Kimono stared at her alarm clock: four in the morning. In two short hours it would be time to get up. She debated the merits of attempting to get two hours of sleep but ultimately decided it would be an effort in futility. It would be another sleepless night for the purple unicorn mare. She sighed and got out of bed.
The nightmarish flashbacks had haunted her for years; there was nothing surprising about them at this point. Still, she had only managed five hours sleep total over the last three days. She was exhausted, mentally and physically.
Her dorm room was sparsely decorated – the only furniture were the bed and dresser provided by the school. An antiquated record player sat atop the dresser and a pair of paper lanterns provided light to the room. They matched the pair of paper lanterns adorning her flank, symbolizing her intelligence and puzzle solving capabilities – particularly her ability to shed light on any given situation, often solving mysteries in the process. All except the one that continued to torment her...
She walked to her small closet and pulled out her daishō, the only reminders she had left of her samurai upbringing. Being the residence assistant of this floor in the dormitory gave her relative peace of mind that the school would never discover them in her possession as the major perk of the position was having a room all to herself. It was a far cry from her first year at the school when she had shared a room with Minty. The mint green mare was notorious for disregarding both privacy and personal space. She had of course discovered the katana and wakizashi, but she completely bought the story that they were just extra large Ginsu knives – a free gift with the purchase of the entire set. Even if Kimono had had to disgrace the swords by chopping tomatoes for Minty's amusement. She rolled her eyes at that particular memory. At least Minty had never found the kaiken hidden in her namesake kimono.
She stared at her reflection in the gleaming blade of her wakizashi, the disappointment all too visible in her eyes. The purple walls of the dorm room faded away and were replaced by the wooden walls of the training room of her sensei, Suzuki. Kimono lay on the floor, the flat of Suzuki's wakizashi against her neck. Her own swords had been knocked well out of reach.
"I am most disappointed in you, Kimono." The elderly stallion shook his head as he removed the sword from her neck.
Making things worse, it had been far from a fair fight – Suzuki had been fighting handicapped and had given Kimono every possible advantage. And she still lost, quickly at that. She bowed her head and waited for Suzuki to continue berating her.
"Kimono, you possess great intellect but subpar fighting skills. But there are many ways one can bring honor to oneself, and as such I've arranged for you to continue your education in Equestria, at the prestigious Canterlot University.
And so it had happened. And now here she was sitting in her dorm room, well on her way to being her class valedictorian, but completely miserable nonetheless. In exchange for fulfilling her desire for a higher education, he had insisted on making her promise not to return until she had proven herself as a warrior. Had she realized that Equestria's crime rate was near zero she would've thought twice about leaving home. The major threat Equestrian citizens had to worry about was periodic monster attacks, which unfortunately were not covered under bushidō. She was homesick – thousands of miles and an ocean away from her family and friends with almost no chance of ever seeing them again. Suzuki had probably thought he was doing her a favor; by sending her abroad she wouldn't bring shame to herself or her family, and she would have an opportunity at a much better life. Unfortunately she had found making friends with the undisciplined ponies at the college nearly impossible. She simply had nothing in common with most of them.
She put on her kimono and slipped silently out of her room and started pacing the hallway. If she couldn't sleep, she may as well be productive. She took her position as RA seriously and patrolling the hallways at night while most of the other ponies were asleep made them feel more secure. There was Minty's current room, somehow the disaster prone mare had managed to avoid being stuck with a roommate this year... probably for liability reasons. Snoring from within indicated all was fine with the mint green mare so she continued down the hall. Star Catcher's room was next. As the duchess of Cloudsdale, she also had her own private room. A pair of pegasi guards watched her every move as she passed it by. Starsong and Toola Roola, Seaspray and Sunny Daze, Wysteria and Sweetberry. Nothing out of the ordinary, just like every other night.
She turned around and started heading back to her own room when rustling leaves in a potted plant caught her attention. There was nothing abnormal about leaves rustling in a breeze... except for the fact they were indoors and the windows were all shut. She chided herself for her paranoia, but no samurai worth their salt ignores a sign such as this one. Spotting danger was the only part of her training she had excelled at, after all. Though the odds of finding a ninja hiding here were so astronomically low...
...Make that exceedingly high. Blending in with the foliage was a pony disguised in dark camouflage. Her mission compromised she stood up.
"Um, hello. I don't suppose I could ask what you're doing here?"
The pony replied in Japaneighse. Kimono was only too happy to switch to her native tongue, much to the surprise of the ninja. Kimono repeated the question but in reply the pony swung a kunai at her. Kimono replied by levitating her kaiken from a fold in her kimono, and slashed the dagger at the intruder. It bounced harmlessly off the pony's armor. She had the superior weapon so she pressed the ninja into a corner before once more repeating her question. Before she could receive an answer she was knocked unconscious by a second ninja that she hadn't even seen.
She awoke to Star Catcher attending to her injuries. The white pegasus had a heart cutie mark, and a heart on her forehead that glowed as she levitated a washcloth to Kimono's cheek. Butterflies swarmed around her as always. Her pegasi guards hovered around the pair, warning off curious students and keeping an eye out in case the ninjas returned. "My head..." she moaned.
"I'm afraid that's going to leave a nasty bruise on your face. Thankfully your purple fur will obscure most of it, and you should be able to hide the rest with a liberal application of make-up. Now, would you mind explaining to me exactly what happened?"
Kimono did her best to inform Star Catcher of what had transpired. "I was a samurai in my homeland. But I wasn't very good at it so my sensei sent me here to learn. Basically it was his way of both protecting me from harm and preventing shame from falling upon all of us. I'm not even allowed to return home until I prove myself as a warrior and kill somepony in battle."
"Not very good at it? In that case I'd hate to run afoul of a master! You fought that pony to a standstill."
"Yes, but that was mostly due to me having the element of surprise, which I squandered, and a superior weapon. Had I remembered my training better, I would have done a precursory scan to see if any other ninjas were hiding before engaging my target. I was just so surprised to see a ninja here. It never even occurred to me to check to see if she had an accomplice."
"You did remarkably well, regardless. Do you know who their intended target is? An additional guard detail is already on the way, but I don't want any of my friends to be unprotected."
"I can say for certain it isn't me. The first ninja seemed surprised I knew Japaneighse and the second had a perfect opportunity to kill me outright and didn't. So my guess is that it's you. I don't know why they're after you, but there aren't any other high profile targets in this dorm. Unless Minty's upped her destructiveness level to include international incidents."
The two ponies looked at each other. Sarcastic as the comment had been, it was a possibility that couldn't be completely dismissed as a joke. They knocked on Minty's door.
"Coming!" They heard the poor mare trip and fall on her way to the door before it finally opened to reveal a green pony with bloodshot eyes and a wild mane that was sticking up in at least twenty different directions. Four mismatched socks adorned each of her hooves. "Uh, hehe, excuse my appearance. I was still in bed. What's up?"
"We were just wondering if you may have inadvertently offended anyone Japaneighse."
"Just you, Kimono. I'm still really sorry about that. I mean, your hair totally grew back and... oh no, you're not still mad about that, are you? I'm sorry!"
"Relax, Minty. I'm not mad about that. Just lock your door and don't open it for anypony except for Star Catcher or myself."
"What about going to class?"
"Due to the events of this morning, all classes have been canceled today, my little pony," Star Catcher replied.
"Oh sweet! I can go back to sleep then! Rock on!" She shoved her visitors out into the hallway and seconds later the sound of her snoring echoed down the hallway.
"Weren't you roommates with Minty last year?"
"Yes. And now you know why I took the RA position."
The two ponies returned to Star Catcher's room, where they opened a current yearbook on her coffee table. They perused it looking for any other ponies that might be of interest to the ninjas, but they found none. Kimono shut the book, leaned her head back, and felt herself sink deeper into Star Catcher's very comfortable plush couch. An entire garrison of Royal Guards had secured the room, and Star Catcher had insisted on posting a guard in front of every dorm room door on the floor. None of her fellow students were going to come to harm on her watch.
*****
"Fools!"
Waterfire and Tea Leaf bowed before Jade Garden in deference. The white pony with rainbow hair continued pacing while chewing them out. Her floral cutie mark cascaded from her flank all the way down her hind leg. It was impossible for the bowing ponies to determine where her natural cutie mark ended and the tattoo continuation began. The skill of her tattoo artist was considerably higher than that of the two disgraced ninjas before her. She sighed – good help was difficult to find.
"This was supposed to be a simple foalnapping. You were supposed to sneak past the guards in the middle of the night and abscond with the duchess. How, exactly, did you deviate from such a simple plan?"
"There was a samurai at the school!" Waterfire blurted out.
"A samurai?" Jade raised an eyebrow at that. "In Canterlot? Granted, that is abnormal, but that still shouldn't have prevented the two of you from completing your mission."
"She alerted the guards to our position. We were compromised. We await your new orders"
Jade shooed a butterfly away from her face. "I should order the two of you to commit seppuku. Unfortunately since you're all I have to work with, I'm going to have to be creative, This time they're going to be expecting us, so here's what we're going to do..."
*****
Star Catcher whistled. "You've had these hidden the whole time you've been a student here?"
"Yes." Kimono sheathed the two swords into her waist sash.
Visions of Minty cutting herself repeatedly ran through Star Catcher's mind. "How did..."
"I keep Minty from killing herself when she was my roommate? I told her they were extra long Ginsu knives and were intended to slice tomatoes. She lost interest since she doesn't like tomatoes. Albeit she did have me demonstrate that function repeatedly for her amusement."
"She's easily amused."
"Indeed. Anyways, I suppose I don't need to tell you that anything you may have seen in this room doesn't exist."
"I saw nothing, my little pony. Though I can't say the same for my guards. When they catch sight of you wearing those there's going to be a major problem."
"Then I guess what they don't see doesn't hurt me." Kimono slipped into her kimono. "Loose fitting clothing hides a multitude of sins – whether that be weapons, armor, or the extra pounds put on from Sweetberry's caramel brownies."
Star Catcher smiled. "Try being a pegasus the size of an alicorn. There's one pony by the name of Rainbow Dash who insists on calling me lardflank."
"But you are an alicorn."
"I suppose for all intents and purposes I could be considered as much since I possess both the ability to fly and magical capabilities, but no horn means I'm technically a pegasus instead. Getting back on subject, I don't suppose you have any more sharp and pointy surprises laying around that I might be able to borrow?"
"I'm afraid I don't, but they'd really do you no good. Without years of training you'd never be able to use them to their full potential. As it stands, I have years of training and I'm still considered a novice by my fellow samurai."
"In that case, I suppose we'll just have to trick them into making their next move. According to my guards, both of the ninjas were earth ponies. Is that correct?"
"Yes."
"What if we were to accidently leak that we're currently moving me to Cloudsdale for my protection?"
"How do you accidently leak information?"
"Oh, that's easy in a government bureaucracy. We get a big cart and park it outside the dorm and start loading my stuff in it. We put Royal Guards everywhere and give them the line 'I can neither confirm nor deny that we're relocating Star Catcher for her safety.' And we just make sure the cart is plastered with the name of a Cloudsdale rental agency."
"You really think that'll work?"
"Absolutely. Never underestimate how stupid ponies think our government really is. Once that info gets back to our ninjas, they'll realize their window to complete their job is closing, forcing them to make a move now. And we'll be waiting. As it stands, they're currently observing the dorm from the roof."
"How do you know that? Are you omniscient?"
Star Catcher laughed as butterflies swarmed around her. "No, if I was omniscient I would've known they were coming for me in advance and this never would have happened. I'm just very well connected. Trust me when I say they won't get the drop on us again. I now know their names, the name of their boss, the location of their hideout, and the purpose of their mission. They want to foalnap me for ransom. I'll go set up the ruse and send some of my guards to research the names I was just given. You'll accompany me as my security detail."
*****
"The good news is that she's still inside. The bad news is that security around this building is much tighter now than it was this morning. We're never going to sneak in."
"Don't be so pessimistic, Waterfire. We'll get in. We just need the right disguises." Tea Leaf pointed to a pair of Royal Guards. "And I think I see a pair of disguises right there. Some disassembly required."
The guards never knew what hit them. One minute they were keeping the south perimeter secure and the next they were stripped, bound, gagged, and dumped in the woods. With their new disguises acquired, Waterfire and Tea Leaf strode through the halls of the dormitory unimpeded.
Tea Leaf nudged Waterfire. "There she is."
"Yeah, and she's still being guarded by that samurai."
"Just stick to the plan and it won't matter."
The two ninjas walked past their target, then wheeled around and launched throwing stars directly at Kimono. Her kimono was ripped to shreds by the shuriken, which proceeded to imbed themselves into the wall next to her.
"Oh those ninjas are so going down. That was my favorite kimono. It is on!"
"Help!" Waterfire exclaimed. She stood over Tea Leaf. "She got hit by something and she's bleeding!"
"You look for the ninjas, I'll attend to the guards," Star Catcher said. Kimono nodded and disappeared around the corner.
Star Catcher bent over to take a closer look at Tea Leaf, only for Waterfire to slip a chloroformed rag across her muzzle. The pegasus duchess collapsed to the ground and Tea Leaf sprung to her hooves. The two ponies picked up the unconscious Star Catcher and carried her outside to a waiting cart.
*****
Kimono inspected the hallway. There were no places for the ninjas to hide, unless they had ducked into one of the dorm rooms. And if that was the case, it would take hours to search all the rooms thoroughly. She didn't have time for that – she needed to return to Star Catcher. As she galloped back to where she had left the pegasus it slowly dawned on her that she had left her alone. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!"
Sure enough, the hallway was empty with no sign that either Star Catcher or the two guards that had been there. The more Kimono thought about it the more she doubted those ponies had actually been guards. She mused that wings would be handy right about now, but thankfully there was more than one way to conduct an aerial search. She teleported herself outside and then took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and then teleported again.
When she opened her eyes she was now a mile above Equestria and falling at a rapid rate of speed. She fought the urge to panic and scanned the ground fruitlessly for the missing pony and her captors. When she was only one hundred meters above the ground she teleported a mile into the air yet again. She had to repeat the process four more times before she finally struck paydirt. Her next teleport was directly above the two ninjas, and she landed atop both of them, knocking all of them to the ground.
"You again? Don't you ever give up?" Tea Leaf asked.
"I see you've mastered the Equestrian language since we last talked. Though I'm quite fluent in Japaneighse if you prefer communicating that way?" Kimono unsheathed her katana and levitated it in front of her. "Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way. The easy way is you release Star Catcher to my custody and scamper off and we forget everything that happened. The hard way is we have an epic sword fight and you two eventually lose anyway, suffering blows to both your bodies and your egos. So what do you say? Can we resolve this peacefully?"
The two ninjas unsheathed their swords as a response. Kimono levitated her wakizashi from its sheath and wielded it alongside the katana. She spun the two swords around like a fan and leapt towards the pair of ninjas. Waterfire and Tea Leaf backpedaled. With Kimono's blades spinning that fast there was no opening to launch an attack unless they could get around to her side or back. Tea Leaf feigned left and was rewarded with a stab from Kimono's kaiken. While it bounced harmlessly off her armor, the stricken mare fell back into position alongside Waterfire regardless. Kimono kept pressing the two ninjas and they continued inching backwards. Eventually there was nothing left behind them but a river.
"No place to run. Last chance to surrender before I slit your throats."
"Run? Why would we do that? We've got you right where we want you!" Waterfire raised her forelegs and the river overflowed its banks, drenching all of them. "The name's Waterfire, and I've complete mastery of the elements of water and fire. I do believe that it's time for you to fry."
Kimono teleported out of the way of the flaming shuriken that Waterfire launched at her. She barely had time to catch her breath before her legs became entangled in vines.
"And my specialty is plant control."
"And it just so happens that plants are flammable. So Tea Leaf, do you want her Original Recipe or Extra Crispy?"
"Extra Crispy!"
Kimono quickly slashed through the vines with her swords, and teleported out of the line of fire yet again. The ninjas were proving more competent than her last encounter with them. Now they had her on the run.
"I can't see a thing through these butterflies."
"Me either."
Kimono turned towards the voices and to her surprise saw the two ninjas completely covered in insects. Star Catcher stood between them. "You go get their master. I'll deal with these two." Kimono dashed off towards their hideout while Star Catcher's butterflies returned to her, leaving the hapless ninjas firmly in the pegasus' magical grip. "We're pretty big on forgiveness here in Equestria, so I'm willing to cut you a deal. Come work for me as part of my security detail and I'll forget this whole incident ever happened."
"And if we refuse?"
Their weapons levitated next to their stomachs. "I understand your country has a tradition where those ponies who bring shame to their families commit seppuku. Personally I think it would be tragic for two talented mares such as yourselves to die so young, but if that's what you prefer..."
The two ninjas looked to one another. Waterfire spoke for them both, "We accept your terms."
"Excellent."
*****
"Jade Garden?"
"Ah, you must be the samurai that defeated my best ninjas this morning. You won't be so lucky this time."
"I've already defeated them. Now it's just you and me. How about we end this madness and you surrender peacefully. It's over. You can't win. Do us both a favor and lay down your weapons."
"Please. I was fighting samurai while you were still in diapers. And I'll still be fighting samurai after you're nothing more than a bad memory. Which should be about five minutes from now."
Metal met metal as Kimono's katana struck Jade Garden's. Kimono attacked and Jade blocked. Then Jade pressed forward and Kimono blocked. Sparks flew every time their swords connected but neither pony could gain the upper hoof. For an earth pony, Jade was surprisingly competent with a katana. Using her mouth to grip it, she matched Kimono's moves easily, negating the unicorn's magical advantage.
Kimono cleared her mind, forcing her emotions from the fight. She reminded herself that logically she had the advantage. She was younger, stronger, and had extremely powerful magic. There was no reason she couldn't win this fight. On the flipside, Jade had an advantage in both experience and the fact she was wearing armor while Kimono was not. But stamina was already becoming a factor. The repeated lunges and attacks were causing Jade to tire out. As a result she was starting to make mistakes.
Kimono teleported and winked back in behind Jade, slashing at the straps holding her armor together. It slid off the white mare leaving her defenseless. Their swords met again and now Kimono went on the offensive. She drove Jade backwards towards a spiral staircase, which they completely bypassed on their way outside. Jade plunged backwards into the pool and Kimono hopped in after her. Treading water, Jade released her grip on her katana. "I surrender."
Kimono teleported out of the pool and levitated the struggling earth pony out behind her. Here was her opportunity to return home. All she had to do was slit this pony's throat and she could see her sensei again...
...All she had to do was force this mare to commit seppuku and she could go home and see her family again. Kimono sighed. She couldn't take another pony's life, nor could she idly stand by and force that pony to take her own life. But that didn't mean Jade would go unpunished. She would need to atone for her crimes. "You're under arrest."
*****
Kimono had returned to Star Catcher's room. Surprisingly she found the two ninjas standing at attention behind her. "Uh?"
"I made them an offer they couldn't refuse."
"I think I understand. Rather than kill Jade I arrested her."
"But didn't you say you needed to kill somepony in battle to go home?"
"It's funny. Just this morning I wanted something like this to happen so I could finally return home and bring honor to my sensei. But I just couldn't do it. Killing ponies isn't who I am. Now I realize that I belong here with my friends. This is my home. I'm not Kimono the samurai warrior, I'm Kimono the Equestrian scholar."
"Life's funny like that. Sometimes you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone, and sometimes it takes having the world at your hooftips to make you see just how good you have it already. I'm glad that you stuck to your morals and I'm glad I've finally gotten the chance to know you."
"I'm glad too." Kimono smiled.
