Chapter 8
Appearance of the Black Swordsman

It was the following day after the fight between Jack Hunt and the mirror image of himself. Jack had made sure to get the unconscious unicorn back to the medical staff of the hospital. He had then returned to patrolling around the outside of Ponyville to make sure no monsters could get into the town. He had ended up encountering a couple of minor monsters and easily sent them packing.

Souls meanwhile had stayed in his hospital room unconscious for the entire rest of the day and had only just woken up in the morning. When he woke up, Nurse Redheart was in the room and gasped when he finally roused. Hurrying over to him, she gave him a thorough check up to make sure he was all right. Once she was satisfied he was in better condition then he had been yesterday she puffed herself up and glared at him.

Her glare intensified as she started to lecture him,"Mr. Souls. I don't know what you were doing yesterday but you were very foolish. Your very lucky you didn't make the injuries you already have any worse. You better thank your lucky stars that your actually better then you were yesterday. You suffered full magical exhaustion when it could very well have been magical burnout. I don't know what you were practicing with your magic but you need to be more careful about these things."

Souls' ears flattened to the back of his head as he tried to make himself smaller. He contritely replied,"Sorry Nurse Redheart. I thought I'd be able to practice my magic without that happening. I didn't realize my limits and went overboard."

Nodding her head Redheart continued,"Your correct in that you went overboard. Next time you practice magic you have to know your limits and stop when you hit them. That or you should at least have another unicorn watching you to make sure you stop when you need too."

Giving a small nod in return, he quietly said,"Yes Nurse Redheart." He lowered his head a bit in shame as he felt he was stupid for trying out his Soul Unison which got him into trouble.

Satisfied that she had got through to him, Redheart turned back to her clipboard,"Your progression towards recovery is going well and you should be able to check out of the hospital in a couple of days. You'll still have to wear the cast for at least another two weeks but other than that you'll be good as new."

Smiling happily, Souls uncurled himself from his small defensive ball,"Thanks. I'll do my best not to get so injured again."

She returned his smile with a small one of his own,"Good. Now I must be moving on to checking other patients. If you want to head out of your room then you know what to do." With that she left the room with a light bounce in her step.

Shattered Souls was now in the gardens some 2 hours later having finally decided he was tired of being cooped up in his room. A unicorn nurse had accompanied him outside this time just in case he decided to try practicing his magic again. Sighing in annoyance at the need, he silently wished he could somehow distract the nurse so that he could get some time alone to himself again. It was very trying on his patience always having the nurse hovering over him or near him worry and fussing over him.

Finally, he thought of an excuse he could use to get her to leave him at least for a little bit so he could have a moment of peace and quiet. Clearing his throat he looked to the nurse,"Excuse me Nurse. But could you perhaps get me a glass of water? I'm finding myself a little parched."

The nurse eyed him suspiciously after he asked that but after a moment smiled,"Of course Mr. Souls. I'll be right back. Remember no pratcicing your magic without me around."

"Yes Nurse." he grumbled back as he kept his forelegs folded. He stared at the flowers in front of him in his secluded spot while the nurse ran off to get a glass of water.

Turning his head to watch her go, he grinned once she was out of sight and turned to the Archiver on his foreleg. He knew he really shouldn't try to practice with it again today but he really wanted to. Quickly reaching into his satchel, he grabbed hold of a chip only to have the nurse speak up behind him,"Here you are Mr. Souls."

Dropping the chip that he had in his grip, he turned to her with a neutral expression on his face. After a few seconds he turned it to a polite smile as he took the glass from her,"Thank you very much nurse."

The nurse had figured out that he was going to try and get up to no good. So she had quickly grabbed a glass of water and moved quickly back to where he was. She was relieved to find that he hadn't been using any magic and was still right where she left him. Souls drank the glass of water slowly as he tried to think of another way to ditch the nurse for a bit.

Deciding on a course of action, he turned to the nurse,"I'd like to go for a walk."

Nodding her head, she replied,"Of course Mr. Souls. I'll just be following right behind you."

Getting up from his spot, he started to walk down the path in the garden. He walked at a moderately fast pace while hobbling along on his bad leg. The nurse easily kept up with him much to his annoyance. After they had walked a distance, he found himself right next to a large hedge that surrounded the outer perimeter of the gardens. Grinning to himself, he quickly rolled himself to his right which caused him to fall right through the hedge.

Shouting at him angrily, the nurse started to come through the hedge herself. "Get back here Mr. Souls. You know its not very nice to do something like this to me. And you know you need me to accompany you." Coming out the other side of the hedge she looked around to try and spot him figuring he couldn't have got very far with his bad leg. She scowled when she realized he was nowhere in the area and turned back to the hospital and galloped towards it. She was going to report his escape to the matron who would alert the hospital staff to keep an eye out for him.

Meanwhile, Souls was hiding inside of the hedge, having quickly dove back into it so he wasn't spotted by the nurse. Chuckling to himself, he exited the hedge to the side outside of the hospital garden perimeter. He started to walk along towards the town wanting to explore it before he was inevitably caught and taken back to the hospital. He was tired of being cooped up there when he should be out and about.

Having finally arrived inside of the town, he walked towards the market in order to see what kinds of food and other goods they were selling. Arriving at the market, he smiled at all the stalls that were set up and being manned by different ponies. He gave a friendly wave to the flower trio, who smiled and waved back. He walked by Carrot Top's stall and gave her a happy hello, which she returned. He frowned as he realized the apple family's stall wasn't here today. Applejack was probably still in the hospital due to her still injured leg.

Moving out of the market, he headed towards sugarcube corner, being able to see the top of the gingerbread like house over all the smaller buildings. He smiled in contentment and continued to wave at all the different townsponies who happily waved back. His ears flicked though as he heard cries from helping coming from a nearby alleyway. Quickly hobbling towards the alley, he took a peek inside from around the corner. His eyes widened in shock as he saw a few gruff looking stallions cornering a poor mare.

The mare's coat color was a delicate shade of gray with a blackish mane. She exuded an air of sophistication and grace while wearing a white bow tie around her neck. A musical note for a cutie mark sat upon her flanks and Souls realized who this was. It was of course none other than Octavia one of the best background ponies ever.

He growled to himself as he felt powerless to help her when she most needed it. The stallions were getting closer to her looking like they were going to rob her. They were taunting her, making fun of her, trying to make her give up her coin purse quickly.

Sitting upon his haunches, Souls pulled open the flap to his satchel as he thought,"Octavia really needs help. She's just like a certain small girl that was picked on in parties in Sword Art Online. I have to help her like Kirito helped that girl."

He turned his gaze down to his satchel and blinked in surprise as he saw one of the chips was glowing. Grabbing the chip in his hoof, his eyes grew even wider as he realized that it was Kirito's soul chip. He slotted the chip into the Archiver and then pressed the green button in the middle. Octavia's shouts for help started to grow more frantic as the machine hummed on his foreleg.

The machine beeped and brought up a message for him to quickly read. Scanning it quickly with his eyes, he read,"Kirito's Soul Chip running at full capacity. Synchronization rate......one hundred percent. Energy levels at max. Time form can be held........40 minutes. Soul Unison program on standby......Awaiting initiation phrase."

Quickly holding his foreleg in front of him he softly said," Let the Black Swordsman rise again. Soul Unison Kirito Soul!" The Archiver beeped as it recorded the initiation phrase and the ball of white light surrounded him. He grinned to himself as the changes to his body occurred.

His body grew a few inches taller as it also grew much leaner. His muscles strengthened 5 fold as his bones grew lighter. Pegasus wings grew from his back and rested against his sides. His coat color changed to a dark grey color while his eyes became a piercing blue. His mane grew shorter till spikes of it were hanging over his face. His mane also changed to black as Kirito's signaute black coat settled over his form. Two swords appeared on his back in ornate sheaths with the handles being those of Kirito's two signature swords. Feeling the changes were complete he lashed out with a hoof and smashed the orb to pieces.

The golden light fell down in pieces around him as he felt a presence appear in the back of his mind. This signaled that Kirito was now conscious and just watching him for the moment. Knowledge filled his head of Kirito's fighting style and how he pulled off the techniques in the first place. This knowledge with the aid of his magic relegated itself to his body and pushed the moves and techniques into his muscle memory so he could go off pure instinct until he trained enough to pull off the moves by himself. Even the knowledge of flight filled his head and then went to his body's muscle memory.

Stepping confidently around the corner, he glared at the two stallions that now had Octavia backed up against the wall. He growled out,"I'm going to have to ask you to leave the nice mare alone. You know you should be treating ladies with respect and much better than that."

One of the stallions turned to him snapping back,"And who's going to make us? A scrawny little pegasus like yourself would only break himself against our hooves."

Souls' raised an eyebrow,"Is that so? Well then I guess I'll have to take that as a challenge if you don't back off."

The other stallion turned to him,"You can't do nothing. Now get out of here before we make you."

Souls sighed,"Well I guess we're going to have to do this the hard way. Miss when there is an opening I need you to run and get away from here."

Octavia nodded her head frantically, still pressed up against wall of the back end of the alley.

Souls turned back to the stallions, who were both earth ponies. He tensed himself as he carefully pushed himself onto his hind legs and entered a combat stance. He winced in pain as his spine tingled and protested against him doing this. His good hoof glowed with a red light as he stayed in the stance and moved it a certain way. One of the martial arts combats skills he knew in this form ready to be used.

One of the stallion's laughed at him,"What do you think your doing boy? Trying to make it easier for us to break you?" He motioned with his head to the other stallion,"Go on Heavy. Take him out."

Heavy grinned as he moved forwards,"Glad to oblige." He then charged the smaller pegasus and swung with a hoof as he got close enough.

Souls ducked underneath the swing and stepped forwards at the same time. Lashing out with an uppercut, his glowing hoof left a line of red light behind it as he performed the move. It smashed into the stallion's jaw causing him to fly up into the air a few feet before he fell to the ground with a heavy thumb.

Heavy groaned in pain and rubbed his jaw with a hoof as he got back to his hooves. He spat on the ground trying to get rid of the blood in his mouth. He spat out a few teeth when he did so as well as a small glob of blood. "Your going to pay for that kid."

He charged in again recklessly, hoping that one of his swings would hit. He came at Souls with a flurry of swings causing Souls to flutter hop backwards to avoid the strikes. Souls somersaulted forwards underneath the stallion's reach and came up with his glowing red hoof. He smashed it into the stallion's chest with power behind the strike. The stallion let out a whuff as he lost his breath at exactly the same time a cracking sound could be heard. Then with a gust of air that poofed out from the impact point he went flying through the air a good 6 feet before landing on the ground with a groan.

Heavy continued to groan on the ground as he tried to get back up. He gasped in pain and moved a hoof to his chest clutching it as he tried to get back up. He then lay his head back down on the ground in pain unable to do anything else.

The other stallion's jaw dropped at what he'd just seen in shock and awe of the pegasus. These feelings quickly changed to anger and frustration as he turned back to the pegasus.

"I'm going to make you pay for taking out Heavy. If i don't then my name's not Hard Revenge." He pulled a rusty looking sword off his back as he put it into his mouth in order to hold it.

Souls was back on all fours wincing in pain as his back told him he had been dump and stupid for standing in a bipedal position. He drew the swords on his back from their sheaths using his wings.

Revenge moved forwards with his rusty sword hoping to cut the annoying pegasus down. He swung his head to the side with the sword making a swipe at the pegasus.

Souls flicked his right sword up in front of him with his wing and paried revenge's swipe. Thrusting his oppenent's sword to the right, Souls used the opening provided to smack Revenge hard in the side of the head with the flat of the blade of his left sword.

Revenge squawked in pain and was almost forced to drop the sword in his mouth due to the pain in the side of his face. He growled and lashed out with a hoof while swinging his head downwards this time.

Souls blocked his hoof strike with the flat of his right blade and blocked the downwards sword strike with his left blade. He grinned,"Game over." His swords glowed ominously with red light as he disengaged. Backing up he held his swords out away from his sides,"Starburst Stream! Non Lethal Version."

Revenge started to charge Souls again only to stop in confusion as he saw the mare he'd kept trapped run past him. It only then occurred to him that his prey had just escaped and it was all thanks to this pegasus. He growled in anger and charged the Pegaus with renewed strength.

Again he had to stop in surprise at the splayed out stance that Souls had taken with wings outstretched. The blades in his wings glowing that ominous red color. He quickly gathred himself and continued his charge at Souls.

Souls disappeared with a flash of light before appearing in front of his oppoenent. He lashed out with blinding speed with his left sword using it to hack at the blade of the rusty sword. While his right sword smacked Revenge hard in his shoulder. The force of the strike from his left sword shattered the blade of the rusty sword to pieces. This forced Revenge to drop it at the same time that he yelped once again from the strike to his shoulder.

He tried to lash out with his bare hooves, swinging wildly in front of him. "Why won't you just go down?"

"Because you need to pay for threatening that mare."Souls replied with fury in his voice. He moved even faster than before and blocked each and every hoof strike sent his way with his swords as their glow grew brighter. He found an opening in the strikes and took it unleashing his own barrage. There was a flash of light and everything went black before glowing red lines appeared in a star pattern in the darkness. The light returned but the red star pattern remained. It was on the chest of Revenge who was standing stock still with Souls right behind him.

Revenge groaned in pain before slumping to the ground unconscious. The star pattern disappeared from his chest as Souls re-sheathed the swords.

Octavia nervously peaked around the corner back into the alley. Seeing that both thugs were unconscious, she trotted back in towards the pegasus that had saved her. "Thank you sir for the help. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't come."

Souls turned around to face her, giving her a small smile at the same time. "It was no problem miss. I was glad to help."

Octavia's cheeks lit up with a tint of pink as she looked at the stallion in front of him. He was very well muscled and lean but had a calm gentle appearance about him. He also spoke politely to her. He was very attractive looking to her with his own gray coat and the cool looking black overcoat.

Moving closer to him she smiled back politely,"My name is Octavia. Would you perhaps be interested in meeting me for lunch sometime?"

Soul's blinked in surprise at the request but smiled politely,"I don't see why not miss Octavia. I can meet you next week at the cafe here in town on Thursday if that's okay."

Octavia nodded her head,"That will work nicely." She was about to continue with another question when Souls spoke up.

"I apologize for interupting you Miss Octavia but I really need to be going right now. I'll talk to you when next I see you. I hope you have a good day." With that he backed up a polite difference and took to the sky. He waved down at her while confusion first graced her face and then understanding. She nodded up at him and waved and he waved back. After he left she stood in the street for a moment wondering just who that wonderous black coated swordsman had been.

He then took off at speed towards the hospital and landed outside the perimiter hedge to the gardens. Holding up his left foreleg, he concentrated his magical energy to it and made the Archiver appear. He had 25 minutes before his magical energy ran out and the transformation ended. But he pressed the third button the Archiver to abort the transformation. He was surrounded in the orb of light as his body went back to normal.

He quickly moved back through the hedge and then hobbled his way back towards the hospital in his now returned cast. When he finally reappared where the other hospital staff could see him, he was promptly taken to his room and lectured once again by Nurse Redheart. But thus passed another day and the black swordsman appeared and rose to greatness in the eyes of one mare.

Author's Note

Hey Everyone. I finally decided to use the last mane soul chip I'd had appear at the start. Figured that it was as good a time as any. I hope you liked the chapter. Decided to have Octavia appear. She's one of the best background ponies in my opinion.