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// Meeting the Princess 
// Story: The Lost Swordsman 
// by Star Shadow 
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	After several hours of hard field work; which even Zoro had to admit was a decent work out, Granny Smith, Applejack and Zoro were trotting to town to hopefully get today’s apple sales over with before the celebration was supposed to start. “Thank ya again partner” said Granny Smith as she sat in the apple cart that Zoro was pulling. “With ma old age, Applejack bein’ too small, an’ Big Mac needin’ ta stay behind at the farm ta prepare fer the Princess ta show up, we didn’t expect ta be able ta sell today.”
“And yer not even breakin’ a sweat doin’ it! That’s amazin’ Zoro!” praised Applejack as she hopped around him which was begging to tick him off. During their hours of working together Zoro and Applejack started to become close and while Zoro didn’t hate child he still hated their annoying little questions and idolizing.
“I told you not to call me that” growled Zoro in a harsher tone that he’d intended to; which caused the filly’s ears to go do and look towards the ground ashamed. Zoro sighed. ‘Why do I have to be so damn soft around kids?’ he thought, before he placed his hoof on top of her stetson. “Sorry, I just don’t like using a name that’s not mine.”
Applejack looked back up at him; the ashamed look now gone, and asked. “But how do ya know that it ain’t yer real name?”
“Because it’s so different from everypony else’s” he stated before his eyes widened at what he said. ‘Why the hell did I say everypony? It’s just like earlier when I said filly instead of girl. Being a damn horse must be going to my head.’
When the trio reached the town they saw that everypony was running around frantically. “What the hay’s goin’ on ‘round here?” asked Granny Smith to a passing pegasus.
“The princess is arriving earlier than we planned today” answered the winged stallion before he flew away. 
“Great, I won’t have wait much longer to get home then” stated Zoro with a smirk.
So ah guess that you’ll be leavin’ already then?” asked Applejack sadly from beside the green stallion
Zoro’s smirk transformed into a deep scowl upon seeing that. ‘Damn it’ he growled to himself. ‘Why do kids have to be so damn emotional all the damn time?’ “Well it may take your princess a week or two to fix my amnesia, so I’ll probably have to sta-“said the swordsman before the little filly hopped onto his back.
“Yeehaw!” hollered Applejack from atop an angry Zoro. “This is gonna be just like havin’ another big brother in the family!”
Zoro cringed, as what the filly said gave him a flash back of when he’d been dragged into that family when he and the other Strawhats were stuck at Water 7 without a ship (episode 318). 
“I’m not agreeing to that” he muttered before Granny Smith spoke up.
“Giddy up partner! We gotta get ta sellin’ our apples before the princess gets here” ordered the apple matriarch.
Once the Apples and Zoro reached the selling spot the swordsman unstrapped himself from the harness and began trotting away. “Hey where ya goin’ Zoro?” asked Applejack as she helped her granny to set up the cart.
“I want to see if I can meet up with this princess of yours before the parade” answered the stallion without looking back.
- 2 hours later
Luckily enough there were many ponies who were hungry from hurried Ponyville Day Celebration so the Apples had been able to sell their entire cart right before the parade started. Now, everypony who wasn’t a part of it could be found cheering from the sidelines as the various floats that they’d made to celebrate the town’s grand celebration pass by them. “Check it out Granny, there’s the Princess!” yelled Applejack as she saw the royal chariot being pulled down the road by an escort of gold armor clad royal guard ponies and Equestria’s majestic and benevolent ruler waving gracefully to her subjects. “Ah don’t see Zoro with her though. Maybe he didn’t make it in time ta talk with her” wondered the young Apple.
“Ah doubt that they’d let him walk with the Princess in the parade so maybe he went back ta the farm. The parade is supposed ta go there anyways” suggested Granny Smith before she noticed that the floats had passed and everypony was heading down the road with them, only instead of heading down the path to Sweet Apple Acres the parade was apparently going down a road that Granny Smith recognized right away and gasped.
“What’s ah matter Granny?” asked Applejack.
“Those fools are headed down a path my pa closed down years ago. It cut the travel time ta the Acres in half but the cliffs surroundin’ it are unstable” explained the Apple matriarch worriedly.
“WHAT!?” screamed Applejack. “We gotta hurry and warn ‘em then.” The two then took off; or rather Applejack did because of Granny Smith’s hip, hoping to stop the parade before anypony was hurt by cliff collapsing.
- Meanwhile on top of one of the said cliffs.
“How the hell did I end up here?” wondered Zoro aloud before he heard cheering coming from below him. Looking down, Zoro saw that there was a huge gathering of ponies on the cliff side below him cheering at group of floats that was making its way down the road that ran along the cliff. “That must be there parade. Damn disappearing roads, I missed my chance to talk to this princess of their before this whole celebration started.”
Zoro was about to just turn around and head back to where he thought that the town was supposed to be when the group below him suddenly became louder in their cheering. Turning back to see what all the noise was about Zoro saw that there was white and gold chariot being pulled by golden armored ponies of all different races. What drew the swordsman’s attention though was the tall, pure white coated with a multi colored mane that flowed in an inexistent breeze, unicorn and pegasus mix who was waving to the cheering crowd with one of her gold shoed hooves. “Finally” sighed Zoro in an aggravated relief. “If that’s not the princess then ero-cook’s not a perverted ass-hole.”
Before he could start to head towards his target; and hopefully ticket home, Zoro was stopped when he felt a suddenly violent rumbling coming from lower on the cliff. That was when he saw that the loud cheering and stamping of numerous hooves on the cliff’s ridges had caused a rock slide to start and barrel down towards the unsuspecting residents of Ponyville. “Shit” grunted Zoro before he launched himself down the cliff side to save the ponies below. ‘I’ve got to cut these damn rocks down before they can crush anypony’ he thought; not even noticing his speech slip up, as he unsheathed Wado with his mouth. “Sanbyakurokuju Pound Ho (360 Pound Cannon)” yelled Zoro as he unleashed his attack on the rock slide effectively reducing many of the larger boulders to smaller ones.
Everypony quickly turned and looked up towards where a large explosion was heard to see a dark green stallion running alongside a rockslide and slashing many of the rocks to near harmless size with a blade. “Get outta here everypony! RUN!” yelled Applejack who’d just arrived to see everypony watching the dangerous rockslide with awe instead of fear. With that wakeup call all of the parade’s spectators and participants ran or flew to get out of the way of the disastrous event. All except for a certain purple maned filly who found herself to terrified to move. Luckily for her however Applejack was able to spot her pure white coat and when the cowpony reached her new friend from yesterday she squeezed herself underneath her and lifted the other filly on to back before making a run for safety. “Get a move on Sugarcube!”
Meanwhile the royal guards panicked when they saw half of the cliff coming towards them and their ruler. “Get the princess out of here quickly” yelled one of the unicorn guards to the pegasi who’ve been pulling the chariot since they landed before taking off in a run himself with the other unicorn. Celestia however hadn’t been ready for her guards’ sudden take off into the air; as she’d been focusing her magic to keep a particularly large boulder that was rolling apparently unnoticed behind the rockslide, and when the pegasi suddenly lurked the chariot forward the alicorn lost her balance and collided head first onto the ground below, knocking her unconscious.
Zoro meanwhile had managed to cut down the rockslide to a decent enough size to where even if there were still any ponies beneath him that they wouldn’t die at least. When he stopped running and resheathed Wado however a massive boulder rolled right past him, using what was left of the former smaller disaster as something of a ramp to launch itself into the air. “At least there aren’t anymore-“ It was then that Zoro saw Equestria’s ruler; who was also his only known chance to get back to his world, lying unconscious at the bottom of the ravine and right in the path of the now flying boulder. “Why the hell isn’t that surprising!” roared Zoro as he raced down the cliff at his top speed.
“Where’s the princess!?” yelled one of the pegasus guards when he looked back to check on their princess once they were a safe distance away. Their panicked questioning was silenced when a loud crash was heard back in the direction of the cliff. “Oh hay” groaned the guard as he, the other guards and the Ponyville residents raced off to see if their ruler was still at the cliff and hopefully still in one; none flat, piece.
- Back at the ravine
Celestia groaned from the pain pulsing through her head and opened her eyes to see what had happened. When she did however, all see saw was dark green and rock. “You awake?” asked a strained and deep male’s voice. It was then Celestia noticed that the dark green she’d seen before was actually a large earth stallion’s coat and when she gazed further up she saw to stern eyes gazing down at her.
“Y-yes I am” she answered, lifting her head to get a better view of their apparent situation. What she saw was nothing that she’d ever seen in her thousand-plus years of life. The boulder; which she’d remember being rather large from afar, was actually massive up close as is the entire cliff itself had rolled itself into a ball just to tumble down on them. This isn’t what surprised her however; what did caused the ruler of Equestria to go nearly slack jawed was the fact that this one stallion was holding the boulder on his back and what’s even more amazing is that he only seems to be slightly fatigued by this. She’s never seen any earth pony, unicorn, pegasus, or even alicorn come close to being able to lift even a fifth of this amount of weight for even a second.
“Hey! Quit day dreaming damn it!” yelled the mysterious stallion, effectively breaking the alicorn out of her awe struck daze.
“Oh, I apologize for my inconsiderate behavior. Especially as it appears as though you have saved my life” said Celestia gratefully.
“That’s great and all but can you help me get this damn rock off my back!” roared the stallion.
Celestia was taken aback by this stranger’s brash behavior towards her and rather foul choice of words. She was just about to scold him too until she remembered his predicament and glanced at the boulder again. “I am afraid that even I may only be able to keep this elevated for a short while” she stated, rather saddened by the fact that she wouldn’t be able to be of much more help to her subject.
“That’s fine just do it” groaned the stallion as the weight had finally started to take its toll on him. Celestia nodded before focusing her magic and lifting the boulder slightly off of him. In the split second after she did the green earth pony unsheathed his strange weapon and said. “Ittoryu Iai: Shi Shishi Sonson” (One Sword Style Draw and Resheath Technique: Lion’s Song of Death). 
The next thing that Celestia knew the entire boulder split in half and fell to the ground around them with a loud crash. This time the Equestrian princess did let her jaw hang open in surprise before she shook it off and turned towards the mysterious green stallion about to ask him several questions only to see him lying on the ground unable to move. “Are you alright Mr.-I apologize but I never got your name” stated the alicorn with a worried stare at her seemingly injured savior.
“Firstly; of course I’m not alright that damn boulder landed on my spine!” roared the stallion, only to groan and start to shakingly stand up on his hoof. “Secondly, my name is- He paused suddenly realizing that he’d never thought of a name. “Pirate Hunter, no that won’t fit with the names I’ve heard so far they may not even have pirates in this world. Moss Head, ero-cook would really get a laugh out of that if they came to get me. I remember seeing my three katana tattooed on the sides of my hind legs so maybe Santoryu? No, I doubt that they know what that means. What about Three Sword, no, Three Blade, Triple Blade, Tri-Blade. I’ll go with that one.’ “Name’s Tri-Blade” he finally answered after about a minute of awkward silence on Celestia’s part.
“That is a rather unique name and to get a name so close to your cutie mark is quite rare. I am Princess Celestia, it is a pleasure to meet you Tri-Blade” said Celestia in her usual kind demeanor, extending her hoof to shake her savior’s only to have another awkward silence pass when the stallion didn’t move.
“As much as I want to shake your hoof, or kiss it, or whatever the hell you’re supposed to do to royalty I was holding that boulder for a while waiting for you to wake up so I can’t exactly move right now” explained Zoro, putting no tact into what he says no matter who he’s talking to as usual.
Celestia was taken aback by his brashness again only to giggle at the stern face and glare that he was trying to maintain. “Very well then. Allow me to fly you to the hospital for treatment” said Celestia, levitating the grumpy stallion onto her back.
Zoro really wasn’t thrilled about having to be carried by anyone but his aching back caused him to just scowl instead. “Fine, as long as they don’t put any of those damned bandages on me. Those things are constricting as hell” growled the swordsman.
Celestia giggled again at the stallion stubborn and slightly childish request. “Well it depends on whether or not the doctors request that you be placed in them. If you must be then I will not stop them from doing so” stated Celestia, before her eyes narrowed slightly. “We will also have to do something about that language of yours. Those words you are using do not sound to be particularly appropriate so I would prefer that you not use them around my little ponies.” With that Equestrian ruler took in flight back towards Ponyville, careful not to damage her cargo on the way.