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Act 1 : Scene 1: Glimmering Hope2,259 words
Act 1 : Scene 2 : Starlight's Blade2,252 words
Act 1 : Scene 3 : Twilight's Might1,862 words
Act 1 : Scene 4 : Truth of the Strong1,597 words
Act 1 : Scene 5 : Promise of the Empress1,172 words

Act 1 : Scene 2 : Starlight's Blade

Waking from her slumber, Starlight rose from the soft grass she had slept on. A fire had just been extinguished and Twilight wasn't anywhere in sight. Looking around a little more, Starlight found two mounds of rocks, with large sticks at the head of each for the grave markers. Starlight recalled the night before and the battle that had occurred.

A twig snapped from behind, calling Starlight to turn in fright.

"You're awake," Twilight said, the child breathed easy.

"You buried them?" Starlight asked. Twilight simply nodded. Cleaning up the campsite, Twilight covered up any sight of them being here. From their hoof prints to the burnt earth and ash riddled twigs. Now blanketed by brown dirt. Starlight noticed that she had a robe across her back legs. She then looked at Twilight, as she was wearing a set of purple armor, with edges of silver lining the rims of each plate of metal. Twilight's head was free from her hat that laid next to Starlight. Twilight's mane ran long down her neck and seemed to have been neglected for some time. Her bangs were cut unevenly but the strands of red inner woven into her dark blue hair added such beauty that Starlight could only compare it to her own mother or sister.

"We should be moving," Twilight said. Reaching down to grab her robe. Starlight stood and lifted her hero's hat to her. Twilight thanked her with a smile as she levitated it with her magic, setting it atop her head, horn prodding from a hole made for it.

"A real samurai..." Starlight whispered, praising Twilight. But her hero gave no sign of gratitude in regard to that statement.

"Come along," Twilight said, starting off in the direction back to town. As Starlight began to follow, she turned back to the graves and continued to question the point of burying them. They were nothing more than thugs who wore samurai armor. Real samurai, never abused their standing. They were to be right, true. Something greater. Thoughts of the night before still lashed back at the young filly. Fire and death.

"Hurry," Twilight said from a distance. Starlight snapped away from her thoughts and turned around. Twilight was nearly out of her sight. In a panic, Starlight hurried over, catching up and began to keep pace with her hero. Starlight found herself staring again at Twilight's mane. Her parents had told her that staring was not polite, but she couldn't help it. That colorful mane. Even though she compared it to her mother's, it nearly resembled her own hair. Hair that she didn't know where it came from.

Twilight glanced down at the girl, catching her eyes in her own. "Yes?" Twilight asked.

"Please, forgive me," Starlight began, shying away slightly, yet determined ask now that she had her attention. "I was only admiring your hair."

"It's only hair," Twilight said, off-putting the mood.

"Yes, but, where does it come from?" Starlight asked, and Twilight raised an eyebrow to the foal.

Stupid, it comes from your head... Starlight thought. She turned away from Twilight, face red with embarrassment. But Twilight was curious. She examined the foal closer, noting the child's own hair as to the question she was asked, and came to an answer shortly after that.

"You mean to ask, as to where someone is born with hair like ours?" Twilight fixed the question, making the young filly happy that she understood her. Twilight herself even smiled. Starlight only turned to her, waiting to hear the answer. But Twilight's smile faded at the only possible truth she had.

"Azure manes," Twilight began. "Belong mostly to royalty."

"Royalty?" Starlight gasped. How exciting!

"However, it is also known that one must be claimed by that very same parent or else the birthright, and even your blood, will not matter. It means you were born from a noble and a possible serving girl in his household." That news dampened Starlight slightly, but the knowledge she had now of herself did still make her somewhat joyed to know.

"But love is never something you are really born with," Twilight said. "It is found. Were you not loved?"

"Dearly," Starlight answered without tears. Twilight found that rather strong of her to say so. "And you?" Starlight returned the question.

"And me?" Twilight asked.

"Have you found love?"

"I did," Twilight hesitantly answered.

"And what were they like to you? Your family?" Twilight stopped walking for a moment. Her gaze had shifted from Starlight and to the ground. "Twilight?" Starlight started. But Twilight's shaking head ended the conversation. She continued on without any word about family or loved ones. Starlight still followed, though she felt that she had angered Twilight. The silence between them broke when Twilight asked about directions.

"Is your village far from here?" she asked.

"Only a little more," Starlight said. Now the shrubbery was growing greener. Signs of pony farm work near. And just as they passed the last bit of the forest, both of them came upon the sight of a village in ruins from atop the hill. Smoke trailed from the nearby houses, almost blocking the view a battle still in progress. Starlight stepped forward, but Twilight's hoof stopped her.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"That's my village!"

"Have you noticed anything else?" Twilight whispered as she pointed at two samurai below them. And they, along with four more of them, were rummaging through a single home, while the rest of their army fought off what little resistance still held in the town.

"I need to go!" Starlight struggled against her savior's grip, but Twilight held her back.

"You'll be captured!" Twilight warned. "Why does the empire want you?" Starlight stopped her fussing to look back at Twilight, only to recall the other promise she made to her mother.

"I can't tell you," Starlight said, bitting Twilight's hoof in order to gallop toward the house. Her house.

"Wait!" Twilight shouted, but the foal was already halfway there. She charged after her, calling Starlight's name, alerting the samurai near them. One of them, another captain, reared her head, spotting the ronin galloping toward her direction. She drew her weapon as Starlight ran past and into the house. Twilight cursed, drawing one of her many blades as the lone samurai readied to fight. Their swords met, but Twilight's swing hit her opponent's blade to the ground, allowing her to just flip the cutting edge of her katana toward the samurai. And with one sweep upward, the samurai's neck had been cut open, and so she left her there to engage the next inside the building.

"Starlight!" she called out, looking for the filly past colliding blades. The walls inside the house were crumbled into piles, burnt wood with lingering smoke messed with her focus as she continued to fight off incoming enemies.

The samurai proved to be better trained than the last group, but as they grew in numbers around her, Twilight saw them relax as if they had her. What a foolish way of thinking. Without warning, Twilight drew two more blades with her magic. One was another full-length katana, the other being the broken one she kept from the night before. She forgot about that. And as three blades came swinging at her, Twilight managed to block two of them, as the third hit her back, cutting open her robe, but merely leaving a scratch in her purple armor underneath.

Twilight's next action was to buck the samurai behind her back, and with one more push forward, she took one of her levitating blades in hoof and angled it past one of the other samurai's sword, sticking it through his armor, and pinning him to the wooden wall behind him. The other samurai yelled at Twilight for killing his comrade, which alerted her to duck just in time before the blade swept over her hat, cutting into the wall itself. The samurai was now stuck, trying to pull it free. Twilight picked up her other two blades, the full sword, and the broken one, and cut them both into the samurai's side. The samurai fell, leaving only the other left, who was then joined by the final two.

"For the Empress!" one of them shouted, and they all charged her. Twilight lifted her swords as they all hit her katana. Breaking it, and they all stumbled through the charred wall. Twilight rolled to her hooves first, just in time to plunge one of her broken blades into a samurai's back neck. One of them returned to his stance and began to dual her, katana against dagger. Twilight managed to work around the samurai with and grabbed him by the neck. Causing him to drop his sword as her dagger touched his throat.

"Surrounder or I will kill him!" she threatened. But the samurai charged anyway, running his blade through his ally to get to Twilight. And this time a piece of the blade broke off inside Twilight's armor. She cried out in pain but stilled herself as she dropped the dying pony and locked hooves with the last. The final samurai drew his kaiken. They both tried to force their own blades onto each other, until Twilight lost her standing, falling to her back, sword piece still in her side, with her enemy's dagger inching closer to her face. She had dropped her broken sword to prevent the dagger from reaching her. Both of them were putting every ounce of strength they had into this moment. Twilight was breathing heavy, she couldn't hold out much longer. And as the samurai grinned at his inevitable victory, a young voice cried out, as a sword rammed into the unsuspecting samurai's neck. Twilight fell back, relieved of the struggle, but didn't fail to take notice that little Starlight Glimmer, had saved her.

She sat to examine her wound. An inch of that samurai's blade had jammed its way into her armor. "Greatest armor of all the empire indeed," Twilight grumbled. A comment for an old friend, who had made her that armor. She popped the blade out, causing her armor to retract and tighten around her wound. She would have to treat that properly later. But until then, that would have to do.

Twilight's attention then turned to Starlight, who continued to stare at the dead body. "Starlight?" Twilight started. She was holding back her hoof carefully from her, unsure what damage had been done to her for killing a pony.

"I..." Starlight began, but tears soon followed after. Twilight held back from comforting her. She needed to feel this alone, as Twilight has for countless deaths. Twilight looked back to the trail of blood that led to this room. Six ponies, lives devoted to their empress, snuffed out in a matter of minutes. And all because they crossed her path. This bloodshed could have been avoided, but the child charged in anyway. It was about time she knew why.

"Starlight, why is the empire after you?" Twilight asked again, and as she began to retrieve her swords, Twilight noticed a grouping of three ponies just outside the shutters to the garden. A family.

"I- I promised my mother I wouldn't tell," Starlight said.

"That promise has cost the lives of nearly a dozen ponies. It would be best if you keep your mother's words from being stained any longer." Starlight straightened her back, a shock of guilt began to well up inside her as she turned to Twilight. Her eyes were red, and her thoughts returned to the family that protected her. But without any further words, Starlight walked over to the floorboards just behind Twilight. And with every panel lifted, Twilight began to see the reason for secrecy.

"I am Starlight Glimmer. The last of a clan that named me that. I don't know where I came from, but it wasn't from here. And even though I know little why that is, I do know this..." Starlight trailed off as she lifted up six swords, chained at their hilts and sheaths. "These swords were with me when I was found. As far I have known, these were created with me. By some great artist with unsurpassed skill."

"Are those-"

"Yes," Starlight answered. "They are the Yoso no Chowa. The 'Elements Harmony'." Twilight stared at the weapons. A grouping of holy artifacts that once slew the god of chaos, and the Lunar Tyrant, Nightmare Moon. They were the only tools that could fix this world, save it. And, they were the only things forged that could kill the Empress. That which illuminates the heavens. Amaterasu. Celestia herself.

"So now you know," Starlight finished. Looking up to her hero. But what she saw in Twilight's eyes was not kindness, nor was it of excitement. It was lust. A strong desire for power in a time of need. Twilight reached for the blades, to which Starlight pulled them away. A void had been cut between the mare and filly. And one that would not be easily bridged.

"Give them to me," Twilight stated, extending her hoof out to the swords. But Starlight didn't know this pony anymore. She never knew her. But this moment ceased to be as loud horns sounded just outside. The empire's horns. Music that meant an execution was at hoof. The empire had finally taken the town. Both unicorns looked to one another in worry, and Twilight rushed to the streets, finding a crowd of villagers, corralled like sheep.

Author's Note:

Thought it was about time to continue this one.

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