Atonement for a Wayward Dragoon

by Belligerent Bindlestiff

Welcome to Our Town

Welcome to Our Town

For a better part of the day, the group travelled back to town in silence, save for the occasional yearning of the amenities of civilization by Rarity. Kain didn’t interact much with the group, however that didn’t mean they held no curiosity towards him. He noted the occasional scowl from Rainbow Dash in response from the attention the crusaders, particularly Scootaloo’s glossy gaze of awe at him.

“Hey, we’re almost home!” exclaimed Applebloom. “Ah can see Sweet Apple Acres from here!”

A little while later, the group came to a fork in the road. “Well, it looks like this is where we’ll leave ya.” Applejack spoke. “Gotta head back to the farm; no doubt Big Mac’s been real busy without our help. Let’s head home Applebloom. Oh and nice meeting ya Kain, Ah hope we get the chance to repay yah for yer help.”

“Bye girls, by Mr. Kain!” Applebloom said as she and her sister departed from the group.

After saying their short goodbyes to the farm bound sisters, the rest of the ponies continued to Ponyville. It wasn’t much longer before the group had arrived at the entrance to the town.

“Well, I’ve gotta head home and find out where I’m on cloud duty tomorrow. Take it easy squirt.” Rainbow Dash said to Scootaloo, who was still fixated on Kain. Noting the lack of attention, Dash took to the air a few feet off the ground. “I’ll see you all later.” she spoke before speeding off to her home in the clouds.

“Bye Rainbow Dash!” exclaimed the orange filly after finally tearing her attention away from the dragoon. “See you tomorrow Sweetie Belle!” she spoke as she parted for her way home.

Seeing that the numbers of the group were rapidly dwindling, Rarity decided to take the opportunity to better acquaint herself with the chivalrous stallion. “Mr. Highwind, there’s still some light left in the day, would you like a grand tour of Ponyville before you retire for the night?” Rarity asked.

“I wouldn’t mind one.” Kain replied, obliging.

“Where do you want to start?” Sweetie Belle began, only to be cut off quickly by her sister.

“It’s been quite a long weekend Sweetie Bell, and you have school tomorrow.” Rarity said. Sweetie Bell put on a look of disappointment. “I’m certain you and the crusaders will have a lot to talk about tomorrow.” Rarity continued. With that, Sweetie Bell’s disposition improved and she was soon on her way on her way home.

Having been satisfied by the current change in situation, Rarity said, “Well, let’s begin this tour shall we?”

Although Kain didn’t care greatly for the day to day inter-working of town life, at least the company the tour provided would break the monotony of isolation of the past few years that Kain had brought upon himself.

The two ponies began the tour at the town square where Rarity talked about the various celebrations that would occur throughout the year. He was reminded of such times when he could relax during his training amongst Baron’s dragoons. A seasonal celebration would bring a much younger, less hardened version of himself along with his two friends, Rosa and Cecil into the town to simply relax and enjoy the festivities.

“And over here is the farmers’ market, where all of our produce is sold fresh daily by many ponies including none other than Applejack and her family, they were one of the first families to settle the area.” Rarity said, continuing her oration of the tour.

Kain hadn’t said much throughout the tour so far with the exception of the occasional “uh-huh” and “hmmm” to show a sign that he was paying attention. Despite the lack of enthusiasm, Rarity kept on speaking with as much fervor as she had when they started.

“Moving on, here is Quills and Sofas where, appropriately enough, you may purchase quills for writing and sofas for seating.” Rarity said once more in an attempt to be humorous. By this point in the tour, Ponyville looked to be quite a peaceful hamlet. Even at its most relaxed, Baron did have weapon and armor smithies; armed guards took watch at all times of the day, and here was this town, nearing nightfall and there wasn’t a sentry to be seen.

And as if to completely break his preconceptions of Ponyville, Kain suddenly felt a slight uneasiness. Once again the experiences from his adventures leant themselves, and Kain couldn’t help but feel that he was being watched.

In the next lull of Rarity’s tour, the dragoon became certain of his suspicions when he heard shifting from an indeterminable, but proximate location. It was not until the last moment when he was sure of where the threat was; Kain turned and struck a defensive position, shield at the ready, and once again attempting to grab his spear with his left foreleg in vain to which he immediately opted for leaning his left side forward, with the lance pointed at the threat of an ecstatic, pink pony.

“Hi there!” exclaimed the beaming pony, who was hardly put off by the lance pointed at a short distance from her face.

“Mr. Highwind!” exclaimed Rarity, who was in shock from both the speed of Kain’s reaction and to the fact that he had his weapon trained on one of her friends. “What are you doing? That’s my dear friend Pinkie Pie!”

Kain turned his head to Rarity in response to her outcry and then looked back, only to find the bright pink mare now standing on his spear. “Hey! What’s your favorite kind of cake?” Pinkie Pie abruptly asked.

“I’m not really one-“ Kain began but was immediately cut off.

“Oh wait! I bet you like other sweets! You must like flans!” the party pony said continuing her aggressive inquiry.

“No.” Kain replied somewhat forcefully.

“Wait, I know! Nopony can resist a good pie! What’s your favorite pie?” Pinkie Pie questioned. Just before Kain could respond, Rarity cut in.

“Oh Pinkie Pie, you two haven’t even been introduced yet and you’re already asking about cakes and whatnot.”

Pinkie Pie held out her hoof to shake, “Nice to meet ya Leon!”

Puzzled, Kain corrected Pinkie Pie. “My name is Kain.”

“Dark armor, moody looking guy, buck-hooved…” Pinkie muttered to herself. “Oh! The other Two!”

“Kain, this eccentric friend of mine is Pinkie Pie, a masterful party coordinator and connoisseur; hence all of her questions on the matter of sweets.” Rarity then pointed to the dragoon. “Pinkie, this is Kain Highwind, a knight myself and the others met on the camping excursion. He even saved the crusaders from an attack by a monstrous cockatrice.”

“Nice to meet ya Kain!” the pink pony exclaimed as she then shook hooves with Kain rather forcefully. “See you later, I’ve got a lot to do!” And with that, the mare bounced off from Kain and Rarity.

“Rather odd, that one.” Kain spoke.

“Yes, well, Pinkie Pie grows on you. Just be ready for one her parties in the near future, she’s obviously gone off to plan one for you in order to welcome you to the town.” Rarity said informatively.

“I don’t think I’ll be here long enough to partake in any celebrations, I’m only here for a few days.” Kain said.

“Expect you party tomorrow afternoon.” Rarity said. “Pinkie Pie is a professional.”

Eventually the two found themselves with little day light for any more touring of the city. Rarity then escorted Kain to the nearest inn. “I suppose you’d wish to get settled in, I’ll leave you now.” Rarity said.

“Thank you for the tour Lady Rarity.” Kain replied

“You’re very welcome Mr. Highwind.” Rarity said, before finally leaving the dragoon’s company.

Kain entered the inn and spoke with the proprietor. “Have you any vacant rooms for the next few days?

The owner replied, “We have one, fifteen Bits a night sir.”

The dragoon reached for his coin purse and shook out some Gil onto the counter. There was a pause as the innkeeper examined the pile of gold coins of imperfect form before he asked, “What’s this?”

“My payment.” Kain replied.

“I’m sorry, but we only accept Bits in these parts.” The innkeeper said just before producing a pristine, bright yellow coin to show his would-have-been patron.

“My apologies.” Kain stated. “I shall be on my way then.”

The now vagrant dragoon made his way out of the inn.

“I’d like to hire you to help pay for your room and board, but there’s not much work I can offer you. Don’t worry; I’m sure somepony could use your help in town.” The innkeeper somewhat apologetically said.

Rarity had long left the area, but Kain abandoned the idea of asking to stay at the home of someone he’d just met. He eventually found himself at the town park and decided to retire for the night on one of the benches. It wasn’t the most comfortable of places, but it would have to do until Kain could come into some money. For not being a day filled with battles, Kain found it easy to slip into the realm of unconsciousness.

////

Rarity decided that a good walk through the park would help clear her mind. Ever since that knight had entered the picture, all she could think about was Kain. Even when she tried to open up to him, the dragoon distanced himself from any real conversation. Rarity had Kain on her mind so much right now that she even swore that a hobo on the bench looked exactly like him; she did a double take and realized that Kain was right there, asleep in his armor without a fire or blanket to keep warm tonight.

For some reason, Kain didn’t stay at the inn. Rarity decided that even if it didn’t appear proper, she’d bring this gentlecolt to stay the night at her abode. She didn’t wish to wake him, lest he protest her generosity, so she used her magic to levitate the dragoon home; Rarity was also quite relieved that there weren’t too many ponies out this evening as the sight of what appeared to be her bringing an unconscious stallion into her home at night as it would be the cause for many unnecessary rumors.

Rarity opened the door to the boutique and brought the knight in and laid him on the nearest couch. From the park to her home, the levitation magic had tired the unicorn out, the weight of Kain’s armor didn’t help with the matter either.

Although he did look more comfortable on the couch rather than the park bench, Rarity decided to give her guest a more peaceful sleep by removing his armor. First she undid the straps and hooks that held Kain’s weapon to him. Although it didn’t appear to be out of the ordinary, the seamstress did notice a faint, white glow on the tip of the spear. She removed the buckler from his foreleg and placed it next to the spear. Rarity continued to carefully remove more pieces of armor and pile them neatly across the room. She was about done when she then noticed his cutie mark. Up until this point, nopony had seen it; she beheld the image of a rather unassuming spear, grayish-white in color, but what stood out was the large strap that adorned the spear. Upon Kain’s blue coat a bright red strap connected to the spear locked Rarity’s gaze towards the cutie mark.

The seamstress then completed her task by removing Kain’s helmet and placing it with the rest of the armor. She looked at the sight before her, not of an armored knight ready for combat, but of a blue stallion with a long, yet masculine blonde mane. There was the occasional scar on his legs, most likely from the combat this pony had seen.Though he was without armor, Rarity felt that there was more to this pony. Minutes passed as she stood there, gazing, until her own fatigue caught up with her and she decided to go to bed.

////

That night, Kain dreamt of the party’s return from the moon aboard the Lunar Whale. Everyone was exhausted from the final battle, so there were hardly any words spoken from Zeromous’ lair back to the craft; the group simply left to the resting quarters. It wasn’t until many hours into the flight back to the blue planet that the people on board began to stir. Kain emerged from his ‘bed’ and went to the bridge of the Lunar Whale to find Edge and Rydia talking about something Kain hadn’t pondered about throughout the crisis, what to do next.

The dragoon had his thoughts half occupied with stopping Zeromus and the other half being wracked with guilt; it had never occurred to him what he’d do if the group was successful, or even if he would survive. Now, he found himself listening on what the ninja and the summoner were going to do upon their return.

“Yeah, both of our homes are gonna need help from the kingdoms that are still intact like Troija and Baron.” Edge said.

“Baron, funny how that’s where all this trouble began.” Rydia said.

“Yet, even though I’ve got trouble admitting it, if it weren’t for those three Baronians, the world wouldn’t be doing so well right now.” Edge said.

“That’s mighty big of you Edge, you even included Kain as a credit to our victory.” Rydia replied.

“He may have been a treacherous, no nonsense jerk in the past, but now he’s an invaluable non nonsense jerk. That, and he’s been listening in on us for a bit now.” Edge said with a smirk. “Come on out, I heard you in that loud armor the moment you woke up!”

Kain made his way over to the two, he continued with the discussion prior to his intrusion. “Eblan has done well for itself given all that has happened and I’m certain with good leadership, your kingdom will return to its former glory Edge.”

“Its gonna be rough.” Edge said. “And the hardest part will be sitting down and doing all that ‘governing’ that my advisor insists I do.”

Before Kain could even turn to Rydia, the green-haired woman interjected with her own thoughts.

“Mist isn’t lost, if we rebuild, people will return to the village; they’ll especially come once they know the world’s last summoner lives there. Maybe the line of summoning magic does not have to end with me. Maybe there’s someone out there that carries the lineage of summoners old. In either event, I won’t let Mist be forgotten.” Rydia said, lamenting.

Kain just couldn’t respond to Rydia. He recalled that fateful day when he and Cecil inadvertently caused the destruction of Mist with the Carnet Signet. Remembering the role he played, no matter how unintentional, prevented him from really ever becoming close with Rydia, despite the battles they fought side by side.

“And as I was saying earlier,” Edge said. “We’re probably going to need assistance from Baron with getting us back on our feet. So, can we count on you and the two love birds who have yet to get up to aid us?”

Kain didn’t want to think about Cecil and Rosa together at the moment, especially in the context Edge had put. He didn’t want to think about what was to come when they returned to the Blue Planet. The dishonor, the shame, and the regret concerning the two flooded Kain’s thoughts. He just wanted to get away from it all. The world was at peace now, but he couldn’t.

It wasn’t as if he was going to be charged with treason upon his return, thought the thought had crossed his mind, it was a paralysis brought on by the motions of everyone else seeking to recover after this crisis. Kain wasn’t ready, neither to rebuild nor celebrate, especially the inevitable union of Cecil and Rosa. The dragoon convinced himself that until he had dealt with his demons, there would be no going forward.

Kain became enveloped in these thoughts and slowly the image of Edge, Rydia, and the bridge of the Lunar Whale faded from his view and he was parted from the memory.

~BelligerentBindlestiff

Author's Note:

Musical Accompaniment/Inspiration: “Welcome to Our Town!” FFIV OST, “Hey, Cid!” FFIV OST, “Lunar Whale” FFIV OST.

Comments

[Nealend86]

You must like flans!

Suddenly Kain flashes back to the moon...
Cecil: "Come on, just twenty more Flan Princesses. We'll get that pink tail yet!"
Kain: "Can we please go already!?"

[Always Breakfast]

Nice subtle jab at the US misnumbering.

[Belligerent Bindlestiff]

8330556
See, even Pinkie makes extra-dimensional mistakes.