> Mark of the Ninja: Land of the Ponies > by LtMajorDude > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prologue > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ponyville Six ponies were having a picnic in a park. They were the Mane 6. "So Twilight, how's it like being a princess?" A cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane, Rainbow Dash, asked the purple alicorn with a smirk. The alicorn, Twilight Sparkle, giggled. "I actually quite enjoy it." The orange Earth pony, Applejack, laughed. "I still can't believe that mah best friend's a princess!" The pink Earth pony, Pinkie Pie, jumped up and down. "I know right? It's just so super duper luper cool!" The yellow pegasus with a pink mane, Fluttershy smiled weakly. "I agree." "So, any troubles?" A white unicorn, Rarity, asked Twilight. Twilight shook her head. "Everything's OK. No trouble at all." "Hey." Rainbow Dash said with a smile. "Whatever happened to your boyfriend?" Twilight gasped and glared at Rainbow Dash. "Flash Sentry is not my boyfriend!" "Ooh. You know his name?" Rainbow Dash said as her smirk grew larger. The ponies started giggling as Twilight let out a big red blush. "Ah, sorry Twi." Rainbow Dash said as she was done giggling. "You know that I'm kidding." Twilight's glare was replaced with a smile. "I understand." Ever since she came back from the portal after getting back her crown from Sunset Shimmer, she then took a small interest in on of the other Royal Guards, Flash Sentry. Twilight let out a sigh. "Something wrong sugarcube?" Applejack asked Twilight. Twilight smiled. "Oh it's just that...before I went to sleep yesterday, I saw this shining star in the sky. For some reason, it got my attention." Rainbow Dash shrugged. "I'm pretty sure it's nothing." Twilight smiled. "Yeah. You're right." The Mane 6 then spent the whole day talking and enjoying the picnic. Canterlot A white alicorn, Celestia, was sitting on her throne. "Such a lovely day, isn't it, Luna?" She asked a dark indigo alicorn. The dark indigo alicorn, Luna, nodded. "Indeed it is sister. I heard that we got a new batch of Royal Guards." Celestia nodded. "Indeed. I hope Shining Armor will train them into good guards." Luna smiled. "Of course." She said before she looked uneasy. "Something wrong?" Celestia asked with a concerned face. "Oh, it's just that, last night, I thought I saw something in the sky. A shining star that somehow got my attention." "Oh I'm sure it's nothing." Celestia said with a smile. Luna smiled. "You're right." "Alright men!" A white unicorn, Shining Armor shouted to a new batch of Royal Guards. "Now I expect you ponies to give me a hundred and ten percent!" All of the guards saluted and shouted, "Sir yes sir!" "Alright. Let's start with some running drills." Shining Armor commanded. As the guards started training, Shining Armor saw his wife, a pink alicorn, Princess Cadance. "Hi honey." Cadance said as she waved at Shining Armor. "Hey sweetie." Shining Armor said as he came up to Cadance and kissed her on the cheek. "How's work?" Cadance asked Shining Armor. "Pretty good." He said. "Most of these ponies look like they could use some training." "Oh. OK." Cadance said as she looked down on the floor. "Something wrong honey?" Shining Armor asked Cadance. "Oh nothing it's just..." Cadance let out a sigh. "Last night, before I went to sleep, I saw this star in the sky that got my attention." "Oh don't worry. I'm sure it's nothing." Shining Armor said with a smile. Cadance smiled and hugged Shining Armor. "Thanks honey." She said. He kissed her on the cheek. "No problem." Nighttime Two Royal Guards were patrolling. One of them, who was red skinned, yawned. "I hate this job." He muttered. "I know." The blue guard muttered back. "I mean, I respect Celestia and Luna, but why do I have to get stuck with the worst job ever?" "I wouldn't call being Prince Blueblood's Royal Guards the worst job ever, but, yeah, I personally hate this job with passion." The red guard said with a smile. The blue guard chuckled. "What I give to be one of Cadance's Royal Guards..." The blue guard said as he looked up in the sky. "I hear that they get good pay. Must be because of those Crystal Ponies." "Eh. I would like to be a Princess Twilight guard." The red guard said as he shrugged. The blue guard smirked. "Why? You got a crush on her?" "What?-! No!" The red guard said with wide eyes and an annoyed glare. "I...uh...just think she's cool...yeah." "Whatever." The blue guard said with his smile never disappearing. "Just saying though. You have a crush on her, you're gonna deal with that Royal Guard...Flash Sentry, I think." "Heh." The red guard said with a smile. "Whateve..." He stopped. The red guard seemed to be staring at something. "Something wrong?" The blue guard asked as he walked up to his partner. "Could've sworn that box moved." The red guard said as he pointed to cardboard box. "Eh. Forget it." Three Royal Guards suddenly appeared. "Hey." One of them said. "It's time for your break." "Really?" The blue guard. "Well, OK." "Hey." One of the Royal Guards said. "Did that cardboard box move?" All of the guards looked at the cardboard box. "Ah forget it. I must be seeing things." The three Royal Guards walked away, leaving only the red guard, blue guard, and the cardboard box. "Come on. It's almost time for our break." The blue guard said as he started to walk away. To his surprise, his partner didn't answer. The blue guard turned around and saw that his partner was missing. The only thing he saw was that cardboard box. "Where'd you go?" The blue guard said as he looked around. "If this is a joke, it's not funn-UGH!-!" He is suddenly knocked out by a human. The human then slowly dragged the unconscious blue pony to a dark alley nearby. He placed his unconscious body next to the red guard's knocked out body. The human was dressed in a dark ninja suit. He also wielded a sword and other equipment, such as bamboo darts. He had strange tattoos on his body. He stared at a castle not too far away. As he narrowed his eyes and let out a cold sigh, he ran into the shadows. > Sneaking In > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The ninja emerged from the shadows. He saw two guards walking. He quickly ran and hid behind a garbage can. The ninja quietly watched the two guards walk right past him. +200 UNDETECTED +200 UNDETECTED The ninja felt tempted to use his sword on the guards. However, he knew it was wrong to enter into a new world and kill its inhabitants. He felt that he should have used the Path of Silence instead the Path of the Ninja. He then walked quietly and leaned against a wall. He then used his focus to see what's behind a corner. He saw two guards, both armed with spears. They were guarding a door. The ninja noticed a headlight above them. Wasting no time, he got a dart and threw it at the light, shattering it and killing the light. The guards blinked and used their horns to emit a light and point it to the shattered light bulb. +150 DISTRACTED +150 DISTRACTED "When did this light go out?" "Beats me." As the guards were examining the broken light bulb, the ninja walked toward the guards. As he got closer to one guard, he took out his cardboard box and hid under it just as the guards shrugged. "Probably nothing." "I hear ya." The ninja then came out of his box and silently knocked out the guard. The guard started to turn around and said, "Hey, I heard some pegasus in Ponyville got turned into vampir..." The ninja immediately took out a terror dart and threw it at the guard. +300 TERRORIZED The guard let out a horrified scream and fell to the ground. Thankfully, the poison from dart won't make the guard kill himself, unlike those guards back then when the ninja was alive on Earth. As soon as the guard got up, he saw that the ninja was gone. Shivering, he slowly walked around, clenching his spear in fear. "I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to di-UMPH!" The ninja quietly walked up to the guard and gave him a good punch in his head, knocking him out. He walked up to the door and noticed it was locked. He used his focus to see if there were anymore guards. As soon as he saw that the coast was clear, he quickly lock-picked the door. He opened it and let out a small smile. There were a ton of books in this library. Well it should. It IS a library. He used his focus to see if there were any guards nearby. Thankfully, there wasn't a pony around. The ninja observed the books. He needed to find a book about plants so that he may find a way to stop the madness from the plant's inks. He took a book from a shelf and looked at the title. He shook his head and took another book from the shelf. Eventually, an hour has passed and the ninja hasn't made any progress. As he face palmed, his eyes widen when he heard ponies walking in the library. Thankfully the lights were off when the ninja entered the library, so at least... "Ugh. It's too dark." A guard said as he turned on the lights. The ninja widen his eyes as light covered the entire library. As the lights turned on, the ninja immediately hid behind a pegasus statue. He looked up and saw that there were only three headlights for the entire library. He also noticed that it was the same three guards that met with the red guard and blue guard. "Man, this library gives me the creeps." "Yeah. It's way more scarier than the one in the Princess Celestia's personal library. You know, the one with all those weird books?" "What are ya talking about? That place is nowhere 'near' scary! It's COMPLETELY scary!" "Well, you know what I'm talking about." "No, I DON'T know what you are talking about!-!" "Guys, keep it down. Jeez." The ninja thought for a bit. Princess Celestia's personal library? Maybe he can find the answers there... As he nodded, he took out three darts and threw them at the light bulbs. +150 DISTRACTED +150 DISTRACTED +150 DISTRACTED "What..." "...the..." "...hay?" As the three guards looked up, the ninja grabbed his cardboard box and hid under it. He slowly tried to get to the exit as he hid in his box. "OH CELESTIA! SOMEPONY'S IN THAT BOX!-!-!-!" -150 ALARM RAISED The three guards immediately spun around and flashed their horns at the box. The ninja then jumped out of the box. "WHAT THE FREAKING HAY IS THAT...?-!-?-!" He then ran towards the door, breaking through it. He was now out of the guards' sight. 10.00 The guards immediately followed the ninja to a dark alley. 5.00 As soon as the guards arrived at the alley, they didn't see the ninja. They just saw a cardboard box. 00.00 "Ah forget it. He may be gone already." "Alright. What was that thing anyway?" "Don't know. But one of my friends, Lyra Heartstrings, always talked about something called...humans. I think she said they looked something more like...THAT." As the guard explained this to them, they left the alley. The ninja immediately jumped out of the box. He let out a glare. Now they know what he is. On the bright side, the ninja knows where to look next...