The Niohby Veryfriedguy7ChaptersThe end of a journey...The clashTo Fell an invasionThe end of a journey...White. White in all directions. For as far as she could see. The last memory of home she has is thrusting her golden sword, the Sohayamaru, the legendary yokai slaying blade, into the severed horn of her oldest foe, Otakemaru, it was surprising to learn that his hate for ponykind was sparked many years before their rivalry truly began. Her journey began in the year 1555 yet ended in the year 797, not the easiest thing to grasp. Wasn't her first time travel experience and she still struggled to wrap her head around it. Her job wasn't thinking it was slashing and it was a job she became very good at, one of, if not the best, samurai in her land. But all that skill did her nothing here. So here she finds herself in an now familiar white void, unable to move, breathe or speak. Not that she'd do that last one even if it would save her life. A vow of silence, the inability or just plain stubborn refusal, no pony would truly know. Her friends, companions and masters have yet to hear a word pass the hardy mare's lips. Or even see them behind the black bandanna she always wore. That was the current norm for her now. Drifting, wondering, thinking and reminiscing. Her choices not entirely on her part due to her utter lack of doing anything else that isn't those four things. She would've cried out but she didn't particularly feel like it, wasn't even sure she could. Until now. It was a normal day, or night, in the void of nothingness. There was an invisible consciousness of a certain mare floating in place as it always has since it arrived there. She was currently remembering the times she was 'possessed' by a Nekomata, a cat spirit that has it's tail split in two, stand on it's hind legs, float and can communicate with ponies through speech, and Hakutaku, a sacred beast that is said to have a knowledge of all things. She finds it kind of funny how it's a goat spirit with a third eye, taking that phrase quite literally. It was then that her reminiscing was interrupted by something echoing throughout the void. Something quite unexpected. A plea for help. It was in a language unfamiliar to her but the tone, the panic, is what made it clear to her. There was somepony out there that needed her aid. It was at that realization that the strength to continue came to her. It was small but it was there, she could work with almost nothing. She had before. She then began pushing with all her might, trying to find the one that needed help. That needed her. She knew not what for but she had to get there. She was needed once more. And so she kept pushing until she couldn't. Eventually she started getting tired, quite an achievement considering she could fight numerous yokai and samurai in one fight and win with merely a shortness of breath. Years of grueling battles and skirmishes with a sprinkling of a special uniqueness would do that to you too. Then she found herself exhausted, something she had only been in her very early years of self-teaching. She was hard on herself, pushed herself to be better and that was what eventually forged a terror on the battlefield. She was quite well known for her perseverance. But with everything she is, everything she had done and trained for. She eventually collapsed, total exhaustion taking over her being as she closed her eyes. Closed her eyes? Her eyes shot open to reveal a marketplace, maybe. A castle? Fortress? She had no idea what would need so much stone and she hasn't even looked around yet. It was time to rectify that. She struggled to push herself up but with her strength slowly returning she managed, she was never tired long. Looking around she found it to be a street filled with homes. She didn't want to know why they were built from stone. Heaving herself onto her hooves she checked over herself. Black mane and tail. Check. White coat. Check. Fluffy wings. Check. Yokai horns cutie mark. Check. Bandanna. Check. Satchel. Check. Dagger. Check. Sword. Check. Odachi. Check. Bow. Check. Matchlock rifle. Check. Master swordscolts gloves. Check. Armor... Not check. At least she had her signature bandanna. Didn't stop her from being miffed about her armor though. It took her years to perfect her armor. Multiple trips to the best blacksmith in the land, careful additions of unstable yokai parts to empower it and multiple additions of onmyo magic, which was cleverly created by the only two unicorns in Japanese history, to get it exactly how she wanted. It was gone now. Idly looking up she decided she could worry about armor later. If those green cone things were what she thinks they are then that could only mean one thing, this place is getting invaded. Bloody changelings are the same no matter where you go it would seem. Back home most bandits were changelings, their deceitful nature usually gave them no choice in the matter, a sad fact in Japan but bandits are still bandits and this samurai had a lot of experience with fighting bandits. Looking around for the most important looking building, figuring that the leader of the invaders would go there, after quickly making sure her weapons were secured she shot through the empty streets toward what looks like a castle. Most of the dive-bombing changelings were converging on the city that she saw while she sprinted past a park. It was a big city. Shaking off her awe at the cities size and grandiose architecture she sprinted on. If her adventures throughout Japan taught her anything but combat it was the evolution of Japanese architecture, she didn't recognize any of this. She must be far from home. The situation in the castle was far from ideal. Cadance was going to try to free Shinning Armor from his mind control but Chrysalis saw her and shot her with a magic bolt before she could get to him. Knocking her unconscious. "Hahahahaha! Is that the best you could come up with? It's a wonder I didn't conquer sooner!" Chrysalis mocked them glee. All the Elements of Harmony were stuck to the ground with goo, save Twilight who broke free. She instead was held down by three changelings. The hall was lined with cocoons, rapidly being filled by those who were attending the wedding, with a special six in the middle for a few certain mares. They would have made, mostly, angry retorts but couldn't due to the goo that was on their mouths, having been recently applied. The Queen was about to mock them a bit more but a flying changeling burst through the large doors on the opposite end of the hall, looking quite terrified. Needless to say the Queen was upset at being interrupted. "What do you want?! You are interrupting!" The Queen spat at her insubordinate. The changeling landed and hastily bowed while shaking. "I-I a-apologize my Queen. B-but there was a m-m-monster! It tore apart eight whole squads while making it's w-way here your majesty!" It shakily reported. It's insectoid voice echoing throughout the now silent hall. Pony and changeling alike staring at what this changeling had just said with a mix of looks from fear to disbelief and everything in between. "Eight squads?" She asked, almost sweetly. "Then send more squads you grub! It is one monster! One! You are an army! What is one going to do against thousands?!" She shouted with more than enough venom to make a king cobra blush. The changeling was then magically thrown through the double doors at the end of the hall and those same doors magically pulled shut, all courtesy of Queen Chrysalis. She turned back to the Elements to continue her mockery. Not even five seconds from Chrysalis shutting the doors, they burst open again. Now angry she spun to yell at the changeling that had done it this time. But the being at the door was far from a changeling. Standing there was a tall bipedal being. It had alarmingly large claws at it's feet which was glowing blue like they were made of some kind of crystal, moving up the body it's skin was a mixture of a blue shell-like exterior, actual skin and thick glowing orange lines which seemed to be brimming with some kind of energy. The glowing orange line on it's shoulders turned into a blue ribbon as it left the body and broke into three separate ribbons, two going moving away from the body on each shoulder and the other wrapping around and connecting to the other shoulder making it look like a halo broken in half. All hovering and moving on it's own accord. It's arms went from blue to black the further down the arm you went, ending in black and glowing orange paw-like appendages which held enormous glowing blue daggers, bent back-and-forth to look like a lightning bolt. It's head had the least black and blue on it yet managed to be terrifying all it's own. It had black, long, flowing hair which was much like the princess' hair which blew in an invisible wind and it's eyes were glowing pure blue with a pitch black pupil in the middle. It's most striking feature was the jagged, glowing orange twin horns on it's head. It was a demon. This fact stunned the entire hall to stillness but the demon was quick to spring into action. It lunged into the largest pack of changelings it could see and swung like there was no tomorrow. For many changelings there would be no tomorrow. All the ponies not in cocoons or goo'ed down ran for their lives, unaware that the demon was not attacking them as it charged the changelings and by the time only the important ponies and Chrysalis remained, which took mere minutes, over one hundred changelings had been cut down. It truly was a demon. It then set it's sights on Chrysalis and started running towards her at an alarming speed. Chrysalis, not wanting to end up like her children, took flight and didn't look back. The Demon seemed upset as Chrysalis's retreat if the grunt was anything to go by. The demon then turned it's sights on the main six and approached. Thinking this was the end, most stood tall, with the exception of Fluttershy. Whatever it had in store for them never came to fruition as it was blasted far back by a cobalt blue beam of magic and making a crater on landing on the other side of the hall. "AWAY FROM OUR SUBJECTS FOUL DEMON!" The Royal Canterlot Voice was famous for being the loudest thing anypony would ever hear in their lives, due to a case of turning somepony deaf Celestia stopped using it, Luna however, didn't get the memo. The one who was currently using it was hovering next to Celestia's own cocoon. "GO BACK TO THE PIT THOU CRAWLED OUT OF OR FACE THE WRATH OF PRINCESS LUNA!" She gave the Demon a chance to retreat, likely on the account of it coincidentally stopping the changeling invasion. The Demon rose up from the crater it had made and quickly got into what could be a combat stance, the paws on it's lower body were barely touching the ground and it crossed the paws on it's upper body with it's large daggers pointing at Luna. "Very well..." Luna grumbled before she magically cut down her sister who had heard and saw the entire situation. "Thou's pitiful fate hast been sealed..." She added as she stood tall and spread her wings, Celestia getting out of her cocoon and quickly matching Luna's stance. When their magic coursed through their horns everypony could feel it, even the non-unicorns, which was a testament to the huge amount of magic they wielded. It seemed that even the Demon felt it as it flinched when if felt the strong magical aura but quickly righted itself. The main six didn't move from their spot. Partly because of the excitement they felt to see both princesses vanquish a mighty demon and partly because they were still goo'd to the spot. For any reason, it would still be a mighty fight to behold. Author's Note After a craze of playing Nioh 2 I just had to write a fic on it. For those who don't know Nioh classes Katana's as 'swords' and an Odachi is a large variation that apparently predates it, or so the wiki says, and translates to 'Large/great sword'. One of it's main uses was anti-cavalry as the huge blade, 4-5 feet long on average, gave the wielder a distance advantage. Just in case the description wasn't that great. It's the middle one. The clashNopony had made a move, the Demon was still in it's stance, waiting for something to happen it would seem. The princesses were studying it's features. Maybe trying to figure out what kind of Demon they were facing? The Demon suddenly charged, moving faster than anypony could ever hope to. While it's speed was very impressive the hall was quite long so it gave the sister's more than enough time to react. It jumped a great distance and slammed into the ground with staggering force, thankfully the sisters flew out of the way, splitting off from each other to try and hit both of it's sides with a simple beam of powerful magic, hoping to end the fight quickly and defeat the demon, it had other plans however. It dodged backwards well before the beams hit, it was less of a dodge and more like it's body just surged in a given direction, a blue afterimage following it's path as the magic beams collided, their intended target having already moved, causing a magical explosion and forcing the Demon to dodge again to avoid being caught in the blast. The sister's paused briefly, rather surprised at the Demon's extremely fast reaction speed. It used this brief pause to lunge at Celestia, she saw this and quickly erected a shield this didn't stop it from attacking. Before it reached striking distance is twisted it's body into a spin, slashing her shield with a dagger as it spun to do the same with both of it's clawed feet and stopped it's attack to dodge to the side, evading Luna's beam as it kept itself in striking distance by circling Celestia's shield. Once it stopped it bent it's legs and brought each of it's dagger's to it's hips as blue energy started to appear closely around the Demon, the airborne energy itself quickly became violent as more blue energy started to seep out of the Demon as it's daggers formed into long swords and the claws on it's feet doubled in size, grew more jagged and glowed a brighter blue and the energy started to flow over the Demon's form before it suddenly shot forward. The whole process took four seconds. The energy it created transformed into a light blue tornado that stayed rooted to the Demon's position. The Demon itself was spinning wildly, one leg on the ground likely to keep it going and the other leg and both daggers were committed to the objective of cutting anything unlucky enough to get in range as it shot forward. Directly in Celestia's shield. The force of the attack was too much for Celestia and her shield shattered, unable to even slow the Demon in it's forward momentum. Unfortunately for Celestia, the shield wasn't the only thing it hit. Blood was shed as Celestia was flung backwards from the sheer power of the attack, the spin allowed the Demon to strike multiple times without even moving it's weapons, it's spin doing the work for it. The energy the tornado was formed with seemed to be doing more than just further powering the Demon's spin of pain but seemed to be aiding in cutting her, making the tornado's purpose twofold. That wasn't the worst of it however, as the Demon flew forward it in fact followed Celestia as she was flung backwards, delivering more attacks as it spun. It abruptly stopped spinning though and used the last it's of it's momentum to deliver a final round house kick, sending Celestia even further and actually making her hit the wall on the other side of the hall, next to the large door and slid down it before falling into a heap on the floor. It quickly turned to Luna, ready to attack. Luna wasn't however. She was stunned at seeing her sister defeated so easily. So... Brutally... She wasn't even sure she was still alive. Luna's attention snapped back to the Demon, who was surprisingly patiently waiting for her to recover from her shock. That was lost to Luna as she was enraged by the thought of losing her sister. With a battle cry filled with rage and remose she shot forward and bucked the surprised Demon in the chest with both hind legs and charged a powerful ray of magic as it was pushed into the air by her buck, unable to move out of the way in the air. She put all of her magic into this attack, thought of the outcome if the Demon survived not in her mind as her emotions ran rampant. The sheer width of the ray engulfed the Demon's body and creating a hole in the castle due to it's power. The Demon wasn't vaporized by the attack however. It instead heavily collided with the deep hole in the newly created hole in the wall. Landing on the opposite side of the doorway to heap that is Celestia before replicating her and sliding onto the floor. Thinking it was over, Luna collapsed into a panting mess. Magical exhaustion causing her to almost faint, in her darkening vision she saw the worst possible thing, The Demon rose, smoke from Luna's attack seeping off it's form, but it had no trouble getting up seemingly as if it wasn't hurt at all. This sight made Luna realize something. The fight ended quickly just like she wanted but not as she expected, she could only wish it had the decency to end her quickly and hopefully spare the element bearers, hopefully satisfied with two immortal souls. It took a second to reorient itself before it started walking over to where she lay, daggers still held firmly, it absently looked to where Celestia lay before continuing on to Luna. Maybe to do unspeakable deeds for causing it harm? In the brief moments of thinking the Demon was defeated Twilight freed herself and her friends, ready to help Luna and Celestia get to the Royal Hospital. When the Demon rose however, they sprung into action and tried to do anything they could. Twilight, shocked from seeing Celestia in such a way, quickly teleported over to her mentor with tears welling up in her eyes, unable to think of doing something to stop the Demon. Pinkie Pie pulled her party cannon out of nowhere and used it to shoot confetti at the Demon. Rainbow Dash used her legendary speed to fly around the Demon, occasionally flying in to punch or kick it before flying away again. Rarity used her magic to shoot magic bolts at the Demon despite her weak magic. Applejack took her hat off and pulled her 'emergency lasso' out of it and threw the hoop to hopefully constrict it's arms which still held it's weapons. Fluttershy flew over to try and help Luna, terror very present in her eyes. All their efforts were for naught however as it mostly ignored them. Until Rainbow Dash bucked one of it's horn's however, making it flinch and causing Rainbow to grin. Irritated at her attack on it's horn it spun from it's path to Luna to ready a stab in Rainbow's still close presence, but it saw something behind her, which allowed a wide-eyed Rainbow to flee. Twilight was moving Celestia's bleeding, motionless body with a hoof, constantly hugging her and begging her to wake up while tears streamed from her eyes, further soaking the motionless ponies body with more than blood. The other bearers kept on in their attempts to defeat the Demon and didn't see the heart-breaking sight that it was watching. Then it did something that shocked them all, including the barely conscious Luna, to stillness. The dagger in it's left paw suddenly vanished and it twirled the dagger in it's other paw before stopping and bringing it to it's lower back as purple energy flared around it. Then a major change occured. The purple energy completely enveloped it's figure and quickly shifted into the shape of a pony, before fading, leaving a mare in it's wake. She had a pure white coat, very similar to a certain fashionista. She had long straight mane that flowed over her back and just past her withers and quickly ceased and curled before it had a chance to get in her eyes, which were a shining silver and had a black slit going from top to bottom of her silver iris. Her folded wings looked strong and well preened, and her primaries faded to black as it reached the feather's tip. Her tail was reminiscent of her mane and was long, straight and black but was still far from brushing against the ground. Her cutie mark depicted a pair of horns of mismatching length, exactly the same as the demon that once stood where she now stands. She was taller than the average pony only by a small amount and if you looked carefully you could see well toned muscles underneath her white coat. A sheath was hanging just behind her left foreleg and appeared to be home to a katana. A weapon that is legendary in Equestria due to it's effectiveness in combat. A much larger sheath was resting on her back and held an Odachi, an anti-cavalry weapon that was adapted for regular combat. It wasn't as legendary as the katana but even more damaging. On her right side hung a satchel that looked somewhat empty and a black bandanna hid most of her facial features. Only Luna recognized the two weapons as neither have been seen in Equestria in a least a millennia. The mare's sudden appearance caused a gasp from everypony who was watching. Rainbow Dash was left hovering above the ground. Pinkie Pie was leaning on her party cannon. Fluttershy was holding onto Luna. Rarity was standing stock still. Applejack held her lasso that was mostly vaporized by the purple energy. All with wide-eyes and gaping mouths. The mare slowly approached Twilight who was still begging her mentor to wake up. When she arrived she placed a reassuring hoof onto Twilight's wither, making her jump and look to the hoof then the mare it belonged to. The mare's eyes glowed blue as Twilight looked into them, exactly like the Demon's had, before slowly fading back into silver. Twilight managed to put two and two together despite her frantic thoughts and quickly started crawling backwards, still facing the Demon-mare. The mare turned her attention to Celestia and her wounds. Deep gashes could be seen in a near perfect line, going completely around her barrel and smaller cuts, likely from the tornado, were found everywhere else. On her horn, across her chest, on her legs, some on her wings and a few on her face. All of them were bleeding. The mare stepped forward, almost onto Celestia. She then reached into her satchel and after some rooting around she pulled out a small slab of wood with Kanji inscribed all over it. She brought it across her chest as it glowed a dim purple and then threw it into the ground where she stood, a purple circle with glowing orange Kanji briefly appearing and glowing before disappearing again. The slab of wood evaporated when it landed and created a ring of green energy on the ground that surrounded both the mare and the unconscious Celestia. Some of it seeped over the mare's body, constantly flaring and disappearing over her chest and barrel but other than that nothing about her changed, the same couldn't be said about Celestia though. The same green energy flared and disappeared over Celestia's chest and barrel but instead of the mystery mare's case where nothing happened her wounds stopped bleeding and slowly closed. Every pony in the room was staring at her wounds all but one in shock. The one who wasn't shocked was the mare, who was making sure everything went smoothly. After a few more seconds of staring at Celestia's closed wounds the mare made her way over to Luna with three legs as she was rooting through her satchel again. Even though she was exhausted Luna managed to glare at her and wheeze out. "We do not want thou's aid, Demon." through gritted teeth, still struggling to stay awake. The mare paused with her leg across her chest, holding another slab of inscribed wood and just stared at Luna. She expected it to make a snide remake, call it a mercy healing, anything. But the mare just stared in silence and eventually threw the wood into the ground, causing another ring of green energy to appear. Strength returned to Luna's limbs as the energy flared around her like it did to Celestia. She slowly rose and soon stood above the mare. "So... Thou slaughters the changelings, attacks us, defeats us and then heals us? To what end demon? Do you expect us to bow to you?! To surrender our subjects to you?! Never! We shall fall before we yield a single pony to your twisted plans!" Luna shouted, thankfully not in the Royal Canterlot Voice, in the Demon-mare's face while lowering her posture and flaring magic through her horn. The mare didn't flinch however. Luna, again, expect her to say something, a mockery or reveal Luna's place in an awful scheme. Something! But she still didn't speak. She merely tilted her head to the side and raised a brow before closing her eyes and shaking her head. The mare, much to Luna's surprise, turned away from her to check on Celestia who was now waking up. Celestia opened her eyes when she heard approaching hoof steps. She thought it would be a guard to inform her of the demon's defeat by the Elements of Harmony, Luna or Twilight maybe. But she was thoroughly surprised when a mare she didn't recognize approached. Her eye's were glowing like the demon's had been before fading into silver. Thinking the demon possessed one of her ponies to toy with her she attempted to quickly stand up and ready a spell but her body was still far from properly healed and caused her to crumple back down with a groan. She looked up as the possessed pony reached her and glared as much as a crumpled up pony could. The possessed pony took what looked like a glass bottle out of a satchel she was carrying and offered it to the fallen princess. Celestia, under great effort, slapped the bottle out of her grasp. The mares gaze followed the bottle as it tumbled across the floor and went to retrieve it. Since she was no longer blocking Celestia's view of the room she noticed that Luna was laying down much like she was, but looking at her in shame, and five of the element bearers were stood still. Oh no! The demon froze them? How was she going to defeat it now? As Celestia's thoughts ran wild the mare came back and was obviously upset at having to retrieve it. She tightly gripped Celestia's flowing mane and roughly tugged it back, forcing her to look to the ceiling and causing her to gasp. The mare then shoved the bottle into her open muzzle and quickly took it away when a small amount of it's contents spilled into her mouth. Celestia tried to spit the sweet tasting liquid out, thinking it would make her some kind of thrall but the mare grabbed her muzzle and covered her snout, cutting off her air supply while staring into Celestia's eyes. It went on for a while, the alicorn's larger body was equip with larger lungs but she still needs oxygen. Left with no other choice she loudly swallowed. Upon hearing her swallow the mare allowed her air which he took in greedily. Whatever the demon force fed her made her feel great! She felt like she could take on discord again! What was that liquid? Celestia stood back up and that was what made the bearers come back to their senses. All rushing towards her and tackling her in a group hug, they were relieved to know, especially Twilight, that Celestia was okay. The hug was sudden so much so that the mystery mare was almost bowled over as a result but she had managed to get out of the way in time. She then made her way back over to Luna and offered her the bottle as well, she accepted it without much fight and took a quick swing as had she seen what it had done to Celestia. The hug was soon broken and the attention of everypony in the room soon shifted to the still present demon-pony that was currently trying to wrestle her bottle out of Luna's grasp who ~~seemed~~ really must have liked the taste. Celestia quickly addressed the elephant in the room. "What are we going to about you?" Author's Note Heeeey! It's my character from the game in pony form! So this story is a self-insert but not really. I capitalized all the 'demon's before changing my mind as I was finishing, they'll be changed at a later date when I could be stuffed. To Fell an invasionCelestia and the main six stood in the middle of the wedding area that was still littered with cocoons as they all stared at the demonic warrior, deciding on what to do and how to go about doing that, soon a few solar guards rushed into the aftermath of the princess's skirmish with spears strapped onto their backs, not unusual given recent events. The demon-mare had since gotten her bottle back and sat on her haunches while looking through the empty looking satchel she carried with her, not paying any attention to the guards whatsoever. "Your highnesses!" One called as the rest came to a stop and stood at attention, awaiting orders. Celestia turned around "Iron Banner. What brings you here?" She addressed the guard speaking to her. The guard known as Iron Banner took his helmet off before speaking to the Princess again. "Some guards on the city walls reported they saw a massive changeling en-route to the palace and when we heard sounds of combat magic being used... Well we feared the worst." Celestia's eyes went wide at the given information, before she could say something the guard had spotted the mare. "Please excuse me Princess but may I ask who that is?" He asked while pointing at the demon-mare. "I don't recall admitting her in." "Never mind who she is! She's armed!" Another guard called while trying to pry his weapon off his back, the other guards quickly mimicking this. "Guards! We need to quickly erect a barricade at the main palace doors and gather as many unicorns as thou can find and get them to cast a barrier over the alter. Retrieve a medic for Cadance too, she had been attacked!" Luna ordered from the side as she approached her sister, the guards looked like they were unsure of following another princesses orders, maybe due to the sudden rivalry between the solar and lunar guards, but a nod from Celestia made them turn tail and run off to make with the barriers. "I hope you have a good plan to deal with those titanlings sister. Our magic is drained so what else is there?" Celestia inquired eliciting a chuckle from the princess of the night as she came to stand next to her sister. "It never crossed our mind upon first seeing the demon but when I saw her change to a pony it reminded us of an old legend we read about days prior." Luna said before taking a breath to continue. "We believe we needn't know of fair Equestria's history, as that is thou's forte sister. Seeing the demons armaments solidified what we began to piece to together." Luna looked to her sisters protege. "Twilight Sparkle. We ask you go and retrieve a book on language spells from the royal library. Our visitor must be made aware of the developing situation." Twilight didn't seem to want to argue and ran off. Celestia was trusting of her sister after her reformation but the idea Luna had was quite far fetched. "I believe you owe me an explanation Luna especially if we're about to do what I think you want to do." Celestia stated to her sibling. "What non-alicorn can repel titanlings?!" She all but screamed, convinced a demon, pony or otherwise, would refuse to help lesser beings. In response Luna fully turned to the demon-mare in question. "Hide will surely aid us in our plight." Hide was just stalling by just moving her hoof through her satchel. She was trying, keyword: trying, to organize her thoughts. She is normally given a direction and a mission. As she is normally never without, she had made a mistake. When she entered the castle she assumed the changelings were attacking and drove them back, then she was attacked by two tall ponies and, judging by the regalia, they were pretty important. That led her to overthinking the situation. She thought that the ponies were attacking a city of changelings and the lings had split their forces to sandwich them in between the two split forces and reacted accordingly to make up for the mistake. It wasn't the case. She had attacked and defeated both sides and accidentally turned whatever this fight is into a three way battle between; Herself, the ponies and the changelings. She assumed that was the developing situation, maybe she was overthinking it again? Her job wasn't thinking it was fighting, she was far from stupid though. Just because she isn't because particularly sharp doesn't make her dumb. Prone to accidents, definitely, but not dumb. It doesn't really help that she can't understand a single pony here. The gods could make yokai and war but couldn't restrict everypony to one language. Ponies walked past her as she sat on the floor pretending to look for something, giving her different looks. Looks of curiosity, anger and confusion. Anger for beating up their rulers probably and confusion because she's rummaging through a seemingly empty satchel. If only they knew. It once was a regular satchel but exposure to the ki of powerful yokai, the yokai realm itself, her own ki, the power shrines exude, the blessings of kodama and the many different kinds of spirit stones she had stuffed into it had changed it. One day she noticed that she could barely feel her satchel while it was tucked away under her armor despite stuffing numerous spirit stones in it hours prior. It was then she decided to take it out and look into it and when she did she saw only black mist. Her satchel had somehow transformed into a yokai. Inanimate objects were not safe from turning into yokai. She's fought umbrellas and walls before. Unlike most yokai, her satchel was content with it's current lot, not angry or malicious about a thing, and it could hold an absurd amount of stuff. She has a spare set of weapons in it and three of them are bigger than she is! The satchel could get restless at times but that was the worst of it, at all times she could get whatever she needs out of it. From her elixir to talismans. The best part is how she carries all that with her and the satchel barely weighs anything. Her kii was a unique blend of pony ki, yokai ki, tons of anima and amrita, blessings from kodama and numerous guardian spirits. Her ki had changed and shifted over the years due to what she was exposed to and what she had absorbed. Of course it would have an effect on the thing she kept on her at all times. She was a pony with yokai blood, the child of the union of a stallion and a yokai. So she was already quite unique. Pair that with her early occupation of yokai slaying and her absorption of THEIR amrita, then her exposure of pretty much everything yokai related, everything from the spirit stones to the yokai realm and the yokai themselves. She was as powerful as she was unique. She is a one of a kind. Her train of thought was cut short by a tapping on her shoulder. Turning to the one that interrupted her musings she saw one of the ponies she had attacked. She was a dark blue and her mane was like that of the night sky as it flowed in an invisible wind. She didn't say anything however and just nodded her head at a nervous purple unicorn at her side who was holding a book in her aura. Said unicorn slowly approached and lowered her head to point her horn at her, not used to this or unicorns in general, Hide cautiously placed her hoof on her sword but made no movement to actually draw the blade. Magic flared through her horn and a gentle beam made contact with Hide's forehead. The connection caused her to quickly draw her sword with a loud Shwing!, the unicorn was unfazed by this as she was lost in concentration, unaware of the immediate danger in front of her. Hide had drawn her sword but was still unsure of the situation in it's entirety so she merely stood her ground. Combat was her forte, politics and diplomacy was a craft that was in an alien language. There was a reason she was scarce whenever politics was on the wind. All of a sudden her ability to see and hear was completely lost but it came back as fast as it came. Unicorn... As soon as vision was fully restored she glared harshly at the purple unicorn responsible, her eyes still closed. The moment she opened them she recoiled with a yelp at the glare she was faced with, it didn't make her feel any better when she saw her sword had been drawn. "Um... Hi?" She said nervously and finished with a chuckle, Hide was blown away. Some kind of learn-my-language spell? Well at least the language barrier is no longer a problem. Hide rolled her withers to get a reaction and got another nervous chuckle and a hoof retreated to the back of her head. Excellent. "Well now that thou can understand us. You. Hide. Thou art a legend." The dark blue pegasus unicorn said. A legend? Sounds about right but where's this going? "We have read of thou's exploits extensively," Okay? Where has her saga been written? Hide doesn't think anything of that nature was arranged while she was around. "In short; We know who thou are but... You disappeared a long time ago. How did thou get so far from home?" Hide just stared but sheathed her blade, if she wasn't being attacked blades weren't necessary. Disappeared a long time ago? Read about her exploits? Far from home-- actually she knew that part but how does she?-- The whole castle shook as the sound of glass breaking rang throughout the hall. Hide looked at the blue pegacorn and saw that she was staring at something behind her in complete shock. Turning herself she beheld the biggest changeling she had ever seen, easily the size of a house, was about to move and presumably crush something. There was a smaller changeling to the left of this behemoth of a ling. "You thought I ran?! HA! Now that you are weakened from banishing the demon, I WILL TAKE EQUESTRIA!" The smaller changeling started cackling after her claim. The behemoth just looked tired, tired of what though? The smaller one maybe? Probably been in this situation more than a few times too. Hide doubted he'd ever seen anything quite like her before. Titan had seen this before. Queen Chrysalis would launch an invasion on the capital of a country and try to win with brute force and numbers, get repelled by something or other, she calls in Titan; the cleverly named Titanling, he steps on a few things, crushes a few more and saves the day. Of course the Queen claimed it was because of her magnificent strategy and Titan had to suppress the urge to roll his eyes. These ponies would be no different. The reports coming from terrified changelings said there was a demon in the castle but Titan wasn't worried, one of two things would come of that. The ponies would defeat the demon and the ponies would be weak from the effort or the demon slaughtered them all and was exhausted from the effort. Either way he'd just have to crush who was left and save the day again. Few battles were difficult for a ling of his size. He was currently being airdropped by a few hundred lings so he could get into the castle as fast as possible and crash through the magic barrier that a scout said had been erected while a horde of lings flock to the crude barricade in the main entrance of the castle. It would have been better to enter another way and corner the ponies using their own barricade but the Queen had ordered to go through it so go through it they will. Titan had to wonder why she's been in power as long as she has, they can make another, more adequate Queen with enough time, effort and love. He's actually been around longer than her so why doesn't he just rule? The lings carrying him let go. Ah. Here's his stop. Titan crashed through the magic barrier with not so much as a flinch, no demon anywhere. Ponies must have won, rather surprising actually. The massacre of the changelings was upsetting to him but the lack of demon being seen must mean it had already been banished by the ponies, it was therapeutic to know the fallen lings had been avenged at least. He landed on all four hooves, the Queen flew next to him to make her 'I'm better than you!' or 'You thought I ran weaklings?' announcement while he quickly made to crush a white pegasus just beneath him but the familiar feeling of crushing bones when he put his hoof down on somepony was missing, in it's place was pain. For the first time in years, something made him pause. Standing just to the left of his right hoof was the white pegasus, his target, with a sword halfway through his hoof, blood leaking from it. Titan had to resist the urge to cry out from the pain surging through his hoof as he tugged his hoof away from the blade wielding mare and reared up on his hind legs to crush her with both fore hooves, if she could turn, identify a threat, evade it, draw her sword and capitalize on the missed attack with one of her own as quickly as she had done it, he had to get rid of this pony and quickly. As soon his hooves made contact with something he was pushed back with tremendous force as his head recoiled back from the sudden force. Was there a powerful unicorn he wasn't aware about? And just who is this pegasus? He studied as much about Equestria as he could prior to the invasion to not get caught off-guard by anything, knowing the Queen wouldn't, but he came up blank to both questions. Bringing his head back he saw there was no unicorn but the pegasus, sword still drawn, waiting for him to do something. Was she taking her measure of him? No she couldn't, that would mean she intended to fight him and only alicorns or dragons could fight a Titanling head-to-head. Being a Titanling meant he had no wings but his horn was there and still usable. Wanting to just get rid of the pegasus, as she was being ridiculous if she actually wanted to fight, his horn lit up and he made to levitate her up and slam her into the ground before finishing her like he had meant to before. The aura surrounded the pegasus but she didn't budge. Now angry he launched forward with a hiss. How is a mere pegasus meant to stand against a mighty Titanling such as himself? How she didn't move from his magic was never on his mind. The pegasus slid under his hoof as it went in a wide, wild arc and slashed through the rest of the way through his hoof above her, severing it and spraying blood everywhere as the Titanling yelled out in pain and shock, failing to suppress his reaction. In his blind rage he had swung the hoof she had already cut and she threw herself out of it's path. There was a side effect of her evasion. The satchel hanging from the mares body flew back and forth, barely staying on by the strap in hung on, a single glowing yellow rock rocketed out of the satchel and it slid conveniently under Titan's severed hoof. He set his shorter leg directly onto the stone without realizing it. The stone glowed a bright yellow before absorbing into his body. The titanling had accidentally absorbed a spirit stone. He began crying out in pain as a blackish mist began shooting out of his severed leg and most of his body as his leg began rapidly changing. He brought his uninjured leg to his head as his blue eyes began to leak to mist as well. What was left of his right leg turned into a massive yellow sword as more spirit stones grew along the rest of his legs, growing in huge clumps on his withers, along his back and at his rump. His chitin cracked and broke as more of the yellow rocks grew over his neck and along his spine, his wailing grew distorted as the transformation neared completion. The final changes came in last, his eyes flashed from a blue to a deep blood red as twin horns erupted from his skull in a shower of blood. He had been transformed into a yokai, from a single stone. Hide was more than surprised at how susceptible he was to the corruption of spirit stones,. It had taken one to convert the massive changeling into a yokai, which was very surprising and concerning, almost as concerning as her forgetting to clasp shut her satchel. She had to ensure the many spirit stones she has on her stayed that way. If they fell into the wrong hooves... Well... Yokai are very effective as an army. It had taken one army combined of both ponies and yokai to conquer the entirety of Japan, the land took years to break free and it was still recovering by the time she ended up in that void place. The only way to end the yokai-pony war was to travel back and ensure it never began. It must never begin here, history must not repeat itself. She can't go back to that... Hide looked up at the ex-ling as it glared down at her with it's red eyes, the changeling Queen was still flying where she had appeared from and attempted to make a second hasty getaway. She did not get far. The now-yokai reached up with it's non-blade leg to tear the Queen away from the sky and immediately crushed her with a sickening crunch!, the Queen's death went unnoticed. The yokai then threw the deceased Queen at Hide which she effortlessly avoided, her gaze followed the flailing Queen, not paying attention to the yokai. She heard the numerous ponies around her gasp followed by them starting to yell something to her, she didn't need their warning. Hide dived to the side and recovered with a roll as the titanic blade crushed the stone where she once stood, her blank stare followed the yokai's red eyes as it slowly dragged it's blade through the stone floor towards itself before heaving it back to it's side. Hide had never sheathed her faithful sword but now she needed more, stuffing it back in it's sheath, she'll have to clean it out later, she took the huge sheath off her back and brought it to her front as it was too big to be drawn from her back. She had one hoof on the grip and the other on the sheath as she drew them apart, drawing her odachi. The long sword gleamed in the sun as she put the sheath on her back again, next to the bow and matchlock rifle she always forgets to use. Bringing it around her body in a ready stance, holding onto the hilt with both hooves which pointed forward as the blade ran along and behind her body, normally you'd want the blade facing toward your opponent but Hide's method of fighting employs less blocking and more dodging and heavy hits. It was also very hard to do so with a blade as long as an odachi. A high risk fighting style. The reckless approach she employs focuses on killing her opponent as fast as possible at the cost of leaving her exposed. All of her masters, all of them, attempted to teach her a more focused or fluid style of fighting but were left speechless as her approach to combat was not only surprisingly efficient but also effective and fast. Although she picked up things from her old masters they never truly changed how she approached a fight. One thing that never changed was how she fought yokai, nothing they taught could change how she fought them. She was a yokai slayer before being employed by Oda Nobunaga, the Demon King. Hide gave a smirk that was hidden under her bandanna as she charged at the large yokai before her. Just like old times Author's Note Coming up with a new story arc for COTE is hard. Feedback is appreciated!
The end of a journey...White. White in all directions. For as far as she could see. The last memory of home she has is thrusting her golden sword, the Sohayamaru, the legendary yokai slaying blade, into the severed horn of her oldest foe, Otakemaru, it was surprising to learn that his hate for ponykind was sparked many years before their rivalry truly began. Her journey began in the year 1555 yet ended in the year 797, not the easiest thing to grasp. Wasn't her first time travel experience and she still struggled to wrap her head around it. Her job wasn't thinking it was slashing and it was a job she became very good at, one of, if not the best, samurai in her land. But all that skill did her nothing here. So here she finds herself in an now familiar white void, unable to move, breathe or speak. Not that she'd do that last one even if it would save her life. A vow of silence, the inability or just plain stubborn refusal, no pony would truly know. Her friends, companions and masters have yet to hear a word pass the hardy mare's lips. Or even see them behind the black bandanna she always wore. That was the current norm for her now. Drifting, wondering, thinking and reminiscing. Her choices not entirely on her part due to her utter lack of doing anything else that isn't those four things. She would've cried out but she didn't particularly feel like it, wasn't even sure she could. Until now. It was a normal day, or night, in the void of nothingness. There was an invisible consciousness of a certain mare floating in place as it always has since it arrived there. She was currently remembering the times she was 'possessed' by a Nekomata, a cat spirit that has it's tail split in two, stand on it's hind legs, float and can communicate with ponies through speech, and Hakutaku, a sacred beast that is said to have a knowledge of all things. She finds it kind of funny how it's a goat spirit with a third eye, taking that phrase quite literally. It was then that her reminiscing was interrupted by something echoing throughout the void. Something quite unexpected. A plea for help. It was in a language unfamiliar to her but the tone, the panic, is what made it clear to her. There was somepony out there that needed her aid. It was at that realization that the strength to continue came to her. It was small but it was there, she could work with almost nothing. She had before. She then began pushing with all her might, trying to find the one that needed help. That needed her. She knew not what for but she had to get there. She was needed once more. And so she kept pushing until she couldn't. Eventually she started getting tired, quite an achievement considering she could fight numerous yokai and samurai in one fight and win with merely a shortness of breath. Years of grueling battles and skirmishes with a sprinkling of a special uniqueness would do that to you too. Then she found herself exhausted, something she had only been in her very early years of self-teaching. She was hard on herself, pushed herself to be better and that was what eventually forged a terror on the battlefield. She was quite well known for her perseverance. But with everything she is, everything she had done and trained for. She eventually collapsed, total exhaustion taking over her being as she closed her eyes. Closed her eyes? Her eyes shot open to reveal a marketplace, maybe. A castle? Fortress? She had no idea what would need so much stone and she hasn't even looked around yet. It was time to rectify that. She struggled to push herself up but with her strength slowly returning she managed, she was never tired long. Looking around she found it to be a street filled with homes. She didn't want to know why they were built from stone. Heaving herself onto her hooves she checked over herself. Black mane and tail. Check. White coat. Check. Fluffy wings. Check. Yokai horns cutie mark. Check. Bandanna. Check. Satchel. Check. Dagger. Check. Sword. Check. Odachi. Check. Bow. Check. Matchlock rifle. Check. Master swordscolts gloves. Check. Armor... Not check. At least she had her signature bandanna. Didn't stop her from being miffed about her armor though. It took her years to perfect her armor. Multiple trips to the best blacksmith in the land, careful additions of unstable yokai parts to empower it and multiple additions of onmyo magic, which was cleverly created by the only two unicorns in Japanese history, to get it exactly how she wanted. It was gone now. Idly looking up she decided she could worry about armor later. If those green cone things were what she thinks they are then that could only mean one thing, this place is getting invaded. Bloody changelings are the same no matter where you go it would seem. Back home most bandits were changelings, their deceitful nature usually gave them no choice in the matter, a sad fact in Japan but bandits are still bandits and this samurai had a lot of experience with fighting bandits. Looking around for the most important looking building, figuring that the leader of the invaders would go there, after quickly making sure her weapons were secured she shot through the empty streets toward what looks like a castle. Most of the dive-bombing changelings were converging on the city that she saw while she sprinted past a park. It was a big city. Shaking off her awe at the cities size and grandiose architecture she sprinted on. If her adventures throughout Japan taught her anything but combat it was the evolution of Japanese architecture, she didn't recognize any of this. She must be far from home. The situation in the castle was far from ideal. Cadance was going to try to free Shinning Armor from his mind control but Chrysalis saw her and shot her with a magic bolt before she could get to him. Knocking her unconscious. "Hahahahaha! Is that the best you could come up with? It's a wonder I didn't conquer sooner!" Chrysalis mocked them glee. All the Elements of Harmony were stuck to the ground with goo, save Twilight who broke free. She instead was held down by three changelings. The hall was lined with cocoons, rapidly being filled by those who were attending the wedding, with a special six in the middle for a few certain mares. They would have made, mostly, angry retorts but couldn't due to the goo that was on their mouths, having been recently applied. The Queen was about to mock them a bit more but a flying changeling burst through the large doors on the opposite end of the hall, looking quite terrified. Needless to say the Queen was upset at being interrupted. "What do you want?! You are interrupting!" The Queen spat at her insubordinate. The changeling landed and hastily bowed while shaking. "I-I a-apologize my Queen. B-but there was a m-m-monster! It tore apart eight whole squads while making it's w-way here your majesty!" It shakily reported. It's insectoid voice echoing throughout the now silent hall. Pony and changeling alike staring at what this changeling had just said with a mix of looks from fear to disbelief and everything in between. "Eight squads?" She asked, almost sweetly. "Then send more squads you grub! It is one monster! One! You are an army! What is one going to do against thousands?!" She shouted with more than enough venom to make a king cobra blush. The changeling was then magically thrown through the double doors at the end of the hall and those same doors magically pulled shut, all courtesy of Queen Chrysalis. She turned back to the Elements to continue her mockery. Not even five seconds from Chrysalis shutting the doors, they burst open again. Now angry she spun to yell at the changeling that had done it this time. But the being at the door was far from a changeling. Standing there was a tall bipedal being. It had alarmingly large claws at it's feet which was glowing blue like they were made of some kind of crystal, moving up the body it's skin was a mixture of a blue shell-like exterior, actual skin and thick glowing orange lines which seemed to be brimming with some kind of energy. The glowing orange line on it's shoulders turned into a blue ribbon as it left the body and broke into three separate ribbons, two going moving away from the body on each shoulder and the other wrapping around and connecting to the other shoulder making it look like a halo broken in half. All hovering and moving on it's own accord. It's arms went from blue to black the further down the arm you went, ending in black and glowing orange paw-like appendages which held enormous glowing blue daggers, bent back-and-forth to look like a lightning bolt. It's head had the least black and blue on it yet managed to be terrifying all it's own. It had black, long, flowing hair which was much like the princess' hair which blew in an invisible wind and it's eyes were glowing pure blue with a pitch black pupil in the middle. It's most striking feature was the jagged, glowing orange twin horns on it's head. It was a demon. This fact stunned the entire hall to stillness but the demon was quick to spring into action. It lunged into the largest pack of changelings it could see and swung like there was no tomorrow. For many changelings there would be no tomorrow. All the ponies not in cocoons or goo'ed down ran for their lives, unaware that the demon was not attacking them as it charged the changelings and by the time only the important ponies and Chrysalis remained, which took mere minutes, over one hundred changelings had been cut down. It truly was a demon. It then set it's sights on Chrysalis and started running towards her at an alarming speed. Chrysalis, not wanting to end up like her children, took flight and didn't look back. The Demon seemed upset as Chrysalis's retreat if the grunt was anything to go by. The demon then turned it's sights on the main six and approached. Thinking this was the end, most stood tall, with the exception of Fluttershy. Whatever it had in store for them never came to fruition as it was blasted far back by a cobalt blue beam of magic and making a crater on landing on the other side of the hall. "AWAY FROM OUR SUBJECTS FOUL DEMON!" The Royal Canterlot Voice was famous for being the loudest thing anypony would ever hear in their lives, due to a case of turning somepony deaf Celestia stopped using it, Luna however, didn't get the memo. The one who was currently using it was hovering next to Celestia's own cocoon. "GO BACK TO THE PIT THOU CRAWLED OUT OF OR FACE THE WRATH OF PRINCESS LUNA!" She gave the Demon a chance to retreat, likely on the account of it coincidentally stopping the changeling invasion. The Demon rose up from the crater it had made and quickly got into what could be a combat stance, the paws on it's lower body were barely touching the ground and it crossed the paws on it's upper body with it's large daggers pointing at Luna. "Very well..." Luna grumbled before she magically cut down her sister who had heard and saw the entire situation. "Thou's pitiful fate hast been sealed..." She added as she stood tall and spread her wings, Celestia getting out of her cocoon and quickly matching Luna's stance. When their magic coursed through their horns everypony could feel it, even the non-unicorns, which was a testament to the huge amount of magic they wielded. It seemed that even the Demon felt it as it flinched when if felt the strong magical aura but quickly righted itself. The main six didn't move from their spot. Partly because of the excitement they felt to see both princesses vanquish a mighty demon and partly because they were still goo'd to the spot. For any reason, it would still be a mighty fight to behold. Author's Note After a craze of playing Nioh 2 I just had to write a fic on it. For those who don't know Nioh classes Katana's as 'swords' and an Odachi is a large variation that apparently predates it, or so the wiki says, and translates to 'Large/great sword'. One of it's main uses was anti-cavalry as the huge blade, 4-5 feet long on average, gave the wielder a distance advantage. Just in case the description wasn't that great. It's the middle one.
The clashNopony had made a move, the Demon was still in it's stance, waiting for something to happen it would seem. The princesses were studying it's features. Maybe trying to figure out what kind of Demon they were facing? The Demon suddenly charged, moving faster than anypony could ever hope to. While it's speed was very impressive the hall was quite long so it gave the sister's more than enough time to react. It jumped a great distance and slammed into the ground with staggering force, thankfully the sisters flew out of the way, splitting off from each other to try and hit both of it's sides with a simple beam of powerful magic, hoping to end the fight quickly and defeat the demon, it had other plans however. It dodged backwards well before the beams hit, it was less of a dodge and more like it's body just surged in a given direction, a blue afterimage following it's path as the magic beams collided, their intended target having already moved, causing a magical explosion and forcing the Demon to dodge again to avoid being caught in the blast. The sister's paused briefly, rather surprised at the Demon's extremely fast reaction speed. It used this brief pause to lunge at Celestia, she saw this and quickly erected a shield this didn't stop it from attacking. Before it reached striking distance is twisted it's body into a spin, slashing her shield with a dagger as it spun to do the same with both of it's clawed feet and stopped it's attack to dodge to the side, evading Luna's beam as it kept itself in striking distance by circling Celestia's shield. Once it stopped it bent it's legs and brought each of it's dagger's to it's hips as blue energy started to appear closely around the Demon, the airborne energy itself quickly became violent as more blue energy started to seep out of the Demon as it's daggers formed into long swords and the claws on it's feet doubled in size, grew more jagged and glowed a brighter blue and the energy started to flow over the Demon's form before it suddenly shot forward. The whole process took four seconds. The energy it created transformed into a light blue tornado that stayed rooted to the Demon's position. The Demon itself was spinning wildly, one leg on the ground likely to keep it going and the other leg and both daggers were committed to the objective of cutting anything unlucky enough to get in range as it shot forward. Directly in Celestia's shield. The force of the attack was too much for Celestia and her shield shattered, unable to even slow the Demon in it's forward momentum. Unfortunately for Celestia, the shield wasn't the only thing it hit. Blood was shed as Celestia was flung backwards from the sheer power of the attack, the spin allowed the Demon to strike multiple times without even moving it's weapons, it's spin doing the work for it. The energy the tornado was formed with seemed to be doing more than just further powering the Demon's spin of pain but seemed to be aiding in cutting her, making the tornado's purpose twofold. That wasn't the worst of it however, as the Demon flew forward it in fact followed Celestia as she was flung backwards, delivering more attacks as it spun. It abruptly stopped spinning though and used the last it's of it's momentum to deliver a final round house kick, sending Celestia even further and actually making her hit the wall on the other side of the hall, next to the large door and slid down it before falling into a heap on the floor. It quickly turned to Luna, ready to attack. Luna wasn't however. She was stunned at seeing her sister defeated so easily. So... Brutally... She wasn't even sure she was still alive. Luna's attention snapped back to the Demon, who was surprisingly patiently waiting for her to recover from her shock. That was lost to Luna as she was enraged by the thought of losing her sister. With a battle cry filled with rage and remose she shot forward and bucked the surprised Demon in the chest with both hind legs and charged a powerful ray of magic as it was pushed into the air by her buck, unable to move out of the way in the air. She put all of her magic into this attack, thought of the outcome if the Demon survived not in her mind as her emotions ran rampant. The sheer width of the ray engulfed the Demon's body and creating a hole in the castle due to it's power. The Demon wasn't vaporized by the attack however. It instead heavily collided with the deep hole in the newly created hole in the wall. Landing on the opposite side of the doorway to heap that is Celestia before replicating her and sliding onto the floor. Thinking it was over, Luna collapsed into a panting mess. Magical exhaustion causing her to almost faint, in her darkening vision she saw the worst possible thing, The Demon rose, smoke from Luna's attack seeping off it's form, but it had no trouble getting up seemingly as if it wasn't hurt at all. This sight made Luna realize something. The fight ended quickly just like she wanted but not as she expected, she could only wish it had the decency to end her quickly and hopefully spare the element bearers, hopefully satisfied with two immortal souls. It took a second to reorient itself before it started walking over to where she lay, daggers still held firmly, it absently looked to where Celestia lay before continuing on to Luna. Maybe to do unspeakable deeds for causing it harm? In the brief moments of thinking the Demon was defeated Twilight freed herself and her friends, ready to help Luna and Celestia get to the Royal Hospital. When the Demon rose however, they sprung into action and tried to do anything they could. Twilight, shocked from seeing Celestia in such a way, quickly teleported over to her mentor with tears welling up in her eyes, unable to think of doing something to stop the Demon. Pinkie Pie pulled her party cannon out of nowhere and used it to shoot confetti at the Demon. Rainbow Dash used her legendary speed to fly around the Demon, occasionally flying in to punch or kick it before flying away again. Rarity used her magic to shoot magic bolts at the Demon despite her weak magic. Applejack took her hat off and pulled her 'emergency lasso' out of it and threw the hoop to hopefully constrict it's arms which still held it's weapons. Fluttershy flew over to try and help Luna, terror very present in her eyes. All their efforts were for naught however as it mostly ignored them. Until Rainbow Dash bucked one of it's horn's however, making it flinch and causing Rainbow to grin. Irritated at her attack on it's horn it spun from it's path to Luna to ready a stab in Rainbow's still close presence, but it saw something behind her, which allowed a wide-eyed Rainbow to flee. Twilight was moving Celestia's bleeding, motionless body with a hoof, constantly hugging her and begging her to wake up while tears streamed from her eyes, further soaking the motionless ponies body with more than blood. The other bearers kept on in their attempts to defeat the Demon and didn't see the heart-breaking sight that it was watching. Then it did something that shocked them all, including the barely conscious Luna, to stillness. The dagger in it's left paw suddenly vanished and it twirled the dagger in it's other paw before stopping and bringing it to it's lower back as purple energy flared around it. Then a major change occured. The purple energy completely enveloped it's figure and quickly shifted into the shape of a pony, before fading, leaving a mare in it's wake. She had a pure white coat, very similar to a certain fashionista. She had long straight mane that flowed over her back and just past her withers and quickly ceased and curled before it had a chance to get in her eyes, which were a shining silver and had a black slit going from top to bottom of her silver iris. Her folded wings looked strong and well preened, and her primaries faded to black as it reached the feather's tip. Her tail was reminiscent of her mane and was long, straight and black but was still far from brushing against the ground. Her cutie mark depicted a pair of horns of mismatching length, exactly the same as the demon that once stood where she now stands. She was taller than the average pony only by a small amount and if you looked carefully you could see well toned muscles underneath her white coat. A sheath was hanging just behind her left foreleg and appeared to be home to a katana. A weapon that is legendary in Equestria due to it's effectiveness in combat. A much larger sheath was resting on her back and held an Odachi, an anti-cavalry weapon that was adapted for regular combat. It wasn't as legendary as the katana but even more damaging. On her right side hung a satchel that looked somewhat empty and a black bandanna hid most of her facial features. Only Luna recognized the two weapons as neither have been seen in Equestria in a least a millennia. The mare's sudden appearance caused a gasp from everypony who was watching. Rainbow Dash was left hovering above the ground. Pinkie Pie was leaning on her party cannon. Fluttershy was holding onto Luna. Rarity was standing stock still. Applejack held her lasso that was mostly vaporized by the purple energy. All with wide-eyes and gaping mouths. The mare slowly approached Twilight who was still begging her mentor to wake up. When she arrived she placed a reassuring hoof onto Twilight's wither, making her jump and look to the hoof then the mare it belonged to. The mare's eyes glowed blue as Twilight looked into them, exactly like the Demon's had, before slowly fading back into silver. Twilight managed to put two and two together despite her frantic thoughts and quickly started crawling backwards, still facing the Demon-mare. The mare turned her attention to Celestia and her wounds. Deep gashes could be seen in a near perfect line, going completely around her barrel and smaller cuts, likely from the tornado, were found everywhere else. On her horn, across her chest, on her legs, some on her wings and a few on her face. All of them were bleeding. The mare stepped forward, almost onto Celestia. She then reached into her satchel and after some rooting around she pulled out a small slab of wood with Kanji inscribed all over it. She brought it across her chest as it glowed a dim purple and then threw it into the ground where she stood, a purple circle with glowing orange Kanji briefly appearing and glowing before disappearing again. The slab of wood evaporated when it landed and created a ring of green energy on the ground that surrounded both the mare and the unconscious Celestia. Some of it seeped over the mare's body, constantly flaring and disappearing over her chest and barrel but other than that nothing about her changed, the same couldn't be said about Celestia though. The same green energy flared and disappeared over Celestia's chest and barrel but instead of the mystery mare's case where nothing happened her wounds stopped bleeding and slowly closed. Every pony in the room was staring at her wounds all but one in shock. The one who wasn't shocked was the mare, who was making sure everything went smoothly. After a few more seconds of staring at Celestia's closed wounds the mare made her way over to Luna with three legs as she was rooting through her satchel again. Even though she was exhausted Luna managed to glare at her and wheeze out. "We do not want thou's aid, Demon." through gritted teeth, still struggling to stay awake. The mare paused with her leg across her chest, holding another slab of inscribed wood and just stared at Luna. She expected it to make a snide remake, call it a mercy healing, anything. But the mare just stared in silence and eventually threw the wood into the ground, causing another ring of green energy to appear. Strength returned to Luna's limbs as the energy flared around her like it did to Celestia. She slowly rose and soon stood above the mare. "So... Thou slaughters the changelings, attacks us, defeats us and then heals us? To what end demon? Do you expect us to bow to you?! To surrender our subjects to you?! Never! We shall fall before we yield a single pony to your twisted plans!" Luna shouted, thankfully not in the Royal Canterlot Voice, in the Demon-mare's face while lowering her posture and flaring magic through her horn. The mare didn't flinch however. Luna, again, expect her to say something, a mockery or reveal Luna's place in an awful scheme. Something! But she still didn't speak. She merely tilted her head to the side and raised a brow before closing her eyes and shaking her head. The mare, much to Luna's surprise, turned away from her to check on Celestia who was now waking up. Celestia opened her eyes when she heard approaching hoof steps. She thought it would be a guard to inform her of the demon's defeat by the Elements of Harmony, Luna or Twilight maybe. But she was thoroughly surprised when a mare she didn't recognize approached. Her eye's were glowing like the demon's had been before fading into silver. Thinking the demon possessed one of her ponies to toy with her she attempted to quickly stand up and ready a spell but her body was still far from properly healed and caused her to crumple back down with a groan. She looked up as the possessed pony reached her and glared as much as a crumpled up pony could. The possessed pony took what looked like a glass bottle out of a satchel she was carrying and offered it to the fallen princess. Celestia, under great effort, slapped the bottle out of her grasp. The mares gaze followed the bottle as it tumbled across the floor and went to retrieve it. Since she was no longer blocking Celestia's view of the room she noticed that Luna was laying down much like she was, but looking at her in shame, and five of the element bearers were stood still. Oh no! The demon froze them? How was she going to defeat it now? As Celestia's thoughts ran wild the mare came back and was obviously upset at having to retrieve it. She tightly gripped Celestia's flowing mane and roughly tugged it back, forcing her to look to the ceiling and causing her to gasp. The mare then shoved the bottle into her open muzzle and quickly took it away when a small amount of it's contents spilled into her mouth. Celestia tried to spit the sweet tasting liquid out, thinking it would make her some kind of thrall but the mare grabbed her muzzle and covered her snout, cutting off her air supply while staring into Celestia's eyes. It went on for a while, the alicorn's larger body was equip with larger lungs but she still needs oxygen. Left with no other choice she loudly swallowed. Upon hearing her swallow the mare allowed her air which he took in greedily. Whatever the demon force fed her made her feel great! She felt like she could take on discord again! What was that liquid? Celestia stood back up and that was what made the bearers come back to their senses. All rushing towards her and tackling her in a group hug, they were relieved to know, especially Twilight, that Celestia was okay. The hug was sudden so much so that the mystery mare was almost bowled over as a result but she had managed to get out of the way in time. She then made her way back over to Luna and offered her the bottle as well, she accepted it without much fight and took a quick swing as had she seen what it had done to Celestia. The hug was soon broken and the attention of everypony in the room soon shifted to the still present demon-pony that was currently trying to wrestle her bottle out of Luna's grasp who ~~seemed~~ really must have liked the taste. Celestia quickly addressed the elephant in the room. "What are we going to about you?" Author's Note Heeeey! It's my character from the game in pony form! So this story is a self-insert but not really. I capitalized all the 'demon's before changing my mind as I was finishing, they'll be changed at a later date when I could be stuffed.
To Fell an invasionCelestia and the main six stood in the middle of the wedding area that was still littered with cocoons as they all stared at the demonic warrior, deciding on what to do and how to go about doing that, soon a few solar guards rushed into the aftermath of the princess's skirmish with spears strapped onto their backs, not unusual given recent events. The demon-mare had since gotten her bottle back and sat on her haunches while looking through the empty looking satchel she carried with her, not paying any attention to the guards whatsoever. "Your highnesses!" One called as the rest came to a stop and stood at attention, awaiting orders. Celestia turned around "Iron Banner. What brings you here?" She addressed the guard speaking to her. The guard known as Iron Banner took his helmet off before speaking to the Princess again. "Some guards on the city walls reported they saw a massive changeling en-route to the palace and when we heard sounds of combat magic being used... Well we feared the worst." Celestia's eyes went wide at the given information, before she could say something the guard had spotted the mare. "Please excuse me Princess but may I ask who that is?" He asked while pointing at the demon-mare. "I don't recall admitting her in." "Never mind who she is! She's armed!" Another guard called while trying to pry his weapon off his back, the other guards quickly mimicking this. "Guards! We need to quickly erect a barricade at the main palace doors and gather as many unicorns as thou can find and get them to cast a barrier over the alter. Retrieve a medic for Cadance too, she had been attacked!" Luna ordered from the side as she approached her sister, the guards looked like they were unsure of following another princesses orders, maybe due to the sudden rivalry between the solar and lunar guards, but a nod from Celestia made them turn tail and run off to make with the barriers. "I hope you have a good plan to deal with those titanlings sister. Our magic is drained so what else is there?" Celestia inquired eliciting a chuckle from the princess of the night as she came to stand next to her sister. "It never crossed our mind upon first seeing the demon but when I saw her change to a pony it reminded us of an old legend we read about days prior." Luna said before taking a breath to continue. "We believe we needn't know of fair Equestria's history, as that is thou's forte sister. Seeing the demons armaments solidified what we began to piece to together." Luna looked to her sisters protege. "Twilight Sparkle. We ask you go and retrieve a book on language spells from the royal library. Our visitor must be made aware of the developing situation." Twilight didn't seem to want to argue and ran off. Celestia was trusting of her sister after her reformation but the idea Luna had was quite far fetched. "I believe you owe me an explanation Luna especially if we're about to do what I think you want to do." Celestia stated to her sibling. "What non-alicorn can repel titanlings?!" She all but screamed, convinced a demon, pony or otherwise, would refuse to help lesser beings. In response Luna fully turned to the demon-mare in question. "Hide will surely aid us in our plight." Hide was just stalling by just moving her hoof through her satchel. She was trying, keyword: trying, to organize her thoughts. She is normally given a direction and a mission. As she is normally never without, she had made a mistake. When she entered the castle she assumed the changelings were attacking and drove them back, then she was attacked by two tall ponies and, judging by the regalia, they were pretty important. That led her to overthinking the situation. She thought that the ponies were attacking a city of changelings and the lings had split their forces to sandwich them in between the two split forces and reacted accordingly to make up for the mistake. It wasn't the case. She had attacked and defeated both sides and accidentally turned whatever this fight is into a three way battle between; Herself, the ponies and the changelings. She assumed that was the developing situation, maybe she was overthinking it again? Her job wasn't thinking it was fighting, she was far from stupid though. Just because she isn't because particularly sharp doesn't make her dumb. Prone to accidents, definitely, but not dumb. It doesn't really help that she can't understand a single pony here. The gods could make yokai and war but couldn't restrict everypony to one language. Ponies walked past her as she sat on the floor pretending to look for something, giving her different looks. Looks of curiosity, anger and confusion. Anger for beating up their rulers probably and confusion because she's rummaging through a seemingly empty satchel. If only they knew. It once was a regular satchel but exposure to the ki of powerful yokai, the yokai realm itself, her own ki, the power shrines exude, the blessings of kodama and the many different kinds of spirit stones she had stuffed into it had changed it. One day she noticed that she could barely feel her satchel while it was tucked away under her armor despite stuffing numerous spirit stones in it hours prior. It was then she decided to take it out and look into it and when she did she saw only black mist. Her satchel had somehow transformed into a yokai. Inanimate objects were not safe from turning into yokai. She's fought umbrellas and walls before. Unlike most yokai, her satchel was content with it's current lot, not angry or malicious about a thing, and it could hold an absurd amount of stuff. She has a spare set of weapons in it and three of them are bigger than she is! The satchel could get restless at times but that was the worst of it, at all times she could get whatever she needs out of it. From her elixir to talismans. The best part is how she carries all that with her and the satchel barely weighs anything. Her kii was a unique blend of pony ki, yokai ki, tons of anima and amrita, blessings from kodama and numerous guardian spirits. Her ki had changed and shifted over the years due to what she was exposed to and what she had absorbed. Of course it would have an effect on the thing she kept on her at all times. She was a pony with yokai blood, the child of the union of a stallion and a yokai. So she was already quite unique. Pair that with her early occupation of yokai slaying and her absorption of THEIR amrita, then her exposure of pretty much everything yokai related, everything from the spirit stones to the yokai realm and the yokai themselves. She was as powerful as she was unique. She is a one of a kind. Her train of thought was cut short by a tapping on her shoulder. Turning to the one that interrupted her musings she saw one of the ponies she had attacked. She was a dark blue and her mane was like that of the night sky as it flowed in an invisible wind. She didn't say anything however and just nodded her head at a nervous purple unicorn at her side who was holding a book in her aura. Said unicorn slowly approached and lowered her head to point her horn at her, not used to this or unicorns in general, Hide cautiously placed her hoof on her sword but made no movement to actually draw the blade. Magic flared through her horn and a gentle beam made contact with Hide's forehead. The connection caused her to quickly draw her sword with a loud Shwing!, the unicorn was unfazed by this as she was lost in concentration, unaware of the immediate danger in front of her. Hide had drawn her sword but was still unsure of the situation in it's entirety so she merely stood her ground. Combat was her forte, politics and diplomacy was a craft that was in an alien language. There was a reason she was scarce whenever politics was on the wind. All of a sudden her ability to see and hear was completely lost but it came back as fast as it came. Unicorn... As soon as vision was fully restored she glared harshly at the purple unicorn responsible, her eyes still closed. The moment she opened them she recoiled with a yelp at the glare she was faced with, it didn't make her feel any better when she saw her sword had been drawn. "Um... Hi?" She said nervously and finished with a chuckle, Hide was blown away. Some kind of learn-my-language spell? Well at least the language barrier is no longer a problem. Hide rolled her withers to get a reaction and got another nervous chuckle and a hoof retreated to the back of her head. Excellent. "Well now that thou can understand us. You. Hide. Thou art a legend." The dark blue pegasus unicorn said. A legend? Sounds about right but where's this going? "We have read of thou's exploits extensively," Okay? Where has her saga been written? Hide doesn't think anything of that nature was arranged while she was around. "In short; We know who thou are but... You disappeared a long time ago. How did thou get so far from home?" Hide just stared but sheathed her blade, if she wasn't being attacked blades weren't necessary. Disappeared a long time ago? Read about her exploits? Far from home-- actually she knew that part but how does she?-- The whole castle shook as the sound of glass breaking rang throughout the hall. Hide looked at the blue pegacorn and saw that she was staring at something behind her in complete shock. Turning herself she beheld the biggest changeling she had ever seen, easily the size of a house, was about to move and presumably crush something. There was a smaller changeling to the left of this behemoth of a ling. "You thought I ran?! HA! Now that you are weakened from banishing the demon, I WILL TAKE EQUESTRIA!" The smaller changeling started cackling after her claim. The behemoth just looked tired, tired of what though? The smaller one maybe? Probably been in this situation more than a few times too. Hide doubted he'd ever seen anything quite like her before. Titan had seen this before. Queen Chrysalis would launch an invasion on the capital of a country and try to win with brute force and numbers, get repelled by something or other, she calls in Titan; the cleverly named Titanling, he steps on a few things, crushes a few more and saves the day. Of course the Queen claimed it was because of her magnificent strategy and Titan had to suppress the urge to roll his eyes. These ponies would be no different. The reports coming from terrified changelings said there was a demon in the castle but Titan wasn't worried, one of two things would come of that. The ponies would defeat the demon and the ponies would be weak from the effort or the demon slaughtered them all and was exhausted from the effort. Either way he'd just have to crush who was left and save the day again. Few battles were difficult for a ling of his size. He was currently being airdropped by a few hundred lings so he could get into the castle as fast as possible and crash through the magic barrier that a scout said had been erected while a horde of lings flock to the crude barricade in the main entrance of the castle. It would have been better to enter another way and corner the ponies using their own barricade but the Queen had ordered to go through it so go through it they will. Titan had to wonder why she's been in power as long as she has, they can make another, more adequate Queen with enough time, effort and love. He's actually been around longer than her so why doesn't he just rule? The lings carrying him let go. Ah. Here's his stop. Titan crashed through the magic barrier with not so much as a flinch, no demon anywhere. Ponies must have won, rather surprising actually. The massacre of the changelings was upsetting to him but the lack of demon being seen must mean it had already been banished by the ponies, it was therapeutic to know the fallen lings had been avenged at least. He landed on all four hooves, the Queen flew next to him to make her 'I'm better than you!' or 'You thought I ran weaklings?' announcement while he quickly made to crush a white pegasus just beneath him but the familiar feeling of crushing bones when he put his hoof down on somepony was missing, in it's place was pain. For the first time in years, something made him pause. Standing just to the left of his right hoof was the white pegasus, his target, with a sword halfway through his hoof, blood leaking from it. Titan had to resist the urge to cry out from the pain surging through his hoof as he tugged his hoof away from the blade wielding mare and reared up on his hind legs to crush her with both fore hooves, if she could turn, identify a threat, evade it, draw her sword and capitalize on the missed attack with one of her own as quickly as she had done it, he had to get rid of this pony and quickly. As soon his hooves made contact with something he was pushed back with tremendous force as his head recoiled back from the sudden force. Was there a powerful unicorn he wasn't aware about? And just who is this pegasus? He studied as much about Equestria as he could prior to the invasion to not get caught off-guard by anything, knowing the Queen wouldn't, but he came up blank to both questions. Bringing his head back he saw there was no unicorn but the pegasus, sword still drawn, waiting for him to do something. Was she taking her measure of him? No she couldn't, that would mean she intended to fight him and only alicorns or dragons could fight a Titanling head-to-head. Being a Titanling meant he had no wings but his horn was there and still usable. Wanting to just get rid of the pegasus, as she was being ridiculous if she actually wanted to fight, his horn lit up and he made to levitate her up and slam her into the ground before finishing her like he had meant to before. The aura surrounded the pegasus but she didn't budge. Now angry he launched forward with a hiss. How is a mere pegasus meant to stand against a mighty Titanling such as himself? How she didn't move from his magic was never on his mind. The pegasus slid under his hoof as it went in a wide, wild arc and slashed through the rest of the way through his hoof above her, severing it and spraying blood everywhere as the Titanling yelled out in pain and shock, failing to suppress his reaction. In his blind rage he had swung the hoof she had already cut and she threw herself out of it's path. There was a side effect of her evasion. The satchel hanging from the mares body flew back and forth, barely staying on by the strap in hung on, a single glowing yellow rock rocketed out of the satchel and it slid conveniently under Titan's severed hoof. He set his shorter leg directly onto the stone without realizing it. The stone glowed a bright yellow before absorbing into his body. The titanling had accidentally absorbed a spirit stone. He began crying out in pain as a blackish mist began shooting out of his severed leg and most of his body as his leg began rapidly changing. He brought his uninjured leg to his head as his blue eyes began to leak to mist as well. What was left of his right leg turned into a massive yellow sword as more spirit stones grew along the rest of his legs, growing in huge clumps on his withers, along his back and at his rump. His chitin cracked and broke as more of the yellow rocks grew over his neck and along his spine, his wailing grew distorted as the transformation neared completion. The final changes came in last, his eyes flashed from a blue to a deep blood red as twin horns erupted from his skull in a shower of blood. He had been transformed into a yokai, from a single stone. Hide was more than surprised at how susceptible he was to the corruption of spirit stones,. It had taken one to convert the massive changeling into a yokai, which was very surprising and concerning, almost as concerning as her forgetting to clasp shut her satchel. She had to ensure the many spirit stones she has on her stayed that way. If they fell into the wrong hooves... Well... Yokai are very effective as an army. It had taken one army combined of both ponies and yokai to conquer the entirety of Japan, the land took years to break free and it was still recovering by the time she ended up in that void place. The only way to end the yokai-pony war was to travel back and ensure it never began. It must never begin here, history must not repeat itself. She can't go back to that... Hide looked up at the ex-ling as it glared down at her with it's red eyes, the changeling Queen was still flying where she had appeared from and attempted to make a second hasty getaway. She did not get far. The now-yokai reached up with it's non-blade leg to tear the Queen away from the sky and immediately crushed her with a sickening crunch!, the Queen's death went unnoticed. The yokai then threw the deceased Queen at Hide which she effortlessly avoided, her gaze followed the flailing Queen, not paying attention to the yokai. She heard the numerous ponies around her gasp followed by them starting to yell something to her, she didn't need their warning. Hide dived to the side and recovered with a roll as the titanic blade crushed the stone where she once stood, her blank stare followed the yokai's red eyes as it slowly dragged it's blade through the stone floor towards itself before heaving it back to it's side. Hide had never sheathed her faithful sword but now she needed more, stuffing it back in it's sheath, she'll have to clean it out later, she took the huge sheath off her back and brought it to her front as it was too big to be drawn from her back. She had one hoof on the grip and the other on the sheath as she drew them apart, drawing her odachi. The long sword gleamed in the sun as she put the sheath on her back again, next to the bow and matchlock rifle she always forgets to use. Bringing it around her body in a ready stance, holding onto the hilt with both hooves which pointed forward as the blade ran along and behind her body, normally you'd want the blade facing toward your opponent but Hide's method of fighting employs less blocking and more dodging and heavy hits. It was also very hard to do so with a blade as long as an odachi. A high risk fighting style. The reckless approach she employs focuses on killing her opponent as fast as possible at the cost of leaving her exposed. All of her masters, all of them, attempted to teach her a more focused or fluid style of fighting but were left speechless as her approach to combat was not only surprisingly efficient but also effective and fast. Although she picked up things from her old masters they never truly changed how she approached a fight. One thing that never changed was how she fought yokai, nothing they taught could change how she fought them. She was a yokai slayer before being employed by Oda Nobunaga, the Demon King. Hide gave a smirk that was hidden under her bandanna as she charged at the large yokai before her. Just like old times Author's Note Coming up with a new story arc for COTE is hard. Feedback is appreciated!
