//------------------------------// // Chapter 13 // Story: Shinobi of Equestria // by Fan of Fanfics //------------------------------// Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I own MLP. The sound of hooves falling hard on the stone palace floors echoed through the still empty halls. The owner of the hooves nearly fell just as hard onto the cold slab of rock, but managed to regain her balance. Falling against the wall, she forged on, one eye swollen shut, the other gazing half-lidded down the hall. She couldn't stop. She wouldn't. She had to warn everyone. She had to save them...save him. Luna felt as though the very moon she brought forth into the night had fallen from the sky, right on top of her. Her muscles, resilient though they were, strained with each step forward. She panted, before closing her mouth for a moment, seeming to swish something about in her cheeks. Single eye looking in disgust, she spat the blood from her mouth. The taste was vile. Foreign to the Night Princess. Not even Celestia had injured her this badly during their own battle a millennia ago. She was only idly aware that she was leaving a trail of the precious liquid, along with several of the feathers from her now-incapacitated wings, along the wall she leaned on for support. Her normally beautiful coat and plumage were both stained with the alicorn's blood. “Tia...” she weakly whispered. She had attempted to yell it, shout the name at the top of her lungs, but at the moment, she was lucky she could breathe, let alone speak. “Sister...please hear me...Celestia...” She had tried to use her magic to signal the Sun princess, or even to speak to her telepathically, but she did not even have the strength to use magic. This was not good. Had it been just Gaara's demon, she was certain she could have at the very least fended the fiend off. But unfortunately, the demon was now working together with another...her very own, at that. >< "Not exactly." Luna froze. The voice was not Gaara. In fact, it sounded as two voices, neither of which belonged to the Kazekage, were speaking as one...and one of the voices was familiar and made her blood run cold as ice. Slowly turning, she saw a being who looked like somewhat like Gaara...but was decidedly not. The stallion was shrouded in sand and shadow, but she could see exactly what was hiding beneath those evil, icy-blue eyes. Eyes she knew all too well. Eyes that she once possessed. “You,” she whispered, glaring at the figure before her. His horn glowed, and before her eyes, she witnessed the opening of a very large wingspan as the sand began to whip wildly around him. Bracing herself, she tried to show nothing as the waves of sand slammed into her. She tried to hide it, but the wind was still knocked from her lungs. She attempted to open her wings to fly above the onslaught, but the sand actually gripped her feathers, pinning her magnificent wings to the wall. Were it not for the sand that sealed her muzzle shut, she would have screamed in agony, as several of the sand tendrils formed themselves into thin spears, stabbing repeatedly into her wings. Once those fell limp, the sand formed a collar, throwing the Princess' head to the wall, pinning her by the throat to the stone. The sand spears then began to assault the rest of her body. While several began to puncture the flesh and muscle of her legs, the rest began to drill into the rest of her body. Not enough to fatally wound her, but enough for the pain to be excruciating. Mustering what focus she could, the blood dripping into her eyes, she sent an enormously powerful burst of magic outward from her horn, not only removing the sand from her form, but knocking back the possessed stallion as well. “So what is this?” Luna asked, her breathing heavy and her vision beginning to swim. “You knew you would never sway me once more, so you instead went for the Kazekage?” The possessed stallion chuckled, eerily, as he looked at the form of the Night Princess, barely able to stand on her now mangled legs. “In a sense,” he admitted, again, the cold voice of the Nightmare intermingled with the unidentified voice. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend, Luna. I want revenge on yourself and those ridiculous 'Elements of Harmony'...and the Shukaku wants to settle the score against a certain...Naruto Uzumaki...” Luna tried to blast the Dual-Possessed ninja once again, but his sand shot up to block, erupting in a blast of smoke and grains. The Princess, using this as a distraction, used the last of her energy to teleport to another part of the castle. Using his wings to disperse the cloud of dust, the Nightmare Shukaku just smirked, before its form began to break away into grains of sand, blowing out the window. “Go ahead and run, Luna. Just know that when my plans for revenge come to fruition, your thousand year banishment shall look like paradise!” >< Luna's blood-soaked mane had dulled. Before appearing as a shining field of the night sky, now a simple, plain, dark purple in color, looking no different from the manes of hundreds of regular ponies. Her vision through her one open eye was beginning to fade in and out, as even her determination could not overcome the blood-loss for long. But still, her destination was in sight. If she could make it to her big sister's room, before the older alicorn left to raise the sun and begin her daily duties, she still had a chance. “...Luuuuna....” a voice called. Her own, distorted voice. The voice of Nightmare Moon, the result of her own possession by the nightmare forces. “Come now, Luna, you know what you have to do...” Luna shook her head an continued walking, trying to ignore the seductive power of her own subconscious. “Give in, Luna. If you once again take command of the Nightmare power, you can defeat Gaara...or perhaps...rule beside him. It's high time Equestria had a proper King and Queen, after all.” “Silence!” the alicorn practically screamed in her mind. “I shall make it known to you as I did to that...impersonator. I will not be swayed again. I am in control.” “Says the mare who is moments from passing out...probably moments from death, as well.” The voice again taunted her, but at least fell silent thereafter. Though whether or not it was a blessing or an omen, she couldn't say. She no longer felt it odd for the Guards to be off their posts. It had to have been the Dual-possessed's doing. She just hoped that whatever fate had befallen them was not as bad as her own, current state...or at the very least, that if they were dead, they had died with less pain then she herself was in. She spat more blood from her mouth as she staggered round the corner. As she pushed away from the wall, her legs finally gave out, and she collapsed, dropping to the floor like so much dead-weight. x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x Groaning, Celestia cracked her eyes open. The princess smacked her lips a few times, before using her magic to bring a glass of water to her. Darn mouth breathing. Every morning she woke up with her mouth dry as a bone. Using her wings to strip the blanket from her body, she began to push herself up, before collapsing back on the bed. Why couldn't she have just given in and let Luna extend her night? She'd be more than willing to just hibernate during. She sighed, knowing that she had to bring the day, and groggily moved over to her vanity. She looked at herself and grimaced. Of all the magic in all of Equestria, why was there not a spell or charm to prevent bed-head? Levitating her brush, she began to work the knots out of her mane. She bit her lip as her mane kept snagging in the brush, yanking at her scalp. Perhaps it was time for a new style. She hadn't changed her mane-cut in several hundred years, but sometimes you just need to make a change... She finished the huge mass of hair on her head, before moving on to her flowing tail. The brush began to speed up as a low rumble resounded through the room, Celestia grateful nobody was in her room to hear her hungry stomach making its demands for sustenance. Celestia sighed once more. She really wished she had saved a few slices of Naruto's birthday cake. That beautiful, delicious Marshmallow cake. Sure, it stuck her mouth shut, but it was so good that the Sun Princess didn't even care. She'd have to come up with some occasion to get Pinkie Pie to make another. Smiling to herself, she imaged just the scenario. One that involved her sister, the Kazekage, and a wedding dress. Sure, she could always wait for her niece's wedding, but that didn't make Celestia nosy. She knew in her heart that despite Luna's turn to evil, that she had still wronged her younger sister greatly. The only way to make it right was to give Luna a life, one even better than the one she had been cast out of in her banishment. And if that meant playing the nosy big sister, then so be it. Folding her wings, making sure not a feather was out of place, she began humming the tune, 'Here Comes the Bride' as she opened the door into the hall. She immediately noticed that the Guards that were supposed to be posted outside her chambers were nowhere to be seen. She paid this no mind. Wrong or no, she had come to be fairly lax when it came to her own security, and thus was generally lenient when it came to her personal Guard detail. As she took a single step from her room, she stopped her humming mid song, as her hoof touched down into something warm and wet. She looked to the floor but saw nothing but dry stone. Still though, perhaps there was more to it then that. Her horn glowed brightly, as the princess cast a spell to remove illusions and other trick spells that some prankster may have cast. Her magic pulsed outward, breaking the illusion and her breathing hitched. Her eyes widened in horrified alarm as she looked at what lay no more than a meter before her. She was vaguely aware that her guards were now at their post, looking on in horror. A multi-level illusion to trick each party into being incapable of seeing or hearing any of the other parties. Only an immensely powerful magical being could accomplish such a feat. But she was too alarmed to even consider that right now. The guards raced to Luna's side, the unconscious princess breathing shallow and slow, as the elder princess shook in shock and terror. She couldn't move as she just stared in horror at her sister's mangled, bloody heap of a form. “Luna...” she whispered, tears beginning to fall, all thoughts of keeping up her regal appearance tossed aside. “Lulu...” She dropped to the floor, nuzzling her sister's battered muzzle with her own. Thankfully, this elicited at least a pained moan from the fallen Night Princess, letting her older sister know she was at least alive...for the moment. The guards prepared to move the princess, to get her to the hospital as quickly as possible, but stopped in their tracks as they saw Celestia's mane begin to change. It started as a black spot within the pastel rainbow of color, growing larger and larger, encompassing her entire mane and tail, aside from a deep, angry red outline around each. It looked as though her mane and tail were each experiencing their own solar eclipse. Levitating the injured Princess of the Night, they raced away as the air in the room began to get excessively hot, and the atmosphere became even more tense. As her sister was raced to the hospital, Celestia, still kneeling in the blood of the younger alicorn, opened her eyes. No longer the regal magenta, each eye glowed brightly with the intensity of the sun itself. Her nostrils flared as she snorted, blowing smoke out through them as though her insides had been set ablaze. All the guards within the castle, as well as several of the citizens down in the city, had to cover their ears with their their hooves, as Celestia turned her head to the ceiling and let loose a blood-curdling howl, coupling it with her own 'Royal Canterlot Voice.' The sheer force of the soundwaves even began to crack the stone walls around her, but they could all come down on top of her as far as she was concerned. Her eclipsed mane and tail whipping wildly in an invisible wind, she stood, beginning to walk, slowly, deliberately, after her sister. She assured herself that Luna would be alright. And she also assured herself that the moment her sister was awake and able to tell her who had done this to her, that Tartarus or the moon would be mercies if either was decided to be the punishment. Nopony approached the smoke-breathing princess as she strolled right down the middle of the street on the way to Canterlot Hospital. Nopony dared turn the Princess's ire toward themselves. x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x Yawning, Twilight Sparkle stretched beneath her blankets as her eyes creaked open, her innate sense of time waking her. Roused from her slumber by this infallible clock within her brain, she let her hooves fall to the floor with a soft thud. First stop, the little mare's room. Curse her and her inability to resist Pinkie's Power-packed Party-time Pony Punch. It was delicious, but really made her have to pee the morning after. After relieving herself, she began preparing for her day. Brushed her mane and tail, followed by her teeth. After morning hygiene was finished, she pulled out a clipboard, and with the zip of her pen telekinetically across the box, it was checked off her morning list. Next on the agenda, breakfast. Not feeling too hungry, she settled for a bowl of cereal. She normally didn't indulge, mainly keeping it for Spike and the occasional unscheduled Pinkie Pie Sleepover, she had to admit, the tiny marshmallows within were very tasty. Breakfast, check. Books back on shelves, check. Library floor swept and ready for the daily influx of ponies, check. Only one thing to go. She moved back up-stairs, shaking her head at her assistant's snores from his basket bed. “Wake up, Spike,” she whispered, nudging the baby dragon a bit. As usual, this accomplished nothing. “Come on, Spike, it's time to get up,” she said, a bit louder. Spike groaned, but only pulled the blanket over him even further. Twilight sighed, but knew one sure fire way to get him up. It worked every day. She gripped the bedroom curtains in her magical aura, bracing for the purple-and-green dragon's hiss as the light from the sun cascaded into the room. “Spike, you can't stay in bed forever,” she announced, with practiced ease. “Now come on. It's time you wake up, get out of that Basket, and come meet the beautiful Ponyville-” her words sharply cut out as she flung the curtains wide, only to gaze at the field of stars in the sky. The sun had not risen yet. “-Night?!?!” All across Ponyville, the residents who also woke habitually early, like the Apple family and the Ninja ambassadors, also took notice of the lack of sun. Fluttershy shivered and were it not for Rainbow Dash's 'insistence', she never would have left her cottage. Naruto would find out why. Apparently, this wasn't the first time the sun hadn't come up in the morning. And it was NOT a good sign. “For the last time, Nightmare Moon cannot be back,” Twilight said, her friends having all gathered in the library. “We all watched her get purged from Princess Luna ourselves. Maybe the Princess just decided to sleep in for a day. She does deserve it, after all.” Despite her attempt to sound sincere, Twilight was just as worried as her friends. What if Nightmare Moon really had found a way to return? What if something terrible had happened to Princess Celestia? “We saw her turn back into Luna, but we didn't see her get destroyed,” Dash countered, causing the trembling Fluttershy to shake harder. “What if she possessed Luna again? I mean, if it happened once...” The rainbow-maned Pegasus left the implication hanging. Twilight bit her lip, before turning to Spike. “Anything?” she asked, but the Baby dragon shook his head. “No,” he said, worriedly. “We've sent three letters in the last ten minutes. You'd think she would have answered at least one.” “I don't like it...” Naruto said, his eyes narrowing as he put his hoof down. “I don't know about the 'Nightmare Moon,' but it does make me feel nervous. If something did happen...why hasn't Gaara stepped in yet?” The question confused the blonde greatly. Did somepony manage to beat the Kazekage? Was his friend in trouble? Did he need help? “I agree with Twilight,” Applejack relented after a moment. “Last time we let our fears get the best of us, we wrecked Zecora's place thinkin' she cursed us. There has to be some explanation.” Naruto quirked an eyebrow. And he thought HE had some interesting stories. He'd ask his Marefriends about it later. Spike suddenly began to regurgitate, before belching out a cloud of smoke which condensed into a letter from the Princess. Despite her telekinesis, Twilight practically dove for the letter, eyes scanning it furiously, growing wider and wider. The rest of the ponies waited with bated breath as Twilight's legs began to tremble. “Well?” Rarity asked. “What does it say, dear?” Twilight was too stunned to speak. “Sugarcube?” AJ asked, as Dash and Pinkie both began waving their hooves in front of the Unicorn's eyes. “Somepony...or something...attacked Princess Luna...she's in critical condition at Canterlot Hospital, and has yet to regain consciousness...” Twilight revealed, her voice quivering more than her legs. A chill ran up the spine of everypony in the room. Everyone understood now why the sun hadn't been raised. The Princess definitely had more important things to worry about.. While Dash, Spike, Fluttershy, and Konohamaru each grasped the severity of the situation, the others were hit even harder. Rarity and Applejack found their thoughts drifting to their little sisters, knowing that they would never function if something happened to one of them. Though they weren't related by blood, Naruto too grit his teeth, knowing he'd go to hell and back to beat the shit out of anypony who might do that to Scootaloo. Twilight felt likewise about Spike. “What the hay could do something like that to one of the Princesses?” Rainbow shouted, and Twilight shook her head. “I...I don't know,” she admitted. “But according to the letter, Princess Celestia wants all of us, Naruto included, in Canterlot as soon as possible.” Springing out from behind her, Pinkie Pie rapped lightly on Twilight's horn. “Then what are we waiting for?” the Pink Earth Pony questioned. “Fire that thing up and let's move, Ponies!” Aside from Fluttershy, who was too frightened to verbalize a reply other than a timid squeak, the other Ponies agreed with Pinkie, and crowded around Twilight, as her horn began to glow, a determined look on her face. In a flash, the group of Ponies, plus one dragon, had vanished. x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x Appearing, singed but otherwise fine, on a dark street of Canterlot, Twilight gained her bearings and immediately began racing toward the hospital, her friends in hot pursuit. The entire place was surrounded by Royal Guards, but upon realizing who was attempting to get in, they just waved them through, while letting them know which room Luna was in. By the time they got to the room, they noticed Celestia just standing there, staring at the closed door intently. But this was not the Sun princess they were used to seeing. Sure, her coat and Cutie Mark were correctly colored, but her mane and tail were now pitch-black in color, with a bright outline, as if the sun were cloaked behind the mass of hair. Hearing the hoofsteps, Celestia's neck twisted sharply, and she growled...actually growled...at the group, until they came into proper view. Upon seeing her loyal and faithful student, Celestia's anger began to fall, as did the tears. “Twilight...” she said, shakily, not trusting her own voice. Seeing her mentor so close to breaking down, Twilight rushed up to her, nuzzling her mentor, who did the same back to her. Despite her efforts, she felt the teardrops on the top of her head. “Do we know anything about what happened?” Twilight asked, but the Princess shook her head. “After she was attacked, she still managed to make it half-way across the castle, with no wings, no magic, and four legs that look like they had been used as a manticore's chew-toy,” Celestia said, sniffling, but regaining her composure. “If there was ever a testament to how tough my little sister is, that would be it. I found her unconscious outside my room.” “Shouldn't the castle be crawling with Guards? How is it that none of them managed to find Princess Luna sooner, and help her?” Dash asked. Twilight had to step back from her mentor as she growled, her wings stretching to their full span and her eyes glowing a dangerous bright white. “Somepony managed to cast a very, VERY powerful illusion spell. It affected the guards, even myself, and probably Luna as well. The guards were unable to see or hear us and vice versa,” she replied in anger. “I likely wouldn't have even found Luna until it was too late. I couldn't see or hear her either. It was only because I stepped...stepped in...” The princess couldn't finish, feeling too sickened to even say the words, but Naruto now began to notice the dried blood that caked her front hooves, as well as a few spots on her front limbs as well, though it appeared somepony had tried to clean them. “What about Gaara? Where is he?” Naruto now asked, wanting to know what had become of his friend. Celestia took a breath, breathing out a bit of smoke once more and tried to calm down. Once her eyes returned to normal, she shook her head. “Nobody has seen the Kazekage since we returned to Canterlot from your Birthday party...” Celestia replied. “Had he been around, undoubtedly the outcome of this attack would have been decidedly different.” The conversation was interrupted by the doctor, a unicorn with a dark brown coat, as he exited Luna's room. “How is my sister?” Celestia demanded to know, slightly unnerving the doctor with her gaze. “She'll be fine, though she's lucky your Guards got her here when they did. She's a tenacious, tough alicorn, and once her magic replenishes fully, she should begin to heal and be back on her hooves in no time,” he announced. The Ponies let out a collective sigh of relief as Celestia asked if they were allowed to see the Night Princess. The doctor agreed, but noted that Luna hadn't regained consciousness. Thanking the stallion, the group quietly entered the private room. The injured alicorn lay in bed, her wings stretched out and locked in braces, and her entire body wrapped in fresh bandages. A mask had been placed over her muzzle, providing the Princess with more oxygen The only visible portion of Luna's body her single, uninjured eye. Upon seeing her like this, Celestia's anger began to bubble to the surface yet again, her black mane whipping dangerously. But this time, Twilight stayed close, her legs trembling. Dash's question once more came to the forefront of her mind. Just what the hay could do something like this to a pony as powerful as Luna? Fluttershy, not knowing what to do, just backed into the corner of the room and tried her best to keep from crying. AJ pulled off her hat and bowed her head. Dash looked ready to be physically ill, as did Rarity. And Pinkie Pie? Just looking at the unconscious Night Princess caused her normally poofy mane and tail to deflate and go straight. Not really sure of how that happened, but certain of the why, Naruto inched closer to his marefriend, wrapping his tail in hers, trying to comfort her. But the biggest reaction came from, surprisingly enough, something that was not a Pony. Within Naruto, the Kyuubi began to stir, and it began to connect to its jailor's senses further through his mind. “This isn't right. The lingering energy...it feels like Shukaku...and yet, at the same time...not...” He viewed the scene through Naruto's unknowing eyes, and his own narrowed. “Something else working with the One-tail...What kind of bargain have you struck, Brother...?” x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x Feeling the hard rock beneath his hooves, the alicorn touched down before a massive cave, once a dragon's lair, unbeknownst to him, at the mountain's peak. As the red-maned pony smiled psychotically, he turned his sights to the small town below the mountain and some distance away...Ponyville. “Let's begin,” he said, the sand beginning to swirl about at high speeds, ripping into the stone beneath his hooves. He cackled with glee as his pupils changed from the slits of the nightmare, to the four-pointed stars of Shukaku. Chapter End