Iato of Yūjō

All of the accounts from this point on were written in near perfect Poneglish, but still carried the jittery incompleteness of every entry after the account of the attack on Yūjō. This might seem odd at first, but the account also mentions a new figure, 'Lemon Delight', who might have not been mentioned due to Iato's lack of a word for 'Lemon' in her language, but it is thought this was the same pony that was locked into the brig with Iato while on board the pirates ship. We could only imagine that Lemon attempted to teach Iato a basic understanding of Poneglish and used Iato's habit of writing in journals as a way to improve her comprehension, with proofreading from Lemon. Otherwise, Iato would have had no way of writing it in anything but Nipponies. The account itself tells of a conspiracy to capture and kill a prolific mob boss and slave driver known as Verko...

...In order to kill Verko, we must first find out where he lives. We decided that we had to speak to the townsfolk of the nearby village down the road. We first headed to a bar, hoping somepony there could point us in the right direction...

The sun arose in it's usual fashion as Lemon watched out over the horizon. He had never been so far away from the ocean in his life, so the sun having to rise over the hills rather than just coming over the water like he was used to was a bit jarring. The night had gone surprisingly without incident. Maybe the guard took their places as a slave as punishment for losing against two unarmed and injured slaves, so they decided to not expend the ponypower to recapture them. They were sore, hurt, and destitute, but most of all, they were free. And that meant they could hunt down this Verko character without fear of being caught.

Iato had slept hugging her halberd the whole night as if she were to lose it she would just roll over and die. He nudged her awake, her coming to consciousness rather quickly, probably still worried about an ambush. She groggily looked up at Lemon and broke into a smile. "Hello, Lemon." She said in a rough tone.

Lemon chuckled a bit. "You say 'good morning', Iato, not 'hello'."

"Oh. Good morning, Iato." Iato said with a smile, knowing damn well what she was saying.

"Oh great, she's learned sarcasm! Next thing I know half the things she says are just going to be statements on the obvious!" Lemon said to a non-existent third party. "Come on, Iato, it's time to go. I've been thinking about how exactly we can find this Verko creature. We need to go to that village over there and ask around about a big mole rat slaver. Hopefully they can point us in the right direction, if were lucky."

"Lemon?"

"Yeah?"

"Smell." Iato activated the halberd's switch and handed the weapon to Lemon.

"It smells like saltwater. Why would they put something like that on a weapon of this caliber? I could understand poison on a dagger, but not a massive weapon like this. thats just wasteful..." Lemon gave the weapon back to Iato to think about the odd placement of what he thought was poison at first.

"I don't know. I was thinking you would know." Iato said while graciously accepting the weapon back and climbing onto her hooves.

Lemon was deep in thought, trying to think of why somepony would want such a thing on their weapon. Maybe it wasn't even poison at all, maybe it really was just seawater. He remembered when he went to Yūjō and the weird shadowy pegasus attacked him. "What if... what if it's for the dark ponies?"

Iato pondered the possibility. "Why would it?"

"When I was going into Yūjō, a dark pegasus... fought me." Lemon motioned to the scar that had formed on his flank from the close call, "It missed its second attack and fell in the water, were it seemed to melt away and die."

"So you say this thing can kill fuckwit shadow ponies?"

"Maybe, and how did learn that word? I never taught you to say fuckwit."

"Uh, got it in a dream." Iato smiled.

"Sure." Lemon didn't know what Iato was talking about, but he didn't know what else she could mean, so he just assumed that was the truth and left it at that.

The pair looked around their little area just in case their were any ponies around looking to ambush them. After making sure the perimeter was safe, the two embarked on the short journey towards the village down the road, checking behind them every once in awhile. The road wasn't very official looking, just a glorified dirt pathway probably made by traveling merchants and wanderers passing their way through the town for supplies. When they made it to the towns walled entrance, they hailed the guards at the front gate to open the gates.

"Uh, hello, is anypony there? Could you open the gates please?"

Suddenly, two ponies popped their heads above the little alcoves they were standing on.

"Oh looky here, Tommy, it's two ponies looking to come into our little village." Said the guard on the right alcove.

"Oh yes, Timmy, those are two ponies looking to get into the town. Why don't we ask them what they're here for?" said the guard on the left alcove.

"I don't know, Tommy, I think it would be a lot more fun if we just kind of guessed why they're here" said Timmy.

"Thats a brilliant idea, Timmy! Let me go first: I think they're here because banana split over here got kicked out of his house by the missus and she didn't want little miss pastel goth!" said Tommy

"Oh, good one Tommy! Alright, my turn: I think they're here for our world famous flying fucks factory! Oh damn, it seems I lost another one! It's hard to keep a hold of those, you know..." said Timmy

"Uh, sirs, can you open the gates?" Lemon asked again as politely as he could given how rude the guards were being.

Timmy and Tommy looked at the pair and the at each other, Timmy talking up first, "If it wasn't already obvious enough 'sir'..." Tommy adding "...this just a really elaborate way to say..." In unison now...

"PISS OFF YOU WANKERS!!!"

The two guards had barely completed their sentence when each of them got a sizable rock lobbed at both of their helmets.

"Open the gates you lazy bastards! We have guests!" said a voice from behind the wall.

The two hooligans, embarrassed, rushed down from their posts and pushed the heavy gates open, allowing for Lemon and Iato to enter unimpeded. There they were met by a big stallion who introduced himself.

"Hello, I apologize for the..." The stallion looked at Timmy and Tommy, who looked down in shame "...disturbance. Welcome to Gainston. My name is Big Devoted Ichor, leader of this fine village, nice to meet you two. What brings you to our fine town?"

"Hello, nice to meet you to. My name is Lemon Delight and this here is Iato Yari Horudā. We are here looking for someone. He may have passed through here on his way to a dockyard nearby and we have been looking for him for some time. Do you know anypony who could point us in the right direction by any chance sir?"

Well, not particularly. I usally don't have to force my guard to let fine folk like you through the door." Big Ichor gave another dirty look to his subordinates before continuing, "Tell you what, how 'bout you go visit my grandson down by the ol' watering hole. He's the barkeep, so he sees all sorts of creatures comin' through. He will do his best to help you out in any way he can."

"Thank you kindly sir. We'll try to find some way to repay you, we promise." Lemon offered in thanks.

"Oh don't you worry about it in the slightest. It's my job to help folk. Now If you'll excuse me, I have to work out a couple of kinks in our guard outfit with laps around the walls perimeter. ATTENHUT! LEFT FACE! FOOOWARD MARCH! LEFT, LEFT, LEFT RIGHT LEFT..."

Lemon and Iato couldn't help but laugh a little at the sight. They walked down to the local bar and walked in.

An interesting thing uncovered in the journal was that in the now defunct town of Gainston in southeastern Equestria, there was a resident pegasus for a time shortly after its founding in 2 AEF, despite it normally being a town of Earth Ponies. The pegasus was described as being 'white with a grey mane and an odd string of hair'. Some speculate that this was perhaps a foal who was grandfathered into the village or something close to that, but we really may never really know without more context...

"The pegasus scared me a bunch. I didn't know exactly how to react. The thing that scared me the most were those wings. Those godamn wings...

The bar only had two ponies, the barkeep and another pony sitting at the end of the counter. The bartender flew over to give his solitary customer another round. Both Iato and Lemon were caught off guard by the sight, because he wasn't an Earth Pony, he was a pegasus! But Iato took it a bit harder, thinking back to her time when she was attacked by the shadow ponies. Lemon noticed her horror and took her to the side to talk to her, but Iato never took her eyes off of the pegasus. "Hey, what's up Iato?"

"That pegasus there, I have to get out. Can't do this..." Iato tried to leave, but Lemon stopped her.

"Hey, its obvious that nopony else is as afraid of him as you are, maybe he's not that bad."

Before Iato could respond, the bartender had flown over to greet the two ponies. "Hello, my name is Lyron Ichor, welcome to my bar. How can I help you?"

Iato, rather than focus on Lemon, went instead to attack Lyron verbally. "Are you going to kill these ponies, 'Lyron'?!"

"Ma'mm, I have no idea what your talking about, though I am sorry if you suffered at the hooves of some pegasi, truly I am."

Lemon tried to apologize for Iato's words, but Iato pushed through to continue her assault. "You are a bad! A sickness in this world! Fucking pegasus! I will, I will..." Iato in her anger fell back into her native tongue "Anata wa tawagoto! Anata wa watashi no min ni taisuru tsumi no tame ni shinudeshou!" Iato tried to pull the halberd from her back but Lemon quickly stayed her hoof and took the massive weapon.

"Calm the FUCK down, Iato!" Lemon was as caught off guard as Lyron by the sudden outburst of violence.

Iato just starred daggers into Lemon's soul and stormed out without another word, leaving the spear with Lemon. She wouldn't go far without it, Lemon hoped, so he tried to resume the conversation with Lyron.

"I am so sorry, Lyron, I didn't think she would just blow up like that." Lemon pleaded.

"Oh don't you sweat it sir. I get folk like that all the time. It's just that they usually start by threatening my life and when the guards come to detain them, then they start insulting me. Why don't you come on in and take a seat." Lyron reassured.

"Thank you, I will."

Iato hadn't left earshot of the two, on account that she didn't want Lemon to get killed. Instead, she decided to eavesdrop on the two as they talked bout their mission.

"Sorry, I don't think I properly introduced myself, my name is Lemon Delight."

Nice to meet you Lemon. Is there anything I can get you? I have cider, hard cider, barley beer, wheat beer, fine hickory whiskey and cheap red and this weird stuff called sock-E."

Iato was a bit confused. How did this guy get same Sake out here?

Uh, actually, me and my business partner are looking for a particular creature that goes by the name of Verko. Might have seen him? He's a mole rat, from what I could tell."

"I'm going to be honest with you, Lemon. The way you talk about this Verko guy makes me think your looking to kill him. There had better be a good godamn reason I should give you anything."

There was a slight pause from Lemon before he exhaled "Me and Iato were both captured by sea pirates off of the coast and were nearly sold into slavery. If it weren't for the help from a unicorn, we would have never escaped. Verko was to be our owner, and we want to kill him for crossing us and thinking he could own slaves without consequence."

Another pause. Iato dared to look through the window she was hiding under. She saw Lyron reaching under the counter for something, but Lemon didn't seem to fazed, so she let it slide even if she was tensed up about it. She ducked back under the window when he shot back up.

"Here. Take these. My mother left it in my inheritance. She told me to give it to somepony who needed it when they came to the bar looking for help. I think this is a pretty good time." Iato heard the clinking of coins on the bar counter. "Use it to get something nice and useful 'round here. Go down by the general store down the street. Tell her I sent you for help, and she'll give you a discount."

"Why, thank you Lyron. But I must ask you, what happened to your mother? She seemed like a great mare."

Lyron was going to respond when he was cut off by the other customer he had in the bar. "Your mother was the greatest lover I ever had. Me and her would stay up aalllllll night-"

"Rose Thorns, for the hundreth time, I don't want to hear the story of you and my mom. Thats just fucking wrong. How are you already drunk, anyway? Have you been breaking into my mothers stache again?"

"Nooooo! Maybe... yes."

"How!? That thing has a canta grade titanium lock on it!"

"The booze man... got to get the booze... Silly Putty broke up with me again..."

"I don't think you understand what that means Rose. Him going home for the night is not 'Breaking up with you'."

"That's not what this char-do-neigh is telling me!" Rose giggled and fell out of her seat, spilling her prized chardoneigh all over herself and the floor.

"Celestia alive..." Lyron got a mop and started cleaning up the mess. "My mother died trying to protect me from some cultist's who wanted to sacrifice me for being a pegasus."

Iato heard this and couldn't help but feel sad for the colt.

"The only reason I'm running this bar so young is to continue her job and bring something to the table every night."

Iato moved back into the doorway of the bar and asked wearily "You lost your parents too?"

Everypony in the bar, even Rose, looked at Iato.

Lyron responded "Parent, but yeah. She was the only mare who was willing to take me in and raise me as her own. Not a day goes by I don't think about her."

"I'm sorry for before, my name is Iato." Iato looked down in shame.

"It's fine, really. Come in and sit down. I'm assuming you heard the rest of our conversation?"

"Yes. But I have question. Where did you get Sake?" Iato asked accusatorily.

"Oh, thats what I was going to tell your friend about before you came in." Lyron responded

Iato stepped over Rose Thorn's drunken body and sat down on a cushioned seat.

"Last night some traders came in and sold us store owners a bunch of old items from a raided village far away. I was apprehensive at first, but the bar hasn't been doing to well and I was hoping the sock-e could help with that. So far it hasn't been doing to well, but its also only been a single night so who knows. What matters to you is that the traders came with a big rat guy and said they were going to some place called Abyssinia. I don't see to many giant rats coming through the town so I think that may be your guy." Lyron, done with his cleaning and after picking up Rose returned to his spot behind the counter.

"But where is this Abyssinia?" Lemon asked.

"Somewhere in the desert west of here. I think you should use that money to buy some equipment for the trip. Don't imagine it's to easy walking through a desert without water."

"Thank you Lyron. We wish you well on your bar duties." Lemon looked at Iato, who nodded in compliance.

"Stay safe you two. Come on back here if you ever need anything else. Bye."

Iato and Lemon Delight walked out back into the streets of Gainston. Lemon sighed as he gave Iato her weapon back, remembering why he had to take it in the first place. Her and Lyron were pretty close in age. Maybe in another life they could've been together, but circumstance prevented that from occuring.

They walked down the street until they made it to a building labeled as the general store and walked on in. Iato had never seen anything like it in her life. As sheltered as she was, she never went to any marketplaces until now. There was food everywhere, and items like candles and books and other neat little trinkets. As her and Lemon approached the register, Iato's glance fell upn a scroll in a bin marked as 'TRASH'. She recognized it as the journal she had kept for so many years prior, probably taken by the pirates and sold to the store.

Iato nudged Lemon and pointed to the trash bin, hoping Lemon would understand.

Lemon looked at it at frankly said "Iato, that's the trash none of its for sale."

Iato, not really knowing how to respond just trotted over and took the scroll out and unfurling it. The paper stretched a considerable distance, still rolling when it came to a stop once it collided with Lemons hooves. It was intricately and finely filled with symbols that Lemon could not read, all the way down. Iato smiled and started to roll the scroll back up and simply stated "Mine, from Yūjō. I want new one"

Lemon, understanding what she meant now and asked the clerk if she was selling the scroll or a new journal of some kind. She said she would give the scroll away if the bought the journal, which Lemon obliged. He also bought water gourds and a tent, so they wouldn't die of exposure out in the harsh desert climate. A map was also acquired, even when the clerk assured them the wooden roads would be fine.

Iato was excited to use her new journal. It was one of the things she had missed the most in her weeks of captivity on the Crabapple. She had a lot to write, even if most of it would upset her greatly. The road to to Abyssinia was long and hot, and she would need something to keep her attention.

As Lemon and Iato departed the small village, Big Ichor, still making Timmy and Tommy march, waved a farewell, a gesture which was reciprocated. As the pair reached the crest of a hill that would inevitably block the view of the town that had mostly treated them with respect, Lemon commented on the ponies that lived there. "That's a weird fuckin town, Iato, full of weird fuckin ponies."

Iato completely agreed.

After a day of walking the two decided to camp for the night in a small clearing beside the road. The air was getting dryer, a sign they were getting closer. It made both ponies uncomfortable, as they were both used to incredibly high humidity due to their living next to the ocean their whole lives. Because of this, the duo found themselves sitting around the campfire they had made while Iato wrote in her new journal and Lemon peered into the meticulously designed night sky. However Lemon eventually grew bored and turned to Iato, still writing in her journal, and asked her what she was writing.

"Everything."

"Everything? Like everything that's not in your previous journal or everything in your previous journal and everything that's happened since?"

"Number 1." Iato was engrossed in her writing and didn't really want to talk.

Lemon returned to his stargazing for a moment before turning back to Iato and asking if she wanted to learn how to write Poneglish. Iato pondered it for a second and agreed. Lemon spent a lot of the night trying to teach Iato the concept of individual letters rather than symbols, a lengthy and not super enjoyable process, but one that eventually worked out.

The next few days were spent much like the first, walking, resting, learning, and sleeping. However, an event occurred on their final day before they would reach the desert. An event that would change the course of Iato's life forever.

Ancient Abyssinia had become a hub for trade and commerce of all types, legal or not, after the fall of the Crown. Being the largest city on the continent certainly helped, and its more central location in relation to non-pony cities further assisted in its growth. A crime lord known only as Verko had already had a firm grip on the cities underground dealings, as well as having control of the government, so when the Crown fell his power became that equivalent to a kings. Some might even call him the ancient worlds equivalent to Al Capony, certainly a title that was earned through his exploits. He had a firm grip on the slave, drug, and hired muscle trades in the south, and could at any moment release his private army to invade and take over many cities around what used to be Equestria. Queen Novo, who attempted to reunite Equestria under her flag, was infamously assassinated under 'mysterious circumstances', however everycreature in the knew exactly who ordered the dagger as such an action would disrupt their trade routes and therefore their cash flow. Despite being one of the most powerful creatures, Verko still employed his now hobby of collecting rare creatures to show off to visitors to Abyssinia, a fact that would ultimately lead to his death...

Good morning, journal. The last nights Lemon has taught me how to read and wright! I am actually gettin That bastard Verko going to die a painful death...

Iato had woken up early today. Her parched lips were beginning to sting, so she awoke to fix that. It was already to late to go back to bed, so she instead decided to write in her journal. She thought about it for a bit and decided that she should just write a simple status report, an update on the trip. It was going fine enough. Lemon was trying to teach her how to read in write, which was going fine enough. As she sat down and wrote, she felt the sound around her dampen to a deathly quiet. Iato hit the deck remembering what had happened last time this had occurred. As if on que, Iato felt a huge blast of wind her her side, but the blast was considerably weaker than the one in Yūjō, allowing for Iato to grab her halberd in time. She looked around where the blast had originated, were a single pony fell out: The cunt who had broken her head.

Iato rushed in anger, activating the switch and swiping the umbral figures side, the blow glancing through without much effort before Iato was hit n the flank and sent flying 10 feet in the other direction. The figures magic must have weakened from the blow because Iato could now hear the pained screams of her attacker cursing her name in her own language.

"Iato-kun! Dōshite son'na okāsan o kizutsukeru koto ga dekimasu ka!?" (Iato! How could you hurt your own mother!?)

Iato got back on her hooves with a limp, were she registered what the figure had said. This thing was supposed to be her mother!?

Iato shifted the halberd into her mouth, not having the time to think about it, and began to charge in a zig zag pattern to avoid the magical bolts being cast her way. Once close enough, she swiped right and used her hooves to apply extra leverage to the blow, the strike connecting with a satisfying slide through. Once again she was knocked back, but this time the now unstable Hiroikkudōn held her down with her magic, restricting Iato's movement, but not completely disabling her.

"Iato!"

Iato gazed over to Lemon who had been caught in Hiroikkudōn's magical grip.

She said one thing.

Just a single fucking thing.

"Observe"

She took Lemon and impaled him much like her minions had done to her own family. Her own blood.

And now she had taken her teacher, her mentor, her protector.

"No! You bitch!" Iato struggled to be free of the magical hold on her body, Hiroikkudōn starting to speak up and aproach Iato slowly.

"You see Iato, mother here just wanted her darling daughter to be a lady, a simple noble from a now distant land, so I went to the black arts dealer, and he showed me things I didn't even know possible, things that would make your life far better, had I willed it so. But you didn't want that. In fact, the dealer straight up said there was no way he could just reset time, so instead he showed me a rat named Verko, who offered me a deal: Power beyond my wildest dreams, for the ransacking of Yūjō. It would love to tell you it was a hard choice, Iato, but I would be lying. I enjoyed killing all of your brothers and sisters, Iato. I enjoyed the slaughter of our people." Hiroikkudōn was at Iato's face now, whispering in her ear. "But most of all, Iato, I enjoyed hurting you. I enjoyed taking away your little cutie mark and your perfect little life on top of a fucking hill! I savored every moment your little body convulsed in pain as the magic drained from your body. Yes Iato, life's a game of chess, and your just a shitty little pawn now. A minor obstacle in a long road to my full power." Hiroikkudōn got up, turned away and added "But Iato, I wouldn't have anything if it weren't for you, because if you had just complied, I wouldn't have even tried something this drastic. So thank you Iato, thank you so very much for your insolence, your father would be proud."

Eventually, Iato got free of the magical bonds and charged Hiroikkudōn for the final time. She had attempted to fly away, but Iato jumped up and thought of the night her father came to her and gave her the journal. How she thought of all of the cool shit she was going to learn, the badass swipes and the cool spins. Yeah, this was badass alright. This was badass all the way through. Iato with all the force she could muster, cleaved Hiroikkudōn clean in two, instantly killing her this time around. The two halves of the body boiling away two reveal her mothers now split corpse.

The final entry in Iato's journal doesn't say for certain whether she ever succeeded in her goal of killing Verko, but the time of his death and the time in which Iato supposedly would've arrived in Abyssinia Line up to perfectly to ignore. Some however point the fact of no conformation that Iato was actually killed in Abyssinia rather than succeeding, and that the rat kingpin just died from some other source or that she did succeed but was killed upon trying to flee. I however believe Iato not only killed Verko, but managed to escape as well. I mentioned earlier that the slave market started to stretch into Equestria, right? Well, reports from slavers told of a Cyan Death, an angel of death who preys on them and their leaders, eventually leading to a total collapse of the slave trade in and around Equestria for years to come. I believe this 'Cyan Death', was actually Iato, her mane matching the color of cyan. I wish not to sound like I'm writing a book here, professor, but Iato's journey truly shows the lengths in which a pony is willing to go if they are pushed hard enough, and the strength of Ancient Nipponies warriors and the dedication to their craft. I humbly request these artifact's be digitized and displayed in the cultural section of our museum, as well as the request of more funding to further research the journal's contents and historical signifigance. This has been Dr. Valentine Heartsend, signing off.