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.