Worlds of Harmony & Conflict

Chapter 2

Twilight Sparkle stared up at the creatures in front of her with confusion in her eyes, but her mind racing faster than Pinkie Pie on a sugar high as she tried to come to grips with the situation. A few months ago, she had learned about there being a race of creatures that had shared an almost symbiotic relationship with her own species, and now she was standing in front of them.

The why of this phenomenon had already been answered. Most likely, it was due to the magic that Celestia and Luna had developed alongside one of the human creatures back before ponies even came to the land that was now known as Equestria.

Then, the human at the head of the pack, or herd, or flock, or maybe…well…Twilight wasn’t sure what humans called their social groups, but the head human, as Twilight guessed according to his position called her a…kirin. The misjudgment brought a frown to Twilight’s face as she felt the need to correct that bit of information.

“Actually, I’m an alicorn.” She had never even heard of a kirin. “And my name is Twilight Sparkle.”

Although…considering the name of her pony type and the fact that Celestia and Luna had gone by different names during their first period of activity, it was possible that alicorn had been a later invention of theirs to classify their sub-species of pony as something more in line with the word unicorn. Oh, I hope I didn’t offend any of them with incorrect information, although...they were wrong to call me that, but centuries of cultural differences could mean a whole different type of language developed. I mean, just look at Princess Luna.

After all, the humans seemed to have a strange accent in relation to how a pony would pronounce things, so it stood to reason that there might be a few grammatical differences in the thousands of years they had been separated.

“…I see,” the human with the glowing red eyes said after a moment. “I am Sasuke Uchiha. I summoned you here to learn about the capabilities of your species.”

Hearing that, Twilight not only found her curiosity as to the why what had happened sated, but the idea that she was apparently the first ambassador to the human race since their separation filled her with a deep sense of purpose and responsibility. She needed to make a good first impression!

Then she realized just what the human had said and Twilight’s eyes shone with a bright light and she let out a gasp of joy. His wording was a little strange, but she knew the offer for an exchange of knowledge when she heard one! And maybe I can learn about what kinds of magic humans can use too. THIS IS GOING TO BE SO MUCH FUN!

As the alicorn’s legs twitched with the desire to dance in joy, she looked up at the tall creature in front of her, and noticed its demeanor. It stood motionless, with barely any emotion written on her face. Obviously, the human in front of her was one of those no-nonsense types. She had come across a few rulers that were like that…especially during their first meeting.

So, Twilight held herself back from dancing in joy and cleared her throat instead. “Of course Mr Uchiha,” the alicorn told him, at least she hope it was a him. It was going to be really embarrassing if it turned out this Sasuke human was in fact a girl. But, when there was no cry of indignation, or angry frown…or angrier frown anyway, coming from the human, Twilight supposed she had guessed his gender correctly.

“But, I’ll expect a similar amount of information in return,” Twilight bargained. Although her plans for what to do if she was ever abducted by aliens and brought into a first contact situation didn’t quite fit the scenario she was in right now, the alicorn had decided to stick to its basic outline, as abduction by humans to the pony home world had never crossed the princess’s mind. If anything, she would have thought Celestia would have been snatched up by whatever magic had called her to the new land.

Hmmm, just why wasn’t Celestia called here?

On the other end of the conversation, Sasuke simply nodded to the purple creature’s request. No summon would accept a weakling ninja as a master, something several weaker shinobi had found out after signing several contracts in the hopes of gaining a quick path to power. Most of them found that the monsters they called upon simply turned around and ate them. “Agreed.”

What that bit of business out of the way, Twilight took to the air so she could look at the human eye to eye in his fascinating optical organs. Now that she had gotten over their oddness, the alicorn could tell they were quite amazing. Apart from their red hue and ability to produce a minor bit of light, they had a beautiful pattern that appeared to Twilight like some flower in bloom. She could also feel a strange air of magic about them.

“Hey it can fly,” the one that sounded like a female said.

“Well duh, it’s got wings, don’t it?” the human with white hair replied.

“Actually, if a normal creature were to flap its wings that slow, I doubt it would get off the ground. And, it does seem to be affecting the surrounding chakra in some way,” the smallest of the three commented.

For a minute, Twilight was sure the one with the red mane was going to say something else, but the lead human named Sasuke Uchiha gave them a glare and the three went still. Then he turned back and looked at her. “Is flying your only talent?”

Twilight couldn’t hide the snicker at the comment Rainbow Dash would have given if she had been in the room. “No, I’m actually pretty bad when it comes to flying. My real talent is magic. I can do a lot of things like,” she said before pausing a moment to take a deep breath. “Teleportation is kind of my go to spell, but I can move things with my telekinesis more than most, and that was even before I became an alicorn. Plus there’s transformation, transmogrification, conjuration, enchantment, enhancement, mind magic, defensive barriers, some offensive magic…although I don’t really like having to fight all that much, and I know basic herbalist skills to go with my potion making abilities; which I’m just a beginner at.”

After working his way through the storm of words the…alicorn threw at him, and understanding only a fraction of it all. Sasuke came to two conclusions. The little purple creature in front of him was obviously the least of the alicorn species, most likely a child; which fit with the amount of chakra he had put into the summoning. The second was that if he wanted to get any real information from the thing, he would need to ask her for a demonstration.

“Show me.”

The command was…less than Twilight had been expecting. Usually, her friends and Spike were a bit more enthused to see her magic. But, she didn’t want to disappoint the human who was making first contact with a pony for the first time in thousands of years.

Twilight landed back on the ground and looked around to get an idea of what she wanted to do. The room she was in was pretty big, with torches on the walls that gave off plenty of light, and giant…scrolls…that… she really, really, really, wanted to… No, bad Twilight! Focus on the good first impression, then they’ll let you see their library, the princess told herself.

The thought of being able to look at pages and pages of literature from a whole new culture gave Twilight plenty of motivation. So much so that she needed to actually restrain herself from squealing in excitement. She had to keep a respectful demeanor after all. The human was doing it, so she could as well.

“Okay,” Twilight replied before drawing magic into her horn before its mystical sensitivity, increased by the mana she had pumped into it made her eyes widened. There was a strange…new kind of magical energy that just seemed to hang in the air all around her.

Her curiosity wet, she examined this new power and frowned at how it seemed to feel so unlike the magic of harmony, the kind of power that ponies ran on. Harmony tended to had a certain calm, warm flow to it. It was almost like a lake that fed a river. As long as the pony knew what she was doing, the magic of harmony could be guided properly. This new magical force Twilight sensed didn’t feel like that all. It felt hard, and hot…like some kind of iron, or volcanic stone.

“Why the delay?” Sasuke asked evenly, making Twilight jump in surprise.

“Sorry, it’s just…I’m not used to feeling human magical energy in the air like this,” the alicorn apologized as she took a final look at this new human magic and decided that it wasn’t anything that would disrupt her magic or cause her any injury.

Human magic was just different, nothing else.

“Ugh calling chakra magic,” the human with the white mane mumbled. “She sounds like a damn farmer or something.”

Because of the importance of this event, and Princess Celestia would be disappointed to no end if she messed everything up in the first meeting human and pony, Twilight decided to be the bigger pony and ignore the rude creature’s comment. “Okay so…let’s start with…teleportation.”

Two hours later…

For about the twelfth time since the…alicorn started her demonstration, Sasuke Uchiha hid his emotions as he finished another one of her more useless abilities. Although, he supposed getting Suigetsu to shut up for any length of time did have a few benefits. At least with the field that currently surrounded his mouth and stopped all noise, he couldn’t simply break the imposed transformation with a burst of chakra and get his mouth back like the first time she demonstrated a jutsu that took away the former Mist ninja’s ability to speak.

Although, after watching the shark-toothed ninja yell silently for a minute, a thought occurred to Sasuke. He turned to the strange purple creature that only partially resembled a horse despite the fact it was calling itself a pony, and waited for her to catch her breath. “Can you create a sound dampening field to surround the entire body?”

“Well…yes, but why would you need something like that?” Twilight asked after she looked up from the ground. Exhaustion had made flying around too much of a hassle nearly thirty minutes ago, but magic was still more than doable.

Although her stamina and mana pool had risen exponentially since becoming an alicorn, this was the first time Twilight had ever truly put her magic through anything like an endurance test. It was working out better than she thought it would.

Sasuke saw no reason to hide it from her. “Stealth.”

As Twilight simply cocked her head to the side in confusion, the Uchiha let the creature rest while he mentally reviewed everything she had shown him. Apparently, the alicorn had a useless number of jutsu that revolved around actually forcing a transformation onto another creature, or providing slight alterations to their features that were also easy to remove like facial hair. She could deploy barriers meant to stop physical attacks, claimed to be able to fire a long-range blast of force that she wasn‘t willing to demonstrate inside of such a confined space, teleport herself and others, and had the ability to either summon objects from another place in similar fashion to a weapons scroll, or create them out of thin air as a product of her chakra.

The thought of the creature’s chakra brought a pensive frown to Sasuke’s face. With his eyes, he could see the nature of the energies shown to him, be it elemental, normal, or drawn from the environment like a sage could. However, the power Twilight used was different. He chakra appeared as a dizzying display of colors arranged like a rainbow that entered into the normally visible spectrum as a purple hue when she focused a great deal of her energy.

“And…that’s about all I can do,” the purple creature said. “I’ve got some other spells, but…none of them are really as impressive, and to be honest, I’m starting to feel a little worn out.” Which meant the power holding Twilight in her current location would soon disappear, and she would snap back to wherever her people were hiding from what Orochimaru had explained to Sasuke about summoning. It was the summoner’s energy that called the creature, but the beasts own chakra was what held it there.

Sasuke nodded to the creature. “Understood.”

“So…” Twilight prompted, only for the human to remain silent and waited for her to speak again. Ugh, it’s like spending time with Pinkie’s sister. Not that Maud was a bad pony or anything just…awkward; and in a way that she didn’t feel awkward, but made the other ponies around her like that. For a moment, Twilight wondered if all humans were like that, but…the three behind Sasuke seemed to have a bit of personality, so perhaps it was just him.

Although, that didn’t make much sense if he was the human chosen to contact the ponies. Twilight would have thought a more outgoing human would have made more sense to make friends with. Unless…they want to look at this from an academic standpoint, Twilight mused.

Of course, the train that particular thought left on started causing Twilight’s excitement to bloom. But…does that mean the majority of humans are scholars? It made sense, if they chose somepony…someman?

Somebody, Twilight decided. It was pretty unfair to the females of the species of the male gender was the root word for something that could mean a colt or a filly.

It would make sense if the humans chose somebody that represented the majority of their species to initiate contact with the ponies after so long. And if the majority of Sasuke’s species were academic types…they would just get along so well! Just the thought of an entire world of fellow scholars made Twilight have to restrain herself from looking silly in front of humanity’s ambassador.

Okay focus, mind back on task Twilight, the alicorn told herself. She needed to ask about the scrolls…or human culture in general…and maybe something personal about the human as well. Gah! Why did that one have to come last? Of course I should ask Sasuke about himself first. The first step to building any good relationship is a personal connection with the pony…or human you’re talking to.

But, it was a little odd that he had gone straight to asking about magic rather than a question about Twilight personally. However…she decided not to dwell on it too much. Her own history was filled of moments when she had put aside learning about other ponies for academic reasons. For all she knew, this Sasuke human could still be at the point in his life where he valued academic knowledge more than friendship.

Which of course raised the question of his age. Although it didn’t make much sense that a young colt would have been chosen to try and reconnect the two races, a human that was too old might have been set in his ways, so it was very possible that the species might have gone with a younger member of humanity to begin human-pony relations.

On the other hoof, since she had no idea how much age set humans in their ways, if at all, or any physical effects of humans growing older she could use to judge Sasuke’s age, Twilight shelved the question for a later date. For all she knew, humans were sensitive about their age and if she guessed wrong, he would be offended. Instead she decided to simply play it safe and reciprocated the human’s curiosity of her abilities.

“Tell me about yourself. What is it you can do?”

For a moment Sasuke just stared at the alicorn as he considered the question. Usually, the name Uchiha told everyone everything they needed to know about him, and the bit of traveling he had done since Orochimaru’s death had shown that his personal reputation had been growing.

Although, if the creature in front of him had been gone for so long they had faded into myths that got their basic forms and even their names had been mangled by the passage of time, as Sasuke had no doubt in his mind the alicorn summon was indeed the legendary kirin that he had fashioned one of his attacks after, then it seemed he needed to at least give some kind of bare bones knowledge of the world that she had been absent from since the sage supposedly existed.

“As I said, my name is Sasuke, of the Uchiha Clan,” he began.

An hour into the human’s explanation, and Twilight was wishing she had brought some paper to take notes on, as it seemed none of her new acquaintances carried anything of the like, and there was a lot to take in. Not to mention the phrases that the alicorn didn’t quite understand that needed clarification.

Apparently, the magic users of the world she had been brought to were called ninja, with shinobi referring mostly to the male practitioners while kunoichi referred to the female. Sasuke’s magic revolved around fire and lightning, which made Twilight wonder if he was a cook of some kind, or perhaps one of the humans that managed the weather in their shared homeland.

Although considering his talent in heat and thunder, Twilight figured he might also specialize in creating thunderstorms by affecting the atmosphere’s temperature. There was also his eyes, which were passed down genetically through his family line, although Twilight only took note of that fact since Celestia had explained the magic that could be focused through them.

Soon after the explanation about his human magic on a personal level was done, Twilight moved on to gain a broader understanding of it. Human magic was focused in the hands and was molded by connecting their internal pathways in which their mystical energy flowed, much like an electric circuit, in different ways for various reactions. Although, it seemed that much like ponies, humans had to specialize in specific fields when it came to their elemental based magic.

Then there came the questions about his species as a whole…

“So…how many humans are there?” Twilight asked. She decided to get a general sense of human culture and society before moving into more specific questions.

For once, Sasuke looked a bit surprised, at least that’s what Twilight guessed the slight turn of his head and raising of the human’s eyebrow meant. “Well…I’ve never really thought about it actually.”

The redhead took up the question. “Oh, um…if we take into account that the ninja represent approximately ten percent of the world’s population…the total population of people without the ability to use ninjutsu is somewhere around eight hundred thousand.”

Twilight filed the number away in her head, marking it a little low compared to Equestria’s pony population, and looked over to the group of humans. “Wait…you mean that only ten percent of humans can use magic? That’s all?”

Even if all the magic of humanity had sprung from a single source, Twilight would have thought the number would have increased more than that over the years considering their abilities. How in the hay could their numbers still be so low?

“Hey Sasuke,” Suigetsu spoke up. “Hate to break up this little meeting and all. But we’re going to miss the summit if we sit on our asses anymore than we have been. We got the gear and rations, and we’re rested up. Let’s get moving already.”

Twilight’s ears perked up at the mention of some kind of summit, suggesting a meeting of the human nation’s leaders. So that’s why I’ve been summoned. All the human princesses must be wanting to meet with the ponies to discuss reintegration! That’s why Sasuke summoned me, he must have been assigned to make a research paper on pony society and present it at his princess summit!

Then, her eyes widened with the realization that she had spent this whole time talking about magic! While a very worthwhile topic for discussion, it had almost no bearing on recombining the two societies!

Well, unless the contributions of the ponies to the workforce would destabilize the job market…but Twilight didn’t consider that much of a threat since if the ponies did return home, they would also increase the number of consumers exponentially was well.

That was…if the ponies wanted to return to their old home!

Twilight could understand there might be a certain bit of…well, a huge reluctance to simply uproot themselves after thousands of years in one place. And, although a princess, Twilight knew that such a decision was beyond her. She needed to get back to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to discuss such a grave matter before making any decisions!

“Now that I’ve indulged your curiosity, will you agree to assist me with my goals and carry word back to your people to do the same?” the human asked in an even tone.

The question drew Twilight of out her thoughts. She supposed that being the first pony to see a human since the founding of Equestria would put some of the responsibility on her as well, even if the final decision rested with the sisters. “Well if you’re asking for my help, I’ll do whatever I can,” she told him. “And I’m sure once I tell them what’s going on, Princess Celestia and Luna will be more than happy to help you!”

Twilight examined the spell that was holding her in place, and found the return command a few second later. Hmm, I wonder if I can adapt this for use by other ponies… It would be very helpful if she could call on her friends at a moments notice…especially considering how hard Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were to track down.

“Celestia and Luna…those are the names of your leaders?” Sasuke asked.

After unlocking the mystical seal tied to her return, Twilight looked back up at the human for a moment. “Oh right, humans probably still use their old names. You know, Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi,” she said before looking away and activating the spell. “Well, thanks for talking with me Sasuke, call on me again when you get to the summit! I’ll be ready for you by then.”

Sasuke’s mask of composure slipped a second before the purple creature disappeared in a puff of smoke and he looked at the place where she had been in confusion. “Did she just call the leaders of her tribe Sharingan techniques?”

Twilight fought off the sensation of vertigo and waved her wings around to clear away the smoke before she looked around at the empty hall. A pair of her guards that were standing by the door ran over as she appeared, calling out Twilight’s name. It was then that a little thing that had slipped the alicorn’s mind when she had been exposed to an alien culture.

“Oh no! The ponies that came with a friendship problem…you didn’t really execute them, did you?” she shrieked as the two pegasi closed in on her.

The guards shared a confused look for a moment. “Um…no Princess. Since you weren’t here to sign the documents relating to their judgment, we had to let them go,” the dark pegasus on the left explained.

“Princess what happened?” the lighter stallion on the right asked in a frantic voice. “Your council said you disappeared in the middle of court! They searched for an hour, then left to Canterlot to inform Princess Celestia of your abduction!”

“MY WHAT?” Twilight screeched.

A second later, she was ignoring her guards pleas for an explanation, and running towards the doors of her castle, intent on breaking her personal best for travel time to Canterlot.

It was well past noon as Princess Celestia greeted her freshly awakened sister to the throne room and briefed her on the situation regarding Twilight’s disappearance. Which in turn led to her questioning the girls about the vanishing act, and what had occurred afterwards.

“And you are certain you felt nothing?” Luna asked the assembled ponies for what felt like the hundredth time. Although, she was mostly addressing the only unicorn, as none of the others were so in tune with magic as Rarity. Of course, the group’s threat detector was also there to give her appraisal of the situation.

“Well, I did feel something before Twilight disappeared, but I never get a woobly, wobbly, just all around timey wimey sensation like that before!” Pinkie explained in her usual manner as she tried to move her forelegs around, seemingly circling an invisible sphere as if that helped explain her nonsensical jabber.

Celestia looked down at the floor in thought as Luna continued to converse with the little ponies that had become closer to the two sisters than any of her other subjects in the past three years than any others before them; the only ones she could consider true friends.

Considering the timing of Twilight’s disappearance, a theory had been forming in Celestia’s mind. However, the magic she and Luna had crafted to summon them back to the land of their birth was only supposed to work on the sisters. From there, they could meet with the humans and learn if it was time to return home. It had never been designed to latch onto other ponies.

But then, there weren’t any other alicorns at the time either, Celestia reasoned as she looked over to Luna. “Sister? Did you feel anything odd this morning?” Considering that Luna had most likely been asleep at the time, it was a foolish hope, but one worth investigating until Cadence could be brought from the Crystal Empire.

Luna let out a groan as she looked over to the larger alicorn. “Yes Sister, I did experience a bit of indigestion in the odd hours off the morning. I will follow your advice when it pertains to dietary habits from here on in,” she said, however Luna’s tone put the words in a light that made them mean the exact opposite of what they were supposed to.

“There’s no need to be so snippy Luna,” the Alicorn of the Sun deadpanned before she put a little emotion into her voice to show her sister she was serious. “What I mean is, did you feel the summoning link act-”

A bright flash of light and a louder than usual bang cut Celestia off and caused her to rear up in both surprise and defense. However, when the light faded, Twilight stumbled forward in a daze, her mane more than a bit out of sorts.

“Oh wow…long range teleports are weird,” she mumbled as she stumbled back and forth. A second after she stopped, Twilight coughed out a black puff of black smoke.

Celestia raised an eyebrow at the sight, and nodded at the comment while the alicorn’s friends either surrounded, or outright tackled her in a hug while crying out her name. As the small crowd of ponies asked if she was okay, demanded to know where she had been, commented on her ghastly appearance, mumbled about how it was good she was back, and asked if she brought back any kunai (whatever those were), Celestia simply watched the scene play out until each of the little ponies could see for themselves that their friend was in good health.

Once that had been done, she cleared her throat to get her little one’s attention. “So Twilight Sparkle. Would you care to tell us all what happened to you?”

“So, it would appear as though I have won our bet.”

All of the Elements of Harmony sat around the Canterlot Castle’s dining table and looked on at the two sisters while Luna gave the larger alicorn a smug smile, and Celestia rolled her eyes. “Luna, just because a human was able to open the Scroll of Summoning’s protective casing is not proof of their foolish reincarnation theory,” Celestia countered. “Besides, the existence of such a thing would be unnaturally cruel.”

Applejack raised a hoof. “Pardon, er…Princesses, but…re-in-car-what now?”

Celestia sighed, and began talking before Luna could twist the answer to the question into something admirable. “Unlike we ponies and the Elysian Fields, humans do not believe in a place they journey to when they die,” she explained. “Instead, they think that they are trapped in a cycle where the dead become reborn into new bodies to live new lives.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound too bad,” Fluttershy spoke up.

A second later, the pegasus was grabbed from her seat when Luna reached over to put a hoof over her shoulder and pull her in close. “Indeed friend Fluttershy! Think of it, an infinite number of lives and chances to try new things, to meet your fellow companions, and become friends over and over again!”

“Reliving the same destiny, over and over again,” Celestia added. “Honestly, it sounds quite cruel.”

Twilight cleared her throat. “But…what does one have to do with the other?”

“The spell we used to guard the Scroll of Summoning could only be unlocked by Indra,” Luna explained. “However, the description you gave us of this human makes him sound too young.”

“Not to mention the name,” Celestia went on. “I have never heard of this Uchiha clan…but you said that he did possess the same odd trait that Indra had?”

Twilight nodded in response. “Yes Princess.”

After a moment of silence, Celestia nodded. “Perhaps the seal had weakened over the millennia, allowing his descendents to unlock the seal,” she muttered before looking back up to her sister with a smirk. “Which means you have not won our bet yet, Luna.”

“You just don’t want to pay thousands of years of interest and inflation on ten bits,” the other alicorn deadpanned. “Princess of Stinginess.”

Ignoring her sister’s comment, Princess Celestia looked back down to her former student. “Then what happened after the information exchange Twilight?”

Twilight sighed and hung her head. “I’m afraid that’s it Princess,” the smaller alicorn replied. “I promised to help Sasuke if he needed it, and said that we all would. Then one of the other humans traveling with him, the one with the predator teeth reminded Sasuke they needed to get to their princess summit in order to meet with the other leaders of humanity. I’m assuming they intend to summon us to open negotiations.”

“Princess summit?” Celestia mumbled before looking up at Luna in confusion. The other alicorn just raised an eyebrow as if to say ‘why are you asking me?’ and then shrugged. It was an oddity. Human society was the opposite of Equestria in the way that the males of the species usually made the decisions after their empress had been dethroned by her sons.

“Apologies if I misconstrue this Twilight, but…thou make it sound as if our ancient cousins intend to meet with us soon,” Luna spoke up. “Mayhap even on this very day.”

Twilight nodded. “That’s what I gathered.”

Celestia blinked as she held down the rising bit of panic in her stomach. “And you’re telling us this now?”

The question got Twilight’s attention, and the tone made her a little hesitant. “W-Well it’s always best to explain events in a chronological order!” she said hastily as she tried to defend herself from whatever anger Celestia was about to bring down on her. “And you had so many questions about the humans I met, and I tried to remember what I could about the others, but I only really talked to Sasuke, and he only spoke in a few short sentences when he wasn’t giving one-word answers!”

Before Twilight could explode with nervousness, Celestia held up her hoof. “It’s alright my student, I am not angry with you. Since none of us have been summoned, there is no need for us to worry just yet. However, I would have liked more warning to prepare for a formal meeting. So we will need to hurry and have the servants fetch my formal wardrobe.”

“Unless the human-Maud guy poofed up Cadence!” Pinkie suggested. “Then things might be a bit more interesting since she doesn’t even know what’s going on at all!”

Celestia frowned. “Yes…we had best send a letter…no, that would be too slow. Luna, teleport to the crystal empire and retrieve Prince Cadence!” The last thing they needed was an interspecies incident when they were potentially on the verge of a new era of cooperation between humans and ponies. “Return here with her immediately, if she is still there.”

It wasn’t that Celestia believed Cadence incapable of handling herself now that the humans had become peaceful again after so long, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Sasuke stood on the large bridge of stone and wood while Karin and Madara Uchiha waited at a safe distance behind, cutting off the escape route of his target, the first of three…or fifteen thousand really; although he looked forward to killing the heads of the village more than the others. The rank and file ninja from further down the chain of command were just there to serve as the means of his revenge to the former Hokage who had passed away before Sasuke had learned the truth. Although, they all played a part in the ostracizing the Uchiha Clan and what came after.

But the man in front of him…he was the one responsible for everything.

Danzo Shimura, the former leader of the Leaf’s secret black ops division and current village leader, the Hokage. He was an old man with a wrinkled face that was scarred and half-covered in bandages, as old as the Third Hokage had been before Orochimaru killed him, who had been the leader of the village during the night when Sasuke came home to find his uncles, cousins, and parents all murdered by his brother and the man called Madara Uchiha. According to Madara, it had been Danzo who pushed for the assassination of the Uchiha Clan the hardest.

Sasuke still didn’t believe it was the whole story though. The Leaf had blamed his brother. His brother Itachi had taken responsibility while also pinning the blame on Madara. Then Madara said that Itachi had done what he did under orders from the Leaf.

And now a man from the Leaf’s upper echelon stood before Sasuke. He had chased the man to and out of the Kage summit, losing Suigetsu and Jugo in the process, but that didn’t matter at all. Because now he would finally get the full story, and his revenge.

“Shall we begin?” Danzo asked as he lifted an arm encased in a large metal shackle that had been hidden in his robes, then broke the seal on the lock to let the thing come apart and reveal an abomination of human modification ninjutsu.

Sasuke frowned at the odd human appendage. It was younger than the rest of his body, with a stronger chakra flow than normal. The most disturbing thing about it however, were the several eyes that protruded from the arm at various points, all moving around to try and look at what was going on.

Red eyes, with a tomoe design that matched Sasuke’s own. Sharingan.

“Where did you get those eyes?” the younger ninja asked in a cold tone.

The transplantation of Sharingan wasn’t unheard of. Sasuke’s former mentor had wanted a pair for his own before Sasuke killed him, his the teacher he had before that, Kakashi also possessed a stolen Sharingan eye, and Madara had salvaged Itachi’s Mangekyou Sharingan, not expecting Sasuke to turn them down.

“Does it really matter?” the older ninja asked in an even tone.

Sasuke considered the question for a second. In the end, the how, where, and even why made little difference. “I suppose not. I’ve already decided on killing you,” he said before beginning to walk towards the man. “Bu I do want one question answered before you die. Did you and the rest of the village leaders really order my brother Itachi to slaughter my clan?”

Instead of an answer, Sasuke saw the man clap his hands together, forming the seals of the rabbit, the boar and the sheep before he charged. The effect that the combination was unknown to Sasuke, and his eyes detected no illusions. So he simply waited on Danzo to close the gap between them while preparing his defensive counterattack.

Danzo’s fist made impact, and Sasuke stood still as his third Sharingan technique, the Susanoo formed around him to block the hit with a flaming purple rib cage composed of chakra that simply sprang into existence at will. Then, as the older ninja was thrown off balance by the unexpected resistance, a giant skeletal arm grew from the skeletal shoulder to swoop in and swipe Danzo up in its grip.

A familiar pain filled Sasuke’s body as the use of his transformed Mangekyou Sharingan eyes took their toll on him, but he ignored it in favor of the man in front of him. Unlike his first time using the technique, he was fresh and ready for the feeling.

“So, this is your Susanoo?” Danzo asked calmly as if the younger ninja didn’t hold the man’s life in the palm of his hand.

“I asked you if it was true!” Sasuke shouted.

For a moment the older ninja was silent, then he let out a long sigh. “Damn you Itachi, you really did tell the boy all your secrets before you died,” he grumbled. “I guess he really did love you.”

Sasuke grit his teeth at the conformation, as what Madara had told him a few days earlier echoed in his mind. “Your brother wanted you to grow up believing the Uchiha Clan was the pride of the Hidden Leaf Village, never to know the truth. From the day he left Konohagakure, he had planned to die fighting you.

“He sullied his own name, and traded your love for hate, keeping up his façade to the bitter end. Yet he was still able to die with a smile on his face.”

As if he could hear the younger ninja’s thoughts, Danzo began to speak. “To be a shinobi is to sacrifice oneself for the village. It is your duty to close your eyes to the light, and live in darkness. That is the truth of this world. Thanks to them, the peace is preserved. However, you are not like your brother…or perhaps you are. By telling you of the truth, Itachi has betrayed his purpose, just as you have.”

“Tell that to all the people who died for your peace when I send you to them. And never speak of my brother again,” Sasuke said before willing the skeletal hand of his chakra golem that held the man to make a fist. The appendage of purple energy closed so fast that Danzo’s body became an eruption of blood from the massive change in pressure.

The musculature of the Susanoo formed around him, keeping the blood from hitting him while he smiled at the sight. And that’s one, Sasuke thought…

…at least until he heard the sound of a ninja sandal landing behind him.

Sasuke looked behind him to see the impossible. Danzo was alive and well, and holding a pointed ninja dagger ready for a jab. “Yes, from now on, let us speak with our eyes!” the old man spoke before thrusting his weapon forward.

It broke on the Susanoo’s outer layer, and Sasuke brought his golem’s fist down from above to turn the old shinobi into a smeared collection of blood, guts and bone while Karin and Madara watched from nearby.

“Impressive. Your Susanoo has both an incredible defense, and offensive capabilities.”

Sasuke frowned and looked up to one of the stone pillars that sat on the edge of the bridge. Danzo stood there, completely unharmed and despite Sasuke’s failing sight, he could tell it was no illusion. Nor had the others been.

Each time, with every attack, Sasuke had watched the man die with his Sharingan, an eye that could see through the most powerful of illusions. So how…how is he doing that?

Still wrapped within the defense of his golem’s bone and muscle, Sasuke willed the Susanoo to stretch upwards until it was within striking range, and then struck Danzo hard enough to shatter the pillar he was standing on.

This time, the man dodged by leaping a good twenty feet away, out of the Susanoo’s reach.

Sasuke focused his chakra in his left eye and closed it for a moment. Then he felt the tears of blood beginning to form, and opened it again to unleash his Amaterasu. A second later, Danzo burst into flames that were as black as night, and fell to the ground dead as Sasuke let his chakra golem dissipate.

“Using both Amaterasu and Susanoo is going to wear you out if you keep overextending yourself like that,” Madara called out from behind him.

Sasuke ignored him. If Danzo had switched to dodging attacks, whatever trick he was using to survive death had ended.

The sound of someone making a hand-sign caught Sasuke’s attention, and he turned in time to see Danzo releasing a barrage of long-range, wind style attacks. A jump at the last second kept all but one from striking anything but a glancing blow to the shoulder. However, the unexpected attack left Sasuke in the air, open to attack, and had taken him beyond the bridge to allow for a quick landing that would allow him to raise his guard. Crap.

With no other options, Sasuke clapped his hands together a few times to make the proper signs, then took blood from the wound on his arm before completing the summoning.

“I’m boooooooooooooored!”

Twilight sighed and looked over to her earth pony friend. “Pinkie. You don’t have to stick around here. Princess Celestia says that only alicorns can be called to the unification summit anyway,” she said before looking down to her dress. It wasn’t as immaculate as Princess Celestia’s, Luna’s or Cadence’s…but Twilight was a simple mare at heart and Rarity took that into consideration when she made it.

“But it’s been so long, hours! When are the humans going to call us so I can start planning my super double world interspecies mega party?” she whined.

“Twilight,” Princess Celestia spoke up, drawing the smallest alicorn’s attention.

“Yes Princess?” Twilight asked as she quickly reviewed everything she could remember about humanity. She wondered if the princess needed any reminders about the human’s magic, or their odd accents, or the name of the human who summoned her, or some of the theories she had come up with since returning from Humania; the name Twilight chose to christen their world or country since she had forgot to ask just what it was called.

Then Princess Celestia…hoofed Twilight the dice. “It’s your turn Twilight.”

Twilight sighed, and took the dice in her hoof before rolling them on the center of the Monopony board. “Five. Let’s see that means-”

“HA! You have come within my demesne of Boardtrot! Where I have positioned the red house of exuberant fees!” Luna exclaimed in triumph as she held out a hoof. “Pay my wage, or incur my wrath!”

The purple alicorn blinked. “But…it…you…that’s statistically impossible! The odds of anypony landing on that space are less than three percent!”

Luna smirked. “Yet here you are.”

“For the third time in a row!” Twilight shouted. “I’m mortgaged up to my eyeballs here! I don’t have anything left!”

As Twilight growled at the larger alicorn and wondered if she was somehow cheating, despite the dice having multiple disenchantment spells cast upon them, she noticed Pinkie trembling out of the corner of her eye. “Uh, nopony gave her coffee, did they? We made a law against that at the last princess summit.”

“Woobly, wobbly, timey-wimey!” Pinkie exclaimed. “Woobly wobbly, timey-wimey!”

Twilight and the other princesses turned to look at the pink pony.

“They finally calling?” Celestia asked.

“But my victory was assured!” Luna exclaimed, earning a roll of the eyes from her older sister.

Cadence looked around for a minute. “Are we supposed to feel a tingling or something?”

The last of the princesses sighed in relief. Not that she felt any shame for losing a game of chance based off of a modern economic principle that hadn’t even existed in Luna’s time.

Then, one of the alicorns surrounding the game board disappeared in a puff of smoke, and they all stared at the empty space.

“Wait…the humans picked her?” Pinkie yelled.