A shore meets the palace. ( Semi-edited )

The wise turns towards the young, the young asks if the wise is truly as wise as it is. The wise accepts the young's challenge and strikes the young one's doubts aside. - JamesC

Sun Tzu, a formidable strategist and warrior who lived in the Zhou dynasty. He was the one to lead the state of Wu to victory, when invading the state of Chu.

In the end, the state of Wu has taken over Chu and has expanding exponentially, from a small and weak state, to that of a formidable warring state that conquered a mighty Chu with just a few thousand soldiers.

But, sadly, the strategist and philosopher has left without a trace, only leaving out The Art of War as a reminder of his great strategic teachings and philosophy.

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At the dawn of night Sun Tzu left the army encampment ready to invade Qi, towards the Yellow Sea. Bribing a local fisherman to dock a boat, Sun Tzu grabs his packed bag and sails towards shores unknown. Hoping to reach Japan.

In his mind, Sun Tzu has had enough of the King’s greed and leaves the rising Wu state without remorse.

A beautiful starry night is plastered out for the late strategist, he takes off his armor and wears his civilian clothing. A black zhiduo and zhuzi jin headwear, but he did bring his formal shenyi and zhangokfutou. But, the most prized clothing in his luggages, was his hats.

In Sun Tzu’s mind, hats in the imperial court signifies power towards the whole court, and few get hats given by the emperor himself, such as Sun Tzu. He has a well made zhuzi jin, yishanguan and zhuangzi jin in his hat entourage.

As if contemplating of “loosening the luggage”, Sun Tzu sees a bright light in the sky. It seems to emanate power, safety and kindness. Sun Tzu realizes that the bright light is the end of this world for him, and wants to see the next in his journey to the universe.

Sun Tzu freely accepts his process to be enlightened by this apparition and crosses his arms in his robe, and bows with his head facing the deck.

He feels a rope of comfort crossing his body, he can see a golden white hue glowing from his luggage and armor. At closer inspection, he sees himself as well glowing a golden white, and smiles happily.

This is the end, of Sun Tzu....

...or is it?

=====================================================================

At the palace in Canterlot, news spreads out of an invading force of deserter gryphons, minotaurs and deers planning to attack Equestria’s capital city. With little to no military forces at her disposal, Celestia plans to summon a great being from outside Equis.

Her calls were answered, and so the palace throne room was engulfed with a blinding white light, and was behold a strange “being”.

An ape like creature, wearing a black robe and unusual headwear, carrying a few luggages and was bowing. The creature lift up it’s head, dropping it’s bow, and looks at Celestia without a hint of anger, but a pool of confusion and years of cosmetic knowledge brings Celestia to an edgy and shivering feeling.

“Greetings to you, and who might you be, if I may ask?” spoke the creature.

Celestia was taken aback by it’s civilized, yet knowledgeable tone. She quickly recovers from her shock, and speaks to it.

“I am Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria. And who might you be, if I might ask?” Celestia asked, trying to not break a cultural barrier.

The ape like creature smiles, and seems to calculate rapidly, as if without consciousness. “You may refer to me as, Sun Tzu, strategist, philosopher, warrior, author and teacher, at your service.” he bows slightly, not as low as his previous bow, but enough to prove his point.

She smiles, but she hasn’t quite figured his gender or species. She asks, and tries not to insult the being without prior knowledge. “I am a male in my species, human.” he replies, placing his hand on his left, and hits it softly three times.

“And if I may as to ask the same question to you?”

Celestia nods, and tells her about her species, and the three categories that excludes herself. He nods, and seems to contemplate.

“What kind of government is this, princess?” he asks, placing a palm on his chin.

“Me and Princess Luna rule Equestria in a diarchy, but in our past it was just three monarchies ruling under their banners.”

The man accepts her answer, and looks around a bit, at the guards specifically.

Sun Tzu can see the guards clear stoic expression, but he can see that the armor is made out of gold, instead of any hard and strong metals. He changes his gaze on their build, he looks at a nearby cleaning maid and finds that their muscle build are similar, excluding the fact that the pony is a mare.

He gives Celestia a questioning glance and looks down disappointingly, shaking his head in mock shame. “You do not have a military force, I presume?” his gaze pierces Celestia’s entire being into metaphorical ashes, seemingly burning her with controlled anger.

She doesn’t know what she had done to anger him so, her guards are suitable replacements for a militia force.

She nods, not shamefully or proudly.

He takes that answers and tells his tale. “In my land, I am known as a fearsome warrior and strategist, able to turn a small country into a thriving state with hundreds of cities. I can turn anyone into a warrior, and I mean anyone. I have created a book that can lead any and all officers and warlords to victory, and can keep that victory for a hundred times.”

His confidence in his voice, not even a hint of cockiness or doubt in his tone. Celestia was truly, and utterly, terrified with this being in front of her. But, like the King of Wu, she wants to test him. And a test he will receive.

“Sun Tzu, if you can truly turn anyone into a warrior, how can you turn six everyday ponies into officers or generals?” she asked, smiling at her challenge, ‘He can’t accomplish this, it’s impossible to turn those six innocent ponies in to warriors.’

Sun Tzu looks at the facial expression of Celestia, and smiles. “If you permit it, I will do it in one day and one night.”. Celestia was taken aback, again, by the request. His confidence not rising a level, she’s no longer terrified of him, she is completely and utterly convinced this human is a spawn of Tartarus; a complete demon able to turn battles and train any and all working bodies into a warrior.

She reluctantly accepts his request, and was thinking about forgetting the test. He nods, and picks up his luggage and waits for her orders. “You will ride a chariot to Ponyville, where I will send a letter to the six ponies you will turn into officers by one day and one night, good luck.

“But, I bet you won’t need it...” she mumbles.

He nods, and smiles. Having a good hearing, and being paranoid, he heard the comment very well. He follows two guards to an open balcony where a chariot being pulled by two pegasi lay. Sun Tzu boards the wagon and places his luggages safely by his side, and waits for the ride to begin.

=====================================================================

*burp*

Twilight rushes upstairs, forgetting about her latest studies, and opens the door to her bedroom. Spike was rubbing his eyes from being woken up by the flame, and was holding up a beige colored scroll, with a familiar golden seal wrapped around a red ribbon.

She quickly unwraps the scroll and reads aloud.

Dear Twilight Sparkle

I am sending you a strategist to train the Elements of Harmony into fighting capable officers. Now, don’t get me wrong. I am merely testing this new strategist if he can train the six of you into suitable warriors. But, there was a slightly complication.

He was bold, and confident enough, that he can do it in one day and one night; which is impossible for even a single squad of determined guards to be trained.

So, I ask of you to not be afraid of this creature. To be honest, he frightens me to the core; and makes me want to flee whenever he’s present. His mere gaze is enough to make me shiver, his presence emanates authority and countless years of knowledge, his mere form speaks of wars untold and his mind speaks of limitless calculation that rivals both me and Luna’s combined.

And don’t be afraid by his lack of hooves, I’m sure you will see soon enough.

Princess Celestia

Twilight stares at the scroll with disbelief, ‘How can somepony, or something for that matter, give Princess Celestia a shiver by his mere presence? Is he a minotaur, griffon or something else?’

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock at her door.

“Coming!” she trots to her front door.

Twilight can see a chariot outside, and a tall shadow. ‘Definitely a minotaur, who else is as confident a minotaur like Iron Will?’ she smiles, deducing who might the creature be.

She opens her door, and reveals something she had never seen in any books.

Two pegasi day guards were at the front of her door, while behind them was a tall and imposing creature. She keeps her gaze at the black robbed creature with a strangely shaped hat.

“May we come in?” asked the creature.

She nods slowly, opening the door at it’s fullest to let the creature and guards in.

Both the guards and creature enters in decently and slowly, as if trained to do so with exact precision and timing. The creature looked like he was holding some luggage, it sets them down on a nearby table and sits on her red couch.

The creature seems to look for something, before falling it’s gaze on Twilight. She gulps, and hope for the best that she hasn’t angered it. “Where is the five others?” it asks, confirming the he was indeed male like the letter stated.

“I just received the letter a few minutes ago, I didn’t have much time to get my friends so that you can train them.” she answered matter-of-factly.

He nods, and gestures Twilight to do as she was supposed to do, with a simple wave of his claw.

“I’ll be right back!” she answered giddly, and trots out to gather her friends.

=====================================================================

Twilight Sparkle comes back a few dozen minutes later with the rest of the gang. She was surprised to see a board game she had never seen before, being played by none other than the creature and Spike.

“So what do I do next?” the dragon asked, seemingly interested in this game.

“You need to try and capture as much of this dotted points as possible, with the least amount of pebbles, young one.” he seems to teach Spike like no one else, as if he was also playing this for the first time.

“So, I just need to capture these things, or do I have to take them out?”

He shakes his head, “You’re supposed to either circle my pebbles, or make me so that I can’t move and capture any territory. Try and circle my pebbles like this.”

He shows Spike an example of locking his opponent in, by placing four black pebble on each sides of a white pebble. “Now this white pebble can’t escape, now you have to go and do this to all my pebbles.”

Spike seems to deflate. “This will take forever...”

He pats Spike on the shoulder. “You shouldn’t give up so fast. Here, you can capture my pebbles like this and I won’t be able to move any of my pebbles: because they are all stacked to each other.”

Spike’s spirits seems to be lifted up. The creature smiles at his excitement.

“And like this, now I can’t move at all, every single of my pebble is blocked by the corners, it’s easy.”

Spike nods, and starts the game.

The girls were watching without disturbing the game, and was interested on how this game was going to be played out.

A few rounds later, Spike won the round. The creature was smiling at the young ones interest of the game. “Thank you for teaching me how to play Go, Sun Tzu!” Spike was smiling brightly, finally finding someone to teach him about something other than books.

“It’s not a problem Spike, oh look, they have finally arrived. Go upstairs and show the guards how to play, I bet they will be more of a challenge.”

Spike nodded, he closes the pebbles jars and headed upstairs to face new challengers.

Sun Tzu’s expression changed to a welcoming and beaming face, to that of progress showing no emotions at all making the emotion dependent ponies shiver. Now Twilight knows why this creature terrifies Celestia to the very core of her existence.

“Where is a flat land located at?” he asked, his tone drastically changed.

“I can show you, but why do we need a flat land?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah! Why can’t we just do it here?” a cyan pegasus butted.

“Because I need a training ground on where I can train you all in one day and one night, so a flat land is suffice enough for me to do just that task.”

Their formally shivering feelings, turns into a shivering spine; crawling all around their bones.

=====================================================================

They found a suitable flat land in a meadow beneath Rainbow’s flying castle. Sun Tzu not enough giving it a glance, which furiates the cyan pegasus to no ends.

“Now, I want you all to keep a five foot gap between each of you.” they all look at Sun Tzu in confusion, not understanding the meaning of foot.

Sun Tzu rephrases his command. “I want you all to keep a length of one bu gap between each of you.” again, they look at Sun Tzu in confusion.

Taking matters in his own hands, Sun Tzu divides them all into the gaps needed to perform his training exercise.

“I want you all now to do as I do, as you much as you can, failure to do so is a severe punishment.” the girls can tell he wasn’t joking, all looking towards Applejack for confirmation; which she gave.

They all copied as much as they can in their pony bodies to perform what he did, he then started to teach them about strategy. They can visibly see their bodies change, and their muscles start to harden as strong as Big Mac’s, they were able to cut down a tree without an axe, but with a sword.

Their training ended before the dawn of night, and Sun Tzu left to return to Canterlot.

The girls saddened by the departure of their master, went back to their daily lives, where everyone stared at their amazing muscle build up.

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The arrival of Sun Tzu at Canterlot castle, marks the end of Shining Armor’s reign of weakness in the guard’s barracks, if he passes Celestia’s expectations.

Author's Note

I haven't found, yet, any fics with Sun Tzu as a character himself. I do find some fics mentioning him, but none has ever used him as a character at all.

So here's to me making this work!