//------------------------------//
// The True Power of Art 
// Story: Akatsuki in Equestria 
// by chaos2012 
//------------------------------//

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"KATSU!"

Deidara detonated the owl at what he thought was the right time, but saw the enraged Pegasus charging him once again through the smoke. 'Damn pest.'

"Rahhhh!" Rapidfire screamed out at the top of his lungs as he barreled down onto his opponent once again, carrying one cloud in each hoof. His bloodshot eyes were locked onto the bomb maker with more hatred than he had ever felt in his life. No matter how many times Deidara had attempted to take him out, he had evaded and kept coming at him. Several times the explosions had caught part of his body, but the burns felt like tiny scratches compared to the fire burning inside of his heart.

The death of his sister was driving him longer and faster than he could have ever before. No matter what injury he would recieve, whether or not it be death itself, Rapidfire was not going to stop until that pony was dead at his hooves. He was intent on making up for the loss of High Winds, Misty Fly, Fire and Lightning Streak. And most importantly, he was getting revenge for the death of Spitfire. Gritting his teeth, he pushed his wings even harder and faster, charging the blonde maned akatsuki member.

Ignoring the possible danger from it, Rapidfire shoved the two clouds together into one. The dark shapes began sputtering out dozens of streams of electric currents as the energy fused together. Glaring, he tossed the cloud in front of himself. "This is for all my friends!"

Deidara watched as the cloud was kicked, amazed as three massive bolts of lightning launched out from the wonderbolt. Barrel rolling out of the way, he ducked down and evaded the first two. Unfortunately for himself, the third bolt was sputtering out and was much wider than the other ones and caught his owls wing. Losing. Control, he jumped off of his shape and formed another one mid air and landed on it. Angered, he opened his right hoof and shot out over a dozen birds towards Rapidfire.

Still rushing forward, Rapidfire flipped backwards while letting to of his cloud. As he came back, he brought his hoof forward as hard and slammed it into the cloud, creating a mix of smaller lightning strikes that connected with every bird to Deidara's frustration. Banking upward, the furious wonderbolt pushed the cloud tighter together, forcing all the energy to one spot. He was intent on using the rest inside for a single attack to end this. Throwing the cloud down, he slammed all four of his hooves into it.

"THIS IS FOR SPITFIRE!"

The akatsuki members eyes went wide as seven bolts of lighting erupted out and came rushing down towards him. Diving down, he was able to easily evade the first three, but barely flipped to the right as the fourth one came blasting by him. Opening his mouths, he created an owl to fly up and stop one of the next two incoming blasts. Seeing impossible to dodge the sixth, he jumped off his owl and started forming another owl to land on. He did accomplish his goal, but was too slow to get away from the final lightning strike that landed directly on his left hoof.

Yelling out in pain, he looked down to the horribly burned appendage. Deidara grunted when he saw that mouth had actually been melted shut from the massive temperature spike from the electricity. Grinding his teeth, he looked back up to Rapidfire and stuck his still good hoof into his pouch. "I have had enough of this shit! I'm ending this fight!" 

Suddenly, Deidara felt the air around him spinning rapidly, forcing him to drop to his belly and latch onto his clay. "What the hell!?" Looking down below, he once again gasped. "What!?"

FleetFoot and Soarin were flying in a tight circular path around each other so fast that a tornado began to form in the center between them. While Deidara was so distracted with Rapidfire, this gave them the chance to catch him off guard with one of their own tricks. Both Pegasi were almost blue blurs at the speed they were going, increasing the twisters power even more than before. Deidara felt his owl begin spinning along inside of the powerful current, unable to control his flight. His head began to grow dizzy from the intense motion he was going through, yet he was not out yet.

"Damn it! This is not going to be my end!" He screamed out as his mane rushed behind himself in the wind. "I will not be defeated by you! Hmm!"

Forcing his back legs into his owl, he locked himself in so he could not be pulled off. Standing back up, he lifted his right hoof off the clay and pointed it down towards the wonderbolts. "Just die already!" Launching out an entire flock of birds, he watched them get caught in the current and begin spinning around, but still heading towards their targets.

Through Soarin's clenched eyes, he saw the white shapes coming straight towards him, causing his heart to jump. "Shoot! Fleetfoot, bail out!" 

Fleetfoot looked up to see the same sight. Realizing they had no choice, she quickly tucked her wings in and dropped backwards out from the spinning vortex. Soarin quickly followed suit just before the birds detonated. The force of he explosions travelled outward and ripped through the air current of the tornado, breaking its flow and forcing it to quickly dissipate. Slowly coming to a stop, Deidara sucked in air as he tried to calm his spiraling head. Shaking himself, he stood back up straight and glared at the two hovering ponies. "You think that breeze is enough to stop me? I am the great artist of the-

"Rainbow, now!" Fleetfoot screamed out as she and Soarin turned and flew away as fast as they could.

Deidara was confused by this sudden retreat. "What?" The sudden sound of crackling began to invade the artists ears, growing louder every moment. Flipping around, his eyes became as big as dinner plates to the incoming shape coming down towards him. "What the hell!?"

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Rainbow dash was shooting through the sky faster than she ever had that day, a cone forming in the front of her hooves as she came onto Deidara faster then he could react. The moment she passed-

BOOSH!

An explosion of rainbow colored light blasted out from behind the cyan Pegasus and collided into Deidara. He screamed out in pain and shock as the powerful shockwave hit him with more force than anything he had ever felt before in his life, ripping his grip off his owl and launching him through the air. Unable to fly, he was completely helpless as he tumbled uncontrollably lower and lower towards the incoming forest below him. "Shit!"

Spiraling down below, he crashed through the entire trunk of a tree and passed through the wood before colliding into the ground below. Skidding to a stop, he gasped for air has his crippled body slumped to the floor. Most of the ribs in his chest had cracked from the unbelievable force made from that strange attack. Even his legs felt like they had broken in several places throughout, halting his painful attempt to crawl off the ground. "*huff* what the hell was that?"

Rainbow Dash slowed herself once she saw Deidara not getting up from the ground. She still couldn't believe their crazy idea had worked; while he was busy trying to kill Rapidfire, Deidara was too distracted to notice Rainbow fly high above all of them and came back down and luckily timed her descent to create a sonic rainboom right next to him. While no pony had ever been struck by the shockwave from the rainboom so close, Rainbow knew it was not one to easily shake off. 

"Rainbow!"

Turning to her name, Rainbow was met with Fleetfoot slamming into her and pulling her into a tight hug. "I knew you could do it! You are the craziest flyer!"

"Thanks Fleetfoot." Rainbow happily responded as she wrapped her hooves around her friend and returning the embrace. 

Soarin flapped over and smiled at the two of them. "We finally did it, all of us." 

Rainbow let go of Fleetfoot to approach Soarin. "We all did good, me, you guys and Rapid..." Se stopped herself. "Hey, where is Rapidfire?"

The trio of Pegasi turned down to see Rapidfire landing on the ground, picking up a large rock and began trotting towards Deidara.

(End music)

---

Both Celestia and Pain stared at each other for what felt like an hour, neither one breaking eye contact for one second. They sat still and idle, not moving an inch from their spot while every pony in the courtyard held their breath. The air itself seemed to suddenly go still as Celestia took the first step forward, her her horn radiating a bright glow. "I will give you one warning; stop this now or I will force you to stop."

"Hmph... Your threats are meaningless to me. I am done talking about this now..." Pain closed his eyes again. "I shall go obtain Discord if it means this place having to feel what true pain is like."

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The princess clenched her teeth at his words. "I will not allow you to hurt my ponies!" 

Charging her horn, she conjured a large ball of light and launched it at the unicorn. He sat idle as the ball came closer to him, not attempting to evade it. At the last five feet, he reopened his eyes, followed by a shockwave that struck the ball and obliterated it to pieces. All the ponies, including Celestia gasped at what they witnessed. 

"My spell..." The princess stuttered, "how did you... You stopped it like it wasn't even anything."

"Six paths..." Pain replied, "the six paths of the sage grant unique abilities for the bearer. What you have witnessed is the power of the path of Deva. Any ability, item or form, no matter how powerful, will be repulsed." He lifted one of his hooves and pointed it at the princess. "Your techniques are useless against me."

Celestia watched in shock as a concentrated wave of energy rushed out from Pain's hoof to her direction, ripping up the ground below as it came closer. Quickly opening her wings, she flapped up into the air above the attack before it could hit her. Before she could prepare herself, Pain jumped off the ground and seemingly flew towards her with a black rod held in his hoof. Conjuring her glowing sword, she swung it forward and clashed with Pain's weapon. 

While the two blades came back and crashed into each other again, Celestia attempted to catch him off guard by teleporting above him and bringing her sword down, but he wad able to quickly turn the tables by thrusting his sharp weapon up and forcing her to block. once at the same level, Pain swung down again and created another blast wave and struck Celestia directly. The princess was blasted backwards at unbelievable force and crashed into the street below. "Princess Celestia!" Twilight screamed in terror watching her friend and mentor injured.

Crawling out of the rubble, Celestia shook herself to clear her rattler head. As her thoughts reorganized, she noticed Pain was on the ground once again and slowly trotting towards her. Grunting she stood up and walked out of the crater she formed. 'His power can stop any of my attacks, but here has to be a trick to it.' She said to herself. 'There is a flaw to any power.'

Charging her horn once again, she shot another blast of yellow magic towards Pain, who once again blocked it with ease. This time, however, Celestia quickly teleported to the side of him and shot another stream off at him. This time, Pain did not stand still like before, but instead jumped to the side to evade it. Seeing that caught the princesses attention immediately. 'He didn't block it that time? Could he not do it?' She realized there was a small weakness to it.

Seeing a possible opening, she teleported back to his front and charged up another ball of magic, this one much larger than the ones before. Firing it, she watched as Pain landed back into the dirt and turned to face it on e again. He quickly threw his hoof up and at the incoming attack. "Ha!" He yelled as the ball shattered in a bright flash, destroyed by another one of his attacks. The guards watching the fight sat astonished at the ability of this unicorn.

"This is unheard of; he is stopping the princesses attacks like nothing!"

He can't be a normal pony. I have never heard of this kind of magic."

The princess however stared observantly at what she saw happen. 'So he can stop my attacks, but there is a small window of time in which he cannot use it until he can perform his power again. If I can try this again, I can learn how long exactly I have for me to land a wrong enough attack on him this time.'

The rinnegan bearer stared blankly at the white alicorn. He could tell exactly what she was trying to do by the style of her moves. 'In just a few attempts, she is already beginning to see the one flaw to the power of Deva. She saw the rapse period for the technique to allow my chakra to return.' He grunted to himself. 'Troublesome pony.' This reminded him of fighting the shinobi from the hidden leaf village, especially the gray haired shinobi with the sharingan, Kakashi. While they had been successful in learning of his ability, they were still unsuccessful in defeating him, just like he was prepared to do now.

As Pain lifted his hoof again in her direction, Celestia lowered herself in a crouch position to be ready for the next shockwave. While she waited for the attack to come from the front, however, the loud cracks and sitting of stone from behind rang through the courtyard, forcing the princess to turn in confusion. Unbelievably, a massive chunk of the castle perimeter wall was flying through the air in her direction. "What the!?"

Creating a shield around herself, the stone block crashed into the golden barrier with enough force that a crack spread up the side of it. Sweat dripping down her forehead, Celestia forced the shield outward and cast the eight foot block backwards. Panting, she deactivated her magic and looked back to Pain as he lowered his hoof back to the ground. 'What was that? He can not only repel any form of attack, but he can also pull anything towards him? What is he?'

Clasping his hooves together, Pain made two large pieces of rock rip out from the ground on each side of Celestia. As soon as they cleared the dirt, they rushed through the air at her in an attempt to crush her. The princess folded her wings in front of herself, then was suddenly encircled by another force field. When the rocks hit it this time, however, they quickly dissolved into piles of dust and falling to the ground. Twilight sat opened mouth at the sight. "Th-that shield isn't normal! How did she do that!?"

Celestia deactivated her strange barrier and glared at Pain. Resorting to the cremation barrier was something the princess had not intended to use. Defensive magic at that level actually becomes one that many will use as weapons, actually destroying other things that come into contact with it. At this moment though, she knew that if she was to protect her ponies, she would have to resort to dangerous levels of magic to win.

Turning his up to the moon, Pain stared at the glowing sphere, his face illuminated in the bright light from the sky. he gazed at the sight for several moments before shifting his eyes back at the dumbfounded princess. "Your skill is quite honed that I can tell. Trying to learn the limits of my ability will not help you however, for I am Pain. I am god."


---

Preparing their magic and weapons, the small platoon of guards slowly encircled Tobi. Leading the group, Barren cautiously stepped forward as he slightly shook with every step. 'What kind of power is that? He suddenly dissolved and yet he was still able to land an attack.' 

Tobi chuckled at seeing their nervousness, his sharingan easily detecting the tremors running across their skin. "You all seem to be afraid of me. While I cannot blame you, I will say that you can escape here with your lives if you answer my request."

"And what is that?" One of the unicorns asked.

"If you just give me the location of the creature Discord, I shall leave you and be on with my goal." The mix of gasps and whispers among the guards gave Tobi the evidence he wasn't far from his goal. "I already have intel telling me that he is held prisoner here, and he will be a perfect candidate for our return."

Unsure of the true motives by this pony, Barren glared at the masked akatsuki member. "I refuse. Discord is far too powerful and dangerous to just be used for... Whatever you think you can a accomplish with him. He has been ordered to be protected by the princesses, and as a member of the royal guard, I will make sure that the is kept in the state he is in."

Several other guards yelled in agreement much to Tobi's annoyance. Looking around, he saw there was now nine guards in total that circled him. Seeing no challenge, he chucked to himself. "Fine then. I will show no amount of mercy to your pathetic lives then."

In the blink of an eye, Tobi dashed at unreal speed and grasped a Kunai blade in his right hoof. Before one of the unicorn guards to the left of the courtyard could react, the sharp end of the blade was rammed into his throat and slicing his windpipe. The stallions eyes went wide in shock as he began coughing up a mouthful of blood. Tobi ripped the knife out of the dying pony and kicked the body to the side. Turning to look at the terrified guards, he simply chuckled and shook of some of the excess blood off of his weapon.

Barren felt his breath catch in his throat as his fellow soldier slumped down and went still onto the cold ground. His own blood felt like it chilled to ice seeing what this pony had just done; he had slaughtered another with no hesitation whatever and seemed to enjoy it as well. Something inside his head was telling him that this new enemy was much colder and sadistic than the dark coated pony that had come to Ponyville the day before. 'This pony really is intent on finding Discord by any means. We have to stop him now.'

All eight guards simultaneously ran forward at Tobi and prepared to strike him down. The masked pony grunted and faced the nearest guard who attempted swinging a sword at him. Allowing the sword to pass trough his head, Tobi brought his Kunai up and rammed it into the chest of the guard before throwing the dying pony into another guard. As a Pegasus came rushing at him, he jumped up into the air knocked the sword out of its grasp and passed through the pony before solidifying himself and landing on the back of the guard. Crashing into the ground, Tobi prepared to kill the one before him until he saw Barren throwing a spear his direction.

Having no choice, Tobi had to force himself to allow the spear to pass through him, which gave the pony below him the chance to also get out through his confinement. As the Pegasus scrambled away, Barren saw how if Tobi was on the defensive he would make his body passable, but if he tried to attack, he had to materialize his form to allow a strike. "Guards, I figured out his weakness."

Before any of the others could respond, Tobi chuckled at hearing the statement. "So you think that learning something about myself will give you a chance?"

"There is a chance now; whatever your strange power is, there is one thing I noticed. When you want to simply evade an attack, you change your form to allow things to pass through, but yet when you go for an attack you have to rematerialize your form. That means when you attempt a strike you are actually vulnerable to be hit yourself."

"So... You learned one thing about my power. I'm impressed you could figure that out, and it only took you three of your friends lives to learn that." Tobi chuckled again, bringing furious glares from the guards around. "Don't even think that you have a chance however, since you lack  even the slightest skill to defeat me."

"Lets see who has no skill!" One of the unicorns screamed out as he charged, aided by another Pegasus. The two sprinted forward and drew their swords and began swinging at their foe. Tobi instead of simply letting the weapons pass through him ducked and weaved around the swords or clashing his Kunai against the incoming steel. As the unicorn charged his horn and fired a bright stream of blue magic at the akatsuki member, who now made his body passable and ran through the magic and jumped into the air. Coming back down, he slammed his hooves into the unicorns head and crushed it into the street.

Jumping off the limp body, Tobi grappled the nearby Pegasus and got behind him, slipping his left foreleg below its chin and his other hoof on the back of its head. Applying pressure, he made the pony cringe in pain as its neck was pushed in an awkward angle to the side. His single act had forced the remaining five ponies to stop in their tracks. "I've grown tired of this annoying hinderance. Give me the location of Discord or I will snap his neck."

Hearing the guard cry out in pain and terror sent a chill up Barren's skin. He knew Tobi was not bluffing with his threat, and he could not stand the sight of another friend dying in front of him. "Stop, please! I'll... I'll tell you where he is."

One of the other guards eyes went wide, "Barren, don't!"

Barren ignored the warning. "I will tell you, but you will not hurt any more ponies once you have your answer."

"Agreed..." Tobi answered as he pushed a little harder on the guards neck, "Now, the location."

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Barren gave up what they had been sworn to protect. "He is in the Canterlot gardens, west of the palace. His stone prison is by the large fountain."

Under his mask, Tobi grinned. "Thank you."

SNAP!

Barren felt his heart stop as Tobi broke the guards neck despite his promise to let him go. The akatsuki leader shoved the limp body to the side and stepped towards the petrified guards. "Unfortunately for you, I cannot allow you to reach your leader. That would simply cause me trouble that I do not need."

Rushing at them, Tobi grabbed one of the guards by the head and slammed it into the ground so hard it shattered the rock beneath its jaw. Before the others could even register what happened, he brought another Kunai out and slit one across the throat and then threw the blade into the forehead of another. The final unicorn tried to charge his horn and fire a beam of magic, but Tobi once again allowed it to pass through himself and ran at him. The moment the magic was through his body, Tobi brought a hoof and slammed it into the unicorns face and sent him through the wall of the building across the courtyard.

Barren was in pure disbelief at how fast this pony was able to move through and kill all of the others in the area. Never once in his life had he seen anything so horrible; not even when the changelings had invaded had they ever killed ponies, yet this one was almost seeming to enjoy it. His thoughts were cut off as Tobi charged him and slammed him into a wall, a hoof pressed up against his throat and suspending him off the ground. 

Tobi chuckled as the guard in his grasp attempted to escape with no hope of it. "I thank you for saving me the time of searching for Discord. Now while the others were of no use to me, I see you as one of possible aid for the future."

From Tobi's hole in his mask, a swirling vortex began to form in front of it. Barren felt his body begin to shift and pull towards the dark hole. "Wh-what is this!?" He screamed as he started to feel himself pulled off the wall. Despite trying to fight it, he was caught inside of the mix and was pulled into the darkness of Tobi's eye, disappearing into his Jutsu, and vanishing completely from the courtyard.

Now alone, Tobi chuckled again and turned to look at the castle above the city. "So our goal remains there. Perfect."

---

Carrying the large rock in his hoof, Rapidfire stepped closer to the near dead Deidara. He was nearly drooling from the uncontrollable anger running through his veins at the sight of this pony that killed his sister. Now, after everything that had happened that night, that he was on the ground and unable to escape, the wonderbolt saw this as the chance to repay the damage that was done onto him. 

Quickly dropping onto the ground, Soarin ran up to Rapidfire's side. "Rapidfire, what are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm gonna kill him." Rapidfire's voice was dripping hatred with every word that he spoke. "I am going to make him pay for what he did."

Fleetfoot and Rainbow landed onto the ground as well. "Rapidfire, don't do this, this isn't you. We have already beaten him." Fleetfoot pleaded, but felt her blood run cold by the terrifying glare she received from the enraged brother.

"You want me to stop? After everything he has done? After he killed Spitfire, my own flesh and blood!? No... I have never killed any pony in my life, nor have I ever wanted to before. But now... That has all changed with him. I don't care what you all think, but I am going to smash his skull in."

Rainbow cringed at the bloodlust of her friend, but she didn't dare say a word. She felt as if she said the wrong thing, he would suddenly lash out at her. Never had she ever seen a pony she knew change to this extent before, and she was afraid of what would happen if she or any of the others tried to stop him. Then, the sound of Deidara laughing brought her attention away from the others.

Now awkwardly sitting up, Deidara huffed for air as he grinned at them. "You all think that you have beaten me after that? Heh heh, you fools, even if I cannot move my legs anymore, I will not be the one to lose here."

Clutching the rock tighter, Rapidfire sneered at the crippled Pegasus, "you are nearly dead and can't even move away. There is only this rock and your head."

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"Oh I am going to die, but it will not be by you." Deidara shouted as he painfully used his one foreleg to grip his cloak and ripped off what was left. The wonderbolts all stared in confusion to the odd tattoo that was on the left side of his chest. Smiling, he forced his right hoof up and used its mouth to bite at the center of the design. After a moment, a line of string was revealed to be sewn through the center, which he bit through and ripped the thread out. Using what strength he had left, he flexed his chest muscles, forcing the middle of the design open, revealing another mouth there as well.

Dropping the rock, Rapidfire stared in disgust and shock at the new sight. "What the... What kind of a freak is he?"

Smiling, Deidara brought a chunk of clay up and stuck it into the new mouth. As it began chewing, his legs began to suddenly become transparent, only leaving odd black lines visible. Soon, the rest of his body began to do the same as well. The lines then began to travel towards his chest, creating a dark mass in the center. "This will be my ultimate piece of art. I'll explode. I shall die and become art itself!"

Soarin felt his heart skip a beat at that. This pony was going to kill himself in an attempt to take them all with him. "We gotta go now! Come on!" Taking off into the sky, the blue Pegasus was quickly followed by Rainbow and the others.

As he watched the ponies fly away, he couldnt help but laugh to himself. "Go ahead and try to run away, but it will be pointless. This will be like no explosion before it, and it will leave a scar upon the Earth unlike anything else. Everything within six miles will be obliterated! Then, my art will receive the admiration it's always deserved!"

Soon, nothing of his body was left except for the small black sphere from his chest, yet his voice continued to be heard. "Tremble! Be afraid! Recoil in despair! Cower in awe! And cry your heart out, because my art… " a small crack alleared in the side of the sphere, "IS AN EXPLOSION!" From the ball, a blinding flash of blue light shot out from the center in a powerful blast and expanded outward. Every tree, rock or creature that was caught in the growing explosion was instantly vaporized into nothing. 

All the wonderbolts were flying at breakneck speed away, but the attack was rapidly drawing onto them at a deadly rate. Fleetfoot felt herself begin to cry out of fear of her incoming fate. "I don't want this! don't want to die like this!"

"Come on, we have to go faster!" Rainbow screamed out as she extended a hoof to Fleetfoot, "we can't give up!"

Quickly grabbing onto it, Fleetfoot stuck her other hoof for Soarin to grab, and Rainbow reached out and grabbed onto Rapidfire's. together they tried to hold on and push harder, but it seemed like the blast was still gaining on them. The edge of the growing explosion was now almost touching Rainbows tail Then, she felt a strange sensation crawl over her body, almost like she was losing feeling of every sense. Her eyes grew hazy, and her mind went blank in an instant. What happened next, she wouldn't even be awake to experience.