Author's Note

Here's another chapter for ya. I placed a few Japanese words here so here are the translations before you actually read them to gain an understanding before you find them in the story.

Hashitekudasai = run

Hai, daijoubu = Yes, I am okay (physically)

Edit: Also, to gain a better perspective on how flexible samurai armor is, check this out. Video

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“A hydra has come.” Thorax announced making all the ponies gulp in fear.

“Is...Is there any way to help him?” Twilight asked making Thorax ponder.

“I guess you could help him, but I’d recommend not.” Thorax said shaking his head. "Although if you’d want to see how strong he his, I could teleport us to my balcony.” They all nodded as Thorax’ horn glowed, teleporting all of them to the balcony. From there they could see a massive 4 headed hydra who was the size of the castle itself.

It was in the middle of the town as it’s multiple heads kept swooping down onto some farms and devouring crops. “Thankfully the whole kingdom was alerted before the hydra came. So everyone is safe and will be safe.” Thorax stated giving a sigh of relief.

In that very moment Prey simply stood in front of the hydra. He was simply standing straight and still as he had his hand on his sword’s handle. One of the heads swooped down towards Prey to devour him. Prey quickly dodged by shifting to the side causing the head to dig into the ground like an arrow, exposing its neck.

Taking the advantage, Prey swiftly pulled out his sword, brought it up and struck down hard as he sliced off the whole head. Before the neck could retract back, Prey spat on the amputated neck, his spit then turned emerald green as it soon spread and covered the whole wound.

“What did he just do?” Asked a confused Applejack.

“Whenever a hydra’s head is cut off, two more will sprout from the wound. I guess Prey is using his changeling cocoon spit...thing to make sure it doesn’t happen.” Twilight answered. “But my goodness, he cut off the whole head!”

“I’m not gonna lie then. He’s kinda awesome!” Rainbow Dash said with a smirk. Her face slowly grew more and more excited watching Prey in action.

The three other heads of the hydra all wailed in pain and anger as two more heads simultaneously swooped down towards Prey in a bull horn like tactic. Before they could strike Prey, he simply squat down and launched upwards in the air in one massive jump towards the third unoccupied head, causing all the ponies’ eyes went wide at his skill. While in mid air and rocketing towards the third head, he took his sword and in one clean slash, he slashed both eyes of that head blinding it as blood soon ushered and popped out like grapes. The head screamed in immense pain as the other two took a icy death glare towards him. And with that stunt, he let gravity take his course and landed on the earth, super hero style with his fist dug into the ground.

“NICE!” Rainbow exclaimed as she hovered from the others and punched her arms in the air cheering for Prey. The excitement and determination however was taking over. “I want some action in on this.” She said taking to the skies.

“Hold on there Rainbow!” Applejack protested as she pull out her lasso and tied her legs up to restrain her. Unfortunately with her strength she ended up towing Applejack in the air. “Woh woh WAIT RAINBOW!!!” And there they went, with Applejack being dragged around mid-air like a piece of cloth.

Rainbow soon realized her mistake and quickly and gently flew to the ground. Applejack soon reached the lovely surface known as dirt as she breathed out her weights. “Dagnammit Rainbow! You could’ve gotten me killed!” Applejack yelled as Rainbow could only scratch the back of her head with an apologetic smile across her face.

“Aheh heh, sorry AJ.” Rainbow apologized sheepishly. Unbeknownst to them however, one of the hydra’s heads spotted both of them. It went in for the kill by thrusting its head straight towards the distracted ponies. Prey’s mind click on what the head was doing as he quickly sprinted towards the ponies location.

He managed to push Rainbow Dash out of the way but Applejack was still there. He stood in between and prey and predator with only one option left. With what felt like time slowing down, he quickly drew his sword fast enough to completely block the bite that was about to devour Applejack.

Applejack had literally not seen this coming. One second she was scowling at Rainbow Dash, the next second she is a few yards away from her and a few inches away from the face of a hydra struggling to bite down Prey, who in turn is holding open his mouth with his sword against its teeth and fangs. He turned to Applejack with an icy glare. “HASHITTEKUDASAI!”

“w-What?”

“I SAID RUN!” But as soon as he said that, the jaws closed down and Prey vanished inside the hydra’s mouth. Both Applejack and Rainbow’s hearts felted stabbed as they were soon strung with guilt, knowing that their recklessness got a changeling killed. The hydra’s head then brought itself upward with his cheeks full. He started to chew with glee only to have his face scrunch in bitterness. Suddenly a blade burst out from the inside out of the hydra’s neck as it circled around the whole neck from the inside, slicing it off.

Out came Prey, scratched up and slimey with saliva and blood, but alive as he quickly spat on the neck amputation with his spit, covering it to prevent further division. He landed on the ground as he gazed up upon the now heavily injured hydra. Two heads gone, one handicapped, and the last one all alone.

It looked down at Prey who stood his ground with the sword tightly gripped in his palm. It looked at its other heads and with no other heads at its disposal, it was now vulnerable. Prey looked up at the now weak monster as his teeth gritted. He started barking at the hydra, motioning his hand to shoo him away and pointing to the outskirts of the empire.

With nothing else the hydra started walking away in fear of the samurai. Within minutes the hydra was soon long gone from the changeling kingdom. With the hydra come from everyone’s sight Prey breathed out a sigh of relief. He looked at his sword, it was covered in blood and spit. He placed his palm on the back of the blade and closed his fingers and thumb on the sides of the blade. He swiftly ran his hand across the whole blade wiping off the blood and spit making it clean.

He then placed his sword back in his sheath and turned around to the stunned and shocked ponies. “Are you two okay?” He said through his tired breath. Rainbow soon fainted from the shock and Applejack collapsed on her knees with tears in her eyes. Soon the others joined Prey and the two as Fluttershy and Pinkie rushed to Rainbow’s aid.

“Rainbow are you okay!?” Pinkie asked as she lightly patted her cheek causing her to flutter her eyes open and regain consciousness.

“W-Woh what happened?” She asked looking around to find herself on the ground.

“You fainted after watching the fight. You’re okay now.” Fluttershy explained who then brought her into a hug.

Twilight knelt down in front of Applejack who still had a frozen face. She patted her cheek making her snap out of it and jump back into reality. “Wha wha? What happened?”

“I think you lost consciousness after watching Prey getting eaten alive.” Hearing that statement, Applejack sprung up and looked around for the samurai.

“WHERE IS HE!? IS HE OKAY!?”

“Haai. Daijoubu.” Prey said walking forward towards the group. He took off his helmet and his mask showing his blood splattered face. “Are both of you okay?”

“All thanks to you man.” Rainbow said with a smirk as she gave a thumbs up at the samurai. “You were awesome out there!” She complimented as stuck her hand out signalling for a high five. But Prey could only tip his head in confusion, from his perspective he didn’t know what the pegasus was doing. “You uh….gonna leave me hanging?”

“Uh...e-excuse me? Am I disappointing you?” He asked, still confused about Rainbow Dash’s gesture. She rolled her eyes and gave a small groan.

“Ugh this is a friendly thing, just slap my hand!” She said with her hand still raised high. Still confused, Prey obliged his order and slapped her hand, unfortunately he slapped a little too hard which caused the cyan mare to hiss in pain. “Aghhkkk…… a little too hard.”

His eyes shrank as he knelt down and bowed his whole body down in deep sorrow. “Ah, please excuse me!” Now everyone else (except Thorax) all looked at the samurai in shock. The flat expressionless and tough warrior now bowing down in deep sincerity towards an accident.

“Mantis, you may rise. You are excused about this and will not be punished.” Prey stood up and breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “You are excused for the rest of the day. Do whatever you wish to do for the rest of the day. Tomorrow I want to see you first thing in the morning.” Thorax commanded as Prey soon bowed towards his master and walked back towards the castle.

Thorax turned to the others who were still confused and shocked at Prey’s reaction. “I suppose more explaining is in order?” They all nodded. “Alright, let’s get back to the castle. The citizens and guards can clean up this mess.”

After some time cleaning up the mess and setting up guest rooms in the castle for the ponies, Thorax and his friends soon gathered together in the dining room. The castle was accustomed with sandwiches, tea, and other snacks. “So,” Thorax started after sipping some coffee. “Who wants to ask first?”

Rarity raised her hand. “Why was he extremely apologetic towards Rainbow Dash? He seemed so bold and tough before he thought he displeased her.”

“Remember when I said you guys were basically the same hierarchy as me towards Prey?” They all nodded. “Lemme show you something.” Thorax reached under the table and pulled a series of black notebooks. “We found these when we first discovered the caves. We weren’t the first ones to discover the caves and Prey himself. Chrysalis found him first, he was supposed to be her secret weapons against everything.” He said pointing at everyone else. “She would’ve won had she not been so cocky.”

“But to answer your question Rarity. The reason he does that are in Chrysalis’ notes. She is one of the only other changelings that knows japoneighs. She stated that samurai took service towards their masters very seriously. Should they dishonor, disobey, or show any disrespect towards their master, they are punished….severely.”

“They are either executed or will commit suicide. When I said they serve their masters seriously, I meant seriously. They would be forced to commit suicide in order to restore their honor or respect towards their master. All of this explains why Prey was very apologetic towards Rainbow, he didn’t want to be forced to commit suicide.”

Applejack then raised her hand. “You said he was Chrysalis’ secret weapon. And judging from what we’ve seen he looks powerful enough to face all of royal guard. My question is, where was he during the Canterlot invasion and our kidnappings?”

“Well to answer the ‘Invasion of Canterlot’, it was quite simple. Chrysalis brought the entire hive including myself to invade Canterlot. However, if she wanted to do that then the hive home would be left unguarded. And she knew that no other changeling was as strong as her or as Prey, so she ordered him to guard the kingdom while we invaded Canterlot.”

“Well did he?”

“When we came back, we found that Tatzlwurms had tried to ransack the kingdom.”

“And?”

“I said tried. When we came back we found about tens of them splayed, sliced, and cut up around the whole kingdom, all dead. I still remember when we came home. Heads and body parts were everywhere. Blue blood was splattered everywhere, including on Prey himself.”

All the ponies looked at Thorax in shock. Fluttershy fainted from his words as Rarity felt a chunky filthy sensation build up in her throat. “He's….he’s that strong?”

“Yes. I’m thankful that she didn’t use him for the invasion. Now as for the kidnappings, I’m thankful that Chrysalis’ plan worked, strange as it sounds. The reason he wasn’t used against Starlight or any of you was because her plan worked. From there she felt too cocky and felt that we had no hope, thankfully we pulled a miracle out of our flank. After Chrysalis fled and deserted the kingdom, I took power and leadership over Prey.”

“That explains everything there.” Twilight said with a sigh of relief, thanking the universes above for their incredible luck. “So how does he easily obey to you if Chrysalis was his master first?”

“Since Chrysalis technically abandoned him, he was in need of a master. And since I was the highest ranking changeling in the hive, he simply served under me. Samurai need masters to survive, because like I said before, they aren’t like regular changelings. They have their own flaws, such as they can’t morph or transform like us, and they don’t feed on love. Instead, they feed on honor and pride, literally.” He paused to take a bite from his sandwich and sip his coffee. “They literally need a master to survive. All of this was stated in Chrysalis’ notes.”

Fluttershy then raised her hand. “Can….can he transform like every other changeling?” She asked pointing at Thorax himself who is currently in the new form that changelings are now known to be identified as.

“Not that I’ve known. He hasn’t shown ways of giving love. Which is why I brought all of you here. I understand that he’s a warrior and that he’s literally born and trained to fight for a master, but I’m asking all of you to help him abandon the samurai code.” He requested humbly with his head bowed down to the ponies.

“What do you mean?”

“To sum up my request. I don’t want him to fight anymore. I don’t want him to live underground and be used like a tool, and live in fear because of a master. I just want him to have a normal life like you guys, free and making friends or something like that. I’d understand if-” He was soon interrupted as Spike got up from his seat and hugged his friend.

“Don’t worry buddy, I’m sure we can handle this. Right?” Spike looked at his friends who all nodded. “I mean, if Fluttershy can get Discord under control then who says we can’t get one strong changeling to live normal like us?”

“Thanks guys. I’ll have him prepare anything that he’ll need and have him leave tomorrow along with you guys. You guys sure you’re up for it?”

“We can help him.” Twilight stated with a warm smile.

“Alright, but there’s one more thing I have to do.” Thorax reached under the table again and pulled out a large parchment, this one had the japoneighs symbols on it. “This is basically a samurai contract blood bond. This one has my blood.” He said pointing to a green blood fingerprint. He then pointed at an additional separate print. “And this one is Prey’s. This is the samurai’s way of officially appointing a new master to a samurai.”

“I’m assuming you’re gonna make a new one…..with our blood.” Rarity assumed with a raised eyebrow.

“It’s the only way he’ll follow your orders loyally. I’m sorry, but it’s only just a fingerprint, nothing else.” They all sighed knowing what was coming.

Meanwhile down in the underground, Prey took off all the armor and placed it back on it’ original rack. He cleaned off all the saliva and blood from hydra and let the armor rest on it’s stand, all alone. He gave it a bow in thanks for its uses in the battle against the hydra as he walked out of the armory.

He walked into a separate room, his room. It was simple, a simple bed with sheets, a table with a chair for personal dining, a wardrobe and drawer for his clothes, and a lantern hanging from the ceiling. He took his sword with its sheath from his side and placed it on the table. He took out the sword and gripped it tightly. He took the blade and gently placed it down on the table and gave it a formal bow in thanks. He soon lied down on his bed and soon drifted to sleep, awaiting for the next day to receive orders from his master.