Akira followed the strange looking woman and her troops into a mountain pass where they set camp. The pass was lined on either side by nearly vertical cliff faces, leaving only two places from which they could be attacked, and they had set it up so that the archers would sleep sandwiched between the close combat units, so both fronts were covered. The command tent was located in the middle of the camp, like always. Akira had been taken there to answer questions, and ask them.

The interior was simple, a central support pole held the roof of the tent up with for corner poles to keep the tent up, four ropes connected each corner pole to the central one and were staked to the ground outside. Inside there wasn't much, just a folding table with maps adorning it. The strange woman had joined him in the tent, to ask him some questions. he bowed respectfully, as was the custom of his people, when she entered. She sat on a low stool and told him to take a seat, and was surprised when he simply knelt on the spot, his hands resting on his thighs and his shoulders thrown back.

"What is your name stranger?" She asked him.

"Akira Imamura." He responded. "And what is yours, if I may ask?"

"I am Princess Luna of the Bat Clans." she told him.

Hearing this he quickly prostrated himself. "My apologies majesty. Had I known I would have shown the proper respect."

"No apologies necessary Akira." She told him with a dismissive wave of her hand. "I would ask you to remove your helmet, there need not be any secrets between us."

He complied by first loosening his mask then taking his helmet off and setting on the ground in front of him.

She looked at him, half surprised at his appearance. She knew that he would be different when she saw that his faceplate was flat instead of conclave to make room for a muzzle, still she couldn't help but be a little surprised. He had no fur, and his muzzle was absolutely minuscule, the skin about his eyes was rather stretched giving them the appearance of being smaller than normal. His hair was pitch black and tied back in a bun at the back of his head. His skin was a light tan color and very well taken care of with no visible scars.

"What are you Akira?" She asked.

"I am Samurai." He replied. "A warrior of my kind."

"I see. How did you come here, and why did you help us?"

"That's simple enough." He told her. "It started when I was sent into the forests north of where I dwelled to hunt ninja, honorless and cowardly fighters, they are little more than backstabbers and assassins. I came across a demon instead, and the next thing I knew I woke up on a field, not far from where you and the others were fighting. When I came to that place I saw that you were badly outmatched, and decided to try evening the odds. I can see that it worked."

"Indeed it did. The Solarim will be mourning the loss of many warriors tonight." She said proudly, "and all of it is thanks to your efforts."

"You honor me princess, now if I may, I would like to ask a few questions of my own."

"If I can answer them I will." She says.

"Where am I?"

"You are in the nation of Equestria, which is torn in two by a civil war." She tells him.

"What is this war being fought over?"

"Equality." She tells him glumly. "The Batponies have never recieved fair treatment, meaning that they were beaten, starved, wrongfully imprisoned, kidnapped, raped and murdered either out of anger, blind hatred, superstition or leisure."

This gave Akira something to think about. He hadn't ever heard of such cruelty, not even to conquered peoples. "Do you have room for another soldier?"

"I wanted to ask you about something similar. I saw how you fought out there and it was... well... impressive to say the least. I was hoping that you could help train some new soldiers to fight like you do. Will you do this?"

Akira thought for a moment, he had never been much of a good teacher. "I could, but I've never been much good and instructing."

"We'll need to get you back to The Deep before we can begin anything so you will have time." She says to him.

"However, training like this could take years. I've been training since the moment I could stand to do what I do."

"We can work with that, we need anything we can get in this war." She tells him. "Perhaps you could teach me to start, to get some practice in teaching?"

"I don't see a problem, I will have to know what kind of weapon you prefer to use. A polearm, a sword, a slashing or stabbing weapon, a short or long weapon, ranged or no, that kind of thing."

"I can tell you that later, but for now get some sleep. I'll have a tent given to you."

"My thanks princess." He says.

"I need to speak with the officers about our next strategy, you may go."

Blueblood strode through the halls towards the princess' chambers. He came in and found Princess Celestia at her desk writing what appeared to be a letter to her student. He didn't much care about what was going on there but still he took the letter from the desk and read its contents to be sure that no sensitive information was being passed. There was none.

Princess Celestia glared up at him. She looked as she always did, a fine white dress trimmed with gold that covered her entire body save for her neck, head and hands. The only thing that wasn't normal were the manacles about her wrists. These were iron, and engraved upon them were runes to restrict magic of any kind aside from what Blueblood allowed. That was how Princess Celestia was still able to keep the day cycle going without being able to quell Blueblood's revolution. She knew he intended to keep her like this until he died, and likely beyond.

She didn't approve of the war, even if it was fought for good reason, on one side anyway. She approved of Blueblood's rise to power even less, despite her intent to end the war peacefully by any means. She had no idea that her sister was fighting on the front lines, she never allowed it before in the few wars she had been in, and never thought her sister would do anything of the sort.

Blueblood replaced the letter on the desk. "Did you summon a demon to spite me?"

Author's Note

dumb I know, its just to hold over from my writers block.