Celestia and the main six stood in the middle of the wedding area that was still littered with cocoons as they all stared at the demonic warrior, deciding on what to do and how to go about doing that, soon a few solar guards rushed into the aftermath of the princess's skirmish with spears strapped onto their backs, not unusual given recent events. The demon-mare had since gotten her bottle back and sat on her haunches while looking through the empty looking satchel she carried with her, not paying any attention to the guards whatsoever.
"Your highnesses!" One called as the rest came to a stop and stood at attention, awaiting orders.
Celestia turned around "Iron Banner. What brings you here?" She addressed the guard speaking to her.
The guard known as Iron Banner took his helmet off before speaking to the Princess again.
"Some guards on the city walls reported they saw a massive changeling en-route to the palace and when we heard sounds of combat magic being used... Well we feared the worst." Celestia's eyes went wide at the given information, before she could say something the guard had spotted the mare. "Please excuse me Princess but may I ask who that is?" He asked while pointing at the demon-mare. "I don't recall admitting her in."
"Never mind who she is! She's armed!" Another guard called while trying to pry his weapon off his back, the other guards quickly mimicking this.
"Guards! We need to quickly erect a barricade at the main palace doors and gather as many unicorns as thou can find and get them to cast a barrier over the alter. Retrieve a medic for Cadance too, she had been attacked!" Luna ordered from the side as she approached her sister, the guards looked like they were unsure of following another princesses orders, maybe due to the sudden rivalry between the solar and lunar guards, but a nod from Celestia made them turn tail and run off to make with the barriers.
"I hope you have a good plan to deal with those titanlings sister. Our magic is drained so what else is there?" Celestia inquired eliciting a chuckle from the princess of the night as she came to stand next to her sister.
"It never crossed our mind upon first seeing the demon but when I saw her change to a pony it reminded us of an old legend we read about days prior." Luna said before taking a breath to continue. "We believe we needn't know of fair Equestria's history, as that is thou's forte sister. Seeing the demons armaments solidified what we began to piece to together."
Luna looked to her sisters protege. "Twilight Sparkle. We ask you go and retrieve a book on language spells from the royal library. Our visitor must be made aware of the developing situation." Twilight didn't seem to want to argue and ran off.
Celestia was trusting of her sister after her reformation but the idea Luna had was quite far fetched.
"I believe you owe me an explanation Luna especially if we're about to do what I think you want to do." Celestia stated to her sibling. "What non-alicorn can repel titanlings?!" She all but screamed, convinced a demon, pony or otherwise, would refuse to help lesser beings.
In response Luna fully turned to the demon-mare in question. "Hide will surely aid us in our plight."
Hide was just stalling by just moving her hoof through her satchel. She was trying, keyword: trying, to organize her thoughts.
She is normally given a direction and a mission. As she is normally never without, she had made a mistake.
When she entered the castle she assumed the changelings were attacking and drove them back, then she was attacked by two tall ponies and, judging by the regalia, they were pretty important. That led her to overthinking the situation. She thought that the ponies were attacking a city of changelings and the lings had split their forces to sandwich them in between the two split forces and reacted accordingly to make up for the mistake. It wasn't the case.
She had attacked and defeated both sides and accidentally turned whatever this fight is into a three way battle between; Herself, the ponies and the changelings. She assumed that was the developing situation, maybe she was overthinking it again?
Her job wasn't thinking it was fighting, she was far from stupid though. Just because she isn't because particularly sharp doesn't make her dumb. Prone to accidents, definitely, but not dumb. It doesn't really help that she can't understand a single pony here.
The gods could make yokai and war but couldn't restrict everypony to one language.
Ponies walked past her as she sat on the floor pretending to look for something, giving her different looks. Looks of curiosity, anger and confusion. Anger for beating up their rulers probably and confusion because she's rummaging through a seemingly empty satchel.
If only they knew.
It once was a regular satchel but exposure to the ki of powerful yokai, the yokai realm itself, her own ki, the power shrines exude, the blessings of kodama and the many different kinds of spirit stones she had stuffed into it had changed it.
One day she noticed that she could barely feel her satchel while it was tucked away under her armor despite stuffing numerous spirit stones in it hours prior. It was then she decided to take it out and look into it and when she did she saw only black mist. Her satchel had somehow transformed into a yokai.
Inanimate objects were not safe from turning into yokai. She's fought umbrellas and walls before.
Unlike most yokai, her satchel was content with it's current lot, not angry or malicious about a thing, and it could hold an absurd amount of stuff. She has a spare set of weapons in it and three of them are bigger than she is! The satchel could get restless at times but that was the worst of it, at all times she could get whatever she needs out of it. From her elixir to talismans.
The best part is how she carries all that with her and the satchel barely weighs anything.
Her kii was a unique blend of pony ki, yokai ki, tons of anima and amrita, blessings from kodama and numerous guardian spirits. Her ki had changed and shifted over the years due to what she was exposed to and what she had absorbed. Of course it would have an effect on the thing she kept on her at all times.
She was a pony with yokai blood, the child of the union of a stallion and a yokai. So she was already quite unique. Pair that with her early occupation of yokai slaying and her absorption of THEIR amrita, then her exposure of pretty much everything yokai related, everything from the spirit stones to the yokai realm and the yokai themselves. She was as powerful as she was unique. She is a one of a kind.
Her train of thought was cut short by a tapping on her shoulder. Turning to the one that interrupted her musings she saw one of the ponies she had attacked. She was a dark blue and her mane was like that of the night sky as it flowed in an invisible wind.
She didn't say anything however and just nodded her head at a nervous purple unicorn at her side who was holding a book in her aura. Said unicorn slowly approached and lowered her head to point her horn at her, not used to this or unicorns in general, Hide cautiously placed her hoof on her sword but made no movement to actually draw the blade.
Magic flared through her horn and a gentle beam made contact with Hide's forehead. The connection caused her to quickly draw her sword with a loud Shwing!, the unicorn was unfazed by this as she was lost in concentration, unaware of the immediate danger in front of her.
Hide had drawn her sword but was still unsure of the situation in it's entirety so she merely stood her ground. Combat was her forte, politics and diplomacy was a craft that was in an alien language. There was a reason she was scarce whenever politics was on the wind.
All of a sudden her ability to see and hear was completely lost but it came back as fast as it came. Unicorn...
As soon as vision was fully restored she glared harshly at the purple unicorn responsible, her eyes still closed. The moment she opened them she recoiled with a yelp at the glare she was faced with, it didn't make her feel any better when she saw her sword had been drawn.
"Um... Hi?" She said nervously and finished with a chuckle, Hide was blown away. Some kind of learn-my-language spell? Well at least the language barrier is no longer a problem. Hide rolled her withers to get a reaction and got another nervous chuckle and a hoof retreated to the back of her head. Excellent.
"Well now that thou can understand us. You. Hide. Thou art a legend." The dark blue pegasus unicorn said. A legend? Sounds about right but where's this going? "We have read of thou's exploits extensively," Okay? Where has her saga been written? Hide doesn't think anything of that nature was arranged while she was around. "In short; We know who thou are but... You disappeared a long time ago. How did thou get so far from home?"
Hide just stared but sheathed her blade, if she wasn't being attacked blades weren't necessary.
Disappeared a long time ago? Read about her exploits? Far from home-- actually she knew that part but how does she?--
The whole castle shook as the sound of glass breaking rang throughout the hall. Hide looked at the blue pegacorn and saw that she was staring at something behind her in complete shock. Turning herself she beheld the biggest changeling she had ever seen, easily the size of a house, was about to move and presumably crush something. There was a smaller changeling to the left of this behemoth of a ling.
"You thought I ran?! HA! Now that you are weakened from banishing the demon, I WILL TAKE EQUESTRIA!" The smaller changeling started cackling after her claim. The behemoth just looked tired, tired of what though? The smaller one maybe? Probably been in this situation more than a few times too.
Hide doubted he'd ever seen anything quite like her before.
Titan had seen this before.
Queen Chrysalis would launch an invasion on the capital of a country and try to win with brute force and numbers, get repelled by something or other, she calls in Titan; the cleverly named Titanling, he steps on a few things, crushes a few more and saves the day. Of course the Queen claimed it was because of her magnificent strategy and Titan had to suppress the urge to roll his eyes.
These ponies would be no different.
The reports coming from terrified changelings said there was a demon in the castle but Titan wasn't worried, one of two things would come of that. The ponies would defeat the demon and the ponies would be weak from the effort or the demon slaughtered them all and was exhausted from the effort. Either way he'd just have to crush who was left and save the day again. Few battles were difficult for a ling of his size.
He was currently being airdropped by a few hundred lings so he could get into the castle as fast as possible and crash through the magic barrier that a scout said had been erected while a horde of lings flock to the crude barricade in the main entrance of the castle.
It would have been better to enter another way and corner the ponies using their own barricade but the Queen had ordered to go through it so go through it they will.
Titan had to wonder why she's been in power as long as she has, they can make another, more adequate Queen with enough time, effort and love. He's actually been around longer than her so why doesn't he just rule?
The lings carrying him let go.
Ah. Here's his stop.
Titan crashed through the magic barrier with not so much as a flinch, no demon anywhere. Ponies must have won, rather surprising actually. The massacre of the changelings was upsetting to him but the lack of demon being seen must mean it had already been banished by the ponies, it was therapeutic to know the fallen lings had been avenged at least.
He landed on all four hooves, the Queen flew next to him to make her 'I'm better than you!' or 'You thought I ran weaklings?' announcement while he quickly made to crush a white pegasus just beneath him but the familiar feeling of crushing bones when he put his hoof down on somepony was missing, in it's place was pain. For the first time in years, something made him pause.
Standing just to the left of his right hoof was the white pegasus, his target, with a sword halfway through his hoof, blood leaking from it.
Titan had to resist the urge to cry out from the pain surging through his hoof as he tugged his hoof away from the blade wielding mare and reared up on his hind legs to crush her with both fore hooves, if she could turn, identify a threat, evade it, draw her sword and capitalize on the missed attack with one of her own as quickly as she had done it, he had to get rid of this pony and quickly.
As soon his hooves made contact with something he was pushed back with tremendous force as his head recoiled back from the sudden force. Was there a powerful unicorn he wasn't aware about? And just who is this pegasus? He studied as much about Equestria as he could prior to the invasion to not get caught off-guard by anything, knowing the Queen wouldn't, but he came up blank to both questions.
Bringing his head back he saw there was no unicorn but the pegasus, sword still drawn, waiting for him to do something. Was she taking her measure of him? No she couldn't, that would mean she intended to fight him and only alicorns or dragons could fight a Titanling head-to-head.
Being a Titanling meant he had no wings but his horn was there and still usable. Wanting to just get rid of the pegasus, as she was being ridiculous if she actually wanted to fight, his horn lit up and he made to levitate her up and slam her into the ground before finishing her like he had meant to before.
The aura surrounded the pegasus but she didn't budge.
Now angry he launched forward with a hiss. How is a mere pegasus meant to stand against a mighty Titanling such as himself? How she didn't move from his magic was never on his mind.
The pegasus slid under his hoof as it went in a wide, wild arc and slashed through the rest of the way through his hoof above her, severing it and spraying blood everywhere as the Titanling yelled out in pain and shock, failing to suppress his reaction. In his blind rage he had swung the hoof she had already cut and she threw herself out of it's path.
There was a side effect of her evasion.
The satchel hanging from the mares body flew back and forth, barely staying on by the strap in hung on, a single glowing yellow rock rocketed out of the satchel and it slid conveniently under Titan's severed hoof. He set his shorter leg directly onto the stone without realizing it. The stone glowed a bright yellow before absorbing into his body.
The titanling had accidentally absorbed a spirit stone.
He began crying out in pain as a blackish mist began shooting out of his severed leg and most of his body as his leg began rapidly changing. He brought his uninjured leg to his head as his blue eyes began to leak to mist as well.
What was left of his right leg turned into a massive yellow sword as more spirit stones grew along the rest of his legs, growing in huge clumps on his withers, along his back and at his rump. His chitin cracked and broke as more of the yellow rocks grew over his neck and along his spine, his wailing grew distorted as the transformation neared completion. The final changes came in last, his eyes flashed from a blue to a deep blood red as twin horns erupted from his skull in a shower of blood.
He had been transformed into a yokai, from a single stone.
Hide was more than surprised at how susceptible he was to the corruption of spirit stones,. It had taken one to convert the massive changeling into a yokai, which was very surprising and concerning, almost as concerning as her forgetting to clasp shut her satchel. She had to ensure the many spirit stones she has on her stayed that way. If they fell into the wrong hooves... Well...
Yokai are very effective as an army.
It had taken one army combined of both ponies and yokai to conquer the entirety of Japan, the land took years to break free and it was still recovering by the time she ended up in that void place.
The only way to end the yokai-pony war was to travel back and ensure it never began. It must never begin here, history must not repeat itself. She can't go back to that...
Hide looked up at the ex-ling as it glared down at her with it's red eyes, the changeling Queen was still flying where she had appeared from and attempted to make a second hasty getaway. She did not get far.
The now-yokai reached up with it's non-blade leg to tear the Queen away from the sky and immediately crushed her with a sickening crunch!, the Queen's death went unnoticed. The yokai then threw the deceased Queen at Hide which she effortlessly avoided, her gaze followed the flailing Queen, not paying attention to the yokai.
She heard the numerous ponies around her gasp followed by them starting to yell something to her, she didn't need their warning. Hide dived to the side and recovered with a roll as the titanic blade crushed the stone where she once stood, her blank stare followed the yokai's red eyes as it slowly dragged it's blade through the stone floor towards itself before heaving it back to it's side.
Hide had never sheathed her faithful sword but now she needed more, stuffing it back in it's sheath, she'll have to clean it out later, she took the huge sheath off her back and brought it to her front as it was too big to be drawn from her back. She had one hoof on the grip and the other on the sheath as she drew them apart, drawing her odachi.
The long sword gleamed in the sun as she put the sheath on her back again, next to the bow and matchlock rifle she always forgets to use. Bringing it around her body in a ready stance, holding onto the hilt with both hooves which pointed forward as the blade ran along and behind her body, normally you'd want the blade facing toward your opponent but Hide's method of fighting employs less blocking and more dodging and heavy hits. It was also very hard to do so with a blade as long as an odachi.
A high risk fighting style. The reckless approach she employs focuses on killing her opponent as fast as possible at the cost of leaving her exposed. All of her masters, all of them, attempted to teach her a more focused or fluid style of fighting but were left speechless as her approach to combat was not only surprisingly efficient but also effective and fast.
Although she picked up things from her old masters they never truly changed how she approached a fight. One thing that never changed was how she fought yokai, nothing they taught could change how she fought them. She was a yokai slayer before being employed by Oda Nobunaga, the Demon King.
Hide gave a smirk that was hidden under her bandanna as she charged at the large yokai before her.
Just like old times