War in Equestria: Eclipse and Dawn

by Akasuna no Sasori

Chapter 5:Overcoming Differences

Chapter 5: Overcoming Differences

“What?! Who are you calling barbarian?!”

Leatherhorn had tried to attack and kill the Diamond Dog known as Fido, but was blocked by the scorpion tail of Hiruko, Sasori’s puppet armor.

Fido saw his chance to get away, and ran back to the other Diamond Dogs, who proceeded to return to their underground tunnel and continue eroding the foundation of the city.

Leatherhorn jumped back, to get a better look at his attacker. It was a hunched over being, with a black bandana worn over its’ mouth. Its’ hair was arranged into cornrows that were gelled up. Leatherhorn saw the black robes with red clouds and knew it was an Akatsuki member.

“Huh? The Princesses and the Queen warned us about you! You’re one of those Atoki guys, right?”

“Akatsuki,” Said Sasori correcting him, “yes, I am one of them. Which means you know already that you’re dead, seeing as you’ve heard of my comrades’ achievements.”

“Leatherhorn!” Said Thunderhooves running to his side. “I know you hold feelings of great disdain towards me,and the feeling is mutual, believe me. But if we’re going to have any chance of beating him, you need to work with me here.”

Leatherhorn nodded. “Right! We can kill this weakling!”

“I have yet to fight anyone from this land, but you two seem like good first kills, to me.”

Leatherhorn and Thunderhooves charged towards Sasori, horns out.

Hiruko’s tail moved quickly towards them; extended from his back to get the distance it needed to reach the two leaders.

“That thing can actually grow in length?!” Said Thunderhooves, as he and Leatherhorn made contact.

The tail was viciously strong, and the two fought hard to overpower it.

“It’s pointless. This tail is made from tempered steel and then reinforced with Hiruko’s own chakra. It’s impossible to break it with simple strength.”

Slowly, the tail began to push them back, then flung them away.

Thunderhooves and Leatherhorn struck a large building, but weren't’ gravely injured.

While the two were standing up, Sasori was walking towards them; swinging his tail violently into nearby buildings.

“Resistance is futile. Just give up, and I will end it quickly.”

“Never! We will never stand by as you Akatsuki destroy Equestria!” Said Leatherhorn, who charged at Sasori again.

The tail flew at him, but he dodged it. The tail retracted, and proceeded to stab at him over and over again; but Sasori just couldn’t hit his mark.

The minotaur closed the distance, and smashed his horns into Hiruko. He penetrated the puppet, hitting Sasori inside.

“Hyah!” Said Sasori from within Hiruko.

The minotaur removed himself from Hiruko, proud of defeating the puppet.

“It’s over! Now come with me; we have much to discuss.”

Sasori tried to stand up, but realized the wound to the puppet’s frame was too much, Hiruko was unable to move, but he still had one weapon left.

“I have a better idea; how about I stay here and you go to hell!”

Hiruko’s bandana fell off, and his mouth opened. Hundreds of poisoned needles poured out, flying at Leatherhorn and Thunderhooves.

“What in th-”

Leatherhorn was struck by dozens of the needles; being only a feet from Hiruko’s mouth, and fell to the ground; writhing in agony.

“LEATHERHORN!!!!” Screamed Thunderhooves.

But he quickly forgot about his fallen friend when he noticed the poisoned senbon still approaching. He leapt to the side, but noticed the width of the poisoned needles’ spread still left him in their path.

“Fine! If I can’t dodge them, then I’ll endure them!”

True to his word, Thunderhooves ran straight into the needles, not giving in to the pain or falling down because of the poison’s strength.

“What?! He’s surviving the poison?! Impossible!”

The buffalo came closer and closer before finally arriving to his target.

“This is for Leatherhorn, you monster!”

Thunderhooves crashed straight into Sasori with all his might, destroying what was left of the crippled Hiruko.

Sasori jumped away from the destroyed puppet, and turned to face his adversary.

“I must admit; not many people can say they’ve destroyed that one. Hiruko was taken down in battle only twice, this being the third time. But that doesn’t matter now, I can see the poison is already starting to take effect since your adrenaline levels have dropped.”

Thunderhooves stopped smiling, when he felt Sasori spoke the truth. He fell to the ground, clutching at his chest.

Sasori chuckled quietly. “I could kill you, but it would just be a waste to summon a puppet to kill two nobodies. Still, you’re both nobodies that managed to destroy my Hiruko puppet, so you will suffer for that.”

Sasori began walking away, but a Diamond Dog popped his head up from underground to speak with him.

“Excuse me, Sasori sir! But some of the other dogs had a question about citizens. Do we leave them be, or kill them?”

“Kill them if they get in your way, but once the job is completed, you’re free to kill all of them if you wish.”

The dog exploded in evil laughter, then dove back down underground.

Sasori continued walking, but stopped.

“Oh, that’s right. I forgot.”

He turned back towards Leatherhorn and Thunderhooves.

“You will lie here in agony, suffering. Your less vital organs, like your liver, intestines, and spleen, will fail. Then more vital organs will follow, and you will die. The whole process is highly unpleasant. as it will take you three days to die.”

Sasori turned away, and left Leatherhorn and Thunderhooves to moan in despair.

- - - - -

Luna, Celestia, and Esmerelda had decided to go back to a destroyed Canterlot to see if any of the other prisoners had escaped. Twilight said she wanted to go check on Applewood.

“Are you sure? You saw what that one you just fought did! He could’ve killed you if he wanted to!” Said Esmerelda.

“No, this is something I must do. You said that is to be our new capital since Canterlot is gone,so that’s where I’m going.”

Luna and Esmerelda nodded together. “Very well, do what you feel is right.”

They both flew into the sky, and Celestia was about to join them when Twilight pulled on her.

“Wait, there’s something I want to ask you before you go.”

“What is it, Twilight?”

“I think we’re going to need to use the Elements of Harmony at some point if we want to defeat these Akatsuki. But we can’t since Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash......”

“I know. So let me tell you a story from my youth that my teachers taught us.”

Celestia began. “In the long ages before now, Equestria was at peace with all nations that surrounded it; even the dragons dared not attack anypony outside of their borders or within. However, one day there came a new enemy; one that had not been seen in Equestria or anywhere for that matter, until that day. The beast was called Despair; he is known in modern times as the grandfather of Discord, but that isn’t true. He is a separate and unrelated being. His body was made of shadows and darkness. His eyes glowed red with a silver tint, and he wore a crown made of claws.”

“Please excuse me if I sound rude, but what does this have to do with the Elements of Harmony, Princess?”

“I’m getting there, Twilight.”

Celestia continued. “The beast came and slaughtered ponies left and right. It tore down houses, dams, and even ravaged Cloudsdale. The attack lasted for years, and ponies were terrified of the creature. Finally, a selfless Princess named Lisilia came up with a plan to end the terror. Lisilia was the most powerful Princess know from history; even stronger than I am! So, with her power, she split her body into the Elements of Harmony; and granted them to her six most faithful servants. In doing so, she condemned herself to death, but the Elements were used to end the terror brought about by Despair.”

Celestia took a deep breath and sat down alongside Twilight with the conclusion of her tale.

Twilight still looked confused. “I still don’t get it! What does it all mean?”

“It means, that while the Elements of Laughter and Loyalty are gone now, two have arisen somewhere in Equestria that are the new Elements. You just have to go out and find them.”

“I will Princess! I’m going to Applewood!”

With that Twilight flew off towards Applewood, not knowing what awaited her.

“Goodbye, my pupil. I know you will find the Elements of Laughter and Loyalty.”

Celestia looked towards Canterlot, then flew into the sky towards the crumbling city.

- - - - -

Pain had flown up into the sky, and was preparing to unleash his judgement upon Cloudsdale.

Konan watched from below, but was startled as she noticed several pegasi approach. Within their group were pegasi she had not seen before. They were wearing clear armor and carried similar clear swords at their sides.

“Nagato!”

“I see them.”

The ponies flew towards Pain, drawing their swords as they grew closer.

“Stop in the name of the Crystal Empire!” Said one of the ponies clad in clear armor.

‘Of course!’ Thought Konan. ‘Their armor and weapons are made of crystal! That would explain the strange texture and clear color.’

“What makes you believe I will stop what I am doing? I am becoming rather impatient with your kind. The last group of guards said the same thing, and now look at them.” Said Pain, gesturing down to the street.

The ponies followed his hand, and looked to see the dead citizens and guards lying in the street.

“The group before them said the same thing, as well. It’s becoming tiresome. So please, stand aside and do not interfere or you will die before the civilians.”

The guards looked up from the massacre and stared at Pain.

“You may have killed those soldiers and the soldiers before them, just as you said. In fact, because you don’t even appear tired and your clothes aren’t ripped or torn in anyway, I can also assume you killed them without much resistance.” Said one of the ponies wearing a large, crystal helmet. Pain believed him to be the leader of the squadron.

Pain nodded. “You assume correct. But your words aren’t helping your comrades’ morale.”

The other soldiers were trembling, and looked at their captain confused.

“Do not worry! Do not allow my words to frighten you! Understand that they are the truth; this pony is very powerful, and we should not underestimate him! But even though he has killed numerous ponies, remember that it is our job to lay our lives on the line for the civilians he desires to kill! Even if we merely delay him, it’s better than letting it happen!”

The soldiers cheered, and the captain faced Pain.

“See? You will face stout resistance from us, just like the last group you fought!”

“It won’t be much.” Said Pain.

Pain pulled a scroll from his robe and used it to summon the other Paths of Pain.

“Scatter!”

The Paths surround the ponies; who bunched up into a tight circle.

“Don’t just stand there! CHARGE!” Screamed the Crystal Captain.

The other soldiers soon followed suit and entered battle with the Paths.

The Crystal Captain raced to the Asura Path, and swung his sword; but was met with a small, black pole that appeared from the Path’s robes.

The two entered a fierce sword duel as battle raged around them.

“Why are you doing this?! You’re ponies attacking your own homeland!”

The Path didn’t respond but instead just swung his weapon again.

“Why aren’t you talking?! Can you not speak?”

Pain jumped in. “The Paths of Pain are dead bodies being controlled by me; in fact, this body is dead, as well. The real me is controlling them from a distance with chakra.”

The captain was stunned. “The- They’re dead?! You killed them and now you use them like puppets?!”

“In a way, yes. But no, I did not kill them. My mentor killed all of them except this body. An enemy of ours killed him. However, he is dead now, and this body is at peace at last. I do not ‘use’ him. I was granted use of his body through his blessing because of my revenge on his killer.”

Pain realized what he had done.

“You know something, captain? You’re the first person I’ve ever told this information to. Feel lucky; of course when you’re dead, it won’t matter one bit.”

The captain turned back to the Path he was fighting just in time to block a thrust. The duel ensued for a few minutes more before the captain realized he was outmatched. He was getting tired and his swings and thrusts were less deliberate. However, the Path continued to attack with the same energy and vigor he had when the fight began.

The captain looked at his sword.

“If I can’t beat you with the blade, then I will beat you with the horn!”

The captain’s horn began glowing an extremely bright silver color.

“All my energy, into this one attack!”

‘I’m sorry troops,’ he thought, ‘we must sacrfice ourselves for the cause. These ponies must be stopped at all costs!’

The horn grew brighter and brighter until Pain and Konan were blinded.

“What is he planning? Does he really think he can defeat the Asura Path?

The light engulfed everyone around the captain.

“OUR LIVES FOR EQUESTRIA AND THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE!”

There was a bright flash, followed by the light receding.

Pain and Konan opened their eyes to see what happened.

The captain had apparently focused all of his energy at once into his horn, then unleashed it all.

The attack was devastating; as it had killed all of the captain’s soldiers and himself in the process. The Paths were able to escape the devastation by hiding behind the Preta Path’s Absorption Seal. All except the Asura Path.

Pain walked over to the corpse and bent over it.

“Nagato! Is he alright?”

“No, but I have replacements. Still, if these unicorn ponies can just sacrifice themselves like that, soon I won’t have any spares.”

Konan looked around to see the full extend of the captain’s attack. While most of the city was intact, all of the nearby buildings were leveled. Ponies that were hiding inside were killed; evidence being the many corpses under and around the rubble.

“Nagato, are we done here?”

“There’s much more of Cloudsdale still standing. No, Konan; not yet. But soon.”

- - - - -

Twilight raced to Applewood as quickly as she could. When she drew close, she saw the extensive damage caused by the Akatsuki and their Diamond Dog allies.

“Oh, no! This isn’t good!”

Twilight quickened her pace, and made it inside the city. She walked around, looking at the fires and destroyed buildings.

“How? How can these ponies do so much damage in so little time?”

When she made it to the city gate, she noticed several bodies lying around; fillies and colts were among the dead. She knelt beside one of the dead colts.

“They killed the children, too? How can they be so heartless? There really must be no end to their evil.”

She looked up from the colt, and noticed Thunderhooves and Leatherhorn straight ahead from her.

“Chief Thunderhooves! Chief Leatherhorn!”

She put her ear to each of their chests.

“They’re still alive! I have to get them out of here, now!”

That’s when she remembered she was all alone, and had no way to contact Celestia for assistance.

She looked around for anything that she could use, and saw a wagon in decent shape parked in front of a wrecked building.

“It’ll be tough to pull both of them, but it’ll have to do!”

Twilight lifted the large buffalo chief into the wagon first, using all her magical strength to do it. Next, she lifted the minotaur chief. However, she was exhausted, so she started to scream for somepony to come help her.

“HELP! Is anypony alive out there!? I need help!”

It didn’t take long for a couple of city guards to poke their heads out of a small building just up the street, notice Princess Twilight, and come running.

“Princess Twilight! What are you doing here, your majesty?”

“No time to explain! Just help me get Chief Leatherhorn into the back of this wagon!”

The two guards nodded, and with their help, the big minotaur was laid next to Thunderhooves.

“You two need to help me pull this wagon, now! I hope you’re energized, because we’re going all the way to Canterlot!”

The guards’ hearts sank from hearing how far they would have to go, but didn’t show it.

“Of course, your majesty!”

They hitched up with Twilight to the wagon and pulled it out of the burning city.

- - - - -

“So it was you that killed Cadence. I had only guessed, but I felt sure it was you.” Said Hotaka.

Hotaka, Deidara, and I had gone inside the shack and sat down at the table to catch up and share stories of our fights.

“Yeah, but it cost me all of my 1000 puppets to do it! I’m no help to the Akatsuki without them!”

“Hmm! You have no confidence in your other puppets? That’s despicable to not be confident in your own art!”

“I guess some of them aren’t half bad; but I’m better at just controlling several puppets at once and overwhelming my enemy. I’ll need to replace them at some point.”

Hotaka nodded. “Yes, but not here. Wait until we get back to Konoha. For now, just use your other puppets. I’ll be there to help you now, so there shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Yeah! You’re right, I’m worrying over nothing. But we have nothing to do until Obito gets back from wherever he went. He told me to stay here and guard the headquarters.”

“Well, I have no orders, so I’ll make my own. I’ll stay here with you. Now Deidara, I’m sure Sasori could use your help, though. You should return to him.”

Deidara nodded. “Yeah, you guys can hold down the fort! See ya!”

Deidara went outside, summoned a clay owl, and flew off.

“So, what else did you do while I was gone, Rokuro?”

- - - - -

The Diamond Dogs poked their heads out of the tunnel they had been digging, and looked at their work.

“Do you think we’re done? Will the city fall now?” Asked Spot.

“Yeah, we just need to dig a little more feet out this way!” Said Rover.

The dogs ducked back under ground, and dug a straight line out of the city limits. They resurfaced just in time to see the city’s foundation give out. The entire city dropped just 10 feet, but it was enough to wreck the remaining buildings and streets.

“Oooh! Master Sasori will be most pleased!”

The dogs laughed and ducked back underground.

Indeed, Sasori was pleased. He was sitting a tree outside of the city and watched the city fall.

“They’ve done well. I’ll have to recommend them to Obito for more sabotage missions.”

Sasori leapt out of the tree, and began walking back to the hideout.

After a few minutes, he noticed Deidara flying overhead, and vice versa. Deidara flew down to meet his partner.

“Hey, what gives? I thought you were supposed to be overseeing the destruction of Applewood! Hmm!”

“It’s done; the Diamond Dogs took care of it already. It’s time to go back to the hideout.”

“I just left, you won’t believe who I ran into and brought back to the hideout!”

“A decapitated Hidan? He lets that happen far too much...”

“No you moron! Hotaka!”

Sasori’s eyes grew wide. “Really? It's about time we found him. I’m sure Rokuro is overjoyed.”

“Yeah, but I’m sure he wants to see you, too. Since he lost all of his puppets, you could loan him some.”

“You’re joking, right?”

Deidara laughed. “Maybe.”

“Whatever, just fly down a little lower so I can jump on.”

The owl descended, Sasori hopped on it’s back, and the two artists began flying back to the shack.

“Oh by the way, Hidan and Kakuzu are done. They’ll be back at the hideout in about five minutes.”

“How do you know that?”

Deidara pointed to his eye scope. “This scope can see very far distances; even through another device! So I gave Hidan and Kakuzu and Pain and Konan another so I can see where they’re at and what they’re doing. Hidan and Kakuzu are walking along a dirt road, and I can see the shack just ahead of them.”

“Heh, seems as if you’ve actually made that thing useful instead of just an eyepatch.”

Deidara grew angry. “What did you say?! I’ll have you know I use ‘eyepatch’ to calibrate long distance attacks too, you know!”

“I’m just trying to get you riled up, it can be fun sometimes.”

For the rest of the trip, they were silent until they landed at the shack. Deidara destroyed his clay owl, and put the clay back into his bags. The two walked into the shack and were greeted by Hidan, Kakuzu, Hotaka, and myself.

“Good, you’ve arrived.” Said Kakuzu as he laid out a scroll on the table. “Read this; it’s orders from Obito.”

Deidara and Sasori started to read the scroll carefully.

“So all six of us have to work together? This should be interesting! Hmm!”

“What I don’t understand, is how Obito knows Hotaka is with us again.” Said Sasori.

Kakuzu shrugged. “It’s not important, what is is what’s at the end of the instructions.”

Deidara and Sasori continued reading until they reached the end and both of their mouths dropped open.

“Kisame and Itachi have been captured?!”

Comments

[NotABrony]

I feel like sasori got damaged needlessly, also kind of feels like the akatsuki arent themselves since they seem to be struggling with weaklings like the ponies.... plot seems thin, but I'm still enjoying the story. Keep up the good work =D

[Akasuna no Sasori]

2629023 I agree that the plot may seem "thin", as you say, but that's only because they ARE fighting ponies. The only ones amongst them that really do stand a chance against the Akatsuki are the Princesses; and the weakest among them was killed. I try to keep the story as realistic as possible, so it makes the plot seem thin. No random "hero" moments where a good guy is about to get killed and another good guy comes in to block the strike, or take a bullet. They just die; end of story. In regards to your comment about Sasori being damaged needlessly, well: Sasori was fighting two of them if you recall, and one took half of the Poisoned Senbon Storm. So in keeping with realism, Chief Thunderhooves would've been able to take advantage of Sasori's defenseless moment and take out Hiruko. Trust me when I say Sasori wasn't damaged at all; he just said "Hyah" because he was shocked; like when you might yelp when you get hit from behind and you don't expect it.

The Great Eternal Artist,

Akasuna no Sasori