My Little Naruto: Friendship is--WHERE AM I!?

by DragonLS

CH22: Magician's Lament (Revised)

Special Thanks:

Editors: DaMobbs

“HAH!”

With only his tails, he flung the Ursa’s paw away, sending the enormous bear off balance. Naruto couldn’t help but grin. Finally, a monster that was ‘banished’ by Trixie was here right in front of him. He didn’t know how or why it was here, but this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to fight such a powerful creature.

He dug his hooves into the ground, took a deep, calming breath, and stared down the over-sized excuse for a teddy bear. He needed to focus on the fight and the fight alone until he came out the victor. He braced himself for the onslaught that the bear would inflict as soon as it regained its footing, but it didn’t come. Instead, the bear opted to stare back at him with a face that screamed ‘confuzzled’. How did such a tiny pony knock over a creature that he could have easily squished without a moment’s notice?

Seeing as the bear was still in a stupor, Naruto took the chance and surveyed the area for anything he could use to his advantage. The buildings were still intact save a few that had a missing wall or two from Kuma-chan’s entrance into Ponyville. Thankfully, it seemed nopony was seriously injured. Crying and sniffles came from behind. He took a quick glance over his shoulder to find the Great and Powerful Trixie in a small and trembling heap.

“Wait, what? Now is NOT the time to break down! This should be a cake walk for her...” He thought to himself. It was no use thinking about it; he needed her battle ready yesterday. He had a strong feeling that he would need her expertise to come out on top.

“Hey, Ursa slayer! We need to take care of this over-grown furball. Get off your butt and start fighting!”

Trixie visibly flinched as she slowly untangled herself and stood up. She tried to wipe away some tears with a hoof, but they were quickly replaced by fresh ones.

“I-I… But, I don’t know if…” She managed to squeak out between sobs.

“What’s gotten into you? You’ve fought this thing before so it should be a walk in the park, right!? That is unless…” Naruto didn’t get a chance to finish that sentence as he was cut off by a beastly roar. The Ursa decided action was the best course of action in it’s confusion and brought his paw up for another swipe.

He didn’t have a choice. Naruto leapt backwards, picked Trixie up in his hooves, and jumped. An earth crunching thud rang out as the paw slammed into where they were moments before. He landed a few feet away before having to jump again, the bear following his every move. Naruto cursed himself as he tried to out-maneuver the Ursa. Despite its’ size, it was deceptively fast, giving a Naruto a run for his money as he ducked, dodged and weaved between paw swipes. The process was made even harder as he had to drag Trixie along for the ride. The ninja needed a distraction and he knew just the person for the job. With a flick of his tails into a cross, he summoned a shadow clone that went on the offensive, pummeling the bear with quick, solid hoofstrikes.

The Ursa paused in its’ pursuit, staring at the second blond maned pony that had mysteriously appeared. It watched as it began to dish out punches and kicks that, it assumed at least, was meant to hurt. The only thing it felt was a mild tap wherever the pony hit. The clone, seeing his attacks were doing diddly squat, decided to take up a new approach. He dove between its’ front paws and delivered a solid buck to its’ toes. The Ursa roared in pain before locking eyes with the orange earth pony beneath him, now more pissed off than before.

“Aw, don’t be so upset! Would you prefer it a little higher?”, teased Naruto, jumping out from underneath the bear before it got any bright ideas. ”Come to think of it, can I even reach that high? You’re damn tall so—“

The Ursa had enough of the clone’s foolishness as it attempted to flatten him into a pony-sized pancake. Naruto just laughed and rolled away, smacking his rump a few times to aggravate the bear even further.

The real Naruto looked back, glad that the bear was distracted enough by the clone, giving him enough time to find out what was wrong with Trixie. Now hiding in an alley, he placed Trixie down whose face was still soaked with tears. Trixie looked away from her savior as she laid back against the cold, brick wall.

“Trixie, why are you crying? What’s gotten you all worked up like this? You said you could handle this Ursa Majora or whatever it's called and instead of you doing the saving, I’m saving you from being squashed to a pulp! What’s wrong with you?”

Trixie looked up at Naruto, absentmindedly wiping away the tears while still trying to emanate her tough mare routine. “H-Hmph, if you m-must really know,” she shakily answered, ”T-Trixie was o-o-only testing the Ursa Major. Trixie was merely judging its strength!”

“So… your plan was to cry like a little filly so you could get stomped on. How did that work out for ya?” Naruto asked, sarcasm dripping off every word.

“Quiet you foal!” She lashed back. It would have been much more resentful if not for her tear-stained face and quiet sobs. “If it weren’t for you… if it… weren’t for…” Her words devolved into incomprehensible mumblings as her crying started back up again. It did nothing to prepare him for what happened next.

She wrapped her hooves around Naruto and began to cry full-force into his shoulder.

He blinked. Here she was earlier today, boasting about how she banished an Ursa Major and was better than anypony else. Now, she was crying her eyes out, having to rely on the ponies she insulted to save her from a monster she had supposedly beaten before.

“Oh by Equestria, it’s all a lie, okay!? I made it all up! No one’s ever defeated an Ursa Major. I don’t have the power to do so, alright! You saved my life!”

“A lie…?” Naruto thought. “So she was lying this entire time… it was all just an act?”

“But what about all of that fancy magic you did back on the stage? You beat us all by a huge margin! What about those fancy rope tricks, or that lightning bolt? Or that shapeshifting magic you did!?” Naruto asked frantically.

“Oh please! Do you really think Trixie could tie up an Ursa, shock it to death, or turn it into a little insect or animal like I did to… whatever magic YOU pulled up!?” She barked.

“Actually, yeah…”

“What is WRONG with you?” She snapped, slowly getting out of her depressed state. “Even magic has its limits! That Ursa snapped the rope like it was nothing, it treated my lightning magic like bug bites, and that thing is WAY too big and powerful for me to transform alone!”

Naruto scratched his head with chagrin.

“You mean all those tricks you used back at the stage? You don’t have anything else in your repertoire?”

“Well of course I have other tricks! But…”, Trixie began confidently.

“But…?”

“…They’re… not really meant for combat. I mean, I can pull rabbits out of my hat, and I can make multiple illusions of myself…”, Trixie finished quietly.

A angry roar cut through the alley, drawing their attention away from the matter at hand momentarily. He could see the bear towering over the buildings, whilst a yellow blur shot ricocheted off buildings and the bear. It dodged swipe after swipe as the bear tried fruitlessly to end the yellow pony. Enraged at its’ shortcomings, the Ursa began to pound the ground, much like a kid throwing a temper tantrum. The earth beneath their hooves shook with each resounding thud and houses shook on their foundations. Naruto swore he watched an entire roof pop off for a split second, but filed it away under the ‘I’m tired and hallucinating’ section of his brain.

Naruto shook his head before turning to Trixie with a small glare. “You should have realized that lying and boasting can get you into a lot of problems Trixie. Lying is never the answer. I hope you’ve learned that because if I hadn’t shown up, you and the ground would be on much closer terms.”

“Trixie knows this!”, she shouted frustratingly.

“If you did, then why are we in this situation then!”, He said, trotting up to her. “You’re nothing but some sorry excuse for a show-pony.”

“Grr! What do you know!?” Trixie yelled, pushing him back. ”You try travelling in Trixie’s position once in a while!”

Naruto looked at Trixie with disappointment before looking back at the rampaging Ursa and his shadow clone. He needed to get out there; he knew his clone couldn’t keep it occupied for much longer

“Look, arguing isn’t going to solve anything. Stay here and I’ll take care of this.”

“You… You’re going to WHAT!?” She said, dumbfounded. “Are you CRAZY!? You can’t defeat an Ursa Major! That thing’s too powerful; it will rip you to shreds!”

“You have a better idea, Oh “Great and Powerful Trixie’?” He said sarcastically. She opened her mouth but closed it just as fast, her usually witty retort nonexistent. Naruto took her silence as her answer and sighed.

“I’ve fought monsters like this before Trixie so I’m used to danger; Apparently you’re not. Now stay here and let a ninja like me handle this.”

With that, he sprinted out of the alleyway and onto the main road in the direction of the fight. She was about to trot after him, but her sprained leg protested, pain shooting up her leg. She could only watch from afar, like how an audience watches actors up on stage. She wiped her eyes clean of tears and slid into a more comfortable position. This was a show she did not want to miss.

Today had been an all out disaster. First it was Trixie’s mockery of her friends that she called her ‘show’ and now there was an enraged Ursa Major in town! Could this day get any worse? After Spike’s quick warning, she ran outside and towards the area where the Ursa was last seen.

“Why would an Ursa Major come all the way out here? It doesn’t make any sense!” Ursa’s weren’t the type to attack a village unless provoked. So why would one attack such a peaceful town like ponyville?

Several other ponies ran passed her in the other direction, trying to get away from the rampage and destruction of the Ursa. As she rounded the corner, she finally got her first look at the dark blue, star covered bear. It would have been almost impossible to tell it apart from the night sky, but the eyes, mouth, and its’ white mark shaped like a star on its forehead stood out like a sore hoof. She skidded to a stop, her body telling her to turn tail and run while she still could while her brain said to go and help anypony you could. She gulped.

“Wow... that Ursa Major is really tearing up the place…”

“Yeah, I thought Trixie could beat it…”, came a colt’s voice.

Startled, she looked to her right to find two unicorns, Snips and Snails, sitting there watching the Ursa as well.

“Snips, Snails, what’s going on here!?”

“We brought an Ursa to town!” Snips said obliviously to the purple mare.

She couldn’t help but stare dumbfounded at the two. When the realization of what Snips had just said clicked, her eyes widening in utter surprise and outrage.

“You… YOU DID WHAT!?”, she shouted in outrage.

“Yeah, we brought it here so The Great and Powerful Trixie could vanquish it!”, he continued, despite Snail’s unvoiced objections.

She couldn’t help but put a hoof on each of their shoulders, giving them a death glare. She wanted to slam their heads together for what idiots they were, but she stopped herself before she went over the edge. Physically hurting them was a job left for their parents, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t let out her frustration on these two colts.

“ARE YOU TWO CRAZY!?”

Naruto and his clone dashed around the Ursa Major, hopping from roof to roof to both distract and avoid being turned into a pancake. Despite the overwhelming advantage the bear had, he was still in the fight, now sporting some rather big bruises. However, time takes it toll on everything. It didn’t take long for Naruto’s clone to slip up, taking a Ursa swipe across the chest. With a poof of smoke, the fight had just turned into a one on one fight and the odds tipped even more towards the Ursa’s favor.

It wasn’t even fair to begin with. The Ursa’s starry, blue... skin seemed to be impervious to any of his attacks that he used his hooves for. In fact, he had to stop using his hooves after the first couple of punches and kicks as it felt like he was punching solid steel. He could still feel the burning pain throbbing up each leg with each successive evasive maneuver. One would say it was almost too much to ‘bear’.

Thankfully, his tails seemed to be able to do more damage than his hooves did, actually drawing a response out of the bear than with hooves. Oh how he wished he still had those iron daggers that Blackie had made for him. While hand-to-hand combat, or tail-to-paw combat in this case, was interesting enough, he wanted an upperhand in some way, shape or form.

The Ursa took no time to rest as the clone disappeared before renewing the assault. He hopped towards another random roof and ricocheted back towards the bear, tails primed and ready for another lashing.

“Okay, enough Mr. Nice Pony! Take this!”

He lashed his tails out at the Ursa’s face once more, smacking it across the face. A small black bruise began to form on the grizzly’s cheek, the stars dimming slightly where the bruise was beginning to form. It placed a paw on it, rubbing it softly. Then all of a sudden, it roared like it never roared before, as if it were hit with an insatiable blood lust of destruction and chaos.

Naruto landed safely on the rooftops once more, but he was almost knocked over by the resounding shockwave. When the roar finally subsided, he could only hear ringing for a couple seconds after.

“Dammit, this is getting me nowhere! My tails can’t do enough damage at once! Oh, if only I could...”

Wait, was that even a possibility? It didn’t require any hand-seals, so maybe... just maybe...

“NARUTO!” barked a familiar voice.

He flinched and looked down at the ground from atop his perch to find a purple unicorn looking up at him worriedly.

“Hey Twilight, how’s it going?”, he asked nonchalantly. ”Beautiful night for a rampaging bear, is it not?”

“This isn’t the time for jokes Naruto! What are you doing!?”

“Long story short, I don’t know,” he retorted quickly.

“You… wait what?”

“I’m trying to figure out how to take this over-sized teddy bear down, but so far I’ve had—whoa, watch it!” He saw the Ursa lunge forward, jaws open wide to reveal multiple rows of razor sharp canines. He immediately jumped towards another roof as it bit into the roof, missing Naruto completely. He looked back at where Twilight was to find that she had managed to escape unharmed as well. The house, on the other hand, was another story entirely.

“I’ll tell you when this is over. In the meantime, SAVE ME!” Naruto desperately pleaded. He was out of ideas at this point. Everything he tried did nothing to the Ursa and it was getting harder to keep dodging it’s constant attempts to either eat or squish him.

Some ponies that hadn’t fled Ponyville stood there and watched as the Ursa rampaged around the town, trying to swat the yellow pony out of the air. He really wanted this to stop, but as long as the Ursa held him in his sights, he couldn’t get away.

“Tch, what a drag…”

“Oh no… Oh no no no…” She couldn’t believe what she had heard and seen. Snips and Snails brought an Ursa Major to Ponyville and now Naruto was fighting it alone. From what she could piece together, that Ursa was for Trixie to vanquish. Snips and Snails would get a serious punishment after this was taken care of. Somepony could probably die from what these two dolts had done.

However, this wasn’t time to be thinking of that. She needed to think of a way to help Naruto and fast. A tug on her tail brought her attention to Spike who stood behind her. He was motioning at her and the Ursa, voicing something she summarized as ‘Help him’. She looked back at the Ursa, seeing Naruto distracting it, but then it clicked. A grin flew across her face faster than a sonic rainboom through the sky. She knew what she had to do.

“ACK!?” He was getting sloppy now. That was the fifth time he’d undershot a jump, landing on the ground in a tumbling roll than landing perfectly. His legs were beginning to grow sluggish and the Ursa didn’t even look like it had broken a sweat yet. He bounded up onto the next roof, narrowly avoiding the ginormous paw, before jumping off to other roofs in quick succession. It wasn’t long until he found himself on the ground again, this time almost right in front of the Ursa. He tried to get back onto his four hooves, but they were burning from exhaustion and fatigue and buckled. He had pushed his body to its limits, dodging swipe after swipe in a furious pace, until he ran out of juice. He could have sworn that the bear had just started to chuckle as it readied the deciding paw smash.

“Shit, I’m too young to die!” He was completely out of options. Beads of sweat trickled down his face as he watched the hoof that was going to smash him into mush began its quick descent. Time seemed to slow down, however, as the claw-tipped paw closed the distance. He shut his eyes tight, waiting for the inevitable crunch and that brief moment of excruciating pain...

...that never came.

Being enveloped in a blue aura of magical energy, Naruto was swiped out of the way in the nick of time, as the Ursa’s paw landed onto the ground.

“Trixie!?” Twilight said in shock. Trixie had limped from where Naruto had left her and was now sitting a little ways away from Twilight. Her horn was aglow with blue light and her face was scrunched up in concentration. She followed Trixie’s eyes and gasped. There was Naruto, enveloped in her magical aura and was floating away from the Ursa at a rapid pace.

Naruto waved his limbs about frantically, scared about this method of escape and how high he was off the ground now. Down below, he could see the Ursa actually jumping up, trying to swat him out of the air, but thankfully he was out of range. He prayed to all of his ramen gods that the pony or whoever was helping him knew what he or she was doing. Nonetheless, he was happy to be out of harm’s way, at least temporarily. Looking down below, he could see Twilight, a few ponyvillians, and…

“Wait, Trixie?” He wondered how she had managed to make it this far from where he left her... and why was her horn glowing? Did Trixie save his life? He couldn’t believe it. He had the impression that she was a stuck-up bitch and a crybaby who worried only about herself. Then why did she save him? What did she hope to gain in helping him?

Regardless, Naruto was moved through the air and let go a foot above the ground. He bellyflopped, hugging the beautiful, solid ground that he would never leave again unwillingly.

Twilight rolled her eyes, already used to his shenanigans while Trixie furrowed a brow in utter confusion.

“Trixie, you saved my life!”, he gleefully began. ”I guess you’re not really a stuck-up bi—“

“An eye for an eye.”, she calmly interrupted. ”Trixie’s debt has been repaid in full.”

“Huh?”

“Trixie didn’t want her debt dragging her down to your level. You saved Trixie’s Life, so it is only fair that Trixie saves yours.”

Naruto scratched his head. “I guess that’s one way of putting it…”

“Heyyy, Trixie! There you are!”

Snips and Snails sprinted up to Trixie and she facehoofed, feeling the headache from before making its painful entrance one again.

“Not you insolent dolts again…” Trixie muttered.

“C’mon Trixie, we brought the Ursa Major! Vanquish it like before!” Snips said excitedly.

“Yeah Trixie, do it! When you ran away earlier, we assumed you were getting prepared to fight it!” Snails added.

“C’mon Trixie, do it!”

“Vanquish it!”

These stupid colts were making Trixie sweat nervously. She had already admitted to Naruto, but was she ready to admit the truth to other ponies? She could feel the stares of the group, each one eagerly awaiting her reply while the Ursa Major started biting the bajeezus out of one of the buildings behind them. Her sweat began to pour out, scared of their reactions when they found out she was a total fraud.

Naruto sighed, motioning her with a hoof to keep going and admit it. Trixie sighed heavily, feeling the lump in her throat grow slightly bigger. Of all possible things, she did not want to admit that she was a bragging liar. She was afraid of several things: What would they think of her? A liar... a fake... a phony... a fraud...and worst of all: her supposed fame completely destroyed.

“I…” She began, taking a deep breath. “I can’t… a-and I never have.”

Snips, Snails, Twilight, Spike, and Naruto waited for her to continue, the latter three slightly perplexed. She took a deep breath before saying, “No one’s ever vanquished an Ursa Major; I just made the whole thing up…”

Snips and Snails were shocked speechless. They looked to one another in disbelief before looking at the blue unicorn in sadness. Twilight stood there impassively, as if she had known all along about Trixie’s little secret.

Naruto started to realize something: While it was mostly Trixie’s fault for being a braggart on her talents, it wasn’t exactly her fault for bringing in an Ursa. No, she never brought it here; at least, that’s what he assumed.

In any case, there were bigger fish to fry, like an Ursa Major rampaging in their direction! While everyone bickered about Trixie’s faults, the over-sized, night-sky grizzly which was pushed aside and ignored for but a moment let out an earthshaking roar, reminding everypony that he was still there. Screams and shouts rang out through town as some straggling ponies doubled their pace, trying to get away from the angry Ursa.

Naruto spat at the ground. “This isn’t good. If we don’t stop that thing soon, it’ll destroy the whole town!” However, he was at a loss for what he could possibly do. Everything he threw at was completely nullified by its’ thick skin and the only skill he had in his arsenal was his Shadow Clone Jutsu.

No, wait! That wasn’t completely true! He had never tested it with his pony body yet, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t willing to test it now. He just hoped that his lessened chakra reserves could handle such a drain. He crossed his tails once more, summoning a shadow clone that immediately began to flail its tails around next to his. At first glance, it might have seemed like they were tail fighting each other, but a closer look revealed that they were coordinating with one another. Naruto closed his eyes, focusing on what Jiraiya had taught him from before.

He took a deep breath, isolating himself from the surrounding world, leaving just him and his clone. Already, he could feel the telltale build up of chakra on his tails. He could hear the chakra beginning to affect the air, the whooshing noise beginning to prevail over the Ursa’s roars. He opened his eyes and looked back to find a small, swirling ball of nearly visible chakra coalescing between his tails. It was smaller than before and a lot more transparent but it was still there. He grinned devilishly. A little bit longer and he’d have that bear sent halfway to kingdom-

“Wait, everypony stand back!”, Twilight barked out, interrupting his focus. Naruto flinched, his Rasengan dissipating into the surrounding air harmlessly. He stared at where the ball of raging chakra was and sighed. ‘So close’, he thought sadly.

Naruto immediately snapped back into real-time and looked over at the purple unicorn.

“What are you doing Twilight?” Naruto asked nervously, seeing the Ursa getting closer.

“Just watch and see!” She said with a smile.

Twilight levitated a book in front of her and glanced back and forth between the book and bear, as if comparing something in the text. Her eyes widened in what he assumed was surprise, but was quickly replaced with that of confidence. Her horn glowed fiercely as a giant cone-shaped aura enveloped her horn, circling around its’ surface. A cool, night breeze began to role in as the purple light grew in intensity.

That’s when he… did he hear music? It sounded like a baby’s lullaby a mother would hum. Naruto blinked a couple of times, wondering where the music was coming from. For some odd reason, he was suddenly feeling tired, but he willed himself to stay awake.

Everyone else could hear it too. Just what was Twilight doing? In fact, why hadn’t the Ursa reached them yet? Naruto took another look at the Ursa, and saw that it stopped dead in its tracks, a contempt grin plastered on its’ face as it rocked to the melody. The blonde raised his right brow a bit, even more confused.

“Is that bear… falling asleep?” He could see its eyes beginning to droop. Was Twilight trying to put it to sleep?

The bear was swaying back and forth with its funny grin, narrowly avoiding falling over multiple times. As Twilight’s horn continued to glow even brighter, Naruto heard something from behind him. Looking back, he almost fell over in shock: A giant brown metal can with a horseshoe symbol with a lid on top floated on by. He didn’t know what the blasted thing was, but it looked similar to a baby’s bottle, except really big and made of metal. How was Twilight able to lift such a heavy thing to begin with? Even he couldn’t lift something that ginormous.

“Remind me not to piss off Twilight…”

It amazed him at how Twilight was so magically adept. “If she showed off this much power during Trixie’s performance, there was no doubt she would have bested her then and there. Still, this is a good way of killing two birds with one stone: out-performing Trixie AND taking care of an Ursa.”

It didn’t stop there. She levitated the metal can into a barn house at Applejack’s farm. Several squeals and moos could be heard from the inside, puzzling Naruto.

“What is she planning to do with that thing? And were those cows I just heard? But… cows can’t speak, all they do is moo. Can every domestic animal talk!?”

As the metal can was brought back into light outside the barn, white liquid sloshed out of the lidded top which Naruto guessed was milk. As his focus shifted back towards the Ursa, he noticed that it was about to lose its balance. With a lullaby of that caliber, he wasn’t surprised that it was about to hit the sack, but there was another major issue: Trixie was right next to the Ursa!

“Wha…!? I thought she was right next to me?”, he said, looking back at where she once was to where she now was. ”How the hell—crap, I gotta save her!”

Naruto didn’t wait a moment longer, as he rushed towards Trixie’s side with his ninja-like speed. his already taxed legs screamed in defiance but he pushed onwards, drawing even more speed out of them. With a tackle, he pushed Trixie out of the way with his arms, avoiding the impact of the Ursa entirely or so he thought. It never hit the ground, but was instead levitated into the air surrounded by a purple glow.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he glared at Trixie, one which she returned with the same intensity.

“What were you thinking of being over there!? That Ursa was going to crush you!” Naruto asked.

“Trixie does not need your backtalk. Trixie will do whatever Trixie wants to do.”

“Oh sure, the same Trixie who cowered away from an Ursa wants to give herself a death-wish by standing next to it. You’re an idiot, you know that?” Naruto pointed out.

“How dare you!  Trixie is no such thing!”

“Then tell me why you were standing next to that Ursa!”, asked naruto calmly.

“Trixie… was, um…”

That was when Naruto put the dots together. They were on the road that seemed to lead straight out of Ponyville.

“Wait… you were trying to run away, weren’t you!? You tried to make a break for it while we were distracted!”, he said, grabbing her with his hooves.

Trixie flinched as she tried to get out of Naruto’s hooves, standing up right. She shook her head, beads of sweat forming on her face.

“D-Don’t be ridiculous! Why would Trixie do that?”

“Think about it… The egotistic performance, the Ursa… You were afraid of what the town would do to you once this was all over. Why don’t you stay here and take it like a true pony!?”

As they bickered on Trixie’s reasoning for being near the Ursa, Twilight was still levitating the over-sized bear, complete with it suckling the metal can which now seems to be a baby bottle to it. They weren’t paying attention while this was happening since their argument seemed to be more important, surprisingly.

Trixie stood there silently, her eyes averted towards the ground, not saying anything. He shook his head as he got up from the ground and sighed.

“…Whatever it is, you’re not leaving Ponyville, understood?”

It was taking all of her concentration to make sure that the Ursa was taken care of. She couldn’t believe the plan went off without a hitch! She was quite proud of her improvised milk bottle and the musical notes she performed on the reeds from a distance? Everything she researched from reading a book on Ursa’s, which she still held within her magic in front of her. She didn’t get the proper time to read everything about it, so it was a major help in keeping note of what to do.

As she lifted the Ursa into the air while it was sucking on the makeshift bottle, she had to make sure to send it back into the cave where it came from. It went further off into the distance, until it reached the Everfree Forest, making sure to put it back into the dark cave it came from.

Exhausted, she gave a breath of relief as she released her magical spell, knowing that the chaos was finally over… Several voices of amazement and cheering took place from behind her, and she couldn’t help but be surprised. Behind her was a vast majority of the town, everypony voicing their thanks and amazement at her skill. Shyly,Twilight went into an apologetic stance, saying she didn’t want them to hate her for showing off like that. It was quite the opposite actually.

As Twilight talked to some of the other ponies for her accomplishments, one of them mentioned how she was so powerful on taking on an Ursa Major. They were struck speechless when she told them that it was actually an Ursa Minor and not an Ursa Major. Unfortunately, she was interrupted with a loud bang before she could delve into specifics.

“Hey! Get back here!”

Smoke clouded Naruto’s vision. He tried to wave it away, but the smoke was too thick. He cursed himself for letting his guard down.

“If I knew smoke bombs existed here, I wouldn’t have let her get away… Damn it!”

The moment he heard the screams and cheers from behind, he looked back at the crowd cheering and surrounding Twilight. In just that brief moment when he looked away, Trixie threw a smoke bomb at their hooves.

“That two-timing little… After saving her life, she decides to run away from it all… So why did she save me?” Trixie’s motives just confused him even more. As the smoke dissipated around him who in turn allowed him to see again, there was no sign of Trixie in sight, except for a little dot that could be seen moving on the dirt road at a gallop.

Naruto was about to run after her, but was stopped by Twilight’s angelic voice.

“Naruto, wait. Let her go.”

Now it was Naruto’s turn to be surprised. Twilight, saying he should let her go, despite the fact that it was HE who let Blackie go, and the fact SHE protested to it before. He looked at her questioningly, waiting for an explanation.

“Why?”

“Maybe someday she’ll learn her lesson.”

“Wha… Are you just copying me, Twilight?”

“No. Remember Naruto, she wasn’t the cause for bringing the Ursa Minor here to begin with. That was Snips and Snail. She has nothing to be blamed for except for the lies of being ‘The great and powerful’ and so forth.”

Naruto sat down and crossed his front hooves with a sigh. He looked back towards the distance, seeing the small dot disappear overtime. He then turned towards Twilight with a new question on his mind.

“Why did you call that Ursa a Minor? I thought it was a Major?”

“No, Naruto. That was an Ursa Minor, a baby.”

“Oh…Wait, that over-sized grizzly was a baby? A BABY!? I WAS ALMOST BEATEN BY A BABY!?”

He face-smacked himself on the ground, not believing the sheer contradictions this imposed, dirtying his face. “A baby, I was over-powered BY A BABY! A BABY!” He had once again lost it. If an Ursa Minor was enough to take him on, then what could an Ursa Major do? Blow him away with a single breath? As he continued to face-plant his face into the ground, Snips and Snails tried to sneak off from the crowd, until Twilight caught them trying to leave, ignoring Naruto’s mindless mumbling for the moment.

“Now then, what am I going to do with you two…”

She listened to their reasons about bringing in the Ursa, mostly explaining that they wanted to see some awesome magic from Trixie. She merely sighed at their excuses. Her inner gut was telling her to punish them with a trip to jail, but they were merely kids who didn’t know any better. So instead, she suggested to clean up the caravan that the Ursa Minor had broken and decided it was time to put a magic spell of her own on them.

At this point, Naruto stopped face-planting and watched as Twilight performed another magical spell on Snips, Snails... and Spike too?  He didn’t hear most of what she had said she’d do, mostly something about #25. What that meant, he didn’t know, until a variety of moustaches poofed into existence on each of their faces.

He rolled his eyes. “Oh great, now there’s hair magic too? How much stuff can magic NOT do? And do Dragons even need moustaches? It doesn’t seem to look right…”

“…Although it is pretty cool.”

After that, the town ponies seemed to have wandered off back into their homes for the night, as if the chaos and destruction that just took place never happened. His guess was that repairs would take place tomorrow, but that was just a big guess. The things these ponies did freaked him out from time to time and their reactions are not what he would expect if they were actually human...

…And the fact that he was beaten by a baby was still lingering over his head.

“Naruto, are you alright?”

“Yeah… I am, sort of… Where’s Spike?”

“I sent him home. He knows the way back… Besides, there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“What about?”

“Well, for instance…” Twilight lightly slapped him on the cheek. Not as hard as it was back in the hospital a day back, but enough to leave an impression on him.

“After everything I’ve said about staying out of trouble: WHY DID YOU ATTACK THE URSA MINOR!?”

It wasn’t common for Twilight to yell at him like that, but she had reason for doing so. Naruto just growled as he rubbed his cheek.

“Hey, it was rampaging around the village and I wasn’t just gonna sit there and let it do about its’ business! Plus it interrupted my bath time with Mr. Rubber Ducky!” As a matter of fact, he didn’t own a rubber ducky, which is something he needed to pick up when he passed by the general store later. He shook these thoughts out of his head.

“…Regardless, Trixie was about to be squashed. Again, I couldn’t just stand there. That was when the Ursa became a threat to the town and I protected everypony from harm..” Protect… He just said he would protect the town from the Ursa. Why did that leave a moment of inspiration in his mind? Protecting… protecting the ones who had helped him? His new ‘kind’ that he was now one of…? That moment didn’t last long though, as a small tear went down her eye.

“Darn it Naruto… You had me worried sick. You almost died… again! Do you realize what would happen if you died? I would…” She stopped for a moment, averting her gaze to the ground and back at Naruto. “I would… um…” A small blush ran across her cheek for a brief moment, before going ‘hmph’ and turning his back on him, walking away at a fast trot.

Naruto stood there and watched as she walked away, utterly confused. “What was she about to say just then? She’d better stop treating me like she’s my mother... And speaking of mothers…”

He couldn’t help but face-plant into the dirt.

“WHY DID I GET BEATEN BY A DAMN BABY?”