//------------------------------// // Chapter 31 - Just an Ordinarily Chaotic Day // Story: Daily Life of an Equestrian Ninja // by PianoPony //------------------------------// “Ah, this is the life…” Naruto said in satisfaction. “The stand is open, the chairs and tables are arranged, and the delicious smell of Ramen is in the air…” It wasn’t even noon yet, but Naruto had already finished setting his Ramen stand up for yet another day of work. Since it was still early and nopony was expected to come and eat some freshly-made Ramen soon, Naruto had decided to treat himself to an early lunch. He prepared a large helping of Ramen and carried it over to one of the tables. With one of Momo’s apparatuses attached to his front right hoof, he was ready to dig in. “Itadakimasu!” the orange Earth pony called and grabbed some noodles with the magical chopsticks. However, the noodles immediately slipped back into the bowl. “Huh, that’s odd. I almost never drop them…” Naruto thought in surprise and tried again. When he tried to grab another mouthful, the noodles all practically squirmed out of the way of the chopsticks and avoided being caught. “What the—!” Naruto exclaimed as he tried again multiple times more in a rapid pace, until he finally managed to grab some. “Gotcha!” he called triumphantly and brought the noodles to his mouth. “Now down the hatch—YOUCH! HOT!” he cried in a mix of surprise and burning pain when the noodles suddenly flicked his cheek, causing him to drop them back into the bowl. “That’s it! No more mister nice pony!” Naruto called and brought the entire bowl to his mouth. “Hey! What gives?!” Naruto cried in protest when the noodles simply started crawling out of the bowl, fell onto the ground and then continued moving away like worms. Naruto merely stared at the surreal scene for a few moments as his brain was deciding on an appropriate reaction. “Get back in my mouth!” Naruto finally shouted and got off his seat, giving chase after some of the noodles while still holding the chopsticks. All of a sudden, the sun’s light was dimmed. Naruto looked up and was stunned to see the sun being blocked by a pink cloud, which soon started raining. “Great, now my Ramen’s gonna get all muddy!” Naruto grumbled, when a drop of rain fell into his mouth, causing his eyes to widen. “Chocolate milk?!” Naruto called, surprised over the sweet sensation spreading throughout his mouth. “What are the Pegasi thinking?!” “Oh, right! My Ramen!” Naruto remembered and started looking for the noodles again, but couldn’t spot even one of them. “Dammit, my lunch crawled away!” “Your lunch did what now?” a familiar voice asked. Turning back, Naruto could see Rarity trotting towards him. She was wearing a purple raincoat and a saddle with a beautiful purple jeweled umbrella, matching her mane. “Oh, hey Rarity,” Naruto said. “Did you happen to see any runaway Ramen around here?” “Runaway… Ramen?” Rarity repeated, quite baffled. “Come to think of it, I did see a few strange-colored worms digging into the ground earlier, but I was more disgusted than interested in them.” “Oh, great,” Naruto sighed. “There goes my lunch.” “You… weren’t planning on eating them, were you?” Rarity asked, arching a brow at him. “Oh! Uh… Haha, of course not,” Naruto quickly said, scratching the back of his head. “Oh well, at least I can always fix myself another—” he then said, when he looked back to his stand. Naruto’s jaw dropped to see all the noodles he worked hard to make crawling out of the pot in different direction. “Can’t a guy have some Ramen in peace?!” he yelled in frustration, shaking a hoof up at the pink cloud that was now raining chocolate milk specifically on him. “Well, now that you’re not busy with your…. *ahem* …lunch, would you mind lending out a hoof?” Rarity asked with a smile. With a disappointed sigh, Naruto turned back to look at the Unicorn. “Sure, what is it?” ***** “And I thought I had a weird day…” Naruto half-smiled as he looked around Sweet Apple Acres. The entire ground was soaked with chocolate milk rain and covered in popcorn. Applejack was standing shoulder-high inside a hill of popcorn, quite disgruntled, for obvious reasons. Not far from Naruto and Rarity, Pinkie Pie was stuffing herself with popcorn, while Rainbow Dash was in the apple tree above Applejack, keeping clear of both the popcorn and chocolate milk rain. “Howdy, Applejack! Funny day we’re having, huh?” Naruto grinned as he paced towards her alongside Rarity. “I wonder how often it happens here in Equestria…” “’Funny’ sure ain’t how I’d put it, partner,” Applejack frowned. “Well, luckily for you,” Rarity said. “I’m here to see if there’s anything I could do to help. Without getting wet. Or dirty. Or out of my umbrella.” Applejack arched a brow at her, but Naruto smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ve got the situation under control!” he exclaimed as he crossed his front hooves. “Shadow Clone Jutsu!” “Yeah, let’s do it!” called one of the fifty or so clones that appeared around Naruto. Every eye in the area widened as it fell on the new arrivals. “What?” one of the clones squeaked. “Could you stop looking down on me?!” “Awww! They’re so cute!” Pinkie cried, suddenly appearing beside Rarity. She ducked to examine the clones that stood only an inch tall each. “Can we keep them? Can we? Can we?” “Wait, what?!” the clone cried. “How come you’re so bi— GAH! WE’RE TINY!” he screamed in a very high tone as he realized the situation. “And our voices are weird!” another clone screamed in panic. A few others soon joined him into a chorus of squeaky screams. “What the hay’s wrong with my jutsu?!” the original Naruto cried. “Focus, everypony! We’re not gonna let a little problem like this stop us!” another clone called. “Really? Little problem?” Applejack frowned. “Speaking from experience, that ain’t funny, Naruto.” “Narutos, attack!” the clone roared. Letting out battle cries, the clones charged with bravado at the popcorn his surrounding Applejack, each of them starting to nibble on a single piece. “Yeah, go Narutos, go!” Pinkie cheered them on, before scooping a mouthful that put the clones’ hard work to shame. “Yeah… That’s not helpful at all,” Rainbow deadpanned as she looked down at the tiny brigade. “I don’t get it… Just what’s going on here?!” Naruto cried. As if on cue, all the Apples on the trees suddenly grew tenfold, and the trees’ trunks began bending under their weight, causing Rainbow to fly out of the tree she was hiding in, only to slam straight into a small pink cloud and get stuck in it. “An earthquake!” one of the Naruto clones cried as the ground began shaking slightly. “No! It’s a stampede!” another clone shouted, pointing to a herd of squirrels, bunnies, mice and raccoons which ran in their direction and began jumping on the trees, biting into the now humongous apples. “No! My apples!” Applejack cried. “No, no, no!” a familiar voice cried in the distance. “Stop this! Please!” Everypony turned to look at Fluttershy, who landed on the ground, panting heavily. She looked around at the animals on the trees in panic. “Fluttershy! Do something!” Applejack cried, looking in horror at all of the half-eaten apples on the treetops. The yellow Pegasus looked up to the tree Rainbow was just in, spotting an all too familiar white bunny. “Angel! You have to stop—” Suddenly, Angel’s short legs turned disproportionally long and deer-like, causing Fluttershy’s eyes to widen in horror. “No! It’s not possible! I must be seeing things!” she cried as more and more bunnies transformed in the same way, and began running around on their new, long legs. “Well, I sure as heck know what to do with these here critters!” called a squeaky voice in a country accent. All eyes turned to a mini-Naruto, who was now purple in color, and riding one of the disfigured bunnies. “Narutos, away!” he called as he whipped the bunny with a cowboy hat he produced out of thin air. “Yee-ha!” More and more clones turned purple and jumped on the disfigured bunnies, pulled out a cowboy hat matching Applejack’s out of nowhere, and began riding around on them. “Okay, that’s it! I’ve had it!” Naruto said in annoyance as he crossed his forelegs. “Release!” No clone seemed like it was gonna vanish in the near future, as they still rode around on the wild deer-legged bunnies. “Well, then…” Naruto said, narrowing his eyes ominously. “It seems I have no other choice now…” All eyes turned to Naruto expectantly, when the orange stallion simply turned around and began heading towards Pinkie Pie. “Hey, Pinkie! Leave me some popcorn, will ya?! My lunch crawled away and I’m starving!” he called as he dug into a pile of nearby popcorn. “Aw, I hate it when that happens!” Pinkie called sympathetically. “I’m not even gonna try to figure out what’s going on anymore. This whole world is just crazy sometimes,” Naruto thought as he filled his mouth with popcorn. “Wow, these are chewy!” he exclaimed. “Don’t worry, everypony!” called Twilight’s voice. Naruto turned to look at her, his mouth filled with popcorn as she and Spike arrived at the scene. “I’ve learned a new spell that will fix everything!” she announced as she charged up her horn. “Just like that? Sounds too easy to me,” Naruto thought skeptically as he chewed the popped kernels in his mouth. A ray of lavender light shot out of Twilight’s horn and soon exploded into a wave which passed through the entire area. When the light faded, it became evident that… absolutely nothing had changed. From the pink sky, popcorn covered ground, huge fruits and crazy animals to the mini purple cowboy Naruto clones, it was obvious that… “My fail-safe spell… failed!” Twilight cried in disbelief. “What do we do?!” “Uh… Give up?” Spike suggested. “At least Naruto’s clones seem to enjoy this,” he added as he looked at them. “Yeah! Our freedom’s at hoof!” a mini-Naruto called. “And there ain’t no city-pony that can stop us now! Adios, amigos!” he called as he rode away, the other clones joining him. Naruto noticed that Applejack was glaring at him quite angrily. “What?” “Hey, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy!” Twilight called. “I need your help!” Rainbow Dash shook herself free from the pink cloud clinging to her and Applejack burst out of the popcorn hill she was buried in. Fluttershy joined the two as they raced towards Twilight, and Naruto soon followed. “Need my help too, Twilight?” he offered. “No thanks, Naruto,” Twilight replied without looking at him. “Oh, alright,” Naruto said, somewhat disappointed. “Rainbow, can you corral all those clouds in one corner of the sky?” Twilight asked as she pointed towards the pink clouds. “I’m on it!” Rainbow replied with a salute and flew upwards. Naruto and the others watched in awe as the Pegasus flew around from cloud to cloud, herding them into one place. She then spun around them as fast she could, forcing them together into a single huge pink ball. “Applejack,” Twilight said. “I need you to bring those high-strung storm clouds down to Earth!” “Gettin’ right to it!” Applejack replied, pulling out from under her hat her favorite lasso rope. Spinning it around, she then threw it up at the pink cloud ball in the sky, caught it and pulled it down to the ground. “Fluttershy,” Twilight whispered. The yellow Pegasus flew down towards her, and leaned her ear towards Twilight as she whispered her something. “Oh dear,” Fluttershy called. “I hope none of the animals see these delicious chocolate-filled cotton candy clouds! I’d hate to have to share them!” As Fluttershy said that, all the nearby animals turned their eyes to either her or the giant cloud ball, now tied to a nearby fence. Pinkie was meanwhile treating herself to an extra-large helping of cotton candy cloud, and turned back towards Fluttershy with a chocolate milk covered smile. “You and me both, sister!” Pinkie was immediately pushed off as all the nearby animals began digging into the giant cloud. “Hey!” she called in protest. “And when y’all done with that, feel free to have some popcorn for dessert!” Applejack said with a smile, happy that the crisis was over. “Don’t worry about Angel, Fluttershy,” Twilight smiled to her. “Once the cotton candy’s been taken care of, I’ll find a transformation spell and turn him and his friends back to normal.” “That was incredible, Twilight!” Rarity said. “You did it!” “Yeah, and you didn’t need me at all…” Naruto thought, disappointed. “You see, Spike?” Twilight asked with a smile as she turned to him. “You should never give up! There’s nothing we can’t overcome if we all work together!” Suddenly, Spike burped out of green flames a scroll, which landed on the ground. Twilight swiftly picked it up and removed the red ribbon and gold seal, with the others all grouping around her in curiosity. Twilight gasped. “Come on, everypony! Princess Celestia wants to see us all in Canterlot immediately!” The group all exchanged baffled gazes before racing to the train station. ***** “Is something wrong, Naruto?” Fluttershy asked. Naruto was gazing out of the train’s window, silently watching the changing scenery of Equestria. He hadn’t uttered a word since he and the six mares boarded the express to Canterlot. Twilight had told Spike to wait for her in the library, since only the Element bearers were summoned. “Naruto?” Fluttershy asked again, hovering just beside him. “Gah! Fluttershy!” Naruto cried when he finally noticed the Pegasus, nearly falling from his seat “S-sorry, Naruto” the yellow mare uttered. “You just seemed a bit sad, that’s all.” “Yeah, usually you’re way more fun than this, Naruto!” Rainbow added as she joined in. “What’s up?” “Say, are there ever any troubles in Equestria?” Naruto asked. “Besides the whole Nightmare Moon thing, everything here is always so peaceful.” “What are you talking about?!” Rainbow frowned. “In just the three months you’ve been here we had to deal with a Dragon, an Ursa Minor, a Danciconda, Parasprites, Diamond Dogs…” “That’s not really what I meant, Rainbow,” Naruto replied. “Well, what did y’all mean then?” Applejack asked. Naruto’s eyes shot open to find out he was now surrounded by all of his friends, save for Twilight who was staring out the window further up ahead in the booth, a stern expression on her face. “I meant any fights between ninjas—err, I mean ponies,” Naruto clarified. “Well, me and Applejack had a little quarrel a while back,” Rarity said, smiling towards the cowmare. “Sure had!” Applejack grinned. “I meant real fights. Fights that cause people to harm each other,” Naruto explained. “There’s no need to fight!” Pinkie exclaimed. “With one huge smile and maybe a good party, there’s no argument that can’t be settled!” she flashed a toothy grin at Naruto. Naruto made a small smile to her before turning back to the window. “If everything’s here alright and I there’s no hatred to defeat… Then what am I needed here for…? The resolution I made after my battle with Pain… It’s useless in this world…” “I’m okay now,” Naruto smiled at the group. “Thanks, everypony.” ***** When the train made a stop at the station near the royal palace, Twilight was the first one to run outside. The others all immediately followed her, but soon came to a stop. “Princess Luna!” the seven ponies exclaimed as their eyes fell upon the dark Alicorn. The Princess of the Night was standing in the station, surrounded by many white or black guards. “Greetings, friends. We have been waiting for you,” she said formally. “Come now, there’s nary a moment to spare!” Luna turned around and hurriedly paced towards the palace. The seven ponies all exchanged nervous looks and followed her. “I wish we could have all met again under happier circumstances, but I fear that today is not the case,” Luna said sternly as she led the group through the palace’s many corridors and hallways. “What happened, Princess Luna?!” Twilight exclaimed. “Is this about the weird weather?! And the animals’ weird behavior?! And why my and Naruto’s magic don’t work?!” “Not magic, chakra,” Naruto reminded her again. “Yeah, and my Ramen crawled away. Got any idea why?” he asked. “My sister and I will now explain everything,” Luna said as she opened another door. Naruto’s eyes were immediately flashed by multiple colors, shining from many stained glass paintings which replaced every other window in the hallway in front of the group. Just a few meters ahead of the group stood Princess Celestia, who paced back and forth with a troubled expression. Twilight immediately raced ahead of Luna and towards her teacher. “Princess Celestia! We came as fast as we could!” Celestia finally ceased her nervous pacing and turned to Twilight with a faint smile. “Thank you, Twilight. Thank you all for coming,” she said as she looked at the other six ponies accompanying Luna. After surveying the seven ponies for a moment, she turned around. “Follow me.” Luna joined up with her sisters, while the seven ponies all trotted behind the two regal sisters, looking around at the colorful windows. Naruto could clearly notice that a couple of them were decorated by the image of a creature he’d never seen before, nor could have ever imagined. No matter how much he’s try to make sense of it, it would just seem like an assortment of different creatures: Dragon’s leg, deer hoof, lion paw and eagle claw. A pair of nonmatching wings and nonmatching horns, a long reptile body and a goat-like face. “I’ve called you here for a matter of great importance,” Celestia said. “It seems that an old foe of me and Luna, someone we thought we have defeated a long time ago, has returned. His name… is Discord,” she said as she looked at the strange creature’s drawing. Fluttershy turned to look up at the strange creature, before squealing in fright and ducking behind the orange stallion, as if to hide herself from Discord’s gaze. “Discord is the mischievous spirit of disharmony,” Luna said. “Before my sister and I stood up to him, he ruled Equestria in an eternal state of unrest and unhappiness.” “Luna and I saw how miserable life was for Earth ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns alike,” Celestia continued. “So after discovering the Elements of Harmony, we combined our powers and rose up against him, turning him to stone.” “Discovering them?” the nine-tailed fox, who was listening closely, thought. “Something here smells fishy to me…” “All right, Princesses!” Rainbow cheered. “My sister and I thought the spell would keep him contained forever,” Luna said. “But unfortunately, it seemed to be imperfect, and was therefore broken.” “Imperfect?” Twilight asked. “What do you mean by that?” Celestia sighed. “It was the same reason for which I could not have saved my sister, Princess Luna, from the clutches of darkness.” Twilight gasped in realization, and Naruto felt all eyes turning towards him. “What?” he asked, looking around, as he had not realized the same. “Your Element, Naruto!” Twilight called. “The Element of Bravery!” “That golden headband?!” Naruto asked in surprise. “For a while I completely forgot about it…” “Precisely,” Luna nodded. “We’ve only managed to utilize the other six Elements in order to seal Discord away. Unfortunately, neither of us could use the Element of Bravery.” “But now, with the seven of you, things will be different,” Celestia said. “Whatever do you mean, Princess?” Rarity asked. “This is Canterlot Tower, where the Elements of Harmony were kept since all of you recovered them,” Celestia answered. “I need you to wield the Elements of Harmony once again and stop Discord before he thrusts all of Equestria into eternal chaos!” “Again… Those items with the Old Man’s chakra. Just how did those damn ponies get them?!” the nine-tailed fox thought in frustration. “Was he in this stupid pony world back then too?! I can’t remember anything…” “But why us?” Twilight asked. “Why don’t you—” “Hey, look!” Pinkie cried. “We’re famous!” Everypony turned their eyes to Pinkie Pie, who was standing in front one of the stained glass windows in the hallway. Naruto glared at the picture on it, surprised to see himself along with Twilight and the others. Alongside the six mares, he saw a ray of light shining from his pony self and hit Nightmare Moon. “You seven showed the full potential of the Elements by harnessing the magic of your friendship to beat a mighty foe,” Celestia said. “Although Luna and I once wielded the Elements, it is you have managed to use their full prowess, and it is you who must seal Discord once and for all!” Twilight seemed to ponder the matter for a moment, taking in the gravity of the task at hoof, before looking up at the white Alicorn with certainty. “Princess Celestia, you can count on—” “Hold on a second!” Pinkie called, her eyes practically bulging out with excitement. “Eternal chaos comes with chocolate rain, you guy! Chocolate rain!” “Don't listen to her, Princess,” Twilight quickly said, moving to her teacher’s side. “We'd be honored to use the Elements of Harmony again!” “Wait a second!” now Naruto called. “We don’t have to seal him away! It’s not like he’s all crazy like Nightmare Moon was, right?” he asked. Luna arched a brow at him at that. Twilight, Rarity and Applejack facehooved. Celestia merely watched him curiously. “Err…” Naruto stuttered, scratching his head. “What I mean is… he can be reasoned with, right? I’m sure if we just speak to him he’ll—” “Naruto,” Celestia cut him off, looking at him harshly. “While I appreciate your good will, unfortunately, Discord is not somepony who can be reasoned with. He wants nothing more than to bring ruin to Equestria. He is the very embodiment of chaos itself!” she said and continued pacing ahead, the others all following silently. “I’m still going to try,” Naruto insisted. “And if he doesn’t listen to words…” Naruto punched his right forehoof against his left. “Then I’ll just have to knock some sense into him!” “Discord is also not somepony who can be defeated with mere force,” Luna said, her gaze still fixated to the front. “You’d be wise to remember that, Naruto.” “Indeed,” Celestia concurred, as she came to a stop in front of a huge door, covered with many brilliant gems and images of the sun and a crescent moon. The others all stopped as well. “You seven are going to need one another in order to defeat him.” “And you shall also require…” Luna began, as she and her elder sister put their horns into two holes in the door, in the middle of the celestial drawings. The two sisters fueled some of their magic into the door, causing it to light up in bluish aura, and then slowly open to the outside. Emanating a bluish glow, a familiar blue, jeweled chest stood on a purple pedestal bearing a drawing of a star, inside the small room behind the doors. “These,” Celestia finished, floating the chest towards the seven bearers. “You can keep the Elements. I’ll take that case!” Rarity called with sparkling eyes. The fox’s eyes narrowed. “That box is…!” “Have no fear, ponies,” Celestia smiled. “I have total confidence that you will be able to defeat Discord… with these,” she said as she opened the box to reveal… it was empty. Everypony gasped, eyes widened in astonishment and jaw-dropped, as the stunned Celestia dropped the chest onto the floor. The resulting echo lasted for a few more seconds, for some reason sounding far more ominous than it should have had. “Oh, well,” Pinkie said, quickly recovering. “If anypony needs me, I'll be outside in the chocolate puddles with a giant swizzle straw!” Rainbow shook her head as if to return to reality. “H-hey, wait! Pinkie Pie!” she cried as she flew after her, quickly dragging the protesting pink pony back. “The Elements!” Twilight cried. “They’re gone!” “How could this be?” Fluttershy muttered fearfully. “Did somepony steal them?” “That chamber is protected by a powerful spell that only Luna and I can break! This doesn’t make sense!” Celestia cried. “Hahahahaha…” an ominous voice echoed in the hall. Naruto’s eyes darted across the hall, attempting to find its source as he reached for his bag. “Make sense…? Oh, what fun is there in making sense…?” the voice asked. “Show thyself, Discord!” Luna demanded, her horn charging up for a spell. The voice merely cackled back before answering. “Did you miss me, Princesses?” the voice asked. “I missed you.” Naruto’s eyes widened in astonishment as he saw a painted glass image of Discord moving its mouth in speech. The image then flew off, seemingly out of the window, but then appeared inside another one, one that showed the seven Elements bearers surrounding the Elements of Harmony. “It's quite lonely being encased in stone, but you wouldn't know that, would you, because I don't turn ponies into stone!” he called, tapping on the immobile image of Fluttershy as if to demonstrate his point. “Enough!” Princess Celestia roared. “What have you done with the Elements of Harmony?” “Oh, I just borrowed them for a teensy little while,” he said nonchalantly. Snapping his fingers, the image of the Elements disappeared from the stained glass. “Give them back!” Naruto hollered, throwing a kunai at the window. “What the—?!” Naruto cried as the kunai bounced back off the glass towards him, as if it were made of rubber. He jumped out of the kunai’s way just in time. Luna caught it with her magic before it could bounce at anypony else. “I’d be careful with that thing. You could really poke somepony’s eye out,” Discord said as his eyes popped out of their sockets and fell onto the pedestal which previously held the Elements. “You'll never get away with this, Discord!” Celestia called. “Oh, I'd forgotten how grim you can be, Celestia,” Discord sighed as he shoved his eyes back into their places. “It's really quite boring.” “Hey! Nopony insults the Princess!” Rainbow Dash called as she charged at Discord’s image, only for it to disappear as she hit the glass. She pushed herself away from it and shook her head. “Oh, you must be Rainbow Dash, famed for her loyalty, the Element of Harmony you represent,” Discord said as his image reappeared, this time as large as the window. “That's right!” Rainbow called. “I'll ALWAYS be loyal to the Princesses!” “We’ll see about that…” Discord replied as his image vanished. “I can’t believe we’re wasting our time talking to a tacky window,” Rarity said, quite bored with the conversation. “The beautiful Rarity, representing the Element of Generosity, if I'm not mistaken?” Discord said as he reappeared in another stained glass window of the symbol of the royal sisters, nearby the fashionista. “So ya know who we are, big deal,” the unimpressed Applejack said, pacing towards him to get a closer look at him. “Oh, I know much more than that, honest Applejack,” Discord said, his image once again increasing in size to cover most of the window. “You seem to know our strengths too,” Twilight noted, narrowing her eyes at him. “Yes, Twilight Sparkle,” Discord replied, flashing back into the glass with the Element bearers, appearing on Fluttershy’s head. “And yours is the most powerful and elusive element, Magic. Fluttershy's is Kindness and Pinkie Pie's is a personal favorite of mine — Laughter,” he snickered. Pinkie Pie burst in laughter. “Pinkie!” Twilight growled. “H-he’s standing on your head!” Pinkie laughed, pointing at the image of Discord which was dancing on top of Twilight’s image. “Oh yeah?” Naruto smirked. “Well, I bet you don’t know anything about me!” “And of course, who could forget Naruto Uzumaki, our favorite little ninja and wielder of the Element of Bravery? You were brought here straight from the Village Hidden in the Leaves by courtesy of our dear Princess Celestia,” Discord smirked at him, as he tapped on the forehead protector on Naruto’s image in the stained glass. Naruto’s jaw dropped slightly at that. “H-how do you know all that?!” “How could I afford not to know all that, especially considering you were brought here just to cover up for Princess Celestia’s blunders?” “Silence, Discord!” Princess Luna shouted. “What have you done with the Elements of Harmony?!” “Oh, you’re just as boring as your sister, Luna,” Discord sighed. “Fine, I'll tell you, but I'll only tell you my way: ‘To retrieve your missing Elements, just make sense of this change of events. Twists and turns are my master plan. Then find the Elements back where you began…’” As Discord’s image returned to its rightful place, his malicious cackle slowly died down. “C-can we go home now?” Fluttershy muttered. “Don’t worry, Fluttershy,” Naruto assured her. “I know he probably has a reason for doing all this, but we’ll find a way to stop him!” Fluttershy looked at Naruto in worry, before slightly nodding. “What do ya reckon he meant?” Applejack asked, trotting towards Discord’s stained glass image. “Twists and turns and ending back where we started?” “Twists and turns…” Twilight muttered, deep in thought. “Twists and turns…” Naruto began thinking as well. “I think… I think…! I’m getting a headache. I’m not good at this kind of stuff…” Twilight slowly marched to the window, as if to help her focus her thoughts, when she noticed something outside. “Twists and turns! That’s it!” She pointed out to the large garden seen below the castle, and a large maze made of wall-shaped bushes. “I bet Discord hid the Elements in the palace labyrinth!” Celestia nodded. “Good luck, my little ponies. The fate of Equestria is in your hooves,” she said, as the others nodded back. “Thanks, Princess,” Twilight replied. “We won’t let you down!” The seven ponies promptly turned around and ran through the hallway. “Naruto!” Princess Luna called. Naruto and the others turned back towards her. “Be careful,” she said, looking at him worriedly. “We will,” Naruto smiled. “Believe it!”