaw crack. Shaking her arm and grunting in pain she barely managed to block it as the big man unfazed punched Gilda sending her to the ground again.

Gilda groaned as shakily got to her feat, only to barely duck under the attack from the thin man who was now limping towards Gilda knife in hand. If he was crying before tears were flowing out of his eyes now and his pupils were dilated in pain. Leaping forward and tackling the shocked Gilda on top of a table he tried to use his body wait to press the knife into Gildas’ chest. Shifting her bodyweight Gilda grunted as she twisted and forced his knife into the table and moved around so she was on top. Grabbing his face Gilda started repeatedly beating his head into the table and kept doing so until he fell unconscious.

Standing up and turning around to face the big man Gilda saw him back on top of Rarity and strangling her again.

‘Don’t you fucking touch her!’ Gilda shouted as ran to the man and tackled him off her.

Rolling on top of him, Gilda slammed her palm into his nose breaking it and forcing the cartilage back into his brain, killing him instantly. It was a lethal take down that Gilda had been trying to avoid in the hopes of knocking these two out, but it had been used in the heat of the moment.

Climbing back to her feat Gilda rushed over to Rarity ‘Are you ok?’ she asked the purple faced woman lying on her back who nodded weakly in response.

Helping Rarity stand up and looking her over to see if there was any damage Gilda was relieved to find none and pulled the still gasping woman in for a hug. Then she heard the sound of footsteps and turned around to see the horned folk from before standing up again.

Now most people would be out of the fight once there wrist was broken, very few people would continue to fight with their knee shattered, but no one would still be fighting after literally being knocked unconscious. But here it was; the man standing up again on his damaged leg with his eyes rolled back and only the whites showing.

‘What the fuck…’ Gilda muttered as the man stumbled woozily towards the sound of her voice.

Breaking off the hug with Rarity, who collapsed back to her knees without support, Gilda walked over to the man and grabbed him by the throat and knife hand and lifted him up and slammed onto his back on the ground. Taking the knife from his hand Gilda examined the leather band tied around the man’s head. The man was struggling weakly and trying to get out from under Gilda but his movement were weak and jerky.

The band was made of leather, which as Gilda examined she noticed it was leather made from human skin, across the leathers front were written various magical runes and some hand writing in a language Gilda recognised but couldn’t speak; ancient Troteerian, from back before Equestria was founded. The runes and the writing were in black and seemed to absorb the light, it took Gilda a second to recognise it as antimagic. Pinned to the centre of the band was a small brown feather.

Her mind working Gilda called over her shoulder ‘Rarity go up to my room, there’s a package on my bed and book lying next to it, bring them here.’

‘What?’ Rarity asked weakly climbing back to her feat.

Turning back to Rarity and seeing the state she was in Gilda changed her mind on what she wanted her to do. The guy was technically unconscious; Gilda could feel his pulse, so she figured Rarity would be ok to handle him for a second. ‘Keep an eye on this guy.’

‘What?!’ Rarity asked in surprise but Gilda didn’t pay attention and ran upstairs to grab the things she’d requested.

Coming back down a second later with the objects Gilda saw that Rarity had the man’s hands restrained behind his back with telekenisis. Stopping at the corpse of the large dead man Gilda examined the leather strip around his head. The writing around his band was identical to the other but instead of a feather pinned to his head there was a long piece of brunette hair rapped around the strip of leather.

Flipping open her book Gilda examined the rune and the writing for about a minute before she put the book down and considered her theory about what the band was. Opening the package Gilda pulled out a gauntlet made of black metal that looked like lead.

Except it wasn’t really a gauntlet. Instead of being a gauntlet it was the parts of a gauntlet without anything attaching them together and floating in the rough place they would be if they were properly connected. The “finger” joints all floated unconnected beneath the part that wrapped around the palm of your hand. The tips of each “finger” were uncovered meaning that whoever wore it would the ends of each finger exposed; this was perfect for Gilda because each of her fingers ended in a talon. Putting it on Gilda disliked the way the metal felt oily as it slid across her skin. Each joint was adorned with various runes in the language of magic.

Here goes.

Gilda started to channel antimagic through the gauntlet. This wasn’t the first time she’d done it, Celestia had ordered her to master the gauntlet and she’d practiced with it while alone in her room, so she knew what to expect. It was like an icy cold snake was sliding through her brain; apparently that was how antimagic let you know you were channelling it. The runes in the gauntlet turned blacker than metal around them and Gilda wrapped her armoured fingers around the leather band and pulled. The runes on the band turned blacker for a second and the band strained but didn’t break. Gilda pulled harder and with a sound like cracking ice the leather band snapped.

Gilda examined the band feeling satisfied that she’d interpreted the runes correct; this was some kind of possession enchantment. After her first successful experiment Gilda decided to practice it on a live subject this time.

‘What is that?’ Rarity asked Gilda as she approached. ‘And what did you just do?’

Gilda ignored her because she wasn’t sure she was permitted to answer those questions. Bending over the still living man Gilda wrapped her fingers around the band and started to pull as she channelled more antimagic. The man screamed in pain and writhed as Gilda applied more pressure to the band. This enchantment was much harder to break on a still living person. Tugging with all her might the band finally snapped under Gildas’ hand and she was jerked backwards by the sudden break. The man stopped writhing and collapsed back to the ground unconscious.

Rarity reached forward and checked his pulse ‘Oh.’ She sighed in relief ‘He’s alive.’

Leaning back and panting Gilda held up the band from the big dead guy ‘Hey Rarity, is this your hair?’

Rarity took the band and examined the hair wrapped around it ‘Yeah… It could be. I’m not the only person with brunette hair. Why? What was that? Why did these two people attack us?’

Gilda looked to Rarity and showed her the other band ‘This was enchanted with some kind of possession spell. That’s one of my feathers. I think that Xath made this and possessed these guys to come kill us. Notice how the big guy only went for you and only attacked me when I got in your way?’

Rarity didn’t answer she just stared at Gilda.

‘What’s wrong?’ Gilda asked noticing her weird look.

‘Your eyes…’ Rarity said looking pale.

‘What about them?’ Gilda asked turning towards one of the mirrors lining the room. Then she caught sight of herself. ‘Woah.’ She said as she walked closer to her reflection. Her eyes were black. Not just her pupils, no all of her eyes were black with antimagic. As she watched the antimagic started to fade and her eyes returned to their normal avian yellow irises.

Gilda turned around to face Rarity. ‘Shit I just realised something!’ she shouted ‘If we got attacked then the others probably did to. Go find a guard and see if everyone’s ok. I’ll go check on Dash cause she was in the clearing.’

Rarity didn’t have time to respond as Gilda ran out of the room and jumped into the air wings unfurling through the specially cut holes in her jacket.

Flying home from her morning exercises, Rainbow felt pretty good about herself this morning. Well that wasn’t saying much because she always felt good about herself but this morning she actually had a reason to.

Since she’d spoken to her Applejack had pulled back on the mother hen thing drastically. The problem wasn’t fixed yet, Applejack was still watching Fluttershy and the others pretty carefully, but she was no longer going gentle on them at practice and Rainbow could see them improving for it. Plus the tensions between her and Gilda had died down severely, they weren’t gone and Gilda was still fighting too rough for Applejacks tastes but it seemed like Applejack was no longer trying to kill Gilda every time they got in the ring together. The best part of it was Rainbow who had been the one to solve the problem.

Approaching her cloud home Rainbow noticed something a little odd; standing beneath it was a person just staring up at it. The person wasn’t doing anything just standing there and staring up at Rainbows’ cloud home as if waiting for something.

Rainbow landed behind the person and walked towards her ‘Hey can I help you?’ she asked.

The person turned around a large travel worn cape billowed out from behind her. The person was Trixie, Rainbow knew her face from about a year ago from the incident with the Ursa Minor. That signature magician’s hat was on her head but it looked worse for the wear, the cape she wore so proudly was frayed at the end and had holes in it, her metallic silver hair was knotted and unkempt and her overall appearance could be described as a mess. Before, when she’d first come to Ponyville, she was damn hot, sex appeal obviously being part of how she presented her show but now her face was gaunt and the clothes that had once hugged her curvaceous frame so tightly, now hung loosely. There were tears in her eyes as she stared at Rainbow.

Then she slowly and jerkily began to walk towards Dash, like each step was a fight. ‘Run…’ she whispered out and Rainbow barely heard it as soft as it was.

Dash payed no attention to the instruction and walked towards Trixie ‘Are you ok?’ she asked.

Standing in front of Trixie Rainbow held out her hand to aid the show lady just as she found herself tumbling to the left knocked over by some unseen force. Rainbow looked up and saw that she’d been pushed out of the way by Gilda who was holding Trixies’ arm out to the left. It took Rainbow another second to notice the silvery sharp knife in Trixies’ hand. Twisting her grip around Gilda brought Trixie over her should and slammed her face into the ground.

Rainbow looked between Gilda and Trixie shocked ‘Did she just try and kill me?’

‘Pretty much’ Gilda said as she pried the knife from the struggling Trixies’ hand.

‘That fucking bitch!’ Rainbow shouted as she stood up ‘Trixie, why the fuck were you trying to kill me?’ Rainbow shouted as she approached the two.

‘Nah she’s been possessed.’ Gilda said. ‘Hold her down for a minute will you?’ The two traded places as Rainbow pinned the struggling Trixie to the ground while Gilda examined her.

‘Possessed?’ Rainbow repeated sounding confused.

‘Yeah possessed. Hey do you know her?’ Gilda asked as she examined Trixies’ hat.

‘Sort, of she came into Ponyville last year bragging about how great she was, except she wasn’t that great and Twilight totally upstaged her.’

‘Uh huh.’ Gilda responded as she tugged on the hat attached to Trixies’ head, it didn’t come off. ‘Alright hold her still will you?’ Gilda asked as she wrapped an armoured hand around Trixies’ hat.

‘What is that?’ Rainbow asked.

‘I’ll tell you in a minute, just hold her still.’ Gilda said as she started to pull on the hat.

Trixie began to scream and writhed harder forcing Rainbow to focus on keeping her down. ‘What the fuck are you doing?’

Gilda didn’t answer she just grunted in exertion as she pulled harder. Shifting her grip, Gilda wrapped both her hands around Trixies hat and pulled with her full body weight making it difficult for Rainbow to keep Trixie down. Finally with the sound of cracking ice the hat came off and Gilda fell backwards onto her back and Rainbow lost her grip on Trixie from the sudden change in pressure. Writhing stopped, Trixie stood up and ran three paces before she collapsed to her knees and began dry heaving violently.

Rainbow got up to go after her but Gilda stopped her by saying ‘No dude. Just wait.’

They watched together as the dry heaving eventually stopped and stopped and Trixie stood up rubbing bile from her lips. ‘Trixie is freed…’ she mumbled ‘Trixie is in control of her own mind again!’ looking at the two of them eyes shining ‘Trixie has her own mind!’ she screamed to the heavens and began to run around joyously.

‘Huh…’ Gilda said ‘Turns out getting possessed makes you insane.’

‘Trixie is not insane…’ Trixie said shaking her head ‘I’m not insane. I’ve just been freed!’ she shouted again before rushing over and wrapping Gilda and Rainbow in a hug ‘Thank you so much for freeing Trixie!’

Gilda pushed her off ‘Dude you smell like shit.’

‘Trixie knows’ she nodded ‘I haven’t bathed since I was possessed almost a week ago. But Trixie doesn’t care! Trixie is free!’

Gilda looked at Rainow as Trixie ran around excitedly once more. ‘Was she always like this?’

‘No.’ was all Rainbow could say as she shook her head, she then turned to face Gilda and blanched.  ‘Um… What’s with your eyes?’

‘Are they black?’ Gilda asked remembering what happened when she’d used the antimagic before, and taking off her gauntlet.

‘Yeah…’ Rainbow said as she stared.

‘Ah, don’t worry it’ll fade in a sec.’ Gilda said as she walked over to Trixie and grabbed her by the back of her collar ‘Shut up for a minute will you?’

Trixie quieted down once she saw Gilda’s eyes.

Gilda spoke ‘Rainbow here’s going to walk you back to carousel boutique, because you were possessed I don’t think you’re gonna try anything so I’m not gonna tie you up’ Gilda voice lowed her voice to a growl ‘but you try to hurt Rainbow and I’ll fucking find you. Got it?’ with her eyes black Rainbow thought she was pretty damn intimidating.

Trixie thought so even more apparently because she nodded enthusiastically and backed away from Gilda ‘No Trixie understands, she doesn’t have anywhere else to go anyway.’

‘Good.’ Gilda warned and turned back to Rainbow ‘Hey Dash, can you take Trixie here to carousel Boutique and wait there for me or Rarity?’

‘Yeah no problem.’ Rainbow hesitated ‘But you’re seriously gonna have to tell me what’s going on with that glove thing and your eyes.’

Gilda shrugged noncommittally ‘Maybe later, I don’t know. I’m gonna go check on everyone else.’ And turned around and flew off.

Trixie watched her fly away and shivered ‘Her eyes…’

‘Yeah… They were pretty creepy.’ Rainbow agreed before stooping down and picking up Trixies’ discarded hat. ‘Come on; while we’re walking you can tell me what happened.’

Kain stood outside the door to Twilights library with a smirk on his face as he watched Gilda approach the door. ‘So our little attack dog returns’ he called out to her ‘Two people in one day, that a new personal best for you?’

‘What the fuck are you talking about?’ Gilda asked stopping at the door.

‘Here you are, mere hours after killing two people and you’re not even ruffled slightly.’ Kain chuckled shaking his head ‘and you swear to me you’ve never killed before?’

Gilda glared at Kain hatefully ‘Fuck off Kain, besides I only killed one of them.’

Kain shrugged ‘They were moving two body bags out of Carousel Boutique when I checked. From what I was told you beat the guy’s head against a table, It may not have killed him right away but an action like that usually causes brain damage or bleeding inside the skull, which probably killed him after a couple of hours.’ Kain shook his head ‘One person or two, you’re still completely unaffected, no panting, no guilt, none of that “Oh no I’m a murderer” shit that people fresh to the art typically do.’

‘Fuck you. What are you even doing out here?’ Gilda asked. ‘Isn’t everyone inside?’

Shrugging Kain answered ‘Everyone’s in there waiting for you, I got bored so I stepped outside. Before you go in you may want to know something.’

‘What?’ Gilda asked crossing her arms.

Kain smiled as he spoke ‘Apparently one of the people you killed was Applejack cousin.’

Gildas eyes widened ‘Shit… Really?’

‘Yep, some guy named Braeburn apparently. She’s more than a little pissed off about it. Come on, lets go inside now, I’m sure Celestia wants to give her pet a nice treat for being such a good little doggie.’

‘Fuck you! I don’t work for Celestia.’

Kain smirked as he turned around ‘You know, the more you deny something, the more true it sounds, even to yourself.’ Then he pushed open the door.

And that’s the end of that chapter. A little shorter than usual (4500 words instead of 5000) but honestly I posted a chapter yesterday so I think if you want to complain it wouldn’t be very vaild.

Chapter 14. Pat on the Head

Chapter 14

The library was fairly crowded; the building was only a rural library and thus had never been intended to host so many people. All the elements of harmony were here plus Spike, Celestia, Luna, Trixie and until about a minute ago Kain who had stepped outside complaining of boredom. Celestia was personally unwilling to start until she had all the facts and the last person with facts was yet to arrive.

Heads turning towards the sound of the door opening the sun princess watched as Kain walked in with Gilda following.

‘She’s here.’ Kain said to no one in particular.

Celestia turned to Luna who was on her left ‘Come sister.’ Before she turned back to the group ‘Gilda and Trixie, we must speak to you both.’

Luna led the way through the door into the kitchen and Celestia followed with Gilda and Trixie in tow. Once they were all in the kitchen the door was closed and a sound barrier was cast, Trixie immediately bowed like she was on stage but Gilda did nothing.

‘Rise.’ The taller princess instructed. Turning to her agent Celestia smiled warmly ‘Gilda, You have performed very well today.’

‘Thanks.’ the griffin muttered sullenly.

Celestia noticed the resentment but chose to ignore it at present ‘You saved the lives of two of the elements and even saved Trixie here.’

‘Trixie could have saved herself.’ Trixie mumbled probably thinking that Celestia wouldn’t hear.

Celestia continued ‘You used the gauntlet I provided and figured out how to break Xath’s enchantment. I take it you’ve been keeping up with the assignments I’ve set you then.’

‘Yeah.’ Gilda nodded.

‘As I said before, you’re pleasing me and completing all tasks I set admirably, keep it up and you’ll be rewarded handsomely. For now though, take this.’ Celestia handed Gilda a left handed gauntlet that was a match for her existing one. ‘I expect you to master them both.’

Gilda looked at the gauntlet like she was holding a snake ‘thanks.’ Taking out the other gauntlet the griffon put them both on and held her hands in front of her face.

Luna spoke up ‘Are you sure that’s wise sister?’

Celestia payed no attention to her and turned to face Trixie ‘Now what are we to do with you?’

‘Do not ignore me!’ Luna shouted in her royal voice making Celestias’ ears ring in protest. Lowering her voice to a normal tone Luna spoke ‘we are not going to discuss this later, after you’ve done it, we’re going to talk about it now.’

Celestia turned to glare at Luna ‘Sister… Say your piece.’

Luna returned the glare but continued ‘I was not aware that you decided to give away the first gauntlet until this morning when you told me that you had already done so. You didn’t tell me you planned on giving the second away either. Indeed, I have not had a single idea what was going on with this situation since the moment Kain arrived in Ponyville. You’ve been keeping me out of the loop Celestia, I know for a fact you didn’t want me to accompany you here last time you came to this town.’ Luna shook her head and her voice grew harder ‘Now you’re standing there and giving away the power of antimagic to some hoodlum griffon while simultaneously congratulating her for ending the lives of two different people! No Celestia! You will not simply do this.’

‘Umm… I can give them back.’ Gilda spoke up while taking the gauntlets off and holding them out as if offering them in trade.

Celestia turned to her ‘Gilda put those away. You will be keeping them and you will master them; this is not something you can get out of.’

‘You plan on giving them to her anyway?’ Luna said aloud ‘I don’t care for how you handle your pets Celestia but I will not allow you to give away the gauntlets!’

Gilda shouted ‘I’m not her fucking pet and-’ she cut herself off at a signal from Celestia.

Having silenced Gilda with a hand motion Celstia spoke out in a very even tone ‘Luna… Fine. If you think I’ve been keeping you out of the loop than I will remedy that, but this is my kingdom and it has been mine for the past thousand years. I do want you to take part in the kingdoms affairs but for now understand this; I am a millennium you senior and I do not need to consult you for every decision I make. One day we will rule as equals but until you’re ready for that day I will handle things as I see fit. If you like then for now I will start to grant you more responsibilities, but in this matter I am decided, Gilda will have both gauntlets and will continue to serve me here in Ponyville.’

Luna and Celestia stared at each other for a while ‘Fine. But you cannot pretend that this matter is settled.’ Luna said breaking eye contact.

Celestia turned back to Trixie ‘Tell us of what happened to you.’

‘Uh, do you want me to be here for this?’ Gilda asked before Trixie had the chance to answer.

Celestia turned to the griffon ‘As my agent you have a right to know of some decisions I make and to even advise me from time to time. This is one of those times.’

‘Oh… Ok then.’ Gilda leaned back against a wall and crossed her arms.

Everyone then turned back to Trixie, ‘Please, continue your story’ Celestia instructed.

Trixie bowed again grandly ‘The great and powerful Trixie was traveling west towards Appleoosa. Trixie admits that her show has come under… hard times of late and she hoped perhaps that Appleoosa would provide the opportunity to er… get back on her feet being, a remote community with little contact with the rest of Equestria. Trixie simply deigned not to ride the train because it simply wasn’t worthy of her, instead she decided to travel there on foot because she likes sleeping under the stars. One night she made camp with a stranger who was passing the same way. This stranger was of course dazzled by my charm and magical talent and-’

Celestia decided now would be a good time to interrupt ‘Stop embellishing the tale and speak in first person. Remember that I’m yet to decide whether to send you to prison or not.’

The elder princess noted in the corner of her vision that Gilda was glancing between Trixie and Celestia, a look of realisation dawning on her face. No doubt this scene was starting to seem familiar to her.

‘Prison!’ Trixie gasped ‘But I was possessed! And I didn’t even hurt anyone!’

Celestia spoke almost casually ‘Attempted murder still carries a prison sentence, and find me a single law regarding exemption and possession, the most you could argue in court was that you were under the influence or maybe plead insanity, keep speaking in the third person and you might pull the latter off.’

Trixie gulped and began to stammer ‘B-b-b- but Trixie can’t go to prison! She’s innocent!’

Celestia nodded ‘which is why I’m giving you the chance to settle this with us right here where I can be more lenient. Now continue your story in first person without any more exaggerations please.’

Trixie nodded and continued nervously ‘Yes, yes er… I made camp with an earth folk named Braeburn who took pity on me. Two others arrived at the camp and we had something of a roadside celebration. The noise or the fire must have been visible from the air because shortly a man with wings and two horns arrived. He attacked and incapacitated Braeburn and the two others first, I tried to use my magic but for some reason the moment I tried to cast a spell I felt something wrap around me and press me into the ground.’

‘He then tied three strips of cloth around the three unconscious peoples’ heads. He tried to do the same to me but it didn’t work. Whatever magic he was trying to use wasn’t working on me.’

Gilda interrupted ‘I call bullshit.’

‘Pardon?’ Trixie asked and everyone turned to face Gilda.

Gilda spoke to everyone though she was looking at Trixie ‘You’re a horned folk whose talent is magic; Antimagic should be more effective on you than pretty much anyone else short of a greater folk. I call bullshit; you’re either exaggerating or lying.’

Trixie rolled her eyes ‘And I assume a griffon would be an expert on such matters?’

Gilda held up her gauntlets for Trixie to see ‘Technically I’m the most qualified antimagic user in this room, so yeah, as far as you’re concerned I am the expert.’ She turned to Celestia ‘Also it was in the books you sent me.’

Celestia nodded and turned back to Trixie ‘Well?

Gulping nervously and glancing worriedly between Celestia and her agent, Trixie continued ‘I-I-I don’t know… Er… I swear it’s the truth, he attempted to cast his enchantment on me and at first it didn’t work. Eventually he gave up with the strips and cast the spell on my hat, and then it worked.’

Gilda nodded ‘Yeah your hat was the possessed part, and it was way harder to break than the other enchantments.’

Nodding enthusiastically Trixie agreed ‘Yes see! That proves Trixie’s telling the truth.’

Celestia tilted her head to the left ‘It still doesn’t explain why you claim to be able to resist possession.’

Trixie could only shrug lamely.

‘Continue.’ Celestia instructed.

‘Yes um… being possessed was terrible. It was like having an ice cold snake constricted around Trixies… er… my brain, controlling my actions and crushing my mind, I could see and hear my actions like normal but I couldn’t do anything. For a week the four of us wondered through the wilderness together in the direction of Ponyville.’

‘When we finally arrived we split up, I went through town towards that cloud home and when I arrived I waited there for something. Eventually… Rainbow… Something, I don’t remember her second name but she arrived and the snake in my mind wanted to run forward and stab and stab and stab but I… resisted somehow. I didn’t want to kill someone and I sort of just struggled with the snake. I didn’t win the fight because I was still approaching her slowly and I was about to stab her when your uh… agent arrived and disarmed me before breaking the enchantment. And that’s the whole story.’

Celestia and Luna stared at Trixie together sorting through the events in their minds.

‘You claim that you resisted antimagic?’ Celestia asked.

‘Yes, princess.’ Trixie nervously nodded.

‘Gilda, did the other two who attacked you and Rarity seem to be at all hesitant?’ Celestia asked.

Shaking her head Gilda answered ‘No not hesitant, but they did have tears in their eyes like they were sad to be doing it. Also when I knocked one of them unconscious he got right back up, his pulse was lowered, his eyes were rolled back into his skull and he got right back up. Again, I call bullshit on her story.’

‘Is what she says about fighting the urge to kill Rainbow Dash true?’

Gilda paused to think about it ‘Well… When I was flying towards her she wasn’t walking like the other ones were. Her steps were all jerky like she was fighting to put her foot forward.’

Celestia considered what was said once more.

Luna spoke after a minute ‘Silver is an odd colour for a folks’ hair.’

Trixie blinked ‘I beg your pardon…’

Continuing her line of thought Luna spoke ‘Your hair… It’s not grey or white… It’s a metallic silver. I’ve lived for quite some time and I’m yet to meet a folk with metallic hair.’

‘Yes… You’re right sister; I’ve never encountered such either.’ Celestia considered Trixie and her attributes. ‘Still it’s an oddity nothing more.’ There was nothing that was particularly useful about her, unless you count possibly being slightly harder to possess as being a valued skill, there was nothing here that Celestia really had any use for at all. ‘You’re free to go.’

Trixie bowed low ‘Thankyou your highness, I-’

‘No’ Luna spoke aloud. ‘She’s not free to go; she’s to return to the palace with us.’

‘What?’ Trixie asked ‘But I thought she said-’

Celestia silenced her with a wave ‘Sister?’

Luna glanced at Gilda then back to Celestia ‘You have your pets, then I shall have mine.’

Thinking about it for a second, the elder greater folk could see no real reason to object. If Luna thought she had a use for this Trixie, fine; she could help herself, and if there was something important about silver hair then Celestia would hear about it eventually.

‘Very well then.’

Trixie sputtered ‘D-d-does Trixie have a say in this?’

Gilda let out a sharp laugh ‘No dude, you really don’t.’

‘Come Trixie.’ Luna ordered walking towards the door.

‘B-b-but I-’

Gilda shoved Trixie towards the door ‘Dude, just go with it.’

Luna led a still sputtering Trixie out the door.

Once the door was closed Gilda spoke shaking her head ‘Watching that… You played me like a harp when we met. How rehearsed is that prison bit?’

Celestia turned a cool gaze on Gilda and decided not to answer her question ‘Have you learned why it was you four who were attacked?’

Gilda blinked ‘Four?’

Nodding Celestia answered ‘Yes Kain was attacked as well.’

Gilda nodded ‘Oh. Well yeah I got a theory, and that just supports it.’

‘What’s your theory? Celestia asked.

‘There were four possessed people right? And they attacked me, Rarity, Kain and Dash right? Well we were the four people who went into the Everfree that night, and the guy that attacked me had this pinned to his band’ Gilda held out a small brown feather ‘And the one that went after Rarity had this.’ Gilda held out a long brunette hair. ‘We must have left some trace of ourselves in the clearing we all stopped at so my guess is Xath cast a spell using these which is how they were able to head straight to us.’

Celestia smiled. That was the conclusion she’d reached too.

Good, Gilda’s learning to reason, a valuable attribute. She will be a fine agent once her training is complete.

Time for a different sort of questioning. ‘How do you feel?’

Gilda blinked ‘What?’

‘I asked about how you’re feeling.’

There was a slight hesitation in Gildas’ response ‘Um… fine I guess. Why?’

Not answering, Celestia walked out of the room.

After A day like today she feels fine? Interesting…

Celestia heard footsteps behind herself and she saw Gilda run past her over to Rarity who was seated down looking shocked. As Celestia watched Gilda reached out to touch Rarity comfortingly but the horned folk flinched away and the griffon looked hurt.

Interesting... Very Interesting.

Celestia cleared her throat for attention. ‘Everyone I have something to tell you. As I’m sure you’ve all learned four of us were attacked this morning…’

Celestias’ speech droned on a little and Gilda couldn’t help but tune her out, she was more worried about the way Rarity was acting towards her. Seated with Dash on her left, Gilda couldn’t help but stare at the beautiful horned folk. Her mind was in a complete mess at the moment but she did her best not to let it show.

Rarity’s afraid of me.

It felt like a punch to the gut when she’d realised that, her stomach clenched and Gilda had had to fight not to do something stupid like rush over and… she didn’t know what she might do but it was definitely a bad idea.

Across the room seated next to Fluttershy was Applejack who had tears in her eyes. Oh she looked sad now but Gilda knew that Applejack was gonna be out for blood once her tear ducts had dried up, and that blood would probably be Gildas. This was not going to end prettily.

I shouldn’t have fucking killed him.

There was Kain leaning against a wall and looking bored, his earlier comments had disturbed Gilda greatly. The man was right, Gilda wasn’t sad about killing those two men; she was regretful that she hadn’t handled the situation better by breaking the spells before she’d killed them, but as to the fact that she caused the deaths of two men, she wasn’t sad in the slightest. And that was what disturbed Gilda, she was disturbed by how undisturbed she was.

I can’t be like him. I just can’t…

And Celestia standing there, seeming for the whole world like she actually was what she appeared to be, the sweet, loving, benevolent queen that everyone loved. But no, underneath that was a hard ruthless bitch, none of her pretty speeches ever mentioned being blackmailed. The griffon idly wandered if Twilight Sparkle had ever seen what Celestia was really like. But worse than the deception was this: Gilda knew that Celestia wasn’t done with her, not by a long shot. The princess was putting way to much effort into Gilda for her to simply be using her to keep an eye on Kain. No, once this mess blew over and if Gilda survived it all, Celestia would have plans for her.

She’s not gonna let me go, she was never going to let me go.

Rainbow must have noticed her turbulent thoughts because she reached over and put a reassuring hand on Gildas’ shoulder. Smiling gratefully Gilda mouthed thanks.

Rainbow was a great friend and that was that, she had always been way more understanding than Gilda had any right to expect. Sure they’d had their share of fights and they got on each other’s nerves now and then but the fact was the two of them just knew each other. Rainbow had to be the only person that had ever truly understood Gilda and she was the only person that wasn’t part of her family that knew about Gildas’ troubled family history. Sure she’d never learned it all in one place but she’d picked it up slowly over the years they’d roomed together. Thinking back on it the griffon realised that on two separate occasions she’d turned her back on Rainbow only to be received back with open arms.  It made Gilda have to fight down the urge to just hug Rainbow in an over the top Pinkie Pie like display of affection.

Why’s she friends with me?

Apparently her thoughts had distracted her for so long that the princesses speech had ended and they were all instructed to return to their homes. Everyone left the room except for Celestia, Spike and Twilight.

Following the others out the door Gilda failed to notice the massive fist until it slammed into her face, knocking her off her feet. Working her jaw and rubbing her face Gilda looked up to see Applejack standing there with tears in her eyes and her fist outstretched. Everyone in the group just stared for a moment until Fluttershy ran forward to aid Gilda, but Applejack grabbed the back of her sweater and pulled her short. Fluttershy turned around and glared at Applejack until the farmer released her grip on the girl. Climbing back to her feet Gilda resisted all of the concerned vets attempts to aid her.

The group stared in silence for a minute until Applejack turned around and walked away without a word. Glancing between Gilda and the retreating figure, Fluttershy muttered a quick apology before running after Applejack. Smirking Kain shook his head and turned away, followed by Pinkie who glanced between Gilda and the retreating parties before saying something sentimental to Gilda and jogged away after Applejack. Rainbow sighed and looked forlorn before shaking her head and flying away leaving Gilda and Rarity alone together. Without saying anything Rarity turned around and walked away.

That hurt and Gilda wasn’t thinking about the punch. It felt like someone grabbed her stomach and just squeezed, they just gripped onto her stomach and yanked it out.

No… She can’t hate me… Please… She just- she can’t…

Breaking into a jog, Gilda ran to catch up to Rarity. For her part the horned folk made no attempt to speed up or slow down, simply ignoring the pounding footsteps behind her. When Gilda caught up she slowed down and reached out to put her hand on Raritys’ shoulder, which the horned folk just shrugged off.

‘Rarity…’ Gilda said aloud ‘I-I-’

‘You killed two people.’ Rarity finished for her. ‘This morning I saw you kill Braeburn.’ her voice was bland ‘and I can tell you’re not even sad about it. I knew Braeburn and you ended his life… to save my own.’

Gilda walked behind Rarity in silence. The griffon simply couldn’t think of anything to say in response to that, her mind was too clouded with her own mixed feelings.

‘I’m not even responsible for his death at all and I feel guilty.’ Rarity continued ‘I can’t help but think of ways that I could have tied him up or knocked him out or… any other way that he might not have died. But you… I don’t know what you’re feeling right now, but it’s not guilt…’

‘Rarity I-’ Gilda was interrupted once more that night.

‘There’s something wrong with you Gilda.’

That hurt.

Gilda blinked back tears and did her best to maintain her composure. They walked together to Carousel Boutique in silence.

They entered the building together, the two corpses from this morning were gone but the mess from the fight was still there. Gilda could see the patch of blood were she’d broken big macs nose; it was a small patch no bigger than a coin. Its size didn’t matter when it made Gilda think of Rarity pressed to the ground beneath Braeburn, with his fingers wrapped around her throat, her face turning purple as the life slowly choked out of her, her struggles growing increasingly feeble and finally ceasing, her form going limp.

Gilda couldn’t take it, she just couldn’t, she ran into the kitchen and came back out with a roll of paper towels. Falling to her knees she ripped off a sheet and started to wipe up the blood, it had long since dried and the paper towel did nothing so Gilda rubbed harder and harder to scratch the blood off. The paper in her hand tore and Gilda started using her claws to try and desperately scratch the blood off the floor. That wasn’t working very well either so without thinking Gilda licked the tip of her claws to try and see if moisture would help. Then she noticed the taste of blood in her mouth, the tiny chunks of dried blood that had been clinging to her claws were now in her mouth and dissolving on her tongue.

It tastes no different from deer blood.

Recoiling in horror Gilda spat blood from her mouth and almost ran away from the patch of blood.

It has to be different, it shouldn’t taste the same. What the fuck is wrong with me?

Bursting out the door onto the street outside Carousel Boutique, Gilda’s eyes were blurry with tears and she stumbled down the steps and fell flat onto her face.

When the fuck did I start crying?

‘Gilda!’ Rarity came down the stairs after Gilda.

Gilda put her hand to the ground beneath herself and began to push herself to her feet just as it started to rain. ‘You’re right about me, Applejack’s right about me, Kains’ right, I think Celestia thinks it and if so she’s right. I’m a fucking killer!’ Gilda sobbed out now that she was standing. ‘And I don’t even feel bad about it! I feel bad about not feeling bad but that’s not the same. It’s no different to me, killing a person; it’s the same as a rabbit or a dear or whatever… What the fuck’s wrong with me?’ Gilda asked now stalking back and forth while Rarity watched ‘Why did I have to be fucked up so bad!’ she shouted out rain coating her face ‘Why the fuck was Dash ever friends with me?! Why the hell are you being so nice to me?!’ Gilda’s voice was cracking now ‘I don’t deserve shit! Celestia’s right to want to use me! I’m fucking perfect for this life!’

‘What are you talking about Gilda?’ Rarity asked stepping closer.

Gilda laughed bitterly now ‘Celestia blackmailed me into staying in Ponyville. She wants me to keep you guys safe from things like what happened this morning. That’s why she’s been sending me books and shit and these’ Gilda pulled the gauntlets out of her pocket ‘at the library she gave me a pat on the head and told me what a good little dog I was.’

Rarity blinked with disbelief ‘Blackmail?’

‘Yeah you’d never think it would you? Celestia the hard core bitch…’ Gilda chuckled bitterly but tears were still flowing from her eyes ‘And the worst part is she won’t be done with me. Once this is over and Xath and Kain are gone there’s no way she’s not gonna want more from me.’

Rarity stepped closer to Gilda and put a hand on her shoulder ‘That can’t be true, I’m sure she-’

‘And Applejack and Kain… They’re both right… I’m nothing but a fucking murderer.’

Rarity hesitated ‘That’s not true.’

‘Yes it is!’ Gilda shouted ‘I killed two people Rarity, two people in one fucking day and I’m not even sorry!’

‘You killed them to protect me.’ Rarity stated.

Gilda nodded and gulped her mind now taking a different emotional track ‘and that guy on top of you… with his hands wrapped around your throat… and your face going purple… I think about that and I panic. I fucking panic, like there’s this pressure on my chest. And the bruises, I can still see them on your throat, those bruises… ’Gilda’s voice dropped to a low growl ‘I see those and I want to hurt something, I really want to feel something crack between my finger…’ Gilda stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Rarity ‘I can’t let you die… I can’t fucking let you die.’

Rarity slowly raised her arms and returned the hug ‘Gilda are you ok?’

‘No I’m not.’ Gilda stepped back shook her head ‘I’m a fucking mess. I just need… I don’t know what I need. I just… Let’s get inside.’ Gilda wrapped her arm around Raritys’ shoulder and pulled her up the steps into Carousel Boutique. ‘Look at me, you’re the one who nearly died this morning and here I am crying like a pussy.’

‘It’s ok to cry Gilda’ Rarity said. ‘I did once you left and I realized it was Braeburn who had been strangling me. I didn’t recognise him at first but once the shock from being attacked wore off I was terrified. I cried alone minutes after you’d left.’

‘Shit… I’m sorry I wasn’t there to-’

‘There to what?’ Rarity asked ‘You saved my life this morning and I’m grateful. You saved Rainbows life and if you’d stuck around to comfort me you wouldn’t have had time to save her. No you did everything right. I know you tried to knock them out without killing them first. Braeburn just kept getting back up and you did what you had to do at the time. I know Applejack doesn’t see it that way but you did everything you could.’

Gilda didn’t respond as the two of them just climbed up the stairs together, in her mind she thought she might have been able to put down Braeburn without killing him, she’d just forgotten it in the middle of the fight.

Rarity continued ‘To be honest I never knew Braeburn very well at all. I met him briefly when we stayed at Appleoosa. At the time he was a cheerful and hardworking man, the embodiment of the Apple families’ better traits. Now I remember him most for almost killing me, I know for a fact that he will appear frequently in my nightmares for months to come. The point is Gilda; maybe you should feel bad about killing him, but you saved me and maybe that’s why you don’t feel bad about it.’

Gilda knew that was wrong, but she didn’t voice that thought.

Rarity shook her head ‘I know you like to pretend you don’t care for those around you but I realise now how much what I said must have hurt you. You have been damaged in the past yes, but it was wrong of me to say there was something wrong with you. I’m very sorry I said that.’

‘It’s ok.’ Gilda said ‘I am pretty messed up.’

Rarity sighed ‘That’s not the point Gilda, if there is something wrong with you I should be trying to help you overcome the problem rather than using it to hurt you more.’

They came to the door that led into Gilda’s room ‘So are we going to the same room or are we just walking each other to bed?’

Rarity smiled gently ‘Good night Gilda’ and separated herself from the griffon, though Gilda still held onto her hand. Noticing Gilda’s hesitation in letting go of her hand Rarity turned around just as Gilda released it from her grip and turned around, hoping the lady hadn’t noticed anything odd.

‘Yeah… Night Rarity.’ She said over her should as she closed the guest room door behind her, she didn’t have the chance to see if Rarity had noticed her clinginess. The rain on the rook made a relaxing sound as Gilda climbed into her bed.

After a day like that, even with her mind as troubled as it was it didn’t take long for her to get to sleep. Her bruises from the fight sung a nice relaxing lullaby as Gilda’s eyes slowly fluttered shut.

Rarity patiently waited for half an hour before she silently slipped out of the room and down the hall to the guest room. Opening the door silently Rarity observed the Griffons unmoving shape for a moment before she was satisfied that Gilda was asleep and shut the door. Turning around Rarity silently tiptoed down the stairs and selected an umbrella from a fancy looking stand. Rarity opened the umbrella and stepped outside into to the night rain.

Walking through town she inwardly chided herself for stepping out into the rain without putting on something a little less lavish first. The sole cloud house in Ponyville floated just up ahead of her.

‘Rainbow!’ Rarity shouted out but heard no response. The weather captain was probably sleeping through the downpoor her team had created while she was occupied.

Sighing Rarity accessed the magic inherit to all horned folk and prepared a cloudwalking spell, which was easy enough to cast, especially since Rarity had improved drastically in her casting with the aid of Twilight Sparkle. Teleporting was hard, most mystic couldn’t manage a short one way trip across a distance of a few metres. Twilight sparkle was an absolute powerhouse of magic, as was her brother Shining armour, so she could manage a number of fairly long distance teleportations though it took a fair amount of effort on her part. Not too many horned folk ever bothered to learn much magic beyond basic levitation though that was easy and almost instinctive; Rarity however was a much better than average sorceress. Sure she was nothing compared to the element of magic but still she could manage a decent enough teleport when she had to.

Surrounding herself with magic Rarity popped out of existence briefly before slamming down onto Rainbows cloud porch. Ok, maybe she’d exaggerated her abilities, she could teleport, but that’s not to say she really should, her teleportation’s were always rough using more energy than they should and slamming her back into existence feeling disoriented. It was a good thing clouds were soft because Rarity fell to her knees when she reappeared, if the porch had been a regular one made of concrete or something Rarity would have scraped her knee.

Climbing to her knees and dusting herself of some imaginary dirt Rarity walked forward and knocked on the door to Rainbows home. ‘Rainbow Dash!’ she called out. ‘I wish to speak to you!’

There was no response so Rarity repeated her action until eventually the door was opened and Rainbow stood there rubbing her eye. ‘What?’ she asked looking unimpressed.

‘Did I wake you up?’ Rarity asked.

‘No but in about five minutes you might of.’ Yawning Rainbow popped her joints ‘What is it?’

‘It’s about Gilda.’

Sighing Rainbow stood back and allowed Rarity to enter her home ‘Yeah I thought it might be, how’d you get up here anyway?’

‘Teleportation and a cloud walking spell.’ Stated Rarity as they entered through the door and moved towards Rainbows living room.

‘So what did she do?’ the weather folk asked as she sat down on her couch.

Rarity blinked. ‘Nothing… Why what could she have done?’

Shrugging Rainbow answered ‘I dunno, I can think of a bunch of things that might tick you off.’

‘Such as?’

‘Well I imagine she wouldn’t be getting along with Sweetie too well so that could be it, or she broke something when she got frustrated or… She hit on you maybe?’

Rarity shook her head ‘Yes she’s had issues with Sweetie but we’re largely past that now and she hasn’t broken anything and no she hasn’t…’ Rarity blinked. Had Gilda hit on her?

Was that what that handholding was?

Rarity continued ‘Anyway I’m not here about anything like that.’

‘Then why couldn’t it wait till morning?’ Rainbow grumbled irritably but the question was obviously rhetorical

Rarity considered how best to phrase her request ‘When we returned to Carousel Boutique she had something of a breakdown.’

‘How bad was it?’ Rainbow asked sitting forward attentively.

‘Um…’ Pausing the horned folk continued ‘Not very bad I supposed, she cried a little and said a few things that I’m not sure she meant.’

‘Things like what?’ Rainbow asked intently.

Rarity blinked ‘She said she was a murderer for killing Braeburn and that other man, that Kain and Applejack were right about her and that she was panicked when Braeburn was attacking me.’

Rainbow nodded ‘Well that doesn’t sound so bad.’

Nodding Rarity agreed ‘I agree but it seemed to me like there was a little history behind a few of the things she said.’

Sitting back Rainbow folded her arms ‘So you waited until she fell asleep, before coming here, to get me to tell you about her private history behind her back?’ she looked very unimpressed.

Rarity coughed awkwardly shifting ‘Maybe.’

Shaking her head Rainbow sighed ‘Look: she never even told me her story, I just figured it out after a while. If she hasn’t told you yet then I know I’m not gonna, I know how freaking much she’d hate that.’

Rarity’s voice took on a pleading edge ‘Please Rainbow! I can see that she has some serious problems and I want to help her, but she won’t let me.’

‘No.’ Rainbow paused ‘Though…’ she trailed off.

‘Though what?’ Rarity asked.

Biting her lip Rainbow looked Rarity up and down as if examining her ‘Has Gilda?… Has she ever seemed?… Wait a second…’ A look of realisation dawned on her face ‘How did you get her to wear a dress?’

Rarity shook her head ‘Really Rainbow? Do you really want to discuss that now?’

Rainbow shook her head ‘No really I mean it. How did you get her in a dress?’

‘I just talked her into doing it for me.’ Answered the horned folk.

Rainbow sat back shaking her head wearily. ‘No you didn’t… Fuck… Alright I’m gonna tell you something about her but only because it’s not really private and only because it might involve you.’

‘How could it involve me?’ Rarity asked ‘I’ve only really had the chance to have known her for about a month and we barely even met before that.’

The athlete answered ‘I know, I’m not saying your part of the story, just that… Just listen will you?’

‘Erm… Okay.’ Rarity settled back into her chair.

Scratching the back of her neck awkwardly Rainbow spoke ‘I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that Gilda’s actually really vulnerable right?’

Rarity nodded cautiously.

Continuing Rainbow still seemed she was feeling awkward about talking about her friend like this ‘Like… she acts like she doesn’t care about the people around her, and like she’s all cool and stuff, but she’s actually really desperate for friends and even if she doesn’t think so herself, she’s really clingy to the friends she does have right?’

Rarity nodded again.

‘Well… Gilda’s only ever really connected with three people right? She’s only really had three good relationships… and no I don’t mean romantically, I mean like the literal definition of the word, as in two people just getting along. Of those three one ended really badly, one was me and that almost ended badly, and the last is the one I’m gonna tell you about in a second. I’m saying this so you know just how much what you do and say could affect Gilda. Basically she’s become attached to you and that means your now like the fourth, so if… Look when I say the other two ended badly I mean they ended really badly, so if things go badly here then it could get really-really nasty.’

A notable sense of concern started to rise up inside Rarity.

‘Back in flight school when me and her were rooming together, Gilda was… I wouldn’t call her the school bully but she was that scary kid who nobody messed with, and she did throw her weight around a little, so when one day I walked into the cafeteria and saw Gilda just sitting and talking to someone other than me it was a bit of a shock. That someone was a new girl in school, her name was Vivacious Velocity but we just called her V.’

‘V was a sweet sort of girl, like… she was cute in that quirky nerd hot way that you might describe Twilight or Fluttershy as. Well V got along with Gilda really well for some reason and I got along with her pretty well too. She was a pretty good flier, and hey, as far as I was concerned anybody who could get Gilda to open up was alright by me. Anyway during the last year of Flight school, Gilda returned to school from summer holidays and came out of the closet to me and V, about a week later V came out of the closet and she and Gilda started dating.’

‘They were going out for half a year until I noticed something odd about V, Gilda didn’t notice it but V started hanging out with guys a bit more and flirting with them and stuff. I told Gilda that I thought V might be cheating on her and Gilda told me to fuck off, we had a fight and we didn’t talk to each other for like a month. Now the thing was that V was never really gay, she was just… impressionable I guess. When Gilda came out it was sort of a “me too” thing and while she’d been having a relationship with Gilda, it was only really for the sake of it, she wasn’t involved in it like Gilda was. It turns out that for quite a while V had been seeing a bunch of people other than Gilda and she’d never really thought about if it would hurt her, she’d always not taken their relationship seriously apparently. Well Gilda found out and she took it really damn seriously.’

Rainbow shook her head ‘Now I wasn’t there when it happened, but this is the story I was told, and believe me there were rumours about it floating around for ages so this probably isn’t exactly what happened. Gilda walked in on V who was in the middle of a date with none other than the captain of the schools storm ball team. When Gilda saw V she shouted a bit and got pretty damn emotional apparently, like I said, I wasn’t there but a most people say she was crying and shouting and stuff. Now this is where there are a thousand versions of the story but the basics of it are that they fought each other and Gilda mopped the floor with that creep. One version had him throw the first punch and another said Gilda did, personally I believe she probably hit first. One had Gilda almost drown him in a fountain; my favourite had Gilda send him through a window before jumping on his chest and pounding his face in. I swear some people were even telling a version were Gilda broke his neck! Which isn’t possible cause the jerk’d be dead. Apparently V tried to get involved too cause she had a black eye when I saw her the next day. Whatever the details were the guy didn’t come back to school for like a month, and when he did he had new gold teeth so…’  Rainbow shrugged.

‘Anyway Gilda got expelled from school and came back to me to apologise for doubting me and stuff, I dropped out of Flight School soon after and me and her shared a shitty apartment for a while before I got this job in Ponyville, Gilda headed off to the wilderness and that’s… pretty much the whole story.’ Rainbow finished sitting forward in her chair.

Rarity blinked, as much as that was an interesting story she had two important questions. ‘How is that not a private story? Also why did you think that I should know that?’

Rainbow smiled answering ‘It’s not private cause everyone from flight schools knows it, hell I think Fluttershy could have told it to you. Seriously it was all people could talk about for like a week after, the captain of the storm ball team got his ass kicked by some angry bull dyke.’

‘And I think you should know it because Gilda’s getting really attached to you, hell she’s probably crushing on you as is. The thing is Gilda’s opened up to you more than you may realise and it would be seriously easy for you to hurt her at this stage and if you do hurt her than I promise that it won’t end well. So… just be careful alright?’

Rarity nodded in understanding ‘Yes I will certainly be careful but I still think I should know about her family-’

‘Yeah I don’t care, those zee’s ain’t gonna catch themselves and I think I’ve told you enough for tonight.’

‘Rainbow I-’

The weather folk interrupted ‘Rarity, given that you’ve been doing this behind Gilda’s back and the only reason I don’t plan on telling her about this is I don’t know how she’ll take it, I think you’ve pushed your luck far enough tonight. Take what I’m giving and walk. Do you need any help getting back to ground?’

Feeling frustrated Rarity stood up ‘No I can get home fine, but I think you should try to speak to Gilda, something’s bothering her and I don’t know if it has anything to do with today but she’s still refusing to tell me about it.’

Shaking her head Rainbow led Rarity to the door ‘No, if she has a problem then she’ll come to me. Until then it’s her business and I’m gonna respect her privacy.’

Rarity stopped at the door and crossed her arms ‘I don’t think that’s very loyal of you.’

Rainbows eyes narrowed at that and her voice took on an angry tone. ‘Don’t lecture me about my own element. Being loyal means trusting those I’m loyal too. Now go home.’

Still hesitating Rarity spoke ‘I don’t think-’

‘Good night Rarity.’ Rainbow repeated firmly.

Sighing Rarity stepped out the door and heard the door shut behind her.

Well that hadn’t gone as planned.

AN:

Thanks to timefather64 and XIII dragon for continuing to review and occasionally helping me with aspects of my writing, and a curse upon you both for making it hard for me to take this chapter seriously. Your jokes about “Princess Celery” and “My Gilda” respectively, made writing one particular scene in this chapter an exercise in frustration and me struggling not to burst out laughing.

The issues between Applejack and Gilda are not over here. I promise you I’ll be going places with that, but at the moment I’m focussing on building the tension between the two of them. Also some of you may be asking ‘What was up with that bit with Trixie?’ My answer to that is; ‘hold all questions please.’

Here are a few fic recommendations for some stories that I enjoyed this week:

Of interest is the story “Tales of Mystica”. If you like humanized fics (and if you’ve read this far into mine I have to assume you do) then check it out. It’s fairly awesome, even if it’s only in its early stages, and I have it faved so it should be easy to find.

“Banishment Decree” is also quite awesome; you’d be surprised just how tense a few scenes in there really are. Plus it features Pinkie as batman. How can you not be at least a little curious about that?

“U-Harmony” was absolutely hilarious. One of the funniest things I’ve read in a very long time, Rarity stands out as a total scene stealer to me.

And finally we have XIII dragon’s “Breaking Twilight”. This is seriously one of the top five pieces of Pony fiction out there; if you plan on reading anything on this list then out of all the things that I’ve recommended I recommend it the most. And no I’m not just saying that cause the guy’s nice enough to drop reviews for me. I’m saying that because it’s really awesome and you’d be doing yourself a favour by checking it out. Sadly it’s only on fanfiction because thus far I’ve been unable to convince the author to put it on FIMfiction. But if you’re reading this on FIMfiction I still encourage you to go over to fanfiction and read it. Seriously the time you’ve spent reading my story would be much better used reading this. I say again and I say it one last time; go to fanfiction and read that damn fic!

If you want help finding it from FIMfiction; it go to my profile and click the link to my fanfiction account, you should find it in my favourites there.

Chapter 15. Short

Chapter 15

Pulling a carton of eggs out of the fridge, Kain slid a frying pan over the stoves element and turned the heat up. An egg soon slopped out of its shell and landed with a sizzle in the middle of the pan, its yoke burst and Kain cursed under his breath.

‘Eggs. Fucking eggs. I would kill for bacon… or beef, or jerky or… any meat. Fucking bitch.’

Just then a knock sounded at the door and Kain, recalling the events of yesterday, slowly slid his short out of its sheath.

‘Speaking of killing.’

Crossing the room and opening the door with his right hand while holding the sword in his left, Kain lowered his blade and sheathed it when he saw one of Celestia’s guards standing there. The guardsman was surrounded by other guardsmen that were all holding various long thin packages.

‘Your commission from Canterlot sir.’ The one who knocked said while eyeing Kain wearily.

Smiling Kain stepped forward and grabbed one of the packages, tearing off the wrapping revealed a short sword and the blademaster examined it critically.

Definitely well made, quite an edge, good weight and balance; excellent.

Waving a free hand at the door while weaving the sword around in the air to get a feel for it Kain instructed the guardsmen ‘Take them inside and leave them on the counter.’

Smiling to himself Kain stepped inside and drew blood on the edge of the short with the tip of his finger. The blood slowly ran down the blade and Kain watched its gradual progress. A polite cough distracted him from his haemoglobin and the blademaster looked up to see a soldier standing there looking at him with a frightened expression.

‘They came with a note from the princess sir.’ The other guards had already placed their packages on the counter top and the one standing before Kain held an envelope made out to the earth folk.

Snatching the envelope out of his hands Kain felt his good mood darken as he read its contents. Packages successfully delivered, the guards all filed out the door leaving Kain alone with his orders.

‘Fucking bitch.’ Kain muttered as he read the letter a second time. ‘Set your fucking agent to watch me and then expect me to train them to your bloody specifications.’

At least those specifications were more or less what I was going to do anyway.

Dropping the letter Kain returned to the stove and flipped his egg and turned the heat off. There was enough heat in the pan to finish the egg off so the man left it and turned towards the packages sitting on his counter. Adopting a childish grin Kain began to sort through them until he came across a long thin curved one sitting at the bottom of the pile. The man picked it up and tore off the wrapping to reveal what was beneath. Taking the handle in his hands Kain twirled it around in the air.

I Haven’t held one of these in ages.

‘This bring back memories.’ Kain mumbled to himself.

Gilda stepped out the front door of Carousel Boutique and down the steps into the wet street. It had been a rainy night so now the morning after puddles lined the sides of the streets and with the sun shining down, the scenery was quite nice. Perfect morning for hunting too, with the moisture caught in the soil, fresh tracks would be easier to spot and the water would attract a variety of creatures out of their homes. Really it was the perfect sort of morning for Gilda to spend in the woods setting snare for rabbits and tracking game to try out her new bow on, and that was what Gilda planned on doing, but first she had to deal with a few things.

‘Hey Gilda?’ Sweetie asked innocently a few steps behind Gilda. ‘Can I ask you a question?’

Sweetie was one of those few things Gilda had to deal with before she could go enjoy herself.

Gilda didn’t bother looking back as she spoke ‘Well you just did.’

‘Oh… Well can I ask another?’ Sweetie queried.

You just did again.

Flicking a little sleep out of her eye Gilda answered. ‘Yeah, why not?’ she had to play nice with Sweetie so answering a few questions didn’t seem that bad of a fate compared to say... aiding her in finding a cutie mark.

A letter had arrived from Celestia that morning telling Gilda to pick up another package at the post office. Apparently little Sweetie had ordered something in the mail too, to help with her crusading or whatever, so Rarity had asked Gilda if she’d be kind enough to escort the young girl to the post office while she picked up her own package. It wasn’t like Gilda was gonna say no when Rarity was flashing those eyelashes and giving her a smile that’d melt glaciers.

Skipping forward to walk along side Gilda, Sweetie asked her question ‘What’s your cutie mark?’

‘Don’t have one.’ Gilda’s strides were longer than the child’s so Sweetie was having trouble keeping pace.

‘You don’t have a special talent?’ The crusader asked sounding horrified ‘I thought everyone got a cutie mark? Oh no! What if I don’t have a special talent! What if I grow up to be like you?!’ the child was obviously panicking and her voice was starting to grate.

Gilda rolled her eyes ‘Shut up dude and stop panicking. Yeah I don’t have a special talent but that’s cause I’m a griffon, all folk get Cutie marks so don’t worry about growing up to be like me.’ Gilda blinked and looked over her shoulder at Sweetie ‘And the fuck is that supposed to mean? Grow up to be like me?’

Sweetie smiled innocently ‘nothing.’

Yeah Bullshit. I just got insulted by a fucking pre-schooler. You’re a mean little shit aren’t you?

‘Why don’t Griffons have Cutie marks?’ Trying to cover her insult with more questions Sweetie continued, or at least that’s what Gilda suspected she was doing.

Finally Celestias’ books come in handy.

Glad the she knew the answer to the question the griffon started to explain. ‘Folk get Cutie marks because they all have magic in them.’

Sweetie interrupted ‘No they don’t. Earth folk and winged folk can’t do magic.’

‘Yes they do.’ Gilda said irritated ‘Do you want to hear why or not?’

‘Yes.’ Sweetie answered hesitantly

‘Then shut up and listen.’ Gilda shook her head ‘Anyway, yeah, all folk have magic. Horned folk can cast spells and levitate shit so they’re magic is obvious and the one most people call magic. Your average mystic folk can manage things like basic levitation but a powerful one like Twilight can do all sorts of freaky shit like teleport or cast barriers.’

‘Sky folk can fly, despite having really small wings. They can also affect the weather and walk on clouds. The more powerful ones like say… Rainbow Dash or the wonder bolts can affect the laws of physics and fly at speeds that are flat out impossible or affect the weather.’

‘Then there’s earth folk who have the least magic, but what they do have makes them slightly stronger than other folk, the soil they touch more fertile, helps them grow plants and stuff. There’s a few legends about Earth folk who could throw rocks and soil around with their mind and stuff, but no one can really do that anymore. Most earth folk these days have almost no natural magic in them for whatever reason, but about the most powerful earth folk in these parts would have to be Applejack or Big Macintosh, or anyone from the Apple family really, those guys are really connected to the earth which is probably why they’re all so freaking big.’

‘Then there’s the Great folk who can do everything all the others can, and they can do it better too. They got strength from the earth folk, flight and speed from the sky folk and magic from the horned folk.’

Gilda turned to Sweetie expecting an argument ‘so all folk have some kind of magic right?’

The child simply nodded.

‘Well that’s what gives you a cutie mark. Your magic will one day recognise your special talent and slap that onto your thigh. Make sense?’

‘Yeah.’ The girl was smiling ‘But what about you?’

Gilda blinked ‘What about me?’

‘You can fly and walk on clouds.’

Gilda shook her head ‘ I used to be able to walk on clouds but that was cause I lived in Cloudsdale and hung around Sky folk so much that I soaked up a bit of their magic. Now if I wanted to go back there, someone would have to cast a cloud walking spell or I’d have to hang out with Dash a lot more. Griffons don’t have magic but they can pick up magic from folk if they’re around them enough. If me and Applejack got along better I might be able to grow some plants or something and I’d probably get a little stronger too.’

‘Oh’ Sweetie nodded in understanding ‘Hey you’ve been hanging out with Rarity right? So will you be able to do magic?’

Gilda shrugged ‘Yeah I’ve probably picked up some of her magic already, but not a lot and I’d never be able to do anything without a horn to focus it.’

‘Well… what if you were to hang out with a princess?’ Sweetie asked.

Gilda blinked.

I dunno, what if I did hang out with a great folk? That actually might happen. Would I get all the folk magic and more of it too?

‘I’m not sure.’ Gilda paused, she’d have to ask Celestia about that ‘but have you got any more questions?’

‘Yeah I have one.’ Sweetie seemed to be weighing her words a little ‘What’s a wing boner?’

Raising and eye brow Gilda turned to face Sweetie ‘You know what sex is right?’ she was searching Sweeties face for any sign of lying but Gilda knew she was terrible at reading people’s reactions.

Smiling Sweetie nodded ‘Yeah I do.’

Gilda thought about it for a second. On the one hand if the child didn’t know what it was then Gilda could be opening a real can of worms for Rarity, on the other hand if she did then it might be a good chance to suck up to Rarity through Sweetie. Eventually she decided to explain in such a way that included presumed knowledge, so if Sweetie didn’t know then she still wouldn’t know and if she did know than at least Gilda had helped her out.

Gilda shrugged ‘A wing boner’s a little bit of a myth. A sky folks wings are real sensitive to touch, so when they’re feeling ready but they don’t want to do anything about it they let their wings out a bit to stop them getting jerked by rubbing against their sides.’ Gilda chuckled ‘But if a Sky folks got their wings out for no reason, its cause they’re trying not to jerk themselves off.’

Sweetie nodded smiling. For the life of her Gilda didn’t know how much of that Sweetie had understood.

The child asked another question ‘What about Griffons? Are their wings real sensitive?’

‘Nah’ Gilda shook her head ‘We don’t have the same nerve clusters. But if you’re ever with a sky folk and really want to get them going massage their wings a bit. V used to love it.’ Gilda blinked.

I just said way too much. What if she goes and tries to jerk off one of her friends or something?

‘Oh…’ Sweeties eyes seemed distant ‘Ok.’ She returned to the moment ‘Hey Gilda, do you have a boyfriend?’

Gilda blinked ‘Nah… Not at the moment’ she answered cautiously.

‘Why not?’ Sweetie asked innocently.

‘Because I don’t want one.’ It was true.

‘Why not?’ Sweetie repeated.

Is she trying to get me to talk about my sex life?

Gilda was unsure how she should answer this ‘Um… Because I’m not… I don’t like guys in that way.’

‘Oh… So you’re gay?’ Sweetie asked smiling.

Gilda blinked.

Apparently she does know about the birds and the bees.

‘Yeah…’ The griffon answered slowly.

‘Do you have a girlfriend then?’

Gilda shook her head. The two were walking level now and the griffon could see the post office just coming into sight.

‘Why not?’

Gilda didn’t answer.

‘Do you want my sister to be your girlfriend?’

That almost made Gilda trip over, she turned to face the innocently smiling Sweetie Bell. ‘What?’

‘Well Rarity is really pretty and nice, if you did want to be her girlfriend you wouldn’t be the only one.’

Gilda opened her mouth to respond but couldn’t think of anything adequate to say. Eventually she just shook her head and lied ‘No I don’t want to be Rarity’s girlfriend and you shouldn’t say stuff like that out loud, it’s kind of personal.’

Sweetie just tilted her head to the side and looked at Gilda in a weird way. ‘Ok then.’ She then skipped past the griffon towards the post office. Gilda eventually caught up and walked through the door alongside her.

A cross eyed lady in a postmen’s uniform sat behind the counter ‘Good morning Sweetie, I have a package for you.’

The child broke into a grin ‘Good morning Ms Hooves. Is it big?’

The Derpy broke into a gentle smile ‘Not huge.’ then she turned to face the griffon, her smile dropping ‘Gilda’ she said coolly.

In flight school Gilda had known Derpy, while the cross eyed sky folk had been friendly to Gilda, the griffon had repeatedly told her to fuck off, eventually culminating in the use of the word retard. Apparently a line had been crossed and after that Derpy made no further attempts at friendship with Gilda. Now, however many years later, Derpy treated Gilda with indifference, which was fine by her.

‘Derpy’ Gilda nodded ‘you’ve got more packages for me?’

‘Yeah, two. I’ll go get them.’ The cross eyes lady turned around and headed into the back of the post office and came back a minute later holding three packages, holding one in front of her face and focusing an eye on it ‘This one’s for… Sweetie’ she placed the package in the young girls hands with a benevolent smile before turning to Gilda ‘And these are for you, ones from Canterlot as usual but the others from Cloudsdale.’ She placed both packages on the counter in front of Gilda.

Frowning Gilda muttered ‘Cloudsdale?’ and picked up the first package. The moment she saw the address from which it was sent she dropped the package on the counter ‘can you return that to sender?’ Gilda asked ‘actually I have a better idea, got a bin?’

Derpy nodded looking confused and pointed at a small dust bin in the corner.

Picking up the Cloudsdale package Gilda tossed it into the bin before turning around and picking up the package from Celestia, it was long and thin. Tucking it under her arm Gilda counted out some bits and dropped them on the counter.

‘Is that enough?’ she asked knowing that it was for three packages.

Derpy nodded looking over at the package in the bin then back at Gilda with a confused expression.

Gilda turned around and spotted Sweetie delicately lifting the discarded package from the dust bin ‘Hey!’

The child flinched and stood up quickly, dropping the package back into the bin.

‘Leave it!’ The griffon ordered. Striding forward and grabbing the child by the back of her shirt ‘come on; let’s get back to your sister.’

Standing in line with the others Rainbow couldn’t help but cast a wary eye between Gilda and Applejack. This was going to end really, really, badly. You didn’t need Pinkie sense to tell that. For her part Gilda was armed with two wooden short swords, Kains reasoning being that they were a bit closer to using a pair of knives and Gilda already had some experience with that, and Applejack with her usual hand and a half. It wasn’t the swords that concerned Rainbow though; it was the look AJ was giving Gilda. Now Rainbow wasn’t one to admit at being bad at anything, but one thing she knew she was terrible with was reading facial cues, but even she could read the look AJ was giving Gilda.

I’m gonna kill you.

No it really wasn’t hard to read that one.

Then the man of the hour, Kain himself stood to the side with a smug look on his face, as though he was just waiting for the blood to be forcefully ejected from Gilda’s body. Again not the best at reading facial cues but Rainbow could say with some certainty that Kain definitely wanted to see Gilda get hurt.

This was going to end badly.

‘What the fuck are you guys doing?’ an incredulous voice asked from behind the assembled spectators.

All the people in the clearing turned around and spotted Vinyl standing there at the entrance to the clearing.

For her part Vinyl looked as amused as she always did, ‘Damn that’s hot.’ She said aloud.

Kain still maintained his bare skin rules about fighting so all the assembled elements and griffon were wearing nothing from the waist up other than whatever bra they usually wore.

Vinyl stepped towards the group with her grin as wide as ever ‘Pinks, you’ve been working out, dropped off all that baby fat I see. Very nice.’

Pinkie brightened up under that assessment. It was true, under kain’s training she’d lost a lot of weight and was now looking fairly toned.

‘Who the hell are you?’ Kain asked angrily striding forward towards the DJ.

For her part Vinyl grinned and ignored the blademaster and looked towards Rainbow Dash ‘RD, this is where you hang out all day, and you swear you’re not gay? Oh and look at sweet little Fluttershy, are your wings fluffed out? Never would have thought you were into the group scene.’

Blushing furiously Fluttershy tried to hide her body with her wings and hands, hunching over to make herself smaller.

Kain strode up to the DJ ‘Who the fuck are you?’ he asked again sounding really pissed.

Holding out her hand for a shake the DJ answered ‘I’m Vinyl Scratch.’ Dropping her hand before Kain had a chance to respond Vinyl leaned over to look past him at Applejack and Gilda. ‘Oh! Is this a fight club? Ooh, Can I place a bet? Cause I’m putting my cash on the big chick, and I mean the one with cowboy hat, not the other actual chick with the feathers.’

‘No this is not a fight club.’ Kain said and stepped in front of Vinyl’s view ‘go away.’

Vinyl looked up at the taller man with a bemused expression ‘What are you doing here then? Is this like a cult? Cause I was totally in one of those.’

The man looked furious ‘I don’t care, now get out of here.’

Vinyl smiled again ‘Relax dude, I’m just here to talk to-’

Kain interrupted ‘I don’t care why you’re here; you can do what you came here to do later, but for now your problems can wait.’

Vinyl’s grin remained in place ‘Or I could just do it now?’ she raised her hands in a shrug before stepping around Kain. ‘Hey-’

Kains’ hand landed on her shoulder ‘Leave now or I’ll break your legs.’

Vinyls grin faltered and she stepped away from Kain ‘the fuck did you just say to me?’

Stepping out of the ring and using this as a chance to escape another beating session with Applejack, Gilda called out for everyone to hear. ‘Kain you and I both know you aren’t gonna do shit thanks to the penance.’

Looking towards Gilda Kain glared but remained silent.

‘So why don’t you drop the act and go actually train your students, you know, instead of trying to convince them to kill each other.’ Gilda was in Kains face now but was speaking loud enough for everyone to hear ‘I’ll take care of Vinyl and we can resume the practice sessions in peace.’

Kain was silent for a second before he spoke ‘You think you’re a badass or something cause you killed two people? You don’t want to mess with me little girl.’

Gilda laughed ‘I find it funny. You’re trying to insult me by calling me a girl, and this coming from the guy who got castrated. Insecurity much?’

Kain left eye twitched, his hand wrapped around the hilt of his sword and his jaw tightened.

‘Dude, you just got burned.’ Came from the DJ with a less than appropriate sense of mood and timing.

Gilda leaned in close ‘We both know you aren’t gonna draw that sword.’

Kain didn’t say anything, the two just stood there facing each other with everyone watching. Without another word the man turned away and walked towards the girls. Turning to talk to Vinyl the griffon started to say things that Rainbow couldn’t hear over the sound of Kain starting a lecture about sword maintenance. If Rainbow had been paying attention she might have noticed Kain handing out swords to the assembled girls, and not fake wooden ones but real steel.

‘Hey Rainbow, Vinyl wants to talk to you.’ Gilda called out and Rainbow left the group to talk to the DJ.

Approaching the two from the side Rainbow noticed the edge of a red tattoo sticking out from under Vinyls’ white tank top. ‘Hey Vinyl when did you get a tattoo?’ she asked as she closed the distance between them.

‘Tattoo?’ Vinyl asked sounding confused. ‘I don’t have any tattoos.’

‘Yeah you do, right here.’ Rainbow said turning vinyl around with her hands and pointing at the place where the ink poked out.

The DJ’s confident grin faltered and a grim look appeared on her face, only to replaced by the grin again a second later ‘Huh… Must have been a crazy night.’ She said with a chuckle.

Gilda who was also looking at Vinyls back shook her head ‘Nah, this is way too big for it to be a drunk stamp.’

The red tattoo was poking out on the other side of Vinyl’s tank top too, it must have crossed her entire back.

Vinyl turned around to face Gilda ‘Heh-heh, what can I say? I party hard.’ Her face took on a surprised expression as she saw something over Gilda’s shoulder.

Grabbing Gilda with her magic the DJ flung Gilda and herself to the side just as Rainbow felt something woosh threw the air to her left. Landing with a thunk in a tree on the opposite side of the clearing a short sword was embedded in the wood.

On the other side of the clearing stood Applejack with and outstretched hand and an angry look on her face, the others in the group stood shocked except for Kain who was laughing his ass off. Gilda climbed to her feet glancing between the sword and Applejack looking frightened.

Rainbow glanced between her two friends in horror ‘AJ! You could have fucking killed her!’

‘I know.’ was all Applejack said as she calmly belted on a sword sheath and slid a long curved sword into it.

And that’s the end of chapter 15. The second shortest chapter to date. To be honest I didn’t pot much effort into this chapter. I was distracted by other fics I was working on and left this to the last minute.

Not a new chapter

Bad News

Hello everyone, (I think there's two people who read this story on fimfiction and about three on fanfiction) I've got bad news for those of you who read this; I'll not be continuing this story.

I'm changing it's status to on hiatus for now but if another two weeks goes by and I don't write any more then I'll be changing it to cancelled. I'm sorry but I have too few readers to continue writing five thousand words a week for a story I've lost inspiration for. Maybe if I get excited about it in the near future then I'll update it but as it stands I've got no love for this story and no motivation to continue writing it.

Big thanks to XIII dragon (or as he's known on fimfiction; Orphius olyandra) and timefather64 for both being generally awesome. Stay classy guys, stay classy.

To everyone else thanks for reading and hopefully me next stories will please me more than this one.

Chapter 9. Lectures from a princess

Rubbing sleep from her eyes Rarity awoke with a yawn and a leisurely stretch. After she was finished yawning Rarity looked around and recalled the events of yesterday.

Fluttershy was lying in the bed across from Raritys’ and sleeping peacefully. Rarity was careful as she stood up not to awaken her.

Normally her morning ritual would involve much careful grooming and a lengthy amount of time spent at the closet deciding what to wear, but this morning Rarity had no closet of clothes and only a hairbrush to run through her hair. Despite this she completed her morning ritual as best she could and went downstairs to the library in the same rumpled clothes she’d worn into the woods yesterday. The lady was beautiful enough to actually pull the look off but that didn’t change the fact that she felt terrible for appearing in someone else’s home garbed in such an awkward fashion.

At the base of the stairs she was greeted by a guard who shoved a spoon and a bowl of oatmeal into her hands. Rarity guessed he was one of the guards they’d escaped from yesterday, judging by the scowl he reserved for her. Rarity really couldn’t blame him for being annoyed at her. Celestia had seemed incredibly angry last night and had been shouting at the guards when they’d arrived so Rarity suspected the man blamed her for the trouble he’d been in and really, it sort of was her fault. Plus maybe the spell she’d cast had been a little bit over the top.

Rarity smiled at him and said ‘Thank you.’ as pleasantly as she could.

The man just grimaced at her and walked away.

Rarity sighed and sat at a coffee table and began to delicately eat. A few minutes later and Rainbow and Gilda came down the stairs where they were also greeted with oatmeal. Rainbow sat down and ate her food while Gilda remained standing and pretty much drank it out of the bowl like it was a cup. This irritated Rarity but she didn’t mention it. Gilda finished her meal first and Rainbow did as well shortly after her while Rarity was the last to be done. The guard came back over and collected their bowls while Rarity idly wondered where Twilight was. This was her home after all and Twilight had been nothing short of enthusiastic the last time Rarity had slept here.

For that matter where were Applejack and Pinkie too? The library usually only had one room prepared for people to sleep in. Twilight must have moved some extra beds in at one point or another. Applejack was probably at the hospital, now that Rarity thought about it, but she still didn’t have any idea where Pinkie was.

A guard in the corner got out a pack of cigarettes and lit one, Rarity wrinkled her nose in faint disgust at the smell and the dirty habit. Normally Rarity would have objected to smoking indoors, let alone in a library with books and paper lying around, but Rarity decided not to say anything because she felt guilty about the flash bang spell she’d used on the guards yesterday.

Maybe it had been a tad bit unnecessary bit she’d never gotten to use that spell before and how was she supposed to know how painful it could be? Sure she hadn’t been standing too close to it at the time, but she got a good idea of how painful it must have been for the guards that had it go off right next to them.

‘Hey, can I get a cigarette?’ Gilda asked the guard across the room.

The guard looked at the griffon and shrugged before tossing the packet to her. The griffon caught it and pulled out a cigarette before tossing the packet back to the guard and reached into her pocket for a lighter. It was a cheap plastic commercial lighter. Gilda put the cigarette between her lips and raised the lighter to her mouth.

‘I thought you quit.’ Rainbow said while glaring at the griffon.

Gilda glanced up at her ‘I did. Haven’t smoked for… I dunno, three years now… At least.’

‘Then why have you got a lighter?’ the element of loyalty asked suspiciously.

Gilda looked at the lighter in her hands then back up at Dash. ‘So I can start a fire easier.’

‘Why would you need to light a fire?’

Gilda blinked at Rainbow ‘Maybe because I’ve been homeless for the last year and living in the woods. Lighting a fire with flint is a pain in the ass, so I just bought one of these now and then.’

‘Bought or stole?’ Rainbow said angrily.

Gilda shrugged ‘Usually stole. Unlike you Rainbow I don’t have a job so I can’t exactly afford most things.’

‘Why don’t you get a job?’

Gilda laughed at that ‘Are you kidding me? A flight school drop out with a criminal record who smells like a bum because she has no soap and has to wash herself and her clothes with charcoal? And on top of that they’ve got a bad attitude and eat meat?’

‘You could still get a job. You just need to try harder.’

The griffon laughed at that again ‘Find me a job and I’ll freaking hug you man. Think I didn’t try? Living alone ain’t exactly fun.’

The conversation trailed off so Rarity decided to try and revive it a bit ‘So… why are you restarting now after three years?’

Gilda looked over at her, the cigarette in her mouth still unlit ‘you were there yesterday right? You saw that whole thing with us almost dying? I still don’t really know what the hell happened or why the fuck I’m even involved.’

Rarity didn’t like being cursed at but she maintained her outwardly cool demeanour ‘So after one bad day, you’re just going to just give up on three years?’

Gilda thought about it for a minute ‘Yup.’ and raised the lighter to the tip of the cigarette. The cigarette caught the flame and Gilda leaned back, she didn’t even get to take one good drag before Rarity took the cigarette away from the griffon with her magic.

Floating the small device over to her Rarity spoke ‘You may be willing to but I’m not going to allow a friend to waste all the work they put into quitting. My father used to smoke and tried to quit multiple time. I know how hard it can be.’

What Rarity didn’t mention was that her father died of lung cancer despite quitting on 13 different occasions. It was part of the reason Rarity detested the little things.

‘Also I can offer you a job. Lately all this sword training has put me behind and I need an extra hand at the carousel boutique to help me keep up to date.’

Gilda blinked at her in surprise ‘I don’t know anything about fashion and I don’t know how to make clothes.’

Rarity had suspected as much. But really she wasn’t offering this job to Gilda because she thought the griffon would be particularly helpful. True, work had backed up a little, and she had thought about hiring help, but the truth was Rarity was doing the griffon a favour.

‘I suspected as much. Regardless you can still be helpful to me. Simply having someone around to fetch things or help keep track of supplies or even modelling for me on occasion would help me greatly. Of course, if I were to hire you, I’d need you close at hand because quite often we’ll be working all night, so you’d be staying with me and my sister. That means paying rent which I would deduct from your pay. Also there would be no smoking in my home so this little habit here will have to stay gone.’ She floated the still lit cigarette back over to the Griffon.

Looking at Rarity then back to the cigarette, Gilda hesitated to accept the offer. Rainbow nodded emphatically at the griffon.

Gilda took the cigarette out of the air and squashed it under her foot. ‘Alright, I’ll take the job.’

Rainbow broke into a wide grin, turned to Rarity and mouthed slently to her ‘Thank you.’

Rarity waved a hand in a gesture of ‘It’s nothing, I insist.’

Gilda looked like she was about to speak again when the library door banged open and Princess Celestia strode in. Rarity was glad to note her dress didn’t have a large blood stain on it.

‘Rainbow I’ll speak with you first. The two of you can wait here.’ The princess commanded.

Rainbow glanced at Rarity before she stood up and followed the princess into the kitchen. Walking over to the seat, Gilda sat were Rainbow had been moments before. Rarity noticed the glow of magic coming from under the kitchen door and felt a little nervous.

Rarity decided to distract herself by conversing with her new employee. ‘So you said you have a criminal record. Dare I ask what’s on it?’

Gilda looked at her and said ‘Nothing special. Few bar fights, a bit of vandalism and hunting without a license.’

Rarity nodded in understanding and looked back to the ground.  Quite concerned about the vandalism and bar fights, she hoped she wasn’t making a mistake by hiring the griffon.

‘Hey, Rarity?’

‘Yes darling?’ Rarity turned back to Gilda.

The Griffon hesitated before answering ‘Just then you said I was your friend.’

‘I did?’ Rarity didn’t really recall the moment.

‘Yeah, when you took my cigarette.’ The griffon wasn’t looking at Rarity when she spoke instead sitting with her legs up and appearing to be as uncaring as possible.

Rarity thought about. It was sort of an offhand thing at the time. ‘I did. Didn’t I?’

The griffon put her feet down. ‘Well did you mean it?’

Rarity couldn’t help but note that underneath all that casual swaggering there was a lot of hope in the Griffons voice. Thinking about it for a second, Rarity realised that she didn’t have any negative feelings towards Gilda. In fact she pitied her a little, and the griffon had been invaluable yesterday. Rarity considered the Griffon and what she knew of her and decided that yes she could become friends with her.

‘I guess I did. But then it is quite hard not to be friends after a day like yesterday.’

‘Oh… Cool.’ The griffon leaned back into the chair and resumed pretending not to care and Rarity pretended she didn’t know how important this must be to Gilda.

Rainbow felt a little like she was being locked in when Celestia closed the door to the kitchen. This feeling wasn’t helped when the princess used magic to create a dome surrounding the two of them, even if Rainbow recognised it as the spell Rarity had used to muffle sound just yesterday.

‘Sit down.’ The Greater folk instructed while indicating one of two chairs that had been moved into the centre of the kitchen.

Rainbow sat in the chair as she was bid by the princess, while Celestia sat in the chair across from her.

The silence lasted for a minute before Rainbow decided to speak. ‘So… Am I in trouble?’

Celestia sighed ‘No. I can’t exactly punish you for saving a man’s life. Plus you’re in a hard enough situation as it is without me adding to it.’

‘So… what’s this about?’

The princess looked at her ‘Yesterday your risked your life and the life of two friends to save a man who in the past has caused you nothing but pain. What I ask is, why?’

It took the sky folk a second to comprehend what the princess was asking her. ‘Well… I guess it was because… I couldn’t just leave him there.’

‘Yes. You could have left him there, and you should have left him there.’

Rainbow felt confused ‘What? I don’t-’

‘Rainbow… Your life, Raritys’ as well, or any of the elements of harmony for that matter, is worth more than Kains. Simply put: If Kain were to die tomorrow, it’d be a setback, if you were to die tomorrow, you would be irreplaceable. You and all the other elements of harmony are incredibly important to the future of Equestria and on top of that all of you are needed to defeat Xath. Kain on the other hand is a man who has some skills which are useful at the moment.’

‘Not only was it foolish of you to risk your life like that, it was selfish. Thousands of people all across Equestria are reliant upon you and your long term survival. Even on the short term Xath is too dangerous to be allowed to simply run rampant.’

‘Think about it. As an Element of Harmony it’s no longer your right to risk your life. If you were to die, others would suffer. Not just your friends and family but Equestrians who need you even if they’ve never personally met you.’

Rainbow felt guilty hearing the princess saying this to her but also a little shocked. To hear the princess compare the value of one life and another was… It just seemed wrong.

‘Even if we were to forget that you’re an Element of Harmony the fact is your risked the lives of two close friends by rescuing Kain. If all of you were to die think about what would happen to your friends and loved ones. If Kain were to die, nobody would miss him.’

‘As the element of loyalty I expect your first priority to be the well-being of your friends. Anything less than that would be failure. Secondly I expect you to be loyal to Equestria and by extension me. By risking the life of Rarity in aiding her you failed in both regards.’

‘As a friend it is your duty to think about the wellbeing of your friends and the consequences your actions will have. As the element of Loyalty it is your duty to the rest of the world to stay alive and healthy and to prevent the other elements from coming to harm as well. Your actions last night were actually selfish. Think about that. Now go outside and send Rarity in.’

Rarity came through the door feeling quite nervous. When Rainbow stepped out she looked shocked and… guilty, of all things. Now it was Raritys’ turn to face the princess and she felt a creeping nervousness writhing in her stomach. Of course she maintained her composure and did her best not to let her feelings show.

‘Sit down please’ the princess indicated a seat that was set interview style before her. Rarity knew about proper etiquette when conducting oneself around royalty so she curtsied to the princess the way a someone who’d been summoned before the throne would before taking her seat.

Celestia looked bemused ‘Huh. Rainbow Dash didn’t curtsy. Please no formalities. I’m about to lecture you and I can live without the bowing and scraping for once.’

Rarity waited for the princess to begin.

After taking a second to consider her words Celestia spoke. ‘Rarity, you present something of a difficulty to me. Rainbow behaved in a manner that was unbefitting of the element of loyalty, you on the other hand have behaved in a manner completely in keeping with being the element of generosity.’

‘The elements of Generosity and Kindness share a lot in common, that’s why you and Fluttershy get along so well. Both Kindness and Generosity both share the trait of placing the wellbeing of others before that of your own. You risked your life to rescue Kain using what resources you had available to you at the time, those resources being Rainbow and that Griffon.’

‘Gilda’ Rarity interrupted.

‘Gilda then. Rainbow failed as the element of loyalty because she allowed two friends to be put into harm’s way by not considering her actions. You on the other hand considered your actions carefully and behaved exactly as the element of generosity should. That doesn’t change the fact that what you did was wrong.’

‘Despite the horrible way he has treated you and your friends you still found it in your heart to rescue him. I’m telling you not to do that again. Kain is not a man deserving of your generosity. I can’t tell you to not try and help others in spite of yourself because that would mean you stop being the element of generosity, and there would be no reason to try and protect you anymore than the average citizen. But you need to consider whether or not people are deserving of your generosity.’

‘Remember the diamond dogs? In the end you took their jewels and they let you go? The first instinct of the element of generosity should have been aid them in their quest for jewels, but you didn’t. Why? Because they’d kidnapped you and harmed others. They were not deserving of your generosity. Kain is one such man. He does not deserve you risking your life to save him. He’s on his last chance as it is. Do you understand?’

Rarity nodded but internally she felt conflicted by what she’d just been told. How could she not have tried to help Kain? How could she have been expected to leave anyone in the company of that monster, Xath? Rarity had never thought about aiding the diamond dogs, she’d never considered that maybe they might have needed her help. At the time all she’d thought about was turning the situation to her advantage.

‘I can see this is something you hadn’t thought about. You should go and think about what I’ve said. Please send in Gilda next.’

Rarity stood up from her seat and was about to curtsy but hesitated when she remembered the princess had told her not to. Without bowing Rarity walked to the door and stepped out.

Seated where Rarity had been Rainbow looked deep in thought while Gilda was standing again and leaning against a wall. The guard was still in the corner smoking and the room had begun to stink.

‘Gilda, the princess wants to speak to you now.’ Rarity spoke aloud.

The griffon nodded and walked through the door and into the kitchen. Rarity took a seat and sat quietly contemplating the princess’s words. The guard in the corner finished his cigarette and reached for his packet to light another.

‘Pardon me but would you mind taking that outside?’ Rarity asked the guard and batted her eyelashes ‘This room doesn’t have very good ventilation.’

The guard just smirked at her and continued to light his cigarette. Rarity narrowed her eyes at the man and seethed with frustration.

Gilda Swallowed nervously when the door was closed behind her. In her mind she was outright panicking. The griffon had never gotten along well with authority, hell; she had a problem keeping a civil tongue just talking to a guardsman, the stupid pigs. And here she was sharing a room with Princess Celestia herself, the most powerful being in the entire world, who raised the sun every morning and set it every night, who had the power to banish Gilda to the moon. Worst of all; this awe inspiring being had reason to be angry with Gilda.

I don’t want to go to the moon!

Gilda had to work very hard to not voice that thought.

Living alone in the Everfree woods for so long meant Gilda was barely up to date on recent news and happening in the world. Sure she knew that Rainbow Dash and the other were the elements of harmony or whatever, but she didn’t really know what that meant. Yeah she knew they’d defeated nightmare moon and Discord, but she didn’t know how or why that had even really mattered. Well actually she knew why they’d had to defeat discord; when those pink clouds had started raining chocolate milk she’d been worried that something had gotten mixed into her drinking water.

But beyond that she knew next to nothing about the whole situation. It had never occurred to her that Rainbow had risen in importance in the world and was now brushing shoulders with the princess. Well, princesses; because now that new one Luna had shown up and that third she’d never heard of before suddenly became a household name.

The point is; Gilda was worried and had absolutely no idea what to expect. Deciding to try and be all respectful and stuff Gilda bowed at the princess. What she had not expected to hear was the princess laugh at her.

Gilda straightened quickly and asked more aggressively then she should have ‘What’s so funny?’

The princess raised an eyebrow at her pointedly.

‘ I-I-I mean…uhhh… What’s…What‘s so… Humorous?…… Your uh… Highness?’ Gilda stuttered out at the princess.

The princess looked at her and chuckled again. ‘You just bowed as a minor lord of the court would if he were trying to attract the interest of a lady of higher station then himself. As amusing as the scandal might be the thought of the words “princess dates young female miscreant” printed across every new papers does not fill me with joy. Plus you’re not really my type.’

Gilda blushed furiously.

Did I really just hit on princess Celestia?

‘If this were a formal setting as a lady you might curtsy to me but seeing as how you are a normal citizen you’d be expected to prostrate yourself on the ground.’

As much as she was afraid of the princess there was no way this griffon would ever be caught dead “prostrating” herself in front of anyone. The thought of anyone doing that made her feel vaguely disgusted.

The princess continued ‘But this is an informal setting so no bowing or curtsying is required. Now please have a seat.’

Gilda took the seat and for once didn’t try to put her feet up or force a casual air. That didn’t seem like the right way to get far with the princess. After examining the griffon for a minute while Gilda shifted uncomfortably under her scrutiny Celestia decided to speak.

‘So how did you get involved in this?’ Celestia asked.

Gilda thought about it for a minute. ‘Well… I’m childhood buddies with Rainbow and uhhhh… We had a falling out last year and I came into town the day before yesterday to try and fix things between me and her and she told me I should come to her practice sessions or whatever and so I did and then that Xath guy showed up and yeah… That’s sort of it.’

Celestia tilted her head at Gilda ‘I understand that you’re of the homosexual persuasion. When you say “falling out” do you mean that you were friends or that you were dating?’

What have I got fucking sign above my head that says” I screw ladies”? How the hell could Celestia know that?

Gilda looked disgusted ‘Dating Rainbow!? fuck no!’

Celestia raised an eyebrow at the griffon.

‘Ummm… What I mean to say is… I never dated Rainbow because well… I may swing that way but she doesn’t and uhhh… It’d be like asking out your sister or something you know?’

‘So you think of her that closely?’ the princess asked.

Gilda blinked ‘What?’

‘I mean do you think of her as a sister?’

The griffon crossed her arms and sat back. For a second she forgot who she was talking to ‘I don’t see how that’s any of your business.’

The Celestias’ eyebrow raised again. ‘I don’t think you understand just how serious your situation is.’

‘Why what did I do?’ The griffon asked remembering who she was talking to and panicking again.

Celestia listed the items off on her fingers ‘Well one you have a criminal record and you assaulted a guardsmen, two you may be a threat to the elements of harmony, I’m yet to decide on that and three you know things about Xath, Kain and this whole situation that I’m not entirely willing to make public yet. So at the moment you should carefully consider the fact I’m still deciding on whether to send you to prison or not.’

At leas it's not the fucking moon!

The Griffon completely panicked ‘But I didn’t- But there was- and I saved that guy- and like… I can’t go to fucking jail!’

‘And you won’t if I can ascertain that you’re not a threat the elements.’ Celestia said to the Griffon in her motherly calming and reassuring voice.

The Griffon calmed down visibly under that voice.

‘Now. Tell me, do you think of Rainbow as a sister?’

The Griffon shrugged ‘Shit, I dunno ummm… I was an only child and like, my parents were pretty messed up people so I never really knew what a family was like… I guess when we roomed together I got a lot closer to Rainbow then I ever did anyone else. Yeah I suppose she’s a sister to me…’

Celestia nodded ‘How about the other elements. How do you feel about them?’

Gilda thought about it ‘Well… I like Rarity, and Pinkie seems annoying but Ok. I haven’t really met any of the others.’

Celestia considered the Griffon for a minute. ‘How do you feel about Kain?’

The griffon answered instantly ‘I don’t like him and I don’t trust him.’

‘Why?’

Gilda thought about it. Kain reminded her of her dad in that he had that same predatory walk that almost no folk have. But Gilda had that walk too… No it was more than that. When Gilda had talked to him at the night club it’d seemed like he’d wanted to hurt Gilda, not just that he had to. Gilda could see it in his eyes, the same look her father had had. A sort of wildness, a calculating look, a… It was hard to describe. Gilda recognised the look Kain had and compared it with the look her father got when he got drunk, or went out to find a fight, or took Gilda hunting, except she couldn’t remember Kain not having that look. Except when he’d been limping through the woods of course. Then he’d looked just plain delirious.

Apparently the griffon hadn’t said anything for a while because Celestia repeated her question ‘Why?’

‘Because he’s dangerous.’ Gilda concluded. ‘He’s just… He makes me think of a wolf. And not like a… lone wolf howling at the moon or a pack animal but like… He just seems like he wants a fight to start. Like he wants a reason to come after you and he’s checking you out for weaknesses.’

Celestia nodded and smiled at Gilda ‘I feel the same way exactly.’

Gilda seemed confused ‘You do?’

The princess ignored the question ‘Which is why I have use for you. How you like to avoid prison?’

Gilda blinked. ‘I would like that very much.’

The princess continued ‘Unfortunately I need Kain. He’s definitely the only blade master in Equestria and the only blade master in the whole of the known world that I know of. We need him to defeat Xath, so he’s training the elements in sword craft. I don’t like this. I don’t want him in the same room as the elements. Under normal circumstances I might have sent him straight to prison the moment I met him. Unfortunately these are extenuating circumstances. I have taken certain precautions to prevent him from causing harm to the elements but I fear they may not be enough. What I need is someone close to the elements who can help protect them from him should he become out of control without exposing them to the danger he presents. After the events of yesterday I fear he may be even more of a danger. You’ve seen the hard edge of life; you know what a dangerous man is and what it means to live with one.’

‘What I’m offering you is this; you will stay here in Ponyville and train with the other elements under Xath. You will protect them and watch over them to make sure that the worst doesn’t happen. If something should happen you are to do everything in your power to keep the elements safe. You will report to me about Kains’ behaviour every day. If you think there is a risk of something happening you let me know.’

Gilda nodded in understanding. Yeah she could do that, she wanted to stay in Ponyville anyway. ‘Ok I can do that.’

‘Good.’ The princess leaned back ‘So you know, I see a certain degree of that wolfishness to you as well but to a far lesser extent.’ The princess leaned forward and there was a dangerous glint in her eyes. She spoke quietly but the voice thundered though Gildas’ skulls like a lion’s roar. ‘If you dare harm any of the elements then I won’t just banish you to the moon. I’ll make you wish you were dead, the wounds  Kain suffered will seem petty compared to what I’ll do to you. The elements mean a lot to Equestria and I will admit that I have a certain attachment to them myself so understand how serious I am when I give you this task.’

Gilda swallowed nervously and nodded enthusiastically.

‘I’m glad we understand each other. Now do you have a place to stay in Ponyville? I understand that at the moment you’re jobless and homeless.’

‘Oh... Umm. Yeah Rarity offered me a job and a place to stay just ten minutes ago so…’

The princess chuckled ‘Generosity strikes again. Very well then stay at the carousel boutique, I’m sure Rarity will find some use for you. You may leave now but do not speak of what we discussed in hear today. I will send word to you tomorrow providing more detailed instruction. Tell the others that training will resume tomorrow and you’ll be joining them.’

Gilda looked surprised ‘Training… How? I saw the state Kain was in.’

‘Is it really your place to question me?’ the princess asked pointedly.

‘…No’

‘Training will resume tomorrow and both you and Kain will be there for it. That is all you need to know.’ The princess said. Celestia then waved her hand at the door indicating that Gilda should use this chance to leave.

Gilda nodded in understanding, she stood up and stepped out of the room back into the Librarys main room. Rainbow and Rarity both looked up at her expectantly.

‘So… what did the princess say to you?’ Rainbow asked.

Gilda looked at Rainbow ‘Apparently I’m going to be joining you for training.’