Canterlot - Castle – throne room -
A female winged creature was silently looking outside the windows of the silent, empty room with an air of apprehension on her normally composed face, subtle trickles of sweat slowly falling from her forehead while thousands of scenarios played in her mind at blinding speed.
She was known as Celestia, and she was now about to see what the two most daring gambles she had took a thousand years before will translate into.
One was about exiling her beloved sister, that had got Corrupted a thousand years before and turned her into an evil entity re-named herself Nightmare Moon, that Celestia had banished on the very moon of their world...and another, more twisted in hindsight and that was now showing more downsides than Celestia herself could have imagined even in her darkest moments.
“...And both are about to blow-up on my face,” she muttered with a sigh of defeat.
In exactly a week the moon, stars and pretty much the whole Universe will seemingly help Nightmare Moon in her escape from her confinement, and even if Celestia had slowly (and painfully as well since it went against everything she herself stood for) moved things so to have the reincarnations of the ONLY thing able to truly help her sister to meet and purify her, the fact that the second 'Victim' of her thousand-years-long countermeasures was also finally showing its restlessness was drawing the Alicorn spare in worry.
“I am not even sure the Elements of Harmony will work on him...he is not driven by Darkness, his rage will probably being justified by my literally tearing him away from what he thought was his home, his friends and family...even giving him back part of the memories those people erased had been source of further anger instead of peace...it's a wonder the barrier held for the entirety of those three months,” Celestia muttered while looking towards one of the sealed chambers of the palace, a place where only she could enter.
What she could not know was that the 'prisoner' inside the light-coloured sphere of energy had not been trapped for three months, but had instead followed the suggestion of the secondary entity inside his body and used part of the memories Celestia had given him to understand how his new body worked; slowly, painfully recovering the same control over his power that he used to have before getting forcefully took away; she had tried to give him memories of his youth and enough info about language and basic workings about his body and possible Magic in hope that he could use that as a starting point to then learn the rest by himself, what she couldn't imagine was that a second mind could 'Block' those info, dissect them and keep only the fundamental parts like the notion about using the newly formed horn on his forehead instead of his hooves to fight.
“Your Majesty? The special ship you asked for is ready,” an armour-covered Pegasus said after entering the room.
“Good...tell the soldiers to vacate the area around us as instructed while flying at the accorded distance, I want only the bare minimum crew on board...the less people are around the Treasure the better I will feel,” Celestia answered nodding.
“Anything dangerous? We can take that to Ponyville ourselves while you fly secure on the ship, no need to risk your life, Princess,” the guard offered with a worried tone.
“Thank you for your offer, but it's my responsibility, I would have preferred leaving everything sealed in the vault but I don't feel at ease being too far away from such a dangerous thing,” the Princess answered.
“Sorry the boldness, your Highness...but...wouldn't be better just destroying it if it is so dangerous?”
“I am afraid that even if by far the most destructive thing I had ever seen, I can't simply destroy it...thing that I fear is also near-impossible even should I wish to,” Celestia answered sighing.
“I understand, sorry for my words, Princess,” the guard said with a low bow.
“You are just worried, I won't hold it against you. Now go, we still have a lot to prepare,” Celestia said with a gentle smile.
“ROGER!” the guard answered before disappearing from the room.
“Sigh! It's time to face the music, and the repercussions of my choices...” the Princess said before steeling herself and moving towards the imprisoned pony.
The Next Day – Ponyville – Library -
“OH MY GOSH! I-It's already time?! We are not ready yet! There is still the catering to organize! The decorations are still getting adjusted and...” a young, purple unicorn rambled in shock at seeing Celestia enter the room she was in.
“Twilight, calm down. I am here because I need a special brand of favour, one that I could not put on parchment and send you, something I had took care of personally up until this moment, but now requires further help...and I am forced to ask you as I can actually trust only you for this,” the Princess answered.
“EVERYTHING! Whatever you need!” Twilight Sparkle, personal student of the Alicorn princess, answered immediately while standing to attention.
“It's a serious matter that requires maximum secrecy...come with me,” Celestia said before both disappeared in a flash of light.
The two soon appeared in an empty room only containing the glowing sphere of energy holding inside Celestia's most foolish mistake, second only to her own sister's banishment.
“What is that, Princess?” the young girl asked.
“I call it 'treasure' as it is, in it's purest form and at its origins, what was at its...at HIS birth...” Celestia answered sighing.
“Him? Somepony is in there?” Twilight asked curious.
“I'll tell you an old story...a sad one. Over a thousand years ago there was a mother; the most pure, gentle of the mares, a beauty as pale as the moonlight and as gentle as the breeze of a night of summer...one day she fell in love with one of the guards that had swore to protect her with his own life, and even if their relationship was not frowned upon, the two still wanted to keep everything a secret...maybe as a sort of game, or maybe in fear that somepony WOULD have something against them,” Celestia said.
“Then? What happened?” the young unicorn asked.
“From their union a young pegasus was made, even as a colt he was as brave as his father but as gentle as his mother, truly the fusion of both parent's best qualities. But then Corruption took the mother, forcing a great power to separate the parents from the colt; the young stallion had been once again returned to a state of infancy and cast away, so far that even the Mother could not reach him and twisted into a new shape so that he could not be summoned or even recognized, and apparently with even the few memories his young mind had of his life here erased by the same people that swore to keep him safe...in a world of anger, war and constant tension he grew strong, stronger than anything we had ever seen...and I have called him back...and imprisoned him in that sphere.” Celestia answered.
“But...why?” Twilight asked confused.
“He needed to return, I hoped he could help me resolving an ancient problem of our world, but I had not realized that I would have basically...kidnapped...”
“It's ponynapped...sorry” the Unicorn corrected her automatically before blushing.
“Excuses are not necessary as he had been turned into an human, they use the term 'Kidnap' in that case. And as I said, I didn't realize that I was taking him away from what he believed being his life to take him here...he had been rightfully furious, especially when I made another mistake in showing that he had basically lived a lie that lasted twenty years from his point of view.” the Alicorn said.
“Human? Like those creatures from legends?” Twilight asked.
“They are real, but legends never described them as a belligerent race that unfortunately had never felt the power of Harmony and Friendship like we did and still do, or at least those he had lived with acted as such. The ones that raised him where by far the most powerful kind, and even if while in that human body he had no access to his 'Normal' pegasus powers, he had rose to the top to become the strongest, towering over everyone in strength and yet never losing that same gentleness and pure heart he had as a colt,” Celestia answered.
“So he returned into being a Pegasus once you called him back?”
“Not exactly...but this is not important at the moment; I hoped that recovering his memories would have helped, but I was wrong. I need you to keep this sphere in check should something happen that would stop me from mounting guard on him, he is a young stallion as apparently the world I took him from had Time working differently, that explains why after a thousand years he is barely a young adult older than you...can you do this, Twilight? Can you help me mounting guard and keep the secret? Not a single Pony can know about him until I'll be sure he won't get revenge on every being that cross his path,” Celestia asked, no, pleaded her student.
“E-Everything! You can count on me, Princess!” the young Unicorn answered nodding.
“Good, I personally sealed this room and the ship as a whole, only me and you will be able to enter while the others won't even register its existence. Now show me how things are progressing, I am actually curios about how this Summer Sun Celebration will be like,” the Princess said with a more calm smile.
“Right away! Please follow me, your Highness,” Twilight said while the two moved outside the room, sealing the entrance with a series of heavy metallic noises.
“Did you hear that? Someone spun some bullshit around so to appear crystal clean and smelling of roses,” the prisoner thought with a sneer.
“Just wait until we will be sure you won't trip on your feet...hooves...whatever, then we will burst out and have the bitch learn what happens when you fuck-up with people's lives,” A second voice, this one deep and inhuman, echoed in the stallion's head.
“With pleasure...how long before I can return to my Top Form?” he asked.
“If we are lucky, just a week, here Natural Energy is even thicker than back home, but there is not even the slightest spark of Chakra in those creatures as I could not feel any...a little bit more patience and you will be able to do even the most complex technique with this horn of yours alone,” the voice answered.
“Good, the Sage Mode and frog katas will be a little bit more difficult to adapt, but I never lacked imagination. I can't wait.” he answered smirking.
“Well said, Naruto...well said; we have a week to finish adapting the Rasengan and its variants to being horn-generated along the remaining techniques we know, but the bitch luckily had the 'Brilliant' idea of giving us the basics of how to do their 'magic'...useless crap if you ask me, we will show them what real power is once out of here,” Kurama, Nine-tailed Biju, answered with a similar feral grin.
A week Later – Pavilion -
“Our dear beloved subjects...it's has been so long since we have seen thy precious, little sun-loving faces, too long as a matter of facts.” A female Alicorn with the skin as dark as the moonless night said with a purring voice.
As the cries of the ones present grew in volume with their calling for Celestia to show-up, in the deepest recesses of the lonely airship hidden not too far away by layers upon layers of illusions, the sphere of light holding the Sun Princess' prisoner started sparking in energy.
“It's a solid barrier, that much I will admit, but still, just an annoyance,” Naruto muttered as he closed his eyes to focus.
“Eh! Some negative emotions made their presence known...the sad thing is that by their standards whoever is here now must feel like a monster, but to us? I would barely classify it as 'Angry Kitten'...and that with me being generous, this guy is nothing compared to Orochimaru or Madara.” Kurama said snickering.
“But still, I can't feel that Celestia's presence as clearly as I did before, she must be pretty far-away,” the other answered.
“No chakra, but they have such an over-abundance of Spiritual Energy that we can still sense them through the Sage Mode, the fact that Natural Energy here is more abundant also helps...just like following something under-water by tracking the ripples it leaves behind,” the Biju said.
“All the better for me, I want to kick that woman's ass for what she did THEN go back to Konoha, resurrect Sarutobi-Jiji and my father and beat them into a paste! THEY SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME!” Naruto said while yelling the last part and actually making cracks appear on his prison.
“Calm down, we have a bad guy here to defeat so use the bastard as a chew toy to burn-out some steam, then we'll have all the time to have that...horned horse? Whatever is the right term, pay for what she did.” Kurama answered.
“All right! let's break-out and fight, I am tired to stay immobile like this, I NEED SOME ACTION!” the blond said eagerly.
“Then summon the Truth-Seeking Balls and eat through this light-show, it's starting to hurt my eyes,” the Biju said.
“You really like those don't you? I'll never understand why, they are boring!”
“Oh shut up! We have an OP ability and I pretend to see it used!”
“Okay-okay, let me put-on the right 'dress' then, we are going to crash a party and we have to look our best!” Naruto answered laughing as he opened his now yellow eyes while his body started transforming.
- Meanwhile -
“Are you sure you want to come with me?” Twilight asked while watching Royal Guards getting threw around by the powerful bolts of lightning launched by Nightmare Moon.
“You said that, girl! Those Elements or whatever can stop her, that's not something one can do alone!” a cyan pegasus with rainbow-colored mane answered nodding.
“Dash is right! If ya have a way to stop tha' crazy horse then ah help as well!” a pony with a cow-girl hat added.
“FOALS! No-one will stop us! Our night shall last fore...” Whatever Nightmare Moon was about to say failed when both back legs of a mysterious pony struck her face; Time itself seemed to briefly come to an halt as the helmet around the Alicorn's head slowly deformed under the power of the attack while air rippled behind the mare, then, as if a spring had been released, the dark Alicorn went shot away as a blur, demolishing several houses and leaving behind a trail of destruction as she was sent flying all the way out of the small town while kicking up a cloud of dust of immense proportions.
“Damn! I guess I overdid a little...” the strange figure said with a sheepish grin.
He was a tall, imposing stallion with three strange markings on each cheek wearing a strange bandanna with a leaf engraved on it, his body was seemingly made of golden fire forming a light-coloured coat on his back and a dark-coloured "bodysuit" underneath that covered his torso reaching down to his front legs up to the hooves and then down to his back legs, this time stopping just above his hooves but also changing the latter's colour so to look like those too were made of the same fire-like energy of the cloak, his wings too left behind tiny swirls of flames as he folded them on his back.
The stranger was also sporting a light-coloured circle on his abdomen as well as golden markings around his collar and black ones on his forehead around his horn, on the back of the coat there was a strange marking of an eye; unknown to them that was indeed the symbol of the Six Paths Senjutsu: a Rinnegan above nine magatama.
“W-Who are you?” Twilight asked in surprise before she looked behind him and from where he came, thing that had her paling considerably once understood WHO he was.
“Name's Naruto. Nice to meet ya.” the stallion answered while still looking at the deep gash Nightmare Moon left on the road with her tumbling.
“Y-y-y-you are the prisoner! Why you are out?!” the purple unicorn asked with a shriek.
“You okay, Twilight? Who is he?” one of the other girls with her asked.
“Celestia was holding him sealed away in the hope of helping him re-integrate with Equestria after...certain circumstances...but now he is out! Why now?!” she answered.
“Sensed some bad intentions and decided to help. Where is that woman that trapped me?” the flaming stallion asked.
“Oh-oh! I know that! She had been sent on the Sun by that big dark meanie!” the pink mare of the group answered with a cheerful voice.
“So she is dead?” Naruto asked.
“No...she is certainly alive as her Magic is attuned to the sun,” Twilight answered.
“I see...how did we bring her back? I want to be the one kicking her ass, and I...”
“Flank...” the shy pegasus muttered.
“What?”
“If you...if you have to be that rude can you at least not curse?...i-if it is not a problem,” she replied while looking down.
“Not my style, if an ass it is, an ass I am going to call it,” Naruto answered, making Dash snort at his serious expression.
“We need the Elements of Harmony to stop her and me and the others were about to go retrieve them,” Twilight said.
“Ah! I see. Do you want me to keep her occupied then?” he asked.
“Why...why would you help us?”
“Because contrary to what Celestia thinks, I am actually one of the Good Guys, I just don't like being forced to leave behind my friends and home because apparently I was never told that I came from here,” Naruto answered.
“I am sorry,” Twilight said meekly.
“Were you the one that called me here?” he asked.
“Well...no.” she answered.
“Then why you apologies? I know who I am angry with so I won't go around attacking random people,” the stallion answered.
“Okay! We are wasting time! Can you hold her until we return?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Boy,”
“I am a girl!” she hissed angrily.
“Sorry...Girl, I am completely different from whatever you have seen up until now, give me some credit,” he said smirking.
“Thou are indeed different...” Nightmare Moon growled as she reappeared above the group to show her bruised face twisted into a furious snarl.
“Took you long enough, Princess! Did I give you boo-boo?” Naruto asked amused.
“You insolent foal! BEGONE!” she answered while amassing storm clouds around herself and launching several bolts of lightning at him.
“GO TAKE THOSE ELEMENTS! I'll buy you as much time as I can!” he answered while disappearing in a burst of light and incredibly dodging each and every lightning bolt before head-butting the Alicorn with enough strength to send both through several houses and making the terrain tremble from the impact.
“That was fast!” Dash said with wide eyes before getting dragged away with the others.
“You...you are the most annoying, insufferable, miserable brute we ever had the misfortune to meet!” Nightmare Moon hissed as her horn glowed white-hot in power from her rage alone.
“Thank you, I like to leave a good impression; it's a pity that I will only keep you occupied while the others bring here those Elements or whatever, but at least I will make some exercise while we wait, I have been sealed for way too long for my tastes,” Naruto answered chuckling.
“And you think you will be able to stop us? And with what kind of army?” the Alicorn asked smirking.
“Look, I'll tell you in terms that even you will understand...I am a One-Stallion Army!” Naruto answered.
“You foal, have you any idea how many times we saw young pegasus and unicorns call themselves like that? It has lost its meaning nowadays,” she said laughing.
“Wanna bet?”
“To think we were going to take you...”
“TAIJU KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU! (Massive Shadow Clone Technique)” Naruto yelled as his horn flared-up even more before thousands of clones of himself (all sporting the same flaming cloak) appeared around him.
“...Seriously...” Nightmare Moon squeaked as the horde of clones plus original rained on her from every possible direction.
“Sigh! We are starting to think that this was not an idea as good as we thought.” she muttered sadly.
Everfree Forest – with Twilight and the others -
The small group was running, or in Dash' case flying, as fast as they could towards the abandoned castle the purple unicorn said the Elements had been hidden in.
“We are almost there! Keep running!” Twilight yelled.
“You think that he will really be able to distract her long enough?” Rarity asked worried.
“From what I can tell you about it, Celestia called here a Pony that had been banished just like Nightmare Moon, the problem is that the place he had sent to was a world drowning in wars that turned him into an hardened warrior; he had apparently lost any memory about Equestria and so now he may resent us for basically ponynapping him away from his home...he somehow gained friends in that violent place and so he rightfully doesn't like this situation, but the Princess was hoping to have him understand that his place is here and that he will be able to find new friends. Unfortunately he got free before he could calm down enough to have us explain everything calmly, and now I don't know what to do!” she answered as far-away echoes of explosions were still reaching them no-matter how deep in the woods they were moving.
“The fact that he's helping us instead of that crazy mare is a good start though!” Applejack answered.
“You heard him, he is an hero! Of course he will help us!” Pinkie Pie added smiling.
“I only know that Celestia defined him 'the most destructive entity ever seen' and that she needed him for something, maybe she hoped to use him against Nightmare Moon in case of emergency, or at least as a way to buy her (or in this case us) time to use the Elements of Harmony,” Twilight answered as a dense mist was slowly rising around them and rapidly getting always thicker.
“You silly foals! As if somepony could really stop us!” Nightmare Moon's voice resounded around the small group, although an edge of exhaustion managed to slip through her tone.
“By how you talk it seems that he still managed to take a toll on you,” Dash said with a challenging tone.
“Insolent! It was by mere luck that he managed to catch us by surprise!” the disembodied voice replied angrily.
“You sure? As far as I remember it was you the one to turn into mist and run towards here...” a male voice said in amusement.
“YOU!” Nightmare Moon roared.
“And who else?” the flaming stallion said from a tree branch.
“How did you find me?”
“In this state I can sense your presence, you may not have chakra like me, but you all have such ridicolous reserves of Spiritual Energy, that you people call Magic, that I could still track you down. Satisfied?” Naruto answered as part of the mist condensed back into the Alicorn showing how her body was covered in bruises while standing on shaking legs.
“You still need to defeat us! And as for now you still lack in power, you weakling!” the Alicorn spat furious before cringing at the glare she received in answer.
“I usually don't like to overdo...but I hate when people underestimate me, so for the next three minutes only I will show you the 'next step' of my abilities, because remember, if I didn't use my full power up until now it was only because I don't want you dead...get ready.” he answered with narrowed eyes.
“Is that so? Thou think you can scare us with some bold claim? SHOW US THEN!” Nightmare Moon answered.
“...Really?” Naruto asked taken aback from her answer.
“Hoy! It's her funeral after all, show her my avatar form, I bet they never saw anything like that here!” Kurama said with a feral smirk.
“Sigh! I hate when the bad guys go all 'I can take everything you can dish-out', it makes me feel bad to then beat them to dust...” the flaming stallion said before his body seemingly exploded into a towering pillar of energy that then rapidly took the MASSIVE shape of Kurama's body along the nine tails and rings around the eyes to accompany the skeleton-like lines on the rest of the body.
The Unicorns, Pegasus, earth pony and one Alicorn present could only watch as the avatar of energy kept growing in size until it completely dwarfed the whole forest and the surrounding area before roaring with unmatched anger at a millimetre of Nightmare Moon's face.
And while the girls were surprised by reflex at seeing that happen, the Corrupted Alicorn Princess was showing all the signs of being extremely worried as her eyes were bulging wide open while the irises and pupils had visibly shrunken to the point of looking almost absent; what they didn't know though was that Nightmare Moon was also screaming inwardly as for some reason her voice kind of refused to come out of her open mouth.
“ARE YOU SATISFIED, LITTLE HORSEY? MY COMPANION HERE MAY LIKE TO PLAY NICE, BUT I DON'T!” Kurama said using the avatar's mouth before one of his huge paws grabbed the still shocked Alicorn to throw her back to Ponyville like a shrieking bullet and with enough strength to have her leave behind a sonic boom out of the sheer speed her body reached.
“Sorry for Kurama's antics, he is usually more calm. Go fetch those Elements, if she wants me and him to get serious then she has to hope you will find them fast; my techniques are not made to be gentle,” Naruto added before the huge nine-tailed fox made of energy sprinted towards the corrupted princess with a new deafening war-cry.
“Okay...” Twilight answered with a weak voice while ignoring Dash trying to revive the fainted Rarity and Fluttershy behind her.
“That's one hay of a talent, sugarcube...but what talent is that?” Applejack asked while trailing in awe the amount of destruction the huge Biju Avatar left behind just by moving.
“I honestly don't know, but let's move fast, because I fear there won't be enough Nightmare Moon for us to use the Elements on otherwise,” Twilight answered before the still shaking group renowned their efforts towards the Elements of Harmony.
-With Naruto -
“Is this more of your liking, Princess? If I were you, I would stay still and wait for those pretty girls to help you with those Elements,” the stallion said from his place inside Kurama's spectral head.
“WHAT ARE YOU!? How can you do such things? Why did my sister left such a in-equine creature like you anywhere near Equestria?!” Nightmare Moon asked while still keeping distance from the enormous creature.
No matter what she did he didn't seem possible to stop or deter, he could break illusions faster than how she could cast them, any spell she used was either dodged or countered by his clones or the spiraling spheres of energy he could summon on the tip of his horn, that if he didn't outright let her struck him and then get-up as if nothing happened, and the huge body of energy he was piloting was apparently totally impervious to anything she threw at it through telekineses no matter how big.
“Believe it or not I originally came from here before she sent me away, where I ended I had Kurama here sealed inside me, that had me gaining the ability to use and wield chakra, the energy everyone there had in their bodies; from there I just grew-up becoming the strongest ever before she stupidly thought that I would have gladly left behind everything I had gained after breaking my back on a daily basis and risking my life to fight crazy bastards with dreams about World Domination once bought here! I even fought against a veritable goddess and came out victorious! And now look at me! I am here fighting a tantrum-throwing flying horse that could not accept the fact that someone would SLEEP during the night! So do me a favour and drop whatever you are doing that is keeping Celestia on the Sun so she can come here and send me back!” the other answered.
“NEVER! I WILL BE THE ONLY RULER OF EQUESTRIA EVEN IF IT KILLS ME!” Nightmare Moon said while flying as high as she could above the stallion, deciding to focus all her power in a single attack and uncaring that it would probably cause Celestia to break free without a great deal of her magic holding the other Alicorn exiled.
“She is trying something, can you feel it?” Kurama asked.
“Yep, her last try...should we show her that she really needs to stay put?” Naruto asked back.
“I guess we really have to, just angle it a little high though, we don't need to kill her,” the Biju answered nodding.
“TAKE THIS AND DISAPPEAR, YOU MONSTER!” Nightmare Moon yelled at the top of her lungs as a thick bolt of pure condensed darkness went shot from her horn towards Naruto.
“...Sore loser...Bijūdama Rasenshuriken!” Naruto said while converting a Truth-Seeking Ball into a Tailed Beast Ball hovering on the tip of his horn and adding wind-natured chakra to create four shuriken-like blades around it before hurling it at the Alicorn.
The two attacks met briefly before the former shinobi's jutsu simply cut through Nightmare's attack erasing it from existence, shocking the Corrupted Princess to the core that had only the time to summon a quick shield around herself before the Jutsu flew above her.
The resulting explosion completely engulfed her body, shooting her to the ground at break-neck speed and leaving her smoking, heavily bruised body in the middle of an huge crater, her armour almost completely gone and her back showing the most bruises and probably still holding wings only thanks to the armour she was wearing and that got atomized in her place.
“You okay?” Naruto asked after dropping the Chakra Avatar and nearing her with a short trot.
“S-S-Stay away!” the exhausted, and surprisingly scared, Nightmare Moon shrieked while scampering away from the flaming stallion until her back was pressed against a wall.
“I angled it so it would not have touched you, as I said my intention was about buying time for the others, not killing you,” he answered with a sad smile.
“W-W-Why?! If you hate Celestia you should have just left me do what I wanted! She would have suffered a thousand years on the Sun for her sins!” she answered while leaning even closer to the wall at seeing him walk near her.
“You needed to be helped, since those Elements can save you then I decided to help, I would have hoped to do so without getting violent, but you were not hearing reasons,” Naruto answered.
“We are here! We have the Elements!” Twilight yelled as she and the others reached the duo.
“It was not easy! That mad mare had left behind illusions and angry monsters to stop us,” Dash said in annoyance.
“Those poor animals were also forced to attack us...” Fluttershy added.
“When did you do that?” Naruto asked curious.
“During our...strategic retreat...” Nightmare Moon answered.
“You work fast, that's for sure,” the flaming stallion said surprised.
“...Thank you,” she answered while a bit surprised by the sudden colloquial, almost friendly, tone the monstrous pony in front of her had started using.
“Can we use the Elements, dear? I think Ponyville suffered enough from her attack,” Rarity asked with a raised eyebrow while pointing with an hoof at the destruction surrounding the group.
“Ehm...most of that is my fault I fear, my jutsu are kind of destructive, but I will help repair everything once done.” a blushing Naruto said while stepping to the side.
“You better hope ma farm is still intact or I'll buck ya as hard as I buck ma trees!” Applejack said with narrowed eyes.
“My attack shouldn't have touched it, I swear!” the other replied while rising both hooves.
“What are you gonna do?” Nightmare Moon asked with narrowed eyes.
“Use the Elements of Harmony on you and purify whatever had corrupted you,” Twilight answered.
“...And he will stop attacking us?” she asked while stealing glances at the flaming Naruto near her.
“Yes?” the purple unicorn answered uncertain.
“Then yes, please do so! This is our best side!” Nightmare Moon answered with an happy smile while presenting her left cheek.
“I feel kind of offended...” Naruto muttered pouting as a rainbow-coloured ray of light engulfed the Corrupted Princess.
“That must be the most feminine-looking attack I had ever seen, I swear I felt my manliness drop of few points just by looking at it!” Kurama muttered while shaking his head.
“Kurama, please! This is hardly the moment for jokes! We still need to find a way to return home.” Naruto thought sighing.
Once the blinding light died-down a new Alicorn stood in place of Nightmare Moon, showing that the Corruption had twisted more than just the Princess' mind; she was now a tall indigo coloured pony with bright aqua eyes and large, feathered wings on either side of her, black patches could be seen her hind legs under the white crescent moon marking on her flank; she was now wearing dull blue horse shoes (if that was the name of the thing, Naruto mused) and a bib-like piece of black cloth around her neck adorned by the same crescent moon insignia; her mane was long, flowing even in wind's absence and sparkling just like if the stars in the sky were tangled in there.
“Well, that's a nice change, sorry for hurting you. But in my defence you were not yourself,” Naruto offered with an apologetic tone.
“We would have preferred being saved in a less painful manner, yes, but we do appreciate the gesture all the same. We are Luna, Moon Princess and sister of Celestia and you all, Element Bearers and Warrior of Light, have our deepest gratitude.” Luna answered while painfully bowing to the two groups.
“Oh my gosh! A real princess thanked us!” Pinkie said with a wide smile.
“So those rocks are the Elements? They don't look...threatening,” the flaming stallion said uncertain.
“Actually, those are just the former husks of the Elements, their true power now reside in the young ponies you have in front of you,” a new voice said as Celestia finally re-appeared in the middle of the group.
“Celestia?” Luna said with a meek voice.
“It's all okay, sister. I am happy to see you return to your senses,” the Sun Princess said while hugging her sister with happy tears streaming down her cheeks.
“I helped resolving your problem with your sister, now send me back!” Naruto demanded with narrowed eyes.
“I am sorry, but this is not possible...” Celestia had the time to say before the stallion re-appeared in front of her with a withering glare on his face.
“WHAT?!” he bellowed with enough force to kick-up dust and crack the terrain behind the princess.
“The...cough! The spell I used to turn you into an human and then back into a pony can be used only once...even if I send you back you would still remain in your current (and true) body,” the princess answered after managing to bite down the high-pitched tone her voice momentarily took in surprise.
“Why it can be used only once? And why then YOU CALLED ME BACK!?” the stallion asked.
“It was an experimental ritual created by Starswirl, he theorized that with enough power an Equestrian could be changed into another shape, but also added that any form different by something of our world could have put enough strain on the subject to kill them, I took a gamble into turning you into an human since they are creatures completely different from us in mind, body and spirit...it was by momentarily turning you into an Alicorn and then sacrificing that particular transformation that I could do it, using the resulting back-lash of power to fuel the ritual, but your body had to be turned into that of an human infant so to minimize the danger of killing you by using a smaller shape.” Celestia answered.
“And you can't do that again? I survived the extraction of my Biju, a thing that usually KILLS the victim, and even his re-introduction in my seal, I am certain I will survive some magic trick of a long-horned, self-centered horse just like you!” he hissed back.
“Listen...I am asking you to give Equestria a try, your life should have been here, it was by fear of Luna's corruption influencing you as well that I acted so recklessly, but I was desperate at the time and could not find another solution,” the Sun Princess answered with a pleading tone.
“And Konoha? And my friends? The life I had fought so hard to have? I FINALLY GOT THEM TO ACKNOWLEDGE MY EXISTENCE, YOU EGOISTICAL BITCH!” Naruto yelled in fury.
“HEY! Don't you dare...” Twilight was about to say before freezing at the intense, furious glare she got from the stallion.
“What?” he muttered with a throaty growl.
“Sigh! Listen, I-I know it's hard to accept, but this is your home, your world; give us a chance and in exchange I will find a way for you to contact your friends back in that world, like that you won't leave them behind completely...” Celestia offered.
“Why not giving me a way to go back instead?” he asked again, this time with eyes filled by pain and loss, actually hurting the Princess more than his rage had before.
“You would return as a Pony, I can't return you to an human body, it's too dangerous,” she answered shaking her head.
To the other's shock he just dropped down, crying silently and covering his head with his hooves.
“Hoy...you still have me...come on, brat! S-say something!” Kurama said in apprehension.
“It's all okay, they are your friends, they will understand and don't abandon you...you will still communicate with each other, is still something.” Fluttershy said while nearing him and dropping down to be at eye-level with him, her motherly side kicking-in at seeing his despaired expression.
“I have lost everything!...why?...what do you want from me? Didn't I do enough? Can't I have a little peace to enjoy my life? To have a girl, a family...” he muttered angrily.
“Who is he, Sister? Why did we ponynapp him from his home? You heard him, he had managed to get himself friends and probably a nice life,” Luna asked confused.
“Because I wanted to re-unite a mother with her son no matter what, and in my blind ignorance I did just that, uncaring of the damages I would have done to him, but in my defence, I never thought that he would have managed to have friends in such a violent place...I am sorry,” Celestia said while helping Naruto to stand and even hugging him.
“I had a mother back in Konoha, and a father... a man that I now wish to strangle with my hands...or hooves or whatever!” he answered.
“I am not putting this into discussion, but give your mother here a chance as well, she has every right as well as the woman that adopted you,” Celestia answered as she stopped hugging him.
“And who is his mother?” Luna asked.
“Well...you, sister...” the Sun Princess said with a shy tone.
“ME/ HER!?” both Naruto and Luna yelled at the same time while pointing at each other.
“Luna...he is the son you and Fierce Storm had a thousand years ago...Maelstrom Knight, or just Maelstrom since his father always defined that name as a 'mouthful' to say...” Celestia said uncertain.
“Surprisingly, Naruto can be translated as 'Maelstrom' in our language...so he had not exactly changed his name,” she then added with a nervous laugh.
A tense silence fell in the group as the shocked stallion dropped the Sage Mode to show a rust-coloured fur with a yellow (and still spiky) mane, the mark on his flank was of nine fox tails meeting with their white tip to form a spiral with a white center.
“I even had his clothes re-sized by the best fashion designers of Canterlot...since he seemed to like those and the bandanna...” Celestia said trying to fill the awkward silence while pointing at the red-with-black-flames jacket and the top half of the stallion's old orange and black jumpsuit he was wearing under it, he even had the pendant he won from Tsunade still around his neck.
“Princess Luna? Are you feeling well?” Twilight asked to the wide-eyed Alicorn that was fixating Naruto with unblinking eyes, not that the shell-shocked stallion was sporting a different expression.
“OH! I think I know that expression!” Kurama muttered in horror at seeing Luna's face split into a wide grin.
“MAELSTROM!” the Princess squealed as she pounced on Naruto to hug the life out of him while nuzzling her cheek on his and chanting his 'name' in pure happiness, wounds completely forgotten.
“Okay...What the fuck is happening here?!” the stallion finally asked as he recovered his voice.