Act Six:
Dire Preparations
Celestia earned everypony's attention as she began to speak. "The quelled jailbreak at the Gates of Tartarus has left us with an interesting lead; that we must ready ourselves for the trials and tribulations to come. Zabuchrion mentioned a higher power that he served. We have no knowledge of his master, but that shouldn't be the main concern after what was witnessed between him, Applejack, and Rarity." The solar princess gave off a serious glance towards the mentioned ponies. "We're in for a heavy battle in the near future, and your skills could very well mean the difference between lives lost and lives saved."
Rarity nodded to Celestia, matching the princess's gaze with one of her own. "I'm not one to simply ignore a message sent by a demon." She frowned. "But, speaking reasonably, how can we hope to win the upcoming battle with just Applejack and I alone? We could be met with an army of demons, and the two of us can only do so much."
Applejack sighed despondently. "Ah agree with Rarity, Princess. We'd be bitin' off more than we could chew if it's just us two against a large number of them varmints."
Celestia held up a hoof to the two mares. "I'm well-aware of what you're saying, and I realize I wasn't entirely clear with my intentions." She looked down at them both. "Rarity… Applejack… I would like for you two to pass down the skills of your respective pasts to your friends." This was said in a straight tone.
Rarity and Applejack both stammered and sputtered before the former regained a semblance of composure. Nervously, she said, "With all due respect, your majesty, I don't know if it would be wise to put our friends through such rigorous training with so little time on our hooves."
"Wise or not, do we have a choice?" Rainbow Dash's words caught their attention. A fire burned in her narrowed, rose-colored eyes. "We're gonna be up against something big here, right? There's no way you're gonna just brush us off now! We all gotta get ready to fight against whatever's sitting in Tartarus! I'm ready to learn whatever the both of you have to teach me!"
Pinkie grinned ecstatically after the mention of training. "So does this mean I get to learn to fight like Rarity and Applejack? Neato! I wanna see if I can be just as good with a sword. Oh! Or with martial arts so I can be all 'Shoryuken!' or 'Hadoken!' against the baddies we'll face!" Pinkie cheered while making graceless and random fighting gestures. Applejack and Shining Armor stared at her until she stopped and grinned sheepishly. "Well, at least until we figure out when we start training."
Fluttershy hid her face behind her mane, easily showing her discomfort with the matter at hoof. "B-But I don't know if I can fight. I've never really fought before…"
Twilight frowned at Fluttershy's reaction to the notion of training. "But you were there with us during the changeling invasion. I'm sure you held your own as well."
Rainbow Dash shifted her eyes awkwardly after Twilight's statement. "Erm, not so much, Twilight. She stayed by my side while we were fighting, and I took on the ones that came at us." She patted Fluttershy's head with a smile. "But I know you got potential, Flutters. If you could give your all when we sent water back to Cloudsdale, I know you can make those demons go back where they came from!"
Applejack rubbed her chin while thoughtfully glancing at Fluttershy, an idea forming in her mind. "Actually, Fluttershy could go far with certain ninja techniques iffin' she commits. That stare o' hers can be put t' use as well. Back in Konoha, Fluttershy's stare would be similar to usin' a genjustu."
Twilight tilted her head at Applejack. "What do illusory techniques have to do with Fluttershy's stare?"
Applejack was very impressed with Twilight being able to understand the term she had just used. The farmer took a breath, and said, "Well, y' see, genjutsu was basically used against opponents t' either keep 'em still and occupied, or as a means ta control 'em. Fluttershy's shown that she can jus' stare at somepony, and they'll stand perfectly still." She looked over at the timid pegasus with a grin. "Iffin' we train 'er right, her stare can do a lot more'n what it can now."
Fluttershy got up from her seat and backed away a few steps. "I don't know if that's a good idea. I only use the stare when I'm very angry," she stated nervously.
Rainbow Dash groaned in exasperation at her friend's timidness. "Fluttershy, for Pete's sake, Equestria's in danger! That's plenty of reason for you to get angry!"
Celestia stepped in, halting the potential argument. "I believe we shouldn't press Fluttershy right now, my little ponies." She turned to the yellow pegasus. "But Rainbow Dash is indeed correct; as much as it pains me, all of you need to be prepared for the worst. Now, we're not entirely certain when the time for action will come, but that doesn't mean we can't take your training one step at a time."
Shining Armor smiled at Rarity. "Personally, I wouldn't mind training in swordplay myself. You think I can get some lessons, too?" he asked politely.
Rarity perked up and grinned. "Well, I've never been asked to train a lord, nor have I ever thought to do so," she said bashfully. She then nodded to Shining Armor, a bright smile on her face. "I'll be willing to train you in my style of swordplay, provided I have your wife's permission."
Cadence giggled. "I think you know my answer for that, Rarity. We're in the middle of something that involves the fate of Equestria, after all."
Applejack coughed a little, drawing attention to her. "Iffin' we are gonna do this trainin', ah have somethin' ta say. Ah'll be startin' y'all off with the basics of the basics, and ah'll work y'all up from there. Until everypony doin' the trainin' gets through an exercise, ah won't start anypony on the next level. That clear?"
Although most of the ponies nodded, Rainbow Dash groaned. "The basics? We don't have time for that, AJ! We need to learn some awesome moves before the demons come back!"
While normally Applejack would roll her eyes, this time she slammed a forehoof on the table. The sharp BANG silenced the prismatic mare's whining. "An' without the basics, tryin' ta learn those 'awesome moves' will kill ya for sure! Ya need ta crawl before ya can walk, let alone run, Rainbow! Yer devil-may-care attitude about everythin' won't save you if ya end up dead because ya were trying something that was literally beyond yer limits!"
Applejack's sharp words left Rainbow speechless. There was no humor to be found in what the farmer was saying. She was completely serious. As Rainbow tried to re-orient her mind, Rarity spoke up. "The same will hold true for my training, as well. I can teach you all swordplay, but you will learn at the pace you all set. If you don't learn the basics, you will never learn the more advanced skillsets." She looked pointedly at Rainbow. "Swordplay is not something fun. A sword is a weapon. Swordsmanship is learning how to use that weapon to end lives. That is the simple truth."
Rainbow Dash shifted her glance between Applejack and Rarity, both mares crushing her bravado with their stares directed at her. She nodded in an attempt to soften their piercing eyes. “Got it. Sorry for acting so headstrong back there,” she said penitently.
Twilight tried to ignore Applejack’s intense demonstration of anger and raised a hoof. “I have a question involving what we’ll learn from Applejack.” The mentioned mare looked over at Twilight, her expression softening. “Last week, I was doing some reading with the Crusaders, and we looked up a history book that contained a section around Neighponese magic, some of which are similar to the techniques you described. Are we going to learn about seals commonly seen in that book or will you show us more unique skills from your previous life?”
Applejack hummed in thought as she poked her chin with a hoof. “Never really thought about how folks in Neighpon have their own brand o’ magic similar t’ ninjutsu.” She then shook her head at Twilight. “But yer right about the second option; what Ah’m gonna teach y’all can’t be learned from any book in Equestria.” There was a pause before she looked up pensively. “None that Ah know of, anyways…” She muttered to herself.
Luna stepped up and looked around. “If we’re settled upon the topic of training arrangements, then we must make haste and decide a proper place to do so.” She held up a hoof. “We propose the training grounds at the castle used by mine and our sister’s respective guards. All of thee can train there at thy leisure with the resources needed for thine advancements.”
Rainbow Dash smiled at the offer. “Sounds like a plan. Not like we had a mind to train back in Ponyville or anything.” She turned to her friends. “How about the rest of you? Are you all okay with this?”
“While the idea is good, I still need to let Spike know about this whole situation,” Twilight said before she looked down. “In fact, I should probably go back to Ponyville and pick him up so he won’t be left alone.”
Celestia nodded. “A good idea, my faithful student. Spike is just involved in this as we all are. I’ll send for a carriage to pick him up to save you all the trouble.”
Rarity broke in. "While you're on the subject, Your Highness, might you inform my parents and Sweetie Belle that I will be staying at the castle for an extended period of time? If we are to train like this, we should inform our families."
"Ooh, good idea," Pinkie said with a nod. "Might need to tell the Cakes that I'm on super-secret Element of Harmony business. Don't want them to think I'm playing hooky."
Twilight nodded. "I think we all have ponies in Ponyville that would need to be informed of our absences, Princess. When you send your carraige to pick Spike up, can the driver deliver some letters?"
"That's perfectly reasonable, Twilight," Celestia replied with a nod. Her horn flashed, and pens and paper appeared in front of each of the younger mares. "Here, everypony. Write down what you wish to convey to your loved ones."
As they wrote down their messages, Applejack raised a hoof. “Princesses, Ah have a suggestion.” Celestia and Luna turned to the farmpony with quizzical glances. “Can it be alright iffin’ we use yer garden fer our trainin’ also? Th’ trees can be mighty useful fer mah lessons on ninjutsu.”
Fluttershy's head snapped up at the request. “The garden? But what about the animals?” she asked, anxiety and concern lacing her voice.
Applejack smiled reassuringly to Fluttershy. “T’ain’t nothin’ t’ worry about, sugarcube. We won’t use th’ whole garden; jus’ a good section with enough trees so we won’t bother th’ little critters.”
Fluttershy sighed in relief at the conditions and nodded to Applejack. “Alright. I suppose I can agree with that then,” she said calmly, returning to her message to Angel.
Celestia smiled. “Then it’s settled; the royal garden can be used at your leisure for Applejack’s training.” She turned to Rarity. “Which leaves Rarity to make use of the training grounds in the castle.”
Rarity held up a hoof with a serious gaze. “I promise to carry out my duties properly, your majesty. All that matters is the progression of our training at the best pace possible.” She gazed at her friends, all of whom were staring back with their own respective expressions. “Perhaps once we've finished writing our messages, we should begin, since we’re aware that the time we have may not be vast.” The alabaster unicorn placed a hoof under her chin, a pensive look in her eyes. “Although, we’ve yet to work out proper arrangements as to who will be training with who for the first session or so.”
Twilight raised a hoof. “In that case, I would like to train under Applejack first, since I'm curious about the various arts she has under her belt.”
Applejack smirked at Twilight. “Ah’m glad yer eager t’ learn an’ all, Twi, but ya gotta remember that Ah’m not jus’ gonna train yer mind.” She trotted up to the lavender bookworm and prodded at her chest. “Ah’m also gonna train yer body, so y’all will hafta do some liftin’ an’ exercisin’.”
Rainbow hummed to herself before she grinned. “I’ll train with Rarity then. It’ll be awesome to be good at wielding a sword.” She looked up at the ceiling with daydreaming eyes. “Kinda makes me think about Daring Do and when she was forced to swordfight her enemies on certain occasions.”
Rarity huffed at the prismatic pegasus. “Did you not listen to me before, Rainbow? This is far from the fiction that you’d read from your novels; you’re going to be learning a skill that will be meant for taking lives while defending your own.” She narrowed her eyes at the athletic mare. “I expect you to follow along accordingly as we go. Your nature as a daredevil may be endearing at times, but any sort of tomfoolery during training will not be tolerated!”
Rainbow waved her hooves in a placating motion towards Rarity. “I get it, I get it! Sheesh…”
Pinkie grinned. “I’m gonna learn how to use a sword, too, then! Me, Dashie, and Rarity could be like the three… erm… capybaras?” She scratched her head as she tried to think of an adequate team name. “Muskrats? No…”
Rarity smiled awkwardly at Pinkie. “I’d rather we’d just stick to being ourselves rather than other animals, darling. No offense to your suggestions…”
Pinkie grinned at Rarity. “Maybe you’re right. No better to be than yourself, am I right?”
Fluttershy fidgeted her forehooves. “Well…Then I have no choice but to train with Applejack if what she’s saying is true. Umm…could we at least warn the animals now before we start training?”
Applejack chuckled at Fluttershy. “Sure ya can, Fluttershy. Meantime, we’d all best get situated b’fore th’ trainin’ actually starts.”
Luna nodded. “We concur. Let us each make with our own preparations and tasks before the regiment shalt commence.” After the decisions were final, each of the ponies vacated the conference room and went their own ways to ready themselves for the arduous trials that await them. The Bearers each left their respective messages behind, signed and sealed. The only ones that stayed were the royal sisters.
Celestia had her eyes closed in deep thought, and Luna simply observed her sister in silence until she saw fit to break it. “Sister… perhaps we should consult with possible allies beyond Equestria's borders. T'would be prudent if the threat we face could prove to be stronger than we think.”
“I could only hope that finding such allies would be an easy feat.” Celestia replied morosely as she opened her eyes, a tinge of sadness in her eyes. “I already feel horrible to bear the knowledge that we may not walk out of this battle - no… this war unscathed, and even moreso to know that our own Elements of Harmony are throwing their lives on the line as well.” She looked back at her sister. “A miracle for our situation, in any shape or form, would be very inviting, indeed…”
Luna turned to the door of the conference room. “Then what other option would we have if our little ponies do not master their training in time? If there could be any type of assistance out there, even beyond Equestria, would we not be able to reach out for it?”
Celestia sighed. “I cannot say for certain myself. All we can do is pray that such a miracle can show itself to us in our time of need…” She turned to her sister with a stoic gaze. “Come, Luna. We have our own duties as well.” The princess of the night shared a nod with her sister, and the two alicorns exited the conference room.
*****
The Everfree Forest was known to be a domain of both unnatural occurrences and dangerous creatures that were recorded in several encyclopedias around Equestria. Many of the predators that dwelled inside would either hunt for game or simply rest themselves in their respective nests undisturbed. Tonight was no exception, for the most part.
One creature, a lone cockatrice, gave a small squawk as he waddled by himself in search of an unsuspecting target to turn to stone. He gave a devious smirk at the thought of getting the drop on a random creature and triumphantly adding them to his collection of victims. He spotted a timberwolf close by that sniffed around for some food and easily marked his new prey with a killer stare. The cockatrice carefully snuck towards the timberwolf with the hopes of catching them off-guard and taking them by surprise.
This changed when something else took both of them by surprise.
A rift spontaneously appeared next to both the timberwolf and the cockatrice, earning their attention and frightening them into running from the sudden irregularity in the forest. The rift opened wider and spat out three shadows that flew at bullet speed into the nearby brush before it closed up completely.
The shadows were scattered in different bushes, but were close to one another. No other creature was nearby, thus there was no one to witness what happened next. One of the bushes rustled and revealed one of the shadows to be a silhouette of a pony rubbing their head. “Ow… Here I thought traveling to another world would’ve been easier,” a young feminine voice griped.
“Well, we should be in the right world if we’ve performed the technique correctly,” a patient male voice replied as a different shadow popped out of another bush. It scanned its surroundings carefully. “Are we certain that this is the place?”
A final shadow emerged from another bush, slightly larger than the last two. “We can’t be indecisive about this. I’m sure this is the world he chose to land in,” said another male voice, deeper with age.
The first shadow started in fear as she shrieked. “Wh-What's happened to us!? We’re horses!”
A shush from the larger shadow silenced the smaller one. “Quiet!” the male voice hissed. “We can’t let our new forms hinder us when we have a job to do. Let’s find a way out of this forest and get a better glimpse at our surroundings.”
“Of course.” The other male voice agreed. “Let’s get to higher ground and see if we cannot perform our techniques.”
There was a pause, then the three shadows vanished from sight. Along the Everfree Forest, there were three breezes of wind that passed across the higher parts of the trees. Said breezes had subsided once they reached the entrance to the forest that led towards Ponyville.
The three shadows observed the distant town from the trees they stood on. “Who wants to bet that town over there is full of horses, too?” the larger stallion said in amusement.
The middle shadow made a gesture of rubbing its chin. “I’m pretty sure that would be a fool's bet, considering our own forms. But at least we have an actual starting point to our objective.”
“Yeah. Hopefully, the villagers will listen to what we have to say,” the feminine voice said nervously, before the owner of the voice hopped down into the afternoon sunlight to reveal a young pink mare. She had a well-groomed pink mane that went down to her chin, with a blue bandana that carried a steel plate with a leaf symbol tied over her head. Her tail was as short as her mane, and just as well groomed. Her eyes were green and narrowed in determination. She wore a red dress with white rings on the shoulder and skirt regions, and a belt that held small compartments. On her flank was a fist over a red cross.
The middle shadow looked down at the mare. “There’s no need to be discouraged. I doubt we would come off as conspicuous in our new forms.” It hopped down to reveal a grey stallion wearing a blue mask over his muzzle and – like the pink mare – a blue bandana bearing a steel plate with a leaf symbol over his left eye. He wore a green vest with a blue long-sleeved shirt underneath, both of which had red spiral designs on the shoulders and back areas. His spikey white mane stuck out across the left of his head, and his cutie mark was an ominous eye over a bolt of lightning. “Of course, I’m being optimistic about us not sticking out like sore thumbs.” He inspected one of his forelegs with a bored glance. “Or in this case, hooves…”
“Oh, hardy-har-har.” The last shadow snarked as it jumped towards the ponies to reveal a large, middle-aged maroon stallion with a stout build. On his face were two red lines that went down from his eyes; both his mane and his tail were white, long, and spikey, and on his head was a spiked headpiece with kanji that a native of Neighpon would recognize as 'oil'. He was found wearing a green oriental garb under a red vest, with oddly raised wooden horseshoes. On his back rested a large scroll. His cutie mark was an orange frog over an unrolled scroll. He grinned over at the other stallion. “I’m glad you’re able to take this lightly, Kakashi. Here I thought you would freak out like Sakura.”
Sakura puffed her cheeks as she glared at the large stallion. “Well, when you arrive in another world in a different form, how else would you act!?” she snapped defensively.
Kakashi closed his uncovered eye. “All that matters is that we’re here now, so we should begin our search.” He opened his eye again, and looked over at the large stallion. “Shall we, Jiraiya?”
Jiraiya nodded with a serious gaze towards the town. “Yeah. With any luck, this could be the same world he’s in right now. We better get going while it’s still daylight,” he said as the three ponies trotted towards Ponyville with their objective set.
Sakura held a wistful glance as she traveled with her comrades. Naruto… I can’t believe you had to resort to this. I hope we can find you and take you back with us before things get worse.