The shinobi trembled in fear as killing intent began to leak out of Sasuke like water out of a bad faucet. It permeated the air, and the shinobi could feel his bloodlust- his want and intent to murder him, to end his life. It was nothing new to the shinobi to feel such a feeling- plenty of people wanted to kill him in the past, and he knew that it wasn’t going to stop anytime soon. It was more than just Sasuke wanting to kill him.
It was different.
There was a strange… malice... that seeped from the mysterious ninja in front of him. He had electricity that curled off of his sword, no doubt extremely deadly. He seemed fairly normal, though, and the shinobi was wondering how truly dangerous the other ninja was. The only things that truly scared him were the red eyes that the ninja possessed, and that mostly scared him because he didn’t know what it was and what the ninja was capable of.
He held another kunai up in front of him and sized up Sasuke. There was just something that was off about him. The shinobi knew he would have to take this fight seriously. The orange horse-thing still bled heavily next to him, and he wondered how much trouble he’d gotten into just for hurting the dumb horse-thing. Wasn’t the other shinobi a human, too?
Wasn’t he on his side?
“It’s just a dumb horse, anyway. Why do you even care?”
Sasuke scowled at the man with an intensive, terrorizing mix of anger and hatred, and his voice was once again abnormally soft and cold as he responded.
“It’s none of your business why it’s my business. Leave. Now.”
“No.”
The shinobi would later regret these words.
“I don’t know how strong you are,” the shinobi said, and at this, Sasuke could only smirk, “but back in the Elemental Nations, I was an A-rank missing-nin. I had a decent bounty on my head in the Land of Lightning, and I was fairly dangerous, so I don’t think you want to fight me.” Sasuke’s evil grin only grew larger and larger as the shinobi continued with his arrogant, insipid statements. “I think you should leave, not me. You don’t want to fight me.”
“Oh, but I do. I really, really do.” Sasuke’s voice was filled with a sadistic joy as he stepped forward again. As he did, the shinobi unconsciously stepped backwards, and every step was the same. Forward, back. Forward, back. Forward, back. The shinobi seemed to be growing more and more nervous by the second as time went on.
“For such an arrogant and confident opponent, you’re keeping quite the distance.”
“Shut up!”
By now, the man was a good deal away from the apple cart, where Applejack was still bleeding out. Somepony had run and went to the hospital to call a nurse, but they wouldn’t be back for several more minutes, at the very least. The pony was only an earth pony, and there weren’t many pegasi in the square, anyway. The ones that were there were too horrified and captivated by the sight to pay attention to much else. Sasuke smiled grimly as he moved closer.
“I’m an A-rank ninja! G-get away!”
“I’m an S-rank. I could care less.”
The way the man’s eyes bulged was an entertaining sight, and Sasuke couldn’t help but to bark a laugh as he got closer. The man, still fearful but not willing to do down without a fight, suddenly launched himself at Sasuke. Sasuke grunted and leaned to one side, as the multiple illusive images told him where the man would go. He smiled as his visual prowess made the battle easy. The shinobi groaned, annoyed, but retrieved several more kunai from his pouch and threw them at Sasuke, black steel gleaming in the daylight.
Sasuke blocked them all effortlessly, and the kunai fell to the ground, and Sasuke charged ahead at the man, with ridiculous speed. No one else but Sasuke and the shinobi could follow the fight, and everypony else in the town square was left to watch glimpses and little slivers of vision here and there.
The shinobi panted as he barely dodged a strike from the man’s sword. It was so dangerous- a sword, of electricity! He couldn’t even block the strikes or he’d be electrocuted. He had to resort to dodging every single one. He knew that it wasn’t go to last, and the man jumped away from Sasuke for a brief moment and stopped as he executed several hand signs fairly quickly. A basic bolt of lightning shot out at Sasuke from the man’s hands, and he blocked it, almost without trying. He grinned at the man- what a damn weakling.
“Are we in the academy, or are you actually trying to kill me?” Sasuke taunted.
The man only growled before retrieving some shuriken from his supply pouch and tossing them all at Sasuke. His bad aim, however, left him accidentally throwing some at the ponies in the crowd nearby. Sasuke growled as he blocked all of them, forced to defend the ponies. They were being stupid; staying here and getting in the way while a battle was going on.
Applejack only looked on as she barely caught small portions of the strange fight that was being shown before her. It seemed that Sasuke was much more powerful than they thought- what he’d shown before in the rare demonstrations of his strength were child’s play to what was happening now. The furious battle was clearly in Sasuke’s favor, though.
Applejack didn’t understand how much, however.
Sasuke breathed deep and exhaled with satisfaction as he felt unused muscles glowing with strength. In such a peaceful land, he hadn’t had to use any of them for a while, but now fully healed; he was stronger than he was before- probably a lot stronger.
The man edged closer to the ponies, and he suddenly held one up, a foal, by the neck. A struggling Sweetie Belle, who’d been watching the entire thing, flailed in alarm and tried to escape his grasp, but failed to do so. A weak magical grip seemed to engulf the man, but he shook it off without any effort- Sasuke’s eyes could see it. It looked like he just pushed chakra out of his tenketsu- that was how the grip worked, apparently. It surrounded the person, but could be repelled by the many tenketsu that were located all over the body.
He held up the struggling Sweetie Belle with one arm, by the neck, and pressed cold, uncaring steel to the vital area, which killed her resistance immediately.
“If you care about them so much, you shouldn’t attack me anymore. If you do, I’ll kil this one. Then I’ll kill more of them after that, too. It’ll be on your conscious.”
“Look into my eyes.”
What? Look into his eyes? He wasn’t falling for any kind of trap.
“Fine, if you won’t do that, then I’ll tell you my name. Uchiha… Sasuke.”
With widening eyes, the shinobi almost dropped Sweetie Belle, but then held onto her even harder as his mind processed what was happening.
“You’re THE Uchiha Sasuke? You’re that Sasuke?”
“Yes.”
“International Criminal, sole survivor the Uchiha Clan, S-rank missing-nin,” he choked out, from a bingo-book he’d once read, ”Killed Orochimaru- do not fight at all costs. Avoid at all times, do not encounter. Attempted Kage Assassinations; took the arm of the Raikage.” The shinobi said, quivering in terror as he realized who he was facing.
There’d probably be no surviving this.
“G-get away. I’ll kill her! I really will! I’ll kil-“
Sasuke had just been playing with the man. He couldn’t match Sasuke’s real speed at all.
So, in the next instant, several things happened.
One, the ponies, and several of their foals who were next to or behind them, all of whom were directly to the side or behind the man, were covered in red.
Sweetie Belle was covered in red.
Sasuke was covered in red.
And the shinobi was covered in red.
In a speed that no one save Sasuke could comprehend, he attacked the shinboi. Rushing at him with agility that the shinobi couldn’t perceive, he struck deep, shoving his sword intensely into the man’s stomach. In the instant before that, he’d deactivated Chidori Nagashi, so he wouldn’t electrocute Sweetie Belle. As he shoved the sword deeply into the man’s gut, Sasuke, in the same instance of time, while the man was still unaware of what had happened, he took the man’s hand that had the kunai and forced it away from Sweetie Belle’s neck.
He instead jammed it directly into the man’s throat.
And the last thing he did in the same instance was take the man’s pouch so he would have no more weapons on him. He stood in front of the man as time passed- slowly to Sasuke- and those around the shinobi, and the shinobi himself, realized what had happened.
He grabbed for his own throat and gut at the same time, attempted to stop the blood flow from both and failing to at both as well. Blood spurted and splashed out, and coated Sasuke and Sweetie Belle, who were in his immediate proximity. Farther away- but only marginally, the ponies and their foals had a decent amount of blood splattered on them as well.
Tearing his sword out of the man’s middle, he slashed the air and got most of the blood off, sliding the deadly weapon back into its sheath calmly. The man was still grasping at his throat, and blood spurted out more and more, coating the ground and the shinobi as he fell to the ground, with blood running down his entire front.
It slowly formed a crimson pool beneath the man, and there was complete and utter silence for one single second. It seemed that the silence possessed the town square- no, Ponyville, Equestria, the universe. It was completely and utterly silent, and not a single sound or word was heard or said in that single second, that single moment in time.
And then the screaming started.
Ponies and their parents screamed as they scattered from the square, holding their young. Sweetie Belle was too in shock to move- having witnessed death at such a young age, and at such a close distance. She’d watched as the thing’s eyes- the mean thing’s eyes- dulled, and the life slipped away from them. She’d watched as the body jerked as he fell to the ground, and then how it didn’t move anymore.
Then she’d smelt the terrible smell as the man vacated his bowels, and shit and pissed himself. All of this she’d seen, heard, smelled, and existed nearby as it had happened.
It wasn’t unexpected when Sweetie Belle vomited on the side, either, but that was beside the point. In less than a minute, the town square had been vacated, excluding Applejack, who couldn’t walk. She’d seen the whole thing- and with a stronger stomach than most, was able to avoid puking, but she’d have been lying if she’d said that she wasn’t disturbed by what she’d just witnessed. Sasuke calmly deactivated his Mangekyo Sharingan, and picked up the body effortlessly, before leaping off and running out of town.
He carried the dirty, filthy body, covered with blood and piss and shit and chucked it deep into the Everfree Forest, before leaving just as quickly. It was vicious enough inside there, and there would certainly be some timberwolf or manticore that came along and decided to eat the body. Problem solved, Sasuke headed back to town.
When he arrived, Sweetie Belle was still sitting there, covered in blood, and Applejack was leaning on the side of her applecart, while groaning in pain. She put both hooves to the kunai that was jabbed into her foreleg, but hissed in pain as soon as she touched it. She didn’t want to pull it out.
Sweetie Belle was still sitting in shock- her eyes were distanced, her look dazed. It seemed like she was completely out of it and was still trying to cope with what she’d just seen happen. Her mouth was still dirty with puke and she made no attempt to clean it or to even move at all as she stared off into some random direction- the real action was happening inside of her head.
It had only been a few minutes since the panic, and already other ponies were coming to investigate. Twilight, for one, came along with Spike, and the rest of the Elements of Harmony, besides Fluttershy, who was immobile in the hospital. Rarity, had, however, gotten off with bandaging and instructions to not move around too much- the slashes weren’t as bad as everpony originally thought.
So, Sasuke heard another scream as he again entered the town square.
Rarity, with bandages all over her flank and lower half, ran up, ignoring the pain, screaming at the sight. Sweetie Belle- her little sister- covered in blood. Combined with Applejack still sitting there, lying in pain and bleeding out, trying to get the kunai out, and Sasuke, who had blood on him, she very easily managed to put two and two together.
“My poor sister! How dare you!”
Rarity attempted a half-charge at Sasuke, which ended when she fell comically and didn’t even make it near him- despite how little difference it would make. She squealed at the pain, and the bandages were tinged red. Sasuke sighed at the idiocy of it all, but said nothing. Applejack, however, quickly spoke up for him.
“No, no. It ain’t like that! He helped me and Sweetie. Even if Ah don’t agree with his… methods, he didn’t do anything wrong!”
“Then who did that to you?” Rarity demanded. As she asked this, Pinkie, Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Spike had just arrived. They all stared in horror at the scene.
“The shinobi I killed.” Sasuke answered.
“…Killed?” Rarity whispered.
The town square was uncharacteristically silent as they gazed at Sasuke.
Sasuke’s eye twitched as they stared him down. The entirety of the Elements plus Spike minus Rarity stared at him. They’d heard him talking about killing, but they’d never seen him do it, before. They’d seen him intimidate Pinkie and Trixie, and even cripple and attack the dragon. All of that was bad enough. It didn’t change the fact that they’d never heard about or seen him killing- and it changed them. He saw it in their eyes.
Slight fear- that was steadily growing over time in the terrible silence. A pity that was strangely humiliating, to Sasuke. As if they felt bad for him, that he could actually bring himself to take another’s life. Sweetie Belle, still out of it, only stared on blankly, but for some reason, her stare affected Sasuke the most of all. He tried to inch away from them- tried to get away from the stares. It didn’t work.
They were so intensive to Sasuke. Gripping. He couldn’t look away. Murderer, they seemed to whisper. We thought you were better than that. The words were silent, and soft, but most of all, they weren’t actually there. Sasuke couldn’t know what they were actually thinking- but it couldn’t have been good. As they continued to stare, it started to get to him more and more. Face hardening, he resolved to set the record straight before they could form opinions.
“Don’t stare at me like that.”
Their expressions changed instantly. Before, on everypony’s face, were fear, anxiety, terror, wonder, and anger as well. They’d been unsure as of what had truly happened, and had kept speculating, even after Applejack had informed them that it was okay. They stayed away from him- backing away, just like the shinobi had done. Sasuke couldn’t help but feel something- it wormed its way into his heart, but he plucked it out before it could nest.
Just for a second.
Guilt- guilt had been in his heart, but he ripped it out and-
No.
“Don’t stare at me like I was in the wrong. If anything, you should be thanking me. Thank me that Applejack and Sweetie Belle are alive.”
They still looked suspicious, so he continued.
“Would you rather have a knife shoved in the man’s throat, or in hers?” Sasuke said, jerking a thumb at Sweetie Belle, who was still staring. She was playing with her mane idly- hooves smeared with blood trying to fix her mane, discoloring the pink-purple mane more and more as she did so. Her white, pure hooves were stained with blood. She gaped, still, and her hind hooves awkwardly scuffed the dirt as she kicked at it, sitting on the ground on her rear.
Rarity choked out a sob and hugged Sweetie Belle, who seemed to not even notice that Rarity was doing so. Her distanced gaze was horrible- a true testament to show what had happened. Eyes unfocused, hardly could believe what she’d seen. Sasuke knew what it was.
He’d experienced it once before too.
Innocence lost.
“Thank you, Sasuke,” Rarity managed to say, “truly, thank you. You saved my dearest sister… even if she’s like… this, now.” Rarity gestured with her hooves to Sweetie Belle.
“But, did you really have to kill him?” Rarity asked.
It seemed to be the question they’d all been waiting for. Everypony else perked up when they heard the question asked- instantly, many pairs of eyes fixed themselves on Sasuke. They were all watching him-wondering, waiting. What would he say? Would he admit guilt to taking a life? Or would he admit that it hadn’t affected him in the slightest?
It ended up being neither.
“I didn’t particularly enjoy killing him, if that’s what you’re asking. A battle like that with a shinobi like that always ends in death on one side- and I’m not getting killed just so I don’t kill him. He was fairly dangerous, or so he told me. A-rank ninja. I killed him before he could do any of his really dangerous techniques, though. He probably had more than he got to show.”
Everypony around nodded, though they didn’t really understand what he was talking about. Sasuke looked at the scene all around him- and then he fixed his gaze on Twilight, who stared back at him. Breathing deeply and calming himself, he started speaking.
“Twilight, did you make any more progress on the spell?”
This seemed to snap Twilight out of the shock she’d been in. Shaking her head back and forth, mane twisting wildly, she cleared her head, and then replied.
“A little. It’s hard to understand, though.”
“Mah question is whether or not anymore of yew shinobi will be comin’ through the portal. Yew’ve caused enough chaos here as it is,” Applejack told Sasuke bluntly, “but at least you didn’t hurt anyone. Him, though. He nearly killed Sweetie Belle, and hurt me pretty bad.”
“No, I don’t think so. I looked into the portal. There are… it’s impassable.”
“Well, good. Ah’m gonna be frank with yew, Sasuke. I don’t particularly care for ya, or your kind. All yew seem to do is cause trouble. But yew saved us from the dragon, and yew saved Sweetie Belle and me, so Ah gotta thank you for that.”
He wasn’t unsurprised.
“Whatever.”
He turned to leave, and then they asked him where he was going.
“Food.” He simply replied as he walked in the direction of the Everfree forest.
“There’s no food in there! There are manticores, they’ll eat you!” Twilight called.
“More like I’ll eat them.” Sasuke replied, a little annoyed, and was slightly satisfied when he saw Twilight blanch at the idea of eating meat, even a predator.
He went deep into the Everfree forest and found a manticore. Killing it easily, he cooked it and ate his fill without much trouble, and left again, quietly. He returned to town to find the square mostly deserted, still, with the blood still on the ground. Obviously no one wanted to clean it up, and the ponies around were still shocked at what had happened.
Sasuke didn’t really care, but as he walked through the mostly silent Ponyville, the silence reminded him of something- it was silent. Both outside, and inside his mind.
Guilt had stopped talking.
A look of true, real happiness appeared on Sasuke’s face as he realized how quiet it was. Guilt wasn’t talking, Hatred wasn’t talking. Not even Pride was-
I’m wounded, Sasuke. Not only did you go into battle because you had a fucking bleeding heart for a stupid horse, you protected it, and even explained yourself after. Ridiculous! Where’s your pride, Sasuke? I’ll tell you: I’M RIGHT HERE. You’re belittling yourself and I don’t understand why. If you continue to do this, you will no longer be Uchiha.
Sasuke bit out a pained groaned as he clutched awkwardly at his head. Pride was still there, though, but at least Guilt wasn’t, for now. Though he wasn’t sure exactly why Guilt was quiet, he decided not to question it. It hurt every time any one of them talked, and he wasn’t going to jinx himself. After Pride rambled on for a bit longer, he fell silent.
And it was again silent in Ponyville.
Sasuke sighed, trying to find something to do. Now, there was nothing to do but wait. The boredom weighed down on him heavily, but there was nothing to cure it with.
Before, when he was going after Itachi, all he’d do was train. Train, train, train. On his free time, he trained, and then he slept and ate, and that was all he did. Not much else. There was no time for fun and games- he was out on a mission of vengeance, after all.
Then, after that, he’d gained new knowledge, and had another target upon which to focus his hatred. And so, he trained and he attacked the five Kages and tried to destroy the Leaf. That was still his goal… wasn’t it?
He scoffed at himself; of course it was still his goal. He’d destroy everyone in the Leaf village and burn the place to the ground, and Naruto would be the last person he’d kill, for trying to defend the worthless place in the first place.
No you won’t, Guilt said.
Sasuke groaned in extreme pain. The pain had been intense- like a jackhammer pummeling into his brain. It was back.
Why did it have to come back?
I’ll only leave for so long, Guilt said. I’m what you despise the worse- what Pride calls a ‘bleeding heart.’ The insipid, heartless bragger. You’ve repressed me for so long Sasuke, repressed what most call their conscious. No, I’ve grown stronger and angrier because of it. I only left because I saw you doing something good, but you set your foot right back on that path of vengeance, didn’t you? I expected as much- with how worthless you and your clan are, I’m not surprised all you can do is hurt others. What a damn brute. I’m ashamed even being part of your conscious, not to mention having to witness the horrible decisions you make ever da-
Sasuke screamed in pain, clutching at his head as the voice reverberated throughout his mind and his being. It felt like the voice was coming from everywhere- and he was unable to stop it. He couldn’t attack himself, or something that didn’t have a physical form.
He was helpless, basically.
Sasuke Uchiha didn’t like feeling helpless.
If only he could be back home already- but no, he couldn’t. Not yet. Not until Twilight finished the spell. Still holding his head slightly, he wandered.
At first, he had no idea where he was going. He moved this way or that, strode around Ponyville, and didn’t talk to anyone. Everypony avoided him with as much space as they could possibly give him- after what they’d seen him done, even if he’d technically saved them, they’d seen how dangerous he could become and how threatening they he could be. As he passed random ponies out in Ponyville, they all gave him a wide berth.
Eventually, somehow, he found himself at Ponyville’s hospital. He staggered in, breathing heavily, but didn’t fall. The voice was still going, but it was getting quieter.
He could handle the pain when it was quieter.
When Guilt was quiet, it was like a dull agony that was ignorable- he’d already slept through it while it was happening several times before. But when Guilt was talking loudly, it was impossible to ignore. It was a loud torture that ripped through his mind and pounded into his brain. He walked further into the hospital, ignoring the nurse who demanded that he stopped. After she followed him for a bit, he turned.
He fixed her a glare of hatred and furious anger, and she backed off quickly enough.
After a while of wandering, he somehow found his way to Fluttershy’s room.
He walked in and closed the door, ignoring some other random mare next to her on the bed, separated by a curtain. The other mare looked at him curiously, but didn’t say anything. Sasuke walked up to Fluttershy’s bed and stood, and watched her while she was sleeping.
Her wings looked absolutely horrible.
After the burns had cleared away, and what was left of- if you could even call them wings- were revealed, it was clear how much actual damage had been done to them. A melded, fleshy, jagged limb jutted out awkwardly from Fluttershy’s back, and it was featherless- really, they looked terrible. Even the feathers on her other wing were seared off, but the damage to that one was minimal. No, it was her left wing that the damage had been done to.
Even with the burns mostly healed after a few days, the damage had been dealt almost immediately as soon as she’d received the wound. Because of the high temperature of the flame breath that a dragon possessed- easily going over a thousand degrees- it had melted her flesh together. Joints and muscles now con-joined where they weren’t supposed to, and the flesh was horrible discolored- not like her yellow coat. It looked bony, and Sasuke could easily see the jagged, wild places where the bones jerked out of place wrongly.
The pain must’ve been immense, and Sasuke himself had to give credit to Fluttershy. He knew that she was basically innocent and not at all used to real pain. She seemed to be sleeping peacefully, even if they had her sedated or something, with magic or something else.
After sitting there for a while, he got up and left, without Fluttershy waking up.
He wandered around the town a bit more, but didn’t have anything to do.
He was thinking about what Guilt had said, earlier.
Now that Applejack had been wounded in her front hoof like that, she probably wasn’t going to be working on her farm. Sasuke knew that farms were hard work to take care of, and someone getting injured like that was probably incredible inconvenient for the rest of the people-ponies- that worked at the farm.
He wondered what would happen if he went and helped at the farm.
Shrugging his shoulders awkwardly, he wandered off through town a bit more, putting the idea off. He ended up walking into the Carousel Boutique, and saw Rarity making dresses, albeit a little slowly. She was still hindered by the wounds in her legs, flank, and back. She cringed every few moments as she moved around, but otherwise seemed fine.
Due to Sasuke’s stealth, Rarity hadn’t noticed him, but he made a point to be louder than he usually was, getting closer and watching her make dresses. Rarity turned to him, and smiled, before putting the dress that was in her magical grip down. The strange, blue aura that Sasuke still wasn’t used to faded as the materials fell to the desk that they were floating above before. Rarity seemed to struggle to find words before speaking.
“I must thank you again, Sasuke, even if you traumatized my sister a little. It was so dreadful, watching her like that. I must’ve cried for her the entire time I was helping her clean up. She cried too, after she… got out of it.” Rarity finished lamely as she walked through her store/home, moving into the kitchen.
Sasuke noticed how well she took care of herself. She’d already changed her own bandages it seemed- and while he barely knew Rarity, he knew how much she took care of herself. She seemed to have an even more pristine coat than before because of the injury- to compensate for the wound, she bathed and went to the spa even more. The doctor had recommended keeping the wound very clean, anyway.
“The poor dear, she sobbed and sobbed, but she’s sleeping upstairs, now.”
“Would you like some tea?” She offered.
“Hn.” Sasuke grunted, and didn’t say anything else.
Rarity sighed, but went and made the tea anyway, and they drank it quietly.
“Do ponies drink tea often?” Sasuke asked as he set down his cup.
“No. Although I’m surprised you know how to.”
“No, more people do it where I’m from. My mother was the one who taught me how to drink my tea.” Sasuke seized up as he realized what he’d just said.
“Oh, your mother. What’s she like?” Rarity asked nonchalantly, not paying attention to Sasuke’s facial expression as it darkened more and more. She poured herself another cup and began to drink, but was surprised when she heard the cold reply.
“Nevermind.”
Faster than she thought was possible; Sasuke had disappeared from her store. Huffing and muttering about individuals who lacked manners, she wandered back into her inspiration room to continue creating her great art.
__________________________________
It had pissed him off a lot to hear her ask about his mother, but he managed not to hit Rarity. She was one of the things that could still set Sasuke off, despite the fact that he’d calmed down slightly since he came to Equestria.
Sasuke grumbled and scowled as he walked around town. He knew he was just avoiding the inevitable, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. It was really his pride that inhibited him- to go offer help to another person was already strange- his problems weren’t theirs, and theirs weren’t his- but the fact that they were ponies somehow made it all worse.
He noticed that, while before, he’d spotted the three crazy foals- The Cutie Mark Crusaders, as they called themselves- scampering around the town often, even for the short while he’d been here, they weren’t here now. It didn’t surprise Sasuke, though- he knew that two had just been through a traumatic ordeal, and he didn’t even know where the third was during all of that. The orange one, ‘Scooter’ or whatever her name was.
Eventually, though, he just started walking in the direction of the farm.
The entire time, Guilt was still rambling. Sasuke frantically tried to shut her out, but nothing really worked- it seemed that this was the only way. He’d noticed the silence- the absolutely beautiful silence that he’d never appreciated so well before- right after he’d helped everypony in the middle of the town square. It had been amazing- not having to listen to the maniac voices in his head talk all the time!
As he walked further and further way from town, it got even quieter. Much like before, except the only noise he heard was Guilt rambling onwards and never-endingly in his head. Still, it was clear that it was helping. The closer he got, the quieter it got. Buildings and ponies walking around them were replaced by the wilderness for a short time as Sasuke slowly walked out towards the innumerable apple trees that dotted the landscape, far away.
It took him a little while, because he wasn’t in a real hurry, and he was also still procrastinating, but eventually he wound up at the Apple Family farm. It didn’t look much different from the farms back home, although everything was slightly smaller scaled due to ponies being smaller than the average man- or the average farmer.
They had large fields that were being tilled- still brown and with deep, long stretching furrows that went out of eyesight. They had apple trees that were beyond counting- They went in miles for every direction, and Sasuke knew that they probably managed this with a lot of other workers. There was too much here for one or two ponies.
But, curiously, he didn’t see anyone else. He didn’t see anypony else, rather. He didn’t even see Applejack. He figured that everyone was instead inside of the house. Shrugging, and scowling at the building- detesting himself for what he was about to do- Sasuke took his time walking to the front door, and knocking awkwardly.
It was silent for a few seconds- and the voices in his head had gotten even quieter, by now- but soon enough, the door was opened. A curious filly looked out towards him, and then opened the door wider. It was Apple Bloom. She stuck her head out, and looked at him, uncertain of his arrival. “Why are you here?”
Sasuke barely bit the words out.
“I’m here to talk to Applejack.”
“Oh. She’s inside.”
As Sasuke was going to step inside, Apple Bloom suddenly perked up.
“Oh yeah, by the way, thank you fer helpin’ her! You did save her, ya know.”
Sasuke barely nodded as he stepped inside- he could already feel his pride being crushed. He wandered into the old home- it seemed so… cozy, and sickeningly so. He gazd around at his surroundings, noticing how old and outdated everything seemed. He wasn’t surprised at farmers in this world being poor. They were poor back where he came from, too.
There wasn’t too much decoration- they had basic necessities, but Sasuke was certain that they didn’t have extra cash just lying around to spend on luxuries. He wandered around throughout the house a bit before finally actually seeking out his target with intent. He found Applejack at the dining table, although she wasn’t eating- just sitting there. There was a red stallion next to her- larger than most, Sasuke noticed. He was the biggest normal pony that Sasuke had seen yet.
Next to him was a pony that looked incredibly old- as if it was a miracle that she was still even alive. It was some green mare that looked like she was knitting. They hadn’t noticed Sasuke’s arrival yet. He was right behind the door frame, and with his ninja skills, they didn’t realize he was there. They all seemed to be a little somber. Applejack took off her hat with her undamaged foreleg and set it on the table, revealing her blond mane. She sighed.
“Ah don’t know what we’re gonna do, Mac. I’m hurt, you’re still recovering from your injury… Granny can’t work, and there’s no way that Apple Bloom could take care of everything.”
She ran a hoof through her mane, sighing tiredly, and placed her injured foreleg on the table. The hoof made a light tapping noise when it hit the table, and Applejack winced in pain, and then sighed again. Big Mac looked nervous, and Sasuke, without even knowing the pony, could tell that the look didn’t fit the stallion. He looked easy going and laid back, even if hardworking. Big Mac frowned, and commented.
“Ya can’t work like that. Don’t even try doin’ it.”
“Ah know that!” Applejack replied, frustrated.
But her anger dissipated just as quickly as it had appeared, and she sighed again before dropping her hooves onto the table, depressed and beaten.
It was then that Sasuke decided to walk in and show himself.
“I could… help, if you wanted me to.” Sasuke mumbled.
“What?” Applejack asked, confused. “What? No. What are you even doing here?”
“I came to… help.” Sasuke mumbled, but inside he was furious with himself. He couldn’t believe that he was doing this. Applejack’s stubborn pride wouldn’t allow it, though.
“No, no. No.” She repeated, endlessly, but Big Mac stepped in before more damage could be done and Sasuke might actually leave.
“Don’t listen to mah sister. She’s dumb.”
“Hey!”
“It’s true sis. You know this is a golden chance. It would give us the time we needed to rest. You’re not ruining this for us just because you don’t want to accept help.”
Applejack only ran her hoof through her mane again, and slumped onto the table.
“Fine. We aren’t paying you much, though.”
“I’m not asking for money.”
“Even better, then. Alright, Big Mac. Show him the work he needs to do.”
As Big Mac led Sasuke out to the fields to show him his tasks, Sasuke couldn’t help but feel humiliated that he was resorted to this. He was above farm work.
But, it made Guilt quiet in his head.
There was silence.
And that was all Sasuke cared about.
TO BE CONTINUED