Rōnin

Akira had overseen the construction of defenses around Ponyville. Which essentially consisted of a trench and wall behind it made of the dirt pulled from the ditch. The trench was filled with sharpened stakes to kill anyone who would fall in. There was one way into the town and that was a path of raised earth to let the ponies of the town in and out with a wooden gate to defend the position.

Akira had also overseen the basic training of the fighting militia of Ponyvill. He had the local metalworker make simple steel heads for the yari spear.

It’s handling wasn’t too different from that of the naginata. He taught them all basic fighting techniques using the yari as well as unarmed combat in the case that they lost their weapon. The two rangers, Rainbow Dash and Swift Arrow, taught two small units of archers how to properly fire a bow. These archers would be trained to fire as a unit, not as individuals, that way they would send a cloud of arrows into the sky to rain down on the enemy. They were drilled numerous times, only stopping to eat and sleep.

Akira was practicing his forms with his Nodachi when he heard the battle horn from the wall. Akira ran quickly through the town to see what the threat was, and saw a large Equestrian horde camped some ways away. Akira ordered the stallion who blew the horn to get all of the militia out and all of those who did not train to get into the town hall.

“Tell them to be ready for the “Bowling Ball” tactic.” He says to the man.

Akira had come up with this tactic himself, but not the name. He explained it to some of the ponies there and they drew the similarity between it and bowling, which was apparently a sport there in Equestria. He himself got down off the dirt-mound-wall and waited for all of the militia and his two samurai companions to gather together at the gate. Akira nodded to the two rangers who got on top of two houses to see over the wall, each behind their designated archer unit. Akira stood in front of his yari wielding units and prepared for the attack.

They didn’t have to wait long. Rainbow shouted “They’re coming!” Only a few seconds before they heard the booming sound of a ram being slammed against a fortified gate. They waited for it to succeed, and when they heard the reinforcement bar crack Mac got ready. When it did crack and the gate burst open Mac charged into the enemy horde, holding his kanabo across his chest. He hit the unaware enemy horde, which could only approach double file because of how narrow the bridge was, and either crushed them beneath him or threw them over the edge into the pit of spikes. Akira and Quicksilver followed emmediately by the yari wielders charged in after him.

After they made it across the forty foot bridge Akira and quicksilver split into two different directions followed each by a number of their yari wielding militia. The Ponyvill militia weren’t all too effective, after all, it was hard taking a life, but they did better as time went on and the Equestrian forces faltered in the face of such sudden and fearsome resistance. The Equestrian force was routed.

But not all of them were dealt with. There was still an enormous camp filled with Equestrian forces, which was not a good thing. Akira and the others returned to the town, repaired the gate as quickly as possible and remained on alert. Akira returned to his personal training, where several of the townsponies discreetly observed him from their homes. While he didn’t show off, he didn’t try any of the more complex movements, he was still quick with his obviously heavy sword, and clearly quite skilled. Twilight also came out to watch him for a time, before approaching him to speak.

“Akira?” She asks.

“Yes?” He responds. “What do you need?”

“I wanted to ask you, why did you side with us?”

Akira hesitated, he wasn’t entirely sure why. “Because my instinct told me to. I saw that your people needed help, and I helped. I saw that they were suffering, I sought to end that. There is little more to it than that, I went with my gut.”

“I guess,” She says not entirely convinced. “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

Akira was about to return to training when Quicksilver came up. “Sensei, another force is approaching.”

“Tell the militia to prepare for the next wave, they know which drill to take up next.”

“Yes sensei.” She says before running off towards the gate.

“Sensei?” Twilight asks.

“It means ‘teacher’, I trained all of the samurai in the Clans army, therefore I am their ‘Sensei’ or ‘teacher’.” Akira explains, “But before you bombard me with questions I must go see that this works.”

So leaving the lavender colored mare behind, Akira returned to the gate. The tactic was a boxing tactic, they had the yari spearmen lined up on either side of the gate facing towards each other and a third line facing towards the gate. Behind the first two lines were archers to fire on those coming over the bridge. Akira, Mac and Quicksilver were in the space surrounded by the spearmen and the gate, they would fight the horde like idividual warriors.

Before long the gate was once again set upon by a ram, the booming of the contact echoed across the cool nigh air. The crack of the bracebeam holding the gate closed was heard by all, and so was when the gate burst open for the second time that night. In flooded numerous enemies, only for them to be repeatedly stabbed by the yari on both sides of them or to face three very deadly warriors, all three of which had little problem killing them. The bodies piled, and the enemy fell back, all but one. He was another knight, one with the heavy plate armor used by the Equestrian nobles.

He carried a poleax, (Or halberd.) he had a sword at his hip and a feathered tassel at the top of his helm. Over his chestpeice was a sleeveless longcoat bearing a golden scale on a grey background, he was a noble. Mac, being the only one with a weapon that ignores armor, faced him.

The noble didn’t wait, he trust the spear tip of his halberd at Mac’s chest. Mac redirected the blow to miss him, and pull the stallion foreward. He struck the stallion with the pommel of his kanabo, and kicked the stallions left knee in. The sickening crunch of bones shattering filled the air and several of the militia grimaced at the sight. Mac then dropped his kanabo and picked the stallion up. The stallion was facing the air as he was held over Mac’s head, and very quickly Mac brought him down on his armored knee, breaking the poor guy’s spinal column. Thus the first of many battles was won.