//------------------------------// // Chapter 18 // Story: The Price of Power // by kingrulerword //------------------------------// **********Empty Tundra 1st POV********** “It’s cold.” That understatement of the year was gifted to us by none other than Adagio Dazzle. All of the non-sirens were shivering too much to talk. Even Gilda was with us in our cold suffering. “I wanna get back in the cart!” Trixie moaned. “First, a history lesson,” I said. “This wasn’t always an endless frozen wasteland. It was once home to a powerful and wealthy kingdom.” “I remember the Crystal Empire,” Adagio looked away wistfully. Her look turned sultry, “Sombra was one male who never shied away from magical…. enhancements.” “Gross,” I rolled my eyes. “Anyway, the Crystal Empire flourished as a nation until King Sombra went crazy and made it disappear.” “The whole kingdom?” Trixie’s jaw hung open. “Literally the entire empire was gone in a flash of dark magic,” I pulled out the alicorn heart. “Now let’s all pile back into the cart.” I tossed the stone heart into the snow. “That is an extremely powerful and ancient artifact,” Sunset said as we all climbed back into the cart. “Why are you just leaving it out here?” Before I could say anything, Starlight held out a hoof to stop me. “Let me guess. This is part of your grand master plan. And like always, doing this will result in some catastrophe for ponies while you walk away having gotten whatever it is you wanted.” “Bingo,” I grinned as the cart started moving. Starlight rolled her eyes and groaned. “Gather round girls. It’s time to work on some basics.” **********Canterlot Castle 3rd POV********** Half of the Anti-Sasuke Task Force sat around a large table waiting for their host. Hamza sat reviewing the new files while trying to ignore his partners. “So, sword to your neck, hoof on Faust’s words, you actually hit on a princess once?” Cocidius asked skeptically. “I totally did,” Swift puffed his chest. “I just didn’t happen to know she was a princess at the time.” “So are you ever gonna tell cap you hit on his fiancee?” Cocidius asked with an evil glint in his eye. “Yeah it wasn’t her,” Swift smirked. “No way,” Cocidius’ jaw dropped, “You did not make a move on Princess Celestia.” “No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no,” Swift frantically waved his hooves. “I would never do something like that!” “That means you...and….Princess Luna?” Cocidius asked. “What? How would you even…. How did she respond?” Swift sighed, “ She said-” “That is very flattering but I am more into dragons than ponies,” Luna said as she walked into the room. “But I’ll keep you in mind for those cold nights.” She sat down in her chair. “But I said it in my archaic way of speaking,” she smirked. “It’s good to see you again, Private Arrow.” “Yes, Princess,” Swift quickly bowed, as did the others. “My apologies, Princess.” “Don’t , Private,” Luna said with a smile. “I do enjoy telling that story. Winter is coming soon and I think my covers might not be thick enough, little pegasus.” Swift swallowed hard. “Yes, your highness,” he said meekly. Cocidius was stunned. He looked back and forth at Swift Arrow and Princess Luna with a wide-eyed, slack-jawed stare. Hamza, on the other hand, was taking it all in stride. He chuckled as he realised the princess was just teasing Swift. “Not everyone is present yet but I think we should start anyway,” Luna said. Cocidius and Swift Arrow quickly composed themselves. “If I immigrate to Equestria do you think I have a shot?” Cocidius whispered. Hamza rolled his eyes. “We’ve brought you all the data we’ve collected during our encounters with Sasuke and all the locations he’s been spotted,” Hamza said, passing several papers to the princess. “If I may, why did you put travel restrictions in place?” “There are two major events in the coming months,” Luna said, eyeing the papers. “The first is the Great Dragon Migration, the celebration of youth. The second will occur shortly after that. It is the Great Dragon Homecoming, the celebration of the end. As the leader of the dragons, Sasuke will attend both. And from our source we’ve gathered that he does not intend to teleport. My guess is that he is travelling across the continent and using the opportunity to train his converts. Which leads me into our next topic, countermeasures.” “No disrespect, your majesty, but Sasuke,” Cocidius interrupted, “is on a whole other level. If he were to get serious in a fight, we would die immediately. That’s not fear talking, that’s just a fact.” “I understand,” Luna said. “He has power that we cannot even begin to comprehend, years of battle experience, and the ability to quickly figure out and counter any tactics that come before him. But I know him personally. I know his quirks, his tics, his preferences, and his style. I know him inside and out. And that is all we need. We aren’t going to fight him on his terms, we’re going to force him to fight on mine.” Several ponies and zebras in lab coats, assisted by royal guards, pushed large crates into the room. When all of the crates were in place, the soldiers bowed and left. A mauve unicorn stallion stepped forward and fixed his glasses. “We’ve brought the items as you requested, Princess,” he said while he wiped the lenses. “Are you ready for the demonstration?” “We are,” Luna responded. “Then, Princess, if you would,” the stallion said as he reached into the crate and pulled out an item. “Of course.” Chakra swirled around the blue alicorn. Her entire body was soon covered in the foreign magic Hamza recognized as Sasuke’s. The others in the room couldn’t see past the veil of magic but it soon dissipated and revealed a human woman sitting in Luna’s place. “Please continue.” Cocidius’ body relaxed when he heard her speak. He didn’t realize how tense he was. Did this magic really scare him that much? He didn’t have much time to think about it because the object the lab pony was holding emitted a constant beeping noise. Swift stuck his hooves in his ears. “That’s quite the annoying doohickey you’ve got there,” he said. “Is it broken?” “Quite the opposite, in fact,” the unicorn said. “This device can detect Sasuke’s magic in a radius of 5 miles. Once it starts beeping, tap on the gem in the center, like so.” He tapped on the gem with his hoof and a glowing arrow was projected above the device, pointing to Princess Luna. “As you can see, the device will lead you to the source. Furthermore, after the prototype was made, we began mass production. Right now though, we only have enough for the task force.” The unicorn passed the device around the room. As it circulated, the other lab ponies handed him another device. “Will this also detect the ones corrupted by Sasuke’s magic?” Cocidius asked as he examined the sensor. “Who are you referring to,” the unicorn responded, fiddling with the next device. “He means the others that have accepted this power into their bodies,” Luna explained. “Will this also detect them?” The unicorn stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Hmmmmm. It doesn’t detect Princess Luna in her pony form soooo….” The unicorn sat on his haunches and scrunched his face. “As long as they are in that two-legged form, it should be able to find them.” Cocidius nodded and handed the detector to Hamza. “Now this next device should be more useful in combat situations,” the unicorn said locking a clear gem into place on the new device. He twisted everything into place and the device hummed to life. A small stream of blue light started to pull from Luna and into the device. “This one was a bit trickier to make. We all know that magic and spells can be stored inside gems. What this one does is create a strong, almost magnetic, pull and store the magic in a gem. When full,” the machine spat out the gem, “the gem is ejected. This a safety measure to prevent the gem from overloading and exploding. However it can be overridden.” With the machine no longer siphoning Luna’s chakra, the unicorn also passed it around the table. “It is small enough to attach to the pommel of a sword and-” “I’m sorry I’m late,” Princess Celestia said as she entered the room. “Have I missed much?” “Not at all, sister,” Luna said. “We were just reviewing the fruit of our investments. How was Tartarus?” “Enlightening,” Celestia groaned. “After the demonstration, I’ll share what I’ve learned.” Luna nodded. “Please, continue.” “Now this next one was only possible thanks to the Griffon Republic sharing their knowledge of metallurgy,” the unicorn said as he was handed a metal ingot. “This metal is an alloy of several different metals. The most notable of which is voidrock.” Every jaw dropped. The mere mention of the rare stone made even alicorns tremble. Voidrock, an extremely rare and terrifying existence, was a material most hoped to never encounter during their lifetime. But for those that did, they could only recount horror stories. None were sure where it came from, but everyone knew what it did. When any type of energy touched it, it was dissipated. It took no time, and the energy never came back. It didn’t matter what type of energy: light, heat, electricity, even magic stood no chance against it. Finding it was a near impossible feat and mining it was sisyphean. The simple act of being near a natural deposit could and would kill all but the most powerful creatures. And even the most alicorns and elder dragons could only survive for so long. ‘So,’ Celestia wondered, ‘How is he casually holding a voidrock ingot?’ “I’m sure you’re all wondering the same thing, so I will explain,” the unicorn placed the ingot on the table. Everyone else flinched. “It’s alright. It isn’t nearly as dangerous as its pure form. It took so much trial and error, though. So much horrific failure, so many lives lost.” He turned his head down. “But this,” he held up the ingot, “gives their sacrifices meaning.” “Where did you even get such an idea?” Celestia asked. “I was searching through the forbidden section of the royal archive when I happened upon a book with a lot of wild, revolutionary ideas,” the unicorn said. “Was the title ‘Stuff That Might Work (or Kill You)’?” Celestia asked. “It was,” the unicorn was surprised. “Have you read it before?” “I skimmed it,” Celestia facehoofed. “It has all of Sasuke’s insane ideas; please stick to the milder ones.” “Very interesting,” the unicorn muttered. He shook his head. “Back to the matter at hand, we have managed to dilute the effect of the voidrock to physical contact only. We have also created a film that goes around it to protect from its effects.” He picked up the ingot. “We can now create voidrock tools, weapons, and armor.” “Incredible,” Luna said as she, for the first time, held a voidrock ingot in her magic. She passed it around. “The armor should protect against Sasuke’s magic attacks and the weapons should drain him when they come in contact with him or his unique spells,” the unicorn explained. “We are working a special containment cell for him but for now,” he lifted a pair of shackles out of the crate, “this is all we have. We were also working on some chains but there was an accident in the lab.” “Thank you for taking the time to come here and I want to tell you that I personally appreciate everything you and your team have done and sacrificed for us,” Celestia bowed her head. “Thank you your majesty,” the unicorn said as he and his crew packed up their crates. “That means so much coming from you.” The lab ponies left the room, leaving the two princesses and the task force. The members of the task force continued to inspect their new equipment while Luna changed back into her pony form. “I think we might actually stand a chance now,” Luna said, eyes full hope. “Let’s hope we settle matters with Sasuke quickly,” Celestia wore a grim expression. “We have more enemies than we realized.” “What happened in Tartarus, sister?” Luna asked. “I spoke with Grand Stander,” Celestia started. “He was less than willing to part with any information without some sort of concession. However, the resident in the cell next to his was, as usual, very talkative.” Luna facehoofed. “Please tell me you didn’t in indulge in that moron’s rantings.” Celestia sighed. “Besides his inane ramblings about the greatness of on certain human, he did have some valuable intel. It appears one of the prisoners on the lowest levels has managed to convince the wraiths to follow them. Not only that, the rumor is: there’s a jailbreak in the works.” Luna stroked her chin thoughtfully. “That is going to be a huge problem. Hmmm…” “Is this source’s information reliable?” Hamza asked. “Is it possible they were lying?” “They’re generally opposed to lying,” Celestia said. “And the wraiths are definitely acting under someone’s direction.” “Maybe we can use this,” Luna said. “Sasuke may be planning something huge but he will definitely want to enact his plans with no obstructions. Maybe we can trick him into handling our Tartarus problem and then we can take him down while he’s weakened.” Celestia was worried. It was a risky move, but that wasn’t what worried her. That plan… It was something Sasuke would have come up with. Did his influence really run that deep in the princesses? She shook the thought from her mind. It gave her a strategic advantage and that was all that mattered. “Here are the new points of interest,” she said, laying out some maps. **********Laputa********** “Cast time: 1.6 seconds, mana cost: average, recovery time from mana burn: 0.3 seconds, maximum distance of spell: 3 meters, width of spell: 1 meter. The ideal action for such a spell would be a level 1 barrier,” the human Twilight Sparkle sighed and the lavender magic circles disappeared from her eyes. “How was that?” Starswirl nodded in approval. “Very impressive young one.” He absentmindedly stroked his beard. “And to think you came up with this spell on your own.” “Not completely on my own,” Twilight admitted. “I did have help from my mentors.” At the mention of her mentors, two beings were created from Twilight’s magic. One had pale white skin, yellow snake eyes, black marks around his eyes, and long black hair in a ponytail. He wore a light purple robe with a dark purple rope around his waist. The other had black paint across most of his face leaving thin white lines. He wore a large golden headdress and a white coat over black robes. A sword handle with several protruding spikes and wrapped in cloth was tucked into his waist. Starswirl eyed the two projections. “You two are very, very creepy. Like creepy as buck, creepy. But it's always great to have fellow scientists around.” “Thank you, Starswirl,” the snake-eyed one said. “But I just want to see how this child develops. And when she gains her sharingan, it will match well with her new technique.” “I don’t need your praise,” the other one scoffed. “I already know I’m the greatest scientific mind to ever have existed. And the thought of experimenting on this hybrid creature fills me with glee.” Starswirl shook his head. “Like I said, creepy as buck. Did either of you have anything to contribute?” “About this sharingan,” the black and white faced one said, “I may have a way to force its activation.” “Do tell,” Starswirl said. “It is activated when the user experiences great emotional distress, correct?” “Indeed,” the snake-eyed one confirmed. “Then all we need to do is synthesize a drug that induces an intense emotional state, such as rage or paranoia,” he finished with a twisted grin. “That would be an excellent idea,” the snake-eyed one agreed, turning to Twilight and smiling. “An interesting possibility,” Starswirl said. “But we need it to work without damaging Twilight’s personality or intelligence.” “Come on guys, we talked about this already,” Twilight said. “Mayuri, I don’t need to expedite this process with unsafe, untested drugs. And Orochimaru, you told Sasuke you would teach me ninjutsu to activate it naturally.” Orochimaru’s snake eyes flashed. “Well if you insist.” **********Griffon Republic Eastern Border 1st POV********** Gilda unleashed a barrage of punches at me at a speed that my sharingan could barely keep up with. I deflected all of her blows but unlike the last time we sparred, they only grew in intensity and speed. She grinned as she added kicks into her movements and got closer and closer to hitting my face. Her movements were smooth and controlled. Not a single wasted punch or kick. The change in her fighting style mind blowing. She had come so far in such a short amount of time. But something still wasn’t right. I threw a kunai at her. She narrowly dodged it and it grazed her face. That was it! She attempted one more higher force punch and I caught her wrist. “That’s enough for today,” I said. “But I can still keep going,” Gilda argued. “You haven’t been practicing with Equestrian magic at all, have you,” I asked her. She looked away. “I don’t need it,” she mumbled. “What do you mean you don’t need it?” I looked at her sideways. “It’s literally half your power.” “Chakra is enough.” She still couldn’t meet my gaze. “I don’t need her power.” “Celestia’s?” I was confused. “No,” Gilda’s voice got softer. “I won’t use the same power as Rainbow.” I frowned. Rainbow Dash was this much of a hang up for her? This was going to be a problem. If Gilda refused to use all of her power, there was no way she was going to win against an elder dragon. “Why not?” “Because,” she shifted uncomfortably. “I have to be better!” She looked me in my eyes. “Didn’t you say I would be faster than her? Didn’t you say I would be better?” “Yes. I did.” I put my hand on her shoulder. “But you won’t without giving everything you have. You’re have to accept the magic as part of you. Otherwise you’re incomplete.” She pushed my hand away. “Whatever. I’m going to go train some more.” With that, Gilda leapt away. I thought about chasing her but decided against it. Instead I decided to check on the other girls. A short walk through the trees led me to the sirens. They were sitting in a circle matching pitch with Tayuya’s flute. I sat down and listened to their music. I watched as they used their musical magic to create small familiars and then forced them to fight. I carefully watched as the sight changes in pitch and tone caused a variety of effects to befall the enemy familiars. After a few minutes I had seen enough and decided to move on. I happened onto Trixie next. She sat across from Kurenai as she explained different aspects of genjutsu to Trixie. Trixie was adjusting her hand seals as Kurenai explained and causing an array of small animals to wander around in circles. She had a line of squirrels walking into and out of the mouths of several wolves.The wolves also looked like they were under her control. I chuckled as I watched her work. ‘She really can turn anything into a performance,’ I thought. As I kept walking through the woods, I could feel Sunset’s power before I could see her. As I got closer to her, I recognized what was happening. She must be in the middle of an alicorn transformation. I saw her in a clearing with Starlight not too far away. Circling around her and giving her instruction was a tall man with wild pink hair wearing a light bluish-green, jester-like outfit. What he was saying was clearly unnerving Starlight, but it appeared that it was really pushing Sunset. Her magic was flowing off of her in waves and slowly expanding to fill the area. Her hair had the smallest shine and wave to it. At least the rest of the girls seemed to accept their magic and chakra. I started walking back to the cart. ‘I should do something to keep morale up,’ I thought. ‘But what?’ There was only so much I could reward them with out in the middle of nowhere. While I wracked my brain, Starlight saw me and started walking with me. “Starlight, what would you want in order to relax out here,” I asked her. “A barrel full of hard cider,” she said, rubbing her temples with her hooves. “Make that two. Listening to that Hisoka guy is going to give me nightmares for weeks.” “Hard cider, eh,” I muttered to myself. “Well there’s no way we can get….. That’s it!” “What’s what,” Starlight said, very confused. “I finally found a use for my weak ass wood style!” I exclaimed. “Go get Smoke Puff from the cart and meet me near the river.” I dashed off leaving a very confused and agitated Starlight behind. *** We all sat around the fire enjoying a meal. While sickened by it, Trixie had controlled some animals and led them into our camp. Gilda slaughtered and cooked them. The food was surprisingly good. Who knew she could cook? “So everyone, I have a surprise for all of you to reward your progress and hard work,” I said and then reached into a bag I had next to me. “Oh great,” Aria rolled her eyes. “A surprise you got from the middle of the woods. What is it? A bag of weeds?” I held up the plant I pulled out of the bag for them all to see. “As a matter of fact, it is.” “Fan-bucking-tastic,” Aria groaned. “What are we supposed to do with this?” Gilda asked, slightly annoyed. “Haven’t any of you learned that nothing is ever as seems with me?” I said with mock sadness. “Oh ye of little faith. This is relaxation in plant form. You’ve been working your minds and bodies hard and getting plenty of rest is essential for healthy growth.” “So what is this plant called?” Sunset asked. “I might’ve heard of it before.” “I guarantee you haven’t,” I chuckled. “And as for the name, this particular batch is called Blue Dream.” “And you have yet to explain what it does or why it’s so good for relaxation,” Starlight grumbled. “Well first we put some in this pipe here, light it, and-” “You smoke it?” Gilda said as she snatched the pipe from my hands. “Please, if that’s all then…” Gilda took a long drag on the pipe and started coughing. “What the hell is this stuff?” She tried to hand it back to me but Adagio intercepted it. “Have you never used a pipe before?” Adagio asked, grinning smugly at Gilda. “Let me show you how it’s done.” Adagio, trying to outdo Gilda, took a longer drag and……. Almost immediately started coughing as well. “I don’t understand! I’ve literally smoked for centuries and why is this grass suddenly so soft and wonderful?” Adagio lie down in the grass and started rolling in it. Aria took the pipe from Adagio and gave it a small, cautious puff. After she didn’t end up hacking like the other two, she took longer, fuller puffs and passed it to Sonata. It took all of three minutes before she was staring blankly out into space. Sonata waved a hand in front of her unresponsive friend’s face. After getting no reaction, Sonata shrugged and took the longest drag yet. I sat forward waiting for her to start coughing but she let the smoke go in a massive ring. “How did you do that,” I asked her. “Centuries of practice.” She puffed out her chest proudly…… Before falling over backward with her legs outstretched. Trixie levitated the pipe out of Sonata’s hand and in front of her face. She sniffed it and scrunched her face. “Trixie isn’t sure she wants any of this,” she said eyeing the pipe warily. “That’s fine,” I extended my hand. “Give it back to me.” The pipe hovered slowly to me before it zipped back to Trixie. “Trixie doesn’t want to be left out,” she admitted and started with small puffs. “This isn’t so bad.” Having learned from the others, she stopped after taking a little bit. “Those stars are so pretty! Trixie wants to be a constellation!” Trixie leapt up and tried to grab the stars with her hands. That just left, Sunset, Starlight, and me. Smoke Puff was already sleeping. Starlight grabbed the pipe in her magic and said, “Nope.” She put it in my hands and declared that she was going to sleep. Sunset and I looked at each other. “Want some?” I asked. She took a deep breath. “Sure.” She took a small puff and passed it back to me. I took a puff and passed it back to her. We kept this exchange going as we sat next to each other. “When I went through the mirror, I was sure Princess Celestia was going to come after me.” Sunset’s sudden admission surprised me. But I let her keep talking. “She was everything I wanted to be and I looked up to her so much. I get that I wasn’t ready, now. But I was a kid, you know. I just wanted her to come for me, to show me that she cared about me. I sat in front of the portal on the other end for days, just waiting.” She took a deep breath. “But she never came. And by the time I realized she wasn’t coming, the portal was closed and I couldn’t get back.” We lay down in the grass looking up at the sky together. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to drop all of this on you.” “It’s ok,” I assured her. “Everybody’s got something weighing on their mind.” She snorted. “I bet you don’t. You’re this invincible force of nature. Everything you want, you get. One way or another. Nothing fazes you at all. Starlight told me how amazing you are. She adores you, you know?” “Starlight?” I laughed. “The grumpy mare who always complains? Are we talking about the same pony?” “I’m serious,” Sunset said. “I don’t know what you did, but she always smiles when you’re around and when she talks about you.” “Huh,” I said. “Imagine that. But I’m not invincible you know. I’ve got my own stuff.” “Like what?” I sat in silence for a little bit. I wondered if I should tell her or not. “It’s ok. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” “I can’t remember what my face looks like,” I finally said. “Or my name. It was so long ago now that everything’s blurry and almost forgotten. And the thing is, I don’t even know all the things I’ve forgotten. How much of me is still here? Who am I now?” “That’s easy,” Sunset said. “You’re Sasuke Uchiha: alicorn fighting, castle ruling, world traveling badass. And as for your face, just look in a mirror,” Sunset said with a giggle. I smiled a sad smile. My meaning went completely over her head. But she meant well. I wondered why I was being so open. Then I realized: the weed was infused with chakra and grown in magic soil. It had to be exponentially stronger than anything I’d ever had before. That explained a lot. Well....whatever. Too late to do anything about it now. I turned on my side to look at Sunset and, it was at that point, I blacked out.