Chapter 32 - Fears of the Past
Soon enough, the seven ponies were on their way, and in a few minutes had made it to the labyrinth’s entrance.
“Wait, everypony!” Naruto called a short distance from the entrance. The others skidded to a stop and turned to look at him.
“I’ve been thinking about this for a while now,” Naruto said. “There’s no need for you to risk yourselves! Just let me handle Discord myself!”
“What are you talking about, Naruto?!” Rainbow scowled, marching up to him. “Didn’t you hear what the Princesses just told us?!”
“I’m with Rainbow on this one, Naruto,” Applejack nodded. “We can’t let ya go alone!”
“Not to underestimate your ninja abilities, Naruto,” Rarity said. “But we need to use the Elements of Harmony!”
“And to use the Elements, we must all be together!” Twilight nodded.
Naruto frowned. “Look, I don’t think we have to use them! Let me just talk some sense into that Discord guy!” he argued.
“Good luck making sense of the one who made these yummy clouds, Naruto!” Pinkie called. She stuck a giant straw into a small cotton candy cloud floating not far off the ground and began drinking the chocolate milk out of it.
“Umm… I don’t mind letting Naruto talk to him…” Fluttershy muttered, hiding behind Applejack.
“Are you just gonna ignore what the Princesses told us?!” Rainbow demanded, pressing her snout against Naruto’s. “What part of ‘embodiment of chaos’ didn’t you get?! We’ve got to beat Discord up and then stop him with the Elements of Harmony!”
“I don’t care what anypony says!” Naruto retorted. “I’m going to talk to him whether you want me to or not!”
Rainbow stared daggers into him. “You stubborn, little—!”
“QUIET!” Twilight yelled. Rainbow and Naruto broke their furious stare-off and turned to her.
“Twilight,” Rainbow said. “Would you talk some sense into him?!”
“I’ve thought about what you said, Naruto,” Twilight said. “And I think you’re crazy,” she deadpanned.
Naruto frowned at her. “See? What did I tell you?” Rainbow asked with a victorious smirk.
“But I also think that Naruto has a very good point,” Twilight continued.
“Really?!” everypony, included Naruto, exclaimed.
“As Naruto said at the Gala,” Twilight replied. “Everypony deserves a second chance. Even if that pony is a spirit of chaos that ruled the world and caused misery for everypony,” she deadpanned. “I think we should at least give him a chance to do the right thing before we use the Elements against him.”
The others all exchanged looks, before hesitantly nodding in agreement. Rainbow floated off the ground and crossed her forelegs with an angry huff.
Naruto grinned. “Thanks, Twilight! Just leave it to me!” he called as he raced forward. In a moment, however, he was lifted off the ground by a purple aura. Surprised, he turned back to see Twilight looking at him, her horn aglow.
“But I also think that we should get our Elements back first, just in case your plan won’t work,” Twilight said. “And most importantly…”
Twilight turned back with a smile to see the others trotting forward. Even Pinkie had given up on her sweet cloud and Fluttershy came out of hiding. Rainbow let out a sigh before descending to the ground and joining the others.
“We’ll all be going along with ya!” Applejack exclaimed, smiling.
Twilight put Naruto back on the ground and ceased her spell. “Just like what happened with Nightmare Moon; if we all work together, I’m sure everything will turn out just fine!” she smiled.
Naruto pondered this for a moment, before sighing in defeat. He smiled back to his friends. “Alright, let’s do this!” he called, thrusting his hoof up to the air.
“Yeah!” they called, throwing their hooves up as well.
“So what’s the plan?” Applejack asked.
“Well, if Discord hid the Elements in the maze, they’re probably at its center!” Twilight said. “So our next course of action should be heading over there.”
“That’s it?” Rainbow grinned. “Don’t bother! I’ll be there and back before you can say ‘future awesome Wonderbolt’!”
The Pegasus rocketed off and was just about to fly over the entrance, when suddenly her wings vanished in a flash of light. “What the—!” was all she could cry before falling out of the sky, screaming.
“Rainbow!” Naruto called and raced to save her. He managed to jump right to where she had landed and catch her in the nick of time, where his legs gave out and he fell on his belly.
“M-my wings!” Rainbow cried in disbelief, looking back at her now wingless back.
“Can you get off my back now?” Naruto groaned.
With three more flashes of light, Fluttershy’s wings and Rarity’s and Twilight’s horns had vanished as well, causing each to scream in fright.
“W-what the—?! My chakra!” the nine-tailed fox roared, looking around in panic. His eyes then widened in shock. “T-this power… This is…!”
Suddenly, a humongous flash of light materialized at the entrance of the maze, before out of it appeared Discord. Standing at over twice the height of the ponies, and looking just as insane as in the stained paintings, he began laughing madly, lightning rolling behind him for extra dramatic effect.
The seven ponies simply stared at Discord in astonishment, as if attempting to come to terms with his realness.
“You should see the looks on your faces! Priceless!” Discord laughed as he pointed at the ponies, his initially overwhelming image all but dissipating.
“So that’s… Discord,” Naruto thought, glaring at him grimly. “This world sure keeps a steady supply of weird creatures…”
“Give us our wings and horns back!” Twilight demanded.
“You’ll get them back in good time,” Discord said, before teleporting in a flash of light to Naruto’s side.
“You see, I’ve been listening to your little conversation for a while now,” Discord said, leaning against Naruto’s back.
“So you know what I just said, right?” Naruto asked, completely unnerved by Discord’s proximity. “We don’t have to fight each other! Just turn everything back to normal and we can all live together in peace!”
“Oh Naruto, you are far much funnier than those boring Princesses up there!” Discord said as a huge red arrow appeared at the sky, pointing towards the castle. “A true comedian, really!”
Discord snapped his fingers and a window appeared in front of Naruto, in which was an image of himself. ‘Let me just talk some sense into that Discord guy!’ the Naruto in the image said. ‘Let me just talk some sense into that Discord guy!’ the image repeated. And then again, and again and again.
“I… I literally laughed my tooth off when you said that!” Discord laughed, spinning around in the air as he held his knees. Suddenly, his large tooth fell down on the ground, sprouted little arms, legs and mouth, and began laughing as well in a squeaky voice.
After ceasing his mad laughter, Discord snapped his fingers again. The image vanished and his tooth reappeared back inside his mouth.
“Why, Naruto here was simply trying to be a gentlecolt and stop all this bad-mannered chaos in a civilized fashion!” Rarity reprimanded.
“Oh, I was so touched. I nearly cried,” Discord wiped off a tear. The tear then increased hundreds of times in size as it made its way down to earth. Applejack pulled the stunned Rarity out of its way just before she’d got soaked from hoof to head.
“Well, what the hay do you want from us?!” Rainbow shouted up at Discord. “Why did you take my wings?!”
“Why, I simply decided to take Naruto’s advice and reach out a hoof in peace,” Discord said. His deer leg popped out of its place and hopped towards Fluttershy. The wingless Pegasus screamed in fright and jumped on top of Rainbow Dash, putting herself out of the leg’s reach.
“How’s taking our wings and horns ‘reaching out a hoof in peace’? Twilight frowned.
“Oh, don’t be such a party-pooper, Twilight Sparkle,” Discord said. “It’s all for the sake of a fun little game I had in mind! A simple game to decide the fate of Equestria!”
“Ooh! Ooh! What game?! Tell us the game! We want to play!” Pinkie called, hopping in place ecstatically.
“Glad you asked, my little pony!” Discord grinned as he floated upside-down beside the pink pony.
“All you have to do to win the game is to find the Elements of Harmony,” Discord said. “If you win, I’ll return Equestria back to its boring old self.”
“So what’s the catch?” Applejack asked, glaring at the Draconequus.
“Oh, there are no catches, Applejack,” Discord replied. With a flash of light, a pair of reading glasses materialized on Discord, and a heavy looking book, floating and open appeared before him. “Just a pair of simple little rules, see?” he asked, dropping the book down. Applejack jumped out of its way just in time. The ground slightly cracked underneath the book.
Applejack squinted at the book, trying to make sense of the words written in it. “The letters here are all mish-mashed! I can’t make a lick of it!”
“So let me explain to you in a way even you can understand,” Discord grinned mockingly. The book and glasses vanished in flashes of light. “The first rule is…” Discord said before teleporting away.
He reappeared next to Rainbow and Fluttershy. “No wings,” he said as he looked at them, before teleporting again.
“And no magic,” he continued as he appeared next to Twilight, stroking her from head to chin.
“The first rule?” Rainbow asked, worried.
Discord then teleported back to the maze’s entrance, behind Rainbow’s back, causing her to turn around in surprise. “The second rule is everypony has to play, or the game is over and I win!” he smirked.
“Good luck, everypony!” Discord called, laughing thunderously as he vanished in a flash of light.
Naruto smirked mischievously. “Looks like Discord forgot something!”
“He forgot his leg!” Pinkie exclaimed, poking the deer hoof which Discord forgot to reattach to himself. The hoof tried to kick her, and then jumped up and down in protest before vanishing in a flash of light.
“I can use my chakra to get us up on the walls,” Naruto suggested. “We’ll get the Elements from up there in no time!”
“Great idea, Naruto!” Applejack exclaimed.
“But I’m gonna need to take you up there, so first…” Naruto said as he crossed his forelegs. “Release!”
“Um, Naruto… What are you doing?” Twilight arched a brow at him. The orange stallion simply stood in place as if he was expecting something.
“Huh?” Naruto mumbled. He crossed his forelegs again. “Release!”
Naruto looked around at his orange appendages and yellow tail, starting to panic. “Release! Release! Release!”
“I… How?!” Naruto cried. “Now that I think about it… My chakra feels really… numb. Just what’s going on here?!”
“That clown has the ability to disable chakra. Don’t bother using any jutsus,” the nine-tailed fox said indifferently.
“Are you serious?!” Naruto replied. “Did he get you too?!”
“Hmph, mind your own business,” was all the fox said in response.
“Don’t tell us that Discord has somehow blocked your chakra too, Naruto!” Rarity cried.
Naruto slowly turned back to the group. “He… did,” he confirmed quietly. “Just how did he do that?! I get him blocking the Unicorn magic, but my chakra too?! Despite how he looks, that Discord is definitely one of the most dangerous guys I’ve ever faced…”
Twilight paced towards Naruto, placing a comforting hoof on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Naruto. We’ll just have to follow Discord’s rules, and beat him at his own game!” she smiled confidently.
Naruto looked up at her, before his troubled expression turned into a grin. “Yeah, we will! Believe it!”
“Just like Twilight said!” Rainbow called. “There’s nothing we can’t overcome if we all stick together!”
The others all smiled, taking the encouraging words to heart, before trotting up to the maze’s entrance, full of confidence.
“All right, guys, let’s do this!” Twilight called.
“TOGETHER!” the seven ponies yelled at once, taking their first, brave step inside.
Suddenly, bush walls rose up behind and to the sides of each of the ponies, causing Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rarity to scream in surprise. The seven were effectively cut off from each other and trapped inside the maze.
“Twilight! Everypony!” Naruto yelled. He quickly produced a kunai from his bag and started cutting up one of the walls, holding the metallic object in his mouth. But just as quickly as the branches were cut, the wall grew back up to fill the dent.
“Dammit!” Naruto cried in frustration. “I can’t cut through these!”
“Don’t worry about it, Naruto!” Twilight called. “Let’s all hurry up to the middle and regroup there!”
The others all sounded their agreement, and with no time to spare, Naruto raced off.
*****
“Why do I have such a bad feeling about all this?!” Naruto wondered as he ran through the maze, taking occasional left and right turns. “Discord must be leading us into some kind of trap now, but what is?!”
“Dammit, I can’t believe I let the others come with me!” Naruto thought. “I should have seen this coming!”
As more and more time passed since the group had entered the labyrinth, Naruto was growing more and more worried. “I’ve been running for a while now, but I didn’t see anypony yet…” he thought. He kept running on and on, barely minding the maze itself, but instead looking around for any signs of life. “Argh! Why am I so worried?! They’ll all be just fine!” he hollered.
“But that Discord… There’s definitely something odd about him,” Naruto pondered. “Just how does he know so much about me? And why do I feel like he’s the most dangerous enemy I’ve ever faced?!”
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew in Naruto’s face, blowing some leaves onto his eyes. “Argh! Get off me!” Naruto cried as he attempted to remove them.
As Naruto wiped the invasive leaves off his eyes, he could spot a shadow at the turn ahead of him. Naruto’s eyes widened in astonishment as he recognized it. “N-no way… Sasuke…?” he muttered. “It… It can’t be! Right?!”
A soft chuckle was heard from the shadow as it made a right turn. Naruto immediately raced after him, galloping faster than he had ever galloped. “Sasuke! Is that you?! Come back here!” he shouted desperately.
The mysterious shadow continued chuckling as he ran in speed matching Naruto’s. Another gust of wind soon blew into Naruto’s eyes, which were again assaulted by small leaves.
“Sasuke!!!” Naruto hollered as he tore the leaves off his eyes. Naruto looked around for his former teammate, but instead his eyes widened in astonishment when he saw the surrounding scenery.
Naruto had found himself standing on a large, open field. In the distance he could see many, many trees. A few dozen feet away from him, at the trees’ direction, were three identical wooden pillars, standing side by side. Some distance behind them, not far from the tree line, was a black stone, inscribed with various words.
Naruto slowly trotted forward and laid his hoof against the middle wooden pillar. “I know this place…” he muttered, looking around. “This is the third training ground… It’s where Kakashi-sensei gave me, Sakura-chan and Sasuke that test! It’s where Team 7 was born!” he called in astonishment.
“Hahahahaha… Like what I did with the place, Naruto?” an all too familiar voice echoed.
Naruto broke his gaze off the wooden pillar and looked around. “I know you’re here, Discord! Come out and face me!” the orange pony yelled.
“I’m right here,” Discord whispered. Naruto jerked his head to the right, finding Discord standing against the right wooden pillar. He was holding up a brown cloth, concealing his appearance ninja-style.
Naruto jumped backwards and looked straight up at Discord. “I want some explanations, Discord! Just how did you block my chakra?!”
“Really…? Didn’t you listen?” Discord sighed as he dropped the cloth, fully revealing himself.
Discord snapped his fingers, causing both him and Naruto to vanish, and then reappear just outside the maze, bluish and transparent. He and the jaw-dropped Naruto then witnessed a scene of the past:
“The first rule is…” Discord said before teleporting next to Rainbow and Fluttershy. “No wings,” he said as he looked at them, before teleporting again.
“And no magic,” he said as he appeared next to Twilight, stroking her from head to chin.
Discord snapped his fingers again, and he and Naruto reappeared back in the third training ground. Naruto shook his head off the shock of what just happened and turned to look at Discord. “You said ‘no wings and no magic’! You didn’t say anything about chakra!”
Discord face-pawed. “Do I honestly have to spell it out for you? I was sure you’d get it after spending such a long time here.”
“Get what?!” Naruto demanded.
“Get ready for it…” Discord said as a drum and a pair of drumsticks appeared floating in the air, and began to sound a drum roll. “The truth is… chakra… is… magic!” Discord called as a party popper sounded and flakes of confetti were thrown to the air. “Aren’t you just shocked?” Discord smirked at you.
“Uh… I’m over here,” Naruto said, watching Discord speaking in another direction. “Wait! What do you mean ‘chakra is magic’?!” he called. “Ninjas use chakra, not magic!”
“Oh, but chakra and magic are one and the same! There’s quite an interesting tale behind it!” Discord said as he poofed into existence a large blue sofa and sat on it, crossing his legs. Naruto watched closely as he waited for the answer.
“Oh, I’m not going to just tell you now!” Discord laughed. “That would be far too spoiling for the story!”
“F-fine! Whatever!” Naruto called, having no idea what Discord was going on about, and having a much more pressing issue to discuss with him. “Then how do you know all this?!” he asked, motioning at the field around them. “How do you know so much about me?!”
“Oh, a little birdy told me,” the Draconequus said nonchalantly from next to Naruto’s ear. Naruto quickly jerked his head to his left to see a canary version of Discord smirking at him.
“But enough about me,” Discord said as he turned with a bright flash back to his ‘normal’ form and stood next to Naruto, laying against his shoulder with his eagle claws. “Let’s talk a bit about you! Let’s talk about the legendary ninja, who’ve single-handedly saved his entire village just a few days before being brought here by good old Princess Celestia.”
“You already know enough! Why do you even care?!” Naruto scowled at him.
“Well, it’s just that I couldn’t help but notice you’re hiding a foxy little secret from everypony. Or should I say, a huge foxy secret,” Discord smirked deviously at him.
Naruto took a few steps back, stunned. “N-no way! He didn’t…!” he thought in horror. “H-how did you—?!”
“And so I was wondering,” Discord continued, keeping close to the orange Earth pony. “How did ‘The Hero of the Leaf’ fare before that little act of heroism?”
“I-I had friends long before that!” Naruto quickly proclaimed, somehow knowing exactly what direction Discord was going in, and he didn’t like that direction one bit. “I had Iruka-sensei, Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke, Sakura-chan, Hinata, Bushy Brows—”
“Of course you had some friends,” Discord said. “But how did everypony else see you? Maybe like… this?!”
Discord snapped his claws, causing a mob of people to appear around Naruto, their faces hidden in shadows. The people’s eyes were glowing red, filled with hatred and fear. Naruto looked around in horror to see that the scenery had changed into that of the Village Hidden in the Leaves’ main street.
“Monster!” a man’s voice yelled.
“Get lost!” a woman called.
“No…” Naruto muttered, looking around the shadowy figures. “No… Not this again!”
“Demon fox!” yet another men yelled. Soon enough, the shadows started throwing eggs and rocks at Naruto.
“NO! STAY AWAY FROM ME!” Naruto hollered as he started running away. But no matter where he ran, he was still surrounded by the hostile shadows.
“Damn fox!” “Get out of our village!”
“STOP IT ALREADY! DON’T CALL ME THAT!” Naruto screamed, tears starting to fall from his eyes. After a few meters, he tripped and fell down to the ground.
Naruto blocked his ears with his forehooves and shut his eyes tight, trying in vain to block out the sounds and images that were now playing vividly in his mind. “I’ve proved myself already! They’ll never talk to me like that again!” he yelled, more to himself than to anypony else.
“But what about all the ponies here? Should they find out your little secret, it will be the same thing all over again,” Discord whispered into Naruto’s right ear. Naruto’s eyes widened in horror.
“You’ll have nowhere to go… And you’ll be completely and totally alone once again. Hated by everypony, with no friends anywhere,” the Draconequus said quietly, grinning diabolically. “That’s what really frightens you, isn’t it?”
Discord snapped his fingers once more, and the scenery changed into that of Ponyville. Naruto looked around, stunned to see that he was now surrounded by many ponies he knew, most of their faces hidden by shadows, their eyes glowing red, just like the humans. At the innermost circle, completely visible, were standing Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow, Applejack and Pinkie. They were all staring at Naruto, fearful and furious.
“How could you lie to me, Naruto?! I trusted you!” Twilight called.
“You’re a monster!” Rainbow yelled.
“Don’t ya dare hurt my friends, ya darn demon! Ya hear me?!” Applejack shouted.
“You must be the vilest creature I’ve ever laid my eyes on!” Rarity called.
“You disgust me!” Fluttershy said.
“I can’t wait to throw a ‘good riddance’ party in your honor, Naruto!” Pinkie called.
Other ponies soon started throwing slurs and hateful words at Naruto as well, their eyes and voices radiating with hatred.
“NO! DON’T SAY THOSE THINGS! DON’T SPEAK TO ME LIKE THAT! I’M NOT A MONSTER!!!” Naruto screamed up to the sky, his voice shaken by the constant stream of tears flowing from his eyes. The ponies’ eyes started spiraling in a hypnotic whirl.
“Do you see now, Naruto?” Discord asked. “The only way you can keep on living here in Equestria is to hide your true identity. You have no other choice, my little ninja.”
Naruto’s eyes widened as he gazed at the ponies, completely frozen in place. His orange coat slowly started graying from his head downwards. “No… I can’t tell them… I mustn’t tell them… Nopony can ever know…” he muttered in a tranced voice. He then lowered his gaze to the ground, his expression filled with terror and his eyes lacking focus. His tears slowly came to a stop, until all that remained of them were wet streaks on his cheeks.
“Oh, and how do I adore that fancy little headband of yours! I think I’ll keep it as a souvenir!” Discord said cheerfully as he snapped his claws once more. Naruto’s protector flashed and vanished from his forehead, and then appeared on Discord’s. “I’m going to keep this look!” the Draconequus called joyfully before teleporting away. Ponyville’s scenery faded away, turning back into a plain space in the maze.
One of the room’s walls suddenly fell down, revealing Twilight, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie. “Naruto! I’m so glad you’re okay!” Twilight called as she cantered towards him.
Naruto jumped up before turning to look at the five mares, a panicked expression on his face. Save for Twilight, all of the mares’ coats had shifted to gray. For some reason, Rarity was carrying a huge boulder on her back.
“Hey, what happened to your forehead protector?” Twilight asked, immediately noticing that it was missing.
“I-It’s nothing, Twilight! I’m not hiding anything! Honest!” the orange pony cried, taking a few steps back.
“Clearly he’s telling the truth, y’all!” Applejack proclaimed, then looked away.
“Alright then… But is everything okay?” Twilight inquired.
“Y-yes! Everything’s fine! Let’s go,” Naruto answered quickly and began trotting towards where the others had come from. Twilight looked at him worriedly, but soon followed after him.
“And what are you looking at, Narudolt?!” Fluttershy asked as she tripped Naruto with her back left hoof, causing the Earth pony to fall down.
“Gah! I’m sorry! I’m not hiding anything!” Naruto cried out, covering his face with his front legs. Applejack started laughing at him cruelly, and Rarity and Pinkie didn’t even spare him a look.
Fluttershy began trotting away, and Twilight helped Naruto get up. “I’m really sorry, Naruto. This maze must be getting to everypony,” the purple Unicorn said, looking at the others in a mixture of sadness and anger.
*****
A few minutes later, Naruto was now walking behind the group, specifically hiding behind Twilight. She was now carrying the huge boulder herself, since Rarity was too tired to continue doing so, and refused to go on without it.
Naruto cast nervous glances from side to side, as if expecting something to pop out at him.
“Boo!” Fluttershy called out behind him.
“Gah!” Naruto cried, jumped five feet off the ground and landed on the boulder, further weighing Twilight down. He was shaking uncontrollably and burying his face in his hooves.
“Get you mangy hooves off my gem!” Rarity yelled at Naruto. The orange pony jumped in fear again and fell on the ground, earning him mocking laughs from Applejack and Fluttershy.
“And just what is so funny?!” Pinkie demanded.
“Uhh… Apple pies,” Applejack responded quickly.
Twilight groaned, before trying her best to force a smile. “Must… find… Rainbow Dash,” she muttered as she struggled to pace onward. “As a team… we’re unstoppable. Rainbow Dash won’t let us down!”
“Well, lookie there,” Applejack said, looking up at the sky. “Rainbow Dash is flyin’ away. She’s abandonin’ us!”
“Now I know that’s a lie,” Twilight said as she dropped down the rock. The noise caused by the boulder’s impact caused Naruto jump up and land on Twilight’s back.
Ignoring her new rider, Twilight looked up at the sky, her eyes shooting open in disbelief when she saw Rainbow flying away. “How can it be?!” she cried.
Suddenly, dark clouds began rolling in from all directions, casting a dark shadow everywhere, as thunder and lightning began sounding from them.
“GAH! LIGHTNING!” Naruto cried, hiding his head underneath Twilight’s mane.
The walls of the maze then all came down, shaking the earth as they did. In a few moments, the six ponies were left in the middle of a large crater, surrounded by clouds of dust.
“Well, well, well,” Discord said as he floated towards the group out of the dust. “Somepony broke the ‘no wings, no magic’ rule!”
He snapped his eagle claws, causing Twilight’s and Rarity’s horns and Fluttershy’s wings to reappear.
“Game’s over, my little ponies! You didn’t find your precious Elements!” Discord called, smirking as he pressed his head against Twilight’s.
Discord materialized a pink umbrella in his hand. “Looks like we might be due for a big ol’ storm of CHAOS!” he said as he opened it with a ‘meow’ sound.
“AHAHAHAHAHA!” Discord began laughing madly as the dark clouds began to sound a powerful lightning storm.
“NO! LIGHTNING! STAY AWAY!” Naruto screamed, jumped off Twilight and started running off.
“No! Naruto, come back!” Twilight shouted in vain. The orange stallion had ran off as fast as his pony legs could carry him, while Discord’s boisterous laugh grew even louder in response.
Things got a little dark here, yikes. Also, this chapter marks one of the first great reveals of the story. (About buckin' time...)
Hope you enjoyed it!
Unfortunately, the next chapter won't be coming out as quickly as the last few did, though I'm sure it will be worth the wait. I hope to get it done by the month's end. Stay tuned!
Fun fact: I originally planned to call the story something along the lines of 'Chakra is Magic', but I quickly realized it sounds kind of stupid.
Stats
Page generated in 0.03 seconds
Total duration
1,036 users online
2,032,823 hits today, 2,156,967 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
And Discord trumps Mountain Destroying Fox.
You know, I should not be surprised at that. Kishimoto only WISHES he could come up with something as insanely powerful as Discord.
Just what I needed after a crappy morning. Hmm I wonder how will Naruto recover from this/
I have a huge feeling when Naruto comes back to his senses, He's gonna get really mad at Discord, and he will go into his Chakra cloak mode and beat the living out of Discord.
I knew it! Discord was going to transform Naruto in a
Scootaloochicken. I wonder only... What about foxy? Is he affected?Well looks like I was right, Discord took Naruto's element of Bravery and turned it on it's head and filled him to the brim with Fear. I admit I was hoping for him to be more angry than scared but this works just as well. Actually it's a little more interesting since the other's elements are just natural parts of their respective personalities and it was more Discord's magic that ultimately switched them around.
Naruto's fear however, isn't the same as it's based on his insecurities and traumatic childhood, thus it isn't something that can simply be overcome with a few nice words. Discord took Naruto's fears and magnified them, thus it will take some serious effort to overcome it, which I'm honestly curious to see just how he does overcome it.
Admittedly I would have liked to see a little more and I'm curious to see how the girls react to seeing Naruto literally crippled by fear. Admittedly the dialogue with Naruto in his panicked state did seem a little goofy at times like when he screamed about the lightning and the constantly hiding something part. That seemed more like paranoia than fear but whatever.
Hoping this will lead to some interesting discoveries for the girls and for them to finally get a better understanding of Naruto's character, since he probably won't be as easy to help change as the others.
Anyway good work and I really hope to see more soon.
So am I the only one kind of put off by how much of a bitch Naruto was in this chapter?
6389011
Discord essentially turned Naruto's element of Bravery into it's opposite Fear. He essentially became overwhelmed with crippling fear of everything, so him acting like that is totally believable.
6389001 You can't be brave without being fearful.
That Discord can turn off the nine tails chakra doesn't really make sense as the part of the nine tail inside Naruto technically is just the spiritual/chakra part of the nine tail, the physical body of the nine tail is inside his father. So switching off the nine tails chakra is basically erasing it.
6389011 With how much death shippuden naruto has seen, I completely agree with you.
6389224
Maybe so, but having too much fear can just as easily cripple you, there are times when the fear can be so overwhelming that it's impossible for you to summon the will to fight back.
6389266
Also keep a few things in mind
1. Discord is using magic on Naruto to screw with his mind and Naruto has always had trouble with Genjutsu which is similar and he's never been usually able to break it. Discord's magic is on a considerably higher level, thus it affecting Naruto like it did isn't that crazy, I mean we've seen what he can do, so making Naruto into a male Fluttershy isn't crazy.
2. Discord is attacking Naruto with his deepest and darkest fear, something that he has to an extent overcome, but not completely, remember this is before Naruto made friends with the fox, and underwent some of his other major transformations. There is always some fear that we have that can effectively make us break down.
I thought you would've used menma as naruto's Gray form
This whole traipse in the hedge maze. I see a glaring hole. Discord breaks his own rules. He's flying and magicing. Clearly he's a cheating little sore loser.
6389539
Uh that rule applied to the Mane 6, not him. Objective was whether they could find the elements without magic or flying, he never said anything about him not being able to do anything.
6389682 he never said only they couldn't fly or do magic, he just said 'rule one, no flying, and no magic'
You really screwed the pooch with Naruto this chapter and I was so tempted to drop reading this. I truly do not understand why everyone writes crossover characters as crying bitches when the only time they've cried was when someone close to them dies and even then, they get over it really quick because they have to. If we are talking about pre-series very young Naruto then yeah, he'd probably act this way but older Naruto wouldn't react like this. Naruto would feel hurt but continue on with his "ninja way" and trudge along to save his friends. He is a much stronger character than what you have portrayed him as. I know the end game of this chapter was to make Naruto afraid since it would be the opposite of his element and I honestly thought you were going to make him afraid of using his chakra saying that it could release the Ninetails and revealing that Celestia could send him back whenever and cast doubt on his friends making him afraid to trust them.
6390670
I'm sorry you feel this way, but in no way did I mean to insult Naruto's character.
Naruto is definitely strong, one of the strongest characters I've ever known!
However, Naruto has one weakness that's really never addressed when he's older - monophobia, or fear of loneliness.
Just look at everything he went through just to get Sasuke back, the one person he considered to be his best friend.
In Konoha, he was always with one friend or another, but he was never alone. So outside of backstory, the issue was never addressed.
Now imagine yourself being alone in a strange world, with no friends at all.
Naruto isn't like Sasuke - he needs friends by his side, that's why it was so important for him to bond with the Mane Six. The reason for that is all the trauma he's been through as a child and the fear of being rejected.
He is even reluctant to show his human forms to others, unless he really has to. At this point, the only ones who know he's not a pony are the Mane Six, Spike, the CMC, Zecora, Derpy and the Princesses.
He didn't tell anyone about the Fox (save for Luna, who somehow knew about him), because that was the red line for him.
Any sane person would lose himself if he thought he was at risk of repeating that nightmare of solitude, which is exactly what Discord exploited to use (not to mention he used a bit of magic to help his evil cause...).
I'm not saying that's Naruto's most critical weakness, but it was one that Discord found the simplest to use.
Anyway, I still hope you'll continue to read my story, even if you do not enjoy this arc, and I hope it will be more to your taste in the future.
Oh, man! You write a wonderful story.
Pretty okay chapter, though not much to really talk about.
C&C:
“Gah! I’m Sorry! I’m not hiding anything!”
> Lower the casing for ‘Sorry’.
The suspense is killing me. I can't wait for an update! As much as I know twilight will save the others....I actually want to see Naruto save himself for once at least this time. Should give something different to the original plot. He is a main character in this story after all. Maybe Kurama snaps Naruto out of it instead?
6392850
Thank you, my good sir!
6393200
Really? I think it's one of the most critical ones yet. Oh well, it will be easily surpassed in the near future...
6394046
Don't worry, I prefer using the original plotline as little as I can. I deviate from it as much as possible.
6394046 maybe the fox shows all his major fights to remind him of why the element chose him in the first place?
6395776
That, or Luna comes in to remind him of his achievements; similar to how Celestia reminds Twilight. Either way is cool with me.
6395776 I could see him doing something like that. Or even better MINATO shows up!
Now this is dark
I like it
Keep it up
Meow?
... Really?
...
You can do better than this.
6409132
orig00.deviantart.net/6874/f/2011/243/8/d/sweetie_shrug_by_glitterypencils-d48ha72.png
Oh, would ya look at that, I'm late for the party.
NIce chapter, m8! Its gr8 m8 I r8 88/8 m8
6414701
Thanks! Hopefully you won't have to w8 long for the next chapter!
6416208 I hope I don't sound pushy, but can you tell us what the status is on the next chapter?
Coward Naruto is not fun to read, I hope Twilight fixes him soon. I would have expected the fox to try to help Naruto a bit more since if Discord isn't defeated he stays weak and vulnerable.
More Please!!