//------------------------------// // Seeking Out Undesired Answers // Story: Adventures of the Equestrian Ninja // by hussbek //------------------------------// ADVENTURES OF THE EQUESTRIAN NINJA Chapter 37: Seeking Out Undesired Answers "There we go, got the latest issue of the Power Ponies," Naruto came strolling out of the House of Enchanted Comics with a paper bag containing the comics being held by his tail. He himself was also interested in the comic, having been reading manga back in the Elemental Nations. Naruto sealed the comics away into his medallion and began making his way back to where he had left Trixie earlier before "I hope I didn't keep her waiting too long," Naruto finally arrived at the junction but then he noticed that Trixie was nowhere to be seen much to his confusion "I wonder where she is, could she have gone somewhere else?" he thought deeply about the most likely scenarios at the moment, one of the few were that she might have forgotten something in one of the shops, wanted to buy some more items or maybe…went to the fillies' room, that last one had him blush a bit before whacking his head hard to be rid of such perversions, ain't no way in Tartarus is he going to be the pony version of Jiraiya! "Maybe I should wait here for Trixie to come back, I'm sure she won't take long anyway," In another part of the city, a cloaked figure is seen walking through a narrow alleyway whilst levitating a black bag overhead with her magic, she stopped before a backdoor and used a key on her person to unlock it then went inside before locking it behind her. The pony took off the hood to reveal that it was none other than Midnight Rose who turned towards the black bag with a wicked smirk on her face and opened it to reveal an unconscious Trixie. "Never thought I would see you again after all this time ever since you deserted us," Midnight Rose muttered loudly, then she heard hoofsteps approaching from behind as the other door in the room opened up for a pony to enter. He is a male unicorn with a coat of ash grey and a wavy mane and tail possessing two shades of ebony black, he wears a monocle on his left eye with a long chain attached to a black tuxedo and a top hat placed atop his head, and a cutie mark depicting a ball of twine completely entangled but what is most notable is the large amount of strings wrapped around his hooves and neck along with the crazed look in his eyes. "Ah Midnight, I was wondering when you were going to return from your walk. I wanted to tell you of my latest idea for my next puppet show," said the pony. Midnight Rose rolled her eyes in annoyance, this pony always gets on her nerves with his obsessions of puppet shows "Like I would have time for that Tangled Twine, though I happened to have brought along an old friend of ours," Tangled Twine looked over to see Trixie and his eyes widened in surprise and then a maddened glee "Why if it isn't our dearest friend Trixie, it's been over two years since she left! Ahhh seeing her face again gives inspiration for a new puppet show!" "You can save that for later until after we learn of what she has been doing all this while, we might get some worthwhile information from her before teaching her what it means to abandon the Kaleidoscope," said Midnight Rose. "Oh I can't wait to hear some nice stories!" said Tangled Twine with a mad cackle, the duo lifted Trixie up with their magic and carried her further into the hideout and wait for her to awaken so they can proceed with their interrogation. Back with Naruto, the blonde was becoming more worried with every passing minute. He has been standing at the junction for over ten minutes and Trixie still hasn't returned, surely whatever she was doing isn't supposed to take this long at all. "What's keeping Trixie so long?" Naruto looked around for over the hundredth time for the mare in question and still couldn't see her "Maybe I should go looking for her," he got up and left while leaving a shadow clone behind just in case she were to come back. He went to the previous places which he and Trixie had gone to earlier in the day and asked if she had passed through but they all told him that she didn't come by for the second time today. Naruto then decided to make his way to the train station in the off chance that Trixie might have taken a train back to Ponyville which is kinda unlikely given that they bought a pair of two-way tickets and he has them in his possession. He went to ask the conductor about whether the mare whom he described had been through here but he received the same answer as the others which was a no. Naruto dashed out of the train station looking very worried about the current situation "I'm getting a really bad feeling about this, time to pull off drastic measures!" he quickly ran into a nearby alleyway and channeled a large amount of chakra through his body as he called out "Multi Shadow Clone jutsu!" with consecutive puffs of smoke, his copies began exiting from the alleyway and taking different directions as they began their search for Trixie. Naruto himself was leaping along the rooftops with his Aura Sight active as he was familiar with Trixie's energy signature, so far he searched the city in a wide radius and is currently flying around with his chakra wings active but he just can't seem to be able to locate Trixie at all. "Darn it! Why can't I find her at all?!" frustration began to get a firm hold on Naruto as he continued with his search, it was at that moment that one of his shadow clones dispersed to transfer its memory about something strange to him "What is it that my clone has found?" he flew towards the place his clone was before it dispelled and landed before an entrance to an alleyway, Naruto cautiously made his way through the alley till he stopped at a dead-end then carefully looked around the area for any sort of clues "…hmm? This scent is…" he sniffed around a bit then took notice of a torn piece of fabric which he instantly recognized to come from Trixie's cloak and the scent was the perfume which she had tried on before back at the shop "Trixie is always careful about the state of her clothes and to find this lying here where nopony would think twice of venturing inside could only mean…Trixie's been kidnapped!" Naruto desperately looked around further for anything in addition which could give him an idea at least of where he could possibly find the missing mare, he felt his hoof hit something and then there was the clinking of glass which caused him to look down and see a vial on the ground and something yellow was inside it. Naruto picked up the vial and shook it lightly to see that it was a powdery substance before carefully putting it away along with the piece of fabric into his ninja pouch, he took one more look around but didn't find any more clues before leaving the alley "I better get these over to Ponyville ASAP for Twilight and the others to analyze so we could find a way to track down Trixie and the kidnappers!" Naruto activated his Chakra wings and took to the air before flying towards his next destination as fast as he could, knowing well that every second counts from now. … … … "*Groan* what happened to me?" Trixie stirred from her sleep and began to look around from her position "Where am I and how did I get here? The last thing I remember was that," her eyes widened in realization as she quickly scrambled to her feet and tried to move only to feel restricted and hearing clinks of metal, Trixie looked down to see shackles on her hooves which were linked to the wall behind her "She must have brought me here when I was unconscious," Then a voice spoke up "Astute as always Trixie, you certainly haven't changed all that much over the years since you left us," Trixie turned to see Midnight Rose reveal herself from the shadows along with a pony whom she was all too familiar with as well. "It is most certainly a pleasant surprise to see you again after all this time, Trixie!" said the unicorn with a mad look in his eyes. "Tangled Twine…," Trixie shivered at the sight of the mad unicorn, he was the last pony whom she wanted to see as well due to his obsessions with puppetry. "Now that we're all reunited and everything, how about you tell us where you've been and what you have been doing all this time?" asked Midnight Rose with a smirk "And don't even bother trying to use your magic cause we've placed a spell on you to disrupt any use of magic," "And what makes you think that I'll tell you anything?" said Trixie defiantly, there's no way that she'll betray the trust that her new friends have in her! "I was hoping you would say that," Midnight Rose smirked evilly and took out a syringe containing a clear liquid from her cloak and held it out to be seen "Surely you recall my specialty in alchemy, well this is here is a truth serum which will make you answer any question that we ask, so it's not like you had any choice in the matter to begin with," Trixie took several steps back in fear till her flank hit the wall as she gazed at the syringe drawing to close to her, she tried to move again but found herself being held in place courtesy of Tangled Twine's via his magical strings, leaving her helpless as the syringe pricked her skin before injecting the serum into her body. "I can't wait to hear the tales of your travels, my dear Trixie," said Tangled Twine. "Same here," said Midnight Rose in agreement. Naruto arrived at the outskirts of Ponyville and quickly descended to land on the ground with a skid as he ran into the town with his destination being the library which he is sure of Twilight being there at the moment, Naruto then channeled his chakra and created multiple shadow clones to run alongside him. "I need you guys to go and call Applejack and the others over to the library ASAP!" said Naruto urgently as he ran. "Roger boss!" the clones responded simultaneously before splitting up in different directions either by running or flight. Naruto continued along the pathway until the library was in his sights as he put on a burst of speed and barged right through the door, surprising Twilight to drop the scroll which she was reading and Spike to lose his balance and drop the tall stack of books which he was carrying. "What's going on Naruto? You surprised us," asked Twilight before noticing the look of worry on the stallion's face "What's the matter?" "Twilight, we have a serious problem on our hooves!" said Naruto urgently. "What is it?" asked Spike confusedly. "We need to wait for the others to show up, a lot of help is going to be needed," A couple minutes later, the mares arrived at the library and took note of the worried look on Naruto's face which they had seen earlier on his clones before they dispelled themselves which instigated them to hurry over and learn of the reason why. "We got here as soon as we could Naruto, so what's going on that you called us over?" asked Applejack. "Trixie's been kidnapped!" said Naruto getting gasps of shock from the mares. "What happened?" asked Rainbow Dash, Naruto proceeded to tell them what happened when they were over at Canterlot before his return to Ponyville and calling them all in for help. "…and these are what I found at where she might have been kidnapped," Naruto took out the piece of fabric and vial before placing them on the table for them to see, Twilight and Rarity examined the vial and fabric respectively with a critical eye while the rest watched on in silence and waited for answers. "Hmm, it appears that a part of the cloak had caught on to something and torn off when she was being taken away…and I'm also seeing some yellow dust on it too," said Rarity. "Don't breathe it in Rarity, that must be the same one in this vial here. I'm guessing it's what was used to sedate Trixie before carrying her away," said Twilight cautiously. "Anything else you can figure out?" asked Fluttershy worriedly. "Not at this moment, I'll take it down to the laboratory to analyze the formula and find out more about it," said Twilight as she walked towards the lab with the vial. "Please hurry so we can find a way to track down Trixie and her kidnappers," said Naruto. "I will," Applejack then spoke up "But the question now is why Trixie would be kidnapped and by who?" "That's what I've been thinking about the whole time on my way here and all I could come up with so far is that the one behind the kidnapping must be very familiar with Trixie," said Naruto thoughtfully. Pinkie Pie raised a hoof as if she was a student in class "Ooh ooh, I know! I know! Maybe it's someone from her past who has finally found her after all these years," Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at that "Come on Pinkie, this is serious!" "Hold on, maybe she's on to something. As far as we all know, Trixie was a travelling performer before she came to stay with us and work as Naruto's assistant, but we never knew of her life before then and she never speaks of it herself," said Rarity. "That may be true but we're still low on clues about where she could be and how to find her, not even Naruto's Aura Sight could find her," said Applejack. "It could only mean that she might have been put somewhere where magic is blocked off, so we might need to find another way to locate her," said Rarity. "They're right but how? Maybe I should work on a seal which could track her down, but that might take too long to do so,"thought Naruto, the mares continued to think of ways to find Trixie when Twilight reentered the room with a sheet of paper containing written, Naruto saw her approaching and spoke up "Did you find anything Twilight?" "I did, I've analyzed the formula and discovered that it was created to sedate and paralyze the victim should it be inhaled. The thing is that the chemicals used for this is quite complex for a regular pony to be able to make one like it, this tells me that we're dealing with something more serious than any normal kidnapping here," said Twilight. "Is there anything else?" asked Rainbow Dash impatiently. "I also discovered the scent of a perfume on it too," Naruto's eyes widened in realization "I remember, Trixie was trying on some perfumes when we were shopping," "Ummm I have a suggestion, maybe we could trace the scent of the perfume to where Trixie might be kept," said Fluttershy. "Then what we need is a bloodhound!" said Pinkie Pie excitedly. "In that case, I know just who is right for that job!" said Applejack proudly. "Now that we have a plan, let's get going already!" said Rainbow Dash. "I'll go and get my gear, just in case of emergency," Naruto as he dashed out of the library towards the Uzumaki mansion. "I'll get a couple of spell books too," said Twilight, everyone else went to their homes to get themselves ready for the search. Back at the hideout in Canterlot, Midnight Rose and Tangled Twine were back upstairs with Trixie still in the basement though the former has an expression of anger while the latter has one of interest about the current subject at the moment. "…so she's friends with that darn pony who got in the way of our operation that time, and to think he's actually the creator of those crystals which we've been seeing and hearing about," said Midnight Rose with a frown upon recalling her encounter with Naruto and how he detained her partners. "Indeed, and to think that he is also a bearer of the Elements of Harmony and this energy of his…to be able to actually defeat even an Ursa Major makes me feel so inspirational!" said Tangled Twine excitedly. "There's no time for that! It's obvious that's he is searching for her right now and has already called for help from the other bearers, so we need to leave Canterlot as soon as possible," said Midnight Rose. "But with our magic runes disrupting magic, he wouldn't be able to locate us with that eye ability of his," Tangled Twine recalled the list of abilities gleaned from Trixie. "Maybe so, but I wouldn't put it past him to utilize other methods of search like with that annoying duplication technique of his. So make preparations for our departure," "As you wish," Tangled Twine bowed in affirmation before leaving the room and into the next one with a glint in his eyes and a manic smile on his face"I'm rather hoping that they find us as it's not every day that I can get these kind of ponies as an audience for my puppet shows. I'll need to tune my puppets for that,"the smile only grew wider when he opened a door to a dark room where black silhouettes of oddly shaped objects hanging from strings could be seen. Meanwhile, there was a bright flash of purple which then faded away to reveal Naruto and the mares along with an extra, having been transported to Canterlot courtesy of Twilight's teleportation spell. Naruto looked up to the sky and saw that Celestia's sun has almost set and Luna's moon is halfway up to the dimming sky. "We need to hurry, the kidnappers could use the cover of the night to escape from Canterlot, so we gotta be fast," said Naruto. "Okay Naruto, Winona c'mere girl!" said Applejack, receiving a bark in reply as her pet scampered up to her with her tail wagging "Alright girl, we brought you along cause we need your to find Trixie by her scent. Think you can do that for us?" Winona barked again as if saying 'yes' to them "Atta girl!" Twilight presented the piece of fabric before the dog, though earlier beforehand she had removed the paralytic sedative from it with the scent of the perfume remaining on it. Winona sniffed the fabric a couple of times then started sniffing around the area for a similar scent then her ears suddenly perked up as she began moving in a certain direction. "I think she got the scent," said Applejack happily. "Great, then let's get going," said Rainbow Dash as she took to the air with Fluttershy following after her. Naruto, Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rarity followed Winona by foot but kept a certain distance to avoid attracting too much attention to themselves, Winona continued with the tracking and led them through many streets and dark alleyways. "I hope Trixie's alright," said Twilight worriedly. "I'm sure she's fine, she's just got to," Naruto spoke up firmly believing his own words. "Me too," said Rarity. "Hey guys, I think Winona is getting closer to where Trixie is!" Applejack called out to them, the group saw the dog scamper ahead of them into another alleyway so they quickly followed after her with hope in their hearts. They arrived at a door which Winona was scratching at with her paws whilst barking "She must be in there!" "And probably along with the kidnappers," Twilight added. "Good, cause I'm in the mood for some answers," Naruto grinded his fore hooves on ground in anticipation for a fight. "Same here," Rainbow Dash hovered close to him whilst bumping hers in excitement. Naruto reared a fore hoof back and lashed out to punch the door clean off its hinges and jumped into the room and took a fighting stance with the others following after him to help out. But there was nopony inside the room much to their confusion. "Hmmm, nopony is here," said Twilight. "They're probably hiding somewhere, let's split up and search," Naruto along with Rainbow Dash and Twilight went through one door with the other mares pairing up and going through the other doors. Naruto cautiously kept his eyes and ears open for any signs of the enemy or traps to obstruct them. The trio climbed down a flight of stairs and stopped before a door at the end of the passageway "Now let's see what's behind door number 3," They cautiously opened the door and went inside only to find darkness so Naruto reached into the ninja pouch and took out a flash crystal and activated it to illuminate the room, there at the end they saw a familiar pony with her hat and cloak with her head slumped down. "Trixie!" The trio quickly approached the mare to check on her condition and free her from the shackles, Naruto used his tail to take out a kunai and channeled wind chakra through it and began to carefully chip at the shackles to break them, but for some strange reason…he couldn't help but feel that something is way off about all this. "Hey Trixie, are you okay?" Rainbow Dash placed a hoof on the mare's shoulder and shook it so as to wake her up "Huh, have you lost weight lately…and what's that creaking sound?" she wasn't the only confused as Naruto and Twilight were also hearing the creaking which was similar to that of wood, but the door behind them wasn't moving at all. Twilight looked at Trixie and felt suspicious about something"Why is the creaking sound coming from Trixie?"so she reached for the hat and pulled it off only to reveal something absolutely shocking to them "What is this…a puppet? Indeed what was before the trio is nothing more than a wooden puppet made to look like a unicorn and wearing Trixie's clothes nonetheless, Naruto and Rainbow Dash gritted their teeth in anger at the ploy with the former stomping the ground hard enough to form cracks. "Darn it, It's a decoy! They must have left it behind while knowing that we would be coming to look for Trixie," said Naruto angrily. "They must be gone from Canterlot to who knows where by now," Rainbow Dash with a frown "Now what do we do?" Twilight was silent the whole time as she was thinking very deeply about a solution to their current problems, she suddenly snapped back into focus and turned to speak to the others "I just came up with an idea for how to find Trixie!" "Well let's hear it, anything is better than standing around here right now," said Rainbow Dash. "Okay, here's the plan…," Twilight gave the two the outline of what she has in mind "…and that's how we can find Trixie," Naruto nodded in full agreement of her idea "So far, this is one of our best shots so I'll be going on ahead to start it up while you quickly rally the others and catch up with me," he quickly left the room and ran back up the stairs to exit from the hideout towards the next solution to finding Trixie. Racing along the pathway leading from Canterlot to an unknown direction is a carriage being pulled by earth ponies wearing black cloaks, inside was Midnight Rose and Tangled Twine while Trixie was still unconscious. "I'm sure by now that they have discovered the decoy," said Tangled Twine mischievously. "*Heh* By that time, we would be long gone and they'll be too late to save Trixie from her well-deserved punishment," said Midnight Rose in a smug tone. About a mile away from Canterlot, the carriage gone quite the distance when suddenly something struck the path ahead which forced the ponies to skid to stop, almost knocking two of the three passengers off their seats. Midnight Rose and Tangled Twine came out of the carriage with looks of annoyance on their faces as they went to interrogate the ponies. "What is this meaning of this?! Surely you are aware that we're in a hurry?" asked Tangled Twine. One of the cloaked ponies bowed his head in cowered apology "Forgive us sir, but something struck the ground ahead of us and we had to stop to avoid it," At the pony's statement, the duo turned to look at the path and were surprised to see what appears to be a cluster of diamond shaped knives stabbed into the ground and glinted in the moonlight. They barely had any time to think when something or rather someone descended from the night sky to land on the pathway before them, Midnight Rose's eyes narrowed in recognition of the pony. "I finally found you, and I wasn't expecting to see you again," said Naruto. "Do tell, ninja," Midnight Rose responded, getting the stallion's eyes to narrow upon hearing her mention his title when he knew that only a handful of ponies are aware of it. They heard the flapping of wings and looked up to see that the Mane 6 had just arrived with Naruto's shadow clones carrying Twilight and the other flightless mares with large chakra arms and placing them next to him. "That was a fun ride, let's do this again after this!" said Pinkie Pie happily. "So these are the guys who kidnapped Trixie, now we can finally kick some butt!" said Rainbow Dash, bumping her fore-hooves together. "So who are you and why did you kidnap Trixie?" asked Twilight stepped forward to interrogate them. "A pleasure to finally meet you all, my name is Tangled Twine and this is Midnight Rose…proud representatives of Kaleidoscope," said Tangled Twine with a slight bow "Though I'm curious to ask how you were able to find us all the way out here despite the decoy we left behind to throw you off," "We sought help from Princess Luna to locate Trixie via her dreams since there was a high chance that you would keep her unconscious…but you still didn't answer my second question of why you kidnapped Trixie," Midnight Rose simply scoffed "And why should it concern you?" "That's because Trixie's our friend and why we're here to save her," Rarity replied with a frown. "Well if you want to know so badly, Trixie used to be a member of Kaleidoscope until she deserted us a few years ago. According to the code of the guild, deserters are to be punished severely," Naruto stepped forward with an audible growl as he used his magic to pull the kunai out of the ground and returned them to his ninja pouch except for one being held by his tail "And do you really think that we're simply going to stand and do nothing?" "Of course not, it's how you all are just like Trixie 'told' us," a crazed smile appeared on Tangled Twine's face "And truth to be told, I've actually wanted an encounter…so I can have you be an audience to my puppet show!" a brown aura radiated from his horn as a compartment from the carriage burst open for something to emerge from within and float close to the male unicorn for everyone to see. "P-puppets?" Fluttershy spoke confusedly. Like she said, there were life-sized wooden puppets, there were many varieties such as unicorns, Pegasus, griffins and even a manticore. Each and every one of the puppets happened to be covered in the same brown aura from Tangled Twine's magic. "They don't look so tough," said Rainbow Dash. "Stay sharp, I don't think they're ordinary puppets in the least," said Applejack. "Ah, one of you sees the quality in my beloved puppets. Now let me hear the rest of your views!" Tangled Twine cackled loudly as he commanded his puppets to attack the group. Music Start: Naruto Original Soundtrack; Raikiri (Thunder Break) "Whoa! Guys watch out!" Naruto quickly dashed backwards to evade a swipe from the Manticore puppet which continued to slash at him with its claws and used a kunai on his tail to block an attack from its scorpion tail, then he retaliated by hopping into the air with a half spin and perform a double kick with his hind legs to knock it back from him then checked to see how the others were doing. So far, Rainbow Dash was battling against a Pegasus puppet and holding her own very well, Applejack was using her training with Naruto to counter the close range attacks from a unicorn puppet. Pinkie Pie was busily having fun hopping around and easily dodging attacks from the puppets whilst Fluttershy was keeping a safe distance and avoid being attacked. Rarity and Twilight were attacking from a distance as they launched blasts of magic to knock the puppets away from them, Naruto snapped back into focus and jumped away in time to avoid getting crunched by the puppet manticore's jaws then again kicking it away from him. Naruto then heard the sound of clopping and turned to see the carriage being pulled away from the fight "Guys, Midnight Rose's getting away with Trixie!" "What do we do?" asked Fluttershy worriedly. Naruto leapt into the air to dodge another tail attack for a few seconds of thinking before landing back on the ground and calling out to the others "Twilight, you take Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie with you and go after her while Applejack, Rainbow Dash and I deal with this crazy puppeteer here," he created a few shadow clones which immediately activated their chakra wings then used chakra arms to carry the mares before taking off after the carriage, leaving the others behind to engage the enemy. "Did you call me crazy? I rather prefer the term professional," said Tangled Twine, looking offended as he frowned at the group. "We beg to differ," Applejack retorted, Tangled Twine manipulated his puppets to attack the group once more. Rainbow Dash quickly ascended to the air with two of the Pegasi puppets chasing after her whilst using short flaps of her wings to evade the punches and wing swipes from her opponents, she performed a loop-the-loop and used the momentum for an all-fours strike on one of the puppets before kicking off it to land a double punch on the other, however the puppets were quick to recover and soon reengaged Rainbow Dash in close combat once more. Rainbow Dash frowned at this as she flew up to a nearby cloud and punched it hard enough to discharge bolts of lightning which struck the puppets but they merely emerged from the attack with scorch marks. "Hey what gives with these things? They're supposed to be toast with that attack!" said Rainbow Dash, quickly performing a barrel roll to the side and evading a full body tackle from one of the Pegasi puppets. Applejack was also having problems of her own, she kept ducking and weaving around the incoming attacks then countering with strong punches and kicks, she quickly ducked under an overhead punch then spun round on her fore hooves to perform a powerful double kick which sent one of the puppets away from her and crashing into a tree before turning round to raise a fore hoof and block a punch from another before pushing back and punching it very hard in the head for the knockdown. Applejack stepped back a bit to catch a breather, then she noticed that the puppets are back on their feet and charging at her once again. "Darn it, these puppets refuse to break no matter how hard I hit them," said Applejack, defending herself against the onslaught of attacks from the puppets. Naruto was continuously attacking and defending against the Manticore puppet, he deflected the scorpion tail again with his kunai held in his tail and quickly dashed out of the way of a pounce attack which it followed up with several swipes of its claws. Naruto skillfully flipped over the Manticore to the side and stomped hard on the ground with one of his fore hooves upon landing, suddenly something burst out of the ground underneath the Manticore, revealing it to be a chakra arm in the form of a giant fist as it launched the puppet into the air with an uppercut. Naruto leapt after it with chakra emitting from his fore hooves in the form of claws as he proceeded to strike it consecutively with a barrage of slash attacks then performed a Pegasus dash to maintain altitude to continue the barrage before finishing it off with a cross slash to send the large puppet plummeting down to the ground. "Chakra Bullet: Rapid Fire!" he pointed his fore hooves at the manticore for two white runes to appear before launching white orbs of chakra at a fast rate, then the runes fused into a larger one "Chakra Cannon!" he fired a much larger sphere of chakra at the target, throwing up a cloud of dust upon contact as he landed on the ground "That ought to do it, now to help the others," Naruto turned to leave when he noticed movement and was shocked to see manticore emerge with not much damage save for some battered parts and scorch marks "Still? What will it take to destroy that puppet?" "Wonderful aren't they? My beloved puppets are far more special than those cheap toys you're familiar with. Allow me to show you their true potential," Tangled Twine flared his magic for moment, then blades emerged from several parts of the puppets which then attacked the group with more power. "You're so much like a certain guy I know that it's not even funny!" Naruto jumped away to avoid the slash attacks from the manticore's now sharp metallic claws, he formed the chakra claws on his fore hooves once more and went into the offense. He would be able to inflict hits on the puppet but barely leaving anything more than scratches, the manticore opened its mouth and fired a volley of knives at him "Terra Bunker!" he channeled his magic to form a large dome of earth around him to block the incoming projectiles then he burst out to dash at the puppet with a blue spiraling sphere in his chakra arm "Take this, Rasengan!" he rammed it into the puppet and struggled as it grinded upon contact with sparks flying everywhere, but it eventually began to bore through much to the mad puppeteer's shock before suddenly expanding to blast the other side into pieces. "My beloved puppet! How dare you hurt it?!" Tangled Twine raged at the stallion. "Hey, you guys are planning to do the same to Trixie so I don't wanna hear that from you," Naruto replied with a snort. "We'll just have to see about that, come my puppets! Avenge your fallen comrade!" the puppeteer pony manipulated two of his Pegasi puppets to attack the stallion. Elsewhere, Twilight and the other mares catching up with the carriage from above with help from Naruto's shadow clones. "Get us a little closer, Rarity and I will make a grab for the carriage!" said Twilight. "Got it!" one of the clones replied in affirmation, they picked up speed and were soon directly above the carriage. At that moment the roof opened up and Midnight Rose emerged from within the carriage and stood atop it as she stood atop with a saddlebag attached to her and was glaring at the ponies. "You all are just as annoying as that stallion! I won't let you rescue the deserter!" Midnight Rose used her magic to take out what appears to be round-bottom flasks containing purples concoctions from the saddlebags and shook them violently before flinging them at the mares. Instinct screamed at the clones to move out of the way and they did so just in time as the flasks suddenly exploded to release purple gas from within them. "I'm guessing that she must be the one who created the concoction," said Rarity. "Yeah, so we should watch out for whatever she throws at us," said Twilight, Midnight Rose continued to throw multiple concoctions at the group and they constantly evaded the potentially deadly projectiles till she finally ran out of it then she resorted to firing beams of magic. Twilight projected magical shields to deflect shots which almost hit her and the shadow clone with the rest using their barrier crystals to do the same "Now to stop it!" Twilight closed her eyes in concentration as she began to use her magic to levitate the carriage, no sooner was the carriage enveloped in the purple magic aura did it disperse without warning much to her shock. "What happened, Twilight?" asked Rarity. "I'm not sure but I think something disrupted my magic when I tried to levitate it, it must be the same wards like the one we found at their hideout," said Twilight with a frown "We'll need another way to stop it. "Oh oh, I know just what to do!" Pinkie Pie looked up to the clone carrying her "Hey Naruto #3, can you carry me ahead of the carriage?" "Uh sure," said the clone confusedly, then he picked up speed and bypassed the carriage till they were ahead whilst evading the magic projectiles fired at them. "Now this is the job for…the party cannon!" Pinkie Pie activated her crystal beads to unseal said cannon, then she took aim and fired what appears to be large white globs of sticky cake batter which stuck on to the faces of the ponies pulling the carriage, causing them to fumble around before tripping over themselves and finally stopping the carriage. Rarity swung into action by using her magic to levitate the ponies into the air and activating her crystal to unseal several fabrics and a sewing kit, she skillfully and swiftly used one of the cloths to wipe the batter off the ponies then followed it up by sewing jackets with overly long sleeves which she then put it on them and tied the sleeves into cute bows on their backs like straitjackets. Rarity stood back to admire her handiwork "Cute and functional, quite the idea if I do say so myself," Midnight Rose feeling enraged took aim at Rarity and was about to fire a magic beam at her when a blast of purple magic flew past right in front of her face, she turned to see Twilight frowning at her with her horn emitting a purple aura. "That's far enough, Midnight Rose. Surrender now, you're outnumbered here!" said Twilight, Rarity has her materials floating around while Pinkie Pie has her party cannon reloaded and ready to fire with the shadow clones on standby and Fluttershy floated nearby. Midnight Rose gritted her teeth in frustration, everything was going according to plan and yet for it all went awry because of Trixie's connections with these ponies. She should have prepared more but was too hasty ad ill prepared for these scenarios, so right now she has to cut her losses. "Very well, you can have her…for now. But know that you all have made Kaleidoscope your enemy because of this!" Midnight Rose took out yet another flask of concoction and shook it before throwing to the ground to create a large cloud of green smoke, the mares quickly pulled away from it then one of the shadow clones used a wind jutsu to blow the gas away only to reveal that the mare was nowhere to be seen. "She's gone!" said Rarity. "I'm worried about what she said before leaving," said Fluttershy with concern. "*Sigh* well our main reason was to rescue Trixie, so let's go and make sure that she's alright before returning to the others," Twilight turning towards the carriage with the rest following her. Back with Naruto and the other, the stallion maintained his focus on the Griffin puppets as they approached him with their blades being swung to cut him. "Hoshi no Ha, battle stance!" he summoned the stellar glaive to his back as he began to use it to constantly clash with the puppets while performing short dashes to weave in and out of their attacks. The puppets were then manipulated to attack him from two different directions for a pincer attack. Naruto lowered his body slightly to the ground with the white swirling energy at the center of the glaive's guard suddenly surging as the puppets drew closer until they were right on top of him that he swung into action "Glaive Windstorm!" he spun rapidly with the sword to knock them back, Naruto locked on to one of the puppets before dashing up to it and slashed rapidly up to four consecutive hits then jumped into the air with the blade raised above his head and surging with energy "Meteoric Cleaver!" he sharply descended with a devastating overhead strike which split the puppet right down the middle for it to fall apart in two halves. Naruto spun round in time to parry a slash from the second puppet "Antigravity Strike!" he performed an uppercut to launch it into the air and quickly channeled magic into his horn "Fire Lance!" multiple spears of flames appeared around him and shot towards the airborne puppet to constantly strike until burning it to cinders. Applejack was still battling the bladed unicorn puppet but managed to find an opening and launched a double punch to smash its fore hooves for it to stumble back a few times on its hind legs "Oh no ya don't! you're not getting away from me, Yee-haw!" she slammed her fore hooves hard on the ground to form cracks then lunged at the crippled puppet at high-speed and slammed into it with a full-body tackle, smashing through it entirely. Rainbow Dash was also finishing up on her side as well, she quickly ascended to the skies then came diving back down at breakneck speeds. The puppet lashed out with its blades only for Rainbow Dash o dodge at the last minute and grab it by the tail "Thunderous Drop!" she spun around a couple of times then using the momentum to throw the puppet violently to the ground, smashing it to pieces "Take that, puppet!" Music End Tangled Twine was flabbergasted at first but that quickly turned to rage as he stared at the state of all of his puppets and the ponies responsible for the destruction. "How dare you? How dare you destroy my puppets?!" he yelled at the group. "Don't go pinning this on us, you're the one that started this fight. Besides, they're just blocks of wood," said Rainbow Dash nonchalantly. "Blocks of wood? They are far more than that, not that I expect you plebeians to understand! They are creations of artistic beauty and artificial life with amazing potential that those so-called puppeteers have constantly failed to-" Tangled Twine would have continued with his ranting had something blurred in front of him and a piece of paper was placed on his forehead, causing him to freeze up and unable to move, revealing it to be Naruto with a look of annoyance on his face. "Save the preaching for the guys in prison, we have better things to do right now like reuniting with the girls and helping Trixie," said Naruto. "That's right, so let's get going," Applejack was in agreement, she saw that the unicorn was about to rant again and so shoved an apple into his mouth to shut him up. They were about to get a move on when they saw a flash of purple light which dissipated to reveal, Twilight having returned with the others along with a pair of restrained ponies and most importantly, Trixie who was their main reason for the rescue operation. "Hey guys, is Trixie alright and what happened to that Midnight Rose?" asked Naruto worriedly. "She's okay, just sedated but I'm sure she'll wake up in due time," Twilight replied, "But the unicorn we were pursuing managed to escape after threatening us," "All's well that ends well then, let's get Trixie back to Ponyville and make sure that everything's okay," said Rarity. "And she can tell us more about these Kaleidoscope guys," said Rainbow Dash with a small frown. "In that case, I'll take these guys to the royal guard in Canterlot and catch up with you later," Naruto sent Hoshi no Ha within him once more then he activated his chakra wings and formed chakra arms to grab the ponies before taking to the air and flying in direction of the Royal Castle. Trixie slowly stirred from her sedated slumber and opened her eyes to look at a familiar ceiling, causing her to sit abruptly but the sense of vertigo made the mare slump back onto her now familiar bed "What happened, how did I get back home?" "Looks like you're awake now," Trixie turned towards the voice to see Twilight and the other mares in the room with her as they looked at her with relief. "Twilight…everyone…you're the ones who rescued me?" asked Trixie in awe. "Well duh, of course we did! It's the obvious thing to do since we're friends," said Rainbow Dash. The door behind them opened up to reveal Naruto entering the room and the look of relief on his face upon seeing Trixie finally awake, he quickly approached the mare and enveloped her in a warm hug. The mares would have been feeling jealous but they knew very well that she needed that hug after all that she's been through. "I'm so glad you're alright, you have no idea how worried the girls and I were when we learnt that you had been kidnapped and we did so much to find you," said Naruto happily. "This calls for a party!" said Pinkie Pie excitedly. "We're glad you're okay," said Fluttershy softly. Trixie stared at all of ponies around her and how they were happy to see her…to be with her despite their bad beginnings. She couldn't take it anymore and burst into tears much to their surprise and slight concern for that. "*Sob* I'm so sorry…please forgive me! I didn't want to betray you…*sniffle* but she forced me to…I don't *sob* I don't deserve to be rescued!" Trixie bawled loudly. "Calm down Trixie, what do you mean by that?" asked Twilight. "*Sniffle* when I was captured, Midnight Rose used a truth serum on me. I tried to fight it but I was forced to reveal everything from when I left up to my time with you all," "But you didn't do it willingly, so you're not at fault," said Fluttershy. "But...but I...," Trixie tried to protest. "You're still our friend Trixie, nothing is ever going to change the fact that we value you," said Rarity with a warm smile. "After all, friendship is the greatest magic in the world," said Twilight in agreement with Rarity. Trixie finally stopped crying and smiled tearfully at them "…Thank you," "So can you tell us about the ponies who kidnapped you, you seem to be familiar with each other?" asked Naruto with concern, having met one of them sometime ago. "They're part of a dark guild called Kaleidoscope with Midnight Rose being the leader and Tangled Twine her right-hand pony, I used to be a member until the day I left to become a travelling performer," said Trixie. "What is this Kaleidoscope about?" asked Applejack. "They are a group of ponies who seek to become the most powerful beings in all of Equestria and beyond. They go about acquiring all kinds of spells and relics relating to magic regardless of them being harmless or even cursed. The guild would go to any lengths to acquire such things and they don't care if anyone would get hurt in the process," Trixie explained to them, everyone were stunned at hearing this and yet they hadn't heard of this dark guild until now. "This is the first time I've heard of such a guild, surely the Princesses should know of this," said Twilight thoughtfully. "It's a good thing that I had sealed the Infernal Flower of Pyro Flare away into the scroll with a blood seal, I'll need to up my training regime to face these since they now know of my abilities,"thought Naruto. "If these guys are such bad news then why did you join them?" asked Rainbow Dash with a small frown. Trixie bowed her head with eyes full of regret "I used to live with my family and we were a large one with lots of brothers and sisters. I was of the younger ones and always wanted attention, so I would do a lot of things to get them to look at me and praise me. But then they began to pay less and less attention, I didn't like that and wanted it back. That was when Midnight Rose appeared and invited me to join the guild with the promise that I would learn magic spells and be able to do anything I want with them, my naïve thinking got me to join her. Times past I saw the terrible things they had done and was frightened by it, so I ran away and became a traveling magician. I never would have thought that I would be found, and now they'll be coming after us," "Well I say bring it on! We already took one of them down, so the rest better bring their game on if they want a piece of us!" said Rainbow Dash with gusto. "She's right, I'll show them how we do things down at the farm," Applejack tipped her hat as she spoke. "Yeah, it's gonna be a wild party bash!" Pinkie Pie threw confetti into the air. "Face it Trixie, you're going to be stuck with us for the rest of your life," Naruto smiled with the mares nodding in agreement. Tears brimmed at Trixie's eyes as she smiled at them "Thank you…all of you," "You're welcome dear, now rest and we'll come to visit you tomorrow," said Rarity, then she left the room with the others wishing her goodnight and following after her until it was just Naruto and Trixie alone in the room. "Well, guess I better leave you to rest too. No need to worry about the shop as I'll have my shadow clones handle it," Naruto began making his way for the door. "Naruto wait!" Trixie suddenly called out, causing Naruto to stop and look back in confusion. "What is it?" asked Naruto. "…there's something I want to tell you, could you come closer?" Trixie appeared to be quite nervous. Naruto approached the bed once more "So what is it you want t-" Anything that Naruto was about to say stopped abruptly when Trixie suddenly leaned out of the bed to pressed her lips against his and held them there for a few moments, Naruto's eyes widened in surprise and his heartbeat hastened just like when Luna, Fluttershy and Applejack kissed. Trixie finally pulled away from him and smiled bashfully with her cheeks tinged pink, Naruto opened his mouth but no words came out. "I really meant what I said earlier, especially to you Naruto. Meeting you and the others…has to be one of the best things to have ever happened to me," said Trixie with a warm smile. Naruto was still silent but then gave her a foxy grin and finally replied "I feel the same way when I met you all too, I'll see you in the morning…goodnight Trix," he turned round and finally left the room. Trixie flopped back on the bed and looked up to the ceiling with a sigh before giggling happily. Despite everything that happened to her up till now, Trixie snuggled underneath the covers with the thought that she was feeling very happy with all this.