Interlude – Point of View
He opened his eyes.
Trees. Trees everywhere. It was the same feeling like the first time he entered this world. Equestria was more colorful, the air somehow sweeter and the forests stayed identical, repeating patterns of cute animals and birds, but mostly trees.
He touched the magic emerald underneath his cloak to acknowledge it was secure. ‘Introductions,’ he grinned, ‘Gotta stay awesome as always’. He threw a glance to his side, to check if she was alright. That really wasn´t supposed to kill him, but the bad guy has been dealt with and that was enough for him.
On the other side of the glade, his stalker arrived. ‘Very well, Twilight Sparkle!’ He gripped the crystal.

For first few seconds, Twilight was blinded. Then, when she decided to look again, she stayed bound to the ground in silent astonishment for more than a minute. That colt truly was something else. His peachy skin contrasted against the blue tattoo that covered his masculine body and his mane was spiky, in a color of bright marine. Most confusing was the cutie mark. She recognized a flaming skull with black shape covering its eyes. This frightened her, so she more or less tried not to pay attention to it. The cloak came descending from the sky, now red and scrappy and with the same symbol on its back. After it settled down, the colt dramatically scolded Twilight with his look.

“What are you waiting for? Come closer.” He shouted. Though it sounded encouragingly, to Twilight it was also kind of rude. As she slowly walked closer to the two, she started sorting the questions she’d prepared. Suddenly, recreating the recent event in her head, she accelerated and angrily trotted into the front of the colt.

“Who are you?!” she yelled at the top of her lungs.

“Who am I? WHO AM I? And they call you educated, lady?!” His red eyes drawed hers into their flame. What she saw was not anger, no, something else entirely. “Who the hell do you THINK I am?! Before you stands the greatest pony ever to walk Equestria, the protector of little foals and the hero of the oppressed, the ultimate dragon-slayer, the crusader of righteousness unseen. He fights and defeats evil on a daily basis. He breaks through lies and deception and he always wins! He simply walks into Canterlot!” The deafening talk was reminiscent of Luna’s royal voice. “Mares faint once the words of his presence reach their ears, gentlecolts line to back him up when called. Nopony’s heart is left untouched after they meet him. He’s great, he’s tenacious, he’s demonic! Behold, for Kamina of Team Dai-Gurren has come to save the day.”

She stared at him in shock, his deepened accent still echoing in her ears. ‘Is he serious?’ He reminded her of Trixie. That thought led her to notice just now that he was an earth pony, not a unicorn. ‘How is he able to cast magic?’

“This!” Kamina stuck a green crystal into her face. “I know, isn’t it amazing?”

‘Clearly, he´s perceptive, he saw me checking his forehead looking for a horn, so that means that three days ago, he knew I was following him. Oh Celestia!’ She got interrupted.

“Before you ask, it was me who called the police and the ambulance, you’re welcome. You probably don’t wanna know what happened at Sweet Apple Acres. The important thing is we need to head back quickly and gather the elements as soon as possible. You are all in danger now. And then there’s this other thing tha-“

“Stop!” she broke into his racing talk. ‘From Trixie to Pinkie Pie in 10 seconds flat.’ She thought.

“You´re too fast! And why would I want to go anywhere with you? You are a complete stranger to me, why should I trust you? Applejack’s probably in hospital right now and I am much more likely to visit her than follow some crazy showoff around! Please tell me, why?”

Kamina’s eyes narrowed in a suspicious frown in a way that almost made Twilight laugh. He leaned towards the alicorn: “Nia, I think it’s time for you to move back to base, okay?”

“Of course.” She nodded and pull out a cloak similar to Kamina’s, that instantly made her face darken. She looked like an ordinary pony now and Twilight deducted that the cloaks had to be enchanted. But enchanting items required a very deep knowledge of magic and the spell wouldn't last that long. At least that’s how her attempts usually went. ‘There's no way this moron casts better magic than me!’ Meanwhile, Nia left the meadow and all the flowers shifted towards the sun again.

“Come on, miss, I'm a friend of Celestia, why wouldn’t you trust me?” From his annoyed tone, Twilight recognized he didn't anticipate this.

“What are you going to do? You’ve got to return to the town, right? We can go together, imagine!” The way he tried forced her to smile.

“Fine. So what were you telling me? The Elements of Harmony are in danger? What kind of villain are we facing? Oh, and you should call me Twilight.”

“You wouldn´t believe me if I told you and moreover, you´d probably stop believing anything I’d say. But if what I think is right, I will be able to show you what ‘kind of villain’ we are dealing with here.” The last words made her feel nervous and uneasy.

“Where are we headed then?” she asked.

“Sugarcube corner. As I said, we don’t have much time, so try to keep up, alright?” Before she could react, Kamina set out in a gallop out of the forest. She promptly decided to follow. The scene blurred around her and she felt her body burn for second time in three days. She hastened even more, leaving the forest behind, then down the hill and in a moment, her hooves came rushing along the churned road. She evaded now enclosed crime scene and proceeded to the alleyway on the left. ‘Hope you´re alright, Applejack.’ The word spread quickly and caused the streets to empty. Many houses had their windows shutters and curtains closed, like the days Zecora came to buy supplies.
When she reached Sugarcube Corner, Kamina’d been already waiting for her. The police was there too, and they were just taking the Cake family off to the carriage. Mrs. Cake looked most confused.

“But I don’t understand what’s going on, are we being arrested?”

“No, ma´am, however we believe it’s extremely dangerous for you to be here. Please get in the vehicle.”

She has never seen so many policeponies on one place. She knew that the office existed and that it had a long tradition, being tied to the city and royal guards, but never really had any opportunity to see them in action. ‘What on Equestria are you doing, Kamina?’ Pony who seemed to lead the operation approached the crazy stallion.

“Captain, how’s the security sweep?”

“Third floor clear, second floor clear, first floor clear. The basement was left out as you requested.” Kamina dismissed him and appealed to her.

“Twilight, have you seen the Element of Laughter today?”

“Pinkie Pie? No. In fact, I haven’t seen her from the day I followed you to Canterlot.” She didn’t realize that before. It was definitely strange. ‘Why does he ask me that?’

“Then I fear for the worst. Come, you wanted to see your villain, this may be it.” They entered the confectionery. Twilight became aware she is not going to like the immediate future. They turned left in the hall and came to small, yellow door. It was a little dusty, probably not used too often. She reached out for the handle.

“Wait. If we’re going down there, I want you to be prepared for anything. This might shatter your world to pieces. Are you ready for that? You don’t have to go with me.” His concerned look hinted that she was definitely not going to like this.
She nodded and pulled it. The handle turned as expected, but the door wouldn’t open. “Locked?”

“Yeah, from the other side. There’s a key.” Kamina peeked through the keyhole, his crystal in hoof. It gleamed faintly and the mechanism became covered in the familiar green shivering, the one that goes with telekinetic magic. Falling key rang on the other side and he was now fully concentrated, his tongue sticking out of his mouth. After a while, Twilight heard a click and Kamina put on a victorious smile.

“How does that crystal even work? And where did you learn to pick locks?”

“Maybe I’ll tell you someday” He answered with his tongue out again, mocking her.

The unlocked door allowed them to continue. The stairway was somber and narrow, so they had to descend to black consecutively. “Tell me, how do you make a police captain listen to a foalish lunatic such as you?”

“Let’s just say that I know ponies. Important ponies. Celestia and the police president are among them.” Kamina maybe thought that line was cool, but Twilight didn’t know if it could get any cheesier. She rolled her eyes and carried on. Her sight finally adjusted to the darkness when they reached another door, this one plain wood, unpainted. Poor light was coming out from the keyhole and from underneath the doorstep, as well as from the gaps on the sides and the door itself.

“-this one actually took some time, don’t you think, Madame le Flour?” Pinkie’s voice echoed unnaturally in the dark corridor.

“Indeed, but it was entertaining, n’est pas?” Even with altered French accent, Twilight was sure this was still Pinkie speaking.

“What is she doing there?” She whispered to Kamina, who was looking through the keyhole once more.

“Honestly? She’s… well, she’s sewing.”

“What? That’s it? Do you want me to kick you?” She hissed at him.

“The problem here is the material you see. She’s sewing cutie marks.”

“Cutie ma-… Huh? What do you mean?” The surprise made her lay the question a little louder than she intended.

“Hmm, you didn’t tell me about the guests we were having, Mr. Turnip. But that’s alright, I’ll guess I’ll have to take care of them too.”

Kamina rebound from the door, frowning on Twilight. Steps from the door were drawing closer. Slow, terrifying creak tore her ears as the door opened inch by inch.

“This colt is ready!” Kamina grabbed Pinkie’s knife-wielding leg and with a single uppercut punch sent her flying across the room. She crashed to the wall and limply slided down to the ground.

Twilight couldn’t move. The sight froze the flow of her thoughts and she didn’t know whether to scream or run away. Her attention leaped from one corner to another, the world started to spin around and her head got dizzy.

“Hey. We gotta take her upstairs. You hear me, Twilight? We’re gonna get out of here as fast as we can, okay?” Kamina made his way through the room, carefully evading the intestines hanging from the ceiling. He stopped briefly at the table where several parts of dismembered pony lied, stained in blood and their original creamy color barely recognizable.

“Oh fuck! Who would’ve thought someone named Bon-Bon could smell so badly.” He grabbed the unconscious Pinkie Pie and threw her over his back.

Twilight recovered from the initial shock just as Kamina returned back to the door. She did study alternate medicine, which prioritized surgery over magic, so she had an idea how the inside of a pony looked like, but leaving that cellar unburdened her enormously, and allowed her breathing to slow down again.

That was it. One of her best friends was a monster. She has been reading some detective stories in her free time; still, witnessing such an event in reality was utterly different. These things didn’t occur under Celestia’s reign. Regardless, it happened. ‘Pinkie Pie is a murderer.’ She felt bitterly disturbed over how easily she’d accepted that fact.

Outside, Kamina ordered the officers off to the basement. “Wow, Twilight Sparkle, I underestimated you. You held pretty well. I don’t want to pressure you now, but I’m gonna need you to gather the rest. Wait for me in the library. I’ll arrive in the evening” He gave her one quick look before turning from her.

“What about Pinkie?” she halted him.

“Don’t worry, I’ll bring her. Gotta tie her up first.” In a blink, he disappeared in adjacent side street, racing towards his rented base in Ponyville.

Twilight adopted his request and despondently headed in direction of Carousel Boutique. The path went blurry and the town noises felt oddly remote. She couldn’t tell if she was crying or not. As the afternoon wind swept through her mane, it was friendlier to slip down to her thoughts, not able to get the scene out of her mind. ‘What should I do? Defeating Nightmare Moon, defeating Discord or even Chrysalis, that was simple with best friends by my side. But now, Pinkie Pie is the one standing in the way. Just what should I do?’ She asked the sun, which responded only by a burning pain in her eyes.

The time dragged on and after awhile, Twilight found herself before the tall building of Rarity’s shop. She strengthened her posture and straightened her mane. She didn’t bother to knock. “Rarity, are you home?”

The door upstairs swung open. “Twilight? Twilight! By Celestia, I am so sorry. I completely forgot about today. I got a wonderful idea this morning and I haven’t stopped working on it ever since. The dress takes too much time and I just couldn’t force myself to-“

“It’s all right! It doesn’t matter now. It’s already afternoon anyway.” Disappointed, Rarity dropped her bags down. “However, I still need you to come. So take whatever you need with yourself.”

“An-and where are we going?” Rarity stammered, taken aback by Twilight’s insistence.

“We’ve got a problem. A big problem. Wait for me in the library while I’ll make a run for Fluttershy.” She did not wait for an answer and walked out without another word. The encounter with Rarity somewhat brought her mood up. The trip to Fluttershy’s cottage therefore wasn’t that awful, instead, the nature around brought some peace to her mind. She decided to keep herself occupied by the animals rather than today’s events. When she reached her destination, Fluttershy’d been feeding the critters outside.

“Um, hello Twilight” Her kind smile was contagious and Twilight caught it instantly.

“Hello, Fluttershy.” Twilight watched as she continued to scatter the food around.

“Well, um, I’d hate to disturb you, but what it is that you need to do here?”

“Ah, yes, of course. I was wondering if you could join me back at my place. It is time to unite the Elements again and-“

“Okay. When Equestria needs saving, we’ll be there. That’s who we are, right?” Fluttershy brimmed with determination, the one Twilight hadn’t seen with her before.

“I… guess you could put it that way.”

As much as she was enthusiastic early on, Fluttershy deemed it necessary to say goodbye to each animal individually and the simple pick up stretched to more than half an hour. They approached the library with the sun setting red. Twilight entered the library in haste, fearing that Kamina arrived before them. Instead, they found Rarity and blushing Spike sitting at the table, chatting over cups of tea.

“I’ll have some too, please.” Fluttershy occupied the position left from Rarity. Though the conversation was a resumption of more or less what Rarity and Spike were talking about at first, the topic slowly turned against Twilight and the reason of their presence. More and more time passed and she ascertained the growing difficulty of deflecting the questions aimed at her. Finally, the clock struck the full hour. With the bell sounding through the room, the entrance door slammed against the wall and Kamina jumped inside, Applejack draped over his back.

“I am terribly disgraced, there was supposed to be a thunderstorm to make this more dramatic, but this’ll have to do.”

“You moron! How long have you been standing behind those doors?”

Kamina smiled excusatory and scratched the back of his head. “About ten minutes.” Twilight put on a facehoof.

“What’s happening? Is anything wrong with Applejack? And who is this gentlecolt?” Rarity was visibly puzzled, while Fluttershy covered her face in fright.

“Line up in awe and listen carefully! The reputation of te-“

“His name is Kamina.” Twilight cut his speech short.

He gently laid Applejack down on the couch. “Never do that again!” He barked, looking around the room. ”Where the hell is Loyalty?”

“Spike sent her an exclusive letter. She still hasn’t shown up.” Neither Rarity nor Spike have had a chance to join in the shout out.

Twilight caught a bit of disappointment in his voice: “She probably isn’t going to. I had a very lively exchange of views with Laughter about her and we might be having a kind of ‘similar’ situation, if you know what I mean.” Four jumps were enough for him to get upstairs.

“You don’t think… You can’t just assume… Are you kidding me?” She followed him with great effort.

“Turns out Scootaloo didn’t move away. I have my contact up there. She failed her flying test.”

“What are you two talking about!?” Came a cry from behind. Rarity’s nerves were known to be delicate.

Kamina busted through the glass door onto the balcony. Luckily, he didn’t break anything. His crystal shone with its typical green flame. Twilight noted his hooves started to radiate the same light, although very faintly at first.

“Laughter is tied by the house. Don’t call her Pinkie, it makes her mad. Use Diane or Pinkamena instead.” Twilight could barely hear him over the sudden racket the crystal generated. “I’m sorry, but I’m handing the responsibility to explain this to the Elements to you! Just try to survive the night, will ya?!”

“Wait! What are you doing? You can’t go to Cloudsdale! You crazy foal! Do you even know what gravity is?!”

“Screw gravity!” His crazy smile widened. “I do what I want!” And with those words, he took off into the air and dashed, leaving a bright green trail behind.

Author's Note

If you haven't watched Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann yet, I strongly recommend that you do.