The Last of the Noma - Heart of Madness

by Orkus

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Dark, Romance, Thriller, Drama
Length: 1103

Raito Sodo, the last samurai of the Noma clan, scours the world seeking bloody vengeance against the killer of people; the Aku-Shin Kage. She saves a guardspony one day in her travels, and her single-minded life takes a surprising turn following it.

Six-hundred years before the events you know of today, Raito Sodo; a brave samurai and powerful warrior, travels the land, carving her legend from the very stone she treads upon, one step at a time. Trained from birth to use a katana, she has lived most of her life alone on the road after her entire people, the Noma ponies, were all slaughtered in a single night by a many-mouthed, demonic, sword-wielding creature.

Having been with her people during that fateful night the creature wiped them off the face of the earth, the being, while scarring her flesh greatly and rendering her mute with its blade, spares Raito's life for unknown reasons. Now fully grown and a complete master of her craft, Raito, the last of the Noma ponies, scours the world for the murderer of her people, burning, uncompromising vengeance and bloodlust having consumed her now-cold and unfeeling mind to the point of near-madness.

On her journey westward to the kingdom of Equestria, where she has heard only vague rumors that the creature now makes its residence in, Raito encounters and unwittingly saves a royal guardspony named Gemstone. Eternally grateful, he tags along with the wandering warrior, much to her visible displeasure.

However, in Gemstone's multiple attempts to get to know his rescuer better, Raito, albeit reluctantly, decides to open up to him, and in the process she begins to find something else in life possibly worth more than killing her enemies…

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2016-01-30 06:40:02 UTC

Prologue

Raito Sodo, a young unicorn filly of no more than five years, was on her knees. Crimson blood stained her white-furred face and indigo mane, as well as her pink dress; the image of lotus flowers etched onto its cloth surface replaced with splotches of red. Tears of shock ran freely down her young face, mixing itself with the pools of foetid ichor and dirt that rested at her hooves, as her bright blue eyes looked on to the sight that befell her.

Literally seconds before, the countryside of buildings, tents, huts, and barns were in her field of view, all shining beneath the moon with the image of a mare upon it, and on the dirt streets and alleyways there were ponies in celebration of this historic moment of peace. But now, it was all ablaze. As far as the young thing could see, the town was now littered with the bodies of her friends and neighbors, every single one unmoving save for the occasional twitch or spasm, each felled by something sharp and fast enough to leave them slain and limp.

Her parents, both unicorns like herself, lied together in a puddle of blood on the ground in front of where she knelt and wept, each as lifeless as the rest of the village. Their throats and bodies had been slashed by a blade that moved swifter than Raito could see, same with every other pony she saw, and their eyes, though dull and dead, were widened with sheer surprise.

To Raito, it was all a blur. Cheers were replaced by screams, and what few screams she heard were all quickly replaced by the sound of a sword moving and cutting through tender fur and flesh at a paranormal speed, and then utter silence and burning embers. While her mind still processed who or what could have done this, her eyes, now reddened and moist with her sorrow, sensed something that could only be described as malevolent standing nearby.

A new shape then caught her sight, and her horned head slowly lifted. With a sniffle, the filly's eyes adjusted to the sight of tall figure, its pitch-black appearance upright and non-equine. It had a large girth around its body, and Raito soon noticed it was clad in armor, not unlike what her people wore in times of battle, with a long katana sheath resting by its side. Adorned on the forehead of its kabuto helmet was a large silver crescent, while below, in the place of where its face would have been, was its most distinguishing feature.

Instead of a face, it bore three mouths, each outlined in simple, inky darkness, their jaws constantly opening and snapping shut while their tongues lolled about wildly, tasting the air, their black lips, each other, and the creature's own armor with the animation of slimy, pink snakes. Raito remembered being told the scary tales of a fearsome creature by the name of Nightmare Moon that lived in the neighboring land of Equestria, but this... this was much more terrifying than anything she has ever pictured in her short life.

The creature simply stood there, surveying the carnage with its eyeless face, as if it was an artist admiring its handiwork. With its side turned to Raito, it hadn't even noticed her presence. Upon regaining her grip on reality, Raito's eyes slowly trailed down and looked at the sheath around her father's orange body, still holding his sword in it. Without even thinking, she knew what she wanted to do next, and reached for it.

With a cry of unyielding rage and unadulterated despair, the filly grabbed at the silk cord-covered hilt of her father's katana, ripping it from its sheath with a grating noise of metal. The swords she was used to training with were your typical small wakizashis and wooden shortswords; weapons light enough for her to wield, and any could see this katana was too heavy for her as it sagged to the ground, before she finally lifted it into the air with an unsteady grip.

Looking forward with a glare of pure hatred shining in her eyes, tears falling like rain from them, she sped forth with a roar, partially dragging the sword behind her, and lifting it once she was within range of her target. The figure she charged at slowly turned when it noticed her shape, revealing several more mouths poking out from various points of its upper and lower body areas. With all of her strength, Raito swung the katana at the monster's midsection, only to watch with disbelieving horror as it was deflected off of its studded armor like a butter knife to a metal shield.

The creature merely let out a bombardment of hideous, chittering laughter from its multiple maws upon realizing it had been ineffectively struck by the weapon. As Raito reeled the sword back with a primal growl, preparing to strike again, the monster, shooting an armored hand down, reached for its own and pulled it out with speed to rival a jolt of lightning, slashing directly through Raito's sword, cleaving its blade in twain, and hitting the young unicorn away like a puny insect before a mighty flyswatter.

Raito was thrown back in the dirt, what was left of her father's katana leaving her grasp, and clinking against the ground nearby. It took her a second to register it, but a stinging, burning pain began in her upper throat area not a second after sitting up, and she clasped her hooves over it. Raito felt as something began to leak through her hooves, and as soon as she did, she could feel the metallic-tasting liquid go down her windpipe, causing her to choke and cough, spattering the earth in front of her with her blood.

As she coughed and hacked from the laceration the creature made on her throat, more droplets of red exiting her mouth, the creature stalked up to the fallen child, its boots crunching on the dirt it tread upon, and she looked up at it with a fearful expression.

Its sword was already raised overhead, its multiple mouths still laughing and gibbering in a twisted, distorted fashion, their hundreds of sharp, needle-thin teeth gnashing together. When its other hand grabbed at the lower part of the weapon's hilt, preparing for a downward swing, all Raito could do was wince away and close her eyes, her blood-soaked teeth bared in preparation of what she knew was going to come next.

With a final laugh, the demonic creature brought its weapon down, and more blood was shed that night.