Nana korobi, ya oki. Meaning, you fall down seven times, get up eight times. An encouragement to for perseverance. 

I think that old proverb fits perfectly well with this story. The best thing I could compare this story to is like watching one of those old samurai movies, like Seven Samurai and the like. What we have here is one very artsy take on Equestria. The author, Salty Alty said in the comments on this:

“I wanted to model the story after a romanticized version of Shiroyama, wherein that even with the fancy guns and new technology, the discipline and training of the Samurai won out in the end.”

This is a very descriptive story, and given what the author was going for, this is a very good thing. Lemme give you an example here, okay?

She scrubbed at her eyes, before she felt a deep slash along her wing. "Gah!" Once she could see again, she cast a quick look back to her wing, eyeing the profuse bleeding. She wouldn't be able to fly like this.

She jumped to the side as the enraged changeling pounced to the space she formerly occupied, frothing at the mouth. "What's wrong, Insect? Unable to fight without your parlor tricks?" She jeered, kicking the bug in the side, launching him through the air. He landed a few hooves away, shakily reacquiring his hoofing. She could have ended it then and there with a quick slash to the neck.

Yeah, descriptions, beautiful ones at that sell the entire experience for you. This is a story that takes great care in describing it’s world for you, even if the entire story is less than 3000 words long.

And the thing the author mentioned before? Old samurai training winning over new technology? I feel that entire theme running through this entire story, really. Like, I do. Okay, yes, it’s basically one long duel between Rainbow and a changeling, but it’s one very beautiful duel.

Now, I was going to give this a perfect score, but there’s one or two things that bothers me. The changeling, Vex'Aldan. He’s… less of a character and more of a plot device. He’s just there for Rainbow to duel him. And secondly, Rainbow herself actually is a point of contention. Okay, yes I understand there would have to be a few liberties taken here but Rainbow hardly feels like herself at times. She’s got that drive and determination, yes, but at times I wonder why she was chosen, and not some other character aside from popularity points.

7/10, bordering on 8. 
7.5

TRainbow Bushido

• MLP: FiM
• Adventure
• Random
• Slice of Life

When the changelings commence their invasion of Canterlot at Shogun Cadance's wedding, Rainbow meets a most vexing opponent on the battlefield. Defeat is not an option. Death before dishonor!

• Violence
• Alt. Universe
• Rainbow Dash
• OC

Salty Alty · 1.5k words  ·  25  2 · 577 views

So I can actually explain that. The story was written for a competition, and the criteria was specifically "Mane Six fighting one of your OCs." So, I naturally chose Rainbow. Additionally, the word limit was 1500, so I banged this out in like 3 days. I definitely could have done a lot better with this story if I had the time and an expanded word count, but it pleases me to know that despite the limitations you enjoyed it greatly!

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Ah, this does clear up a few things, actually. Namely, why Rainbow does seem sorta... off at times. Still, creating something like this in three days is impressive.