The Price of Power

by kingrulerword

Chapter 2

I had teleported into an armory. There were swords and shields lined up on every wall. I looked around for the weapon that had led me here and was disappointed that I had not found my own sword. What surprised me were the kunai I found. It seemed a few of them had the raijin seal on them. I briefly wondered how they had lasted so long without any visible signs of use. Magic. That had to be it. These would come in handy. I took all of them except for one and put them into my summoning space. My wrist guards allow me to send things to a separate space where I can store them and then retrieve them when I need them.

"If I were a princess, where would I put my stuff," I asked myself. Then I had a great idea: why not just ask. I scanned the castle with my sharingan looking for large amounts of energy. I found three significant sources of power. Two of them lined up with my raijin seals, Celestia in the throne room and Luna in her bedroom. The third was not nearly as powerful as an alicorn but still more powerful than anything else in the castle. The energy was magenta so it had to be Shining Armor. Twilight Sparkle should still be in Ponyville. Just the ponies I needed to see.

I created two shadow clones and we all looked at each other quietly for a moment. "Enough of this, it's time to go."

"Dibs on Luna!"

"Dibs on Shining Armor!"

"Dammit," I silent cursed. How like me to leave me to deal with the hard part. "Just don't duck this up."

"You should stop talking to yourself."

"Yeah, people will think you're crazy."

They started laughing as they left. One of them teleported to Luna, the other walked out to find Shining Armor. I should work on not being such a dick. I thought to myself as I teleported to Celestia.

It didn't take long to find Shining Armor. He was leading a squad of ten soldiers through the halls. I wandered around and stopped in a position that I knew he would have to pass. I don't have anything against him. I really don't. But I was going to need Cadence to join me at a point in the near future and I knew he would get in my way.

When he saw me he froze for a second and looked me in the eyes. I took the chance to put him in the illusion that I was standing three feet from where I actually was. He recovered from his stunned silence quickly.

"Halt creature," he commanded. "State your name and purpose."

I smiled as I started weaving my hand seals. Water Style: Tearing Torrent. Before they could react I fired high pressure bursts of water at all of the guards except Shining Armor. I didn't use enough force to kill them but they were going to be nursing broken bones for a long time. Shining Armor captured my illusion in his bubble shield.

"Oh no, I've been captured," I said sarcastically.

"What kind of evil monster are you," Shining Armor spat out.

"The worst kind," I said dispelling the illusion, "the kind you can't stop."

I kicked him in the side hard enough to hear a satisfying crunch come from his ribcage. He groaned. He was in too much pain to focus his magic but not enough to be knocked out. He was trying to stand and I could see that every move he made just made his suffering worse. It was time to end this.

"Some captain of the guard you are," I said walking towards him. "If you can stop petty criminals but not real threats, I don't think you have what it takes."

He tried to say something but it hurt too much for him to talk so I continued. "You failed to stop me. For all you know, I could be here to kill the princesses. And it would be your fault if I succeeded."

I could see the color draining from his already pale face as my words stung him. "Do you have any family, Shiny?"

My use of Twilight's pet name for him made him twitch. " Could you imagine if you had any younger siblings? It would be terrifying you know. To have an older brother that you know can't protect you. It'd be even worse if you had a marefriend."

Another spasm. "What would she think when her knight in shining armor fails to come to her rescue?"

He tried to say something but only a gasp came out and he fell to the ground. "You fail as a protector Shining Armor," I said as I knocked him out with a blow to the back of the head. I looked at his unconscious body and placed several genjutsu in his mind. The first was that whenever he saw his cutie mark, he would see a broken shield. The rest were surprises that would be triggered by outside stimuli. I took a look around the hallway and admired my handiwork. Then I dispelled the clone jutsu and let my body dissipate.

Luna's room was dark. The only light came from the faint twinkle of lights on her ceiling replicating the night sky. In the center of the room, Luna herself lay asleep in a large circular bed. The covers rose an fell with her steady breathing. I walked over to her a pulled the covers back and took a moment to admire the sight before me. I briefly considered leaving and letting her sleep. Briefly.

"Luna, wake up. We need to talk," I said as I gently shook her.

"Sister? Is it time to raise the moon already," she asked, still in a fog.

"One: I'm not your sister, I'm more like your brother. Two: it's still early afternoon."

There was a loud clack as Luna jumped from her bed, eyes wide in disbelief. She turned the lights on with her magic and looked me up and down several times .

"Sasuke," she barely managed to whisper," Thou art truly Sasuke. How is this possible? Are you still blind? Are you still..."

Her last question trailed off as she suddenly looked afraid ,"How doesn't matter. All that matters is I'm here now, I'm not crazy, and I can see you just fine."

"We knew you would not be gone from us forever. We knew you were still in there."

"It's good to see you too Luna. Do you know where my things are? I want to get them before we catch up."

She thought for a moment before answering, " We wanted to keep them as a reminder of the good times but Celestia took them to be studied. She didn't want to risk them having some of your leftover magic and corrupting somebody. Once it was discovered there was no residual magic we sent them to the Canterlot museum so that all might remember you as you were before."

"I don't think it worked."

"Yes, tis true many ponies only remember the worst." She looked down.

"Are they still there?"

"Yes, we will retrieve them immediately."

"That won't be necessary although I do need you to do me one more favor," I said as I looked into her eyes.

"Anything," she whispered.

"Sleep." I used my sharingan to knock her unconscious. I lifted her up and put her back in her bed. She was surprisingly light. I checked to make sure she was asleep and then I undid the clone jutsu. Canterlot museum, huh?

Princess Celestia was reading a letter when I teleported into the room. Before she noticed me, I used amaterasu to surround her guards in a cage of black fire.

"Oh no," she said looking around.

"Oh yes," I replied locking eyes with her from the center of the room.

"How did you get free," she said angrily.

"Is that really how you greet an old friend? Not a 'hi how have you been?' Or even 'I'm sorry I trapped you in stone for a thousand years!'"

"You were out of control and I had to stop you. Is that why you've come here? For revenge?"

"Revenge?" I laughed, "Revenge is a fool's game. I'm just here to say hi to one of my best friends in the whole wide world."

"Then why have you attacked my guards?"

"Because I wouldn't want you to do anything....hasty."

"Why are you really here?"

"Because I've got a message for you. This time around I'm not playing nice. I'm going to take what I want, when I want it. Send whoever you want after me and I'll send back their heads. This is your first and only warning." I felt the memories of the shadow clones pour into my mind.

"Please don't do this," Celestia pleaded, " I did miss you. You were a good friend. I don't want to have to fight you again."

"Don't worry. I still think of you as my friend. But I won't be subject to your rule any longer. I've got big plans for this world so don't get in my way." I felt out for one of my raijin marks and felt one in the Everfree Forest. "See you later, princess." I said as I teleported away.