//------------------------------// // As a Princess Falls To A Criminal // Story: Visual Prowess // by UgalaaWriter //------------------------------// Sasuke gazed on with red, swirling eyes as he inspected his situation. Guards, all the same, began to surround him- and he made no move to stop them. Each of them, wearing shining, golden armor, as hard as could possibly be. They probably thought they were invincible- they’d easily apprehend this criminal with the help of their Princess. Sasuke would enjoy showing them how wrong they were. Sasuke let out a cackle of off-key, insane mirth, and Celestia’s eyes, though they lost no fury, were still clearly confused by the action. He soon stopped, though it was clear that the entire situation was somehow humorous to Sasuke. He pua little more chakra into his sword and watched with satisfaction as the electricity sparked off just a bit brighter. “Of course. What did I expect? It’s what I get for trusting anyone- oh, sorry, Princess. Anypony- the stupid fucking way you change words in this place doesn’t even make any sense, because there are things other than ponies- but whatever. The point is, I’ve been betrayed again, and I’ll take the blame this time because it’s what I should’ve been expecting the entire time. No one wants to help me, and all the universe wants to do is fuck me over.” “You haven’t been betrayed. You broke a law of Equestria-“ “Bullshit, Princess. Or, maybe I should say horseshit. The last thing your faithful student did before sending a letter reporting my actions of saving the townspeople was teleport away, probably to my land, and leave me stuck here. She took the book, too, so there’s no getting back for me, I guess. It was probably the plan all along- and now, you’ve got me right where you want me. All just because I helped out.” “You did not ‘help out’. You broke a rule of the land. All guests of the nation are to be treated with respect- and certainly, not murdered. From what I’ve seen of you, and heard of what you’ve done, I can easily assume that you didn’t need to kill him. So why did you?” “Because it was the safest thing to do,” Sasuke spat. “Why?” “Because leaving someone like a shinobi alive is a good way to get killed later, idiot! You wouldn’t know anything about it because you have no common sense, but I, along with every other shinobi who’s worth his kunai, have been trained in stealth, power, and speed. If I left him alive, even if you sent guards, he would’ve hidden away somewhere, and continued terrorizing, and killing. I solved your fucking problem. I should be getting thanks, not this. Whatever the hell this is.” “I’ve already told you what this is. This is an arrest party, designed to take you in. You will abide by the laws of Equestria and come in for further questioning as to why you killed the man, and you will explain yourself as I will not have a murderer or somepony as cruel as that walking free in my land.” “So, this is an arrest party?” “Yes, criminal scum!” Sasuke took a step towards a guard. The guard backed up, but still verbally reprimanded Sasuke for his movement, even as Sasuke started laughing. “Stop! You’ve violated the law!” Celestia frowned as she watched Sasuke laugh. “What, exactly,” Celestia said, moving closer, horn lit, glowing, “is so humorous about this situation, to you?” The light on her horn continued to grow brighter, but even as his Mangekyo Sharingan spun rapidly, and his Chidori Nagashi raced across his gray steel blade, Sasuke laughed a bit more, before answering. “Oh, it’s just funny to me- the idea that you think you can take me in.” “We’ll see about that, colt,” Celestia muttered, and the guards began to leap at Sasuke. The first Earth Pony guard jumped at Sasuke, hooves outstretched to hit and damage the criminal. He’d hit him in the side, and then when the guard landed, he’d turn, quick as a flash, and buck him in other side, and knock him down. The plan was perfect: it couldn’t fail. So it was the guard’s surprise when Sasuke dodged him as if it was the easiest thing in the world- and smacked him in the back of the head with the flat of his blade, electrocuting the guard through his armor and sending him sprawling in the dirt next to Sasuke. The other guards looked on, even more furious than before, but Celestia seemed the angriest of all. “You should stop and leave, before I start using lethal force.” Sasuke said. “You’re lucky that I’m even holding back at all. None of you deserve it, certainly.” “Ignorant, foolish child. This is my land, and you’ll follow my rules,” Celestia whispered. In the same instant, Celestia leapt at him, with real intent and force, wings fully extended and horn glowing brightly, and Sasuke had to push chakra out of his tenketsu multiple times to shake off the telekinetic grip that both her and the unicorn guards were trying to use on him. It wouldn’t work on him. Although Celestia was fairly fast, she wasn’t fast enough. And, as she passed Sasuke, and he moved swiftly to the side, Sasuke decided it was a good point to then jam the first few inches of his sword into her shoulder and stand there, holding his ground, as she passed him, and Celestia screamed in agony as she dragged her body along the blade, leaving a long gash behind that blood flowed out of like a river. The gash stretched from her shoulder to the middle of her back, and had nearly touched her wings, though they were thankfully left unmarked. She breathed heavily, and the guards and the townsponies looked horrified as Celestia sucked in breaths and lit her horn up. “That,” Celestia said as the wound inexplicably sealed shut, with a loud hiss and a wince from the owner of the gash, “was the first time that I’ve bled in many, many years. You’ll pay for that.” She shook her head and her mane, and then, with a toss of her head, motioned for her guards to rush at him again, while she sat back and charged magic to attack him with at the same time. The guards darted forward, obeying, and Sasuke narrowed his eyes and watched, carefully, as three of the nine remaining guards came for him. Sasuke found himself fending off three unicorn guards, though it was incredibly easy as he twisted into the holes that there were between their attacks. His Sharingan easily provided him with the right moves to make, and he followed in kind and trusted his visual prowess as he struck one guard in the back, sending him crashing down, and laid into another with a strong blow from his closed fist that left a huge dent in the metal of the guard’s helmet. The guard went down, with what was probably a concussion. That left the unicorn guard that had used all his magic to speed him up and go for Sasuke’s chest with his horn. He was left crashing into the other guard as Sasuke began using his real speed to fight, now. No more messing around. The unicorn guard who had been trying to shove his horn into Sasuke’s chest instead landed on his buddy and nearly impaled the other guard. The three were left in an inelegant, moaning pile on the ground, and Sasuke turned and smiled grimly at Celestia as the other six guards rushed him at once, and Celestia’s eyelids burst open and she stared at Sasuke as her horn’s magic began to form. “You’re starting to piss me off!” Sasuke roared, and as Celestia ignored him as she shot forth several bolts of blue, arcane energy. Sasuke didn’t want to know what would happen if they hit, so he darted backwards, and jumped between several buildings as he dodged them. But, as he found out, the spell wasn’t that easy to dodge, and it wasn’t that easy, either. They followed and pursued him relentlessly, and he swore as one crashed into a home and exploded, and he leapt away. He stopped, and closed his eyes, concentrating. Then, he opened them again, and the Sharingan spun with a renewed, different malice as the blue bolts, looking like gigantic arrows made of shimmering cobalt energy crashed into a wall- a fortress- of violet, purple power. The full, complete Susanoo looked around with an unrestrained, clear disdain as the guards leapt at it stupidly. All except the one who didn’t jump were knocked back just as easily and thrown with huge speed and force into nearby buildings, blowing holes in the wall and leaving he guards crashed against the broken remains of the buildings. Sasuke smirked at Celestia and the one guard left, who stood in front of her. Out of all of them, the guard looked the youngest- and not because he actually looked the youngest, because they all looked the same- probably some sort of magic. No, he looked the youngest because he had the most fear coming off of him. Even as he crouched in front of Celestia, there was no bravery, or bravado or any kind of courage in the act; even though it was protection in its intent, he didn’t have the mental fortitude or the conviction for it. He was literally shaking in his boots, and Sasuke knew a way to make Celestia take a hit. Breathing deeply, he raced through jutsu handsigns incredibly fast and tensed up, throwing his back outwards as he gathered fiery air inside of his lungs. He had no doubt that he’d probably made this weak enough that it wouldn’t kill him. Besides, there would be no civilian casualties. By now, all the other ponies had already deserted the town square that had turned into a battlefield- most had run for the hills or the outskirts of Ponyville. He saw several that seemed to be specifically going for the Apple farm. “Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!” Sasuke shouted, and as he breathed out, a gigantic fireball, swirling with red, orange flames, sprouted from his mouth. It continued forward with surprising speed and Sasuke watched in sick satisfaction as the guard in front of Celestia quivered- but strangely, didn’t move. Sasuke frowned. He was sure that the guard would move. Surprising. It seemed that some of the creatures actually had something resembling a backbone. It didn’t possess quite the amount cowardice that he was expecting. Celestia stepped forward, and with a protective air that reminded Sasuke of a mother, she snapped her horn forwards firmly and wove a yellow shield that seemed thick- Sasuke wouldn’t have been able to see through it if it weren’t for the Sharingan. The flaming, gargantuan ball of fire bashed uselessly against the shield, and continued for several moments in its attempts of destruction before fizzling out and leaving the air in the area heated. Celestia panted, clearly, it had taken a lot to not weave the shield, but instead to enforce it constantly with energy to make sure that it didn’t crack under the pressure. Sasuke only grinned viciously. He could do Great Fireballs all day long if he wanted to, and if that was what only one did to her stamina, he had no doubt that not only would she not be able to block a stronger attack, that she had no endurance, and wouldn’t even come close to him in a real fight- which was what this was evolving into. The guard in front of Celestia stumbled back, into the Princess’ forelegs, and she pushed him back onto his feet as he looked down, embarrassed. Sasuke only smirked and decided to rub it in a mite further. Speaking loudly so she could hear him, he taunted them. “Equestria’s finest, huh? A genin from where I’m from could beat your guards.” “Quiet, Sasuke!” Celestia reprimanded, but Sasuke only narrowed his eyes and began walking closer. The guard tried to stand to, and face him strong, but one look into his eyes made the royal guard want to turn away. The creature was frightening, hateful… unnatural. He wasn’t even expected to face something this strong. He’d still try to protect the Princess, though- and he charged recklessly at Sasuke before being smacked to the side. The guard tumbled to the side, with a huge dent into his helmet, and groaned. Celestia narrowed her eyes and looked at the battlefield. They were scattered everywhere- six in one spot, three in the other… the newest guard to be taken down had his spot. All of them were knocked unconscious, but Celestia hoped that was all it was. It didn’t look like he’d done any kind of fatal damage to any of them. While she was grateful to Sasuke for this, he was still a criminal, and had to be brought in, no matter how kind he was being while fighting the law. Sasuke started sprinting as he ran at Celestia- and she hurriedly erected some kind of yellow shield in front of him- he didn’t care, and slashed through it, breaking whatever kind of defenses she had planned. She flat out ran, now, throwing up multiple barriers when she could, trying to slow Sasuke down, even if just a little bit. It was working for a while until she stopped to try to be offensive. She stopped for about one second to close her eyes and charge a spell. One second was all it took. In one second, Sasuke charged at her and slashed again, and this time, he cut much, much deeper, making sure to tear into her insides, before ripping out the sword painfully. Not only were her insides torn up from the sword that had completely destroyed her guts, they were charred, if wasn’t bad already, from the electricity that still sparked off of Sasuke’s gray blade. She bled heavily, from a deeper rip across her form. Sasuke leapt back for a moment and let her heal herself. He smirked. He was actually having some fun with this. Celestia hissed as her wound hissed- and closed. It was like some sort of super healing- that dealt with cauterization. It seemed that she could use it a lot, but it tired her nonetheless. She panted as she stared down Sasuke from across their gap. She raised her horn again, looking regal and princess-like even in her condition- sweaty, with blood on her coat, and in her flowing mane. A different color of light surrounding her horn formed- this time, it was red. Sasuke looked on, curious. In an instant, he raised his sword, and a bolt of energy headed for his face was sliced in half as it was split by the blade. Sasuke glared at Celestia. “Getting faster?” Sasuke taunted. “Is it too fast for you?” Celestia countered. It wasn’t intimidating- being trash talked by a princess who looked so tired that she was about to die. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at Celestia as her horn was surrounded by red a second time. “Nothing’s too fast for me.” Celestia didn’t respond, but shot another of the fast bolts, using her concentration solely on offense. She didn’t move, and only focused on watching Sasuke as she charged another bolt of energy. She shot it out at incredible speeds- she herself couldn’t see it, but as long as she was facing her enemy, it would hit him- that was, unless he was too fast to block it. Nopony before had been fast enough to block it. A second time, almost bored, Sasuke raised his sword- and didn’t bother slashing. He let the blade of the weapon do the work for him as the bolt flew ahead and tried to crash into Sasuke- but only ended up being split into two and flying past him harmlessly at incredible speeds. He raised his sword and put it over his shoulders, and stood there. Then, almost as if reconsidering about the entire fight- he sheathed his blade and waited. Celestia watched him with more than a bit of anger at his arrogance. Now he thinks he can deflect it or dodge it by hand? Let’s test your mettle, Uchiha. Again, she launched the projectile, but it almost looked like Sasuke hadn’t moved- it went through him, and he stood there, and looked backwards, before turning to her and grinning. She glared at him, furious. He was playing with her. She roared and flew at him, offering her horn to his chest. Sasuke turned to the side and watched her race past like an angry bull. The second pass, though, he didn’t move. He retrieved a kunai from his pouch and blocked Celestia’s horn with his knife- the horn scraped it against it intensely, but rather than look tired or worried, he looked happy and excited. He likes this, Celestia realized. He likes this fight, for whatever reason. Soon enough, Celestia realized that this wasn’t going anywhere, and leapt off, and they stood in their original positions again. His Great Fireball technique had burned the grass and land around them, and their battle had done damage to the landscape- though, thankfully, there was no real damage to the village as Sasuke hadn’t used any of his actual dangerous Jutsu, at least not yet. Celestia glared at a smiling Sasuke as he observed their shared handiwork. He called over to Celestia from their relative space, and what he said made her angrier than she had been before. “Are you done trying yet?” In a rage, Celestia started exerting herself, which meant that it was going to make Sasuke barely have to try. She shot multiple volleys of the red-horned attack, and the fast projectiles were effortlessly dodged by Sasuke. She sprayed him with the blue bolts of arcane energy, but he ended up cutting them in half or simply dodging them. She hadn’t hit him yet, and as her anger possessed her, the task only became more and more impossible. Soon, though, Sasuke began to grow bored of this. And, even as he fought, he fought in pain and became more and more furious- because Guilt was speaking to him as he battled. The words, in the battle, couldn’t be recognized, and were gibberish at best, but they were painful gibberish. Sasuke grabbed at his head and nearly fell, almost being hit by one of Celestia’s attacks as his Guilt momentarily immobilized him with pain. The second he was able to move, he immediately went to end the fight. Celestia watched him curiously as he stood still. She wasn’t sure what he was doing- but she could see his eyes, and stared into them, swirling, and they looked red and angry and hateful. She steeled herself, before continuing to launch projectiles at him. Whether by his mistake, arrogance, or simply a lucky shot from Celestia, somehow, it had hit. Celestia wanted to cheer as she watched Sasuke finally fall to the ground. Adjusting her crown with her magical grip, she began to walk forward calmly and regally, dignified, to take Sasuke into custody, and then she’d- She felt a horrible ripping pain in her chest, and looked down, in horror. Sasuke had no expression on his face as he twisted and shoved the blade deeper, deeper into her heart, and he soon dragged it, as soon as it was deep enough. The blood of a princess, and her organs, coated his blade as he forcefully tore it through more of her body. From her chest, he moved downwards, slowly carving through the rest of her stomach and lower abdomen until there was a stretching gash so large that he probably could’ve climbed inside of her body- and it was completely torn open, and leaked blood. Celestia’s eyes were stuck into a permanent horror, and they only flashed in more pain as she felt the pain tearing through her body, and she bled, and then she screamed and- Sasuke watched as Celestia passed out from afar. The Tsukuyomi was difficult for him to use for more than a short period inside of the genjutsu, but that had been short enough that it had worked just fine. He didn’t want to kill the stupid horse. He knew that they’d probably never stop chasing him, then, and it was annoying enough. She’d probably be grateful that he spared her life after this- but that was too hopeful, Sasuke knew. Even if she attacked him first. Sheathing his sword, he turned- and watched as a group of crying fillies and colts looked on at the scene in horror. Despite hardly any blood being shed- besides Celestia’s, which was only on the ground because she had taken a second to heal her wound, they still sobbed for their fallen Princess. As he passed them, they mobbed his legs, and tried to stop him. They tried to smack him with their hooves, which felt like small taps on his legs. They were doing less than an ant could. Sasuke tried to shake them off of his legs, but they wouldn’t let go. He flared his killing intent and growled at them, and they seemed to fall off like bugs that had been sprayed. He stepped over the pile of unconscious fillies and colts and started walking out of Ponyville calmly. Behind him, was destruction. There were sparse fires here and there from his Great Fireball Jutsu, and the villagers seemed more than ready to stay the hell out of his way. Knocked out bodies of royal guards laid here and there, and in the middle of all of it, was a fallen Princess. Her mane was still flowing, even in her sleep. The townsponies gathered around their fallen Princess, and they wept. The colts and fillies would cry over her body, as well, and she would awaken later to find mostly the entirety of Ponyville mourning her as if she had died. And she would go back to Canterlot, with her guards, and lick her wounds. _______________________________ On the outskirts of Ponyville, Sasuke thought about his situation. He’d officially attacked a Princess- and a goddess of the sun, too, by what he’d heard about Celestia in the short time that he’d been in this ridiculous land- and he’d defeated her, pretty easily, too. That wasn’t what the problem was. Sasuke was thinking about the consequences of his actions. Normally, he didn’t do this- but he realized how much he’d need to hide, now. It wasn’t like they could beat him, but they could just as easily keep sending soldiers and Celestia could keep chasing after him until they finally wore him down and captured him. It would take forever, but it was certainly possible, the more Sasuke thought about it. He didn’t want to get caught- he should’ve just run, in hindsight. Although running from the law was only a step below attacking them, he’d attacked their Princess- and now, likely, no one would be on his side. He wouldn’t be surprised if even ponies like Rarity, Fluttershy, or Pinkie were no longer on his side- if they were, at all, since the beginning. He knew they’d betrayed him- and he knew that Twilight had teleported away and left him behind to be apprehended by the law of the land. So, by all rights, he should kill them. Kill all of them- it wouldn’t even be hard. He could easily go from city to city, casting Great Fireball Jutsu across the entire land and scorching their civilization. If Celestia was the strongest protector they had, then it really wouldn’t be hard at all to do something like that. But not only did that result in thousands of deaths, they hadn’t really pissed him off enough to do that. He was no longer as surprised or angered by betrayal as he once was, although the reason why was fairly horrifying: because he was used to betrayal. He would still destroy the Leaf and kill Naruto, but that was something that he would always be pursuing, no matter where he was- as for these ponies, though, their small betrayal could be forgiven. It didn’t matter if he forgave them for their transgressions, though, because they certainly wouldn’t forgive him for his, not after this. Sasuke started to think where he could hide. He couldn’t hide with Fluttershy- she was in the hospital, anyway, and they’d probably check her cottage. Spike was a no, and so was Applejack- she couldn’t lie to save her life, and Sasuke was fairly sure her farm was more important to her than Sasuke was. Pinkie couldn’t keep her mouth shut, and he didn’t even know where Rainbow Dash lived. Rarity also didn’t know how to keep her mouth shut, and she was the last option he could think of- besides just running into the Everfree forest and living off of the land in there. That was a fairly good plan compared to the others, honestly: it wasn’t like he couldn’t survive in there, and the forest itself would turn away most ponies from entering- they were scared of the place. He’d be mostly hidden, until Celestia decided to come back. As he began to enact his plan, though, he saw something off in the distance of the sky. It looked like Celestia, but instead, it was blue. It was shooting forward pretty fast- and Sasuke activated his Mangekyo Sharingan and dodged to the side as it crashed into the ground- and a regal blue alicorn rose from the crater, and shook dust out of her wavy mane as she glared over at Sasuke. Scores of Pegasus followed her- all of them, Royal Guards. Sasuke swore and jumped into the Everfree Forest, but they were right behind him, and weren’t going to let him go. Luna soared after him, one thought in her mind. Thou have harmed my sister- and now, thou shall be harmed in turn. As Sasuke leapt through the leaves, with over fifty Pegasi following him, he shot multiple fireballs at them, which barely dissuaded them- and he was forced to continue running as they crashed through the branches and attempting to slam into his sides. He dodged most of them, and through the chase, many of them were left behind to try to catch up with the fastest. The blue one was still right on his tail, and he knew that he would have to stop soon and fight them- and after a little while longer, he did just so. As the royal blue winged unicorn flapped her wings, and landed on the ground calmly, she glared at him, and the Pegasi that surrounded him did the same. So, Sasuke did the only thing that he could think of- and used Susanoo. The great, purple being slashed its sword directly into Luna’s side, and she cried as it cleaved through her side. She fell, defeated, if only momentarily, even as she started to heal herself- and Sasuke cast a large scale genjutsu across the clearing in the forest, and using multiple substitutions, escaped, still sprinting through the forest. Now they’re even more pissed off, he thought. Luna rose up from the forest ground, and cleared what she felt was illusion magic. “Spread out!” The commander of the guard detail called out. They were going to find him, and then Luna would bring him to justice. Her wings flared as she took off with the Royal Guard, and they searched for the ruffian in the forest below them. Sauske kept running, and elsewhere, a Princess breathed heavily, wounded, in her bedchambers at Canterlot, as attendants cared for her and fussed over her every need. Luna, Celestia thought. Do not be foolish. TO BE CONTINUED