Rainbow Samurai

Rainbow SAMURAI

By: TPurnell18

The Legend (Prologue):

In the many centuries of the existence of Equestria, it has been a relatively peaceful place to live.  In its neighboring lands across the globe, however, there has been many a conflict within their walls between cities ruled by corrupt leaders who promise change to improve their desolate, destitute homelands, as well as international disputes and wars fought for seemingly no reason at all. In their time, each country had hardly ever seen a day that didn’t fill its suffering citizens with torment and relentless back-breaking toil. Resources were scarce, the vast majority of ponies were drowning in poverty due to severe inflation caused by the frequent funding of wars that all but decimated their economies to the point where Equestria couldn't even lend a large enough helping hoof to one country without watching the others fall, which deficit spending between each country only made worse, and death was a practically daily occurrence, thanks to starvation, illness, and murder, largely due to the legend behind six trinkets…

The story goes that in ancient times, this world was roamed by six gods and goddesses alike, as well as the many creatures that exist to this day, ponies included. In this time, the world was divided into six main continents, over which one of each of the divine beings ruled: Meclopolis, the land of Honesty, Trottopia, the land of Loyalty, Gallopistan, the land of Kindness, Great Britmane, the land of Generosity, Hoofania, the land of Laughter, and Equestria, the land of Magic.

These deities ruled their lands in relative peace for a while… However, small disagreements between them escalated into disputes, and soon turned into all-out international wars. The gods and goddesses of five of the six continents had become rather complacent and jaded with their positions of power over the insignificant mortals they watched, and had begun finding even the smallest reasons to bicker with one another for fun. Their constant warring with one another over trivial issues such as territorial disputes and simple competitions of power based on their own arrogant nationalism ravaged the lands and their inhabitants over the centuries of their rule.

Eventually, the leader of these deities, and the only one to rule her land in peace, the goddess of Magic, had grown sick of her fellow beings’ callous, brutal mistreatment of their lands and their subjects. She had argued with them time and time again that they were not leading their lands in the way that was truly intended; in peace and existential harmony. However, she tried holding the belief that her comrades would change their minds on their own. Instead, the other five deities disagreed strongly with her, arguing that if the creatures of these lands were to be allowed to rule without their influence, they’d do the exact same thing, thus believing that such a reason justified their “games.” Consequently, they continued to corrupt the very lands they ruled over for their own amusement.

Appalled and infuriated, the goddess of Magic eventually took it upon herself to dispatch of each of her peers, one by one as she stripped each of the other divine beings of the very element they were supposed to have represented until she was the only being left. Realizing that she’d soon perish herself due to the fact that she could not exist alone, she spent her final hours crafting six pieces of heavenly jewelry and blessing them with the powers of her former brethren. She crafted five necklaces, each of which donned its own representation of its element. She also crafted a tiara, which represented her own element. She then performed the task of separating them by hiding each of them on the continents each respective element was supposed to represent. She unfortunately shortened her time once she’d sacrificed her own element by infusing it with the sacred tiara that bore the symbol of it. Rather than hide her own element in some distant, secret reaches of the land of Equestria, she specially sealed this one away and reincarnated herself into two lesser Equestrian entities after her death. It is said that her last words before her demise were:

“Only those who have proven themselves worthy to bear these artifacts may attain the power to bring harmony to the world…”

Since then, many a creature, be it Pony of any variety from Earth to Pegasus to Unicorn, Griffin, Minotaur, or even Dragon, had tirelessly wandered the globe in search of these legendary trinkets. However, despite these different species of life forms aiming for the same goals, their inherent fear and hatred of each other disallowed them from trusting one another, as they lived in segregation that was largely indoctrinated by the gods they were formerly ruled by. Instead, they’d bicker over why members of their race or species of sentient being were the only ones fit to wield the elements. Nonetheless, the variety of creatures fruitlessly searching for the elements dwindled along with the belief in their existence until the only species still actively searching for them… was ponies.

Even with the majority of the competition eliminating itself, Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth Ponies alike were beginning to lose hope in their search for these elements, just about ready to give up on the legend for good… that is, until centuries later, a Pegasus mare from Cloudsdale, Equestria had managed to venture to the vast caverns of Trottopia to secure the necklace that represented the element of Loyalty. The mare was a dark shade of Goldenrod with a spiky, seemingly unkempt mane and tail of various shades of gray. She had eyes of a rich magenta and was often seen sporting a hat and jacket. Her Cutie Mark was that of a compass. This mare was known as Daring Do.

News of her discovery had spread quickly once she returned with the artifact in hoof. The object was a solid gold necklace with a red ruby in the shape of a lightning bolt serving as the decorative charm. However, she could not figure out how to activate the trinket’s power. Rather than give up on it right away, she spent months trying to figure out how to unlock its potential abilities, to no avail. The mare had also found her time with it cut short by the time she spent looking after an orphaned filly she’d found a few years earlier on the streets of a Cloudsdale ghetto.

The filly, in terms of looks, was almost identical to her caretaker, with the only difference being in color scheme. The two had shared the same magenta irises and unruly, spiky hairstyle. However, the filly was bright blue like the daytime sky. Her hair was an explosion of color that seemed to emulate a rainbow. She also had not earned her Cutie Mark at the time that Daring Do had found her, yet had shown she was able to fly quite well for her age. The two would’ve almost been inseparable, had it not been for Do’s frequent trips to foreign lands digging up ancient treasures and artifacts. However, as an archaeologist, it was her passion and job, and if her passion helped to put food on the table for her and her surrogate daughter, then by Jove, she was going to do it. She’d nicknamed the filly, “Rainbow Dash” for her polychromatic mane and tail coupled with the fact that she seemed to be such a busybody that she’d be dashing all over the place and making messes of Daring Do’s possessions. As perturbing and wild as the Rainbow Dash was at first, she’d actually grown on Daring, as Rainbow Dash would tell her all the time that she looked up to her, wanted to be like her when she grew up, and even that she loved her. Rainbow Dash and Daring Do found special places in one another’s hearts.

Daring had built up quite a collection of various artifacts, trophies, and even weapons thanks to her travels. She’d also become quite the celebrity amongst the ponies of Equestria, having novels written about her based on her adventures. This… Element of Harmony proved to be her greatest discovery, as many other ponies she’d come into contact with would clamor to her in droves, pestering her with questions upon questions about the artifact. However, that would prove to be the least of her worries as she soon began to have death threats mailed to her after she respectfully turned down a few surprisingly large money offers from a mysterious organization known only as the “Dark Hoof Seven Tribe.”

Initially, she ignored them as simple pranks somepony was trying to pull on her in order to coerce her into giving up the necklace. She would soon find herself to be horribly incorrect as she’d found several attempts on her life being made, whether it be in the form of someone slipping poison into her meals (that she’d become wary of eating after she’d found cyanide pills in a slice of strawberry cake at one point), trying to pick her off from a distance with bows and arrows that had notes attached to them that read, “Hand over the Element or Die,” or even outright assault from an assailant that would blend into the crowds in a busy street and try to blatantly assassinate her on the spot with a knife. Luckily for Daring Do, she’d learned various forms of martial arts and self-defense techniques, both in hoof-to-hoof and with multiple types of weapons that allowed her the ability to escape her attackers.

As time progressed, however, she found herself the target of failed assassination plots more and more frequently, to the point where she’d developed a case of paranoid schizophrenia. It got to the point where she felt she couldn’t trust anyone but her surrogate daughter anymore, and kept herself holed up in her home with her. She’d also developed an eating disorder, which was characterized by her constantly checking any food she’d gather up the courage to bring home for drugs or poisons. If she’d even had the SLIGHTEST suspicion that the food was poisonous, she’d throw it away. Even if she were to feel safe enough to eat, the tiniest hint of a strange taste would have her barreling towards the restroom to force any possibly lethal materials out. Her adventuring days were drawing to an abrupt close because of this necklace. However, she knew she couldn’t give it up… even if it meant losing her life. Not before she discovered its use and abilities. The attempts on her life were a sort of confirmation of the trinket’s supposed power.

As Rainbow Dash grew, she’d begun to see the radical changes in her mother’s disposition. The bravery, the sheer indomitable resolve in her eyes that she so looked up to had been washed away and replaced with an unmerciful, unending torrent of apprehension and despair. Daring had even stopped going on any adventures for fear that she may not return to the only pony in the world she felt as if she could trust at all. For that, her income suffered to the point where she had to start selling some of her valuable treasures just to make it through a fortnight. She did however, make it a point to never let go of that necklace for any reason or any price.

Rainbow Dash, being only a filly, could not understand why her mother had become such a wreck that she’d basically betrayed her morals and became afraid of everything, including her own life’s joy; adventure and treasure hunting. She was completely ignorant of the assassination attempts on Daring’s life and the plethora of death threat notices, which Daring had done a fairly good job of hiding from her so she wouldn’t wind up becoming fearful and broken like her… Despite this, Rainbow Dash had proven to have picked up Daring Do’s former personality traits of being headstrong, confident to the point of arrogance, and undoubtedly devoted to everything she stood for. Before she’d lost her grip on reality, Daring Do had even begun teaching Rainbow Dash some of her fighting tactics. This knowledge, coupled with her experiences eventually made Rainbow Dash and Daring Do switch roles in terms of who was taking care of whom, seeing as Daring’s mental stability was faltering to the point where she’d seemed to have forgotten all the basic functionality of a normal pony and begun talking to herself loudly and compulsively locking every door and window, too afraid to even peek out of a window, much less walk out of a door. Her moods would swing violently from being seemingly calm at one point, to being completely on edge if she heard so much as a pin drop.

While Rainbow Dash didn’t know who or what was doing this to Daring Do, she figured one thing; they couldn’t have been doing it without a reason, and that reason was causing both her and her surrogate mother enormous amounts of grief and discomfort… Rainbow Dash wanted badly to find out why Daring Do had become so withdrawn. The only thing she could do, unfortunately, was ask her. Every time, however, Daring would give the same answer:

“It does not concern you; you are innocent… Innocent ponies don’t deserve this…” along with other incoherent ramblings her addled mind had allowed her to spew in her disheveled state. Rainbow Dash deeply loved Daring Do, but this recently cowardly attitude of hers had eventually begun aggravating her to the point where she’d tried time and time again to drag Daring out of their Cloudsdale home to at the very least, get some fresh air. She couldn’t keep her efforts up on a consistent basis, however, because she had been enrolled in flight school, which, coupled with the fact that she’d more or less become the caretaker of her own mother at such a young age, exhausted her quite often. However, one fateful day would change the path of and shape the legend… of Rainbow Samurai.