//------------------------------// // Target Aquired // Story: Akatsuki in Equestria // by chaos2012 //------------------------------// Music Link The canterlot gardens had become a field of death. Scattered across the grass laid the bodies of seven bat ponies, there bodies broken and bleeding all over from their encounter with the masked akatsuki member that gave them no warning. None of them had the chance to land a single strike on Tobi with his nearly flawless jutsu. Not only had they failed to defeat him, now none of them could go and warn the princess that the prize the akatsuki wanted was so close to being lost. Standing on top of the final guard that was alive, Tobi stepped down on the throat of the mare, causing her to gasp out in pain. Looking up, she locked gaze with the bright sharingan that shined through the hole in the mask, unable to take her eyes off the disturbing sight. Suddenly, the eye seemingly spun, causing her entire body to shudder as a eerie sensation crept over her mind, making her vision blurry and unfocused. Chuckling, Tobi stepped off her, knowing now she was under his genjutsu. "Now, which statue here is the one Discord?" He demanded. Almost lifelike, the guard pony pony turned her head and pointed a good to the right. "That is him there." She blankly answered. Looking in that direction, Tobi saw a tall statue that was unlike all the others around him. It appeared to be a creature that possessed the body parts of several types of animals and at least ten feet tall. It was standing up on its hind legs, its forelegs pushed out in front of it almost to protect itself. Even it's face seemed to be stricken with a look of fear. "Hmm, so that is it then?" Tobi muttered, almost disappointed by its size. Looking back down to the pony, he quickly brought out a Kunai and buried it into her head and killing her. Stepping away from the dead guards, Tobi trotted up and stood beneath the statue. He began to question how something this small could be considered a beast of extreme power, since the tailed beasts of his world were enormous to contain their amount of energy. And since he saw how weak most of the ponies here were, he was feeling unsure how reliable the information that Itachi delivered was. "If these ponies being so weak and were still able to subdue this creature, he surely cannot be that strong to have fallen to these pathetic souls." Sighing, he shook his head. "I have taken the trouble to get here. I might as well take him as well." Activating his jutsu, the vortex appeared in front of his mask and began to pull onto the statue. The stone began to morph and suck up into the spiraling power and disappear little by little. Being larger than himself, Tobi’s skill took longer to absorb Discord than it had with a normal pony. After a few moments Discords head was pulled in, followed by his upper body and arms. Coming in next his legs were lifted off the ground. Then finally the end of his tail was pulled into the void of his visual power. Down with his task, Tobi couldn't help but grunt in dissatisfaction. "All of this trouble to gain this small animal. I doubt this will even have the power to send us back to our- The sudden explosion in the distance cut Tobi from his thoughts and making him turn around. Expanding up into the sky several miles up, a gigantic column of white light illuminated the entire sky in a blinding flash. The blast was growing outward at an alarming rate, closing in on the city at a terrifying speed. As fast as it came however, it stopped its spread before it could reach Canterlot. Just a half mile closer and the entire city would have been obliterated. Tobi stared in disbelief at the sheer size of the blast, far more powerful than most of the jutsu he knew of. After a few moments of staring, his sharingan detected the chakra signature from inside of the attack, immediately recognizing the bearer. "Deidara..." He mumbled. "That size of blast must mean Deidara killed himself as a last resort... That fool." He grumbled. Deidara had always been a valuable member of the organization, and losing him was a serious loss to them. But Tobi couldn't help from smiling at the sight at the same time. "For someone to push Deidara that far... Means perhaps this place isn't as weak as I thought. There are a lot stronger beings here than I anticipated." The sound of another blast caught Tobi's attention, this one coming from the front of the castle. Knowing that both Pain and Konan were in the city as well, he was curious to see exactly who and what they were up against. "This place may be more interesting than I thought before." Now that he finally had Discord in his possession, Tobi chuckled as he activated his jutsu again, sucking himself into his vortex and disappearing from the gardens. --- The interior of Canterlot castle swarmed by hundreds of ponies from the city trying to find a place to sit. After they were ordered to evacuate from their homes and come to the castle, nearly every single space of flooring had been taken up almost instantly. The crowded citizens felt even more claustrophobic with the dozens of guards that constantly passed by on their security of the castle, pushing the ponies further together to make more room. Walking in with a large group of evacuees, a young blue unicorn and her filly bumped and wedged their way into the castle interior along with all the other ponies. Her daughter whined and looked up to her, showing her discomfort with being forced into this place. Putting on a smile, she gave a comforting nuzzle to the small filly. "Don't worry, it won't be for long, sweetheart." Trying to best to keep her from becoming scared, the mare pushed her daughter along to find a place to sit down and rest. Coming up to a spot along the wall, she noticed a group of three stallions sitting down, spread out in a space big enough for seven. Hoping for a seat, she trotted up to them and stopped by their hooves. "Excuse me, would me and my daughter be able to squeeze in their and have a seat?" One of the stallions, a brown earth pony glared up at her. "Go find another spot. This is ours." The mare stepped back in shock, caught off by the rudeness of the pony. "But, we just need a place to rest. She is very scared from what is happening and- "Hey, my friend said beat it." Another one of the stallions sneered, stretching his leg out and filling up the space next to him. "Should have come here earlier for a seat." Dropping her ears, the mother turned around in defeat but was stopped by the pink alicorn standing right behind her. "P-princess Cadence!" She gasped and quickly dropped into a bow. Her act was quickly stopped by the princesses wing lifting her chin up. "There is no reason to bow..." Cadence said with a smile. "I believe you are looking for a place to rest now, correct?" Yes, we... We were going to go- "Why leave when you have a seat right here?" Cadence responded with a more stern tone, glancing up to the seated stallions who were wide eyed at her presence. Trotting up to them, the young alicorn glared at the trio. "Did you make this poor mother turn around because you refused to move for her?" "N-no! We were uh..." One of the stallions tried to answer, but his response was cut off by the princess coming right up to him. "We-we are just going to move and- "Yes, you are going to move. You three are going to go look for new seats and give this spot to other ponies that need it more than you." All three stallions jaws dropped in disbelief at the princesses order, but quickly got up and trotted away from her. Smiling, Cadence turned back to the stunned mare. "You can go and take a seat with your daughter now." The unicorn looked back and forth between the princess and the new opening just made. "You... You didn't have to do that for us." "Don't say that. If those ponies are too selfish to allow others to sit down then they don't deserve a spot themselves. Go on. Take it." Smiling, the mare trotted over to the spot and sat down on the ground. Her filly ran up to Cadence and gave her a hug on the leg. "Thank you princess, you're so nice." Cadence couldn't help but blush at the kind action. Watching the young pony run back over to her mom, along with the large opening quickly fill up with other ponies looking to rest, Cadence turns around and walks down the halls towards the large dining halls. She glances inside to where once again hundreds of ponies took seats across the tables and the ground, and walking through all the commotion were several waiters handing out snacks to try to calm the situation. Being already scared from the attack that hit the city, not to mention it being in the middle of the night most ponies were already upset and tired, the castle staff was doing their best to keep the ponies nerves together. Her eyes then noticed a guard quickly run up to a mare and her young colt, giving them both a quick nuzzle. The princess smiled at seeing the soldier abandon his tough demeanor to give his family compassion in this time. To her left, another guard was hugging his Pegasi girlfriend, rubbing his hoof along her cheek to calm her down. While seeing this made her happy, a small pain shot through Cadences heart at the thought her own husband was not here. While she was concerned about Shining Armor leaving this morning, and not knowing what was the threat, Cadence was already skeptical about the situation. After he had not returned for the whole day, her fears about his safety began to grow more and more, especially when the attack on the city started. 'What if Shining ran into these ponies outside the city? Did they fight? Why hasn't he returned by now!' She nearly screamed inside her head. A sudden shockwave rocked through the castle, causing the walls to shake and ground to rumble. These tremors had been happening constantly for the last thirty minutes, every time making every pony inside worry even more than before. Cadence had enough of this. "Guards!" Answering her call, several guards ran up to the princess. "Yes your highness." They all answered simultaneously. "Make sure all the ponies stay indoors and safe. I'm going out." The stallions eyes shot out in shock. "What!? No, stay inside princess. It's not safe." One of them said. "Both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are outside protecting the city. Your captain, my own husband is out there doing his duty! I am not going to just sit here and do nothing while they are in danger. I am going to help them." Trotting past them, Cadence walked straight towards the large doors leading out of the castle. Pushing them open, she left the safety of the palace and into the moonlit night. --- On the outskirts of Equestria, the barren plains of the badlands were silent in the cool air. The wind whipped along the brown stone ground, picking up any loose dust that was on the ground and pulling it along in the air. No plants grew on the soilless terrain, partially due to lack of nutrients in the area, but mostly because of the near total absence of rain. Only a very select number of creatures can even tolerate the land, some being the black creatures flying above the ground. The animals appeared to be ponies, but their bodies had black plating over their skin instead of fur. Their hooves were lined with holes, another odd feature for any life form. The wings on their backs were not feathers, but a thin membrane material like that of insects. Bright blue eyes shined beneath a small jagged horn that stuck up from their foreheads. Only one species besides alicorns in the land had both wings for flying and horns for the use of magic. Changelings. The pack of six changelings buzzed around, scouting the area for any intruders that may be heading towards the hive ten miles away. While it was a standard defense for the colony, the current scouts were annoyed that they had to be the ones doing it. "This is so boring..." One of the ones in the back hissed, "...Why are we the ones on this again?" One of the ones in the front rolled his eyes. "Just shut up and fly. We have a few more hours of this." "But this is the third time in a row we have had the outer rim check. If I have to be put on a patrol, I would take the inner line around the hive." "I'm not too sure about that..." One of the changelings to the right chimed in, "being so close to the queen means we might have to be picked for draining." All the others felt a chill run down their body at the thought. Ever since the failed invasion of Canterlot, the hive had stayed inside the badlands and not gone outside to search for nourishment. While they could live off normal food that grew in the caves of their home, changelings needed love to fuel their bodies magical flow. Due to the lack of love being absorbed from other creatures, Queen Chrysalis would have one of the drone changelings come to her and take nearly all the magic that it had. The process was one that was excruciatingly painful, in fact nearly killing the changeling that had to do the process. Chrysalis herself despised ever having to harm one of her close followers, but with no source of power to gather, the queen needed to make sure she was at full strength to protect her colony from any threat. She would never draw enough power from the subject to where it couldn't recover, but having to go through nearly being killed was nothing any of them wanted to experience. As they continued flying, the sudden bright flash in the distance caused them all to come to a halt. They looked up into the sky at the column growing high into the sky. They couldn't exactly judge how far it was away, only that it was well inside the land of Equestria, but it was still enormous to be seen in the badlands. "What do you think that could be?" One of them asked. "I'm not sure. A magic blast or something..." Another one responded. "Never seen a magic attack like that though." The massive light in the distance began to dissipate, leaving the moon to light up the night again. The changelings glanced at each other with their bright blue eyes, confused at what was happening. Before any of them could respond again, they noticed two figures walking towards them from the direction of the light. One appeared to be a light red unicorn, and the other was a massive blue stallion with what appeared to be a large sword across its back. And both were wearing black cloaks over their bodies. One of the changelings bared its fangs. "Intruders!" Another one cast a large grin, salivating for its first nutritious meal in a long time. "Alright fellas, lets drain every ounce of energy from these ponies that dare enter our home unannounced!” --- Kisame and Sasori continued to walk forward, not watching the dissipating light behind them. There was no point to stare at it, knowing their one comrade was done for now. Sasori sighed at the thought of his old partner gone. "It will be quiet with Deidara not around anymore. I think I may actually miss our arguments." Kisame simply chuckled. "I'm just curious on who or what Deidara as fighting for him to have to blow himself up like that." While somewhat disappointed in not knowing what happened to Deidara, he honestly didn't care about the actual death of his comrade. He was more curious in the beings of this world. "I wonder if the others have run into serious trouble as well. Especially since Hidan and Kakazu hadn't returned to the meeting." "Hmph, doesn't matter. We are just gonna grab our little target and then head back." Kisame stopped walking at the sight of six changelings rushing their direction. "Oh, looks like we are going to receive a warm welcome." Sasori smirked at the scene; a small group of what he figured were soldiers coming their way. "This will be interesting. I would like to test a handful of my tricks on these ones before we reach the big one." "I agree. I could use a stretch as well." Gripping his Samehada with a hoof, Kisame couldn't help but cast a sharp toothed grin. His excitement wasn't for this tiny group here, but for what lied past. 'Now that I am with someone like Sasori, there's no need to control anything. Itachi isn't here to hold me back from testing my full power on these things. It's time for the shark to let loose.'