Kirā-ba

Once, long ago, the two Empresses lived together. Sisters, their love for each other kept them strong, and they ruled the land of Umato with wise hooves. The eldest, born of the golden sun, guided its burning path across the sky, and ponies worked, played and lived in it's light. The younger, born of the silver moon, stood proudly beside her as she ushered in the night, until one day she looked down upon the land, bathed in moonlight, and saw that their subjects feared and loathed the embrace of darkness.

One-hundred years ago, the Empress of the Moon stole away the sun's radiance and struck out at her elder in a jealous rage. The battle was brief but decisive, and the Empress of the Sun barely escaped with her life from the demonic rage that had overtaken her sister. Ever since, the newly-anointed Shogun of Nightmare ruled alone, and the provinces buckled, froze and cracked under her iron hoof. Nopony knows where the eldest sister hid, or what she was doing, only that the ruddy, dim glow of her sun would grace the horizon once a day and drive back the cold and the demons for a single hour. None had seen either royal for many years.

Save the Lords of the Long Night, loyal servants to the Shogun will…

And a single unicorn pony and her baby dragon...

***

Twilight Sparkle trotted along the cold mud of the street, trailing her Earth Pony victim as she wound her way along between the sake shops. A samurai of the Moon's Hoof she might be, but she was just a susceptible to the vices of alcohol and stallions as any peasant. Perhaps moreso, Twilight was tempted to think. The power of the silver crest on her kosode went right to her head.

The samurai stumbled and pushed her way to another counter, seating herself and calling loudly for a cup. She never noticed the violet unicorn sit right beside her.

"Hey! I'm… I'm talkin' t' you, mister! You better learn how to serve a noble faster than that!"

"I'm sorry, mi'lady." The harried pegasus behind the counter bowed, neatly dropping a drink off of his wing. "Please, have your first cup on the house."

"Damn right! I'm amazed I even brought myself down to a shit-hole like this!" The inebriated mare downed the cup of sake and giving a satisfied sigh.

"You would think…" Twilight said conversationally, "that the noble samurai would want to set a better example for their subjects than drunkenly yelling at the owner of the best sake shop in Ponyville."

Said owner's eyes widened, and he scurried away before the inevitable bloodshed began. The samurai, however, was distracted but the sudden and uncomfortable feeling of her own wakizashi short-sword pressing against the inside of her foreleg. "Wha-? H-how dare you. Nopony with honor would taint a samurai's sword with magic!"

"I have no honor, and I want the letter in the right-front folds of your kimono. And you purse, while you're at it." Twilight said pleasantly, keeping the levitating blade steady as she idly looked down the counter for the owner. She hoped the pegasus was not going to call an alarm.

"Thief…" hissed the samurai, but slowly began to reach for the small roll of paper Twilight had seen go in there this morning.

"Just drop it on the floor, and feel free to-"

"THERE SHE IS!"

Oh, so he did sound the alarm. Twilight increased the pressure of the wakizashi against her victims leg slightly, leaning back to look. Four of the magistrate's samurai where charging down the street, and other samurai where turning to look. They caught sight of her instantly.

"Ha!" Twilight's hostage stamped her hoof down on the grip of the floating blade, pinning it to the floor and drawing her long katana like lightning as the letter fell to the ground. She felt several hairs of her mane part ways as she ducked, pirouetted on her foreleg, and slammed both iron-clad rear hooves into the samurai's chest. The drunken swordsmare went crashing through the counter in a pile of splinters. A black eggshell filled with a mixture of ashes, pepper and explosives came out of Twilight's saddlebags, dropping into the mud as she turned and fled, fuse sizzling.

A sharp bang and cries of pain and anger signaled that the bomb had done its work as the unicorn galloped ahead, shifting agilely through the crowds before suddenly skidding to a halt, turning and casting a spell. The magistrate's ponies came charging down the street, many if them with red-rimmed eyes and running noses. Twilight shied out of the way, her illusion making her look just like the pegasus barkeep that had ratted her out moments ago.

She walked calmly away as they passed, screaming battle cries, then stepped under an awning and began scanning the street for observers as she undid her magic, nopony the wiser. Flicking her tail, she spoke to the empty air.

"Did you get it, Kasui-kun?"

"Of course I did, Twilight! I'm your number-one agent." Came the indignant reply from the edge of the roof directly overhead. The head of a slim green-and-purple dragon poked over the edge and dropped the roll of paper they had been after. "I also got her purse, that ugly samurai stallion's purse, and dinner. What'd'ya say we bail and go get mochi?"

"Later, I promise." Twilight said, grateful for the young dragon's help and well-aware of his sweet tooth. The letter contained valuable information on the local magistrate's shipments of lantern-oil out of the province, but not nearly as useful as Twilight had hoped. She used her Telekinesis to tear it to bits and scatter it in the mud, then trotted down the alleyway, Kasui scampering along the rooftops above like a fire-breathing, scaly cat. She opened the sack where she kept her gear and quickly slipped it on, tucking away countless weapons and tools in hidden harnesses under the nondescript kimono and saddlebags. Kasui leapt down and landed on her back.

"Are we going to see Lady Celestia?" He asked.

"Yup. I haven't been overdue yet, I will not start now." Twilight stated, igniting her horn.

In a flash of smoke and magenta light, they where gone. The purple unicorn did not even leave hoofprints.

***

"Where is she?" Kasui asked aloud as they entered the shrine. "She normally would have met us at the gateway."

"We are early…" Twilight suggested halfheartedly.

Her dragon companion snorted. "Like she doesn't always know when you're coming. When anypony is coming."

Twilight didn't answer, lettering her eyes slide across everything and reaching out with her senses. "Stay alert."

The shrine was nestled in a forested valley, hidden from all view until one approached within a few feet of the gate. There was no magic hiding it, just careful gardening of the surrounding vegetation and skillfully-placed rocks.

Once past the archway-gate that marked the entrance, it was like stepping into another world. White lacquer and brilliantly-polished mirrors brought so much light to the area that it nearly was painful after the long dark of the outside world, and a winding path of small river-stones made their way up the valley to where the small temple the Empress Celestia lived… and hid. She could observe nearly everything with her magic from there, and once a day would try, in vain, to raise the sun above the horizon. Every day it was forced back down, but Twilight had always respected her mentor's discipline in the attempt.

Today, though, no elegant Mare of the Sun waited for her, to walk up the valley with her and share her wisdom.

The unicorn kunoichi walked carefully up the patch, iron horseshoes tapping softly across the stone. Kasui sat on her back, head on a constant swivel for every angle an attack could come from. They reached the door of the temple, keen on the silence pervading the area.

"What happened, Twilight? What went wrong?" Kasui asked, huddling low against her cloak.

Twilight opened her mouth to answer when the door was pulled violently open, framing a samurai archer with a fully drawn umi bow, longer than she was tall. The Earth Pony loosed its' spear-like arrow, and Twilight dove backwards, bringing her rear hoof up to kick the tip of the arrowhead as it flew to skewer her, deflecting the shaft overhead. She landed, floating out two six-pointed iron shuriken from under her saddle.

She was just as accurate as the samurai, but the archer did not have Twilight's reflexes or training. She fell backwards with a gurgle as the shuriken embedded themselves in her neck and chest. With a shout two more samurai, both with their long katana drawn, charged out.

"I think what went wrong is that our little sanctuary has been discovered." Twilight said dryly, floating out more of her magic-stars. She launched them in a rapid flurry at the closest opponent, who dodged the first and swatted away the rest with his blade. Kasui wisely leapt clear of her back as the samurai charged. The first reached her, katana flashing through the air, and sliced through Twilight's empty kimono.

Twilight cartwheeled backwards, abandoned robe fluttering to the ground in tatters as a pair of short, straight ninjato flew out from previously hidden sheaths in her magical grip. She spun them through a complicated pattern as both samurai attacked, locking all four blades together in a single point as they swung.

"How did you find this place?" Twilight growled, straining her horn's magic against the two Earth Pony's massive strength. They broke off, one tossing his sword and catching the hilt with the braided loop at the end of his tail to whip it toward her. Twilight swatted it aside.

"Heh heh heh..." The samurai mare chuckled evilly. "We found you, rebel scum, because non can oppose the shogun! Well..." She looked around at the shrine built in the valley. "Not forever, anyway."

Twilight let her swords float a little lower, baiting a opening. "So I guess you already killed the Empress of the Sun, then. Which of you did it, huh? You, big guy?"

Both samurai's eyes widened at the taunt, and Twilight got the underlying message: The Sun Empress was here?

"Well. Idiots." Twilight ignited a second layer of magic over her ninjato. She dashed forward, swinging her blades at the stallion, and teleported away in a flash to be above the female instead.

The surprise attack was barely blocked, but Twilight was already vanishing, kicking sand from the path into their faces as she began a three-pronged assault; each ninjato fighting separately as Twilight herself ducked and weaved between them, jabbing with hooves and blasting sparks of magic into the fray. The two samurai fell back, parrying and dodging with ever-increasing panic as Twilight reversed the flow of the fight.

Both of them where equally shocked when the melee suddenly stopped in a flash of violet light and thin smoke. They readied their blades, huffing and puffing.

Twilight dropped out of the sky like a thunderbolt and snapped the stallion's neck.

"The thing is..." Twilight said calmly, standing up straight as the remaining samurai whirled away. "You samurai with your illusions of honor and the way things should be done... you never see it coming when a ninja cheats."

"How dare you..."

"That is the second time I've heard that today." Twilight pointed out. The other mare's eye twitched.

"You can't escape this time, ninja!" She spat around her katana. "You've been found, and Empress Celestia will be found as well. The shogun will finish what she started one-hundred years ago!"

Twilight rolled her eyes, levitating her ninjato higher. "What makes you so certain?"

The samurai did not answer, instead, a smokey purr laughed quietly behind her.

"Because, my little pony," the voice said, punctuated by the sound of a long sword being slid slowly out of it's sheath. "The I do like to inspire confidence in my loyal subjects!"

With an unpleasant stirring in her belly, Twilight turned around.

"Shogun Nightmare..." Aww, poop.