//------------------------------// // End of the Old Ways // Story: The Samurai's End // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// The summer sun shone down warmly upon Jack and his family. He, Applejack and Sakura were all walking through a small forest not too far from Ponyville. Despite being an important time for harvesting apples and selling produce, after three straight weeks of work Granny had told the family to take a day off. To spend time enjoying each others company. Of course, everypony knew that she just wanted them out of the house so that she could catch up on her rest. She was getting old. So Jack and Applejack had decided to take their daughter on a nature walk to let her let off some energy. At five years old, she was impossible to keep up with when she was excited and impossible to deal with when she was bored. Applejack had figured that a walk might burn off some of her energy. She had been wrong. "What kind of insect is that? Why are those birds chirping in such a way? How come Celestia makes the sun so darn hot?" These were just three of the many questions Sakura bombarded her parents with. Jack took all the questions in stride, while AJ hung her head slight and dragged her hooves. "Are you alright, my love?" Jack asked Applejack. "She sure is a ball of energy, isn't she?" AJ asked. "Ah know ah was like her at her age. Heh, ah remember Granny would always say that she hoped mah foal would treat me the same way ah treated her. At the time ah didn't know what she had meant. Now ah do and ah regret everything ah did to mah poor Granny." Despite his wife's less than happy attitude, Jack couldn't help but find himself smiling. The day way lovely, his daughter was happy and they were together. He knew that Applejack was truly stressed about working the farm, since Granny couldn't help and Applebloom was off to school in another town, leaving only her, Jack and Big Mac to work the farm and take care of Sakura. Applejack had hoped that her daughter would take after her and want to work the farm, but is seemed she was destine to follow in Jack's hoof steps. She had little interest in apples or farming, yet whenever Jack would talk about his old adventures or practice his swordsmanship in the fields, she was always there watching. Sakura wanted to be a samurai like him, and while he hadn't told her no, he hadn't exactly pushed her towards becoming one. Some of that decision came from him being afraid that Applejack might get mad at him, but most of it was due to his knowledge of what the samurai's life was like. A life he wasn't sure he wanted for his daughter. "No! Put that down!" Applejack called out, snapping Jack back to reality. His daughter had picked up a stick and was swinging it around, poorly mirroring Jack's own moves. "Sakura, listen to me! Put that down before ya poke yer eye out!" "Do not worry mother! I am a samurai!" Sakura yelled in reply. "I strike down all evil and slay those who stand in my way. HIYA!" she yelled as she terrorized a group of squirrels, who ran from her as she swung her stick in every direction. Jack shook his head at his daughter with a small smile, before he glanced over at Applejack to find she was giving him a look. "I...shall have a talk with her," Jack said slowly. "That would be good." Jack had barely taken his eyes off of Applejack before he daughter let out a scream. Jack and AJ snapped their head's towards Sakura, who was backing away from a figure in a black cloak. The figure was definitely a pony, but other than that Jack had nothing else to go on. But they were close to his daughter and that was enough to make his sword come out. In the blink of an eye he stood before his daughter, glaring down the cloaked figure. "Sakura, go to your mother," Jack ordered. Sakura did as she was instructed, leaving Jack alone with the figure. "As for whoever you are, I know not what your intentions are, but if you come near my daughter again-" A lesser swordspony would have had their head taken off. Yet Jack was one of the best and in a moment he brought up his blade to intercept a sword strike that came from out of nowhere. He slammed his hooves into the cloaked pony and backflipped through the air, landing a distance away from his foe. The cloaked pony lifted a blade that was pure black and seemed to be drawing the life out of the air around him. "Samurai Jack. You posses a strange magic in you. A magic I will make my own," the figure whispered in a dark voice. "Now prepare to die." Jack said nothing in reply, he simply raised his blade. The figure was on him in an instant, but Jack was faster. He blocked a volley of strikes before lashing out with his own blade, slicing apart the black cloak. Yet his foe was just fast enough to avoid being struck, even when his cloak was cut to ribbons. The figure swung hard three times and Jack parried all three strikes. "You got this dad!" Sakura cheered from he side. "Jack, do ya...?" "I can handle this my dear. Just keep Sakura away," Jack ordered. The figure was on him again. A flurry of strikes attacked Jack and Jack responded with a flurry of blocks. Yet to the samurai's annoyance, he found that the figure gave him little chance to counterattack. While his strikes were never ferocious enough to get to Jack, they were controlled enough to prevent the cloaked figure from being opened up. Jack deflected a blow and swung his blade towards the figure, who leapt away and landed close to Applejack and Sakura. Sakura let out a yelp as she hid behind her mother, while Applejack slammed her hooves into the ground with enough force to crack the dirt and stone at her feet. "Ya get one warning. Back. Off," AJ whispered. "Because while Jack may let ya live, come a step closer to mah daughter and ah'll tear yer head off." "How interesting. You possess a powerful magic of your own. And so does your daughter," the figure said as he stared at Sakura. "I wonder if her power is greater than yours? I look forward to finding out." After saying those words the figure turned back to look at Jack, but something was different. The samurai's eyes were no longer observant and ready. They were cold, angry and had a look that one did not often see in Jack. Jack held out his sword once more, but in a stance that the cloaked figure was not familiar with. Something about Jack had changed and it made the figure slightly nervous. "I will say this only once more. Leave and never return," Jack said. It wasn't a warning. It was a threat. The cloaked figure let out a laugh before he took a few steps towards Jack...only for Jack to vanish from his sight. If the figure had the ability to look behind him, he would have seen Jack standing behind him while sheathing his blade. But the figure could no long do that, as a moment later his eye rolled back into his head and he collapsed onto the ground in a heap. Both Sakura and Applejack thought that the figure was dead. But he wasn't. Jack remember this all too well. The attack on his families carriage. His mother holding him close as his father stepped out to confront the assassins. The spray of blood across his face as he watched his father end the lives of numerous men. The day he had learned what it had meant to be a samurai. Of what it meant to survive in the world. And Jack had been halfway through cutting down his foe before he had changed his mind, simply knocking him out instead. The samurai had to be willing to shoulder the burden of killing. Of ending another life. That was the path he had gone down. But it was also the path that his daughter wanted to go down. As Jack stood back up and turned back to his unconscious foe, he could not bring himself to strike them down. Not to spare them, but to spare his daughter. Spare her from the darkness and death that had plagued his world. His home. Jack had already had his own soul tainted by the darkness. He would not let it have his daughter. "Is...is he...?" Applejack asked as she and Sakura approached. "No. He lives. We should send a message to Twilight and see if she can come with some royal guards," Jack said. He eyed the blade that his foe had wielded as he said this. The blade felt wrong to him, like it was sucking the life out of him even at this distance. The sooner it was gone, the better. "They will want to take him into custody and also examine this blade. Are you both alright?" "Ah'm fine," Applejack said, before Sakura leapt forward. "That was so cool dad! You were all like block, block, strike! And he was all like "Oh crap, he's too good"! And then at the end when you move like that, i couldn't even see you! You have to show me how you did that!" Sakura asked. Jack gazed down at her calmly, before glancing up at his wife. Applejack wore a bitter smile on her face as she thought it over, before she nodded to Jack. "Very well, Sakura. I will show you how to become a samurai," Jack replied. "Tomorrow at dawn we will begin your training." Sakura let out a cry of victory and she started to ramble off all the cool things she would do as a samurai, but Jack heard none of them. He was lost in his own thoughts. Was this the right thing to do, to have his daughter follow in his hoofsteps? In his world, a samurai needed to kill to survive. To strike down their foes so that his family may live. But this was Equestria. A land of second chances, forgiveness and good triumphing everytime. And so long as he drew breath, he would not let the darkness and bloodshed of his old home taint his new home. His old home and its ways, the ways of bushido, of the samurai...of killing when it was not needed, would die with him. He would not let his daughter become him. He would help her to be greater than him. He would train her to be a warrior that did not need to kill to win. A warrior who would be peerless in combat. He would train her so that she would only need to take a life as a last resort. Perhaps one day she might need to shoulder the weight of a samurai. To shoulder the weight of taking a life. But that day was not today.