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The Smallest Good Deed is Better Than the Grandest Good Intention
Dr. Valentine Heartsend, Report 1 on Ancient Artifacts at Site 14. Begin It is often said in Old Nipponies tradition that the smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention. Such ideas have been the driving force behind entire wars where countless lives were lost over something as little as free tea. While we look back on these fruitless wars as barbaric, many historians focus on them not for the bloodshed or the tactics used, but for the tradition and dedication that these hyper-focused warriors had. Recent archaeological findings on what the geologists say was once a mountain plateau near what used to be Ponyville, a house was found with many ancient Nipponies artifacts. But not only that, there was also a pair of journals by a one "Iato Yari Horudā". The journals seem to be written in two languages: Old Nipponies and Poneglish, one of which I can read just fine, but I sent the transcripts of the ancient text to a colleague in Japone for a more accurate translation. What makes me more intrigued though is not the text, but that it exists at all. This would predate our current estimate of when these two cultures collided by over 200 years! Regardless, this is a report on what the journal said, not its historical significance. So without further ado, lets begin.
|Translated| "Journal entry one. Date: Blue Moon Year of The Sun |Estimates put this date at around 2 years After Equestrias Fall (AEF)| My father told me to keep this journal to 'ease my soul' or some of that nonsense..."
Author's Note
This will be my biggest story to-date, so if you see any typos DM me the text and typo so I can fix it quickly. Also, I apologize if you find the pacing a bit off. The story was originally a lot less ambitious, so things get slow and fast at odd points. Thank you for understanding and have a great day.
The story has been split up into multiple chapters, as per a suggestion by EverfreePony.
PS: Fun fact, while doing research on the names of certain characters and locations I came across a page for Capper, that cat dude from the movie, and the page said his occupation was a Con Artist and Self Help Guru. I just imagined that meme with Pam from The Office were its like "Interviewer: 'Corporate needs you to identify the difference between these two pictures' Pam: 'They're the same picture'". This doesn't have anything to do with the story I just found that kind of funny and I wanted to tell y'all about it before I forgot.
Iato was born into a noble family, luckily enough for her. However, her daily life consisted of waking up, drinking tea, and going to sleep. This routine became to boring for the little filly, as her brothers would always train out in the yard while she was forced to watch them. It was torture, to her at least. Most of the other mares in the castle were entertained by the day-to-day monotony, but her mother, Hiroikkudōn, shared her sentiment of being bored all the time, but she had only recently come to that conclusion upon noticing Iato's discomfort herself.
"Iato, why do you squirm and huff at the colts in the yard? Is the entertainment not enough?" Hiroikkudōn asked Iato, who was sitting plainly with her head on the banister of their 3 story castle.
"Because mom, I'm bored. I want to be like them, I want train with a big old spear and defend my home. Otherwise, when an invading force attacks, what am I supposed to do? Get stabbed in the flank and die with a sad expression on my face?" Iato said with with an melodramatic hoof on her forehead.
"Well, that's not very lady-like, Iato. I'm going to have a discussion with your father about this. Maybe he can talk some sense into you."
Iato interest was peaked. Might she finally be able to do something more than sit on her flank all day? Iato quickly gulped down the rest of her tea and thanked her mother before heading back to her room.
Hiroikkudōn just looked back out to the yard. "That filly's going to be the death of us all."
Iato couldn't stop thinking about all the cool stuff she could learn. Wide sweeping blows while jumping and coming down like a total badass. Oh she was ready. But near the end of the day, as the sun fell under the horizon, Iato's father came to her. "Iato, look, I understand your discontentment, but what would the other lords think of me if I let one of my daughters among my ranks? I would be devastated!"
"Dad look I..."
"No, Iato!" The father pulled out a scroll. "I got you a journal. It may be no spear, but maybe it will help you be less ambitious." Iato's father tossed the large scroll in Iato's direction "I'm sorry, Iato, but this is the way it must be." Iato's father looked at Iato with sorrow in his eyes. He really didn't want to have this conversation. "It may help soothe your creative soul. Write some stories and whatnot." Iato's father went into a bow "Farewell, Iato, have a good nights rest." He left, leaving Iato to stew in anger.
Most of the entries listed for the next few years tell more archaic versions of ancient Nipponies folk tales (Perhaps this is where some of them got their origins?) and minor updates on the politics of the realm. Eventually though, our little protagonist convinces her youngest brother, a one "Kito Diete", to train her in the wee hours of the night. Iato was a quick study, despite her years lost to drinking tea and writing stories. The journal tells of a confrontation between the sparring duo and their father late in the night...
So my father found out about the training me and my brother were doing in the night. I don't know how he found out though. Maybe it was the bruises or the ruckus we would make. Regardless, he didn't seem mad, just upset...
Iato's father sat looking towards the rising moon. His wife lay sleeping in the bed behind him, having already succumbed to the night. He dwelled on the thoughts of his legacy, his children. His colts were turning into stallions. They would make fine warriors one day. His daughters would be useful tools in political negotiations, all of them were becoming beautiful mares, all accept for one, Iato. Sure, she was just as beautiful as her sisters, but her lady skills were lacking. Rather than focus on her mothers lessons, she would just write in that damn journal all the time. Sometimes he regretted his kindness to her.
Pushing the negative thoughts out, the father focused on the valley town below. Yūjō was beautiful at this time of night. The moons reflected light graced the hills and trees in the valley bellow as the townspeople slowly, one after the other, snuff out their candles and go to sleep. Alas, his bed was calling to him.
He sat staring at the moon for a bit longer before eventually deciding to rest himself. He lay his head on his luxurious silk pillow and was going to fall asleep when he heard a great loud clanking of what was either the weapons storeroom or the kitchen. "Shinobi".
Iato's father got in a low stance after jumping out of his bed. His wife still lay asleep on the bed, unfazed by the noise. It seemed he was the only one who was alerted to the metal cacaphony. He didn't want to awake his sons as they would just make killing the assassins harder. No, he had to do this alone. He inched towards his sword laying on its mount at the far edge of the room. He didn't like using the sword because it meant getting really close to his opponent, but it was all he had. He said a small prayer to the Sun and fastened the fine blade to his side. He slid out of his room, making sure there weren't any traps planted. Whoever hired these shinobi were obviously cheaping out. It was insulting, really. As he moved down the stairs to the second floor, he heard two little voices.
"What if we woke up somepony?"
"I don't know! Lets just continue anyway!"
The fathers body twitched. He had really thought that there were several really bad shinobi in his home, but instead, two of his sons were just fooling around in the night. But rather than make his presence known, he continued to sneak towards the armory, hoping he could find out what exactly the pair were 'continuing'. He made it to the armory, looking around only to see that two of the wooden training swords had been taken, however the spear rack had been knocked over, colliding with another rack, probably chipping the edges. Metal wasn't exactly a very common resource, so it would be expensive to replace.
He moved to the door that led to the outside, taking the utmost caution that he didn't accidentally alert the two colts to his presence. He peeked his eye through a peephole in the door and what saw him made him very furious. It wasn't two of his sons, it was Iato and Kito! At that moment, he began to move to slam the door and scare the little children, but he hesitated. He remembered why he was up in the first place: Iato's progression as a lady. He noticed he fluid moves and how she rivaled her eldest in raw skill, but with training she could be one of the greatest warriors Japone had ever seen. Maybe this was her destiny after all. Maybe she deserved to be a great warrior. He walked out into the moonlight, fully revealing his body and scaring the two sparring ponies into dropping their practice swords.
"Iato, Kito, what are you doing?!" Said the two kids father, already knowing the answer.
Kito was the first to speak up. "Uh... uh... we are, playing pretend?"
"You already do that during the day, why here at night with your sister?" The father sternly put down the thinly veiled lie.
Iato shakily responded "W-we were sparring, father"
"What for? I thought you were going to be a lady, daughter of mine" Their father said to Iato, in an attempt to egg her on while still acting like he was going to punish the two severly.
Kito had pretty much shrunk into a ball at this point. He didn't want to confront his father over their breach of peace.
Iato, however, was still on her hooves. She started to look down towards the ground, but rather than submitting, she piped up with "Father, I wont lie to you. I cant be some wife to some noblecolt who's just going to leave me a widow in a pointless war. No, I need to be more than that. I need to be a warrior."
Iato's father kept his composure on the exterior. however on the inside he felt a true rush of joy overcome him. This really is his daughter. Ambitious, brash, brave. Without giving way to his real feelings, stated bluntly "Iato, I expect you to continue your lessons with your mother. Kito, your grounded. Do you know how much those spears cost!?" And with that, he started to walk away. Iato, however, wouldn't just drop it at that. She grabbed his leg pleading,
"Please, father, let me train. I couldn't live with myself if I just gave up now." Iato started crying, but her father pulled her head up with his hoof, stopping the young filly from going deeper into that line of thought.
"Iato, when did I say you couldn't? I said you needed to focus on your lessons, not that you you couldn't train." Said her father with a smirk.
Iato stared at her father with glistening eyes in the moonlight, smiled. For the first time in her young life, she was really, truly, happy.
The entries at this point became more and more focused on all the techniques she was learning with her brother. However, around the time of her mid-teens, the journal takes a very dark turn. Most of the following entries were written years later, after the incident, rather than an account that was immediately written following the events. While most of this is just run of the mill diary material, me and other scholars in the field have been debating the following events and whether it was just an attack by pegasus with magical artifacts (unlikely, as Japone at the time and even to this day was inhabited completely by Earth Ponies) or if there was really was some kind of magical creature attack on the nobles castle.
"Entry number |Illegible words| They're all dead. Everypony was dead..."
Iato's training had been going well. REALLY well, in fact, because she got her cutie mark! It was two spears, one a bardiche and the other a javelin, two of her favorite weapons, crossed on a light blue, almost cyan, diamond. However, many of her brothers still shunned her practicing with them, as she had been allowed to join in on their daily training sessions once her cutie mark showed up, proving her point that she was supposed to be a warrior, not some housewife.
Her mother, Hiroikkudōn, however, was not so pleased. At first she was happy that her little filly was finally happy with herself, but she found soon enough that her day-to-day life became more and more drooling without Iato doing something stupid or getting in trouble.
In boredom, she snuck out to find somepony she knew all to well, her former coltfriend in the village of Yūjō, right below them. In fact, she wasn't so sure whose children were whose, for all she knew, Iato wasn't really her husbands daughter. But that didn't matter. She needed her little filly back, and she was willing to do anything to get that, even if it meant using dark magic.
Despite popular belief, Earth Ponies aren't devoid of all magic, in fact, some could even argue their affinity for creating new technology rivals the unicorns in their ability to manipulate the world around them. The ancient zebras of the roaming plains developed crafts like alchemy and poultices, an art that is lost to this day, which is why I argue for the side that the attack on Yūjō was not only magical in nature, but in fact caused by a pony in the town itself.
...those wings. Those godamn wings... draped in black... a horn on its head...
Hiroikkudōn passed by the peasants on the street, making sure her identity was hidden. She slipped into the small, but lavishly decorated, home of her once secret lover. "Hello, Buta, I need your help."
Buta sat up in his chair, smiling lazily. He had not needed to work a day in his life once he started his relationship with Hiroikkudōn, so he gained a bit of weight just sitting around. Hiroikkudōn would have had him killed to keep the secret, but she had doubts she could find another pony with so many connections, so the bribes kept on coming.
"Malady, have you come to bed with me once more?" Buta's disgusting smell coming out with his words, making Hiroikkudōn gag a little bit.
"No, Buta, I need you to find me somepony who can..." Hiroikkudōn looked down at her hooves, half out of disgust and half out of embarrassment "...somepony who can cast dark magic."
"Ooooh... malady made an oopsie. Here, let me look through my records." Buta got up from his seat to look through a nearby cabinet.
While Buta looked for his folders, Hiroikkudōn looked around the little abode. While furnished with some of the highest quality items in all of Japone, it reeked from years of uncleaned garbage and filth. How could she have chosen this pathetic excuse for a stallion as a mate?
Eventually, Buta emerged from the pile of filth and hooved over the scroll with all of the pony in questions personal information, as well as a note saying that the pony owed Buta a big favor. "Show him that, malady, and all your wishes will come true, if your wishes aren't too crazy, that is." Buta said with a lazy bow, then struggling to return to full standing posture. "So... how about later?" Buta then cocked his eyebrows a few times.
Hiroikkudōn, putting on her best fake smile, responded with "Sorry, Buta, but I can't. I have errands to run and things to do." Hiroikkudōn basically ran out at that point, taking a breath of fresh, clean air.
You see, with this new information, my colleagues and I have theorized that perhaps these "draped in black" ponies are, in fact, somehow related to the shadow pony attacks that began to occur around 3-4 AEF, which would line up with the timeframe told of in the account, proving that Old Equestria wasn't the only area suffering from these attacks...
"...it's gone... I worked so hard for it and its gone..."
Iato was sparring with Kito and her other brothers in the castle courtyard when a sudden rush of wind blasted the town, ripping doors off their slides, leveling entire sections of the town, and tearing most of the paper off walls of the homes that still stood of the ponies below. Iato and her brothers, being slightly more shielded to the sudden tempest, only got pelted with wood splinters and knocked on their asses, however their father was knocked out by a stray rock. The blast deafened everypony, but it didn't stop them from getting to their hooves again. Iato tried to call out to her father, but it fell on literally deaf ears. When she went to pick him up, Iato was knocked to the ground again, this time by a pony. But this was no ordinary pony, this pony had been covered in some substance that covered their entire bodies in a pitch black sheen. It had wings, like a bird, and a long horn protruding from its head. She had heard of rumors that this kind of pony existed, but they were just that, rumors.
Iato climbed back to stand upright while the weird pony thing cackled at her efforts. Taking her spear, Iato plunged it into the dark visages skin. But instead of falling to the ground like any normal pony would, she instead started laughing even harder. Iato backed away in fear, but the ponies horn began to glow a radiant black, something Iato didn't even think was possible. It lifted Iato in the air, allowing her to see the carnage below. A great big black sphere had appeared in the sky, blocking out the sun as hundreds of similar. Black figures pooled out in a fashion that Iato likened to bees going out of a hive. Her brothers were the first to go, being killed in various, grotesque ways. The hardest hit was when her brother, Kito, had been impaled through the heart, his eyes finding Iato's before closing for the last time. Iato tried to scream, but no words came out, the visage holding her breath, keeping her from bidding her brother, her best friend, a final goodbye. The visage pulled Iato close, whispering in her ear with the most blood curdling voice: "See what you have done? You see the consequences of your actions?!"
Iato had no clue what this pony was talking about. As far as she was concerned, her actions hadn't really changed all that much in the past few years. The visage released her throat so she could answer. Instead, Iato felt she needed to fight back, so she said "Eat shit and die, tramp.", followed by a quick kick it the stomach. That got her an express trip to the ground, as well as a severe concussion.
The visage coiled back screeching "You will learn to treat your mother with respect, Iato!" words that were followed up with her picking up Iato in a magical grasp and chucking her into a support beam in the now torn apart castle.
Iato wasn't very lucid at this point. All she could see now was a blurry blob approach her as her wounds bled. The blob said something about her mom, and she assumed that it was the blob bragging about killing her or something. When the blob made it to her hooves, she heard, loud and clear, as the world turned dark around her, "Was it worth it, Iato? Did it feel good?" Iatos body started convulsing when the words were done being spoken, she could hear herself screaming, but her body was numb. The pain was so great her body refused to register it. Finally, she succumbed to the torture, and blacked out.
I need to add a later journal entry to this part, as it goes into detail some odd dreamscape where Iato explains seeing her whole family, accept her mother, walk up what seemed to be an infinite slope. She explains that she screamed and yelled, but her family never responded, they just looked forward, continuing their seemingly infinite walk upwards as Iato tried to run after them, only to be stopped by some sort of barrier. While somepony with a more superstitious point of view on life may call this a "out of body experience", but the account lines up with cases of superstitious individuals who have received some sort of major head trauma, which is the working theory that me and my colleagues have been studying under, that Iato was hallucinating the whole thing. It would also explain the less than readable (Or logical) text of most of the following entries, as it has been shown that head trauma victims lose a lot of their fine motor functions and suffer from memory loss, even after making a otherwise full physical recovery...
"everything was blurry... came over and wrapped...there was a boat..."
Lemon Delight wasn't exactly what you would call a very experienced seafarer. Most of what he was doing was just vague imitations of what his father would do anytime they would go out and collect dead barnacles and coral. He tried learning, but he could just never quite seem to get it right. He'd forget a step in making a knot or trip the anchor or do some other thing that would ruin several trips. In general, he was pretty much doing this blind. Despite that, Lemon had decided that he was better off someplace else, because his hometown had been razed and their wasn't a single pony lining up to buy his dad's old coral trinkets anymore, and sugar was to expensive to make a profit, so his baking skills were pretty much useless. When he was little more than a foal, Lemon's mother had died to some disease, but his dad had told him the she came from a wonderful land, far out in the sea, where she had saved my dad from drowning after a nasty storm blew him far off course. He wanted to go to that same wonderful place.
But the real reason any of that mattered was because Lemon found himself in a very similar predicament. Lemon was sitting on his little lounging cot when the sea around went into a deathly quiet. He took off the sunglasses he was wearing to look around. Nothing seemed off, other than the stark lack of sound anyway, until he looked behind him and saw a three pony tall wall of water rushing at him. Lemon barely had enough time to brace for impact on the mast when the miniature tsunami struck the small, but sturdy coral collecting boat. Lemon felt a temporary moment of pure, uninterrupted bliss whilst in the cold, soothing water. He knew what he was getting into when he set off on this little journey of his, to a faraway land that the ponies there, in all likelihood, did not speak a word of Poneglish. But that didn't really faze Lemon. He just wanted to be happy, and maybe his mothers homeland can give that to him.
As the water fell back down around Lemon, he opened his eyes to see a horrifying scene play out in front of him. Ponies screamed silently as pitch black caricatures of pegasi hunted them down, one by one. Stallions, mares, even fillies weren't spared. He hadn't escaped the horror, he just prolonged his suffering. Lemon nearly fell off the boat just by trying to back up, away from the carnage. He was fucked, through and through. The best Lemon could do was rip out all of his emergency supplies and hide in the compartment, but that would obviously mean he wouldn't have anything to eat or survive on. He didn't want to fight, but other ponies had different plans. In his hesitation, Lemon Delight failed to notice the presence of one of the shadow ponies flying towards him at full speed.
The umbral figure connected to his side as Lemon felt his ribs crack under the blow. But Lemon wasn't a push over, so he was back on his hooves in no time, but due to his little injury, his movement was limited. The pegasus lunged back into Lemon, this time with some sort spikey appendage protruding from its left hoof. Lemon side-stepped the attack to his left, but the pegasus still nicked his flank, sending a shear of pain down his side. But what took Lemons surprise the most was the shrill screams and bubbling coming from the pegasus. His hearing was returning at this point. He looked behind him to see the pegasus had overshot the boat and caught the water, making the winged pony fall in to the depths. Lemon swore he saw a yellow and pink pegasus sink into the depths, but the blast had knocked up so much sediment he could barely see more than a couple of inches below the surface. Maybe he was just seeing things. These were the same creatures that had attacked his hometown, and they were next to the sea as well.
Lemon was nearing the shore enough to pull the boat up and anchor it. He winced as the combination of salt water and fractured ribs made him regret not just waiting for the boat to get closer. In his swim, the blood that came from the dead ponies that had tried to escape on their boats washed over him. Lemon pushed back the urge to hurl his lunch at the gruesome sight. He was in a literal bloodbath, and he couldn't imagine the village above was much better. Once the boat was ashore, Lemon pulled out the medical supplies from the boat so he could patch up his cut, taking a second to ironically thank the pony he had fought so that the could deliver the leftovers to any survivors, despite Lemon's doubts that anypony had survived.
There were no screams, no 'My fillies!' or uncontrollable sobbing. It was just silent, the only thing making sound was Lemons hooves clopping against the stone path leading up to the village. Lemon eventually made it to the top, peering at the town. The whole place had pretty much been leveled, probably a side effect of all the houses being made out of wood and paper. Lemon walked past a house that happened to still be standing, and what he saw made him hurl his lunch this time, the sensation overcoming his body before he could even react. There was a fat pony, strung up on a support beam with his chest and ribs splayed out like some sort of fucked up pegasus. His head had been severed completely off, with an image of a pig drawn out on the floor in front of him. It was an image that would stick with Lemon for the rest of his life.
Lemon diverted his eyes as soon as he could move again, the sight paralyzing him. He noticed a pony crawling on the ground, without its rear legs. Lemon rushed over, even though he knew the only thing he could do at that point was hold him as he slipped gently into that good night. Lemon propped up the ponies head up and took out his canteen of hard cider to give to the mortally wounded pony, but the bottle was pushed away. "Ryōshu, ryōshu o sukuu..." was all the pony said.
"I don't understand you, what are you saying?!" said Lemon, horrified that this ponies last words were spoken to somepony who had no knowledge of the language in which they were spoken.
The pony hooked Lemons hoof to pull him closer as he looked over and pointed at a great big building resting atop a hill. "Ryōshu no kazoku... o oka no ue ni tsureteitte kudasai..." upon which he released his grip and died.
"I'm sorry" Lemon let the pony down, gently shutting his eyes. He looked up at the building, and then to the destroyed buildings around him, making sure nopony else needed his comfort, and rushed up the hill, wincing the whole way. Whatever was up here was important enough for somepony to to make telling him about it their last words. He neared the top and noted the plumes of smoke billowing from the building. As Lemon pushed himself harder he began to taste his blood in his mouth. He just hoped it wasn't a punctured lung, but rather a bruised one. Becoming more insensitive to the gore around him, the bodies that were mangled in the courtyard of the building began to bother Lemon less and less. He looked around for anypony, eventually hearing giggles and whooshes from inside the burning building. He rushed over in a panic to see a mare with a dark grey coat and a cyan blue mane sitting under a burning table giggling at the sight on what used to be the second floor of this building. Lemon ran over and yanked the mare out from under the flaming wood as it fell down, saving the young mares life.
Lemon pulled the mare out of the wreckage to see if she had any injuries, which she did. She had gotten hit so hard in the head, grey matter was actively leaking out of her ears. He was half surprised her head hadn't popped open under such a blow. He wrapped up her head, hoping that would do something , but he knew that he had to get her to a real doctor if any actual help was going to occur. He pulled out shards of wood and applied disinfectant to the wounds, eventually dressing them. He noticed the mare didn't have her cutie mark, reasoning the perhaps she was either a really big filly or a late bloomer, but it didn't really matter anyway. He didn't see any roads out of the village and everypony else was dead. He had to go back to Equestria if he was going to save this mares life. He eventually got her to follow him, stumbling the whole way down to the shoreline. Lemon had to basically push her on board, but eventually they managed, opening full sail and starting the magical motor, they were off.
The seas were pretty rocky because of the blast, which caused a rainstorm to roll in. Lemon took a rope and tied the delusional mare to the mast so she wouldn't accidentally just walk off in the storm. "Hold on, missy, this is going to be a rough ride". Lemon closed the sail so they wouldn't capsize in the wind but kept the motor on so they could get out of this mess. Lemon had been tying down the sail when he noticed a much larger vessel in the distance, which seemed to be on a collision course with them. He couldn't steer in the storm, so he just tried to make his presence as well known as possible to alert them to divert their course, which didn't happen. Instead, once the ship got close enough, a harpoon was shot into the side of his boat. It was at that point Lemon noticed the deep red flag with a white skull and crossed swords.
Lemon Delight didn't realize that there were pirates on this sea, and was surprised to find out the crew was made up mostly of unicorns and the occasional griffin or two, so this was probably going to be a short trip, he assumed. Two griffins, holding scimitars, came down and threatened to come quietly and untie 'his little buddy', which he did. He wasn't in any shape to fight, so the griffins bagged the two captives and a bunch of coral trinkets without much resistance. They brought him and the mare onboard and put them on the deck, in front of a mean looking unicorn with a scar running through both of her eyes, making her completely blind. One of the griffins who had brought them onboard whispered into her ears, probably telling her what was going on and putting a mini coral dreamcatcher in her right hoof. Her head pointed down as her horn glowed and picked up the item. She yelled through the storm so she could introduce herself "Hello, name is Captain Ivory Keys, welcome to the Crabapple ! I have a question, Mr. Stallion. What's your name!?"
"It's Lemon Delight, Captain!" Lemon answered
"And what about your little friend here, Mr. Lemon!?" Said Ivory
"I don't know, I just found her in a razed village! She needs help! She's hurt really bad, something with her head! I-" Lemon got cut off by Ivory
"Woah, woah, buddy! Slow your role! You don't even know her name!? That's kind of the bare minimum if I were to let somecreature tie me up, if you know what I mean!" The whole crew started laughing.
"It's not like that! Like I said I found her in a razed village. She was the only survivor. Please! She needs medical attention!" Lemon repeated.
"Ooooh, a village with nocreature to defend it? Hear that, boys and girls? We got ourselves easy pickins'!" The whole crew raised a cheer this time. "C'mon, Mr. Lemon, tell us, were is this village!?"
"Uh, it's, uh, you get her medical attention first!" Lemon said as he pointed at the mare, who had fallen over on her face when a heavy wave hit and didn't seem to worried about it.
"Smart stallion! Malignant, get this mare a full checkup and throw her in the brig!" Ivory motioned to a tall unicorn who promptly picked up the grey-blue mare and brought her under the deck. Captain Ivory moved closer to Lemon and asked "Now Mr. Lemon, those directions?"
When recounting the events of the following entries. Iato describes a big pirate ship with a funny looking captain.. Her next memory, however, is more interesting. She says some unicorn took her below deck to dress her wounds properly and put her to sleep. She then describes the same unicorn in her dreams, fiddling with great big spider webs. She said that after she woke up from her dream, she could think clearly again. Some of the researchers think that this might be some sort of lost technique used to heal brain damage in patients, rather than just another hallucination. It's not completely unheard of ponies entering others dreams, after all. This little discovery might actually help save a lot of ponies lives, if it can be rediscovered that is.
A beautiful mare came into my dreams... weaving great big spiders webs... she asked me many questions, but even without knowing what she was saying, I completely understood...
Iato took a deep breath of air. She found herself in some sort of wierd glowing blue void, surrounded by these giant spider webs that seemed disconnected, torn out of place. She was soon joined by another mare, with a beautiful mocha coat and a brown mane. She opened her mouth to talk, but the words she heard were not any she knew, but she still completely understood what she was saying. "Hello, my name is Malignant Tumor, I'm going to help repair your brain, and from what I can see, I got a lot of work ahead of me. But first, what's your name?"
"It's Iato. My name is Iato Yari Horudā "
"Nice to meet you Iato. So, how did this even happen in the first place?" Malignant then used her magic to reconnected several webs back together, allowing Iato to remember more of why she was even there.
"I barely remember. It was so... quiet. So many ponies were dying..."
"Wait, hold on, let me get this one. It seems to be one of the newest here..." Malignant took a small, shredded web and did her best to put it back together "...alright!"
Iato continued her story "There was a big, pitch black pony with a horn like yours, but it also had wings. I think I bucked it in the guts and it threw me to the ground. The only stuff I remember after that was a black blob whispering 'Was it worth it Iato? Did it feel good?' and some yellow pony who took me on a boat with some pirates. "
"The impact must have given you some sort of head trauma. From the looks of it, your yellow friend really saved your life there. By the way his names Lemon Delight. "
"Lemon Delight... what a weird name. " Iato mused
"Yeah, but I guess it isn't as bad as my name. Here, walk with me." Malignant continued to put together the webs in the dream, giving Iato sudden rushes of knowledge and memory.
"I... ugh... that is not a pleasant feeling. How did you get that name anyway?"
Well, if I am going to be honest with you, its because my parents really didn't like me all that much. Jokes on them though, I became a doctor... on a pirates ship anyway..."
"Sorry, I didn't mean too... Wait, were still on a pirates ship?!"
"Oh, hehe, I forgot to mention that. Yeah, the only reason I'm allowed to heal you is because the Captain is probably just going to sell you to some slavers on the coast, sorry kid. Can't be selling slaves that are dead!"
"WHAT?! Your lucky your the one helping me otherwise I'd kick your fuckin' ass!"
"It's not like I have a choice in the matter! I'm a slave to, you fuckwit!" Malignant pointed towards her flank, where a foreign symbol shaped like a slithering snake that was in a circle branded on to where her cutie mark used to be, "I don't even remember what it was..."
Iato quickly glanced at her flank, hoping she had not gotten the same treatment. However, when she looked, what she saw was worse than if her cutie mark had been branded over: there wasn't anything at all. She started to panic "Where is my cutie mark you witch!? What did you do to my cutie mark?! "
"We didn't do anything! " Malignant held up one of her hooves in surprise. "We found you like that as far as I'm concerned! I can't take away cutie marks, not even the Captain can, and she's one of the most powerful unicorns in Equestria!"
Iato backed up a bit and fell on her flank, looking down in shame. She began to cry for the lost of the one thing that made her, her.
"Iato...?" Malignant wanted to comfort the broken pony, but the consequences outweighed the benefits. She had a job to do, and the Captain wasn't so forgiving to things that took to long. She continued on without Iato, restoring her brain to what it once was.
Iato cried more and more as the memories of her father and brothers rushed in, giving even more reason why her cutie mark was so important to her. By the time Malignant had completed her job, Iato had been reduced to a groveling mess lying on the dreamscapes floor. Malignant came back to her to say "Iato, I'm sorry. I saw everything, and I'm so sorry. You didn't deserve to lose them. Nopony does." Malignant pulled Iato into a hug as the dream fell apart around them.
While slavery outside Equestria's borders had always been a thing, it was only after the fall of the Royals were ponies ever subjugated to such a horrible thing in large numbers. The slavers would prey on villages that had recently been attacked by the mysterious shadow ponies, as they would offer the least resistance as well as thin out any undesirables (The sick, the old, etc.), so when Iato was enslaved by the pirates who captured them, it was interesting to see how exactly the inner workings of the slave trade actually worked, as it would prove that it wasn't just a land based system, and that anypony could potentially sell another into the slave market without needing to be strictly apart of the system themselves...
...bastards locked me into the cell with this other yellow pony. He tried teaching... I was learning fairly well, but it was...I don't think I will ever fully recover.
When Iato awoke, she was laying in a dark, uncomfortably wet cell with another yellow earth pony. Iato assumed this was the 'Lemon' fellow she had heard about. Her face had been soaked in her own tears and she had a killer headache from the dream she had with Malignant Tumor. She grunted in pain, which got Lemon Delight's attention. He rushed over and started to ask a barrage of questions, none of which Iato could understand. Despite this, Lemon still tried to communicate anyway, this time playing a game of charades, making a jackass of himself. This made Iato giggle a bit. With all the shit that had gone down, Iato was glad that there was something to laugh at.
Weeks went by while the pirates sailed around the seas eastern of Equestria, eventually going to plunder the spoils of what used to be Yūjō when they found the time. Malignant would come by twice a day and give the two a grueling mix of pickles and beer, a sailors lifeline, but a stark difference to the banquettes Iato was used to eating every night.
Lemon, out of boredom, attempted to teach Iato Poneglish so that when they are sold she could at least communicate properly. The lessons were slow at first, but eventually Iato gained a rather basic understanding of the comparatively basic language.
"So, Iato, what's this?" Lemon pointed to the Poneglish alphabet he had carved into the wall with a spoon, specifically a plate with food on it that sat under 'F'.
"That food" Iato responded.
Lemon smiled weakly, "Yes, thats right!". Lemon turned away from Iato to dry a tear forming in his eye. He understood just how fucked up this whole situation was. If he had just not left his town, and instead stayed, maybe he could've been better off, but now he was stuck on a pirates boat, completely screwed and sailing towards a dismal future. Teaching Iato how to speak his language was his last kindness to the mare he had probably fucked over. She probably would have been better off dead, under the burning mass of that table. Fuck.
Lemon felt the boat lurch to a sudden halt, sending him into the wall. This made his still bruised ribcage flare up again, just when it was starting to get comfortable to breath again. Malignant Tumor came to the cell in which the two were staying to tell them that they had arrived at the depot in which they were to be sold.
"I'm sorry Lemon and Iato. End of the line. Put on these." Malignant tossed a line of shackles and chain to the pair, which they put on while staring at Malignant, as if it were her fault they were in this whole mess. She could only divert her gaze to avoid the blame. "C'mon, lets go." Malignant unlocked the cell and led the two ponies out of the cell, stopping right before they were to climb the stairs to the main deck above. She pulled out a small key from her mouth and gave it to Lemon, who wiped it down and put it into his. "I'm so sorry for everything. The key will pop open the shackles and let you escape, just don't do it until I make a distraction. If either of you get a brand, your properly fucked. They can track you with these artifacts they have, so if I don't cause the distraction in time, just unlock your shackles and high tail it out of there, its better than nothing, at least."
Lemon, who had loathed the very existence of this pony just seconds earlier, was now dumbstruck. He could only hug the pony in response, even though he had wanted to say thank you out loud, he couldn't because there were other ponies and griffons around. The trio ascended the stairs, Iato and Lemon being blinded by the bright sun out. at the moment. The Captain was arguing with some ugly naked mole rat looking slaver.
"I don't have to have eyes to see I'm getting fucked, Verko! Those two are easily worth their weight in gold to you. 'The Oriental Princess Pony from a faraway land and her husband, a king from another great kingdom', fucking gold, Verko!"
Verko recoiled in disgust. The captains words were true, but he didn't want to really pay full price. "You drive a hard bargain, Captain Keys, but I'm only willing to pay in silver, not gold. Maybe we could work something out? A slave and some silver in exchange?"
Lemon blocked out the talk as Malignant led them down the ramp to the docks. The trotted over to a line next to a forest with all sorts of exotic creatures, sentient and not, lined up chained together waiting to be branded.
Malignant locked the shackles to the chain rather than using the chain and lock provided so the key she gave Lemon would still work. "Alright, I'm going to go find something that will distract the guards. But whatever happens, don't let them brand you." Malignant instructed, trotting off at a slightly higher speed than normal. Verko's workers, also slaves, began branding every creature in the line, only slowed because they had to re-heat the iron every couple of creatures.
Lemon muttered under his breath "Come on, hurry up Malignant..." The branders were getting to close for comfort. The animal in front of them, a mammoth, would block their actions, but they couldn't run unnoticed. The branders eventually made their way down to the animal in front of the mammoth and Lemon decided it was now or never. He slipped the key out of his mouth and unlocked his front and rear shackles, but as he turned around to get Iato out, a shipment of gunpowder due to be loaded onto the Crabapple exploded, knocking every creature onto their respective appendages and killing several dock workers. In the confusion the guards had indeed been distracted, but Lemon also dropped the key he needed to get Iato out. Him and Iato fumbled around in the dirt looking for the key, eventually finding it and freeing Iato, but not before a guard noticed the two had freed themselves. "We got some runners!" said the guard to his buddies, who were already focused on keeping a group of creatures at bay. "Oh, blimey, guess I have to do everything myself."
At this point, Lemon and Iato had not hesitated to start booking it into the woods, but the lone guard cut off their escape before it could really begin. The guard triumphantly declared "Alright you two, exercise time is over, time to go back to your line."
The guard was an Earth pony equipped with a halberd, one of the weapons Iato had gotten some training with. Because of her training, Iato understood both the strengths and weaknesses of her preferred weapons class, that being that they were pretty much useless if you opponent was right in front of you. a skilled user could easily hold of an opponent for hours, but two opponents were an issue due to it not having great speed and maneuverability compared to the likes of a sword or throwing javelins. Iato commanded lemon to run to the guards left side, which opened up the guard to an attack when the guard followed the bigger of the two targets allowing for Iato to run up and buck his head hard enough to knock him straight out.
"Alright, we need to... to go, Iato" Lemon said between labored breaths.
Iato picked up the polearm from the guards unconscious body, before she began to run with Lemon further into the woods. They eventually came to a stop to catch their breath and see if anypony was looking for them, which thankfully, nopony was. They decided to continue on, but at a walking pace to ensure they weren't to exhausted to fight if they needed to. But no matter how far they went, it never sat right with Iato that there were so many creatures who still had to endure the slavery. Iato came to a stop, as she didn't really have the words to formulate what she meant and needed Lemon to help her. "Lemon."
"Yes, Iato, what is it? We have to keep on moving." Lemon said with an expression of mixed pain and annoyance.
"I... we need to stop slave owner." Iato bumbled out.
"How are we supposed to do that? Were just two ponies, how are we supposed to stop an operation that big?"
Iato didn't fully understand what Lemon had said, but understood that it wasn't positive in the slightest. Instead, she tried to reiterate her point at a different angle. "Get Verko."
"What? Why would we go and do that?" Lemon retorted
"It fair." Iato simply replied.
"So you want to stop the slave owners by getting Verko, because it's fair?"
Iato paused for a second, thinking, before confirming by a brisk nod.
"Alright, Iato, I think I know what you want to do. Because of some moral obligation, you want to hunt down Verko and kill him to stop him from slaving?"
Iato cocked an eyebrow and shook her head, confused by Lemon's words.
"Yeah, I guess I probably should have expected that." Lemon takes a deep breath and exhales. "Alright Iato, we will Verko and stop the slave owners. It's not like I have much of anything else to do."
Iato understood most of what Lemon said and ran over and hugged him. Iato didn't want anycreature else to suffer anymore than they already were, and they had to find and kill this Verko fellow for fucking with them anyway. It was a two for one deal.
Iato and Lemon continued their walk through the forest until coming across a road that led to a nearby town. Instead of continuing along the path, the pair decided that the best thing to do was lay down and rest for the night. They took shifts in looking out for trouble along the road and around their little campsite. Iato took this time to inspect the weapon she had stolen off of the slave guard, noting its high quality blade and solid shaft. Whoever equipped those guards was shelling out the big bucks on weapons, but not so much on the ponies wielding them.
Halberds weren't exactly Iato's favorite type of polearm, as she saw them as a Jack of All Trades; Master of None type of weapon with it's axe head like a bardiche and a tip like a spear, but the weapon had an interesting contraption rigged onto its blade, reaching down the pole to a switch. It was some kind of device that opened up two small compartments on either side of the axe parts blade. What was most odd is that it smelt of seawater, a smell Iato was hoping to avoid after being forced to basically live in it whenever a heavy storm occurred on the Crabapple . She would just ask Lemon in the morning, he probably knew why it was like this.
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.
Iato had snuck into Verko's little castle by disguising herself as a slave and walking in with some of the real ones. She had found her way outside Verko's office, where he seemed to be having a heated conversation with somepony, probably a subordinate of some kind. Iato took a deep breath and broke down the door.
"What in the hell!? Captain Keys, kill this bitch, will ya!?" Verko commanded.
"What, is it kill one get one free jackass day at the supermarket?" Iato cockily spat
"You! I remember your bitch ass, your that retarded slave I caught!" mused Captain Ivory Keys.
Iato rushed the captain while yelling "Not anymore, cunt!" Iato swinging her halberd into her neck.
The Captain had attempted to teleport away, but because of Iatos removal of her head, the body fell limp while the charred pony head plopped onto Verko's desk, making the rat recoil in disgust a second time towards the captain, but this time more genuinely. "Should of killed me when you had the chance, bitch."
"What do you want, money? 'Cause I can get you a lot of money, trust me!" Verko hopelessly pleaded for his pathetic excuse of a life.
Instead of immediately responding, Iato's gaze fell upon a beautiful, elegantly designed weapon. It was a sword, but not just any sword, for this one was her fathers sword, probably taken as a prize, plundered from what remained of her home. She took the blade and walked over to the front of Verko's desk, him responding by backing farther into his chair.
Iato broke the silence by saying "You know, me nor my father ever really liked swords all that much. You have to get really close to whoever your trying to kill. But it does have it's uses. I prefer polearms, heck look at my flank!" Iato wiped the paint of the slave insignia from her flank to reaveal her cutie mark. "Funny thing, got it back once I killed my mother. You might know her? 'Bout yay high, has lost half of herself... I'm afraid it might have to be a closed casket funeral."
Verko realized just how truly fucked he was. This was the daughter of that pony he had hired! He began trembling "P-p-please, I can get you anything you want! Money? Done. Fame? You gotcha! Just spare me please!"
Iato just stared deeply into Verko's soul. He was lying, that much was obvious, but instead of hearing calculated lies, this rat was well and truly afraid for his life, which made Iato sadistically smile. She climbed onto Verko's desk and continued her little speech.
"Yes, a sword has it's uses. Sometimes a spear is just too long, so you might pull out your sword instead. Sometimes..." Iato took her gaze away from the weapon and looked at Verko "Sometimes, a sword can be used to kill cowards who lay like rats on the battlefield. You Verko, are that coward, and you will die like one, trembling like a little bitch on the ground."
Iato took the blade from its sheath and pointed it at what at one point was one of the most feared creatures in all of the known world, now reduced to a groveling mess at her hooves. "You, Verko of Abyssinia, are accused of the genocide of the ponies of many towns across Equestria and abroad, as well as slavery and drug trafficking! What say you in your defense?!"
Verko couldn't even say anything, he was just sobbing uncontrollably.
"Thats a pretty piss poor excuse, if I'm being honest." Iato pulled the weapon high "This is for Lemon!" Iato chopped off Verko's left arm. "And this is for Yūjō!" Iato lobbed off the right. Verko looking into Iato's, the last he would ever see. "And this, this one is for my family. May the Sun have mercy on your soul, because I sure as hell ain't." Iato swiftly cut off Verko's stubby head, it rolling on the floor before coming to a stop at the corner of the table.
Iato looked at the scene. She wasn't ashamed of her handiwork, for she had just killed a horrible creature. She wondered why she felt no emotion to the killing though. After some thinking, she decided this is what she was born for. This was her calling, her purpose in life.
This is why she fought.
FIN
