Author's Note
Hey everyone. My name is Bioeffect and this is my first story on Fimfiction. I'm a massive fan of both MLP:FIM and Naruto and thought to myself why not?
Without any further ado:
Enjoy!
In the beginning.
"Grand assimilation jutsu!" Naruto faintly heard the lone shout across the battlefield. the voice of said shout belonged to a certain Madara uchiha, the madman whose insane scheme of peace shattered the lives of many people. He planned the assassinations of leaders, the destruction of entire villages and a complete genocide if neccesary for his plans.
The five great elemental nations launched one massive assault on the madman and his last two companions. This was however easier said then done, as Obito was a full fledged uchiha with one implanted rinnegan and the corpses of the six dead jinchuuriki as puppets, and Zetsu not only had the ability to create thousands of solid living copies of himself, but also had the legendary mokuton abilities of the shodai hokage. Needless to say that even when the allied shinobi forces outnumbered the remnants of the akatsuki, 25.000 to 1, the ancient shinobi proved that quality always prevailed over quantity by flinging mass destruction jutsu around like it was nothing. It turned even worse for the shinobi allies when Obito managed to revive the juubi with pieces that he gathered from the hachibi and the kyuubi. Madara's immortal edo tensei body proved to be a bitch since everytime someone managed to inflict a lethal wound on the old warmonger, it would simply regenerate within seconds. the combination of Zetsu's massive-scale wood jutsu, Obito's rinnegan jutsu and Madara's susano'o quickly decimated the entire army and soon only the most resilient remained standing. It was then that Madara jumped on top of the juubi's head and called out to the hundred or so surviving shinobi.
"I commend you for surviving this long against me and my associates. The mere fact that you are standing in front of me, means that you all have excepional skill. Skill that will surely help me in my cause." He finished with a dark smirk plastered across his face. Zetsu folded his hands into the serpent sign and called out. "Wood release, divine forest emergence!"
An absolutely humongous amount of roots erupted from the ground around the survivors that mowed their way to the center, trapping Naruto and the other survivors. vines started to surround them and sapped them from a great part of their chakra, rendering all attempts to escape useless. The vines constricted, creating human shaped cocoons with the shinobi trapped inside. Madara's smirk got even wider as he went through a long series of hand seals and stopped at the dragon sign. "Your knowledge, chakra and powers will all be mine!"
"Grand assimilation jutsu!" He called, and one vine attached itself to him, Zetsu and Obito. one by one, the cocoons started to deflate as the people trapped inside were absorbed inside the three superhuman shinobi. Naruto felt his own conciousness fade as he saw his body break down into the paper-like substance that existed inside an edo tensei body.
'Will it truly end like this?' He thought as his legs disappeared and parts of his stomach got tainted. 'The war. the training I went through. the bonds I created. Were they truly all for nothing?' He began to question to himself. he had lost Kurama a few hours prior to the assimilation due to Obito's soul-separating abilities. His friends were all dead due to Zetsu's mokuton and he couldn't feel either Gaara's or Sasuke's chakra anymore. Meaning that the two of them have already been assimilated into Madara. As Naruto's arms and torso broke down, and the jutsu began to affect his head, he began to see flashes of memories. His childhood, his rivalry with Sasuke, the team excercises with Kakashi and team 7, old man sandaime hokage, his fight with Gaara, losing Sasuke, training with Jiraiya, his fights with the several akatsuki members, battling Nagato, granny Tsunade, Hinata's confession, Killer Bee's training and finally his parents. He could see both his parents standing in front of him inside the white room inside his seal. His mother, with her brilliant red hair and stunning violet eyes, smiling, and his father with his spiky blond hair and his cerulean eyes, grinning like an idiot. The two held a small bundle between them. The bundle was a blonde baby with wisker marks. the two adults smiled at it, before his vision turned to black. Only a third of his head was now left. One eye, and the surrounding skin that was still falling apart.
The eye closed.
'No...'
The eye opened again, showing an orange pupil iris with a strange cross shaped pupil and the flow of chakra going out of his cocoon stopped before reversing, pulling it back in.
'I refuse to die here...'
the breakdown of his body reversed too. first his head reformed, then his neck, and slofly his shoulders and torso returned too.
'I FUCKING REFUSE TO DIE LIKE THIS!' He roared in his mind as he began to pull the chakra from the web of vines towards him.
Outside, Madara felt that something was wrong. Obito and Zetsu felt it too, but before they could pull the vines loose, their bodies started to disintegrate like the ones inside the cocoons. They screamed in agony as the two S-clas nin could feel their chakra getting ripped away.
"It's that little uzumaki shit!" Zetsu roared as he tried to pry the vines out of his back. Obito panicked and started to run through hand signs. Suddenly, he began to spasm as the breakdown of his body accelerated. within seconds, he was sucked into the vines. Dead before he could even scream. Zetsu was already half gone when he crawled over to Madara.
"Lord Madara! help me, please!" He begged the ancient shinobi. Madara simply looked down as he raised his leg, and kicked Zetsu in the face, crushing his skull and killing him instantly. Zetsu's body got sucked into the vines and Madara grinned. He raised his left hand and saw that his little finger and ring finger had already vanished.
"You truly are full of suprises huh Uzumaki? very well. I know when I am defeated, however I shall not go down without leaving you a little present. He lifted his right hand up into the sky and made a half ram sign. Underneath him the eye of the juubi lit up, and the incarnation of destruction was awakened from it's mindless state. The ground shook and the trees got uprooted as it roared. The shockwave of the roar shattered Madara's edo tensei body. The body dispersed and the vines sucked the chakra out of every part. The vines retracted back into the forest as the daidouka jutsu wore off. The juubi, for what seemed like hours, stood quietly staring at the artificial forest as the chakra levels inside started to rise to a level that rivaled it's own.
A shockwave erupted from the middle of the forest. The trees ripped away in a circular fashion as a monstrous tornado formed around a figure in the middle. The figure was no-one less then Naruto uzumaki himself. His shirt was torn away, and black seal-like lines were spread out across his chest and arms. His eyes were an orang tint, his hair a tad longer and defying gravity even as his forehead protector was gone. His entire body glowed an ethereal orange as he gazed at his hands, the left now posessing a black moon-like mark in the palm and the right one having a white sun-like mark etched on it. The pants he wore were ripped around his ankles and the tears flowed in the wind. He was barefoot as his sandals were ripped away when the trees attacked. The juubi roared as it raised it's hand and brought it down, aiming to crush the human in front of it. Naruto raised his own hand and waited until the last moment. When the hand was almost touching his, he roared
"Wind release: Gale palm!"
A wave of violent winds shot out of his palm, and deflected that of the juubi, throwing the great beast off balance and onto it's back. Naruto jumped up, before flipping through hand signs. He made a pushing motion as a pure white chakra gathered in front of him and with a roar of "Extreme white noise!" A white dragon holding a purple orb shot at the beast's face, before exploding in a dome of white light and an extremely high pitched screeching sound, both blinding and deafening the great demon.
"The Rikudou Sennin might have had trouble with you, but he only had the very beginnings of ninjutsu. He had the raw power, but he lacked the refinement we have today." He mumbled as he calmly walked up to the beast. He folded his hands into the serpent seal and called out "Wood release: deep forest emergence."
Massive roots erupted from the ground before restricting the beast's limbs and tails. Naruto jumped on top of the beast's stomach, before charging a rasenshuriken. He jumped up with chakra enhancing his legs, firing him into the air like a missile. At the peak of his jump, he purposely overloaded his rasenshuriken. The wind blades grew to frightening lengths and the core grew to the size of a chou oodama rasengan. He cocked back his arm and with a roar of "Wind release: Massive giant rasenshuriken!" He threw the wind shuriken, not caring that he was still inside the blast radius. in fact, as he threw it he smiled one of his few genuine smiles. The shuriken made contact with the beast's belly before collapsing into itself. For a single moment everything stopped. There was no wind, no sound, no movement. Even the rasenshuriken seemed so small that it was about to vanish into thin air. Naruto's smile turned into a cruel smirk.
"Boom." He whispered just before all hell broke loose. The rasenshuriken expanded into a massive dome of violent gales. Miniscule wind blades ripped into both Naruto and the juubi. Naruto laughed like a madman as the juubi screamed in agony. The microscopic wind blades cut into it's body, shredding it's chakra and dispersing it into the air. Naruto's body kept falling apart, however due to Madara's edo-tensei body as soon as it fell apart, it regenerated, keeping Naruto alive. after what seemed like an eternity, the wind subsided and all that was left of the battlefield was one single crater, a mile in diameter. The juubi's chakra was now nothing more then a red mist. Naruto crash-landed in the middle of the crater. The lines lining his chest and arms lit up as he slammed both of his palms onto the ground. The lines crawled off of him into the ground, forming an intricate sealing matrix.
"Gotta hand it to Madara. he was an ass, but god damn did he know his fuuinjutsu." He concentrated on the red mist that was already slowly reforming back into a solid body. He grabbed the mist with his own chakra as he called out " Divine earth absorption seal!"
The mist swirled slowly at first, but gradually it picked up speed. Naruto carved a swirl into the center of the sealing matrix and as soon as he linked the juubi's chakra to it, the chakra got sucked into the earth like a vacuum. The sealing matrix glowed a bright red as the mist vanished. Then the last of the red mist was sucked in, Naruto slashed the stone containing the swirl in half, effectively destroying the activation key of the seal. The sealing matrix turned blue, before disappearing completely. Naruto sighed as he stood up.
"As your chakra originated from the earth, your chakra shall return to the earth. Farewell... shinju." He used a small doton jutsu to seal up the crater and began carving the names of his fallen friends into several stones.
xxXXxxXxXXx
-two years later-
xxXXxxXxXXx
Naruto sat crosslegged deep inside a cave. In front of him stood a giant scroll with a massive, detailed sealing matrix. In his right hand he held a brush. With quick and precise strokes he added the finishing touches to his seal. He put his brush down and smiled as he observed his handiwork. He inspected every stroke, dot and line on the seal with extreme care.
"Perfect." He said to himself as he laid the scroll down. He stood up and stretched his back with a yawn. He stepped into the center of the scroll and put his hands in a rat sign while he channeled chakra into the seal through his feet. "I guess it's time to say goodbye to this world. It's been fun, but it's time that I actually start living from now on. I just hope that the next world will be a peaceful one by the time my memories return." He shrugged as the seal began to light up. "Dimentional transcendence seal." He grinned as his body began to fall apart into edo tensei shreds and his soul got sucked into the seal before everything turned black.
When he woke up, the first thing he noticed was that he was covered in grey fur. He was covered in red blankets and... small.
He looked up, and could see that he lied in front of a door. He turned around, only to see trees. As far as he could see, there were trees. It was getting dark, and he could see in the sky that it was going to rain soon so he had to make do and did the one thing his instincts screamed at him.
He cried.
He let out the most heart wrenching cry a baby could make and squeezed some tears out. Soon he could hear a deep voice behind the door speaking with a lighter voice before the door opened. In front of him stood what looked like an anthromorphic horse. He had a yellow coat with a hite muzzle and a deep red mane. His eyes were brown and he had some sort of wooden cup-like mark on the side of his leg. He wore a woodcutter's shirt and a stetson hat. His legs were horse-like, meaning that they ended in hooves, while his arms were just like a furry human's, meaning that they ended in hands, with fingers. He bowed down and carefully lifted Naruto's small frame up.
"Hello there li'l one. Who're you?" He asked in a deep bass-like voice with a southern accent. Both the baby and the adult then noticed a small piece of paper attached to the back of his blanket. On it stood only one word, and one word alone.
'Maelstrom.'
"Maelstrom eh? That's a mighty strong name ya got there, kid." He hummed, smiling.
"What was that Cider?" A sweet feminine voice rang from behind the adult stallion and the now named Cider turned around to the voice. Behind him stood a red coated mare. Her mane was dark blonde and her eyes were a bright apple green. She wore a white sundress and a pink bow in her braided mane. The sundress flowed freely and Naruto could see a large bump on her stomach. "It's a baby." He said to the mare. A tick mark on the side of her muzzle formed and she bumped his head fith a fist. "No shit sherlock!" She exclaimed. "What's it doing here?" She asked while holding her own belly. He shrugged.
"This li'l one just lied in front of our door with this note attached to his blanket. It says Maelstrom so I guess that's his name." He explained to her. She pulled the blanket aside, revealing his face and a small horn potruded from his head, revealing that he was an unicorn. Naruto, or as he was now named, Maelstrom yawned cutely. The foal shut its eyes and snuggled into Cider's arm, making both adults gush a little bit.
"Peachy, we can't let him out there. we both know just how bad that orphanage is in canterlot and we have enough space on the farm anyway." Cider began while his wife stared at him.
"Hard Cider. Are you suggesting that we should take a foal into our household while I'm eight months pregnant?" She asked him blankly. Cider smiled at her while rubbing her bump with one free hand.
"Why not? Looking at this li'l one's age, I guess he's about seven months old. I think he'll make a mighty fine older brother for our li'l Macintosh. We can get Granny Smith to help us with them and when he grows up We can see if he can go to that fancy unicorn school in Canterlot. Come on Peachy Pie, if we send li'l maelstrom to the orphanage, he won't have a chance of a childhood at all." He reasoned with his wife. She contemplated his words and had to agree that he had a point. She looked at the sleeping foal in her husband's arm and sighed deeply.
'Celestia damn those maternal instincts.' She growled in her head. "Fine. We'll adopt li'l Maelstrom. But only because he's so damn cute." She relented and Cider suppressed the urge to cheer.
The two put Maelstrom in the crib they had bought for Macintosh and quietly closed the door.
If only they knew what this little foal would mean to equestria in the future.
xxXXxxXxXXx
-Three years later-
xxXXxxXxXXx
Both Maelstrom and 'big' Macintosh were now three years old and both young parents couldn't be happier. Maelstrom and Macintosh both turned out to be relatively quiet children. they got along just fine and shared almost everything and both of them, especially Maelstrom, turned out to be quite intelligent toddlers. a little too intelligent sometimes. hard Cider sometimes had a hard time to keep his eye on both foals as they often seemed to work together to get what they wanted. sometimes Macintosh would try to make a conversation with his father (which is quite hard since he mostly spoke in one word scentences), while Maelstrom would sneak into the kitchen and grab a couple of applefritters, or Maelstrom would perform a small magic trick (usually just making things fly randomly or conjuring sparks from his horn) while Macintosh would run outside to go 'adventuring' in the orchard, only to be dragged back by a very amused Granny Smith.
"mommy? daddy?" Maelstrom ran up to his father with an 'innocent' smile on his face. Cider and Peachy both stopped bucking the trees and turned to see their eldest child.
"yes sweety?" Peachy asked with a pleasant smile on her muzzle while Cider wiped the sweat off his brows.
"why do you kick those trees?" he asked innocently.
"to get to the apples, dear." Peachy answered.
"why?" he asked again.
" to gather an' sell 'em." Cider answered for his wife.
"why?"
"to earn our bits."
"why?"
"so we can buy you food and clothes sweety."
"why?"
"so y'all can stay healthy." Cider grunted curtly, getting more then a little bit irritated by now.
"why?"
"so you can both grow up big and really strong."
"why?" by now Granny Smith was silently snickering in the background while hard Cider was desperately trying not to eat his own hat out of frustration. let it be known that hard Cider, as much as he loved both his boys, was never a patient pony. Peachy tried to keep smiling as she kept answering his questions.
"so that you can- wait a minute-" she narrowed her eyes in realisation. " BIG MACINTOSH, IF I CATCH YOU NICKIN' APPLEFRITTERS AGAIN, YOUR ASS IS GRASS!" she suddenly roared as she turned towards the farmhouse. her roar also drew Cider's attention as he too, turned his head to the farm. big mistake on their part because as soon as they turned around, little Maelstrom started sprinting towards the barn like the timberwolfes were hot on his hooves with Macintosh right behind him.
"Maelstrom!" both parents roared at their sons retreating forms while Granny Smith was by now rolling on the floor in laughter.
'Oh fuck!'
"tactical retreat!"
"eeyup!"
xxXXxxXxXXx
-Four years later-
xxXXxxXxXXx
"Aww ma, do I have to go to magic school?" A seven year old Maelstrom asked his mother who gently pushed him through the massive double doors leading to the examination hall. She gave him a gentle smile before she sat down on one knee and looked him in the eyes. "Yes Maelstrom ya do. If you don't then you won't learn to control your magic properly and we wouldn't want that now, would we?" Her tone was gentle, yet slightly stern.
He didn't particularly know why he was hesitant to leave them for now. He figured it was probably due to te fact that he'd never been separated from his family before and the thought itself scared him a bit. He loved Peachy, Cider, Granny Smith, Mac and the most recent addition, the one year old Applejack unconditionally and he didn't want to be apart from them, no matter how much he wanted to learn to harness his inborn powers.
It was only a three months ago that he'd manage to cast more than just sparks with his magic and he had produced a small red fireball between his hands. When he went to show his father he got an earful.
'...Perhaps it wasn't a very good idea to show off pyrokinesis in a hay barn.' He thought in hindsight. But aside from the earful his pa gave him, the family was incredibly proud of him. Even Applejack happily cheered at the sight of the pretty coloured fireball.
He eventually nodded and moved through the doors. On the other side, a bunch of unicorn children were trying to impress small groups of judges, who scribbled into their notebooks whenever something happened. A friendly looking mare holding a clipboard walked up to them with a thousand watt smile.
"Good afternoon!" She began, excessively chipper. "May I know your names to see where you're appointed?" Peachy patted Maelstrom on his head with a wide grin before giving her their specifics. The mare led them to the back of the hall where four rather serious unicorns sat with their pens ready to dish out judgement.
"Name." The eldest of the four said curtly as if expecting him to comply like a dog.
Wrong!
"Manners." Little Maelstrom shot back much to the displeasure and shock of the elder mare. "Excuse me?"
"Mind your manners lady." The grey coated child said in a rather condescending tone, even going as far as to wave his index finger at her in a 'tut tut'. "Bu since you asked me so nicely my name is Maelstrom Zap apple Smith. A pleasure to meet'cha." He shot sarcastically while the mare, furious after being put in her place by a seven year old, wrote in her notebook.
"Your test is simple. conjure a single tier one spell. The spell itself is your own choice." An elder stallion spoke up.
Maelstrom nodded before furrowing his brow in concentration and focusing his magic between his hands. Before long a small fireball sparked to life between his hands and grew until it was about the size of a beach ball. He then separated his hands and split the fireball in two basketball sized fireballs.
His concentration broke as he heard soft clapping behind him. He let the fireballs dissipate and looked up at the four elder unicorns who stared at him, or rather what was behind him, in shock. He turned around and almost fell flat on his ass as he cast his gaze upon what was probably the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen.
She was tall and very curvy, yet not out of proportion like some artisdts always drew her. Her coat was as white as fresh snow and both her mane and tail were like aurora's that lazily flowed in the nonexistent wind. Her muzzle was slender and everything about the mare's round, royal purple eyes radiated kindness, wisdom and a certain mischief.
She wore a white sleeveless dress with golden trimmings and a golden sun expertly embroidered in the side of the skirt part. Over her dress she wore a white shoulder cape held closed by a golden chestplate, that had two very wide sleeves which reminded Maelstrom of the miko's from his former homeworld with sky blue edges. In the back of the dress two large holes allowed her large swanlike wings to freely move and a smaller hole allowed her tail to stick out. On top of her head, on her long horn rested a golden crown with a massive Amethyst embedded in the middle.
"Oh no, please don't mind me. Please continue." She said with a warm smile on her face. Maelstrom of course knew about the ruling princess but he had always thought that the stories he heard about Celestia's beauty were exaggerated... Now he wanted to punch the people telling him for not giving the mare enough credit.
"O-Of course." He stuttered before regaining his concentration and starting where he left off. He held the two fireballs in his hands before spreading his arms wide and making the fireballs slowly spread out to form a ring around him. After holding this for a few seconds he clapped his hands and the ring burst apart into embers that lazily floated around for a few fleeting moments before they too vanished.
He blushed as Celestia clapped again with a large smile played on her muzzle, prompting the elder unicorns to clap as well. Though their smiles were a lot more forced.
'Bunch of ass kissin' yes-men.' Mael though with a hint of venom towards them. For some reason he'd always hated that type of people and that gave him a little trouble with this type of authority figures. He looked up at the princess and could read in her expression that she disliked the forced smiles about as much as he did.
His mother, who seemed to be stuck in between shock and overwhelming maternal pride as she stared at the princess enjoying her son's performance couldn't utter a single word.
"You have a lot of control for one as young as yourself." Celestia began while subtly reaching out with her magic to his to get a rough idea of his reserves. "Especially seeing as elemental magic is a more advanced type of magic. Where did you learn this?" She was rather impressed with the raw amount of latent magic was stuck in his body. His useable reserves were almost double the amount of the minimum a standard royal guard was required to have and thus four times as much as a full grown unicorn. Yet that only seemed like a cup compared to the veritable ocean that something in his subconcious seemed to hold back.
"I dunno." Maelstrom shrugged with a small blush at the praise the princess gave him. "I was practicing my magic in the barn an' I made a flame. Afterwards I practiced every day to make a bigger flame without burnin' the barn down. It just came naturally I guess." His response was short and simple, Much as Celestia had expected. This child knew nothing of the massive power just beyond his fingertips and was a natural at using one of the hardest forms of magic manipulation out there. With the proper guidance and nurturing he could be a great magister.
That did it.
"I see." Celestia said with a kind smile. "May I know your name?" Maelstrom looked over to his mother who made a 'go on' motion with her hands.
"My name's Maelstrom. I'm from the Apple clan."
This confused the millenium old ruler. She knew that the Apple clan consisted of nothing but earthponies. There haven't been any known unicorn or pegasus births within the clan since it's founding eight hundred years ago. Her clarification came in the form of the young boy's previously silent mother.
"Me an' my husband adopted lil' Maelstrom when he was still a foal. Someone put him on our doorstep and we decided to take him in as one of our own. As far as anyone's concerned, Maelstrom's just the first unicorn from our family an' nothin' less."
"Darn tootin'!" Maelstrom yelled excidedly before being bopped on the head by Peachy. "Now what'd I tell you about cussin'?" She scolded him as he nursed his sore spot.
"But granny says it all the time! Why can she say it while I can't? That ain't fair!"
"Granny's ninety four years old. You're seven."
Maelstrom responded by sticking his tongue out followed by a sprint while Peachy tried to grab him again. Celestia couldn't help but laugh at the comical sight of the bickering mother/son duo, fondly remembering her own mother before she vanished.
"May I know your name as well miss?" Peachy let go of her eldest son's collar when she realised the question was aimed at her.
"Me? I'm Peachy Pie. A pleasure to meet you milady." The mare said with a small bow. Celestia smiled as she waited for the mare to stand straight again. She turned to Maelstrom again with the same kind smile she had earlier.
"You have an exceptional gift, did you know that?" She asked Maelstrom, who shook his head. "I didn't know. Up to three months ago all I was able to do was make stuff float an' make sparks with my horn."
"That is precisely what I mean. If what you told me is true, than that means that you've made more progress in three months than most unicorns do in a full year. That's why I want to ask if you want to become my student."
...
...
"Say what?"