Cry of the Falling Star

Interlude – History Insight I
He walked out of his tent, smiling. The nicker of warriors and clashes of swords slowly faded away, as the battle was about to end. They marched right into his trap. He stood at the top of the cliff, cold breeze playing with his light brown mane, and observed the Hayern soldiers fleeing away into another beautiful sunrise. Everything went just as planned.

“I am sorry, general, but this is probably your last victory.” He turned back to see himself surrounded by an army of enemy’s elite assassins, led by one of his own lieutenants. “Probably? You are not very confident with your betrayal.” He cursed himself for leaving his battle axe in the tent. His horn was his only weapon now, against four-dozen of highly trained killing machines. He prepared a spell, ready to take down as many as he could with him.

A sudden slash tore three of the soldiers in half, just as they attacked the weaponless general. Out of nowhere, an odd-looking, tattooed earth pony appeared, charging into the enemy lines at the speed of light. General studied the colt in surprise. He was equipped by a nodachi, which was clearly forged with precision of Neighponese finest smiths, and wore no armor whatsoever. His way of combat, however, was far beyond the masterful martial arts of the east nation, and the assassins had no time to react to his strikes. They looked like children in comparison. He kicked one of the intruders and recoiled with a backflip, letting the other attacker stab his colleague in an unsuccessful attempt for his life. He landed next to the original target.

“So I heard of a general whose skills exceeded anypony, and his ‘father’ before him, who fought too in this endless war. But there was never any father or grandfather, was there? It wasn’t hard to figure out. You have lived for centuries, right? You are a human, aren’t you?” Kamina blazed with expectation, waiting for an answer.

“How do you- Who are you-” His true identity exposed, general silently nodded. An arrow flew past.

“They don’t even give us time for introduction, huh?” The two knocked their backs together and readied themselves for the next wave of opponents.

Twilight watched Kamina grow away to an emerald twinkle among the stars in the night sky. His explosive lift off flipped the chairs and severely damaged the railing. ‘At least nothing ignited.’ She turned back to the door where Rarity was already waiting.

“Did-… did he just fly off?” Twilight left the question unanswered and passed by, evading Rarity’s looks.

She made her way down the stairs and headed outside. Spike tried nothing to stop her, being busy comforting Fluttershy who was curled up under the table. Rarity still followed her. “Twilight, what is happening? What is with Cloudsdale and Scootaloo?!”

“Spike, get Fluttershy into bed. Now!” She ordered, ignoring her friend’s pleas. The hearty fresh air released her when she inhaled. Pinkie was linked to one strong root of the tree by a thick chain of steel, her body was set immobile by a white straitjacket and she had a leather mask binded on her snout for some reason.

“What has he done to her?” Rarity gasped and galloped to her friend.

“Stop!” Twilight snapped out. As she did before to Rarity, now the unicorn ignored Twilight.

“What is wrong with you, Twilight? This is unacceptable!” She started to untie the restraints.

“Don’t do it.” She ordered coldly and trotted next to her. It only encouraged Rarity to quicken. “I said DON’T!” Her hoof struck her friend on the cheek and Rarity rolled to the side, a bruise visible in an instant. She began to cry loudly.

“Why would you do that?” She stammered out, tears flowing down to her mouth, smudging her eye shadows and burdening her speech. “What are you?” She ran back to the library, shutting the door behind her.

“Ugh, see if I care.” Twilight mumbled to herself and released the chain from the root. She forcefully pulled Pinkie inside and lashed her to a small stump near the door. She sealed it with magic to be safe and trotted to the stairs. She found the space under the table was now occupied by Rarity, who apparently fainted there. She reached her room.

“What the hell did you do?” Spike caught her before she entered.

“Shut up!” Twilight slammed the door so fast he almost got hit by it. ‘He doesn’t understand.’ She crawled into her bed. Kamina was a tiring pony to be around. ‘This is so messed up.’ She closed her eyes.

A strident sound of shattered glass woke her up some hours later. She jumped out of the bed and rushed to the main room, her mane disheveled from the restless sleep. The light was on, yet everypony stayed asleep, even sensitive Fluttershy haven’t come out of her room. She descended downstairs with a sign of annoyance readable in her face.

“You idiot, you could’ve killed me!” She heard Kamina whisper.

“I wanted to kill you, punk!” Twilight recognized the voice of Rainbow Dash. The tone of those words meant that things turned out for the worst. She looked across the room. Kamina was facing the window they broke, wrapping Rainbow up in another set of chains. The bite on his neck bled slightly. He turned around and grinned.

“Heeeeey, so what’s up with the new hairstyle? Looks good on you, missy.”

“You have the Elements gathered. What do you want now?” She growled on him.

“Whoa! Easy, girl, easy. There you go.” He handed her six tickets. Twilight nabbed them and read. They were to take a train to Trottingham, wait a day and then board another train to Flankstad.

“Wait. I don’t get it. What is Flankstad?”

“A town located in the free state of Hayern, of course.” He yawned out of boredom. “I thought you were an ardent student.”

“You want us to go to Germaneigh? Out of the country?! Have you absolutely lost your mind? No way!” She assaulted him.

“I'm going to tell you something important now, so you better dig the wax out of those adorable ears of yours and listen! This place is on a brink of revolution, a civil war. You haven’t seen what I found up there. An organized group of pegasi fascists who don’t know how to make a rainbow out of sunlight and water.” His voice rose. “A big project like the Rainbow Factory wasn’t built in secret. That means Celestia knew. SHE KNEW! She has to be nuts too! And you know who could possess enough power to threaten her, who is she going to hunt down first?” He paused for a moment. “I’d place my bet on the Elements of Harmony. So move it, lady!”

She searched her mind for a smart answer. She bought some time with a question: “You said there’s a revolution coming. How is that?”

“There were prisoners in the Factory. Now they’ve scattered across Equestria on my behalf. Everyone knows what was going on in Cloudsdale by now. And ponies won’t let it go. They will heed my call to arms.” He proudly hit his chest with a hoof.

‘A civil war in Equestria. What the hay have you done, you moron!’ She kept thinking of innocent ponies’ blood that will be shed and least of all if her mentor really was insane. That could not be true.

“You said we have the power to bring her down. Isn’t that exactly the reason we should stay here and do it?” She hoped to stop this madness. This would allow her to stay here and get to Celestia. The Princess could do something about this lunatic. Still, he was right about Pinkie…

“Well, first – I said you COULD be powerful enough. Look around you. Do you think that Honesty is going to help anytime soon? Or you could ask Pinkamena, I’m sure she’ll be alright with that. See my point?” He was right. “Second! You don’t believe me, do you? I think that proof could bang on your door any minute.” As he said that, three loud knocks sounded from the entrance.

“Royal guard, open up! We know you’re inside! Open or we’ll break down the door!”

“What is your purpose here?” She asked out of suspicion.

“We are to escort Twilight Sparkle and her friends to Canterlot. Princess Celestia has summoned you. Open up!” The soldier repeated himself.

“Go. See for yourself.” Kamina hissed.

She unlocked the door. It was still bleak and gray outside, just before sunrise. Five gold-armored ponies pointed their swords towards her.

“Okay, okay, I believe you.” She admitted.

Kamina stormed out, knocking them all unconscious. ‘It’s the truth then. First Pinkie, then Rainbow, now Celestia.’ She steeled herself. A lone psychopath was no problem. A psychopath with a trained army could be. She was accepting these things with relative ease lately. ‘Is something wrong with me?’ She recalled last night, Rarity weeping on the ground because of her.

“No! These are royal guards! Wasn’t yesterday enough? Oh, and look at this. A broken window. A BROKEN WINDOW!” Spike pointed at the shards lying around.

“Ha! You’re awake! Go and stir everyone up! We have a train to catch.” Spike frowned on Kamina’s order and gazed at Twilight. She checked the tickets. ‘The date the train departs IS today.’ She nodded to Spike, which caused him to deepen his frown as he walked upstairs to wake Fluttershy.

About half an hour and one motivating speech later, their morning masquerade began its journey to the train station. Kamina bore Applejack on his back and also pulled a cart with two silent, offended murderers. He marched through the main street, whistling like nothing interesting was happening. Behind him, two sad ponies barely walked. Their knees were failing them and their heads bent to the ground, looking up only to see the colors of her apple friend fade away. Twilight in the back held her opinions unspoken. ‘Yes, because this draws no attention at all.’ He put her, by his own words, at the last position to ensure no shenanigans happen along the way.

At the station, more than hundred golden armors awaited them. Twilight panicked for a while, until she spotted Kamina talking to one of them, a robust stallion with a gigantic sword.

“You were right, lord Kamina.” He claimed in defeat. “Once Celestia found out about the destruction of the Factory, she snapped. These colts are all I have now. Nopony else escaped.”

“Alright, take a dozen and protect the Elements. The rest comes with me!”

She crossed his path at the boarding platform: “How did you do this again?”

“Ponies, Twilight, important ponies, remember?!” He winked. “That was commander Irongate. He represents the Royal Guard when your brother’s gone.”

“How do you even know-…? Nevermind!” Twilight entered the train, searching for her friends. She ran into the commander in the corridor. He showed her to one of the coupes, but it was strangely quiet. Once she was in, she realized it was empty. The sound of the doors being locked behind has reached her ears. The train hooted and moved off. She opened the window and yelled at Kamina: “What the hell? Why am I locked in?” She watched in horror as the royals that came to her house earlier joined him by his side. Even worse, Spike was there, struggling against the force that pulled him back with no effect.

“Problem?” He smiled. The train accelerated and the crazy colt disappeared in clouds of steam.

‘Well played, you son of a bi-‘*HOOOOO* echoed the train.