> Equestria's Will of Fire
>  by Borsuq
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 1. First impression [cancelled]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Come on, you two!" Scootaloo called to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, who were trotting far behind her. "We need to find that flower!"
The Cutie Mark Crusaders were deep within the Everfree Forest. Normally, ponies avoided this place, and they would get into a lot of trouble if anypony knew where they went. But this time, it was different. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were going to come to Ponyville for a visit, and the whole town was preparing for days to welcome them properly.
Yesterday, the three of them had cleaned up Twilight's library, due to losing a stupid bet with Spike. While Scootaloo originally thought that it’ll be an incredible drag, when they were cleaning the library one of the books about flora, accidentally opened on a page about a 'Lunar Flower', a very pretty plant that grew only in the darkest caves of the Everfree Forest.
Scootaloo still remembered how Princess Luna helped her when she was plagued by nightmares, so she decided to go get few of those flowers and give them to her as a 'thank you gift'. She also figured that maybe she and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders could earn their cutie marks in plant gathering, or something along those lines, so she recruited her friends for this quest. Taking advantage of the fact that everypony was busy with last minute's preparation, they ventured into the forest.
The only problem they had was that they only now managed to find a cave, and it was already past the time the Princesses were supposed to arrive.
"Come on!" she shouted once again after the two stumbling ponies.
"We're coming, okay?!" Sweetie Belle said as she and Apple Bloom stopped in front the cave, panting.
"Why are we... huh... doin' this again?" Apple Bloom asked, wheezing.
"Because, A: that's a great gift for the Princess, and 2:.."
"You mean B:, right?"
"... it's a great chance to earn cutie marks." Scootaloo finished, glaring at the unicorn. "Now, Cutie Mark Crusaders, let go!"
"Yay!" shouted the two other fillies, their enthusiasm renewed, and they all went into the cave.

"I need your assistance." those were the first words he heard since his soul was sealed away with the Shiki Fūjin.
Hashirama Senju opened his eyes.
In front of him stood the Death God himself, a huge human looking-like being, with skin blue as a dead person would have, long white hair with two red horns sprouting from within them, wearing a white robe.
"What do you mean?" he asked him calmly, despite the situation.
The Death God peered at him with his black eyes with yellow iris.
"There’s something that’s going to happen, which will cause a great tragedy. It will disrupt the balance of the very multiverse. I need you to stop it when it happens."
"Why me?" Hashirama asked, and then recalled that there were others trapped within the Death God’s stomach. "What of my brother? And Saru?"
"They're going to stay here."
Hashirama glared at the Death God, who ignored it.
"I cannot interfere directly, but I can bring you back to life and send you to that world. Do this for me, and I shall grant you one wish of your choosing."
That got the shinobi's attention.
"Any wish?" he asked.
The Death God shook his head.
"I will not bring peace to the Shinobi World, if that's what you are thinking. I meant something along the lines of your fate. I could bring you back to your world, I could let you pass into the Pure World... whichever you choose."
Hashirama frowned at that. The Death God guessed his intention correctly. He would've gladly continued to spend eternity within his stomach in exchange for world's peace. His efforts after founding of Konoha to uphold the peace that came from one village per country system, ended up in failure. The Great Shinobi War, during which he perished, erupted and taking the  lives of many shinobi, his younger brother Tobirama most likely included, since he looked the same when they were brought to life with Edo Tensei by that white-skinned youngster.
He took a deep breath and asked:
"Where is it that you want to send me? It doesn't sound as if you mean my world."
"You are correct, First Hokage. That world is very much unlike yours. You could even say that it's the opposite." the Death God said, and made a strange noise.
"Did the Death God just...chuckle?" Hashirama wondered.
"Do you accept those terms?" the Death God asked him now, casing that disturbing sound.
Hashirama pondered on that. The prospect of leaving this black nothingness of Death God's stomach was tempting, but he didn't like the idea of leaving his brother or Hiruzen.
"On the other hand, however," he thought, "if what the Death God said is true, then that world is going to be in trouble. Even if it is unlike like mine, I still cannot leave weak and innocent to suffer if there is something I can do."
"Very well, then." Hashirama said finally." I accept."
The Death God nodded, with facial expression unchanged.
"That disaster isn't going to happen for some time. Enjoy yourself, start preparing, learn about this world, or do whatever you wish. You will recognize that threat when it arrives. You will choose your reward once we meet again."
Hashirama nodded and began to wonder how the Death God planned to send him there.
"There is one more thing." the Death God continued. "As you are now, you won't be able to stop it."
"Well, that's... bad." he responded, raising an eyebrow.
"Indeed." the Death God said, reaching to him with his hand.
"What are you..." Hashirama started to ask, trying instinctively to back away, only to find out that he couldn't move.
He realized what the Death God meant when he ripped his eyeball.
As he screamed in pain, he noticed the hand moving to his other eye.
"Now, try to not shake too much. If we do this quick, you will make in time to impress the... locals."

"It's got to be here!" Scootaloo muttered angrily as they walked around in the darkness.
"How are we even gonna see it?" Apple Bloom asked.
"It glows in the dark. Duh!" Scootaloo replied as she continued to trot forward, when suddenly, she bumped into something.
Something that growled.

Princess Celestia looked around at the partying ponies within Sugarcube Corner, happy to see them happy.
She took another sip from her tea, comparing this visit from the previous. For one thing, this time Luna was with her. She was gradually becoming more sociable, which made Celestia very happy. It took a lot of effort to prepare everything so that both of them could leave Canterlot for few hours, but it was worth it. She wished that they didn't have to return before it was the time to set the sun and raise the moon, but royal duties called.
"Still though, that's no reason we can't enjoy ourselves." she thought.
"Are you having a good time, little sister?" Celestia asked her.
"Indeed I am, sister." Luna replied, smiling. "Ponyville is such happy place, and this 'get-together' is most pleasing, unlike any events in Canterlot, save maybe for Cadence’s and Shining Armor's wedding. Perhaps we should consider moving the capital here."
Celestia giggled.
"Pity there is no noble around to hear you say that, sister. Their faces would bear most hilarious expressions."
As Luna joined her at laughing at the expense of so called 'higher classes', Celestia noticed few of Twilight's friends looking around the Sugarcube Corner, as if searching for somepony. She glanced at her student, who stood few meters away, looking nervously at everypony and beckoned her.
"What is it, Princess? Are you having good time? Do you need something?" Twilight quickly asked her, immediately afraid that Celestia and Luna were unhappy.
"Some things are never going to change, aren't they?" Celestia mused as she suppressed a chuckle.
"We're having a wonderful time, Twilight. I was just curious if something happened to your friends. Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash look a bit... distracted."
"Oh, it's nothing, really." her student said, calming dawn. "Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, the three fillies that sometimes send you friendship reports, are still not here."
Celestia raised an eyebrow, curious as to why she thought it was nothing.
"They were probably trying to earn their cutie marks again, and lost track of time." Twilight explained. "I'm sure that they will be here soon."
"I suppose you're right." Celestia said, recalling how often those letters involved them trying to earn their cutie marks. "Still, tell your friends that if they want to go look for them, they can ask our guards to assist them."
"I will, Princess..." Twilight started to say, but was interrupted by a loud, terrified shriek coming from the outside.
"Dragon!!!"
Everypony in Sugarcube Corner looked at Spike.
"What? It's not me."
Full of worries, Celestia glanced at Luna as both of them rose and quickly followed the other ponies to the window.
There was a dragon standing by the edge of Ponyville.
Celestia had to blink and rub her eyes.
The dragon was still there.
Sharing another look with her sister, Celestia decided they needed to do something about it.
"Everypony, stay here." she said, knowing that the royal guards would be no match for a dragon this big if 'things went south'.
She hoped to try to reason with dragon, but was prepared that her sister and her might need to chase it away, and Celestia would prefer if nopony was nearby. She would not risk the life of her subjects, no matter what, and that included her student and her friends. While they saved Equestria not once, but twice, Celestia would not make them face such threat.
"Not without the Elements of Harmony, at least." she thought. "And also, Fluttershy has passed out."
Celestia and Luna teleported outside and regarded the dragon. He - at least, Celestia thought that it was 'he' - was huge. His wings were spread and were wider than the entire Ponyville. His scales were black, with grey on the underbelly and spikes on spine. His claws were few meters long, and one of his paws was raised...
... and about to strike three fillies.
Celestia watched, terrified, as the dragon began to descend his paw with a roar. She immediately glow her horn, preparing to cast a spell.
"I won't make it!" she realized, grief clenching her heart.
As the dragon's paw hit the ground, she saw a blur. Soon she felt as if she needed to rub her eyes again.
Gliding on the ground was a being that Celestia never saw before. It seemed bipedal, and as it stopped in front of her by grabbing the ground with his hand - and leaving a few meters long mark on it as it halted, a testament to the speed with which it moved - she noticed that it wore dark red armor, that was constructed from numerous metal plates, formed into multiple protective guards along being's body, in particular: chest, shoulders, thighs, and forearms. Each collar of armor's shoulder guards bore a strange symbol emblazoned on them. Under this whole war garment, it wore a simple black suit. This clothing was accompanied by sandals and some kind of headband with a metal plate bearing another strange symbol.
But what matter most at the present moment, was that with its left arm was holding three fillies.
"You three little ones are alright?" it asked, glancing at them, in a warm, caring voice, which deepness told Celestia that the being was most likely a male.
"Yeah, thanks, mister." the earth pony filly, Apple Bloom, stammered either shaken by this strange creature, or more than likely, by the fact that a huge dragon nearly turning them into pancakes.
The stranger smiled slightly hearing that and lifted his head, allowing Celestia and Luna to better see his face, which until now, was hidden behind long black hair. They were surprised to see that didn't have a muzzle, his nose and mouth weren't connected. There was a shallow scratch on its cheek, with a blood on it. Celestia wondered briefly how did it had that cut, until she recalled how close he came to the descending dragon's paw with such long claws, and was once again amazed with his speed.
But the most unsettling and enchanting at the same time part of his appearance, were his eyes.
Each of them had red iris, and had three strange dots around pupil, which gave them an appearance of a wheel.
The stranger's eyes widen slightly as he regarded them in turn.
"Apple Boom!"
"Sweetie Belle!"
"Scoots!"
Celestia glanced at the incoming Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Twilight, followed closely by two royal guards, all ignoring her order once they saw three fillies in danger.
"Speaking of danger..." she thought as the dragon roared.
"You took away my prey, little fly!"
Princess Celestia glanced back at the stranger as he put three fillies gently on the ground and rose, turning to regard the dragon.
"Prey?" he asked him, loud enough for everypony to hear. "It looked more like a murder than hunting from where I stood."
The dragon laughed, amused with the response, his voice causing the entire Ponyville to rumbled. Celestia concentrated, no longer thinking about talking with beast that though of her subjects as 'prey', and now thinking more along the lines of 'blasting it to kingdom come'. She could see Luna gathering magic as well. They were about to unleash their spells, when suddenly, the stranger glanced back at them.
"There's no need for the two of you to face that fiend." he said, smiling at them, confidence in his voice. "I will deal with it."
His statement - that he could take on such huge dragon by himself - astonished Celestia and made her wonder just who he was, exactly. Noticing that Luna was glancing at her, uncertain as how to react, she nodded to her and let the stranger, who was currently walking up slowly to the dragon do as he pleased... for now. She was prepared to cast spell in any moment.
"Princess Celestia!" Twilight exclaimed as she and the others, who hugged the three little fillies, still terrified from their traumatic experience. Her student's gaze was switching between her teacher and the stranger. "Who - or what - is that?"
"I don't know, Twilight." Celestia replied, truthfully, as she turned her attention back to him.
"I'm going to say it only once, so listen carefully." he said, calm, despite addressing a creature few hundred times bigger than him. "Leave this village while you still can. If you don't, I won't guarantee that you will wake up tomorrow."
"Is that guy insane?!" Rainbow asked in a hushed voice, a moment before the dragon bursted into laughter again.
"You're funny!" he exclaimed, still laughing. "Tell you what: since you tell such great jokes, I will let you live if you step away now while I burn this place to crisps."
"Those who stray from the path of justice have no courage, but under the wing of a strong leader, cowardice cannot survive." the stranger replied, as if reciting some words.
"Those who... what?" the dragon asked, confused. "What did you just say?"
"Basically? I told you I'm not moving." he explained. Celestia couldn't tell from this angle, but she was pretty sure that he was smirking. "Although you should be thankful that's me you are facing, and not those two behind me. I'm merely going to knock you out cold, although I have no idea what then will happen to you."
"Did he just say that he was going to knock out that huge dragon?!" Twilight asked, her eyes wide.
If that was some kind of joke, then it didn't made anypony laugh, least of all the dragon.
"You're beginning to lose you funniness." the dragon growled. "You actually think you can take on a dragon, let alone one such great as me!?"
"And I thought that Nine-Tails was talkative..." the stranger muttered to himself, although it was still hearable by Celestia, Luna, and everypony who stood behind them. Soon, he turned his attention back to the dragon: "So you're a dragon? That's actually the first time I'm meeting a real one. I would love to see the extent of your strength, but I would prefer not to damage the village in the process. What do you say we take it somewhere else?"
"Ha! Are you stupid of something?!" the dragon asked him, spreading his wings as he prepared to attack. "I'm tired of this talk. Die!"
With those words, he launched at the stranger, who stood his ground, his only reaction lifting his right hand to his face, with fingers clenched into a fist, save for his straight index and middle fingers.
When the beast was few meters away from its target, Celestia once again prepared to use her magic...
... and watched in amazement as the dragon fell on the ground, unconscious.

Hashirama watched as the beast was coming closer to him, gathering quickly chakra in his new eyes.
Genjutsu: Sharingan.
The dragon, who continued to foolishly stare into his eyes, fallen victim to Sharingan's simple technique, which cost many of his clansmen lives during the time before the truce with the Uchiha.
"I suppose I should be grateful for all those times I fought with Madara." Hashirama thought as he watched the dragon fall on the ground, rendered unconscious due to the illusion he placed in its mind. "Otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten used to those eyes so easily."
That the Death God decided to rip out his real eyes and replace them with Sharingan he took as some sort of joke at his expense. Hashirama decided not to ask as to how did the Death God have a got a hold of those eyes, feeling that he wouldn't like the answer.
Next thing he know, after the quick surgery (and after using his medical ninjutsu to speed up the recovery process drastically) he was in this strange world that the Death God spoke of, standing right next to gigantic creature that was about squash three terrified little horses, that were stammering for help.
"Speaking of, what are those creatures?" Hashirama thought, glancing behind him. "They look like something that would be appropriate for my four year old granddaughter to summon... Wait, she can't be still that young. If Saru was..." he shook his head, realizing how pointless it would be to think about it.
He looked at the two bigger ones, who had wings and horn sprouting from their foreheads. Thanks to the Sharingan, he could now see chakra, and while most of the smaller horses (or maybe they were ponies) had an average chakra levels, those two... their chakra was on the tailed beast's levels.
"What did you do that dragon?" one of the smaller ponies (Hashirama was pretty certain that that was what they were), a lavender one with a horn, who's chakra, while nowhere near the level of the two bigger ones, was exceptionally strong, with those three others close behind her, asked, sounding more curious that scarred.
"I forced it unconscious with my genjutsu, an illusionary technique." he answered, coming closer to them.
The one of the two winged ones with horns, a white one with mane and tail in the colors of the sky; in contrast to the other, slightly smaller one, who was dark blue with mane and tail like a starry night, appeared to get a hold of herself, as she cleared her throat and spoke:
"You have our thanks for taking care of him, as well as for saving those three fillies." she said. Her voice, despite what happened few moments ago, was calm and serene, as she went on to introduce herself, sensing probably that he wasn't from around here: "My name is Princess Celestia, and this is my sister, Princess Luna. We both rule this land, which is called Equestria. Who are you?"
"So, they're something like the Feudal Lords of this land..." he mused, and bowed respectfully.
"It's a pleasure meeting you. My name is Hashirama Senju, co-founder and First Hokage of Konohagakure, Village Hidden in the Leaves, of the Land of Fire."
> 2. Shadow of trouble [cancelled]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“First Hokage?” Celestia repeated, appearing confused at the title.
“First leader.” Hashirama explained. “The leader after me was named Second Hokage, then Third, and so on.”
“Oh.” the Princess said, surprised, and then bowed like him earlier: “I’m sorry, I haven’t realized that you are also a ruler. I’ve never heard of such place as Konohagakure, however, not to mention The Land of Fire.”
I wouldn’t expect you to know, Princess. The Death God told me this is a completely different world from mine.” he said calmly, and cursed at himself once he noticed the expressions on everyone’s faces to switch into one of astonishment and fear. His forced isolation due to being sealed with Shiki Fūjin for who knows how long made him forget that not everybody dealt with things such as he. “I suppose I have a lot to explain after letting that one slip, don’t I?
“I think everypony would appreciate that.” Celestia replied, looking more confused than scared, but on her guard nonetheless.
Hashirama nodded, but said:
“I will gladly oblige, Princess, but I believe that something should be done about this beast, first.” he pointed behind him at the dragon that was still under the effect of his genjutsu.
“And while we’re at it,” the First Hokage heard one of the mares that was holding one of the young ones he saved; he guessed by the likeness in appearance (and similar chakra color) that they were related, “would the three of you like to tell us how did it come to that that you were chased by this dreadful dragon?”
The three fillies looked at each other, still scared and, Hashirama suspected, embarrassed.
“We wanted to find something cool to give the Princesses for a present...” started to say the orange one with small wings and purple mane.
“... and maybe earn our cutie marks...” added the white one with pink-purple mane and horn.
“... but then we... sorta... woke the dragon up.” finished the yellow one with red mane and a pink bow.
“What?!?” the two mares, one white with horn and purple mane and the other orange with a hat and yellow mane yelled at them, and were about to yell more when they noticed that the last mare, the cyan one with wings and rainbow-colored mane stayed silent.
“Uh, yeah… what?!?” she immediately repeated after the two others shoot her a glance. “How could the three of you done something so stupid?!?”
Hashirama watched this scene and felt a warm smile spread on his face. Seeing them now reminded him of the few times he had to scold Tobirama when they were kids.
“How simpler those times were...” the thought crossed his mind, wishing that his brother was alongside him now, but he knew that it wouldn’t happen. For some reason, the Death God chose only Hashirama to come to this world, so he would have to deal with whatever it was that he was supposed to do here.
As he still glanced at the three mares scolding the three fillies, Princesses Celestia and Luna, and as well the smaller lavender one with a horn, crept closer to him and the dragon.
“You seem to be enjoying this scene.” Princess Luna said quietly, noticing his smile.
Still smiling, the First Hokage glanced at the dark blue Princess and told her:
“While it is unfortunate to see them having to scold their younger siblings, it does bring pleasant memories of me and my brother.” turning back to the dragon, he asked: ”So, what are your plans concerning the dragon?”
Princess Celestia tilted her head, deep in thoughts, before she came to decision.
“Seeing as he didn’t cause much damage, thanks to your efforts, First Hokage, I don’t think there is any reason why we should dispose of him.” turning to her sister, she said: “A simple memory spell and teleporting him away from Equestria should be enough, don’t you agree?”
“I would have wanted to put this beast through much more pain for threatening our subject, sister,” Luna replied, frowning, “but I’ll defer to your wisdom on the matter.”
Hashirama, with his arms crossed, listened to them. At the same time he noticed that the lavender mare was staring at him, but as he glanced her way, she immediately turned her sight away.
“I suppose this behavior shouldn’t be surprising...” he mused, when he noticed that the Princesses were looking at him.
“If I might ask, First Hokage...” Celestia began to ask, but Hashirama stopped her with a wave of his hand.
“Please, just Hashirama.” he insisted, not wanting the creatures from the other world to treat him as someone special.
“... Hashirama.” Celestia corrected herself, giving him a brief smile. “Why did you tell the dragon that he should be thankful that he was facing you, and not me and my sister?”
“I figured that you would have been more rough with him, seeing as he threatened your subjects.” the First Hokage replied, shrugging. “While I would be quite glad to do the same for an attempt to harm the young ones, I preferred to render it unconscious, since I am not familiar with the laws of this land and it would cause much less damage to the village.”
“And how, pray tell, do you know that we have the power to be more rough?” asked Luna, raising her brow in confusion. “If we understood you correctly earlier when you... slipped, you are not of this world.”
Hashirama nodded and pointed to  his eyes, The Sharingan.
“Those eyes have the ability to see chakra, among others.” he explained. “And the amount of chakra you two have is outstanding. I haven’t seen anyone to possess this much chakra, besides the tailed beast.”
“‘Chakra’?” Celestia repeated, puzzled. ”Do you mean ‘magic’?”
“If that’s what you call that here, then yes.”
“You have magic where are from?” the smaller lavender mare asked, for the first time speaking up. “Why do you call it ‘chakra’? And what do you mean by ‘tailed beast’?”
Hashirama eyes widen, surprised by the torrent of question. Hearing Princess Celestia chuckle, he glanced at her.
“You will have to forgive my student. Twilight Sparkle has a very big thirst for knowledge.” she explained.
“No harm has come to me, so there is nothing to forgive.” Hashirama replied, smiling at Twilight, who blushed, embarrassed by her teacher’s remark. “As to your questions, Miss Twilight Sparkle, while I am not sure how to answer the first two, I can answer the last one. The tailed beasts are powerful creatures from my world, that about as big as this dragon, but their chakra level is multiply times higher. Compared to them, this creature was nothing.”
“I’m sure we would all love to hear more about your world, as well as why are you here and what is a Death God...” Princess Celestia said, interrupting Twilight’s incoming questions. “... but for now, stand back, both of you.”
Hashirama, while not really used to taking orders from others, did as she asked and took few steps back, along with the lavender pony, curious as to what the two princesses wanted to do.
Princess Luna pointed her horn to the dragon’s head, and it suddenly flashed, a beam of blue light connected to the dragon. The First Hokage’s new eyes allowed him to see that she used chakra, or magic, as they called it here. Instead of ninjutsu, what Luna did reminded him more of a tailed beast skill. Wondering if all every of those creatures with horns could do that, he continued to look at the ‘spells’ effect. His Sharingan, despite him not being able to copy this technique due to lack of horn, recognized this as a type of memory sealing jutsu.
“Interesting...” he thought as Princess Luna finished her spell and nodded to her sister.
Princess Celestia lifted her horn, which was surrounded now by a golden glow that appeared around the dragon, and in a blink of an eye it disappeared. Hashirama stared at her, amazed.
“Did you just transport that huge being far away from your country?” he asked to be sure. When Celestia nodded, slightly confused at his reaction, he smiled. “I’m impressed. I never thought I would ever see a space-time technique more advanced than that of my brother’s.”
The Princess, surprised at his compliment, giggled.
“I appreciate the compliment.” she said, growing more serious. “But now that the dragon is out of the way, we need to talk.”
Hashirama bowed his head.
“Of course, Princess.”
 
-e-
 
Celestia, like everypony else, stared wide-eyed at the being that called himself to be a ‘human’ and a ‘shinobi’, as he simply continued to sit by the table and drink tea, having finished his tale.
It was just her, Luna, and the Bearers of Elements of Harmony that sat with him now. While all ponies were interested about hearing where he was from and what was that earlier about ‘Death God’, Princess Celestia felt that it would be better this was something not everypony should hear. So, as they returned to the Sugarcube Corner (and making sure that Fluttershy’s consciousness returned, as well as assuring Pinkie Pie again that they could hold a ‘welcome to Ponyville’ for the human later), she asked that the other ponies would gave them some space, using a worry that Hashirama would fear overwhelmed as an excuse.
The alicorn princess was glad she did so.
“Let me sum this up:” she said after clearing her throat. Pointing at Hashirama, Celestia said: ”you died during a Great Shinobi War...”
The human nodded, taking a sip of a tea.
“... then few decades later, you were summoned back to life along with your brother, the Second Hokage, who also died. And with this spell, or a ‘technique’, also forced the two of you to fight against Tobirama’s student, the Third Hokage, against your will...”
Hashirama again nodded.
“... the Third Hokage then performed a technique that sealed your souls away into the Death God’s stomach, at the price of his soul sharing this fate...”
If the cup wasn’t covering his lips at the very moment, Celestia was sure she would see the First Hokage smirking.
“... and few moments ago, the Death God came to you, told you that there is a terrible danger coming to our world that would threaten other worlds as well, and that only you could stop it. After which you were asked if you would help,  and you agreed. Then the Death God changed your eyes into those two with a ‘Sharingan’, to better aid you in this task, brought you back to life and send you here.”
“You have a gift for summarizing, Princess.” Hashirama responded, taking the cup away from his mouth. “This is some excellent tea.”
Celestia glanced at her sister, who did the same. The white princess saw in Luna’s eyes the same feeling she had: confusion, amazement, fear, and concern. However, the only one question that could come to her mind right now was not asked by either her or the dark blue alicorn, but by her student instead.
“How is it that you can be so calm about this?!?” Twilight yelled, her eyes wide with worry.
“I would advise you to keep your voice down.” the human warned her, glancing with one of his red eyes at the crowd of ponies on the other side of the bakery, who were shooting glances their way. He smiled and waved at them, and returning his concentration towards the ponies sitting next to them. “As for why I am calm: panicking takes nowhere. Only by remaining calm one can find a proper solution to solving problem.”
Celestia had to admit it, she grew more and more impressed of this being. Not only he selflessly rescued three fillies from a dragon (although, judging by his demeanor, it was an easy task for him), but also was very calm, wise, collected, insightful, and from what she could tell, kind and caring. Seldom she met ponies such as he.
“Then again, he isn’t a pony...” Celestia reminded herself, as she watched another pony take voice.
“Wait just a minute.” Rainbow said, pointing her hoof accusingly at Hashirama. ”How do we know this guy is telling the truth?”
Celestia glanced back at human, curious how he would respond
“You raise a good point, Miss Rainbow Dash.” the First Hokage replied, tilting his head towards her. “I don’t have proofs other than my words, I’m afraid. But tell me, are there other shinobi or at least humans, around?”
“Well.. no.” the pegasi said. “I get that part about you being from other world, but how do we know the rest is true?”
“I think I have an idea how you could prove it.” Twilight cut in, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
“Really?” Hashirama said, slightly surprised. “Do tell.”
Celestia also wondered what was on her student’s mind. She currently appeared to be... excited.
“Maybe you could use that spell and summon somepony to live from your word, and they could confirm...”
“No.”
Everypony looked immediately at Hashirama, startled by his quick reply and the lack of his usual warm in his voice. The human, on the other hoof, closed his eyes and took another sip of tea, but explained before anyone could ask:
“Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei is a jutsu, which among other things, requires a living person to sacrifice as a vessel for the spirit.” he said sternly, but then he quickly returned to smile warmly as he added: ”I trust this is something you do not want.”
The excitement on Twilight’s face turned into a disgust, share by her friend’s faces, as she realized just what she asked for. The lavender unicorn shook her head immediately.
“Besides,” the First Hokage continued, ”I can’t perform this technique, although I know how it works and could probably master it if I ever tried to.”
“I’m glad to know you didn’t, however.” Celestia said. “This is a one of most evil spells I ever heard off. Not only does it sacrifice lives of others, but also makes those revived do things against their will. Just look how the white-skinned man you told us about made you and your brother fight the your brother’s student, Hiruzen.” the alicorn princess shook her head, disgusted. “Whoever thought of this spell should be forever damned.”
There was a strange look in Hashirama eyes as she said those words.
“Well, he actually is.” he told her. “My brother is still sealed within Death God stomach.”
Celestia eyes widen.
“Surely, he can’t mean...”
“Yes. but what that has to do with...” Princess Luna began to say, only to look at him aghast soon realizing what he meant. ”You mean to tell that it was your brother who invented this spell?”
Princess Celestia watched as Hashirama sighed, appearing tired. She guessed it was a delicate subject.
“Before you judge my brother too harshly, bear in mind that before our clan, Senju, made an alliance with the Uchiha clan and we founded Konoha, our world was in a state of constant war. While I myself died just few years later in a war, there was peace… for a short time. And I would guess that there was peace later on as well, seeing as Saru... I mean, Hiruzen, managed to live to such an old age.” Hashirama closed his eyes, probably recalling past events. “When I asked Tobirama as to what caused him to create such jutsu, he said that the purpose of it was for the dead to be reincarnated into soldiers able to clear a battlefield with a devastating and otherwise suicidal attacks.” he shrugged and opened his eyes. “Either way, I’m glad Tobirama decided by himself to label this technique as a forbidden jutsu soon after he created it, and never tried to master it.”
Celestia didn’t miss the emphasis he putted on the word ‘said’, but knew better than to press it. And even if the reason Hashirama said his brother told him was true, she supposed that while she didn’t approve of it, she could at least understand it.
“All Tobirama was trying to do was protect his clanmates.” she thought. ”That is respectful, to some extent. It’s a pity this spell was found out by this evil individual and apparently mastered it beyond what its creator managed.”
She was about to voice her thoughts, to let him know she wasn’t going to think bad of his brother for creating this Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei, and apologize for her brush words earlier. After which she would have liked to move on to the topic of a terrible danger Equestria was about to face, according to the Death God itself, but a sudden movement from the outside of Sugarcube corner caught her attention. Almost as soon as Celestia’s gaze rested on the doors, they swung open, and her and Luna’s royal guards; accompanied by another one, a pegasi, burst in.
She quickly shared with her sister a worried glance, knowing something important must have happen. And after hearing Hashirama...
“Your Highnesses,” the new guard said as he approached them, bowing and sparing Hashirama a quick glance, but not paying attention to all the other ponies that stared at him, “I’m afraid I bring news of a grieve importance.”
Fear gripping her heart, Celestia commended:
“Speak.”
The royal guard looked up, taking his helmet off. There was fear in his eyes.
“Those new came from the Crystal Empire.” he said, gulped, and delivered his message: “Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor were kidnapped.”
	
	

> Update?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I hope you aren't mad that this isn't a new chapter... because I'm sure as hell that you will be pissed for what I'll write next.

I know it's been a while since this story god updated - boy, if this isn't an understatement, I don't know what is - and some of you pointed this out. Some of you asked when I'll update. I am truly sorry, but to be honest, I didn't expect that this story will get so popular. This, along with the two others I started almost a year ago, were supposed to be my way of resting from "Rebirth of the Damned", so that I could write this if I got bored of my Warcraft crossover. However, the only one that I continued to update was "The Hero of Altomare", as it became even more popular. But as soon as I finish that one, i would like to start updating "Equestria's Will of Fire".

That being said... I... look, during this break I thought a lot about this story, and... I want to rewrite it. Yes, I know that it doesn't seem too serious, considering that it is only two-chapters long, but... I want to have a different main character. Look, I'm sorry, but Hashirama is just too overpowered! How the hay am I supposed to make this story interesting if he can maw down everything I could think off easily? Do you know how he says "We are f***ed"? He says "That guy is stronger than me"! And I gave him a sharingan on top of everything!

I did that because my original idea for the story was somewhere along the lines of him fighting Discord at the end that got somehow even more powerful, so I wanted his sharingan to evelve into a rinnegan, which would be the only way for him to win... but I had problems with imagening how this fight would go.

So... a different character from Naruto universe. With the two chapters staying essentially the same. I thought about this for a few months, and while I won't tell you now who it will be, I will say that besides this one I also considered the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, Hashirama's younger brother, who, while still powerfull, is weaker that his brother and could still struggle with some of what Equestria can throw at him. But in the end I decided to use somebody else... Oh, and he will get ponyfied. Yeah, I know, but with this character it will actually work.

So tell me, how should I do it? Should I just change the description of the story, and post the newer chapters here? Or should I cancel this one and start a new one? Because I don't want to delete what I wrote so far... I think I prefer the first option, but what do you think?

Once again, I am very sorry. I know that you must have liked the idea of Hashirama being in Equestria, but soon I have discovered several problems, such as those I mentioned above. And I'm sorry I neglected this story for so long... tell you what. In an attemt to make things up to you, I will post three chapters - that's right, two rewritten and a new one - at the same time. Hopefully, I will be able to do that by 24th... a year after this story started. Oh well, I guess this will spare me the trouble of thinking up a holiday gift this year.
> 1. Who are you?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Until he dies,” Black Zetsu said, attached to his dying body, “I’ll use Obito’s body to fight you. He’s been useless, moving behind Madara’s back. At least in the end I’ll make use of him.”
Obito listened to those words, unable to do anything but curse in his own mind. Just when he had decided to abandon his dream, the Eye of the Moon Plan, after being swayed by the words of Kakashi and their teacher, as well as Naruto’s will… He was about to use Gedō: Rinne Tensei no Jutsu to revive all those of the Shinobi Alliance that died today!
But his choice was taken away from him. Black Zetsu took over his body and forced him to use that technique on Madara. “I’ve been a fool,” he thought, feeling his life ebb away. “I should have known he would have some backup plan… Damn it…”
He desperately tried to think of something, anything he could do. He was dying... Black Zetsu was controlling his body… Madara has been revived… What else was going on? Zetsu said something about Rinnegan…
A glimmer of hope appeared in his mind; Gedo Rinne had revived Madara from the point of his death, which meant he didn’t have his eyes. Obito wondered if it also meant that he was again a decrepit old man, but that would be hoping for too much.
He noticed that he was fighting, or rather; Black Zetsu was fighting using his body. Kakashi and Minato-sensei weren’t pulling their punches - why should they? He was as good as dead anyway…
“Wait, something’s not right,” Obito thought suddenly. “I should be dead by now… even with Black Zetsu attached to my body, I shouldn’t have held on for more than a couple of minutes… why then…”
Black Zetsu jumped back to dodge a kunai, and by doing so, he let Obito caught a glimpse of Shinju. Despite the Tailed Beasts all being ripped from him, the Tree remained. The original form of… Ten-Tails… Gedō Mazō... chakra… yin and yang…
A smile would have crossed his lips if he wasn’t so drained. There was something he could do. He was still connected to Gedō Mazō, the vessel of the Ten-Tails, and thanks to it still being in the process of reversing into the form of Heretic Statue, he still had time...
 



 
"Come on, you two!" Scootaloo called to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, who were trotting far behind her. "We need to find that flower!"
The Cutie Mark Crusaders were deep within the Everfree Forest. Normally, ponies avoided this place, and they would get into a lot of trouble if anypony knew where they went. But this time, it was different. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were going to come to Ponyville for a visit, and the whole town was preparing for days to welcome them properly.
Yesterday, the three of them had cleaned up Twilight's library, due to losing a stupid bet with Spike. While Scootaloo originally thought that it’ll be an incredible drag, that’s until they were cleaning one of the books about flora and accidentally opened on a page about a 'Lunar Flower', a very pretty plant that grew only in the darkest caves of the Everfree Forest.
Scootaloo still remembered how Princess Luna helped her when she was plagued by nightmares, so she decided to go get few of those flowers and give them to her as a 'thank you’ gift. She also figured that maybe she and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders could earn their cutie marks in plant gathering, or something along those lines, so she recruited her friends for this quest. Taking advantage of the fact that everypony was busy with last minute's preparation, they ventured into the forest.
The only problem they had was that they only now managed to find a cave, and it was already past the time the Princesses were supposed to arrive.
"Come on!" she shouted once again after the two stumbling ponies.
"We're coming, okay?!" Sweetie Belle said, as she and Apple Bloom stopped in front the cave, panting.
"Why are we... huh... doin' this again?" Apple Bloom asked, wheezing.
"Because, A: that's a great gift for the Princess, and 2:.."
"You mean ‘B’, right?"
"... it's a great chance to earn our cutie marks." Scootaloo finished, glaring at the unicorn. "Now, Cutie Mark Crusaders Flower finders, let go!"
"Yay!" shouted the two other fillies, their enthusiasm renewed, and they all went into the cave.
 



 
It's not good to hide your wounds, you know. I'm looking after you.
“Rin?!” Obito called out, raising… and closing his eyes once the sun hit them, falling down back on the ground.
Covering his face, he wondered what happened. His plan worked; it must have. He wasn’t allowing any other thought to occupy his mind. He succeeded in removing the greatest threat to the shinobi world… unless somebody thought Madara to be the number one threat. That bastard was still alive, but it was okay.
“Naruto… he will take care of him… he has Kakashi to help… and… everybody…”
Those were his last thoughts before he passed away. That was all he remembered, along with the incredible pain his body was in; an unavoidable side-effect of his plan. Considering how much hurt and misery he must have caused over the years (and he himself had experienced), it was really nothing. He accepted the pain as he died… except that his body was still sore, so he was definitely alive.
“Another side-effect,” he slowly came into a conclusion as he waited to regain his strength; the aftermath of having the Tailed Beasts’ chakra ripped from him still wasn’t behind him. “Reinforcing the connection to the Gedō Mazō must have revitalized my body… to a point. Guess I’m not going to die… might have a few years taken off my lifespan, though…”
Obito wondered where he currently was. It was definitely not the battlefield where all of that had happened; there were blades of grass around him, and there was a tree nearby… why couldn’t he have woken up under it? Some shade would be nice… There was also a matter of this being day. Judging by how fatigued he felt, he couldn’t have been out for more than three hours… then again, he was supposed to be dead…
But what had beaten it all was the fact that he still had Madara’s Rinnegan in his left eye socket. If he was unconscious for so long, Madara would have Black Zetsu to take it back. If that didn’t happen, that meant that he either was dead - which Obito doubted would have happened so easily - or Obito was out of his reach.
“The rebound… did it cause some sort of space-time technique? It must have…” he pondered, taking his right hand from his head and feeling strong enough to try and stand up-
Obito stared speechless at the appendage. What should be a hand of an artificial body made out of cells of Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage was now… a hoof of an artificial body made out of cells of Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage, apparently.
 
 
"It's got to be here!" Scootaloo muttered angrily as they walked around in the darkness.
"How are we even gonna see it?" Apple Bloom asked.
"It glows in the dark. Duh!" Scootaloo replied as she continued to trot forward, when suddenly, she bumped into something.
Something that growled.
 
 
Obito recalled how the boulder fell on him, crushing the right side of his body. How the cave collapsed and the ground under him caved in. How Madara found his mangled body and attached Hashirama clone to him to keep him alive. How he then spend many years wearing the body of Spiral Zetsu upon his own. How he transplanted Madara's left eye into his empty eye socket. Obito had never paid much thought to that - the Eye of the Moon Plan would have erased this reality, so he didn’t care - but when he did, he mused if his body could have gotten any weirder.
Well, now he had the answer to this question.
From what Obito saw, his body was now that of a small horse, with half of his coat brown and the other half pale white. The skin underneath it was also paler than that on the left side, similar to how his body used to be.
“Guess I still have Hashirama’s cells at least,” he mused, looking at his forehooves. “And since I can see my chakra circulatory system, I must still have my Sharingan…”
Wanting to check something, Obito concentrated chakra in his right eye. It worked; he activated his Mangekyo Sharingan.
“At least I will be able to use Kamui,” he thought, rising to his fee- well, hooves, rather.
He had no idea how destroying the vessel of the Ten-Tails caused his life-force to be restored, letting him live despite having used Rinne Tensei, but did it had to change his body into something like this? He couldn’t form hand seals to use most of the techniques he knew. Of course, between Kamui, Rinnegan and Hashirama’s cells that wasn’t much of a loss, but if he wanted to…
“That’s a good question. What do I want to do now?”
He sat down, and by doing so, he noticed that he had a tail. He winced noticing that its color is white - the same as his hair became after Madara attempted to force him to use Rinne Tensei earlier. Obito pushed the thought away as he tried to think what he should do now.
He had no idea where he was. This place didn’t look like anything he had seen during his years of wandering around the world on Madara behalf, but that didn’t mean anything. There were a lot of places he hadn’t seen, like the Island Turtle in the Land of Lightning.
Nonetheless, Obito could probably get back using Kamui… but back to where? To the battlefield? He would be of little use, still being weakened. To Konoha?
“Maybe I could somehow pay for my crimes… then when I would die, I could meet with Rin… or I could go back to my original plan and revive everybody…”
That seemed like a good idea. Obito regretted that he wouldn’t be able to make up for his deeds, but it would be the best thing he could do. Give back the lives he stole, and spend eternity in hell.
He began to cast Kamui to go back to the dimension his technique was linked to and from there to Kakashi side when something hit him.
“How the hell am I supposed to use Rinne Tensei if I cannot make the seals!?” he yelled, hiding his face in his front-hooves.
By doing so, he felt bruises underneath his right hoof. Apparently, he still had those scars on his face.
“I am useless and the ugliest horse there ever was…” he sighted.
“And either due to this strange situation, or due to Naruto’s words, I seem to have reverted to how I used to be,” he mused, slightly amused and surprised at his outburst.
“Now then,” he said out loud, looking around. He was at some sort of meadow, with a forest behind him, a sight of a strange castle far away and an outline of a city a bit closer… “what should I-”
Him monolog was interrupted by a loud roar, worthy of a Tailed Beast.
“Ugh, what now?” Obito asked, rubbing his head.
 



 
Princess Celestia looked around at the partying ponies within Sugarcube Corner, happy to see them happy.
She took another sip from her tea, comparing this visit from the previous. For one thing, this time Luna was with her. She was gradually becoming more sociable, which made Celestia very happy. It took a lot of effort to prepare everything so that both of them could leave Canterlot for a few hours, but it was worth it. She wished that they didn't have to return before it was the time to set the sun and raise the moon, but royal duties called.
"Still though, that's no reason we can't enjoy ourselves," she thought.
"Are you having a good time, little sister?" Celestia asked her.
"Indeed I am, sister," Luna replied, smiling. "Ponyville is such happy place, and this 'get-together' is most pleasing, unlike any events in Canterlot, save maybe for Cadence’s and Shining Armor's wedding. Perhaps we should consider moving the capital here."
Celestia giggled.
"Pity there is no noble around to hear you say that, sister. Their faces would bear most hilarious expressions."
As Luna joined her at laughing at the expense of so called 'higher classes', Celestia noticed few of Twilight's friends looking around the Sugarcube Corner, as if searching for somepony. She glanced at her student, who stood few meters away, looking nervously at everypony and beckoned her.
"What is it, Princess? Are you having good time? Do you need something?" Twilight quickly asked her, immediately afraid that Celestia and Luna were unhappy.
"Some things are never going to change, aren't they?" Celestia mused, as she suppressed a chuckle.
"We're having a wonderful time, Twilight. I was just curious if something happened to your friends. Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash look a bit... distracted."
"Oh, it's nothing, really," her student said, calming down. "Apple Bloom, Sweetie Bell, and Scootaloo; the three fillies that sometimes send you friendship reports, are still not here."
Celestia raised an eyebrow, curious as to why she thought it was nothing.
"They were probably trying to earn their cutie marks again, and lost track of time," Twilight explained. "I'm sure that they will be here soon."
"I suppose you're right," Celestia said, recalling how often those letters involved them trying to earn their cutie marks. "Still, tell your friends that if they want to go look for them, they can ask our guards to assist them."
"I will, Princess..." Twilight started to say, but was interrupted by a loud, terrified shriek coming from the outside.
"Dragon!!!"
Everypony in Sugarcube Corner looked at Spike.
"What? It's not me."
Full of worries, Celestia glanced at Luna as both of them rose and quickly followed the other ponies to the window.
There was a dragon standing by the edge of Ponyville.
Celestia had to blink and rub her eyes.
The dragon was still there.
Sharing another look with her sister, Celestia decided they needed to do something about it.
"Everypony, stay here," she said, knowing that the royal guards would be no match for a dragon this big if 'things went south'.
She hoped to try to reason with dragon, but was prepared that she and her might need to chase it away, and Celestia would prefer if nopony was nearby. She would not risk the life of her subjects, no matter what, and that included her student and her friends. While they saved Equestria not once, but twice, Celestia would not make them face such threat.
"Not without the Elements of Harmony, at least," she thought. "And also, Fluttershy has passed out."
Celestia and Luna teleported outside and regarded the dragon. He - at least, Celestia thought that it was 'he' - is huge. His wings were spread and were wider than the entire Ponyville. His scales were black, with grey on the underbelly and spikes on spine. His claws were few meters long, and one of his paws was raised...
And about to strike three fillies.
Celestia watched, terrified, as the dragon began to descend his paw with a roar. She immediately glow her horn, preparing to cast a spell.
"I won't make it!" she realized, grief clenching her heart.
The dragon's paw hit the ground, she saw a blur.
“No!” ponies behind her shouted, all ignoring her order once they saw three fillies in danger.
But Celestia didn’t. She just watched, speechless, not believing she had just failed three of her subjects-
“Calm down.”
Celestia blinked. Who dared to speak of calm at a moment like this? She looked back, to where the deep voice came from… and once again found herself speechless.
Atop of one of Ponyville’s houses stood a pony she had never seen before. His head and left side of his body were brown, but the right was pale white, and so was his mane. But the most important thing about him was what - or rather who - was on his back.
“Those three are safe,” the mysterious pony said, as Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, all lying on his back, looked around in bewilderment.
“Oh, thank goodness… but how did he do that?” Celestia wondered, after the wave of relief had washed over her. “He’s an earth pony; he couldn’t have gotten them from there to here so fast. And his face...” she squeezed her eyes, trying to make out his features from so far away.
Her efforts were interrupted by the dragons roar. Scolding herself for forgetting about that, she turned around to face the dragon. He was preparing to breathe flames at them. Celestia began channeling her magic, but at the same time, she heard some commotion behind her. She didn’t turn around to see what it was, deciding it wasn’t important, but as it turned out she didn’t need to. The source of the commotion soon jumped in front of her, free of the three fillies.
As she cast a barrier around Ponyville to protect it from dragon’s flames, Celestia wondered what it exactly was the earth pony stallion had intended to do.
 
 
Obito blinked as the barrier that appeared in front of him was bathed in this creature’s flames. Since the past few minutes that he spend chasing the source of the roar - which turned out to be the said creature chasing three even smaller than him horses - into a small settlement full of colorful horses, he assumed he had seen enough. He jumped between the beast’s claws and the three, using Kamui to get them out of harms way, and then put them on the ground as he saw it preparing to attack again. Obito planned to send those flames into Kamui’s dimension, but then something new had happened.
Somebody using chakra to create a barrier.
“This chakra color…” he mused, recognizing the user of this technique.
Obito glanced back with his Sharingan. The white horse was bigger than all the others, even the dark blue one standing next to her, despite the small difference between their chakra levels.
It was as big as Tailed Beasts.
Those weren’t the only features that made them different from the rest. They also had both wings and horns, with the white one having a high amount of chakra concentrated in hers.
“So those with horns are able to use ninjutsu,” Obito concluded, wondering why his body had to become of a horse without one. After a heartbeat he decided to wonder about that later and first deal with the beast. “Seeing how I am still weakened, I should immobilize him first. In that case…”
He glanced at his shoulder.
 
 
Celestia almost dropped her barrier when the strange pony looked back at her. His face was covered in scars, as if something had crushed it once. And his eye...
In all her life the Princess had never seen such a strange eye, with red iris and three strange dots around pupil that looked like commas, which gave it an appearance of a wheel.
The stranger's eyes widen slightly as it moved up at her horn, probably realizing she had cast the spell.
"Apple Boom!"
"Sweetie Belle!"
"Scoots!"
Celestia glanced at Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Twilight and two royal guards, all around the three fillies the strange must have dropped on the ground there.
"I’m glad that he got them out of danger," she thought, thankful for the stallion’s assistance. “I will thank him properly once the dragon is dealt with.”
She turned back, intending to banish the creature, when she saw what the stallion has been up to during the past second. A branch was sticking out of his white shoulder! Celestia stare with wide eyes as it grew, plunging into the ground.
Beside her, Luna was equally surprised. “Did…” she asked her as the dragon had finally stopped spewing flames at them, “some mare performed an unspeakable deed with Discord’s statue twenty-thirty years ago?”
Before Celestia had a chance to reply, a loud crack the ground beneath the dragon broke. From within, huge branches shoot at him and wrapped themselves around his body, binding him and bringing him down. The dragon roared in rage and surprise, before some branches forced his jaw tight close.
Celestia looked in amazement at the two-colored pony with weird eyes, which had just separated him from the branch with a smack. “How did he…” she wondered, and at the same time space around him wrapped like a whirlpool. After a second he was gone. “... do that.”
A small dot that almost immediately began whirling appeared outside of her barrier, right in front of the dragon. As Celestia had guessed, a second later this strange stallion stood there.
“This must be how he got the fillies to safety. But how is he doing that?” she wondered out loud.
“Must have something to do with this strange body of his,” Luna replied, her eyes on the stamp that used to be connected to his shoulder.
A loud crack got their attention just in time to see one of the dragon’s paws pulling free of the branches and crushing down on the stallion. Celestia’s eyes widened, by when she was about to voice her terror, a head poked out.
His head poked out of the paw of the dragon.
The Princess felt her jaw drop as the stallion walked out of the dragon’s outstretched paw as if it was air. And he was so calm about it, too. Once he was fully out, he lifted his left foreleg and pressed a hoof to the dragon.
“It’s over,” he stated.
Once again, space wrapped itself around him, pulling the dragon in. Celestia noticed that it took him two seconds, but nonetheless, when he turned back to them, the dragon was gone.
Despite her confusion and worry, Celestia forced a calm smile on her face, as she approached him. Luna joined her after a heartbeat, with other ponies following her. As they neared him, Celestia got the sight of the left side of his face. Its features were much more pleasant to watch, for that side was missing the scars that marked the other. In fact, as Celestia noted, before whatever accident had befallen him, he must have been quite handsome. But that wasn’t what first caught her attention.
She looked at his eye. His left eye. It was different than the right one, and even stranger than that. It was all purple and... ripple-like; circles spread over the eyeball. She couldn’t see the white on it.
“Greetings,” she said once she stopped before him. “I am thankful for your assistance in saving the lives of everypony, especially those three fillies, kind stranger. If I might ask, though, what did you do to the dragon?”
“I sent him away,” was all he replied.
Celestia would have liked to have known what exactly what he did, but she didn’t press the issue.
“May I ask what your name is? Who are you?” she asked instead, being careful to not ask ‘What are you’.
The pony closed his eyes as he repeated: “Name…”
The Princess watched him, puzzled, as he looked away.




 
 
“Who… who the hell are you?” Naruto asked him.
Obito tilted his masked head as he replied. “I am no one. I don’t want to be anyone. All I care about is completing the Eye of the Moon plan.”
 




 

Obito smirked and looked back at the white horse that spoke to him.
“I’m Obito,” was all he said.
> 2. Passing through problems
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	About a minute had passed, and still an opening for Obito to put his plan into motion hadn’t appeared. Black Zetsu cunningly had attached himself to the left side of his body, the one that was actually his; the right one, made out of Hashirama’s cells, was easy to control by Madara’s will without him being directly merged with it. That, coupled with the fact that Obito was dying, drastically hindered his ability do anything.
At least, that’s what everybody thought. Obito still had one way available for him, but that would only work when…
His trained of thoughts was interrupted when Black Zetsu made a quick dodge to avoid Minato-sensei’s attack, putting him right on path of Kakashi. His old friend slashed with a kunai, aiming for the Rinnegan in his left eye.
“As strategic as always,” Obito mused; Kakashi knew that Madara couldn’t be allowed to regain his eyes. Or at least, this eye, the other was hidden, but seeing how Black Zetsu came here to wait for the right moment; Obito guessed that the White Zetsu he left guarding the right eye was already on its way. “Not that it would matter in my plan…”
He stopped and concentrated. Black Zetsu was currently fighting Kakashi, countering his kunai with a chakra disruption blade he created. As their weapons clashed, Kakashi looked him into eyes…
… and the moment their Sharingans’ sights crossed, Obito cast his genjutsu.
Kakashi took a quick glance of their new surroundings - not that there was anything to look at, they were surrounded by a huge, white space - as Obito took a step towards him.
“I won’t be able to keep this genjutsu for long, so listen well,” he said, and Kakashi merely nodded. “I am still connected to the Gedō Mazō. If I could merge partially with it, I should be able to shake off Black Zetsu, and still do something for you all before I die.”
“Obito…” Kakashi started, but paused when he saw the determination in his eyes. There was no way to dissuade him now, and Kakashi knew that. He sighed and asked: “Alright. But what do you plan to do?”
“Something that you had tried not so long ago,” Obito replied with a smirk. “We will make sure the Ten-Tails will never be revived again.”
Apprehension crossed Kakashi’s face - the part Obito could see at least - as he said the next words:
“We’re going to destroy Gedō Mazō.”
 



 
“Obito,” Celestia repeated, cocking her head a bit.
“Yes, Obito,” the strange, two-colored scarred stallion with two strange eyes had confirmed. “From the Uchiha clan… of Konoha,” he added, as if after reflection. “From the Land of Fire.”
There were only a few moments during her life when she had found herself confused, and none of them could compare to this situation. There was a pony, whose coat was in two completely different colors - and looking at him Celestia couldn’t shake off the vision of somepony cutting him from the base of the neck down and attaching a half of another pony - could grow branches from his body that were strong enough to hold down a dragon, had strange powers, and two eyes, both different from each other and the eyes of anypony she met. Now, to top it all, he uttered names she never heard; the Land of Fire, Konoha… even Obito Uchiha didn’t sound like a name for a pony.
What was also surprising was how Obito talked to her. He looked her straight into eyes, not at all intimidated by her being a Princess. He didn’t bow, nor did he address her by any title. She found it refreshing.
Looking at him so closely, Celestia had also finally noticed another interesting feature of his; his cutie mark. Or rather, it’s lack of it on the white half of his body. On the left, thought… Celestia twisted her head a bit to see it better. It… was a circle, a red one, with smaller black circles inside of it like wavelets, with... commas.
“This looks like a mix of both of his eyes.”
“An unusual cutie mark for an unusual pony,” she commented out loud, smiling.
Obito face furrowed - making the scars on his face more evident - hearing her words, and his gaze followed hers. “W-Wh…” he stammered, once he looked at his flank, shock clear on his face as he almost jumped back. “Why is that on my ass?!”
Celestia quickly exchanged surprised glances with Luna. “Did he never see his cutie mark before?” her sister asked quietly. “And why use such uncouth words?”
“I don’t know, Little Sister,” Celestia replied, focusing back on the stallion, who was still staring at his cutie mark, breathing heavily… and erratically. “Oh, dear...”
She managed to grab him with her magic before he fell on the ground, passed out.
 



 
“What are you plotting?” Mifune, the General of the samurai, asked him. Like everybody else, he was keeping his guard. “Just what is this Eye of the Moon Plan?!”
As calm as ever, Obito - or rather, Madara - replied: “I want to take my time talking to you. I’ll sit down if you don’t mind.”
He didn’t wait for them to give him a reply, and just sit where he stood, under the platform where Kages bodyguards stood during the Summit. One of the said bodyguards didn’t take his nonchalance well. “We’re asking you what kind of plan it is!” Kankuro, brother of the Fifth Kazekage and former jinchūriki, Gaara, asked in a raised voice.
Madara raised a hand and one finger. “All shall become one with me,” he said, “and result in a ‘complete form’, in which all is united.”
 


	 

Once again - and much too soon for his liking - Obito woke up with a jolt. He quickly pressed his ha- hooves - “I really should start getting used to this.” - to his face, trying his best to focus on something - why he could feel a muzzle between his hoof, why he had hooves, why he was a pony, anything - and not on the mark that was on his left side of ass.
The eye of Shinju. The eye that would be reflected on the Moon when he would cast Mugen Tsukuyomi to control everybody in the world.
“Why?” he wondered, more disturbed by the mark - as well as pitying the fact he hadn’t checked his new body carefully earlier, which would spare him from freaking out in front of those… talking colorful ponies - than by all the other changes that happened to him. “Why… after I finally turned away from that path, my-”
“It seems you are awake.”
Despite himself, Obito jumped up, startled, and looked at the direction from which the voice came. He saw the same big white horse that spoke to him before, and the dark blue one again next to her, sitting on a floor by a table in… the house they were all in. There were other ponies her as well, the three small ones he saved from that beast, and some small, weird scaly animal.
“Don’t do that!” Obito snapped as he pointed at her, then blinked and facepal… facehoofed (?), exasperated, and murmured: “Why do I keep acting like…” “.. like before.” “Where am I?” he asked out loud.
“We’re currently inside the house of my student, Twilight Sparkle,” the white big horse answered, sounding amused by his reaction. Obito looked at her with one eye - right one, just to be safe - and saw that she wasn’t the only one. All the other horses - one that was probably named… Twilight Sparkle. Cute name - were also smirking. “We took you there after your… panic attack, feeling that you needed some peace and quiet. And if it’s the name of the town we are in you are asking, it’s Ponyville.”
“‘Panic attack’,” the man that had been the jinchūriki of the Ten-Tails and that brought the Fourth Shinobi World War thought with annoyence. “From staring at my ass. In front of everybody in this… Ponyville… maybe I am in Hell after all.”
“Well, you have my thanks,” Obito said, calming down as returning to the neutral, emotionless expression he usually wore under the mask for so many years… except now he had a face of a horse… or rather a face with mixed features of human and horse... “I am sorry to ‘cause you trouble-”
“Are ya kiddin’?!” a much different voice spoke up from behind the bigger horses. Almost as soon as he heard that, the three small ones he saved run up to him, passing them. “After ya saved us?!” the yellow one with a bow in her hair - or mane? - asked as they all, to his unimaginable shock, jumped on him.
“Girls!” few of the other horses shouted at them, scolding.
“Alright, this is getting ridiculous,” Obito thought while they stood on his chest. “If I hadn’t known any better, I would swear Naruto put me under some sort of genjutsu…”
He knew that was impossible, though. Back when he saw a beast like he never saw before chasing a three small horses, one with a bow, another with a horn and another with wings, he stopped his flow of chakra for a second to free himself from what he was certain back then was genjutsu. It didn’t work.
Besides, Naruto sucked in genjutsu, and he was about the only shinobi he could think off that would conjure something so… silly.
“Speaking of silly…”
 



 
Celestia could barely contain the laughter that she wanted to utter when Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle jumped on the chest of the stallion that practically single-hoofedly defeated a dragon. She waited a few seconds before she tried to take them off of him with magic, only to see that Obito decided to deal with them himself.
The hooves of the fillies plunged into his chest, stopping on the level where the bed should be. At the same time, Obito rose, his body passing through them. “It was… my pleasure,” he said coldly as he left the bed and sit beside it.
Celestia blinked. For a heartbeat she could swear that his right eye had changed… but that should be impossible… right? “Then again… I’m pretty sure he has many surprised left in store for us.”
“Wow, that was awesome!” both Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash exclaimed, rushing to Obito. Standing by his sides, they asked in unison: “How did you do that?!”
Obito’s eyes switched quickly from the filly to the mare, stopping for a moment on her Rainbow’s mane - much to Celestia amusement, given how he looked - then closed them, muttering something. Her ears managed to catch something about a mask, and... missing it?
“I’m happy to see you’re in good health, Obito of the Uchiha clan-” she started, deciding the end his “torment”, but he cut her off.
“Just Obito is fine.”
“-Obito.’ Celestia nodded. “As I said, I’m happy to see you in good health. Once you were brought here, my sister and I used a scanning spell on your body, to see if there was something ailing you.” His ears perked up. “I hope you aren’t offended by it; we had just assumed that there must be more to you fainting than simply the sight of your cutie mark.”
She was sure she would at least see one of his eyelids twitching, or show some other sign that he was annoyed or embarrassed by what had happened, but to her surprise, he kept his face in neutral expression. “Considering that I just took out… whatever it was, and how strange I must look to you, I am quite surprised that you haven’t tried to seal me, or use genjutsu to interrogate me.”
“Neither me nor my sister would have ever done that to a pony that saved three of our subjects,” Celestia said in calm voice, even though she was slightly offended by his suggestion. Obito’s ears perked up again, confirming her guess that he had no idea that she was a Princess. “Besides, I have a feeling that such attempts would have proved to be ineffective, even if we would have managed to magically seal you away,” she added, attempting to clear up the near-frown on his face.
“What do you mean by ‘genjutsu’?” Luna asked instead, intrigued.
Obito looked at her, and from the slightly widened eyes Celestia guessed that he must have been surprised by the question. It took him a few second before replying, as if he waited for Luna to tell him that she was jesting. “Illusionary techniques that employs the Yin Release. They manipulate the flow of chakra in the victim's brain, thus causing a disruption in their senses, which has many uses, interrogation among them.”
“Wait a moment,” her student spoke up. Glancing her way, Celestia, to her amusement, saw Twilight holding a clipboard and a quill, writing down what Obito had said. “What’s chakra?”
She turned to the stallion, to see him looking at her strangely. “You… you're kidding, right?” he finally asked. “You are just now using chakra to hold this clipboard and quill, and you” he said, turning to Celestia, “created a barrier earlier.”
“Err…” Twilight stuttered, managing to quite well voice what was in Celestia’s head. “This isn’t ‘chakra’.”
“Yes, it is,” Obito retorted, now visibly annoyed. “These eyes can see chakra, and the Sharingan in my right eye can even recognize the technique you're using as Yang Release, even though you’re not making any hand seals.”
“W- I-...” Twilight stammered, before she stomped her hoof down. “No! I have no idea what any of those things are, but what I am doing is using magic to cast a spell that levitates-”
“I think we can come to a conclusion,” Celestia interrupted her; while she would love to see her student have an episode of hers, she wasn’t so sure when it came to Obito is getting annoyed, “that we simply use different names to call the same thing. We call them magic and spell here in Equestria, and chakra and techniques where you are from, Obito.” She then frowned. “Which brings me back to what I wanted to ask you; where are you from?”
“A far away land,” he replied, causing more than a few ponies to deadpan. “I don’t think that telling you some details would be of use; I have never came upon this… Equestria, or ponies… such as you, during my many travels.”
“Hey!” Twilight looked at him angrily. “Princess Celestia-”
Celestia waved away her student, although she smiled kindly at her for jumping into her defense. “If you do not wish to tell us, then it’s alright. We haven’t even told you our names yet; it wouldn’t be wise to think that you would just tell us your life story. I am Princess Celestia, and this is my sister, Princess Luna, who rules this country alongside me. This is my student, Twilight Sparkle, and her friends; Spike, Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, Applejack, Apple Bloom, Rarity, Sweetie Belle, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie-” she nodded at everypony when she said their names, but when it came turn for Pinkie Pie, the pink mare had vanished. “Where is-”
She was answered by the sound of trumpet and a small blast near Obito. Pinkie Pie stood next to him, hugging him with one foreleg, holding a cake in the other. Above them was pinned to the walls a banner saying ‘WELCOME TO PONYVILLE’.
“Here I am!” she replied to the question Celestia had asked. Looking at Obito, she added: “Somepony had to cheer up Mister Gloomy over here!”
‘Mister Gloomy', in the meantime, was staring at her with utter shock, but when Pinkie had finished, he frowned. Expecting him to pass through her, Celestia looked at him closely, hoping to see some sign of how he was exactly performing this spell of his, and then she saw it. His right eye, this… Sharingan, as he called it, changed its shape. It now looked like a sort of pinwheel, with three black triangles coming out of a pupil and have scythe come out of their right sight connect with the next one.
She didn’t have the chance to ask him about what this exactly was that he did, because the moment he escaped Pinkie’s grasp, but a sudden movement from the outside of her student’s library caught her attention. Almost as soon as Celestia’s gaze rested on the doors, they swung open, and her and Luna’s royal guards; accompanied by another one, a pegasi, burst in.
She quickly shared with her sister a worried glance, knowing something important must have happen for them to come in like that.
“Your Highnesses,” the new guard said as he approached them, bowing and sparing Obito a quick glance, but not paying attention to all the other ponies that stared at him, “I’m afraid I bring news of a grieve importance.”
Fear gripping her heart, Celestia commended:
“Speak.”
The royal guard looked up, taking his helmet off. There was fear in his eyes.
“There’s news from the Crystal Empire,” he said, gulped, and delivered his message: “Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor are kidnapped.”
> 3. Going on a mission
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Kakashi waited until he was shielded from Black Zetsu’s sight by one of Shinju's roots before his hands formed a seal. With a puff, a shadow clone appeared next to him and immediately jumped away, moving carefully to not be seen.
Jumping back to the fight, Kakashi concentrated chakra in his right hand. Raikiri quickly formed in his palm as he charged at Obito’s body, cutting through the branches Black Zetsu - who’d been concentrating at the moment on Minato-sensei - created trying to strike him. He was successful at getting close to him, but at the last moment Black Zetsu jumped away.
Raikiri struck into the ground, causing a layer of dust to rise up. Using the commotion, Kakashi swiftly glanced at his former teacher. Minato-sensei’s Edo Tensei eyes widened slightly, as he noticed a slight twitch of his head. Barely visibly he nodded, knowing what Kakashi wanted him to do. Now though, concentrating on Black Zetsu, he used his Nine-Tails’ chakra enhanced speed and strength to attack him again, while looking for the opportunity to create a shadow clone as well.
“Soon, Obito,” Kakashi promised in his thoughts, also getting back into the fight. “You will have your chance at redemption.”
 



 
“What!?”
“How did-”
“Wh-”
“But why-”
“What do you mean ‘kidnapped’?” Celestia asked calmly.
Obito regarded her for a moment. She and her sister were the only ones that hadn’t lost their heads, while all the others just lost their head. “No,” he quickly corrected himself, glancing at Twilight. She was standing by her mentor’s side, still nervous and scared, if her pacing was of any indication. But she’s waiting for the armed pony to explain his report, while her friends continued to mumble.
“Please, everypony, stay calm,” Princess Luna told them, and they gradually grew quiet.
“We’ve just received this news,” the winged pony began. “According to the report, the Crystal Castle’s guards and staff suddenly heard sounds of explosions and some maniac laughter coming from the Princess’ and Prince’s bedchambers. Once they broke through the doors, they found the room empty and partially destroyed. There was no sign of the royal couple. And…” he said, reaching to the bag that was hung across his back. “... there was this left on the bed.”
Obito trotted a bit closer to see what it was that the horse - “Wait, they called themselves ponies.” - was holding in his hooves. It was a green orb, that as soon as Princess Celestia picked it up with her chakra, it began glowing. Obito’s eyes quickly saw a different chakra in the object react.
“Someone is channeling their chakra through this orb,” he quickly deducted; it was almost like the chakra receivers he, Madara and Nagato used. “But I wonder why-”
“Why, hello there, Princess,” a strange, distorted female voice spoke from within the orb as a green eye with cat-like pupil appeared. “Missed me?”
“You!” Celestia exclaimed, both in shock and in disgust. Obito guessed by the other’s gasps that they also recognized the voice. “What have you done with Cadance and Shining Armor?!”
“Oh? Did you need to the words ‘kidnapped’ written all over to get it?” the user of this technique mocked her.
“Where are they, you monster?!” Twilight shouted, jumping up to the orb. “I swear, if you harmed them, I will-”
“Now, dear Twilight, settle down,” the voice chided. “I assure you, they are both fine - mostly - and will remain so, as my guests, until you will fulfill my demands.”
“You-” Twilight began.
“What are those demands?” Celestia asked, cutting her student off.
Intrigued by what was going on, Obito crept closer to her. The white Princess glanced at him, letting him know that she acknowledged his presence, before returning her attention to the abductor.
“Oh, nothing much, just a few little trinkets,” the strange voice said, deceivingly sweet. “The Elements of Harmony and the Crystal Heart.”
As everyone gasped, Obito pondered what should he do. “Should I get involved with this? This is clearly not something I should associate with… I should return to Konoha, not spend my time with a bunch of animals.”
“Do you think we would give such powerful artifacts to somepony as vile as you?”
“Even if I am now one of them… why the chakra surge from Gedo Mazo destruction sent me to this land, and changed my body’s structure to this… Nothing on the Uchiha Stone Monument said anything about it.”
“If you want to see those two lovebirds again you will. It’s such a pity that those trinkets are so well protected; otherwise, I wouldn’t have to bother you.”
“I should just get back… should I?” he closed his eyes; trying to figure out what would Naruto do in his place. The kid that beat him, that never lost his way… “What would you want me to do, Rin?” he finally asked.
“You despicable-”
“Now, no need to use such harsh language, Princess.”
“You died for the sake of the village. Surely, you would want me to return there… or… would you want me to help them?” he wondered.
He promised her he would end the war, change their world… but that was now up to Naruto. Obito could was confident the young man’s path would be far better than his own. But… where that left him?
“I’ll take those glares as agreements.”
“It would have been easier to contemplate without them arguing.”
“My changelings will come to Canterlot and the Crystal Empire by the end of the day,” the voice was saying by the time he focused fully on the exchange. “Once you will give them those trinkets, they will reveal the location of your lost friends.”
Obito sighed. “Since I don’t know what to do with myself, I might as well give them a hand. It shouldn’t be too hard.”
He raised his hoof before the orb.
“Oh? And who is this?” the controller asked, the green eye turning to him. She still used this mocking voice, and Obito took some satisfaction in knowing that it would soon end. “You have an interesting jester, Princess.”
“You talk too much,” he replied.
Concentrating, he manifested a chakra disruption blade from his right hoof, and plunged the blade into the orb much to the shock of everybody.
 
 
Chrysalis, the Queen of the Changelings, quickly lost her good humor when the strange pony destroyed her orb with a black rod that somehow emerged from his hoof. Her confusion didn’t last long, however, because the very next heartbeat she felt her magic began to rage around her body.
She tried to shake, to stand up, but she couldn’t move. She felt as if something alien entered her body and tried to control her. And before her eyes she saw… and eye. A purple eye with circles in it.
The same eye as that pony has in his left eye socket.
Realizing what just happened, Chrysalis quickly cut off her connection to the orb. The feeling of her magic convulsing had stopped, and she could move her body freely again. The eye had disappeared.
“What… in Tartarus was that?” she asked noling in particular, panting.
 
 
“What did you that for!?” Twilight screeched at Obito, while Celestia just looked at him, intrigued.
Not because he just created a strange black rod from his hoof that he then pierced the Changeling Queen’s orb, but because she had a feeling he did it for a reason.
“To the south,” he said, causing everypony to stop bickering and look at him in shock. “Five o’clock to be exact, about one hundred and eighty two kilometers from here. Whoever she is, she’s there, and those… Princess and Prince are there, probably”
“How do you know that?” Luna asked him, voicing probably everypony’s question.
Obito pointed at the black rod, which was still within the orb. It laid on the floor, as Celestia dropped it in surprise when he stabbed it. “It’s a chakra disruption blade,” he said. “I can channel my chakra through it into whatever or whoever it is stabbed. I traced that person’s chakra back to where she is hiding.”
“That... that’s amazing!” Twilight exclaimed, momentarily forgetting that her brother and his wife were in danger. “And you made it just appear out of your hoof?”
“Yes, it’s one of the abilities of the Outer Path, Gedō,” Obito replied her, and then he looked at Celestia. “Are we going? It would be best to act quickly.”
Celestia herself would have liked to ask some questions (like if this… Outer Path, or Gedō or whatever had anything to do with what she and Luna had discovered about his body when they wanted to help him, only to find out that he was simply exhausted), but she had to admit that he had a point. Except…
“You want to help?” she asked, a bit surprised. True, he saved the fillies earlier, but that was here; he didn’t strike her as a pony willing to travel so far away to help somepony.
“I have nothing better to do, anyway,” Obito admitted with a shrug. “I might as well kill some time until I decide what I want to do.”
She would have questioned the sanity of such reasoning, but the time was of the essence. “One hundred eighty two kilometers…” she mused. “That’s where those cute, fuzzy little critters had a small village… oh no,” she thought with dread as she had realized what must have happened to those cute, loving creatures.
She turned to the guards. “Go back to Canterlot,” Celestia ordered. “Mobilize the Royal Guard and order them to advance on that location. We will go there at once,” she said, glancing at Luna, who nodded, “and secure a safe rendezvous point.”
“Wake up the Night Guard, as well,” Luna added. Glancing at Celestia, she smirked, “Your guards have grown soft over the years. Mine will show you how you’re supposed to handle threats.”
Celestia would have deadpanned, but she found the offended faces of the royal guards to be too amusing.
“You heard you orders,” she told them, blinking at them sympathetically and smiling.
That was enough to cheer up the three armored ponies. “Yes, Your Highness,” the highest ranking of them said saluting, and they hasted to carry their orders.
“Princess…” Twilight began once they left, with her voice uneven, but nonetheless determined. “I want to come as well.”
“Hey, we’re coming too!” Rainbow Dash said, jumping into the air and landing beside her. “We’re not going to leave our friends hanging!” she added, wrapping her leg around Twilight’s shoulders. “Right?”
The others all nodded, making Celestia sigh. She would have preferred to deal with the Changeling Queen herself, to make up for her failure in Canterlot, but she couldn’t deny Twilight and her friends the right to save Cadance and Shining Armor.
“Alright, but you will have to obey my orders without any objection, do you understand that?” she asked to be sure.
“Yes, ma’am!” they all replied enthusiastically.
“We’re coming too!” three small voices proclaimed enthusiastically.
“No!” Princess Celestia immediately said, and was joined by everypony else, even Obito.
“But why?” Scootaloo asked, pouting.
“Well, for one, ya’ll still have to be punished by bringin’ that dragon to town,” Applejack told them sternly.
“Spike, make sure they will all go to their homes,” Twilight told her assistant.
“W-what?” Spike asked, shocked. “I’m not coming?”
“I’m sorry, Spike, but this will dangerous,” the unicorn said gently. “It won’t be a place for somebody so young… which is why we need you to keep an eye on those three.”
“Hey, we don’t need-” Apple Bloom began, but Applejack covered her mouth with her hoof.
“Alright, fine,” Spike said, resigned.
Celestia eyes traveled from the scene and onto Obito on the sound of the latter’s cough. “I’m not sure if it is wise to bring all of them.” Glancing at Rainbow Dash, he added: “They kinda stick out.”
“More than a two colored weirdo?” Rainbow asked, slightly offended.
“They are coming,” Celestia told him. Looking at everypony, she asked: “Everypony ready?”
They all murmured acknowledgments, except for Obito, who asked: “Ready for what?”
Ignoring him, Celestia cast a teleportation spell.
A second later, once the light of the teleportation had faded, they were no longer in the library. Instead, they were outside, in a mountain area overlooking sea. They could see a castle - looking so evil that it was almost cliché - on a cliff a few kilometers away, in a place where a village used to be, with just basic stone buildings and small tower.
“Huh, nice space-time technique,” Obito commented, taking in their surroundings.
“Alright, here’s the plan!” Rainbow Dash began, “We storm in, attack the castle-”
“I’m going in alone,” Obito interrupted her.
“Hey!”
“Could you give me some information regarding what is in there?” he asked, turning to Celestia and Luna and completely ignoring Rainbow. “Since you seem to know who’s responsible. I would also appreciate some description of… Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor, right?”
Celestia nodded. “The one who kidnapped them is Changeling Queen. She’s a leader of a shape-shifting race that feeds on love. A few months ago they launched an attack on Canterlot, but failed, thanks to Cadance and Shining Armor. Cadance is an alicorn like me and Luna, with pink coat and mane in colors of yellow, pink and violet. Shining Armor is a unicorn, has white coat and blue mane,” She regarded him as she spoke. For a second she could swear puzzlement crossed his face. “Are you sure you will be able to get them out by yourself?”
“It will be easy,” he replied, “and necessary. If those two are still in their… hooves, by the time that reinforcements arrive, those changelings will use them as hostages.”
Reluctantly, Celestia nodded. He spoke true, and judging by the way he handled the dragon, he was the best suited for the task of infiltration on the changeling’s new fortress and rescuing Cadance and Shining Armor.
“Very well,” she told him. “We’ll stay here and secure this location.” Glancing at Luna, she asked: “The Masking spell to hide our presence, and a barrier?”
“Seems about right,” Luna replied as she began to cast her spell.
“So we are supposed to do nothing?” Rainbow Dash asked, clearly disappointed.
“Going to an enemy territory with such a large group would compromise everything… not to mention that this Queen most likely knows we will be coming,” Obito replied.
“But how will you know if you had found the real Shining Armor and Cadance?” Twilight asked him. “They might be changelings in disguise.”
Sighing with annoyance, he pointed at his eyes. “I see chakra, remember? I will see through illusions and Henge no Jutsu.”
“Henge no what?”
“And in case something is going to happen here…” Obito added, completely ignoring Twilight. He sat on his rump and joined his forehooves. “Kuchiyose no Jutsu!” he said, placing his hoof on the ground.
Celestia noticed a small black circular pattern appear around the hoof, but then something more shocking happened. A huge wall of smoke formed behind Obito, revealing after a second a huge red two-headed dog, with a black rod piercing it muzzle.
And the same eyes as Obito’s left eye.
“I can see what it sees…” Obito began to explain, ignoring everypony staring at the dog with jaws dropped, but stopped when he noticed something that made his jaw drop.
“Who’s a good boy?” Fluttershy asked the dog as she patted one of its heads. It closed its eyes and whined with pleasure. The other head looked at Fluttershy with jealousy and the pegasus quickly moved to pat it as well. “You both are! Yes you are!”
As Obito continued to stare at her, the other ponies began to laugh, forgetting why they were here. Celestia watched at the strange stallion facehoofed, amused and now even more curious about him. “I hope we will get to talk some more once this matter is resolved.”
“As I was saying,” he began once more, “I can see what it sees, so I will know if you are attacked. Not to mention that it is very powerful.”
“Thank you for your concern, but I’m sure we would be able to handle ourselves,” Luna told him.
“I have no doubt,” Obito replied impassively, looking again Fluttershy patting the dog he summoned, and at Pinkie Pie that was using its back as a slide. He looked back at the two Princesses and Twilight, and once more Celestia saw it again; his right eye changed shape.
“Later,” he said as space began swirling around him.
He was gone in less than a second.
> 4. The Rescue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Princess Celestia,” Twilight began after a while of sitting in silence, “you and Princess Luna never told us what you discovered when you were using medical spells on Obito. I mean, it did cause you two to gasp in surprise...”
Celestia turned her eyes from the castle, which she’d been absentmindedly watching, and looked at her student. In the short time since Obito left, they completed placing some basic fortification. They achieved that feat swiftly by combining the magic of the two Princesses and Twilight with the manual labor of the others. Now they were within a camp ready for the regiments of royal and night guards who would teleport to their location soon, secured from changelings’ eyes by the multiple spells.
Twilight and her friends had settled in between the paws of the giant two-headed dog that Obito had left behind to watch over them. Celestia thought their complete lack of fear of it to be humorous, especially after seeing Obito’s reaction at the sight of Fluttershy petting it.
Before she answered Twilight’s question, Celestia took a quick glance at her sister. Luna, having better sensing skills than her (which had been, unfortunately, the reason why she came in contact with Nightmare Forces), was keeping watch over the area surrounding their camp, leaving only Celestia to explain what they discovered on her own.
“What we discovered was…” she started and almost immediately trailed off, wondering how to best put that into words, “something neither of us saw ever before. I don’t think even Discord’s body would be so bizarre when examined.”
“Seriously?” Rainbow Dash asked with a raised eyebrow. “I mean, sure, Obito looks as if he was made out of two ponies, but Discord-”
Celestia raised a hoof, silencing her. “I know what you mean, Rainbow Dash, but in Discord’s case, everything odd about him can be explained by the fact that he’s the Spirit of Chaos. Also, his body is that of a draconequus; Obito’s, however…” she allowed herself a smile. “It’s funny what you said about him looking as if he was made out of two ponies… because, in fact, his body is made out of three ponies.”
“WHAT!?” the six ponies exclaimed in unison, shocked.
She couldn’t blame them. Just the thought sounded insane, but knowing it for a fact was mind aching. “And to top it off, that’s not all…”
“My sister and I believe that the left side of his body, along with his head, is Obito’s original body. Strangely, the magic signature of that half is that of a unicorn, except-”
“But he doesn’t have a horn!” Twilight said, as she couldn’t help but point that out.
Celestia smiled. She was happy that this discussion at least managed to take Twilight’s mind off her brother and sister-in-law’s situation. “That is true, Twilight, but you didn’t let me finish. As you said, he doesn’t have a horn… but his magic circulatory system’s point of concentration isn’t at his forehead.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow, confused, but before she could ask the question Celestia anticipated, another pony voiced her confusion: “Err… beg yar pardon, Yar Majesty, but what’s this… magic circula-whatsit?”
As Applejack wasn’t the only one here that didn’t know what it was - judging by the expressions on their faces - Celestia explained: “It’s what channels magic of everypony throughout a pony’s body, similarly how a regular circulatory systems transports blood.”
“Earth ponies and pegasi’s magic circulatory systems is spread evenly across their bodies, as they use magic passively.” Twilight resumed from there. “However, unicorns and alicorns’ are a bit different; the magic circulatory system concentrates heavily around their horns, to allow them to cast spells.”
“So…” Rainbow Dash started, “what does it mean? Is Obito’s half body an earth pony’s or not?”
“No, it is a body of a unicorn,” Celestia assured her. “Except where all unicorns’ circulatory system’s point of concentration is at their foreheads, at the base of the horn, Obito’s has two points of concentration - at his eyes.”
“Oh…” Twilight exclaimed, wide-eyed. “That… that makes sense. I mean, he does have two strange eyes… he even said they can see magic.”
“And the ‘Sharingan’ in his right eye changed shape when he used that teleportation spell,” Celestia added. “It also did that when he passed through Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo when they tackled him.”
“So, wait, let me get this straight,” Rainbow Dash interrupted them, “Obito is a unicorn… who instead of a horn has two freakish and completely different eyes?”
“And what about this dog, then?” Rarity asked, glancing up at its twin heads. “They have the same eyes as Obito left one; can they use magic?”
“I do not know,” Celestia admitted, frowning. “Although he did say that he can see what they see… perhaps there are certain spells that each eye can cast? Like, for an example, summoning creatures with the same eyes and sharing their vision?”
She stopped herself from mentioning that even while being inferior to Luna in the sensing department, she could still tell that this creature had no heartbeat, and that magic within it was Obito’s and not the creature. There was no reason - at least for now - to make this bizarre situation any weirder.
“Besides, there’s also the matter of his left eye being-” Celestia thought, but Twilight interrupted her pondering.
“So he’s some sort of a weird unicorn. Or used to be,” Twilight added. “What about the white half of his body?”
“Oh, right,” the Princess said, remembering that she wanted to explain more to them. “The right side of Obito’s body seems to be an earth pony’s… at least, we think so. The magic signature seems to point at that. However, there is something odd about it that we cannot exactly pin down. Aside from that, its magic has an extreme vitality, even for an earth pony, which could explain how Obito somehow managed to grow a tree out of his body when he fought with the dragon. As you know, my student, using a spell to grow plants takes a lot of magic,” she turned to Twilight, who nodded. “But he did it with ease. In fact, summoning this dog here seemed to deplete his magic reserves than growing that tree branch.”
“Which isn’t exactly surprising, Sister,” Luna reminded her as she trotted over to them. “Given what we had discovered about that left eye of his.”
“Anything exciting to report, Little Sister?” she asked her while the six other ponies glanced at them with confusion.
“There seems to be no activity going on within area around the castle or us. I could sense Obito’s magic signature entering the changelings’ stronghold, but the barrier around it prevents me from learning what’s happening there,” Luna shook her head with disappointment. “I still wonder about the wisdom of entrusting Cadance and Shining Armor’s fate to the pony we know close to nothing about, and what we do know does little but raises suspicions.”
“Perhaps you’re right,” Celestia admitted. “But you do have to agree that Obito is best suited to rescuing them. And he did have a point; if you and I would have joined with our respective guards and stormed the castle, the Changeling Queen would have used Cadance and Shining Armor as hostages.” Turning to Twilight and her friends, she quickly added before they could get worried again: “Don’t worry everypony; given what little we know about Obito’s powers, I’m confident he will be able to rescue them.”
“True, his unique abilities should make this mission fairly easy for him,” Luna told Celestia telepathically while the others relaxed due to her assurance. “But it wouldn’t hurt to have a contingency plan just in case.”
“I already prepared one,” she replied. “Or did you honestly think I would bet everything on his ‘I have nothing better to do, anyway’? You know I dislike gambling.”
“Oh?” Luna exclaimed, amusement mixed with sarcasm. “And when I returned as Nightmare Moon, you were where…?”
“That wasn’t gamble, that was trust in my student,” Celestia answered back.
Before either she or Luna could add something else to their telepathical discussion, Twilight’s question brought them back to the discussion. “Princess Luna, what did you mean when you said ‘what we discovered about that left eye of his’?”
Nodding to her sister to explain, Celestia turned to look at the castle standing in the distance. “Just like Obito’s right side of a body, it seems as if it belonged to a completely different kind of pony, so does his left eye,” she heard with the ear she kept erected and turned in the direction of Luna. “The magic signature we detected in it is… that of an alicorn.”
“Just who exactly are you, Obito Uchiha from Konoha?” Celestia wondered as ponies beside her gasped in schock. “And what are you doing in Equestria? Why did you react like that to the sight of your own cutie mark?”
She shook her head. The more she thought about him, the more confused she became. Knowing that there was nothing else she could do at the moment, Celestia resumed to keeping watch as they waited for the reinforcements to arrive…
While her wing’s grip on the black rod tightened.
 


	


 
“So, they don’t posses any sensing abilities…” Obito mused.
The two black creatures that walked underneath him looked as if they were mixed from a pony and a bug. They had bug-like wings emerging from their back and also had horns on top of their foreheads.
“Meaning they can use ninjutsu,” he concluded, walking without a sound on the ceiling, using chakra he gathered in his hooves. “I wish Celestia would have given me more information, other than they can use Henge no Jutsu and ‘feed on love’. I’m going to assume that this means they possess an ability to suck the chakra of their target when under the influence of hormones causing one to ‘be in love’, and leave it at that.”
Seeing no changeling in sight, Obito jumped down and glanced through one of the doors in the corridor into a chamber. It was empty.
Thankful for the moment of respite, he entered, closed the doors behind him, and sat down on his haunches as he pressed his back against the wall.
“What now?” he mused. “I hoped to catch one in genjutsu and make it say where are they keeping those two ponies, but with them so closely resembling bugs…”
If they were anything like Aburame Clan’s bugs, they would probably know if one of them got caught in genjutsu. Obito couldn’t risk it with the lives of those Cadance and Shining Armor at stake. Not to mention that he still knew next to nothing about their abilities.
“And on top of it, my chakra is still a bit unbalanced after using the Chikushōdō ability,” Obito added, at the same time observing the group of ponies through the Multi-Headed Dog’s eyes; so far, the reinforcements the Princesses ordered to join them haven’t arrived. “Looks like my body is still getting used to Rinnegan.”
A small surprise, considering he transplanted it only about two-three days ago. Even with powers of both Uchiha and Senju, he himself hadn’t awakened the Rinnegan, after all.
Obito sighed; once again amazed by the sheer ridiculousness of the situation he was in. Now that he stopped for the moment - as before he didn’t have the time, entering the castle undetected by the changeling’s barrier and avoiding their patrols - his doubts regarding the correctness of this path returned.
He looked down on the mark on his left flank. “Why do I bare this there?” he thought out-loud. “All those ponies have marks like those… well, all growed-up ponies, apparently. Why mine is ‘the Eye of the Moon’?” Obito sighed. “Why-”
His hoof immediately clasped his mouth. Another patrol was going through the hall behind the doors.
“Two,” Obito observed, his eyes letting him see through walls to some degree. Not surprisingly, the changeling’s charka’s colors were almost all identical, only their Queen’s he had seen in the orb was easy to distinguish. “Maybe I should try placing them under genjutsu?”
But before he could decide whether to do so or not, he overheard what the two changelings were talking between themselves. Oddly, their voices weren’t that different from ponies (or humans, for that matter).
“Can you believe we must actually feed them?” one complained. “What for? They had their consciousness suppressed, so assuming the Queen’s plan work and we will give them back to ponies, they won’t remember missing out a meal!”
Obito opened the door a little, allowing him to see the pair through the crack. One of them was holding a tray that held two bowls of something probably edible and bottles of water with its chakra. “Yosha!” he thought with a glee, beginning to follow them.
 


	


 
About ten minutes later, Obito was convinced that the other changeling was at least deaf on one ear. He himself would have struck down the one who had been complaining all the way down into the dungeons, if he hadn’t developed a great patience during his years of carrying on the Eye of the Moon plan when posing as Madara.
During the trek down he got straight from the horse’s mouth the list of all possible calamities that could befall a soldier in changeling army.
“Did you know that I had love gathering duty eight weeks straight?” he got around to saying as they finally came to stop by the sturdiest looking doors so far. “Eight weeks! But then I make one comment about-”
He had (finally) ceased his babbling when the other changeling lifted a pair of keys and opened the doors. Both of them entered what Obito assumed to be a cell, with the talkative one murmuring something under his breath.
Careful to not make any noise, Obito rushed to the door and leaned over to see what was inside. Aside from the two changelings that just entered, there were two others near the center, keeping watch on the two ponies that were lying under the opposite wall, their expressions vacant.
Their chakras were completely different from the four next to them, as well as every other changeling Obito had encountered on his way here, meaning that this could only be Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor. Oddly, the chakra of the stallion seemed a lot like Twilight Sparkle’s.
“Are they keeping them subdued with a genjutsu?” he wondered, glancing at their almost empty eyes. “No, their chakra flow hasn’t been disturbed… they must have drugged them,” he thought as the changeling with the tray approached the pair. “Oh right, this reminds me…”
Activating his Mangekyo Sharingan just to be safe, he jumped at the two standing guard, grabbed their heads, and smashed them against each other. The remaining changelings looked back in alarm at the sound of two chitin’s colliding, only for their faces to meet with Obito’s hooves.
His punches, strengthened by Hashirama Senju cells, caused them to crash against the wall behind the two ponies. Having incapacitated every changeling in the room, Obito trotted to their captives.
“I will get you out of here,” he said out-loud, even though they probably couldn’t hear him. Glancing behind to check if there were any guards coming, attracted by the sounds of the short fight, he added: “I’m sure once we get you to your comrades, they will-”
The pressure in the room increased.
It was only thanks to Kamui that the green projectile didn’t kill him and instead blow up a part of the hall outside. Jumping away from the captives and turning around, he saw the two ponies had raised and regained their full senses. With a flash of green, he watched as they became changelings.
“They can copy a pony’s look right down to their chakras?” Obito observed through his Sharingan. “It’s the same ability as White Zetsu’s...”
With a hiss, one of them charged at him, its wing buzzing, while the other stayed behind, chakra gathered in its horn. The one that took the lead of the attack phased through Obito, but before the shinobi could kick him with his hindlegs, the supporting one began firing multiple projectiles, forcing him to remain intangible.
Deciding to take out that one first, he ran at him, carefully observing the pattern of directions it fired his attacks, which became more frantic. It did not escape Obito’s notice that there was panic on the changeling’s face, meaning that his right eye abilities was at least as unique here as it used to be in the Shinobi World not so long ago. With his Sharingan he read its attacks with ease, and soon an opening showed itself.
“Now!”
Seizing the chance, Obito canceled Kamui and materialized a chakra disruption blade.
With a swift movement, he cut off the horn of the changeling, causing it to shriek in pain. Obito then grabbed its shoulder with a hoof and chucked the hornless changeling at the remaining fighter, casting them both against the wall.
The first changeling grunted as it threw its companion off itself to continued the fight, but by then Obito stood right in front of him. The odd creature looked with his pupiless blue eyes without fear into his.
That was a big mistake.
“Genjutsu: Sharingan!”
The changeling froze, Obito’s genjutsu paralyzing it and placing it under his control.
“Tell me where is the real Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor,” Obito ordered.
His captive cooked its head and began to answer in emotionless voice: “There in the throne room with Queen Chrysalis. She had them moved there after her negotiation with Equestria’s Princesses got interrupted.”
Sighing internally, Obito was about to search his mind with Sharingan to get the specific location of the “throne room”, but then he heard a distant noise of buzzing wings coming their way.
“Do they know I’m here?”
“Yes,” the changeling replied. “Every changeling has a telepathic connection with the Queen. She’s been informed about you.”
“So they have an ability similar to the Yamanaka Clan Shindenshin no Jutsu,” Obito thought, a tad worried.
“I need to hurry,” he muttered to himself as he once again used his Sharingan on the changeling. While his genjutsu wasn’t as nearly as powerful as Shisui’s Kotoamatsukami or Itachi’s Tsukuyomi, he did once had the Fourth Mizukage under his control, despite him being a Jinchūrikii and having a complete control over his bijū. Breaking the link between this changeling and its queen was easy in comparison. “Let’s go.”
Pressing a hoof to the creature’s chitin, he used Kamui to transport both of them to the other dimension, before the changelings’ reinforcements arrived.
 


	


 
Chrysalis growled with irritation.
The moment the weird pony had interrupted her talk with the pony princesses, she had a feeling he would come here. She laid a trap, and waited, but unfortunately she had clearly underestimated him.
“How did he get away?!” she mused angrily raising from her couch and began to stride through her throne room. “The barrier around the castle should prevent anything besides changelings to teleport… and he doesn’t have a horn! How could he just disappear from that cell, with one of my elite soldiers no less!?” she asked one of her guards.
The guard - wincing in fear - opened his mouth to reply, but then his eyes turned sharply to look somewhere behind her. “My Queen, look!”
Turning around, Chrysalis sight rested on the two captives that had cost her victory in Canterlot: Cadance and Shining Armor. Both of them, despite being rendered senseless, were chained to her throne for her amusement. However, the look of two of the most despised by her ponies being humiliated like that did not bring her as much satisfaction as it usually did, because there was now a third pony standing next to them.
The two-colored pony had merely glanced at her before turning his attention to the ponies, placing his hooved on them. “Capture him!” she ordered her stunned guards.
Her changelings all snapped out of their daze and advanced quickly at the intruder. At the same time, space disordered around the three ponies, and by the time the guards reached them, Cadance and Shining Armor were gone.
For a second, Chrysalis was too stunned to take action while the pony jumped away from the guards, their magic attacks passing through him as she had witnessed through her minions’ eyes. Her shock at the loss of her hostages was quickly overcome by another emotion: pure anger.
Focusing her magic, she summoned several balls of pure energy and chucked them at the pony. The attack didn’t reach its target, but it did cause him to jump in the direction she desired him to go. After Chrysalis had teleported, she was right in front of him.
At the wave of a horn, a patterned circle appeared underneath the pony, forcing him to stand still and biding his movements.
“I got you,” the Changeling Queen proclaimed triumphantly, thinking with glee about the pain she was going to cause him.
However, her joy was chased away as she noticed the smirk on the pony’s muzzle. The space began disorienting around him once more, but this time she noticed how he was doing it.
The center of the distortion was his right eye, the same which he used to force one of her soldiers into obedience and break the link between them.
The next moment the bizarre pony was gone.