**********Everfree Forest**********
I stood in the entryway of the great hall and took a look around. Other than a thick layer of dirt and grime covering everything, the Castle of the Two Sisters had aged pretty well over the last thousand years. I mean sure there were holes in the walls and ceiling. And the decorations were ripped and faded. But it was still standing and would provide adequate shelter. I walked through the halls my memory of the castle keeping me from getting lost. I searched for the thing I wanted most in this or any other world right now: a bed. Down the dark twists and turns and up several fights of stairs I found what I was looking for. Two large doors adorned with a golden sun, in the image of Celestia's cutie mark, told me I was getting close to my target. I passed another set of doors with a white moon in the image of Luna's cutie mark. Finally I found the room I was looking for. Two large doors with a black sun in the shape of Celestia's cutie mark. Inside the image of the sun, were three tomoe in the shape of my sharingan. I smiled as I pushed open the doors. I smiled as I remembered my room. It was just the way I had left it: ninja tools everywhere, all kinds of scrolls on the desk, and the books about the basics of pony magic. After collecting all of the items, I flopped down on the bed enjoying the soft caress of magically reinforced sheets.
"I should probably set up some defences, " I said aloud. "Don't want to wake up in chains again."
Feeling lazy, I decided that instead of a barrier for the castle, a sensory technique would be better. Rain Tiger at Will Technique. I covered the castle and the surrounding area in a 5 mile radius in rain. Getting used to the new sensory input, I lay on the bed. Now I could sense any intruders and have time to respond. I could feel every different animal moving around, taking cover from the sudden rainstorm. Now I just needed to plan out my next steps. I knew for sure that I couldn't put my plan into action without my book. All the techniques that required specialized preparation were out of my reach until I got it back. I groaned. That meant I had to go back to Canterlot. Should've thought about that before I left. I made a shadow clone.
"What the hell do I do now?" I said. "Celestia and Luna are definitely on high alert now and I really don't want to have to fight them."
"Don't worry about it," the clone said. "We'll just sneak into the city using the flying raijin and take it. In and out."
"How? The only place we can even teleport to is either next to Celestia or Luna."
"Really screwed yourself not leaving that kunai where you found it, huh?"
"You're not helping."
"Sorry. You need a different way in. Or you need one of them to leave Canterlot. Fighting one isn't so bad."
That was right. If I fought them one at a time I could easily win. Fighting them both at the same time was the problem. Then I remembered: Lesson Zero. Celestia will leave Canterlot; I just need to figure out when.
"When in the show's timeline are we?" I asked.
"How would I know that if you don't."
"Right."
I thought about it. Discord was just resealed so at a minimum it would take a week. With that in mind, I felt more at ease. A week woukd be plenty of time to come up with a plan. I just needed to go watch Ponyville for a while.
"On a completely unrelated note," the clone started, " do you ever get worried about what talking to yourself like this says about your mental health?"
I dispelled the clone and turned over ignoring what he said. I got comfortable and it didn't take long for me to fall asleep. My eyes popped open. How long had I been out? It felt like 10 minutes at the most, however the sun's position disagreed. I had slept through the night and into the morning. What woke me up then? I felt something on the edge of my senses. Ponies were disturbing my rain. There were only three of them: two pegasai and a unicorn. They were on the edge of my range. I considered leaving them alone but I had to make sure they weren't a threat. The strange thing is they were staying on the edge of my rain, not moving. I leapt out of the window and started moving through the trees to check out my intruders.
I found them setting up some strange device. The two pegasai were royal soldiers in full armor. One looked older and very experienced the other looked young and was acting nervous. He was clearly a rookie. The unicorn was light green mare with a pink mane. She was taking samples of the rain, using a spell on them, and them putting the sample into the machine. I watched them silently from a nearby tree.
"Well? Is this it?" The younger soldier asked impatiently.
The unicorn seemed to not have heard, being absorbed in her work.
"Is this it or not?" the young soldier asked again.
"This is indeed the strange rain Princess Celestia told us about," the unicorn confirmed.
"That means it's in the old castle," the older soldier said.
"That's what the princess told us, Captain Bow," the young soldier said. "Now let's report back."
"We don't leave until Starlight is done, Swift."
Damn it how stupid could I be! Of course this would be the first place Celestia would look for me. It was literally the only place I could go. Not only that, she also remembered my Rain Tiger technique and used it to track me. At least I hadn't told her what it did. I needed to fix this, now. I summoned a handful of throwing stars and got ready to attack.
"We should leave now, " Swift said. "I don't want to risk a run in with this creature. And Princess Celestia was very clear about staying longer than we need to."
"Calm down Swift," Captain Bow reassured. " You were trained for the Everfree. We both were. We can handle anything that comes our way."
"Besides," Starlight added, " aren't you curious about this spell? The rainwater itself is infused with a strange magic I've never seen before and it covers such a large area. There has to be a reason for it. What do you think this spell does?"
"With my luck, " Swift said, "it probably tells it where we are."
"Don't be such a foal, " Captain Bow said. "But Swift is right, Starlight, we shouldn't spend too much time here."
"Aww what's the matter, " Starlight teased, "big strong soldier afraid of a-"
"AHHHHHH!" Starlight was interupted by the pegasai's screams of pain. I had grown tired of their conversation and decided I wasn't going to get any more useful information out of it. I had thrown the shuriken into the joints between their wings and their backs. They weren't going to flying off anytime soon.
"What happened? Are you guys OK?" Starlight was frantic. Her eyes were wide and she was on the verge of having a panic attack.
"Something hit our wings. We'll be fine, just run!" Captain Bow shouted.
Starlight turned to run but I wasn't having any of that. I focused my desire to kill on Starlight. Killing Intent. She froze in place.
"What are you doing, Starlight?" Captain Bow screamed. "Run!"
I dropped from the tree I was in and walked over to the ponies.
"Oh no, oh no, oh Faust no, it's you," Swift stammered.
"You know, I'm a little hurt. After your long and arduous search, I finally reveal my self to you and this is how you respond? Oh how you wound me," I put my hands over my heart and smiled. I saw chills run down their spines over my little performance. "Miss Starlight is it? Why don't you come back over here with your companions."
Starlight slowly made her way over to the other ponies. I could see the icy cold fear gripping her as she shook every time she took a step forward.
"Now that we're all here together, what, may I ask, were you up to?" I asked.
"Nothing that concerns you," Captain Bow said as the others looked down.
"Aww. Keeping secrets is mean. How about this? I'll trade you a secret for a secret."
"Maybe we should tell it," Swift whispered. "I don't want to die."
"W-w-w-we w-w-were t-t-tracking y-you on the orders of P-p-princess Celestia," Starlight barley managed to get out.
"See, was that so hard," I said to Captain Bow. " Now I'll tell you something. I told Celestia that if she sent any ponies after me I was going to send her back their heads on a plate."
"What," Swift asked. He looked like he was on the verge of crying. The other two just looked stunned.
"But I'm feeling super generous today. So I'll only kill two of you. So to get things started: My name is Sasuke Uchiha and my special talent is either murder or foalsitting. I'm not really sure but I like both."
The three ponies stared at me with their mouths hanging open. I rolled my hand in the air prompting them to introduce themselves as well. Swift caught on first.
"My name is Private Swift Arrow. My special talent is escaping life or death situations alive."
"Are you sure?" I asked. " This is a life or death situation and if I were you, I would not like these odds."
Swift whimpered and folded his ears back.
"Alright, I'll go next. My name is Captain Long Bow. My special talent is mid-air combat."
"Interesting," I said, " and you."
I gestured to Starlight. She looked over to Long Bow. He nodded and she cleared her throat.
"M-my n-name is S-starlight S-shimmer. M-my s-special talent is analyzing foreign magic."
That caught my attention.
"Any relation to Sunset Shimmer?" I asked.
"How do you know my sister? Do you know where she is?" At the mention of Sunset Shimmer, all of Starlight's nervousness was gone.
"I do know where she is. But first tell me more about your special talent."
"I take samples of magic from zebras, dragons, even griffons and break them down to figure out how the magic differs from ponies. I can even reverse engineer certain magical spells. I'm not strong enough to cast most spells though so I can't really do much other than catalog them. My sister was much stronger."
"How would you like to see her again?"
"Really?"
"Sure. All you have to do is work for me."
"What?"
"Celestia pretty much sent you on a suicide mission. That means she considers you to be expendable and that to her your talents are useless." Starlight's ears folded back. " But I can see your true potential. You have an amazing ability and I could help you make the most out of it."
I wasn't lying. Starlight's ability to breakdown magic was invaluable. With her help I could push my plans forward an insane amount.
"Don't listen to him Starlight," Long Bow said. "Princess Celestia would never throw us aside."
"Are you sure?" I asked. " Don't you think if she had wanted you to be safe she would have given you some sort of beacon in case you ran into danger."
"Well she-"
"I mean that's just basic reconnaissance 101. Surely with your years of experience as a soldier you know that much."
Long Bow's ears drooped but his face remained strong. It was time to break him.
"Think about it. If you returned to her that would mean that she hadn't found me. But if you died that would mean that she had found me and that I would have thought I had prevented myself from being found. Your death was her best case scenario."
Swift Arrow and Long Bow fell to the ground in defeat. " So what do you say Starlight? Come work with someone who appreciates your talents."
"O.K. In exchange you'll take me to my sister."
"Deal."
"Now for you two." The two soldiers looked up at me when I mentioned them.
"Please don't kill us," Swift Arrow pleaded.
"I would love to let you live but I did promise Celestia she would get some heads on plates."
"A stallion is only as good as his word," Long Bow Muttered.
"Not. Helping," Swift Arrow said.
"Sorry," Long Bow replied.
"Starlight, close your eyes. This is going to be traumatizing," I warned.
She shut her eyes as I tied up the guard ponies. Then an idea came to me. I quickly dropped a flying raijin kunai on the ground and teleported them into the Castle of Two Sisters dungeon. I used my sharingan to lock them in a trance until I returned. I teleported back to Starlight and told her to open her eyes.
"So you're going to study my chakra," I told her.
"Chakra," She tried out the word, "is that the name of the strange magic you use?"
"Yep."
"I'll need a lab."
"I know just the place. One more question. How many ponies know where you are?"
"Only Princess Celestia."
That was much needed good news. If only Princess Celestia knew then this was an off-the-record activity and she wouldn't raise any alarms. Time to move forward.
"We're going to Ponyville," I told her.
"What? Why?"
"That's where the lab is and," I said looking up, "I'm tired of standing in the rain."