Ring eyed Shinobi

Chapters

Arc 1 Chapter 2: Introductions
Arc 1 Chapter 3: Awakened
Arc 1 Finale: Meeting Royalty
Arc 2 Chapter 1: Captain vs Ninja
Arc 2 Chapter 2: Knowledge Given
Arc 2 Chapter 3: Everfree Expedition
Arc 2 Chapter 4: New ways
Arc 2 Finale: Ticket Master
Arc 3 Chapter 1: Lessons begin
Arc 3 Chapter 2: From the ground...
Arc 3 Chapter 3: Life Within the Forest
Arc 3 Chapter 4: Reunion
Arc 3 Chapter 5: Revelation
Arc 3 Finale: Rebirth
Arc 4 Chapter 1: Giving Opportunities
Arc 4 Chapter 2: Behind the Veil
Arc 4 Chapter 3: Captured (Part 1/3 “Bound”)
Arc 4 Chapter 4: Captured ( 2/3 “Freedom”)
Arc 4 Chapter 5: Captured (Finale “Saviors”)
Arc 4 Chapter 6: Catching Up
Arc 4 Finale: A game to play
Arc 5 Chapter 1: Kindhearted (Republished)
Arc 5 Chapter 2: Mostly quiet day
The Scaled Mage Appears (Non-Canon Chapter)
Arc 5 Chapter 3: Black Hurricane
Arc 5 Chapter 4: The Gala (Part 1/3)
Arc 5 Chapter 5: The Gala (Part 2/3)
Arc 5 Chapter 6: The Gala (Finale)
Arc 5 Chapter 6.5: The Gala (Epilogue)
Arc 5 Finale: Heated interlude
Arc 6 Chapter 1: Loss
Arc 6 Chapter 2: Chaos Reigns (Awaken)
Arc 6 Chapter 4: Hero of Virtue (1/2)
Arc 6 Finale: Hero of Virtue (2/2)
Arc 7: Mysteries (Arrival)
Arc 7: Mysteries (Experience)
Arc 7: Mysteries (Average day?)
Arc 7: Mysteries (Old Bonds)
Arc 7: Mysteries (Monster)
Arc 7: Mysteries Finale (Case Closed)
Arc 8 Chapter 1: A plan
Arc 8 Chapter 2: Planning Events
Arc 8 Chapter 3: New allies, newer enemies
Arc 8 Chapter 4: Dragon Quest
Arc 8 Chapter 5: A new Wave
Arc 8 Chapter 6: Blazing Wings (part 1/2)
Arc 8 Chapter 7: Blazing Wings (2/2)
Arc 8 Chapter 8: Reduced
Arc 8 Finale: Unleashed
Arc 9 Chapter 1: Release (Part 1)
Arc 9 Chapter 2: Release (Part 2)
Arc 9 Chapter 3: Release (part 3)
Arc 9 Chapter 5: Release (Finale)
Prologue: Worlds Overlap
Arc 1 Chapter 1: An unusual being in an unusual forest
Arc 4 Chapter 2.5: Party and Preparation
Arc 6 Chapter 3: Chaos Reigns (To Rest)
Arc 9 Chapter 4: Release (Part 4)

Arc 1 Chapter 2: Introductions

“I know I’m just supposed to carry him but after seeing that he isn’t actually a pony, I’m just too excited with the new research opportunities.” Twilight thought.

“Twi you ain’t gettin any funny ideas are ya?” Applejack asked scaring her out of her stupor

“Oh! Uh...nope, no ideas here Applejack.” She smiled trying to hide her lie

“Of course ya got em, I think I can carry ‘im back. Doesn’t look to be too heavy, maybe ya can go help Wall with that weapon.” She said leaving no room for argument

Twilight sighed knowing she wouldn’t get to conduct any field research, but remembered that the opportunity will be back while walking over to Wall where he was eyeing that strange club. She heard him muttering to himself

“I just don’t get it, how can he call this a sword?” he asked himself.

“It doesn’t look like any sword I’ve ever seen.” Twilight added before beginning to analyze it with her magic.

“It seems that underneath the wrappings are...” She stopped once she noticed her magic was being drained quickly and this caused her to fall on her flank

“Miss Twilight!” Wall rushed to her. “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine, it just felt like my magic was being drained faster by the second.” She said still feeling lightheaded

“So I guess we have to carry it by hand, well if he could do it so easily then I shouldn’t struggle too much.” Wall said before picking the weapon up by the handle

“I take that back some, it almost feels like I’m carrying another stallion. We might have to figure out a diff- AGH!” Twilight heard him get cut off and came in worry and looked at his hands

“Are those cuts on your palm?!” She asked in total shock wondering how that happened when Twilight noticed the handle of the sword had spikes on it

“That bucking sword just sliced my hand!” He nearly screamed in frustration, the others rushed over to see what happened

“What happened to the Captain?” Pinkie questioned, her mane slightly straightening

“I-I don’t know. He tried picking the weapon up and complained about the weight then it just a spike went through his hand.” Twilight said as she healed his wounds

“Who said that?” Fluttershy asked causing the rest of the group to look around not seeing anything that could speak

“Fluttershy, nopony else is around. And we didn’t hear anything.” Twilight said getting concerned with her friend’s mental health

A rustling noise catches the group’s attention as they look down at the mysterious boy’s weapon and see it shifting

“It just said ‘you aren’t my master’” Fluttershy squeaked out before hiding behind Pinkie Pie

“Ok that thing can move and can talk?!” Rainbow said with a panicked expression before backing away

The sword grew a spike from under a wrap and vaulted towards Applejack

“Applejack look out!” Everyone yelled as she jumped to the side and dodged the weapon

“That was too close fer me. Good thing ah didn’t drop ‘im.” Applejack said in relief

“Wait, if the weapon just said something about a master then...” She said before yelling; “APPLEJACK! Put the colt down!”

“Are ya sure that’s such a good idea?” Applejack nearly deadpanned while saying that

“Yes, the sword just wants to go back to him.” She said as she slowly began to put him on the sand below them. Almost immediately the sword bounded at him again and landed next to his arm

“I heard it again, it said ‘Wake up’” Twilight heard Fluttershy whisper as I saw something She’d ask about as soon as the opportunity arose. The handle of the sword wrapped around the boy’s forearm and slowly transferred a bit of some energy to him.

===================================

Zeko’s head was ringing as he woke up trying to remember how he blacked out.

“Ok so I remember meeting some people and they told me something that I couldn’t handle... but what was it?”

“You figured out you’re in a different world silly!” An energetic voice said, breaking his personal silence

“Wait who said that?” He asked as his vision came back revealing an excessively hyper Pinkie Pie.”I did!” The she said before getting pulled back by Applejack

“So is everyone here a different color?” Zeko pondered remembering that all of the guards were male and white in color

“Now Pinkie don’t get too close to ‘im, he might try and hurt ya.” She said with a strange accent

I decide to play a trick and put myself about 20 feet behind them and leave a sand clone in my place

“I don’t think he’s so tough, I could mop the floor with him any day.” The blue one with rainbow hair said before getting ready to push my clone back down

“Is having that hair possible in any world?”

Rainbow Dash prodded the boy but her typical cocky expression was changed by one of pure shock as he and his blade turned to sand

“I-I di-didn’t think he w-was so out of it.” She said fighting back the urge to break down entirely as her friends stared in horror

“Is he d-d-dead?” Twilight asked as Rarity and some of the guards fainted from shock

“It looks like he’s passed to me.” Zeko said from behind Twilight who turned and screamed along with everyone else. After that they stood defensively.

“Hold on a second, let’s try this again ok?” Zeko said trying to calm them down before he lost any means to figure out his situation

“Now that wasn’t very kind of ya.” Applejack retorted

“How’d you do that?” Rainbow asked happy that she didn’t kill a child

“Let’s get names out of the way first. I’m Zeko Kusanabe, I already know Fortified Wall so what are your names ladies?” He asked with a calm demeanor as to not seem flirtatious

“You’ve got some nerve talking to us as if you desire a mate!” Rarity nearly yelled.

“Rarity calm down, he’s just a colt he doesn’t mean it that way.” Twilight said trying to calm her now irate friend

“Rarity I assure you that while you are an attractive female, I am not flirting with you.” She blushed at hearing this.

Pinkie Pie decided to jump in at this point; “Well my name’s Pinkamena Diane Pie but you can call me Pinkie Pie and these are my friends Rarity, Twilight, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack!” She pointed to each mare in order

“Well I guess it’s nice to meet you all, now I know there are questions and I’ll answer 3 on the way.”

“On the way to what?” Twilight asked taken aback by this sudden cooperation

“Your princess, she believes meeting me is important so lead the way.” Zeko responded with a nod in the direction they came from

This was a surprise to everyone since they had heard him decline before but he had changed his mind so quickly.

===================================

“So how did you get here?” Twilight asked holding a quill and a notebook jittering from anticipation.

“Well it started with my friend sending me to his pocket reality.” Zeko stated but looked around and saw the looks he was receiving.”I should explain, you see my friend has something called the Sharingan in his left eye which basically grants a person who has it amazing power depending on the variant.”

“So that means th-“ she was cut off by Zeko,”No you couldn’t have one, you have to have the blood of the person who first created it.” He said causing Twilight to droop her ears

“His Sharingan gives him the ability to send things or people to his Kamui dimension, which he did to me.”

“How did you escape?” She asked because his description made it seem that nothing could leave the realm

“I had to overcharge my Rinnegan.” Zeko said almost bored, which caused Twilight to show a confused expression so he decided to demonstrate.

“Ok look at my right eye.” Twilight complied as Zeko closed his eyes but when he opened them the right one resembled water with black ripples.

“How did you do that?” She asked nearly speechless. “Like I said, the blood of the creator. But that can’t be my only question. Who’s next?” Zeko asked the group

“What can that eye thing do?” Rainbow asked. “Well as a whole it can give godly power to someone who masters it.” Everyone stopped at this and stared at him.

“Well I’m not even close to mastering it.” Everyone but him sighed in relief. “There’s 6 different paths to master and I’m not even at 1 yet so don’t worry about me overthrowing your nation.” He started throwing a hand up for emphasis

“What kinda magical powers does it give ya?” Applejack asked skeptical of the information. A noise came from a bush causing everyone to focus on it. “So there’s 7 weird wolves in there.” Zeko said

“Oh no, Timber wolves!” Applejack said as the wooden wolves left the overgrowth. And creeped towards the group. “Elements stay back we’ll handle this.” Fortified Wall announced as his soldiers moved forward but were stopped by an outstretched hand.

“I can handle this.” Zeko said as he walked towards the wolves. “I hope you aren’t looking to be eaten.” Wall said in mild surprise that a child would stand against a pack of timber wolves.

“I figured it was time I got to cut loose some.” He responded before turning back to the wolves. “So lets see how tough a wood wolf is.” The shinobi thought as he reached for Samehada...

=======

Author's Note

And there’s another one we’re gonna have a little scrap next chapter.
Remember to like or dislike comment if you will and leave pointers.
Also I found a fairly accurate depiction of what I was going for that also offers a size scale. I’ll mention here that Zeko is 5’1” so you’ve got 2 references. (I just hope this doesn’t count as inappropriate)

Arc 1 Chapter 3: Awakened

*CRACK*
Was the sound that rang in that part of the forest as a Timberwolf was split by Zeko’s blade.

“So this thing’s practically made of this worlds’ chakra, I think I’ll put Samehada away since this doesn’t seem fair.” Zeko said with a cocky tone. Two wolves moved from the pack and started circling the shinobi before lunging at his arm and leg.

“Smart dogs.” Was all Zeko said as he didn’t move a muscle in response. “ZEKO MOVE!” Everyone yelled as the guards rushed to help but they were too late as the timberwolves bit down on his limbs and pinned him.

“N-no he can’t be h-he can’t be.” Pinkie said as her mane completely straightened. “Wait look!” Twilight exclaimed directing the groups attention to the Timberwolves that had Zeko, which were now shaking sand off of their faces with a smirking Zeko behind one.

“I said smart, not effective.” The shinobi said before grabbing the tail of the wolf and throwing it towards its pack causing them all to be knocked down. Pinkie’s hair returned to its poofy state which earned a strange look from Zeko.

“As strange as that was I’ll pretend it didn’t happen, and as for you” Zeko said before looking at the last standing wolf and reaching for his pouch. “I’ve got something special.” The teen said pulling out a small urn and taking its cork off.

“Sand coffin!” Zeko said loud enough for everything nearby to hear, a current of sand left the urn and encased the timberwolf. “This is a demonstration to everyone here.” He said raising his hand to the now floating sand encased wolf.

“Sand burial!” He said loudly as he closed his hand, the ponies and Timberwolves looked on in horror as the wolf in sand was crushed with a near deafening....

CRUNCH

“He actually can control the earth.” Wall said wide eyed as was his squad. “How can he do that? Controlling the earth for battle is something only the best unicorns could do and even then it wasn’t to this level!” Twilight asked hyperventilating.

“Well I hope they learn by example, cause the clone didn’t look like it enjoyed those bites and I wouldn’t either.” Zeko said walking back to Samehada. “Wait...what are they doing!” Rainbow said causing everyone to look back and see the Timberwolves forming together, including the one Zeko just crushed, and the formation was growing larger by the second.

“Is this normal in this world!?” Zeko mentally screamed trying to make sense of the situation. The Timberwolves stopped the change and the end result was a Timberwolf at least 35 feet tall.

“Okay so this is something I never thought I’d see, but I wonder how much harder it can hit.” Zeko said as he unwrapped the top of his blade’s covering.

“What kind of a sword is that?” Wall asked perplexed at how a sword could be coated in quills.”One of a kind, Samehada I need five of my swords.” Everyone looked on as the blade began to shake and to everyone’s horror a mouth formed and held out a tongue with five needle like swords on it.

“WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?!” Rainbow yelled. “That’s not possible.” Twilight said nearly shutting down. Rarity and Fluttershy fainted. Pinkie asked; “Can it eat cupcakes?”

“It’s a sword, it doesn’t eat cupcakes. Now you all might want to stay back, this might get dirty.” Zeko said as he placed daggers in the back of his knees and both hands before biting down on one and assuming a crane stance. “I’ll be able to do this with eight swords someday but five is a challenge as it is.” The shinobi thought as the giant wolf stared at him with malice.

The wolf moved first and tried a simple swipe which Zeko dodged and let loose a flurry of attacks on its leg. The wolf bashed him away with a hip check, cracking one of his ribs. “Damnit, it hits a lot harder than I thought. But it’s mostly readable so I need to be careful.” He planned before rushing back to the wolf and throwing a blade at its eye, which it covered as the shinobi predicted. “Gotcha!” Zeko said letting the dagger free from his mouth and driving it into the creature’s leg joint. It roared in pain as a response.

“Seems like you aren’t as tough as I’d have thought.” He said reassuming his pose with only three blades. The wolf rushed again and went for a bite causing Zeko to move and slam a dagger into one of its front paws. “And now.” The shinobi said before vaulting over the wolf’s back and doing the same to another paw. “You get bit.” Zeko added as he jumped to a tree and landed on the side before thrusting into the air towards the wolf. “BY THE SHARK!” Zeko yelled while preparing to run his sword right through the monster’s head.

The wolf almost grinned as it managed to dodge the attack at the last second by shifting its weight to the side then bashing into Zeko launching him into a tree. “I’m...not really surprised, I just made that up against something I never foug-.” Zeko didn’t get to finish his sentence before passing out.

==============================

The Mane 6 and the guards watched in awe and fear as Zeko was rendered unconscious by the Giant Timberwolf. “He, he isn’t dead is he?” Rarity asked beginning to take cover behind the guards. “Don’t talk like that, what matters is that we get him back to the Princess.” Wall said as his squad focused on the Alpha Timberwolf which just freed itself from the teenager’s blades. “Alright aim for the joints to take it down.” Wall said to his squad which responded with; “Yes sir!” Before they rushed at the wolf. “Well girls we can try to back them up.” Twilight said looking at her friends who nodded in response. “Applejack try to lasso it’s legs.”
“Rarity throw things at its eyes.” “Rainbow Dash get it’s attention.” “Fluttershy...moral support.” Fluttershy sighed in relief after hearing this. “Let’s go!” Twilight exclaimed as everyone went to help stop the Alpha Timberwolf.

==============================

“Ouch, my entire torso hurts. Where am I anyway?” Zeko said looking around seeing only a dark void. “Wait I’m on water? Is this a lake?” The shinobi asked trying to get his bearings. “No child, this is no lake.” A mystery voice answered. “Who said that?” Zeko looked around trying to find the source of the voice. “Do not worry about my identity you should be concerned that your new associates are in danger because you were unable to beat that creature.” The voice said which shocked Zeko because he didn’t want anyone getting hurt because of his mistake.

“So what can I do now if I’m here? How can I help them?” He asked nervously. “I shall grant you the power of the path you have practiced so long.” “Wait what path... hold on... are you talking about the Rinnegan?” Zeko asked wondering how this voice knew about his eye. “Our time was short but you shall return, with this boon may you protect what is dear to you.” As the voice said this Zeko noticed that the water began to ripple but something was strange. “Are these ripples black? They look like... am I standing on a Rinnegan?!” Zeko asked as everything went white.

==============================

As he woke up Zeko looked around and saw the guards scattered on the ground still alive luckily. “What happened while I was out?” He said noticing that Fortified Wall was standing in front of the girls with his sword in his hand the other arm looking broken.

“I’ll create a diversion and you six run, you are far too valuable to be lost here.” Zeko heard as he got up. “HEY SPLINTER TEETH!” At this the wolf turned around and saw the kid he knocked out and snarled. “I’m back for round two and I think you’ll like what’s here now.” Zeko said as he reached his palms towards his daggers, which were in close proximity to each other; “Universal Pull.” He said causing the blades to fly at him and he caught them one by one before going to Samehada and putting them back.

The wolf looked on in anger as the child disarmed himself thinking he didn’t need weapons now, and little did the monster know that the child was right to be cocky. “So I don’t think we need to draw this on you’ve already hurt too many just trying to do their job, so know that if you attack me you will die here.” Zeko said with as he brought his Rinnegan out. The wolf seemed to understand but only roared before rushing at Zeko. “Bad choice Fido; “Planetary devastation!” The Rinnegan wielder said and a black orb appeared from the ground and hovered above the wolf which stopped to look at the mystery object.

“What is that thing?” Rainbow dash asked not seeing how that small black sphere would help, when suddenly the ground began to crack and get pulled to the orb. “How is he doing thAAAT? Applejack asked but was starting to be lifted off of the ground by a piece of the earth under her joining the sphere, soon the group saw the Alpha Timberwolf being pulled to the formation and looked on in awe as it lifted off the ground and was buried under the rubble of the floating rock mass.

“And that’s the end of that. Hey! I don’t feel tired, I think I can use this path without a drawback now *gasp* that means I can move to the next one... YES!” Zeko yelled in excitement realizing his hard work paid off by was taken from his celebration by a curious Twilight; H-HOW DID YOU DO THAT!?” She yelled.

“First that hurt my ears, second it’s the full power of my first path of the Rinnegan, there’s six in total.” Zeko said as he rubbed the space around his ears.

“Ya can’t be sayin that your eye can pull the earth from the ground and keep it in the air like it ain’t nothin?” Applejack asked skeptically. “Well yes that’s exactly what I’m saying and I have a hunch that we can get to the Princess a lot faster now, everyone strong get as many guards as you can and lay them here.” The shinobi said pointing to a spot in from of him.

After the guards were gathered Zeko jumped up to his planetoid and looked back at the guards. “Universal pull.” He said and brought the guards carefully up to the floating mass and laid them down gently. “The rest of you get up here and we can all just float to the castle!” He yelled down to them and they all managed to get up there by flight, teleportation, or being carried.

“Alright so which way is the castle?” Zeko asked as he put his hands on the mass. “It’s in that direction.” Rarity said pointing a finger to Zeko’s right. “Ok let’s get above the trees.” He said as the planetoid floated upwards above the canopy then turned slightly so Zeko faced the direction Rarity pointed. “Hey Zeko, aren’t you going to turn off your eye?” Twilight asked out of curiosity. “Not anymore, since I have my Deva path unlocked I want to keep it up almost all the time.” He said in a tone that oozed pride. “Well let’s go before they send another search party.” The shinobi said as the planetoid started to float forward faster than they would have gone had they all sprinted.

=======

Author's Note

This took more time that I anticipated but working on weekends can do that, also yes Zeko now has control over his first Path for his eye(a bit too soon I know but he won’t pick up anything too powerful soon)
Remember to like or dislike, leave a comment for constructive criticisms and have a lovely day or evening
Zeko’s urn holds his sand for his moves and water so he can use his water style moves, by the lore he had it modeled after the original person who used one only for sand

(9/18/18) I forgot to mention that Zeko’s planetary devastation was only about the size of Fluttershy’s cottage, not the colossal one that Lord Pain made.

Arc 1 Finale: Meeting Royalty

(Ponyville)

(Twilight’s house)

“Ok so she lives in a library, I can understand that but why is her house a tree?” Zeko thought dumbfounded by the fact that people in this world were able to live in trees without using chakra to grow them. “So remind me why we stopped here after floating in on a giant rock?” Zeko asked emphasizing the last part as he recalled what happened when they showed up.

===================================

(About 6 minutes ago)

The citizens of Ponyville were resuming their daily lives after the elements went off to deal with the “doozy” Pinkie Pie sensed. One particular filly named Applebloom was in the market selling apples. “Come and get fresh apples from Sweet Apple Acres.”

She said before hearing a stallion yell something; “WHAT IS THAT?!” And pointing towards the Everfree where everypony else looked and saw a large floating rock heading towards the town. Not being able to understand the situation the ponies did what they knew best... panic.

“EVERYPONY RUN!” A mare yelled prompting those in the streets to run around in fear as the rock approached and stopped.

Applebloom was hiding behind a stall with Mister and Missus Cake. “What is that thing?” She asked quietly.

“We don’t know but stay down, and hope to Celestia it starts floating and leaves.” Mr.Cake said trying to calm Applebloom and his wife who was crying in silence. But before he could properly console her a colt with a spiky mane jumped down from the rock with an injured stallion slung over his shoulder.

“Hey can any of you tell me where the hospital is?” The colt asked looking around at every spot where ponies were hiding as if he knew they were there.

“Ahm gonna see what he’s talkin about.” Applebloom said rushing away from the stand before Mr.Cake could stop her. “Hey whaddya mean you need a hospital?” She said while she looked at the guard.

“Well this and eleven other guards are very hurt and could use medical attention so if you know where the hos-“ The boy stopped as he caught a rock aimed at his back.

“Put him down, and get away from her you monster!” A stallion said with a mob of people behind him holding kitchen utensils, shovels, and farm tools showing that this town wasn’t armed well.

“I’m just trying to find a hospital, and my name’s Zeko Kusanabe.” Zeko responded saying his name backwards again as he figured the order of names was different in this world.

“We don’t care what your name is monster, go back to the Everfree where you belong!” A mare said as she threw another rock aimed at Zeko’s face which was deflected with his hand as he hadn’t dropped the other rock yet.

“Ok I’m being as calm as I can be but the next one to throw something will have everyone face consequences.” The shinobi said dropping the rock and placing the guard down carefully behind him; “Hey girl you might want to get behind me.” He said to Applebloom causing her to rush next to the guard.

“Take this beast!” A stallion said levitating a cart wheel with his magic and flinging it at Zeko. Zeko stood still and let the wheel come.

“MOVE!” The filly yelled not wanting the stranger to get hurt. The crowd looked on and their hearts collectively skipped a beat when the wheel was pushed to the sky behind them by incredibly strong winds that nearly knocked them all down.

“I told you that everyone would face consequences.” Zeko said shutting his eyes.

“Your little spell was nice for not getting hit by a wheel but what if we jus-“ the stallion was cut off by Zeko opening his eyes and causing everypony in his field of vision to fall to their knees with a sound reverberating in their ears, some of them passed out from the feeling. “Wha-What did you do to us?” The stallion asked looking at Zeko, but nearly vomiting from the stress.

“I focused power from my eye in a cone ahead of me and your basic instincts caused you all to simply give up, but your spirit must be strong for you to be able to look at me after that.” Zeko said surprised, before walking back to the floating rock and lowering it to the ground allowing the Mane 6 to make themselves known.

===================================

(Present Time)

“Oh right.” Twilight answered with a sheepish smile as she remembered the state of everypony before she explained that Zeko was friendly unless provoked and getting some earth ponies to take the guards to the hospital. “Well I had to write a letter to Princess Celestia since our escort can’t do his job now.” Twilight said as she finished the last sentence. “Spike I need you!” She exclaimed and no sooner than she finished her sentence did Zeko see a scaled boy walk in, at most 4 years younger than him.

“What do you need so bad that I had to stop sweeping in the kitchen... Twilight w-who is that?” Spike asked as he saw the only other boy in the room that had a sword larger than him on his back, which greatly scared him.

“Calm down spike, this is Zeko. He got brought to our world by my gateway spell.” Twilight said making sure spike didn’t run and scream like the others.

“Well technically the ‘spell’ just brought me here instead of to where I should’ve gone.” Zeko said correcting the studious mare who handed the letter to Spike.

Zeko stopped once he saw Spike breathe green fire on the letter. “I thought you said he was sending it!” The shinobi asked wide eyed.

“He did send it, if Spike breathes his fire on paper he can send it to the Princess.”

A letter materialized over a minute later which Spike grabbed and read aloud; “To my faithful student, blah blah understand that the visitor saved you, yadda yadda I’ve sent a carriage to come and retrieve you, your friends and this Zeko.” Spike read skipping unnecessary pieces.

“Ok so I guess we wait now, but to pass the time I have some questions about this world.” Zeko said causing Twilight to jump in excitement.

“We can exchange knowledge?!” Twilight almost screamed before Zeko grabbed her arms and pinned them to her side causing her to blush.

“Calm down, yes we can exchange knowledge of each other’s worlds.” Zeko said earning a squeal from twilight as she picked up a quill and paper. “I guess I’ll go first, now I didn’t really study history much but I know the basics Zeko said as he told her about the Sage of Six Paths and how he allowed people across the world to utilize chakra, by the end of the explanation Twilight’s eyes were nearly as large as plates.

“So one stallio-“

“Man.” Zeko interjected.

“So one man spread his power and knowledge across an entire world and made 9 different beasts to keep balance?” Twilight asked still writing.

“Well what’s the story of your world since mine is so unbelievable?” Zeko asked somewhat offended that she doubted the very founding of chakra as it could be used now.

“Well I know that Princess Celestia and Luna have been around for thousands of years and control the Sun and Moon respectively.” She said causing Zeko to go blank faced.

“They control the Sun and Moon? No way can’t be.” Zeko said not believing her at all.

“It’s the truth! They cause them to rise and set!” She said trying to convince him.

“It’s not possible Twilight. The sun is incredibly far away and is much larger than the planet.” Zeko explained.

“Well that may be how it is on your world but Princess Celestia controls the sun and Princess Luna controls the moon.” Twilight said glaring at Zeko.

“There isn’t any way to-“ Someone was knocking at the door and Spike answered revealing a Royal Guard.

“Hello we’re here to collect you Twilight Sparkle, Spike and your... guest.” The guard said looking to Zeko.

“Great timing let’s go.” Spike said not wanting a fight to start.

“Ok.” Zeko said walking out to the carriage with Twilight behind him.

The guard led them to the carriage where the others were waiting; “HEY TWILIGHT!” Pinkie yelled calling her friend over. “Is everypony here? Twilight asked receiving a nod from her friends who she saw when she stepped in. “Where is Zeko darling?” Rarity asked.

“He wanted to ride on his ‘personal planet’ as he calls it.” She responded while making quote signs with her fingers.

“And here I wanted to know about his outfit, while I like the material the colors are dreadful.” Rarity said as the carriage took to the sky with a shinobi on a rock mass close behind.

===================================

(Canterlot)

The carriage landed outside of the castle walls Zeko landed next to it, carefully bringing his planetoid down next to it. “This is beautiful.” Zeko said astonished at the craftsmanship of the palace.

“Well of course it would be. How could royalty be expected to live anywhere else?” Rarity answered.

“On my world there’s just politicians and nobles who reign at the top, my parents didn’t give me the best view of nobility.” Zeko answered with scorn. The girls and Spike looked at him surprised.

“Wait a second, YOU.” Twilight said while pointing at the shinobi. “Are a noble?” She finished while the others raised their eyebrows.

“Well yeah, I mean when you’re born with something that allows you to change the future your family can’t exactly stay as commoners.”

Rarity got a twinkle in her eye after he said this but was unable to ask further as a guard started leading the way to the Castle. “The Princess has been waiting for you young one.” The guard said attempting to intimidate the one who was reported to be very skilled in combat.

“Well I’m here now so no need to be strict.” Zeko responded knowing what the guard was doing. The group walked through a grand hall and came to large,ornate double doors. “Wow. Is this what castle doors are like?” The shinobi said in awe of the craftsmanship.

“You’re a noble aren’t you used to seeing such things?” Rarity asked surprised that one of high status was unfamiliar with such work.

“Yeah but in a different way, I’ll explain later.” Zeko alluded.

The guards opened the door for the group and led them in. Zeko was surprised at what he saw before him, two women the taller of the two being at least six foot nine, near blinding white and dressed in a flowing dress with golden regalia with flowing multicolored hair. The shorter of the two was a midnight purple and was only about six foot five wearing a dark blue dress and purple regalia with flowing hair that looked like the night sky. He noted that their chakra pools were massive and didn’t want to start a fight without Samehada nearby.

Zeko was broken out of his stupor by a guard getting in front of him; “Kneel before the Princess foal.” The guard spat to the shinobi responded by taking his sword off of his back and placing the tip against the floor and resting his hand on the pommel.

“I don’t kneel to anyone I just met.” Zeko responded smiling. The guard was fuming... literally.

“HOW DARE YOU DISRESPECT THE PRINCESS!” The guard yelled as he swung his sword but it was caught in a magic grip before it hit Zeko.

“That’s enough Strong Arm!” A tall white stallion wearing a more detailed outfit said.

“Shiny!” Twilight exclaimed as she got up and went to the stallion. “Twily.” He responded with as they met for a hug.

“Oh, so he’s your brother.” Zeko said surprising everyone including the Princesses.

“How did you guess?” Twilight asked, Zeko responded by pointing at his Rinnegan.

“It lets me see chakra flows within the body and yours are very similar.” Zeko said causing the Princesses to exchange words.

“Well I might as well say it now, everypony this is Captain Shining Armor of the Royal guard and my big brother.” Twilight said which made her friends’ jaws drop.

===================================

After recovering from their initial shock and getting explanations out of the way Princess Celestia got up from her throne and walked to Zeko who hadn’t moved since the guard spoke to him. “And you are the one who saved Twilight and her friends? I must say I expected a tall strapping stallion, not a young colt.” She said in a motherly tone that prevented Zeko from getting agitated that she thought he was just a child.

“Actually I should be eighteen soon.” The shinobi said looking up at her.

“WHAT!?” The elements, Spike, and Shining yelled in unison.

“You’re seventeen?! But how can you be so awesome and be younger than me?” Rainbow Dash whined.

“Ah don’t usually agree with RD but how can ya be so strong an so young?” Applejack asked taking off her Stetson.

“Well I’ve been training since I was eleven and I learned to use heavy weapons before I got Samehada and my eight daggers.” Shining was surprised the most as a pony had to be twenty one to join the military forces in Equestria and had to go through training that would last only a few months.

“Well as interested as I am in hearing more of that Zeko, I’ll have to give you a right to be a citizen and look into a way to send you back home.” Celestia said with a smile that faded as he looked up at her with a blank expression.

“Don’t waste your time.” This shocked everyone and caused the guards to put their hands on their swords. “You couldn’t send me back no matter how hard you tried. I wasn’t just on my world when I got transported here, I was in the Kamui which I’m sure Twilight told you about, which is a different dimension entirely. So without someone who could send me in there...” Zeko looked down as to hide his face fully knowing that they could figure out why he did so. After a minute of him ignoring them Celestia decided to console him and walked to him and wrapped him in her arms and wings.

“It’s ok Zeko, it’s sad but you aren’t alone you have everypony here to help you and I assure you they will be there if you ask for it.” As she said this the others, even Spike Shining and Luna joined the hug. “She’s telling the truth, and at least you could make new friends here.” Twilight said to Zeko who had stopped being forlorn.

“Yeah I guess you’re all right and it was my best friend who sent me here, the dumbass.” The shinobi said surprising them all that he used such language in the presence of a Princess. “As nice as this is I think it went on long enough.” Zeko said replacing himself with a sand clone. “Wait how did he...?” Shining asked before Twilight said; “He can control earth, he likes sand the most.”

“Hey Shining. You up for a friendly match? I’ll stick with Samehada if it helps.” Zeko said causing Twilight to get light headed and Applejack facepalmed.

“Well if you insist.” Shining said with a smirk.

“Alright! Hey is there a window near where we can do this?” Shining looked puzzled at this before answering

“Yes it’s this way, follow me.” He said walking down a hall. “This window overlooks the training yard now can I know why you asked?” Shining questioned.

“It’s not important but you might as well tell others I’m sure they’ll want to see two great fighters go at it. I’ll be waiting.” Zeko said as he flipped over Samehada and stooped near the ground and placed the blade on his back.

“Hold on what are you doing?” Celestia asked as Zeko lunged forward with his arms crossed and crashed through the window leaving them all in shock.

“He is most certainly an interesting one sister.” Luna said breaking the silence.

=======

Author's Note

This one took a lot of work but I think it was worth it, also who keeps disliking without giving a reason? The purpose of dislikes and likes is to show you like the way something is going or to show you don’t like what’s present and offering some kind of advice. I don’t really care but I just needed to get that out of the way

Also to the Naruto fans: Yes Zeko did just pull a fourth Raikage. I wanted that to end the first arc so badly

Arc 2 Chapter 1: Captain vs Ninja

(Training Yard)

(One hour after Zeko’s dramatic exit)

“Well this is quite the turnout.” Celestia thought to herself looking around at the stands which were filled with Ponykind and some Griffons who were told of the coming battle.

“Sister we are not certain that thy judgement was at its greatest whence thee allowed this duel.” Luna said bringing Celestia out of her trance. “Well I don’t see a problem with our citizens seeing a display from a fighter from a different world and the captain of our guard.” Celestia answered with a smile before looking down at Shining Armor wondering what Zeko’s entrance would be like.

“If young Twilight Sparkle speaks the truth of his blade, then this duel will be quite one sided sister.” Luna said reminding her sister that Zeko’s weapon would drain spells.

“I wouldn’t worry about that Lulu, as the letter said he has more weapons within the sword.” Celestia retorted causing Luna’s brow to raise.

“How does one have more weapons within a weapon?” Luna asked not understanding what her sister meant.

“We’ll see firsthand.” She said before turning to the crowd; “Everypony, quiet please!” She asked in the Royal Canterlot voice causing the crowd to cease the murmurs and conversations. “We have gathered here to witness a duel issued by a fighter from a different world.” At this the crowd started murmuring again but was silenced by Celestia raising a hand. “The duel was issued against our Captain of the Royal guard, Shining Armor!” She said gesturing to the stallion in question who waved to the crowd and his sister along with her friends who were near the princess.

“Uh Twi?” Applejack said getting her friend’s attention, “Are ya sure that yer brother should be fighting Zeko?” She asked concerned about the well being of both challengers.

“I don’t think there’s a problem, Zeko said he would just use his sword.” Twilight responded.

“The sword covered in spikes that’s bigger than him or the little swords that he tried to chop up that big timberwolf with?” She asked trying to make her point clear.

“Well he said the big one...but the little ones are in the big one and... oh.” Twilight said, smile dropping.

“Well he didn’t look like he knew how to use the little swords and that big one would be way to hard to swing at a moving target.” Rainbow Dash said earning puzzled looks from her friends. “I know a thing or two about swords ok?”

“WHAT IS THAT THING?!” A griffoness yelled while pointing a talon at the floating rock mass.

“Our challenger has arrived.” Celestia said causing spectators to murmur again but before any could voice their concern to the princess, they saw a figure jump down with a large weapon. Upon seeing the stature of the figure every griffin in the crowd and many stallions and mares began to laugh and jeer.

“That’s the challenger?!”
“He looks like a schoolchick!”
“Does he know his alphabet yet?!” Three griffins yelled while Zeko ignored them.

“That’s enough!” Celestia said causing everyone to stop laughing.

“Young fighter.” Luna said breaking the momentary silence, “I would like for thee to give a demonstration of thine power.”

The audience began to laugh, although with pity more than anything.”I almost feel bad for the kid. This just shows how sad the Equestrian military is when they allow children to fight a Captain.” A griffin said to his friends and some ponies who agreed.

Zeko thought on what he should do to demonstrate. “Maybe a wind style? Or lightning? Should I try a false tailed beast bomb? Maybe just go with wind.”

“A demonstration.” A stallion scoffed; “How could a colt do anything impressive? Probably doesn’t even have his cutie mark.” He said dissatisfied

“Shadow clone jutsu!” Zeko said as two clones of him appeared by his sides. The crowd was wide eyed after seeing him create two more of himself.

“Ok, that’s a nice trick but it’s kinda useless.” Rainbow Dash said which made Applejack elbow her; “Aah! Sorry geez.”

A noble yelled out; “An impressive parlor trick but that doesn’t demonstrate why you deserve to be here!”

Zeko decided to start the display and formed a ball of wind in his right hand, his clones began to help him and form blades of air around the ball. The crowd looked on in surprise that the shinobi was able to move the air. “Wind Style: Rasen-Shuriken!” He said before throwing his bladed orb into the air where it collided with his planetoid, shattering the construct.

“An exemplary performance.” Luna said applauding as the crowd had nothing more to say as Zeko’s clones turned to smoke.

==============================

After the display, Zeko was introduced by Celestia and unsurprisingly the crowd had nothing to add. “Are both challengers ready?” Shining raised his sword in response and Zeko began unwrapping Samehada. “Then you may begin!” She finished allowing Shining to begin running towards Zeko who had unwrapped the tip of his blade, causing Shining and the crowd to look on in surprise.

“What type of a sword is that?” Shining asked curiously.

“The type that’s alive.” Zeko responded looking up to the crowd where some were chuckling.

“A living sword, ridiculous.” A stallion said
“It’s covered with spikes, no way it’s effective.” A griffoness said

“You all want proof that my sword is smarter than most of you?!” Zeko said loud enough for the crowd to hear.

“If you can prove that thing is alive I’ll pay you one thousand bits no matter who wins.” A noble mare said.

“I’ll do the same.” A stallion said.

“As will I.” Princess Celestia said shocking the crowd.

“Ok then. Samehada I need four of my daggers!” He said to the sword while the gambling nobles smirked but stopped as they saw the sword rustle and open its mouth and hold out a tongue with four pointed daggers on it. The noble’s jaws dropped as they saw the sword, while Zeko put it down and grabbed the daggers and put them in his hands and the backs of his knees.

“That’s a strange pose to fight in.” Shining said once he saw his challenger standing like a bird with his swords held in different parts of his body. “But I guess there’s a strategy I don’t see.”

“Not really a strategy, just a technique, but that’s not important let’s dance!” After that Zeko jumped at Shining and thrusted a blade at him.

“He’s quick!” Shining thought as he dodged he attack that cracked the ground and shot a beam of magic towards his quarry.

“Damnit!” Zeko said as he jumped away leaving his dagger in the ground. “Ok so you have range on me, almost makes me wish I could use my jutsu.” The shinobi rubbed his eye as if he were crying.

“Well I’ve already made you lose one weapon, if I get the rest you’ll have to yield.” Shining said smirking in a defensive stance.

“Why would I do that? I’d still have my hands and feet.” Zeko responded with a raised eyebrow. “I hope you aren’t telling me hand to hand combat isn’t a thing here.”

“It is but only among the inebriated or foals.” Shining answered.

“Well then I should get my dagger back.” Zeko said before jumping and throwing a dagger at Shining who deflected the weapon.

“I don’t think that’s how you-.” Shining was broken off by Zeko backwards cartwheeling and picking his daggers up with his feet. “This is a strange fighting style, I can’t read his movements, it’s as if he’s making it up.” The older fighter said as he parried two daggers aimed at his side.

“WOO YOU CAN DO IT ZEKO!” Pinkie Pie yelled through a megaphone wearing a number one foam finger that had Zeko’s face on it before switching to a t-shirt that had a picture of Shining’s badge. “LET’S GO SHINING ARMOR!” She screamed waving a small flag that had the badge on it as well.

“Pinkie what are you doing?” Rarity asked flabbergasted by the display.

“Well I wanted to cheer but if I did it just for one of them it wouldn’t be fair to the other so I decided to cheer for both of them.” She said to her friend

“I suppose that’s a way of doing it.” Rarity responded before looking back to the duel.

“If you’re trying to predict my moves.” The shinobi said as he spun on his back and made shallow cuts on his opponents armor with his blades on his legs. “Then you’ll see that I’m moving in a linear fashion. Shining noticed that every attack was linear but was fast and unpredictable otherwise.

“Telling your enemy how you fight? You must be really skilled or just cocky.” Shining managed as he blocked Zeko’s onslaught and shot a beam right at his chest.

“Shit!” Was the teenagers only thought as he was hit by the beam and knocked onto his back. “*Cough*. That felt like a tree fell on my chest, can’t afford another one of those.” The teen said as he got up to see his enemy with a cocky grin.

“This was a good fight but you can’t win, that simple beam knocked the air out of you.” Shining said as he sheathed his sword. “You may as well yield.”

“I’ve got a better idea.” Zeko said as he tossed his daggers to Samehada which caught them. “How about I get to fight with my hands and feet and I get to use one type of chakra?” Zeko said as he turned back to Shining.

“You want to fight the Captain of the guard with your hands, magic, and... what are they called again?”

“Feet.” Zeko said drooping his arms

“Right, well that sounds like it’ll end badly but if you think it’ll work then sure why not?” He said as he brought his sword back out causing Zeko to smirk.

“Do you know any shield techniques.” The teen asked earning a confused look from Shining.

“Yes, actually my talent is shield and barrier spells.” Shining answered confidently. “Why is that important right now?”

“Well I’m going to tell you at one point to use your strongest one on your back and you’ll do it unless you want to be paralyzed or die.” Zeko responded crossing his arms.

“Wait what did you sa-.” He was cut off by Zeko yelling.

“LIGHTNING RELEASE.” Zeko yelled as his body was coated with an blue aura of electricity. “So you ready for round two?”

Shining nodded and shot a beam at his enemy who stood there. “He’s going to take this head on, stupid boy.” Shining thought when Zeko suddenly vanished. “Wait what?”

“BEHIND YOU!” The crowd yelled as a knee slammed into Shining knocking him thirty feet away. “That...was... the worst...pain.” Shining thought as he focused his magic to heal his two broken ribs.

“So you still think this’ll end badly for me?” The shinobi asked with a blank expression barely masking his urge to laugh. “Because that simple knee broke bone.”

“It’s not over yet, and I can heal with some time.” Shining said standing up.

“I can’t promise you won’t be crying after this fight is over.” The teen vanished again and appeared in front of his enemy with an arm cocked back. “Lightning release Lariat!” Zeko said bringing his arm forward

“Here goes everything!” Shining thought as he put an aura around his sword blocking the attack and cutting into Zeko’s forearm causing the shinobi to kick him in the stomach and jump off of him. “That felt like-“ Shining stopped as he dropped and vomited but started healing himself again.

“Shit! Shit! Shit! That could’ve took my arm!” Zeko thought as he started to heal the wound enough to keep fighting. “I never did like medical ninjutsu.” He said to himself before making for his opponent who shot three beams at his legs and coated his sword again.

“Well you’re getting better, but you’re worn down more than me.” Zeko said partially bluffing as using lightning release drains his chakra quickly. He spun and kicked Shining’s sword which cut into his shin. Shining saw this and shot Zeko’s chest with a much stronger beam than before.

“That’s not good.” He thought bringing his hands up to protect his chest and was blasted away by the attack and skidded across the ground stopping and making a mound of dirt.

“I think... I won.” Shining said panting while clutching his dented armor over his ribs. “I still had enough magic for that shield, too bad it was just a bluff.”

“I wouldn’t think that just yet!” Zeko said through the dust cloud. The dust cleared and the crowd saw that the shinobi’s brown vest was in tatters and his dark grey undershirt was dirty as were his pants.

“You- You’re still standing?” Shining said shocked that Zeko wasn’t done after that attack.

“I told you that you’d need to shield your back.” He said before vanishing. The crowd let out a collective gasp as they saw Zeko grab Shining by the sides and toss him above his head so his head was in Zeko’s line of sight. “You might want that shield now!” Shining used all of his magic to place a shield around his back and sides.

“Liger Bomb!” Zeko said as he slammed Shining into the dirt causing pillars of lightning to appear around them and winds to push towards the audience.

“This could be bad.” Celestia and Luna both thought as they put barriers up to prevent the audience from being harmed.

When the dust cleared the crowd saw Zeko without his aura, and Shining on the ground, arms at his sides.
Twilight ran down to him and scanned him with her magic and saw that he was alive. “Oh thank Celestia, that looked like he would’ve been hurt beyond belief.” Twilight said as her friends rushed down.

“That was he most awesome thing I’ve ever seen!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“I don’t usually enjoy watching combat but that was enjoyable.” Rarity added

“Ah can’t lie, that was impressive.” Applejack said taking off her Stetson.

“THAT WAS THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER!” Pinkie shouted causing her friends to cover their ears.

Celestia and Luna flew down by this point and took Zeko’s hands and raised them. “We have our winner!” They both said in the Royal Canterlot voice earning cheers from most of the crowd.

“That was a spectacular battle young warrior, dost thou believe thine spells can be taught?” Luna said dropping Zeko’s hand.

“I would like to know as well, our forces could do well with this type of knowledge.” Celestia added letting go of the other hand.

“I know that I’m going to get him to teach me some of those moves, maybe I’ll fly even fast-“ Rainbow Dash was interrupted by Zeko’s body hitting the ground.

“Um, I think he passed out.” Twilight said as she scanned the teenager. “Apparently he passed out right after you declared him the winner.” She added snickering before she started to laugh as did her friends and the Princesses.

=======

Author's Note

This one was taxing but I feel like it was worth it. And I only had to stay up until midnight so I think it was successful.

Also yes Zeko knows more than just water and earth. For those who don’t know, the Rinnegan allows you to use every elemental jutsu so long as you practice it and know how it works.

Arc 2 Chapter 2: Knowledge Given

(Ponyville Hospital)

(Day after the duel)

“So I think I should start with the animal path, maybe that forest will give me some participants.” The bandaged teenager thought as he sat in his bed with a gown on. “I wonder why they put Shining in the next room, probably to save time on visits.”

“Ok Mr.Kusanba, your friends are here to visit you.” Nurse redheart said as she opened the door. “Also you may need to stay for up to a week since healing magic doesn’t work very well on you.”

“It’s Kusanabe.” Zeko corrected to Redheart’s confusion, not realizing the minor language barrier.

“It sounded the same to me.” She said opening the door for Twilight and her friends. Pinkie bounded to the shinobi and excitedly hugged him.”

“The was the extra most bestest most spectacular thing I’ve ever seen!” She said while holding the teenager harder progressively.

“So death by asphyxiation. Not my ideal choice but in this instance a normal person would like this.” Zeko thought realizing he was between Pinkie’s ample bust. “I’m not most people however.” The teen thought as he substituted with a sand clone causing Pinkie to fall onto a pile of sand.

“IT’S IN MY MOUTH!” The party mare screamed as she ran out of the room looking for water.

“Well that was a tad excessive, also I’ve been meaning to ask how you do that.” Twilight said as the group noticed Zeko was now next to the window. “I can understand teleportation but you replace yourself entirely with sand and you shouldn’t be walking around yet, you’re still injured.”

“Trust me this is nothing new and for substitution I just have to focus on a nearby position and focus on being there as something contacts me, and I just replace myself with a sand clone.” Zeko answered nonchalantly.

“Where does the sand come from? I’ve never seen you open that urn for it.” Twilight asked taking notes. “I create it with my chakra.” The shinobi answered as he bit his thumb.

“Wait why did you do that?” Rainbow Dash asked curious as to why the teenager bit himself.

“Summoning: Samehada.” Zeko said as he put his hand on the floor and made his sword appear causing every mare’s jaw to drop. “Samehada I need a different outfit.” He said as the sword opened its mouth and produced an undershirt, a jacket, another pair of pants and fresh sandals.

“How did you bring it here?! We had to leave it in Canterlot because we couldn’t move it without hurting somepony!” Twilight asked wide eyed as Zeko began to change in front of them causing Fluttershy and Rarity to blush and look away, while Applejack took off her hat and fanned herself.

“Huh, you’re pretty fit for a kid.” Rainbow said breaking the awkward moment. “Do you work out or just swing that sword around?”

“I worked out so I could swing the sword around. I know what most peop- ponies think about it and that’s the fact that it’s huge would mean I can’t swing it well.”

“Well yeah, I mean it’s bigger than you are, and it looks pretty heavy.” Rainbow Dash said pointing at the sword as Zeko zipped up his jacket, which made Rarity run over and examine the cloth with her magic.

https://postimg.cc/JHj6DVx0

“What is this made of? It’s comfortable yet sturdy at the same time. I would feel it myself but it was in... that thing’s mouth.” Rarity finished disgusted by the storage that Zeko used.

“Well I can give you one of my other articles of clothing for one, and Samehada’s mouth is very clean since it doesn’t drool.” The shinobi answered wrapping his blade up again. “And I’m sure you can replicate the cloth but I don’t know what it’s made of myself.”

“Like I was saying.” Dash said abruptly, “How do you carry that thing so easily? I don’t think Big Mac could hold it without straining some.”

“Well I’m stronger than I look since I underwent extreme training.” Zeko answered putting Samehada on his back again. “I don’t feel right unless you’re with me.” He pat the hilt as he said this causing the weapon to rustle.

“It said ‘I know’” Fluttershy translated. “And how do you understand it?!” Dash asked.

“Well Samehada is essentially a shark sword.” Zeko said causing them to stare at him. “What? Is something on my face?”

“Did... did ya just say a shark sword?” Applejack asked. “Yes, yes I did. Hmm, now that I think about it I can see why that sounds weird.” Zeko said

“HOW!? HOW DOES IT EXIST!?” Twilight yelled not understanding how an animal could be utilized as a weapon. “I-I have t-to ask as well, an animal shouldn’t be fighting.” Fluttershy added.

“Well Samehada was made to fight and drain chakra from others and seek those with large chakra reserves or unique chakra. And since I have the Rinnegan it saw me as unique and we’ve bonded since then.” Zeko answered smiling.

“Then how was it created? You can’t just turn an animal into a weapon, there’s no such spell.” Twilight questioned.

“She’s right, how could somethin like that be any sorta critter?” Applejack asked.

“I don’t know. I know you’re going to ask but Samehada is much older than me, at least by one hundred years.” He told them making them gasp including Pinkie who returned moments prior.

“B-but how can it be alive? It-it’s not cursed is it?” Pinkie asked as the girls excluding Twilight stepped back.”

“There’s no such thing as curses, it’s just old tales to explain what ponies didn’t understand.” Twilight said reassuringly

“She’s right, and Samehada lives by draining chakra from other things, whether it be by taijutsu or ninjutsu.” Zeko added calming the mares down.

“Wait what’s tayjutsa and ninejutsa?” Dash asked. “Could they make me even more awesome?”

“Ok I’ll explain on the way because we’re going to Twilight’s house.” The shinobi said causing Twilight to squeal in excitement.

“I never figured you for an egghead pal, but I guess everypony likes different things.” Dash said surprised that someone so powerful enjoyed reading.

“No we’re going because there’s a language barrier I need to get around, I have an issue with you messing up words I know. So I need to find the proper pronunciation.” Zeko said as he looked to the window and stooped down.

“Wait! There’s a door right he-“ Rairity was cut off by Zeko jumping through the window and yelling;

“REAL NINJA NEVER USE DOORS!”

==============================

(Twilight’s House)

After his second unnecessary exit, the group caught up to Zeko and asked him about what taijutsu and ninjutsu were. He explained the premise of pure physical combat and utilizing your natural energy to enhance it, then talked on how he was able to use his energy to be manifested outside of his body.

“So that’s those two, there’s also genjutsu which involves trapping someone’s mind but I don’t concern myself with that one.” Zeko concluded.

“Well why not? If what you said is true then wouldn’t you have to worry about pon- people doing that and taking your eye?” The librarian asked since Zeko told them of how coveted his Rinnegan was.

“Well it gives me an edge, it gives me resistance to Genjutsu and if Samehada was nearby, then I never had to worry about it that’s not saying I’m immune to mind tricks but it’s not easy to do to me.”

“So you needed to figure out the minor language difference? I’m glad you chose my library for that since the hospital would have helped.” Twilight said, happy that someone was in her library for the sake of education. “So what do you need?”

“Something basic for now, then we can move up since this’ll only take an hour or so.”

“Another gift of that eye?” Twilight asked incredulously since his eye seemed to give him multiple talents.

“Well it helps me take in information quickly, then I just have to process it.” The shinobi responded picking up a simple grammar book.

“Well let’s get started.” Twilight said smiling.

==============================

The two had read on for little over an hour and Zeko had found out how to pronounce his words with their grammar and found that only some characters were switched or didn’t exist entirely.

“Ok that’s out of the way so I’m gonna go walk in the forest.” He said as he walked to the door.

“Wait a second, you aren’t going into that forest. It’s very dangerous.” Twilight scolded as Zeko deadpanned realizing she forgot he wasn’t a helpless child.

“I think I’ll be ok, and I wanted to understand my animal path next anyway so I had to talk to Fluttershy.” He said opening the door which Twilight closed with her magic.

“You aren’t going out there and that’s final, Princess Celestia put me in charge of you and I won’t let you get harmed.” Twilight said leaving no room for argument.

“Ok I guess I’ll just go in the kitchen and make something to-“ Zeko stopped and punched through a wall leaving Twilight shocked that he destroyed part of her house. “I’ll fix it when I come back!” He said running off leaving a unicorn standing mouth agape.

“Well I’ll admit he can be very driven, but I didn’t think he’d damage a house just to be with animals. I hope Fluttershy can teach him patience.

===================================
(Fluttershy’s Cottage)

Zeko came to ask Fluttershy if she could help him find a moderately dangerous animal in the forest but was slightly surprised at the answer.

“No.” The shy mare said making the teenager blink twice.

“What what? I thought you were an expert and handling animals.”

“I am but I don’t want to go into the forest... I-if that’s o-ok with you.” She answered mildly losing some of the earlier confidence, while Angel glared at Zeko.

”He keeps staring at me like I’ll hurt her, I’m going to ignore it either way.”. “Why don’t you want to go into the forest? It’s filled with animals that you could befriend. Maybe even a species you’ve never heard of.” He tried to convince her but she stood firm.

“I’m scared of the forest, s-so I don’t want to go in.” She answered nervously confusing the teen. “You live right on the edge of it.” He said stating the obvious.

“It’s so my animal friends can visit easier.”

“Alright I guess I’ll go alone then, I don’t want to push you out of your comfort zone.” The shinobi said walking back to the door he begrudgingly came in since he couldn’t jump through Fluttershy’s windows. “Ok let’s see if I can do this.” Zeko said before focusing on his palm and making a black rod come out of it. “That wasn’t too tough, now let’s see what I can do to get another ally, maybe one that can give me rides.” The shinobi said walking into the forest.

=======

Author's Note

This was essentially a filler chapter and I put in an image of Zeko’s current look remember to comment, like or just critique silently.

Arc 2 Chapter 3: Everfree Expedition

(Everfree Forest)

(Evening: 20 minutes later)

“So I’ve found where I made that field of sand but nothing’s coming near it. Maybe the animals here can’t survive in a desert.” The shinobi thought as he examined his surroundings. “Maybe I should try for something small like a bird.” He said as he looked up and noticed a flying ball, and blinked twice realizing it was some form of insect. “Well it’s a start, gonna need something smaller though.” Zeko said realizing the chakra rod in his hand was far too large for the creature and formed five small needles from each of the fingertips from his other hand.

“Universal Pull.” Zeko said hand outstretched towards the insect that trilled in fear as it was pulled out of the air and ended up in a predator’s grip. The insect made noises out of fear as it tried to escape its captor; “Calm down this won’t hurt at all.” Zeko said as he stabbed the creature through the side with the black needle causing it to stop moving. “Now the rest. Huh, I wonder if I can make it communicate while I use it.” The shinobi thought as he planted the other needles into the rest of the insect.

“Let’s see how this goes.” He thought as he began to pierce his face and ears with some small rods and needles to control the insect. He then used his chakra and sent it to the insect causing it to open its eyes revealing that its right eye was now a Rinnegan. “Ok I see what you see, so let me try moving you.” The insect fluttered it’s wings and hovered in the air next to its new master. “This could be pretty useful, and since you’re so small I’m guessing you’re a prey item so I can use you to lure more animals out.” Zeko said as he willed his new pet to fly and scout the area.

“That might be the easiest path to learn, I just have to figure out how to summon other people...or ponies I guess.” He said to himself as he followed his overhead scout. “Once I figure this out I’ll learn the human path next, killing the subordinates of the evil for information doesn’t sound too bad to- Wait who’s that?” His thoughts interrupted by his birds eye view picking up someone fighting something in a swamp ahead. “That might be some kinda animal, and maybe someone who needs help.” Zeko said as he sprinted towards the altercation.

==============================
(Everfree Forest Marsh)

“Just up ahead!” Zeko said as he called his scout back, trying to keep it out of harms way. He jumped onto a branch as he looked into the clearing and saw a large reptile trying to eat a pony with black and white stripes and a knife with gold etchings. “At least she isn’t like a kid’s paint color.” He thought as he watched her dodge a bite but wasn’t fast enough to evade a tail swipe that drove her into the water.

“It seems my end is near, this is made quite clear.” She said as the reptile approached with a malicious grin showing its jagged rock-like teeth. She tried to slice the monster’s throat with her knife but her arm was pinned by one of its front legs; “You may have bested me cragadile, but I won’t let you win with a smile.” She said before hitting the cragadile in the eye making it lose its grin and roar in pain. “Now reptile I may depart with a smile.” She shut her eyes and smirked knowing the cragadile wouldn’t be happy eating her but her personal victory was cut short by a yell.

“Rasengan!” Zeko said as he slammed into the beast’s side with a ball of swirling air, throwing it off of the Zebra. “Are you ok miss?” He said helping her up. “That thing looks like it packs a punch.”

“I am fine but we do not have much time. We must run before it is no longer stunned.” She said worried that the cragadile would eat her and the child.

“I’d rather not run from such a useful new pet. But its back looks too tough to penetrate so I’ll go for the stomach.” Zeko said taking Samehada off of his back and placing it down and producing two sharp chakra rods from his palms. “You should stay back so it doesn’t decide to attack you.” He said before jumping at the cragadile.

“You foolish boy, this creature is no toy!” She yelled to him before the cragadile caught him in its mouth and bit down, but to their surprise it only had sand in its maw and bellowed in pain as a rod was thrust into its back leg.

“Damn, it’s tougher than I thought. I couldn’t break its skin.” The teenager was brought out of his thoughts by an incoming tail which he barely dodged. “I need to make weak spots before I do this or I’ll end up on its menu.” Zeko jumped back to avoid the incoming jaws but wasn’t quick enough as he had to grab them to avoid being eaten. The cragadile was about to bite down harder but had a rock thrown into its eye, letting the shinobi jump back.

“Young one this is not for fun, one mistake and your life will be undone.” The zebra said as the cragadile turned its sight to her and rushed towards her with surprising speed.

“Shit!” Zeko thought as he put his rods in his teeth and made a series of hand signs, then formed a ball of electricity in his hand. “Chidori!” He said lunging at the creature and forcing his electrified hand into its back cutting through its tough hide. “The rod!” A familiar voice in his head spoke, he didn’t question it as he spun and thrust a chakra rod into the wound forcing it to stop its rampage.

“How has it come to a stop, without you forcing it to drop?!” The zebra asked in disbelief that something so dangerous was forced to stop by a child who didn’t even know the name of said beast.

“I just put it under my influence. Speaking of which...” Zeko responded and proceeded to produce smaller sharpened rods from his fingers. “I think I’ll get the nose, and the tongue.” The shinobi placed two piercings into the cragadile‘s nose and warped them making them into a loop and stabbed a rod through its tongue. “Now to send some chakra...” He said clasping his hands together making the cragadile open its eyes revealing a Rinnegan in its right one and its other was now blue instead of bright orange. “That’s new, hey miss...?”

“Zecora is my name, and tell me what have you done to make the cragadile tame?” The zebra asked curious as to how dark knives made a cragadile submissive.

“Well the rods I put in it and this insect.” Zeko said as his scout flew to him and landed on his shoulder; “Let me send my energy to them and control their minds.” He finished while petting the insect.

“You have have used your might to tame a mere parasprite?” She asked surprised that he had the ability to manipulate animals. He looked back at the parasprite before realizing that the species was called that.

“Never would’ve guessed that was the name. Well either way my name is Zeko and I’m a human, not a pony.” He said bringing his subjugated pets attention to the zebra. “The cragadile is still mad at you for hurting its eyes, but that’s not important. How have you managed to survive in this forest for so long?” The shinobi asked putting Samehada on his back again.

“I admit living in the Everfree, is not very easy. Many of the creatures around will often try to bring one down.” She answered in rhyme. “But I ask young male, from where would a human hail?”

“A different world entirely, I was brought here through various means and I don’t have much chance to return.” He responded with a somber tone. “I should put these away so I don’t draw too much attention.” Zeko thought before planting his hands on the ground and causing his pets to disappear.

Zecora stood still unable to process how something that claimed to not be a unicorn of any kind just performed a teleportation spell. “I am in complete surprise, how did you deceive my eyes?” Zeko looked and didn’t understand until he realized he dispelled them in front of her.

“I just put them away for later use. Also why do you rhyme so much?” He asked wondering how she continued to speak in rhythm as he remembered one person that was said to always rap when he spoke.

“It is what we do in my country, I do not need to continue if need be.” Zecora offered to which Zeko nodded realized it would be less confusing to him at times if she spoke regularly. “Well then I suppose I can speak in a relatable manner around you... Zeko.” She said snickering at her unintentional rhyme.

“As funny as that was can I know why you live in this forest because it doesn’t seem like a smart decision based on the wildlife.” He said applying his knowledge of the ponies and remembering they strayed away from danger when given an opportunity.

“Well to most ponies it would be a challenge to live here, but I am not unfamiliar with the wilds. I am an alchemist and am well versed in potions and incantations.” Zecora answered while looking at the Samehada with a near glare. “And I can tell a wicked weapon when I see it, what is that creature on your back?”

“It’s my sword and maybe even my best friend. It’s name is Samehada and it’s a living sword.” Zeko answered rubbing the back of his head and realized he was still wearing his hidden sand head accessory. “Different world so I don’t need to wear this.” He thought as he took it off and ruffled his hair so it changed its appearance. “I can show you since I can tell you don’t fully believe me.” He said unwrapping the bandages.

“I have seen many outlandish things in my time, but a living weapon may be where I draw a line. If one were to exist I would hav-“ Zecora’s eyes shot open and her native rhyming stopped once she saw the sword open a mouth and take Zeko’s headwear with a tongue.

“Samehada I need my lineage shirt, I got this one dirty and Rarity would scream if she saw me like this.” Zeko said as he had Rarity pegged for a fashionista who freaked out at the sight of dirt. Samehada extended a shirt with a zipper that had the Uchiha crest and Zeko replaced his current jacket with it while Samehada took the dirty jacket and closed its mouth. “You wouldn’t happen to have any food where you live would you? I haven’t eaten in a while.” Zeko said with a sheepish grin zipping up his shirt as Zecora struggled to make sense of what she saw. She managed a nod and picked up her knife before leading the two back through the woods.

==============================

(Zecora’s Hut)

“That was the most delicious meal I’ve had in weeks, and I’ve only been here a day and a half!” Zeko said as he placed his now empty bowl down.

“I am glad you liked it but I would like to know more of your weapon and perhaps of your world as well.” She asked as she removed her battle outfit revealing a lithe figure in Amazonian underclothing. She sat back down and expected a flustered boy to look at her but was mildly surprised when he showed no change.

“Well I can tell you about my world but I never really had time to study the story and I can only give the basics.” Zecora nodded at this and Zeko began telling her what he told Twilight of the Sage of Six Paths and the tailed beasts. He moved on to Samehada and its owners in the past causing her to gasp twice when she found out it can absorb life energy from others but he assured her it only does it if he wants it to.

“That is quite a lot of information. Would you happen to know of any healing remedies from your world?” She asked wanting to know if the medicine in his world was more easily acquired or utilized.

“Well I know some recipes but I’ll have to tell you next time I’m here, Twilight will kill me if I’m not back soon.” Zeko said standing and stretching his arms.

“I have one last question before you go, how was it that you were not affected by my show?” She asked in her native manner confusing Zeko until he realized she meant how she got comfortable in her home.

“Well I never really spent much time with the opposing gender and I just heard friends talking about it. I’m not too interested otherwise.” He said as he walked towards the door and opened it. “But you are very beautiful, as far as I’m concerned.” He said before leaving causing Zecora to blush.

“He is an interesting one, I can tell his life is quite fun.” She thought to herself as she began to make a potion that she used the cragadile scales for.

=======

Author's Note

This one wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Zecora’s rhyming is easy once you find a pattern. Also yes Zeko has a new path but it’s more of a utility and no the subjugated creatures can’t use Rinnegan it just shows they’re his. Also yes occasionally his look will change but it’s few and far between.
(Zecora is a love interest, did you see that coming?)

Arc 2 Chapter 4: New ways

(Twilight’s House)

(Evening)

Twilight was pacing back and forth creating a minor rut in the floor while Spike and Applejack tried to calm her down. “What if he was eaten?! What if he fell in a crevasse and is dying from thirst?! What if he-.” “TWILIGHT!” She was taken from her inner ranting by the farmer and drake yelling her name. “What?! What happened?!” She asked frantically trying to discern their cause for yelling her name.

“You’ve been pacing back and forth for two hours waiting for Zeko.” Spike said concerned for his adoptive sister’s mental health.

“I have?” She responded before looking at a clock and seeing the time, causing her to rub her neck in embarrassment, “Oh, I have. I’m just concerned with how many dangerous creatures I’ve read about that live in that forest, that one of them mi-mi...” she stopped as she began to hyperventilate thinking about every possible way in which the teenager could have been hurt.

“Calm down there Twi, ya ain’t breathing right. Here take this.” Applejack said while handing the librarian a brown paper bag to breathe into. “I had some apple fritters in there so it should be mighty calmin.” She said while Twilight calmed her breathing down enough to form sentences.

“Ok, ok I’m fine. I just keep thinking about how a colt from another world just ran into that forest without hesitation, and I just hope he doesn’t get hurt.” The librarian sat back down and resumed breathing into the bag.

“Ah reckon he’ll be fine Twilight, so long as he doesn’t run into that Zecora.” Applejack said with some scorn earning confused looks from Spike and Twilight. “She’s a strange pony that lives in that forest and does curses and such.”

Twilight managed to calm down and looked at her friend with an expression of disbelief. “Applejack there’s no such thing as curses. They’re just old pony tales.”

“That’s odd coming from you, ya do have a knack for magic yourself.” Applejack retorted. “So how can ya tell me there ain’t a such thing as a curse?”

“My magic is real and comes from within, curses are just a-“

“Wood style:Tree limbs.” Twilight didn’t finish her sentence as she was cut off by a familiar voice and looked to see the hole in her tree was being fixed by moving tree roots. “I’m back and I told you I’d fix that wall... er trunk? This is a confusing place.” Zeko said coming in through the door, he noticed that all eyes were on him but wasn’t sure why so he ignored it. “So did I miss anything important?”

The only response he got was Twilight walking up and slapping the back of his head before pulling him into a protective hug. “Don’t ever do something like that again! I’m supposed to be your legal guardian and y-you just ran off an-and...” Twilight stopped as she began to cry.

“Wow, she really thinks she should cry over me like this?” The shinobi thoughtwhile Spike and Applejack looked worried as well. “Twilight.” The librarian heard him say breaking her from her sobbing. “I’m sorry, I never had a guardian worry about me so much and I just got used to running off when I wanted.” Zeko said looking into her eyes to show sincerity.”

“He’s telling the truth Twilight.” Applejack pointed out. “But why wouldn’t anypony care about ya?”

“That’d be my parent’s fault. Thanks to me being born with the Rinnegan other villages saw a power imbalance and wanted to correct that, so my parents decided to sell me to the nobles in different villages for the highest price.” This caused Applejack to clench her fists in anger while Spike and Twilight were shocked to the point where they couldn’t speak. “Hold on it gets better. You see they wanted to do that so I could have kids with the daughters of the nobles, so it wasn’t just taking my freedom but theirs too.”

“WHY I OUGHTA...!” The farmer screamed, but stopped as she didn’t want to damage anything in her friend’s home out of her anger. “How could anypony be so darn mean to their own kin and other foals? Did ya let em know how you felt about it?”

“I did but it didn’t matter, they had a way to earn more wealth and reputation. But I made sure that I learned something new in every village, whether it be jutsu or fighting styles. That’s kinda how I learned what I know.”

“Wait a second.” Twilight said, having finally stopped the silent crying and getting over the shock and anger she held to Zeko’s parents. “You had to go to villages to... have babies with girls so that your eye would be passed onto the next generation?” She asked curiously but nobody caught on to her point.

“Yeah that explains the last 9 years of my life, at least me having to go to villages and meet them. They waited until I was 15 before they sent me for the other part.”

“So you have kids?! But you’re still a child!” She exclaimed in frustration that someone so young was a father already.

“No I don’t.” Everyone’s face went blank at this. “Yes I was sent for that purpose but I never actually did it, I would just walk around the village with the girl to make it seem like I wanted a date first and when we had to retire we snuck out so they could teach me new techniques.” Zeko explained earning relieved sighs from the two adults in the room. “Well I’ve enjoyed today but I’m pretty tired, so I’m gonna head to Canterlot and stay at the castle.” He said breaking the semi-embrace he had been in.

“Well I suppose it’s ok, but I’m going to send a letter to notify the Princess that you’re returning.” The librarian said walking to a desk and picking up a quill.

“That’s ok I guess...” The shinobi said while walking out the door. “Ok I think I’ll use the fifth Kazekage’s floating sand technique instead of tearing up the earth again.” Zeko said, opening his gourd and causing sand to spill out and form a circular platform in front of him which he stepped on. “And now to get to the castle.” The sand platform began to float towards the capital of the country, somehow not dropping sand on anything below.

==============================
(Canterlot Castle)

Zeko landed in the courtyard and was being escorted to the throne room by a pair of guards. “So you’re the one from a different world?” One asked wanting to know if the rumors were true

“That might explain how you pulled off those strange spells.” The other guard answered, having been at the duel between the Captain and the teenager.

“Well you’re both right in a way. I’m from a different world, and the techniques I used might be exclusive to it. But I just want to know if there’s a place I can sleep for tonight.” Zeko ended his statement with a dramatic yawn to drive the point that he wanted to rest. Luckily enough he was lead back to the throne room where the diarchal rulers were listening to multiple complaints from nobles.

“Princess Celestia I still don’t see why we should pay tribute to that-that menace!” One exclaimed, not wanting to give any of their bits to another without a future growth.

“Well Silver Tongue you did decide to offer that many bits for a demonstration of the young one’s power and-here he is now.” Celestia answered before gesturing to the shinobi who was being glared at by most of the nobles.

“Did I choose a bad time? I can come back tomorrow. Actually no I can’t I was wondering if there was any place for me to stay.” The shinobi said remembering why he initially came here.

“T’was not a bad time at all, we were discussing the matter of thine payment from those who questioned thou skills.” The Alicorn of the night said, looking directly at Silver Tongue.

“Oh yeah, you are one of the ones who promised me a thousand... bits? Is that what they are?” The shinobi questioned.

“We definitely shouldn’t be paying this monster! He should be locked away so that your subjects aren’t in danger!” Silver Tongue said in anger. “He bested the Captain of the Royal Guard and you haven’t restrained him?”

“Now I have learned from a monster, I wield a monstrous weapon, I’ve beaten people horrifically, and I’ve had to kill... but the fact is that I’ve never wronged anyone who didn’t deserve it.” Zeko said earning shocked looks from the diarchal rulers.

“You...you’ve had to kill?” Celestia said while Luna looked horrorified that a child has taken lives. “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t know why you should be, they deserved it. But about the wager with you three... I’d like to know when I can get paid, I’d like to start a personal project as quickly as possible.”

“He admit to atrocities then decides to talk about being paid to the Princess herself?! This colt must be the bravest warrior or most stupid child I’ve met.” The mare known as Fleur De Lis thought as her husband walked up to Zeko.

“Well it is nice to meet you young sir.” He said shaking Zeko’s hand; “My name is Fancy Pants and I must say I greatly enjoyed your duel and will gladly pay you on behalf of Sir Silver.” Zeko squinted at Fancy Pants, searching for deception as he was greatly used to by nobility but found none.

“I have to ask, how are you so good at masking lies?” The teenager said bluntly earning a gasp from Fleur.

“I don’t quite follow what you mean.” He said quizzically, while the other occupants of the room were wide eyed at Zeko’s statement.

“I’m used to you nobles and politicians lying to meet your goals, so how can you hide it so well?”

“Well my good sir it may be that I’m being completely honest in wishing to compensate you as you did say you had a project you desired to finish.” Fancy Pants said while polishing his monocle, friendly smile not dropping.

“Bullshit.” Zeko said which made everyone save Fancy Pants gasp in shock. “A generous person with noticeable wealth isn’t something that exists.” He said with a slight scowl.

“Well if that is what you wish to believe then I won’t stop you but know that I will be back tomorrow with your two thousand bits and I hope you learn that not every noble is conceited.” He said as he walked away with his wife close behind.

“Whatever, Hey Princesses is there anyplace I can sleep for tonight?” The shinobi asked returning to his typical bland expression.

“How dare you! You come into this country from who knows where, and challenge the Captain and demand money and board from royalty?! You should be locked in Tartarus for your insolence!” Silver Tongue said in pure abhorrence.

“That is enough!” Luna said outraged by his outburst. “Thou shall not speak ill of our guest in such a manner! Leave now!” She said nearly red-faced in anger towards the intolerance present. Silver Tongue sighed in frustration before turning and walking away but not before whispering to Zeko.

“I’ll make sure you pay for your insolence and my embarrassment.” Zeko smiled at the threat, as he was familiar with this behavior and as always was happy to invoke it.

“Well let’s all try to pretend that didn’t happen. Zeko there are guest rooms present in the castle one of the guards can escort you.” Celestia stayed while calming down since she was just as aggravated as her sister.

“Before that can I see you lower the sun? I don’t believe it’s possible and I need to see it to believe it.” He responded earning a smile from the Princess of the day.

“Of course follow me.” Celestia said getting up from her throne with her sister behind. “This balcony is a perfect viewpoint for the event.” She said as they gathered on a nearby balcony overlooking the garden.

“There’s no way she can actually move the sun.” The shinobi thought in denial, but saw the Princesses having chakra spikes and noticed their horns and hands glowing. “Wait what?” He said as he saw the sun set exponentially faster and the moon begin to rise into the sky. “So they have a jutsu that moves the Sun and Moon?!” He thought to himself while wondering if he could learn how to do the same thing.

“Do you believe me now?” Celestia asked noticing the expression of disbelief on his face. “Ok I’ll tell you a secret.” She leaned closer to him and whispered into his ear; “We don’t exactly move the Sun and Moon, we simply rotate the planet.” Zeko was slightly relieved but still in surprise that they were able to move the planet faster.

“So that would count as an Earth style meaning I could learn how to do it.” Zeko said making Luna look at him curiously.

“What would an Earth style be young fighter? And thine may be quite skilled but only an Alicorn is able to move the planet with magic.”

“Well Earth style is a school of jutsu that involve manipulating the Earth, and since I’ve seen and sensed you moving the planet I could find my own way to do it in time. But I’m tired so where are the guest rooms at?” Zeko said quickly changing the subject.

“Follow me.” A guard with a brownish coat rather than a white one said before walking down a hall and stopping next to a door and opening it. “You will stay here for tonight and will be called for breakfast.”

“Alright thanks.” Zeko said before walking in and closing the door before opening Samehada and picking a basic white shirt and sleeping pants before laying on the bed and having one final thought before sleeping.

“I need to find a way to get my friends here, I refuse to tough this out alone.”

=======

Author's Note

This is exclusively filler but it took time to work out.
Unfortunately for you who don’t like it, I will need to somewhat follow the plot of an episode next chapter but I’ll try to have some changes so it isn’t a carbon copy

Arc 2 Finale: Ticket Master

(Zeko’s Mind)

(1 hour before sunrise)

Zeko was sitting on the black swirled water again thinking out loud. “So the animal path is pretty simple, I just need more animals for offensive purposes. But more importantly how did I hear Kotetsu’s voice when I fought that Cragadile?” The teenager pondered.

“Young one.” Another familiar voice called out to the previously meditating shinobi.

“Was that Luna? No it couldn’t be, jutsu that read minds are kekkei genkai and from what I’ve seen there aren’t any bloodline specific jutsu.” He thought to himself before the Princess of the night appeared in front of him causing him to jump back and prepare a rasengan.

“Calm yourself Zeko, We have no ill intent. We simply wished to see thine dream as it was greatly different than all others.” Luna said with one hand raised in front of her.

“How are you in my mind? And why are you in my mind?”

“I am the ruler of the night and as such the ruler of the dream realm I am able to enter dreams to aid my subjects. As for why I have entered yours, thou has a strange energy that protects thine mind and my efforts were greatly halted.” She said bringing a hand to her chin with an inquisitive look that Zeko took as a chance to explain.

“Well my Rinnegan gives me multiple abilities and one of them is protecting my mind from techniques that would invade it, I’m not immune to them but they have to be very powerful to work efficiently.” He said while pointing to his eye. “There isn’t much in my dream anyway, it used to be a desert or a mountain but now it’s this pool of water.” He featured to the water he was standing on and noticed that Luna was hovering above it but paid no mind.

“Well you seem to have control over yourself yet your location is forced since We are unable to change it.” Luna stated while trying to use her magic to alter the dream to no avail. “I suppose We shall depart, there are still others whom require our aid.”

“Alright, good luck with that.” Zeko said before resuming his meditation while Luna flew through a passage she created to exit the dream.

==============================
(Canterlot Castle)

(Sunrise)

Zeko was being led down a hall by the guard from yesterday and had come to a pair of doors which the guard had opened revealing a dining hall where Celestia was along with different nobles than yesterday.

“My dear Princess I believe that raising the tax would truly prove beneficial to my sta-your subjects and their everyday lives.” A large stallion with a suit said while rudely talking with a full mouth.

“I’ve told you before Mister Wad that the tax is fine as it is and that I won’t put financial stress on the less fortunate.” Celestia said in a calm tone before noticing her guest. “Ah Zeko, you’ve joined us for breakfast.” The nobles looked at the teenager with either apathy, disgust or in one case admiration.

“Princess I would hope you haven’t decided to allow a hairless monkey into your guard.” Wad said with an eyebrow raised.

“I’m not a monkey and I’m not in the guard, if anything I could lead the guard.” Zeko said trying to stay calm in the presence of Celestia.

“That’s almost as rich as me! How could a creature like you hope to lead the guard?” Wad said while chuckling to himself allowing Zeko to see the rolls of fat on his neck jiggle.

“I remember you.” The mare who was admiring Zeko broke the obnoxious stallion’s laughter. “You bested Captain Shining Armor in combat!” She exclaimed causing the nobles to look at Zeko with disbelief.

“That can’t be.”
“That weapon is larger than him, he couldn’t use it.”
“A child beating the Captain? Absurd.” They muttered among themselves while Celestia chuckled to herself.

“This could be fun.” She thought while Zeko took the seat next to her making some of the nobles gasp in shock while the noble mare gave a slight smirk.

“I suppose he is not a guard, but more so a pet the Princess desires. I agree in theory but it’s not the most appealing one.” Wad said in a tone that Zeko recognized as condescending but more towards the Princess than him.

“You know disrespecting the Princess like that isn’t a smart thing to do when I’m around.” Zeko said which made Wad open his eyes in surprise and the other nobles raised eyebrows.

“What do you mean? How has he disrespected me?” Celestia asked knowing what the shinobi meant but wanted to know how he picked up on the tone.

“I know how the higher class acts and I’ve learned hidden meanings. He’s already mad at the fact that I’m here but he also thinks you’ve lost your touch in allowing me here.” Zeko said which surprised Celestia and caused Wad to start sweating.

“That’s utter nonsense, an-and how would this creature know anything about the upper class? He’s just some brute.” Wad said defensively.

“I am nobility, thanks to my eye.” He said while pointing to his Rinnegan which made the nobles mutter again and the mare’s eyes practically shone with admiration. “When you have godly power at your fingertips you and your family don’t stay as commoners.” The nobles were speechless at this and Celestia even looked shocked.

“Well Large Wad I believe that we’ve all had enough conversing for today and we should continue our meal.” The Princess of the day said while the stallion in question looked like a fish out of water.

“I was just here as a formality, I prefer not to have anyone I can’t see prepare my food.” The shinobi said as he excused himself from the table which left Large Wad sputtering.

“Wha-how dare yo-you can’t just...” he rambled on but his words fell on deaf ears as Zeko continued walking but was stopped by the Princess of the day.

“Wait, I would like to give you an invitation to the Grand Galloping Gala that will be held in a few months.” Celestia said while levitating a golden ticket to Zeko who grabbed it with sand and stored it into his pouch. “I hope you attend, I should also send one to Twilight Sparkle. In case she hasn’t told you, she is my number one student.”

Zeko blinked twice before thinking to himself; “That’s gotta be why she was so concerned about watching me. The Princess seems pretty collected so it wasn’t out of fear of repercussion, it was a fear of disappointment.” The nobles were speechless about how someone who knew their ruler for so little time had managed to earn her favor. “Well thanks, I’m gonna head back to...Ponyville... seriously who thought of these names?” The shinobi walked to the balcony and jumped onto a platform of sand and floated off.

“I’ll find out more about you...” One of the nobles thought as the others continued with breakfast, although with less conversation than before.

==============================
(Ponyville)

(Town Square)

Twilight was currently curled into a ball on the ground listening to the reasons her friends are giving to be her plus one to the Gala which lead to her yelling; “QUIET!”

“And I said ‘oatmeal what are you craz-‘ oh.” Pinkie finished her unrelated statement as the others looked back at Twilight.

“Girls, there’s no use in arguing.”

“But Twilight...” Rarity tried to complain but was cut off by her friend.

“No, this is my decision and I’m gonna make it on my own and I certainly can’t think straight with all this noise.” The studious mare was stopped by her stomach rumbling. “Not to mention hunger. Now go on, shoo!” She said making her friends walk away while muttering to themselves. “And don’t worry, I’ll figure this out!”

“Figure what out?” Zeko asked making Twilight jump and hold her chest from surprise.

“You nearly gave me a heart attack, how did you sneak up on me?” The mare asked, controlling her breathing.

“I am a ninja so stealth is a second nature when I need it. Samehada does make it look like I just blitz in but I can do both, so what do you have to figure out?” The shinobi questioned after Twilight had calmed down and shook her head to focus again.

“I have to figure out who I’m going to give my extra ticket for the Grand Galloping Gala... And now you’re going to ask me to give you it AAGH! Why does this keep happening?!” She screamed in frustration realizing that her dilemma would only get worse and worse.

“Calm down, Celestia already gave me a ticket. No need to worry about me.” Zeko said trying to calm the panicking mare down which worked.

“Well either way I need to get something to eat so I can think properly.” Twilight said while walking off with Spike right behind.

“This really is an issue huh? Even by sacrificing her ticket there are still 3 left unsatisfied.” The shinobi thought to himself as he followed Twilight to a café and further saw her being torn by the need to decide even going so far as to yell at a waiter trying to take her order which was a daffodil sandwich. “Is that a sandwich made from flowers? And I thought I’d seen everything strange.”

“This is a regular food for ponies, this isn’t what you eat in your world?” The librarian asked before noticing those around her ran inside.

“Madam are you going to eat your food in the rain?” The waiter from earlier asked which left Twilight confused.

“It’s not raining.” She responded before noticing the downpour that was surrounding her table and looked up at the clearing in the clouds and saw her rainbow haired friend.

“Hey Twilight!” She yelled down ignoring the drake and Zeko.

“Rainbow Dash... are you trying to do me favors to earn the extra ticket?” She asked quickly understanding her friend’s intentions.

“She clearly is, she didn’t want to help the others running for cover. She’s just being self centered.” Zeko said with a joking tone that only Spike noticed.

“Well I don’t want anypony doing me extra favors, ok?” Rainbow nodded and shut the hole in the clouds. “That’s much better.” She said before her sandwich was ruined by the rain.

“You thought that through pretty well didn’t you?” The shinobi said while putting an umbrella of sand over the three of them.

“Twilight, were you caught in the rain?” A voice that the group recognized as Rarity asked which made Twilight deadpan.

“What gave it away?” The mare asked before being dragged into her friend’s boutique leaving Zeko alone since Spike went along. The teen wandered around for some time before noticing a crowd amassing around Twilight, trying to earn the ticket.

“Saw this coming, might as well help.” Zeko said as he summoned the Cragadile which now had one large spike through its mouth but still was able to open it. “That’s something new.” He thought as he jumped on its back and went to the crowd.

“CRAGADILE!”
“RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!” They yelled, not noticing the shinobi on its back, leaving Twilight and Spike to cower before the controlled reptile.

“Spike stay behind me!” The librarian ordered before hearing a familiar chuckle.

“Don’t worry he’s perfectly tame, not willingly but now it doesn’t matter.” Zeko stated while jumping from his pet which made Spike look in awe as Twilight tried to process how he could control something so dangerous. “Let’s get you to your house before you ask questions.” He floated them onto the Cragadile‘ snack with sand before going to her house.

She and Spike put the candles out and shut the windows but they came back on revealing her other friends who started to swarm Twilight but were stopped by a barrier of sand. “I don’t think you all understand how you’ve been making her feel about wanting you all to be happy. You’ve just wanted to go for your own selfish reasons.” He said causing them to apologize

“Thank you Zeko, and if my friends can’t go to the Gala then I won’t go either. Spike take a letter to the Prince-“

“Hang on.” Zeko interrupted. “Can’t you just ask Celestia for extra tickets?” He asked which made Twilight face palm.

“Why didn’t I think of that?” She said as Spike sent a request for more tickets which was answered quickly and her friends got their invitations.

“I’m just glad that I could let you all be happy.” Her moment was broken by her rumbling stomach.

“What say we treat you to dinner?” Rarity asked. The 6 mares left the treehouse with Applejack trailing behind.

“Why didn’t I get an invitation to the Gala?” Spike asked sadly before belching out a parchment with an invitation in it.

“Guess she didn’t want you left out.” The shinobi said as Spike ran giddily from the library. “Now I should get my money from those nobles tomorrow...” He said as he left the library to get something to eat. Little did he know he was being watched from afar...

==============================

(???)

(Midnight:The night Zeko stayed at the castle)

A hooded figure walks through an empty street, while carefully examining his surroundings to ensure that he wasn’t being followed. “It should be through this alleyway, then I look for the marked brick.” The figure said before turning left into an alley and walking down while observing the brick wall to his right. “There! That should be it.” The figure said while reaching out and pushing a brick that had a strange symbol on it which caused a mare wearing a skintight black bodysuit to open a hidden door and let him in.

“I see you wish to hire us.” The mare said leading the hooded figure down a flight of stairs revealing a large room with multiple others dressed like the mare who were mixing plants together for potions or were reading books that the figure couldn’t make out. “Why do you require our services?” The mare asked trying to speak as few words as possible.

“I need you to get some information on somepony. And report the information back to me constantly.” The figure said as they produced a pouch filled with bits and handed it to the mare. “I believe that should be enough payment.”

“Who is the pony of interest? Or is it not a pony?” The mare asked.

“He definitely is not a pony, here is a photograph I took.” The figure gave the mare a picture that revealed Zeko when he was talking to the Princesses. “I need you to find out as much as you can about him and I’ll make a final decision once you have.”

The mare smirked understanding what her employer meant and shook his hand; “Well then we have an arrangement. You have the Red Claw as your ears, eyes, and weapon Mister Wad.”

“Good.” He said smiling.

=======

Author's Note

Well that was interesting and the Red Claw introduces itself.
How will they fare from this point on?

Arc 3 Chapter 1: Lessons begin

(Everfree Forest)

(A week later: Morning)

Zeko was visiting Zecora’s hut and telling her what he knew about his world’s medical techniques and mixing reagents. “I have some seeds in my pouch, you can have them, they grow best in dry air but work well with remedies.” He said, handing her a bag of seeds.

“Thank you for the gift. Now I must ask are there any crafts you know for offense?” Zecora asked since she wanted to know if her life in the forest could be made easier by learning the techniques the shinobi demonstrated. But her mood changed when he simply responded with a head shake.

“I can tell you want to learn how to do what I can but since I don’t fully understand the energy the inhabitants of this world have... I’m not sure you can replicate my ninjutsu.”

“I see, well disappointed I’ll not be. While flashy moves I can’t excel at, could you teach me more close combat?” The zebra asked in her natural manner which made Zeko drop his eyelids to show he was annoyed. “I recall you don’t like this manner of speak at all. I assume we shall begin a lesson in fighting soon?” She asked while chuckling, knowing she was irritating her soon to be mentor.

“Yes, our training will start in a few minutes when we find the desert I made. We can spar without any other creatures showing up.” He got up and walked to the door and held it open for Zecora who was processing what he said.

“You created the field of sand that lies within these green lands?” She asked not caring about her rhyming which didn’t disturb her friend since he expected this reaction

“I did. It wasn’t too tough, there’s s lot more rocks in the soil than I figured so I had material to work with.” The shinobi explained to a shocked zebra before they continued their walk to said field, which was only a few minutes away. Once the two were there Zeko put Samehada down and got into a fighting stance which Zecora did as well. “Ok so I want you to come at me hand to hand.” At this Zecora raised an eyebrow. “Any weapon can be flawed or disarmed from you, so learning how to use your hands to fight is what you should master before a weapon.” The shinobi explained.

The two stood still waiting for a signal to begin the spar when Zeko suddenly turned to sand and appeared behind the zebra to deliver a kick to her side but she narrowly dodged and tried to counter with a double axe handle but Zeko exploited the opening and punched her in the stomach. “Don’t leave yourself so open! That could’ve meant your death!” He exclaimed with crossed arms while looking down to the herbalist struggling to take deep breaths.

“That...was quite a hit... to put... me in a fit.” She managed to get out between breaths but looked to see a hand in front of her which she struggled to reach but was guided up by it and had another press into her stomach earning a slight blush with some pain.

“I still don’t like having to do this on myself, much less others.” Zeko said as Zecora began to notice a green energy leaving his hand and the pain she felt was subsiding. “It’s a simple jutsu, but the control it takes is why I don’t like doing it.” He finished the healing technique and Zecora looked somewhat surprised.

“How have you healed me so much, with only the slightest touch?” She asked in her native manner. Zeko simply held up a hand which he coated with lightning style chakra, earning a gasp from Zecora.

“Focusing my chakra allows me to access different jutsu such as the chidori.” He said while letting the zebra examine his hand from a safe distance. “The piercing power my hand has with this is incredible which is why I got through the Cragadile‘s skin.”

“If it simply needs you to focus your energy, could it be taught to one like me?” The herbalist asked, raising an eyebrow.

Zeko thought to himself, trying to figure out if he could teach these ponies how to focus their energy in the same way he can. “I’m pretty good at controlling my chakra, my moves are devastating but the ponies here are pretty peaceful from what I’ve seen. Maybe I could stick with teaching medical jutsu...” He came back to his senses when Zecora tapped his shoulder and pointed to a pair of kids running. “What are they doing here? Isn’t this forest dangerous?”

“I cannot say, but if they are running then danger is not far away.” She said before turning to go back to her hut but was stopped by Zeko grabbing her hand and giving her some of his chakra piercings. “Why have you given me this, was this some form of tryst?” She asked with a slight blush.

“No it’s a gift, if you use these we can connect mentally and I can let you use one of the paths. I’ve decided you should be the animal path since you know the creatures in this forest so well.” He said before running off in the direction the kids went.

“Again I am curious, but I see how he places trust.” The Zebra said to herself before continuing back to her home.

==============================

(Ponyville)

(A few minutes later)

A blue mare was standing at the foot of a large, astral bear and was quivering in fear while the two kids Zeko had seen earlier were cheering her on. “You can do it Trixie.” The shorter more round blue grey boy said while his taller friend nodded in agreement. The mare stepped forward and cast a spell that caused a rope to emerge from a vase and wrap around two of the bear’s digits, before it quickly snapped them. She tried again and formed a small stormcloud that sent a bolt of lightning at the bear which only enraged it forcing the trio to run.

Zeko had seen this and ran after the bear while it chased them. “Is every problem attracted to this area?” He thought while the bear ran to the town center where the citizens were panicking from its arrival. “Wind Style: Air Bullet!” The shinobi said while breathing in and then launched a projectile of air at the bear. The bear was knocked back and looked at Zeko angrily before roaring and lunging at him, the bear only ended up with a paw of sand and was confused.

“Zeko!” He heard Twilight call from behind him. “How did that Ursa get here?”

“I don’t know I just got here and I saw it chasing somebody so I followed it.”

“We brought it here!” The pair of unicorns said which made the older trio glare at them.

“We’ll come back to that, but I can take care of this no problem.” He said before bringing his hands together and closing his eyes. “I hope that just having some of Shukaku’s chakra let’s me do this.” He thought while Spike looked at Twilight and made gestures showing that she should help, earning a nod from her.

“Zeko, what’s your plan?” She asked the teenager who was focused intensely.

“I was just going to subdue it while you put it to sleep.” He answered matter-of- factly as the ground started to rumble and the Ursa looked back and saw its target and started towards him but was stopped by monstrous arms of sand sprouting out and grabbing its legs. “The time is now Twilight!” He said while straining.

Twilight casted a spell that caused cattails to bend and form tunes of music, then she emptied a water tower and filled it with cow milk and gave it to the Ursa that Zeko started levitating after the music was being played. The two then caused it to float off into the Everfree which made the townsfolk cheer for them.

“That was amazing you two!” Spike said
“We knew you both had skill but not that much.” Applejack said in surprise.

“Please don’t hate me.” Twilight said which made her friends all exclaim; “Hate you?”

“Why would they hate you? You’re a good friend to them.” The shinobi reminded her of her standing with them.

“Well there was this mare, Trixie who was showing off her tricks and I thought-“

“Magic’s has nothing to do with it, Trixie’s just a loudmouth.” The others agreed with this.

“Having your power is what makes you who you are, you shouldn’t feel ashamed at that.” Zeko said which made the Mane six raise their eyebrows at the fact that a trained fighter could be so inspiring.

“So does this mean you can actually vanquish an Ursa Major?” Spike asked making Twilight shake her head.

“That wasn’t an Ursa Major, it was an Ursa Minor. It was a baby.” She answered causing the drake to get more concerned.

“If that was just a baby, then what’s an Ursa Major like?” He said wide eyed.

“You don’t want to know.” The librarian said while looking upwards.

“Well you may have vanquished an Ursa Minor but you will never compare to the great and powerful Trixie!” Trixie said before throwing down a smoke bomb and running off.

“More like great and expanding ego.” Zeko said making everyone laugh before he turned to the unicorn pair. “And as for you two, Twilight what should their punishment be?”

“Well first they should clean up this mess and Spike, number twenty five?” She asked which got a nod from the drake. Her horn glowed and mustaches appeared on the three boys faces.

“Wait a damn second, they endanger the lives of everyone who lives in this town and get mustaches? It’s obvious you don’t know anything about discipline.” He said while pulling out his gourd and taking the top half off revealing water.

“Uh hang on, what are you doing?” Rainbow Dash questioned while they all watched Zeko jump about one hundred feet back.

“I’m teaching these two a life lesson, water style: great shark bullet!” A giant shark made of water formed from the urn and surrounded Zeko, it then sped to the unicorn pair.

“NO STOP!”
“THEY LEARNED THEIR LESSON.” Some in the crowd yelled but they realized how serious this was and gave the boys a wide berth and watched the oncoming attack. The two held each other and shut their eyes as it nearly hit but it dissipated into a flying puddle that struck them and matted their fur to their bodies making them shake from the cold rather than fear.

“That’s how you teach kids that something doesn’t get done again.” Zeko said with his arms crossed looking to Twilight while Spike and Rainbow Dash laughed, which caused the crowd to join in.

=======

Author's Note

This took a bit longer to work on than I expected but I am proud of the result, some filler some plot.

Next chapter will begin to show Zeko making his... no spoilers

Arc 3 Chapter 2: From the ground...

Author's Note

Unsurprisingly I’m still alive. There was an incident with a Oiuja board and a “demon” that wanted death it’s unrelated but here’s another chapter and the plot thickens and revelations are made

Arc 3 Chapter 2: From the ground...

(Canterlot)

(The next day)

“As I thought, the nobility here doesn’t take too kindly to those who are... different.” Zeko thought as he walked on the main road and received strange looks from the high class citizens, some of which recognized him from the duel but most saw him as a brutish foreigner who didn’t belong. One of them decided to voice their concerns to him in a less than respectful manner.

“I believe you should be with your caregiver, otherwise the guard will throw you in a dungeon creature. I’m not sure where you came from but this is Equestria, a land for Ponykind.” A mare in a green dress said with venom in her voice which just made Zeko give her a bored expression before he rolled his eyes and continued walking. “Perhaps you’re a criminal that a bounty hunter lost? Maybe I should report you to the guard.” She said with an irritated tone since she wasn’t used to being ignored due to her status.

Zeko turned back and brightened from her words; “Bounty hunters? There are bounty hunters here?” He asked expecting a mixed response.

“Yes and they are known to be allied with the monster hunting guild, but you should know this since they’re more than likely looking for you.” She spat at him which to her surprise made him smile which confused her.

“So I can join a group of people who are paid to hunt things down? And here I thought I’d have to do regular work in this world.” The teenager said with a smirk while the mare was scowling.

“Good luck, as soon as something like you walks in you’ll be killed and your head mounted on a wall.”

Zeko started chuckling and continued as if she were insane and had told him that clouds were red. He chuckled to the point where others had stopped to watch the conflict that the two were having. “Why are you laughing, does death seem that good to you?” She asked with her arms crossed while Zeko managed to stop his fit of laughter.

“No... not at all, it’s just that... you think some mercenaries who hunt criminals and animals could manage to beat me. Does anyone here recognize me or know what happened to Captain Shining Armor?” After he said this one of the stallions visibly tensed and began shaking his head back and forth.

“N-no not you y-you’re the one w-who beat the Captain of t-the guard.” He said which made the crowd gasp and murmur collectively and the mare was shaking in fear.

“I h-heard about t-that... the Captain had a d-duel from a foal a-and he’s been I-in the hospital since. Are you the one who fought him?” She asked hoping that his answer would be no but she subconsciously knew what it was.

“If you’re asking if I’m the one who Liger Bombed him into his current state then yes. That’s why I was laughing before, if a Captain couldn’t beat me how could they?” He asked rhetorically before walking towards the castle where he had been called to claim his earnings, leaving a crowd of shocked, fearful, and for one mare, angry ponies.

===================================
(Canterlot Castle)

(A few minutes later)

Zeko was in the throne room waiting for the Princesses to give him his money while two guards were overseeing him to ensure that he didn’t do anything suspicious. “I can get why they’re watching me but if Celestia or Luna was here then I could leave.” He thought to himself while a guard walked up to him.

“They will be here shortly but may I ask how you managed to beat Captain Armor?” The guard inquired to the teenager.

“I hope they get here soon. And beating Armor wasn’t too tough, the fighting styles I know are something this world hasn’t seen and he couldn’t process that. If you actually mean the moves then I could teach you...” He drew out the last part of his sentence so the guard could introduce himself.

“Honed Blade, and if that’s what hand to hand combat is wherever you’re from, then I’ll gladly take some lessons.” Blade said trying to remain calm to keep his demeanor as a guard but wasn’t doing the greatest.

“We agree! Thou should teach our guards to fight in thine manner.” Luna said breaking the pair out of their conversation and causing Blade to bow his head before walking back to his post. “Thine skills hath been shown on the field of battle and now our protectors are envious of thee! Tis a truly odd time when a child is able to beat our Captain. But enough of that! Thou hath winnings to claim from those who doubted thine skills correct?” The Princess of the night asked while Zeko looked incredulous over her manner of speaking.

“Hey Blade.” He whispered to the guard. “Does she normally talk that way? I just thought it was for certain occasions.”

“It’s a long story but that’s the way she knows how to talk so just bear with it.” The guard responded as quietly as he could.

“Ok Princess I’d like to get my reward... even though that Fancy Pants guy said he would be here. But I guess I was right again, he didn’t keep his word.” Zeko shrugged his arms before turning around after noticing a familiar chakra signature. “Well damn, I guess you could be bothered to show up.” He said as Fancy Pants walked through the great doors with a large bag in his magical grip.

“I’m not one to break a promise, no matter how much doubt I face. I told you I would pay on the other’s behalf and I keep my word.” The wealthy stallion stated confidently while Zeko rolled his eyes.

“Well I guess I’m just glad to be paid. Now I’ve got a question for you Luna, is that forest next to Ponyville owned property or could anyone just live on it?” The shinobi asked which left the others in the room astonished at the fact that he seemed willing to move into such a dangerous area without hesitation.

“Well we suppose it would be a neutral territory, but wouldst thou rather live within the safe confines of Ponyville?” The ruler of the night seemed concerned that a child would want to reside in such a dangerous area, fighter or not, she didn’t believe it was safe.

“I’m sure, and I planned on living there from the start. I know you read the report and you know that I made a miniature desert there to live on since none of the animals there are able to live in such dry conditions.” The shinobi calmly retorted and proceeded to grab the bags filled with bits before walking out of the castle. “Hey Fancy Pants, do you know any companies that are looking for advertisement?”

==============================
(Hidden Leaf Village)

(2 weeks after Zeko and Kotetsu’s match)

Kotetsu was running around the village in a fit of anger over the fact that not one of the clans had any information on where his cousin was, even the leaf portion of the Uchiha had no leads. “Fucking damn it! This isn’t right... it’s not right AT ALL!” He stopped to yell and got the attention of everyone who was nearby and used his greatest skill to break their attention. “THE HELL ARE YOU LOOKING AT?!” They all quickly made it seem like he wasn’t there while he continued his search.

“Uh Kotetsu, what’s wrong?” A voice that the Sharingan wielder knew but wasn’t happy to hear. “Did you lose something?”

“Of course this moron shows up. Wait... maybe...” Kotetsu thought before looking back to his “Friend” and putting on a false smile. “Hey Nouka have you seen Zeko anytime over the last week?” He asked the one he reluctantly calls a friend, hoping that he would have a normal answer as opposed to his normal behavior.

“Well I have not seen him since he visited a month ago to see that girl I like, but that peasant has to be around here somewhere since his parents make him stop by every month and I just a glglglgl.” Nouka ended his minor rant with a sound that resembled a boat rudder which visibly angered Kotetsu. “But no I haven’t seen that peasant anywhere, why did you have to know?”

“You know how sometimes I send things into my eye?” Nouka nodded after remembering the many times he’s lost to his friend because his jutsu was teleported elsewhere. “Well I sent Zeko in there again and he hasn’t come out.” He continued while rubbing the back of his head.

“Doesn’t he always get out? Wasn’t it two days at the longest, y’know he took two days to get out that one time?”

“Yeah I know... but its kinda been two weeks...” The two stood still before Nouka pulled something out of his pouch and played with it before opening his hand, revealing two hawks made of clay. “Now I know you’re pissed but doing that to me won’t change anything.

“You sent my one of best friends somewhere to die ayeeeh!” Nouka let out a form of battle cry as he threw the hawks which grew exponentially before flying to Kotetsu who decided to stand there and take the attack.

“This one’s gonna hurt really bad.”

==============================
(Canterlot)

(10 minutes later)

Zeko was following Fancy Pants to a business that could always use the help of those who want to advertise, the stallion could only wonder why the teenager would want to know where help was needed doing something in this manner. The two came up to a photography studio and walked in where they heard a mare yelling with an accent that Zeko thought was strange. “These designs are terrible! There is not enough to inspire shock and awe in those who see it!” The duo kept walking until they saw the mare in question. She had a blue coat with a black and white dress with dark pink accents. She noticed the two once walked closer, “Ah, Fancy Pants, it is so nice to see you. Somepony! Get him some imported tea right this minute!” Her assistants scrambled to find their guest a drink which left Zeko thinking to himself.

“She has them under her immediate call, does she have some sort of genjutsu or are they so well paid do they just listen?” He was so focused in his thoughts he didn’t notice her walking around him, examining his clothing and his facial structure.

“Have you brought me a new model Fancy Pants? If so I may have to hold a debt for you because he may be perfect for my new line and these clothes are simply amazing.”

“I just wanted to know if you needed anyone to come model for you.” The shinobi responded while prying her hands away from his shirt, she simply frowned while he did this but her vigor returned quickly.

“Well you are in luck, I am Photo Finish, the greatest photographer in Equestria and I shall help you achieve stardom. I have a simple question however, will you be able to remove the spell on your eye? I’m not certain if all will love it.” She asked this while examining the eye in question and didn’t feel any magic emanating from it.

“It’s not any spell, it’s just my Rinnegan. It’s something I was born with and offers me a great deal of abilities that no pony could have.” He finished leaving Photo Finish to hold her chin while thinking.

“Well I suppose it would be fine, but come I must take photos quickly.” She grabbed his arm and dragged him along to a changing spot her assistants put up. She had Zeko change into a blue and grey skintight suit with gems along the arms, and then had him stand on a stage while she took photos.

“My theme here is the water. I need you to flow freely and be calm with your positions.” She told the shinobi who was given an idea from this information.

“She needs water? I can give some water.” He thought as he put made different signs to Photo’s confusion before putting a hand on his chest and forming a large sphere of water around himself leaving photo finish and her assistants with dropped jaws and wide eyes. He began to make various elegant poses which broke his photographer out of her stupor.

“Wunderbar! Whatever spell this is, it’s perfect! These poses, that water, those clothes! I have found my new muse.” She said while taking more photos. Zeko only realized that he would have industries try to use him for advertisement and smiled as this would help him with his goal. “ENOUGH!” Photo Finish suddenly yelled, making her assistants drop their respective objects and Zeko dropped his water bubble causing the stage to be flooded with water leaving him mysteriously dry, which everyone overlooked.

“Are we done for today?” He asked hoping to be able to remove the outfit he had on, and to his delight Photo Finish nodded while her assistants pulled up another changing divider which let the shinobi change back to his outfit. “So how much will I get paid for this?”

“Your payment shall come but for now I must spread your name... which would be?” She drew out that last portion as she never was told the name of her new muse.

“Kusanabe Zeko. But Zeko is my first name while Kusanabe is my surname.” He explained to the mare who simply nodded and gestured for him to leave. “A strange one but if she’s as good as Fancy Pants made her out to be then it’s fine.” He said to himself as he walked out and looked up to the cloud of sand where he left Samehada and brought it down to him. “And here I was getting used to carrying these bags. Now I’m just going to have to get a bit of knowledge on how these ‘bits’ work.” He said before floating off to his desert within the Everfree.

“An interesting creature, I’ll have to report this to Queen Chrysalis immediately.” A stallion wearing a black skintight suit thought before running into an alley.

=======

Arc 3 Chapter 3: Life Within the Forest

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Arc 3 Chapter 4: Reunion

(Ponyville)

(The Same day)

The citizens were gathered and listening to Twilight talk about the smoke that had been blocking out the sun, many were afraid that the forest was on fire and that they would have to relocate. “I’ve received a letter form Princess Celestia that the smoke is not from a fire...” That caused them all to sigh and engage in minor conversation, relieved that they wouldn’t need to move away from their home. “It’s coming from a dragon.” This caused the crowd to gasp collectively and a certain yellow Pegasus to stop and repeat the last bit of information to herself.

“A D-D-Dragon?” Fluttershy asked quietly.

==============================
(Twilight’s house)

(Minutes later)

The Mane 6 was gathered in the library figuring out why a dragon was so close by. “What in the name of all things cinnamon swirl is a full grown dragon doin here in Equestria?” Applejack asked Twilight, who was perusing her books for information.

“Sleeping.” She responded simply

“Huuh?” Was their collective response since they were confused by the simple reason of why something so dangerous had moved in.

“According to Princess he’s taking a nap and his snoring is creating all of the smoke.” Twilight explained further.

“That doesn’t sound healthy. Maybe we should get him a doctor.” Pinkie added.

Rarity chimed in and added a question that should have been gnawing at them from the beginning. “That aside, what are we meant to do about it?”

“I’ll tell you what we’re meant to do! Give him the boot!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed and kicked an ornament on an end table before trying to rush it and missing due to Twilight moving it.

“We need to encourage him to take a nap somewhere else.” She corrected her friend’s violent solution, knowing that they couldn’t beat a dragon. “Princess Celestia has given us this mission and we must not fail, if we do then Equestria will be covered in smoke for the next century.” A rumbling noise caught their attention and make them look at one spot on the floor where a bulge was forming. “What is that supposed to-“ Twilight was interrupted by Zeko breaking through the floor and pulling himself out of the hole.

“Sounds like we’ve got a job to do. So let’s get ready to go.” They all stared at him because of his unorthodox entrance.

“How in the- How did you get here?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“What do you mean how? Through the hole in the floor obviously.” They all cocked eyebrows at him. “Just a joke, I used a jutsu that lets me burrow through the ground. I was on my own mission to stop what’s making the smoke but knowing that you six have to stop a dragon... I’m gonna tag along. So everyone get some supplies and meet me by the mountain.”

“Alright!” They yelled and ran outside leaving Zeko with Fluttershy.

“Um, do I have to go?” She asked shaking to which Zeko nodded.

“If what I’ve been told about your ability to tame wild animals is true, then you’ll be the most important one on the mission.” She tried to interrupt him but he put a hand up. “I can tell you’re scared at the idea, but you’re a lot more capable than you think. I can tell that out of all of your friends you have the most strength because you’re scared of so many things but you still go with them and face these challenges.” She stopped her shaking, looked at him and nodded before running to the door and stopping.

“Um... Zeko?” He turned back to her with a raised eyebrow. “Thank you.” He barely heard her because of her quiet tone but he knew what she said and smirked to himself as she ran out the door.

“Here I go being inspirational. I wonder what the two I usually say this stuff to are doing right now...” Zeko thought as he jumped back into the hole he left in the floor.

==============================
(?????)

(?????)

“Dumbass your left!” Kotetsu nearly shouted to his friend who was running ahead of him and was being flanked by a number of very large mares.

“Take these ayeeh!” Nouka threw clay spiders which grew and blasted his attackers away. “Didja see that Kotetsu? they almost had me but I stopped them in their tracks.” Kotetsu responded by throwing his gibbering friend further ahead.

“Not the time to gloat moron! We’re not away from danger yet!” He checked behind him and the horde of mares was still following. “Just had to be a dimension where the women are eight feet tall and in heat right when we show up here. Any other time I’d think this was a good place to be, hell even die in, but not now, not yet!” He thought as he made various hand signs and blew a giant fireball back to the oncoming horde, burning the ones in the lead horrifically and creating a form of barrier to keep the rest back. The duo stopped once they saw that their pursuers couldn’t maneuver around the flames.

“Looks like they aren’t too smart in their current state. The ones with wings could just fly right over.” Nouka pointed out causing Kotetsu to kick his shin. “Ow! Why’d you do that?”

“Just because they don’t see that now doesn’t mean that you should be pointing it out! We need to find a way to keep mov-“ His plan was interrupted by two Earth pony mares getting them both into full Nelsons and lifting them off of the ground. Kotetsu broke the hold his captor had and kicked her in the stomach, forcing her into a fetal position.

Nouka’s captor started drooling once she got a hold onto him. “Oh sweet Celestia I’m on fire and you’re gonna put me out.” Nouka froze once he heard this.

“I need an adult! Please!” Nouka said, not noticing his friend was free and focused on not losing his innocence.

“Oh I’m an adult, and I’ll show you a few things these schoolfillies can’t do.” Her voice dripped with lust.

“I’m an adult too bitch!” Kotetsu rushed in and chopped one of her arms off, narrowly avoiding the clay user. “Come on!” He grabbed Nouka and transported them into the Kamui dimension narrowly evading the clutches of mares who got past the flames.

“Well that didn’t go too well but now there’s only three more ripples so maybe one of them is his and we won’t need to go through anything like that again.” Nouka tried to cheer his friend up to seemingly no avail.

“We come from an underground pool every time. It’s laced with Shukaku’s chakra, even his damn seals.” Kotetsu reminded himself of what the two experienced when they made it to these worlds. “One of these places sends some royal bitches after us and makes me break the horn on her head. What the hell could they have done to Zeko by now? The one we were just in was the best and worst at the same time... wouldn’t mind coming back when this is all done.”

“That’s gross but let’s check this one next.” Nouka pointed to a ripple that had a slightly different coloration. “It kinda looks like there are tiny spines from Samehada on it.” Kotetsu came up and noticed that he was right, Samehada had to have been near this one meaning his cousin was guaranteed to be there. He smacked Nouka on the back.

“You might’ve just proved you aren’t brain dead. You may kick your own ass when we get back home.”

“Yay I’m smart a-glglglglglglgl!” Nouka did his typical sound of excitement but Kotetsu didn’t seem irritated.

“I’ll let this one go.” He focused on the ripple and tore it open, forcing the duo inside.

==============================
(Base of the Mountain)

(15 minutes later)

“Alright, we’ve got everything we need and the mission’s clear so let’s go before the dragon snores again.” Zeko reminded the group of the noise the dragon made as they approached and how much smoke was made at the time.

“I’ll go up there and check it out!” Rainbow Dash flew upwards but was pulled back down by a lasso.

“Hold it right there, we should all go up together. There’s safety in numbers.” Applejack suggested to her hothead friend who begrudgingly accepted. They began to hike up a nearly vertical part of a cliff with Zeko and Fluttershy trailing behind.

“Remember that they’re all scared to be here, Rainbow Brash is probably intimidated by the thought of a dragon.”

“Her name is Rainbow Dash.”

“I know but Brash is more fitting because of her short fuse.” He responded.

“You two lovebirds need a personal invitation to keep up? Because I might have one in my bag.” Pinkie reaches into her bag and pulled out an invitation along with some streamers and confetti. The others save Twilight, Zeko, and Fluttershy laughed at the nickname and prop.

“This isn’t a laughing matter! Fluttershy you’re the expert on wild creatures what do you think the dragon will be like?” Before Fluttershy could answer the question the dragon snored once again causing her to freeze and nearly fall off of the cliff.

“Ok we need to speed up, the more he snores before we get there the less sunlight we’re gonna see.” Zeko said as he used his sand to bring the Pegasus mare back up to the group. “I’ll lead the way.”

The group walked for some time until they reached a point where the mountain split into a ravine and most of them jumped right over. “That looks really far down, I think I’ll just stay behind.” Fluttershy said making Rainbow Dash facepalm and the others sigh.

“We don’t have time for that, you can just fly over.” Zeko reminded the Pegasus about her natural ability which made her begin to fly over until the another snore from the dragon paralyzed her and made her fall into the crevasse.

“FLUTTERSHY!” The mares exclaimed before Rainbow Dash and Zeko jumped after her.

“What are you doing?! You can’t fly!” Rainbow Dash questioned the falling shinobi who latched onto a side of the ravine and began to run down after Fluttershy.

“Can’t fly but I can run!” He responded, catching up to the falling Pegasus and catching her in midair and to both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy’s surprise he was floating. “Still not flying, just floating.” He said to a jaw dropped Rainbow Dash as he ascended back up to the others.

“What in tarnation? You can fly too?” Applejack asked Zeko who set Fluttershy down and made a platform of sand large enough for all of them to be on.

“Flying is pushing it a bit far, more like resisting gravity. That’s something I explained earlier, just not too well.” Zeko answered.

“Hold on why are you making that?” Twilight questioned his actions.

“Well we’re barely halfway up the mountain and there’s only more obstacles to come, since not everyone can fly this is the next best thing to get us all to the top.” He got onto the sand and was followed by the others excluding Rainbow Dash and lifted them to the cave where the dragon was sleeping. “I’ll go take care of this.” Zeko jumped off the patch of sand but was caught in a purple magical grip.

“Hold it right there, this was a mission given to us by Princess Celestia.” Twilight told him. “We can handle this just fine.”

“This is an adult dragon who could eat, burn, or maim you. I’m not just gonna stand by and watch that happen.” His tone left no room for argument but the others weren’t concerned for their own safety as much as his.

“He could eat you too! We know what we’re doing and we have Fluttershy to help us.” Rainbow Dash gestured to where the yellow Pegasus was but was surprised when she was no longer there.

“She’s behind a rock, and did you ever consider that she doesn’t want to be near the dragon? I mean come on, when the damn thing snores she pretty much doesn’t breathe.”

“Wait Fluttershy you’re scared of the dragon?” Twilight asked and got a nod in response. “But you walked up to a Manticore like he was nothing.”

“Yes, because he wasn’t a dragon.”

“My point exactly. Ok look, how about I just act as backup? Fluttershy can stay out here and you can try to convince the dragon to leave, but if anything goes wrong I’m jumping in.” He suggested and received positive responses. Twilight went in first and attempted to coax the dragon to leave but came out coughing smoke.

“Don’t worry dear, I’ll convince him to leave and possibly part with some of his precious jewels.” Rarity said nearly salivating at the idea.

“I’m not sure that trying to get some of his valuables is smart when you- and she’s gone.” Zeko said aloud but Rarity had gone into the cave before he could finish. “You know what I’m just gonna meditate and get some natural chakra just in case, nobody wants to listen.”

“Well now it ain’t like she-“ Applejack was knocked over by Rarity bolting out of the cave and taking cover behind a rock.

“And to think I was so close to getting that diamond.”

“You mean you were so close to getting the dragon to leave?” Twilight corrected Rarity who didn’t acknowledge the question.

“Alright I’ve got this.” Pinkie Pie said while wearing a costume that resembled a frog in a present box. “Sometimes you gotta use laughter and jokes.” She waddled in And came out almost instantly. “Turns out he doesn’t like jokes.”

“Ok that’s enough!” Rainbow Dash said and flew in, moments later she barreled out and hit the others excluding Zeko and they crashed into the rock Fluttershy was behind.

“How dare you? How dare you!” Fluttershy flew up and met the dragon eye to eye. “Listen here, just because you’re big doesn’t mean you get to be a bully! You may have huge teeth and sharp scales and snore smoke and breathe fire, but you do not- I repeat do not hurt my friends! Now what do you have to say for yourself?”

“But that rainbow one hit me.” He said

“I know and I’m sorry for that but-“ She was pulled from the sky by one of the sand arms Zeko used and barely missed the explosion.

“What was that?!” Rainbow Dash questioned and her answer came in a strange white dragon with two boys on it.

“N-No... NO DAMN WAY!” Zeko yelled in realization.

“YES DAMN WAY! WE’RE HERE!” Kotetsu yelled back.”LOOK OUT!” The dragon recovered and swatted at the mares in fury but Zeko moved them with his sand.

“MY EYE! I’LL EAT YOU ALL.” He yelled, flying up and breathing a torrent of flame towards everyone.

“Oh no.” Fluttershy said as she was frozen again and was nearly scorched by the flames until the clay dragon flew by and Nouka grabbed her.

“I got you miss, no need to worry.” He received a slap to the head from Kotetsu.

“What have I told you about saving females?”

“Something about money or sex?” Nouka nervously answered.

“At least he remembers that.” Zeko said from behind the two with the rest of the Mane six in tow. “We leave them on the dragon, boys it’s time for our ultimate move.” The other shinobi brightened when Zeko said that.

“You don’t mean...” Nouka started.

“It’s finally time...” Kotetsu added.

“The Collapsing Mausoleum!” The trio said in unison as they grabbed each other’s hands and their eyes changed, their pupils slitting to resemble that of a snake.

“This is the one part I don’t like, but natural chakra isn’t something I like gathering.” Kotetsu muttered before the three jumped onto sand clouds Zeko made. “But this makes up for it. Wind Style: Gnashing Gale!” Multiple streams of wind rushed to the dragon and cut his wings off forcing him to fall from the air and be caught by sand that began to curl into a ball shape.

“Nouka, you’re up.” Zeko said to his friend who was now circling the sphere.

“Ok here we go.” Nouka said while putting clay into his mouth and chewing it. “Try this on for size!” He started to spit a continuous rope of clay at the dragon and bind it.

“Seeing this years ago made me want to vomit, now I just wanna die.” Kotetsu gave his input into the graphic display. Nouka finished regurgitating the clay and the trio came back together.

“WHAT IS THIS?!” The dragon shouted with clenched teeth due to the clay.

“Nouka let’s do it.” Kotetsu said while making hand signs. Nouka formed a small bird of clay and flung it to the closing sand sphere.

“Fire Style:Giant Fireball!” Kotetsu spat a giant ball of flame that went next to the bird and both went into the closing dome. What everyone witnessed next could only be described as an orchestra of destruction.

“Detonating Sand Burial” Zeko said, closing his fist. The orb of sand turned red hot for a few seconds then burst quickly before it collapsed inwards and exploded leaving everyone flabbergasted at the display. The trio landed and high fived in celebration.

“Why di- that was a...” Twilight tried to assess what she’d seen but was at a loss for words

“Wait a second... KOTETSU!” Zeko yelled and punched his friend in the chest, knocking him into the cave.

“That was a good one! ZEKO!” Kotetsu ran out and drop kicked Zeko off of the side of the mountain.

“What are those two doing?” Rarity asked while she and her friends were floating on the clay dragon with Nouka.

“They have to do this when they don’t see each other for a long time.” Nouka told the confused mares as they watched Zeko float back onto the mountain.

“Kotetsu I’ve got an idea, let’s head to the capital and do the finale there.” Zeko suggested to his cousin who pondered the idea.

“Are there children who’ll run scared? Or adults? Pretty much anything that’ll be scared really.” He got a nod and jumped over to his cousin. “Lead the way.” The duo floated up with sand and floated off leaving Twilight with her own thoughts.

“Why did they kill the dragon?!”

Author's Note

This took effort and now the trio is Reunited. But the morality and teachings of the...”ponies” comes into play

(Nouka on the left. Zeko in the center. Kotetsu on the right)

Arc 3 Chapter 5: Revelation

(Sky)

(5 minutes later)

The group floated towards Canterlot on either clay dragon or a cloud of sand. Some of the Mane six decided to question the newcomers as they did Zeko. “So you guys are his friends? How do we know that you’re on the up and up?” Rainbow Dash questioned Nouka in particular but was surprised by his response.

“Well I am sorry if you don’t trust us but I’ve been Zeko’s friend for a while and Kotetsu’s known him since they were kids. Zeko is a really good friend to me and doesn’t make fun of me being technically weaker than them.”

“Whaddya mean ‘weaker than them’? Ain’t you a fighter too?” Applejack asked.

“I am but not like them, I can only use my clay to fight and I’m not very good at hand to hand. I can control how much power I put into each clay creature I make and how large the explosion will be.” Nouka explained to the mares that were with him but was confused when they looked underneath themselves frantically

“Is this thing gonna explode?!” Rainbow Dash questioned

“No it’s disabled, Kotetsu used a lightning style move to make it unable to detonate.” They relaxed once he said this allowing him to look over at his friend’s sand cloud and think.

“I wonder how they’re doing.”

On the cloud of sand Kotetsu was doing one of the things he does best, “So do you girls go into heat and try to rape guys?” What Kotetsu does best is ask things that are entirely inappropriate at the time, and what he asked made the 3 mares on the cloud of sand blush heavily.

“What the hell is wrong with you, where did you even get that idea from?” Zeko was used to his cousin’s off questions but was nothing short of angered and yet curious

“When we were looking for you there were different ‘mirror’ worlds that we went to, one of them had a population of mostly females and they were in heat when we got there. I’m planning on paying it a visit at some point.” Kotetsu looked up with a slight smile. Zeko looked back at Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy who still held heavy blushes.

“They let Applejack, Pinkie, and Rainbow go with Nouka to interrogate him but I know that Kotetsu’s the one they should be wary of.” He thought while Twilight began to stammer and form a sentence.

“W-we... I-In some... t-there are...” She wasn’t able to focus long enough to make a sentence to answer Kotetsu.

“So I’m right? You do go into heat and try to-“

“NO!” Twilight cut him off before he could finish. “We don’t force anypony to do anything when we’re like that... we just get very receptive and... amorous...” Kotetsu smiled to Zeko and nodded.

“You chose quite the place to end up in. You’ll be drowned in flesh and fur, which could be weird but I wouldn’t thi-“ A sand arm flung Kotetsu off of the cloud and to the ground below.

“He’s an acquired taste but you learn to enjoy his personality over time.” Zeko sheepishly said the the mares who tried their hardest to not look him in the eyes.

“U-um is h-he going t-to be ok?” Fluttershy managed to squeak out

“I’m fine! Just hanging under here.Wait a second... did that dragon have a hoard of treasure? I know I’ve heard stories that they do.” Kotetsu asked while standing on the underside of the cloud

“Why yes he did have quite the collection of gold and the most marvelous jewels I’ve ever seen.” The cloud shook and Zeko facepalmed which confuses the mares

“He jumped off.” Twilight’s eyes were the size of dinner plates and she went to look below them but was stopped by a small column of sand. “Calm down, He can take this fall no problem but we can go get that gold later.” The cloud descended quickly to catch up to Kotetsu who was speeding back to the mountain but had to soo once he was encased in water.

“Oh come on! It’s gold and jewels! We could be rich!” Kotetsu struggled inside his prison but was brought back onto the cloud
“It’ll be there when we come back, the longer we take to get to the capital the higher the chances of something coming across it.” The cloud went back into the sky where Nouka and the others were waiting

“What happened to him?” They all asked, curious as to why they had to be stopped from their trip.

“Don’t worry about it.” Zeko said and continued leading the way

==============================
(Canterlot Castle)

(10 minutes later)

Nouka and Kotetsu were busy admiring the craftsmanship of the castle just as Zeko did to notice the guards open the doors leading to the Princesses. “Well well, it seems that we have more visitors.” Celestia spoke once she noticed Nouka and Kotetsu. Everyone else knelt down before her excluding the shinobi trio.

“Hey guys I think we should do that.” Nouka whispered, kneeling down in respect earning dissatisfied looks from Kotetsu and Zeko

“Damnit Nouka, I didn’t do it when I should have and we both know Kotetsu won’t.” He gestured to his cousin who was standing there, brows raised at Celestia and Luna

“These are the rulers here?” He whispered and got a nod from Zeko. “In a different reality I broke her horn!” Zeko’s eyes went wide and the ponies in the room gasped

“Wait they’re horse people, their hearing should be... oh not good.” Zeko thought to himself as Celestia walked down to them causing Zeko and Kotetsu to tense up in anticipation

“I’m not sure I heard that correctly... you broke the horn of a different me? Why did you have to do something like that?” She asked not showing any malice towards Kotetsu

“Well she told us we violated an important law and that we had to be imprisoned. I didn’t take that well and we had to defend ourselves.” Zeko looked over at him with a deadpan expression, knowing what Kotetsu’s self defense is

“So you probably killed something in front her her first, then tried to humiliate her and finished it by breaking her horn.” Kotetsu looked upwards with an expression that showed he was happy, proving that Zeko was right

“Y-You killed somepony?” Twilight asked, shocked at the revelation

“In those different realities, yeah I did. But to be fair, how was I supposed to know that murder wasn’t something that I could punish?”

“Hold on, you killed someone who killed someone else? How is that a crime?” Zeko questioned in a blunt manner which made everyone look at him accusingly. “What’s wrong?”

Applejack decided to break the tension with a simple question, one that was on everypony’s mind; “Ya said that ya had to kill before... weren’t ya forced to do it?”

“Yeah, you didn’t have a choice in it so it wasn’t wrong but it wasn’t right.” Rainbow Dash chimed in while Kotetsu started snickering to himself and Nouka just looked around, trying to avoid eye contact. She flew into Kotetsu’s face; “What’s so funny kid? Being forced to do something so bad is a joke?” She backed away once Celestia sent a disapproving look her way

“He’s laughing because you think we didn’t want to kill anyone, we killed constantly if we felt like it.” The guards raised their swords in a defensive stance and the Mane six moves away from the trio

“You would take lives as if it weren’t an issue? How could you do something like that?” Celestia asked while recalling combat spells just in case

“Well a sword to the throat...” Kotetsu stated

“A Sand Burial...” Zeko said

“Detonating clay...” Nouka added

“Or even a liger bomb.” Zeko finished making Twilight widen her eyes in shock and fall back onto the floor

“T-that thing y-you did to Sh-Shining... Y-you tried to k-ki-ki...” she started hyperventilating and was calmed down by Pinkie Pie putting an arm around her in a comforting manner

“If I wanted to kill your brother he’d be dead instead of just having healing ribs. The liger bomb I gave him wasn’t that strong... compared to what I can do.” Zeko explained to those in the room

“And as much as I don’t like it in our dimension we don’t just get to kill anybody we want, they have to be a criminal and it can’t be a mission where they need to be captured.” Kotetsu further added in trying to convince them that they weren’t bloodthirsty killers

“We usually kill to protect others.” Nouka said, shocking the Mane six since they had been under the influence that Nouka was the most innocent out of them. “We even beat that dragon that was making all of the smoke and we did it to save these ladies from its fire a glglglglglglgl.” Everyone was visibly irritated by his sound and Kotetsu proceeded to hit the back of his head

“That aside... you three children managed to beat a dragon?” Celestia asked making not only her guards tense up but any nearby maids slowly backed out of the throne room

“If we work together, there’s not that many things that can stop us.” Zeko said while putting his hands on Nouka and Kotetsu’s backs

“They did something that set the dragon on fire but I thought dragons were immune to fire.” Rainbow Dash interjected. “You mean to tell me that you guys sent that dragon running?!”

“Working together remember? Anyway I had the idea to teach some of the jutsu I know to as many on this world as I could but with Nouka and Kotetsu here that process will go way faster.” The aforementioned duo looked at Zeko strangely

“We came to bring you back, your friends miss you even Kotetsu missed you.” Nouka said making Zeko give a cocky smirk

“That’s so sweet to know but we haven’t finished our greeting yet so let’s do that.” Zeko walked over to a wall of the castle and raised a hand

“He isn’t...” Celestia thought but covered her mouth once a cloud of dust and rubble came from that direction.

“Let’s go guys!” Zeko jumped out the newly formed window

“Alright Kotetsu lets finish your greeting.” Nouka jumped after Zeko leaving Kotetsu with the others

“You might as well go too to finish this ‘greeting’ of yours.” A guard said and put his sword away

“No, I prefer to use doors since landing is too much work.” Kotetsu said walking back the way they had come in.

“They’re so dangerous... and unpredictable! How is the Princess not worried?” Twilight thought in a panicked way.

“I’m very worried Twilight and before you panic, remember I’m your mentor we share a special link to one another but I can only use it if you are nearby.” Twilight had stopped herself from thinking she’d gone insane but also realized that if Princess Celestia was concerned over the power of the shinobi then there was a problem.

“As concerned as I was with just Zeko, now there are two more? And how did he break through the wall so easily?” The Solar Princess pondered over what had happened, not understanding how the integrity of her Castle was compromised so easily

==============================
(Training Yard)

(5 minutes later)

“Not as much of a turnout as it had been for the duel, but its been a couple minutes so...” Zeko said as he looked at the small crowd of guards, soldiers and a few nobles all of whom had either seen or heard Zeko break a hole through the castle wall. “Whatever though, Kotetsu! You know what to do!” He exclaimed to his cousin who cracked his neck in response

“We going with armor or what?” Zeko squatted down and thought on what the two should do as a reunion and settled on something that he liked personally

“Let’s go with a lighting armor lariat.” Kotetsu smiled at Zeko’s decision and coated his body in lightning as did Zeko

“Isn’t that the same spell he used against Shining Armor?” Rarity pointed out which made the group wonder what the two were planning to do when the shinobi duo suddenly jumped back from each other and reeled their right arms back.

“What are they doing?” Pinkie Pie asked right before the two jumped toward the other, slamming an arm into the other’s chest

“DOUBLE LARIAT!” They yelled once they clashed and formed a barrier of lightning around themselves and blew each other back onto the ground

“D-Did they just... hurt each other like that? I thought they were friends!” Twilight thought frantically while the crowd was shocked at the display excluding Nouka who just looked like he was tired. Celestia decided to fly down to the pair who were laying on the ground laughing

“Are you two alright? That didn’t look as if it was pleasant.” The two stood up and walked over to her and nodded to her confusion

“We greet each other like this all the time, but since that’s over we can go now.” Kotetsu said and got a perplexed look from Zeko

“Where are we going?” Zeko questioned

“Back to our dimension... you have been gone for two weeks.”

Zeko shut his eyes in thought and realized he was right, he had been here for quite some time; “But you found a way to get here, so you can come back to check up on me anytime.” Kotetsu’s eye started to twitch

“You’re really gonna stay here in... happy pony people land? You had to have hit your damn head, I’ll fix that.” Kotetsu pulled the scabbard for his sword out but stopped when Zeko held his hand up

“I get why you’re against that but this world isn’t all sunshine and happiness, the citizens try to live happy but don’t realize that they’re causing pain.”

“I’m listening...” Kotetsu said while the Mane six and Nouka came down to them

“They’re actually pretty... discriminating and are quick to avoid anything that doesn’t seem right to them. You know the story for Rinnegan wielders.” Zeko told his cousin who put his weapon back

“They can change the world for the better or for the worse. Alright fine I’m not for it but if that’s what you’re going to do then I’ll tell everyone you’re just somewhere else, but I’ll come back every now and again. Maybe there’s some other things to kill.” Kotetsu put his hand on Nouka’s shoulder and changed his eye to his Sharingan and transported the two away forcing jaws to drop at the display

Rainbow Dash stick her hand out and tried to grab at where the pair had been but only felt air; “H-how did they just...?”

“That’s what his eye does, he can put other things in there or himself and teleport.” Zeko answered

“Well we still should converse about your... history.” Celestia said

“What about it?”

“You’ve taken lives and made it seem as if it’s not an issue. You’re so young but you don’t show remorse for that.” She further elaborated

“Well why should I? I never just did it for fun, there was always a good reason. I mean Kotetsu got his eye by killing his dad.” They gasped while Rarity and Fluttershy fainted. “Ok technically the emotions he felt gave him the eye and he used it to kill his dad before he could kill his mom but that’s semantics.”

“Why’d his dad try and do somethin like that? He didn’t deserve to d-d-“ Applejack found herself unable to finish the sentence and just hoped Zeko understood

“Well I’m pretty sure it was something about him thinking Kotetsu was a monster doomed to kill them and he blamed his mom since she gave him the Sharingan. Either way he deserved it, in our world something like that is punishable with death.”

“It doesn’t work that way here, we always try to reason with somepony and find a peaceful resolution.” Celestia said firmly

“Well that dragon wasn’t a pony, so what we did to it wasn’t a crime.” Celestia froze and Twilight tensed at the mention of the dragon

“What do you mean?” Celestia asked

“Well you know we beat it... but do you know how?” He received a no from Celestia; “Well we used a jutsu to cut his wings off, then I trapped him in sand and Nouka wrapped him in clay and from there we just blew him up and crushed him at the same time.” Celestia looked as if she were going to throw up and Applekack and Rainbow Dash seemed like they’d pass out

“I knew that t-the dragon couldn’t have survived that... but why did you do that?” Twilight asked the teenager

“He was going to eat you all, I saved you.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that you took his life, pony or not he was within Equestria and had the same rights. I can’t let this go unpunished, Zeko I think you should stay within the castle walls for some time until I think of something fitting.” Celestia scolded the teenager who stood there silent before turning into a great deal of parasprites that flew around, distracting them before dispersing to the sky where Zeko was.

“Unfortunately I’m not going to do that, I acted to protect your subjects and I shouldn’t be punished for that.” Zeko said, floating on a cloud of sand.

“Hey! The Princess said you had to stay in the castle so you’re gonna do it.” Rainbow Dash exclaimed and flew up to retrieve Zeko but was forced back to the ground by intense winds

“You didn’t forget about my Rinnegan did you? I’ll repeat myself, I acted to defend you girls and I shouldn’t be punished for that so I’m going to go back to my home and wait until you’re all in a better state of mind.” Zeko floated off as one of the guard came up to Celestia

“We can attempt to pin him down with magic at your command Princess.”

“No, that won’t be necessary. I believe I may have to follow him myself.” Celestia responded while they all began walking back to the castle. ”I may have overreacted some.”

=======

Author's Note

A filler chapter but at least now we see what Zeko’s intentions were once he figured he was stuck

Arc 3 Finale: Rebirth

(Waterfall Overlook)
(1 hour later)

Zeko was in a state of meditation trying to take his mind off of what happened earlier in the day. “I can’t believe she wanted to lock me up for protecting the Harmony girls. In hindsight you should’ve been expecting rainbow colored pony people world to be harsh on those who aren’t nice.” He internally debated but didn’t show any outside distress at his own conflict.

“So that’s the target... I’ve seen what that weird eye thing can do but he’s not paying any attention. I’ll get that eye myself and then Queen Chrysalis will conquer all of Equestria and She’ll make me her king.” The Red Claw double agent thought, dagger in hand he prowled towards Zeko who didn’t seem to notice the assassin. “The poison on this dagger will knock him right out, then I get him to the hive and we take his powers!” The drone slowly crept closer to Zeko as to not alert him, slowly raising the dagger as he prepared to stab his target.

“So should I just stay still and wait for you to kill me or something?” Zeko said in a blunt way aptly making his would be captor jump back.

“How did... I’m as quiet as a mouse and you heard me!” He was angered that his known stealth wasn’t able to get him what he wanted

“I was meditating, y’know when you focus on your surroundings as a whole?” The Red Claw member was confused at Zeko’s questioning; “Whatever, so why are you trying to kill me, need some money?”

“I-I’m on a mission to get you and your powers back to my leader so I can be her lover and we can rule Equestria toge-“

“Let me stop you right there.” Zeko interjected. “You want to take me to your superior and take my power so you can take over... and you think she’ll just make you her lover because of that?” The assassin nodded dumbly and raised his dagger

“She’s going to reward me since I’ve figured out your powers, you need to see me to move me with your magic and if you can’t move you can’t fight. He didn’t bring that sword either and all I need is one cut for the poison to win!” The Red Claw member got into a fighting position

“So before we get to this can I get an idea of who you are or will I just have to figure that out myself?” Zeko asked the slow approaching assassin

“Like I’d ever disclose information like that! Either I’ll die here or you get captured!”

“Well then I’ll let you know something... I’m not going to get serious, in fact I’ll disrespect you with some nice raps.” Zeko moves his hands to match his wordplay. The RC member rushed to him

“You’re gonna lose.” He lunged to Zeko who dodged the thrust

“I’ve got a quirk your words made me smirk but you should know I’ll bash you into the dirt.” Zeko practically danced around the poisoned blade as his foe only got irritated

“Stop doing that!” The assassin said, shooting a spell that acted as cover letting him move to Zeko’s side and throw a smaller dagger at his target and follow up with a stab

“Only thing that’ll kill me is a jinchuriki, so get back before your spine gets cracked.” Zeko caught both weapons and kicked his enemy into a tree. “You started this fight with a major oversight, your pursuit of power will end with you in a cower.” Zeko juggled the daggers and sent them back to their owner fast enough to crack the tree

“I can’t do this alone can I? I might have to fall back and contact the others.” The assassin got up and pulled a small red crystal out.

“Is that some kind of a secret weapon? If that’s your plan then you should be stepping.” Zeko rhymed once again causing the assassin to point the crystal to the sky and shoot off a flare; “Hold up did you just send a signal up? Was that a warning so your allies can come running?”

“That... rhyming... it’s pissing me off... But when some of the family gets here you’ll have to die, maybe I can get your powers in death.” As if they were listening to the very call of their ally, four assassins leapt from the forest canopy. One was a tall male Griffon with red plumage that Zeko figured was dyed and was holding a large sword, two of the new arrivals were twin earth pony stallions with hoods and masks covering their faces and both had one sword that looked as if they were halves of a whole weapon. The final member was a Unicorn mare with a mane that was red much like the Griffon’s

“So Pod, you needed us to take on that kid that the higher rank got paid to tail?” The mare asked the assassin now known as Pod

“He’s better than he looks Mist and he’s making some terrible rhymes to distract me.” Pod spat to the mare who was scowling at her name being revealed

“If you’re just gonna argue, Pod and Mist, maybe relieve your tension with a passionate kiss.” The two in question stopped glaring at each other and blushed, the Griffin started laughing and the twins looked as if they were holding back their laughter

“Did he just... *cough* I can’t stop laughing, it’s hard to breathe!” The Griffin said between fits of laughter

“S-Shut up Rhyken, he’s just a dumb kid acting funny!” Mist said to the Griffin who was past his laughter for the moment and sported an expression of playful doubt

“Hey fool you don’t have to be a tool, be as nice as I’ve been like your good friend Rhyken.”

“Here he goes again, he has no lyrical talent either!” Pod took his knife back out and his allies were wielding their weapons excluding Mist who was simply standing with her hands on her hips. “Yes I needed help, he’s better than I thought so let’s just kill him it was the job right?”

“If you can’t decide who will make an incision then allow me to make that final decision.” Zeko sprung at Mist with his arm cocked back, fist ready to strike but his mark vanished into a cloud making him slam into the ground; “That must be why they call her Mist.” Zeko looked around and saw Mist behind the others

“I’ll shut him up!” Rhyken charged at Zeko with his blade and slammed it into Zeko’s shoulder, the force put a crater under the two as well. “Pod you needed our help when he just stood there and took it? Talk about a waste of time.”

“Call that a sword? Better used for striking chords, my blade would make your life fade maybe you should stay away to elongate the arrival of your final day.” “Zeko’s” shoulder dropped and turned to sand that held Rhyken’s weapon leaving him to be struck in the chest by the real Zeko and knocked away

“How *cough* did he do that?!” Zeko grabbed Rhyken’s sword and tossed it back the Griffon who was holding his chest

“Thinking you can win, you’d be surprised by my grin. Knowing that you’d die
I can see the amount of intelligence between you isn’t very high.” Zeko twirled in place while taunting his enemy making the two stallions step forward

“Your end will be met-“ One started

“By our blades” the other finished as they rushed to Zeko, preparing to cut both of his arms off but nearly killed each other when he ducked under the blades and slammed his fist into the ribs of one and grabbed the other’s sword

“Only thing that’ll kill me is a true jinchuriki, go get back unless you want your spine cracked.” He broke the sword and threw the hilt at the twin on the ground, rendering him unconscious

“Dusk!” The other twin tried to get to his unconscious brother but was stopped by Rhyken

“He’s still alive, we need to figure out a way to beat him and fast.” Rhyken looked at Pod who had been following Zeko the most and had the most knowledge on him

“If we all go at one he won’t be able to process it, there might just be a chance if we work together.” Pod said causing the other three to get into fighting positions

“I hope you guys are ready to fight because the sand shark is preparing a killer bite, one of you won’t go the same as the rest cause I have something that I need to test.” Zeko looked smug and there was only the sound of the waterfall until Pod rushed forward and tried to cut Zeko but his wrist was grabbed rendering him helpless

“Agh! Rhyken now!” Pod caught Zeko’s other arm and held him while Rhyken prepared to cut Zeko’s head off

“If it’s my head you want to slice I have to say that won’t suffice!” Zeko fell back and kicked Pod into the oncoming blade, forcing him to the side with a large slash on his back

“Daybreak!” Mist signaled causing Zeko to be stabbed in the stomach from behind and slump his head down; “YES!” The unicorn thought once she realized this wasn’t a replica of sand

“We have won but I must admit you were a strong adversary.” Daybreak said as he removed his sword from Zeko who somehow still stood

“Here I thought I wouldn’t get hurt that bad...” The Red Claw members paused once they heard that voice; “But this has to be something rad.” Daybreak got ready to fight but ended up with a hand around his throat cutting off his air supply.

“H-How is he still alive?” Mist asked no one in particular

“I-I don’t get it... the sword went right through him.” Pod added while Rhyken remained silent

“It was a really good attack but you missed my vitals so I managed to heal some of it so I could still fight, having some tailed beast chakra really gets useful.” Zeko thought as he thought about his next lyrical insult.

“Daybreak’s still getting held, we have to-“

*CRACK* *THUD*

Rhyken was interrupted by the sounds that came from Zeko’s direction and the group saw Daybreak laying on the ground with a loose neck. Pod seemed the most shocked since he never thought anyone who wasn’t an assassin or soldier would be able to kill another without hesitation. “H-He just...” Mist started before turning to vomit

“The fight you initiated in good health will leave you humiliated in death, now I’m ending this prolonged scrap with a dangerous attack. My chakra rods will pierce your bods and leave you lying, then you’ll understand the pain of dying.” Zeko brought a hand up and drew a sharpened chakra rod from it as he walked over to Dusk and stabbed him through the chest making Rhyken drop his weapon and take a step back

“How c-could you? They w-were brothers a-and they...” Mist couldn’t form a full sentence after seeing two of her partners die with such little resistance

“So unlike me they’re probably trained to face those who aren’t good fighters. That explains the sloppy movements in their attacks.” Zeko thought as he gained two more rods and began walking towards the remaining assassins. Rhyken began to sweat and did something his allies thought unthinkable... he tried to run away

“I DON’T WANNA DIE!” He yelled as he got to the edge of the trees letting his allies feel abandoned but were brought back by Zeko summoning a Cragadile and sending it after the fleeing Griffin

“That’s quite the embarrassing show to display, just shows who your real ally was today.” Zeko said before throwing his chakra rods through Mist’s legs, pinning her in one spot and making her shut her eyes from the sheer pain

“Why does it feel like my head’s burning!?” Mist thought, thrashing as much as she could to distract herself from the crippling pain

“That’s because I’m influencing it.” Mist hears a booming voice but realized it came from inside of her mind and she’d noticed the haunting sight before her; “Having me push straight into your mind is a privilege but Pod will face an equal fate.” Mist looked back and saw that she was now on the ground with holes through her legs with blood coming out

“AAAH!” A scream from the woods had interrupted everything and Pod realized that the Cragadile caught Rhyken but his issue was Zeko standing over him when he grabbed the top of his head and Pod felt his mind being pulled away, his memories and knowledge leaving him slowly

“So you really have been watching my exploits, wanting to- Ok! That’s enough rapping for today. Wait, I knew something was off about your chakra... you’re a changeling? The hell is that supposed to be?” Zeko had gotten further into Pod’s memories and had seen what he’d been hiding, it was at that moment that Pod changed from a stallion to a bug like pony creature making Mist gasp

“Y-You’re a changeling... you were just using the family for information so you... you never cared about us.” Mist looked extremely dejected over Pod’s betrayal but by this point Pod was beyond the state of speaking as Zeko pulled his hand away and only he could see that a soul was coming with it

“I wouldn’t say that about him.” Mist looked up and saw Zeko coming towards her; “From what I saw he really cared about you guys but he was torn between the orders of his queen and what he felt for the Red Claw, you in particular.”

“You-You don’t mean that he?” Mist broke down and cried over the loss of her team and her inevitable demise

“Your team is dead and someone who loved you was a traitor, now Mist, you have to die.” The Cragadile had returned at this point with Rhyken’s body coated with bite marks and teeth. Zeko removed the teeth and threw them into the forest, then put a hand on Rhyken’s corpse and walked in her direction

“Why...?” Mist said through tears but stopped once Zeko took the rod from Daybreak’s body and walked over

“It’s time for you to die.” Zeko held the rods firmly and Mist was feeling something she hadn’t felt in some time... fear had been running through her then

*Squelch*

She opened her eyes and saw the rods piercing Rhyken, she prepared to say something but she then noticed that he was changing and turned to an exact copy of her, wounds and all; “Mist you are dead, and now you’re a new... person, pony, pony person? I’m still getting used to that.” Zeko looked back at Mist and saw that she was unconscious so he picked her up bridal style and leapt into the trees

==============================
(?????)
(?????)

A tall changeling was sitting in a throne among many eggs holding her head in pain; “AAGH! The hive mind has been broken, something happened to one of my elites!” The figure said in a warping feminine voice making other, smaller changelings run to her aid

“Queen Chrysalis are you ok?!” They said in unison

“I’m fine, go back to your posts.” They left at her order leaving her thinking

“How was the hive mind infiltrated? Only I can communicate through it freely.”

“I’ve found an infestation haven’t I...don’t worry I won’t be attacking you anytime soon...” A single eye said to her through her mind leaving her in a panic

“What’s happening to me, why is a link shattered?!”

==============================
(Everfree Forest)
(Zeko’s home)

“My legs and head feel sore but I feel like I’m laying on something soft like a bed of sand?” Mist thought before she snapped awake and saw that she was on a bed of soft sand with bandages on her legs. “How the buck did I end up here?” She tried to remember but only felt an empty pain in her head and stopped once a door opened revealing Zeko holding a bowl

“You’re up, perfect timing since I just tried a recipe a friend taught me.” He walked over to the bedridden mare and handed the bowl to her

“How did I get here, and why can’t I remember what happened?” She asked with a bit of caution

“You’re a Red Claw member who they believed betrayed them so they tried to kill you, I helped but you still wound up hurt.” Mist held her head and remembered fighting and other Red Claw scouts being killed but she felt no attachment to them so the boy before her was telling her the truth

“But The Red Claw is one of the most dangerous syndicates, they’re gonna Hunt me down now!” She started to panic but stopped when Zeko looked at her and said something reassuring

“I made them think you were dead and you don’t look exactly like you did before the fight.” He gave her a mirror and let her see her new appearance and the only difference was her injured horn and now pink mane she looked back and saw that he was leaving the room and uttered a simple

“Thank you...” Zeko walked out and shut the door meeting Zecora outside of the room

“How is she after your warping of her memory?” Zeko looked at the Zebra with a smile

“I can only hope that she can be happy not knowing exactly what happened and that we can give her a better chance now.”

Zecora smiled back at the shinobi who showed mercy to a broken mind but immediately wondered aloud; “We have befriended one but when shall the remainder of the Red Claw come?”

Zeko walked towards the door to leave the house of sand in silence but turned back to Zecora and said with confidence; “I don’t know when they’ll come but they should be ready for major losses.” He left the Zebra alone with the unicorn as he went off to do something else

“You always amaze me with your decisions, hopefully your goals will come to fruition.”

Author's Note

This... I’m truly proud of having Zeko taunt his enemies with those lyrics is an accomplishment to me

Also I don’t own the image of Tempest or “Mist” as I’ve named the character but she is a new person and we’ll learn a bit about her soon

Yes Zeko can now take souls and knowledge... it was either that or shifting his body into various weapons

Arc 4 Chapter 1: Giving Opportunities

(Ponyville)
(The next day)

Zeko had been walking through the market with a satchel and a bag of bits, purchasing various goods from vendors but ran into some issues. “Why is it five bits for a bushel of carrots? I just saw that guy pay three!” Zeko was angered at having to pay more for apparently no real reason and the mare only made him more irate with her response

“Well you’re a weird creature that lives in the Everfree and you scared the town away with your pet Cragadile, you want something from me you have to pay extra.” The salesmare said with slight irritation causing Zeko to lose his anger and replace it with a blank expression

“I did that since you were swarming Twilight over her spare Gala ticket. And I have to pay more since I’m different? Doesn’t sound right to me...” Zeko said to the mare who looked at him in disbelief

“Don’t think it’s just that you’re a different species, you’re a young stallion too. Since you think you’re too old to need your herd mothers then you can pay the full price.” At this Zeko paused to contemplate what she had just said to him, not understanding what a “herd mother” was he decided to indulge in his curiosity

“What in the six paths is a herd mother, that supposed to be like my mom or something?” The mare was speechless at this and decided to give the ignorant Zeko a visual aid

“Ok you really aren’t from Equestria are you? I want you to look around and see how many females there are compared to males.” Zeko didn’t have to look around to remember that he noticed the gender ratio was incredibly uneven but still didn’t notice how that tied into his question.

“What does that have to do with me needing a herd whatever?”

“So you noticed there’s way more mares, to deal with the problem of more mares than stallions it was made legal for one stallion to marry up to nine different mares so he and his children could be taken care of.” This made Zeko close his eyes and think on what she just said

“That’s a lot to unravel...so polygamy is not only legal but it’s more or less applauded. Also you said that a... stallion and his children could be taken care of?” Zeko finished more shocked by the phrasing but would only be taken back more by the next statement from the mare

“Well yeah, for the most part you stallions are weaker and you need to be protected.” Zeko stopped his confusion and looked back and received a sheepish expression

“I did say for the most part. Not always and...” She didn’t finish since Zeko walked off without any further words and he walked on further until he noticed that the denizens were packing up stands and shutting doors as if there were a plague

“What’s going on today? Everyone’s locking up like the seven swordsmen are coming by.” Zeko looked around and saw Twilight and Spike headed his way and decided to go towards them but was nothing short of surprised when they were both pulled into Sugarcube Corner. “Well it’s the end of the town after all.” Zeko continued to the door and heard talking from inside

“That creepy Zecora should be coming by anytime and we gotta hope Zeko doesn’t get a curse put on him.” A certain Farmer said to Zeko’s distaste.

“Curses aren’t real Applejack, they’re just a myth...” Twilight said but noticed that the door opened and it turned out to be Zeko who was swiftly tackled by Pinkie Pie who was hysterical to the point where Zeko couldn’t understand her and had to substitute himself with a shadow clone

“So what’s her deal? Why is she so... I wanna say acting strange but...” The others noticed that there were two of Zeko and one had asked a question while the other continued handling Pinkie’s onslaught

“Another sand replacement? Pinkie you might want to move.” Twilight said which broke Pinkie from her hysterics and made her jump back once she remembered what happened last time but to her surprise the clone disappeared in a cloud of smoke rather than leaving sand on the floor

“It was just a shadow clone this time but why are you all hiding in here anyway? Last I checked it’s a normal sunny day and there’s no reason to panic.”

“We’re hidin because of her.” Applejack pointed out a window to a cloaked figure. “Once I saw that it was about that time that she comes round I grabbed my sister Applebloom and ran here, she was scared of that creepy Zecora so bad she couldn’t run.” At this a girl walked from behind Applejack with a pout

“I wasn’t scared, you picked me up and just...” she stopped once she saw Zeko and promptly ran over to him. “WOW! It’s you again! I never thought I’d see ya after what happened that day but here you are like a-“ Applejack put her hand over her sisters mouth to muffle her voice and not give up their position

“Yeah I remember you, so you’re Applejack’s sister? Nice to meet you again but anyway, why are you all hiding from... Zecora?” Zeko has noticed the figure removed her hood and revealed a familiar Mohawk and striped fur

“That’s right, we’re hiding from Zecora so we don’t get some strange curse out on us or anypony else!” Applejack said

“Also look at her fur, those stripes are ghastly.” Rarity added

“She was born with them, she can’t help that.” Zeko clarified making the fashionista pass out. “And what’s so bad about Zecora? She’s a really nice alchemist in fact I think Twilight would get along with her best since she lives in the Everfree.”

“That’s just it! She lives in that forest and it’s-it’s unnatural!” Rainbow Dash got into Zeko’s face but was gently pushed back by him so he could respond

“I live in that forest and I don’t see anything unnatural about it, except Ano...” Zeko whispered the last part but his statement was still enough to make five of the mares around him appear surprised while he noticed Spike walk off into the kitchen

“That forest isn’t safe at all... it acts on its own! Nopony controls the weather.” Rainbow stated

“The plants aren’t cared for by anypony either.” Rarity added

“And the animals all have to fend for themselves.” Fluttershy finished while Rarity fainted, leaving Twilight and Zeko with deadpan looks

“On my world that’s exactly what nature is. Humans can imitate it but we aren’t as good as the real thing.”

“I remember you telling me that which is why I can say that Zecora living there isn’t odd at all since Zebra’s can’t manipulate the weather like Pegasi. She’s used to being with nature.” Twilight followed

“It doesn’t matter Twi, we’ve been over why she’s so strange and I’d rather that my sister doesn’t end up being hexed by her.” Applejack had taken the liberty to grab her sister and hold her tightly

“Ladies calm down, I live almost next to Zecora and she’s really nice when you get to know her. Maybe you should stop with the crazy assumptions and try talking to her?” They all looked at the floor and idly twiddled their fingers, realizing that Zeko was right that they shouldn’t be so quick to judge Zecora since they’d never even spoken to her but didn’t notice him walk out to the Zebra in question, leading her to Sugarcube Corner

“Where did he go?” Applejack asked but an answer was given by the sound of the door opening and Zeko speaking

“Maybe dial back the rhyming since they already aren’t too familiar with you.” Zeko came in with Zecora directly behind him which made everyone excluding Twilight tense up but Twilight took this opportunity to converse

“Hello! My name is Twilight Sparkle and I want to apologize for the treatment that everypony has given you. They just didn’t know how to give you a chance to become a new friend.” Twilight said with joy present in her voice

“Hello ponies, I would appreciate if it were kindness you showed me.” Zecora spoke in her typical rhyming while Zeko walked into the kitchen and what followed were various

*THUD* *THUD* *THUD*

Before Zeko came back with a bruise on his forehead that he hid once he came into sight but after that debacle the group talked about Zecora’s exploits in the Everfree and how she came to met Zeko which made Rainbow Dash fly around and crash into pots and pans in disbelief over how Zeko beat a Cragadile. The fun was only so long lasting as Zecora had to return home but the others promised to convince merchants and civilians to give a better impression of friendship

“Spike take a letter.” Spike had promptly pulled a quill and parchment from seemingly nowhere; “Dear Princess Celestia, today I’ve learned that you should never judge somepony without trying to know them first and that your friends can be there to help you know them faster.” Spike finished the missive and sent it to the Princess

“Funnily enough I have to go see Celestia so I’ll see you guys later for the party.” Zeko left leaving five confused mares and Pinkie Pie

“Does that mean he saw the cake?” Pinkie gestures to a case with Zeko’s name on it while the others just started to laugh

==============================
(Canterlot)
(Golden Blade Base)

Celestia and Luna were leading Zeko through a building with a few dozen fighters who stopped whatever it was they were doing to bow to the Solar Princess and glare at the young fighter tagging along.

“Alright one of the commanders here should be through this door.” Celestia motioned to the door ahead of them printing Zeko to continue while the Diarchal rulers walked back out carrying the same grace as before. Before Zeko could make it to the door he was stopped by a blue Pegasus stallion with leather armor

“Whoa there little guy, you can’t just go in there. This isn’t an orphanage so you might have to keep looking for a place to stay tonight.” He said while patting Zeko’s head in a brotherly way but was speechless when Zeko slapped his hand out of the way

“I’m here to join the guild, and before you ask I’m seventeen so move.” Zeko tried to push through but the stallion was steadfast in stopping anyone from bothering his superior

“Ok kid playtime’s done, you gotta go home and... is that Princess Celestia?”

“She escorted me here so I could join, she thinks I’d be able to bring this place to its former glory or something.” The stallion looked somewhat convinced and decided to let Zeko go through

“This kid... bring us to glory? Has to be a joke.”

==============================
(Waterfall Overlook)
(Hours later)

Four Red Claw members were present, three were Unicorn mares assessing the damage done to their underlings and one a Griffin looking over the cliff side. “That kid they were tailing did this? Guess we should’ve been keeping a closer eye on them so we could’ve helped.” He said turning back to the Unicorns who placed the bodies into wooden coffins

“I’ll never get used to this, I’m still shocked that this colt can summon a Cragadile.” The shortest mare said while holding a coffin in a red aura

“I’m glad we don’t need to pick up those pieces but it sucks we lost Mist, she was one of the best field agents.” Another Unicorn stayed while placing runes on the coffins

“We should find Pod’s notes on the target so we pay him back for hurting our family like this.” The Griffon walked over and picked up the last two coffins while two of the Unicorns charged a spell in their horns. “My little brother died to this kid so I wanna watch the hope leave his eyes before I kill what he loves.” The spell finished and the group teleported away in a crimson flash leaving almost no trace of their presence

===================================
(Golden Dagger Base)
(Commander’s Quarters)

Zeko walked into the room and saw glass cases containing multiple weapons and shields but his attention was placed back on the trio of seated older stallions having a conversation; “What we have can’t be considered a gift, I mean yes it gives strength and incredible speed but at the cost of our very souls. That ruin where you can go to- Oh hello young one, how can we help you?” The oldest one broke himself off to offer his help to the surprise of everyone else

“I was sent here by Celestia, she wanted me to join and change this place for the better.” While explaining himself Zeko produced a letter with a seal on it and offered it to the stallion who quickly opened and read it over before looking back at Zeko

“Well this is unexpected but we always welcome new members to the Golden Blade guild, my name is Fortis and I’m the leader of this guild in Equestria.” Fortis spread his arms expecting Zeko to be impressed

“Neat, so what do we do now?” Zeko said abruptly

“Hm... I believe you should get acquainted with the others at some point but for now Hunter can show you where you can sleep. Hunter!” Fortis called and not long afterwards a Pegasus stallion in Manticore fur with a bow came in

“You called? Who’s this kid?”

“He’s our newest member and I need you to show him where he can rest his head.” Hunter nodded and motioned for Zeko to follow him. The duo walked back down the hall and made a turn and came upon a room lined with bunk beds

“You’re ever tired just come lie down here, pretty much any bed is open so long as no one else is there.” Zeko wasn’t listening to his guide as he was more focused on the piece of conversation he managed to pick up on while in Fortis’s quarters

“What gift is he talking about that isn’t a gift?” Hunter finished talking but noticed Zeko had a thousand yard stare forming and tapped his shoulder but ended up with Samehada in front of his chest

“Don’t stop me when I’m in deep thought.” Hunter was eyeing Samehada with curiosity although he was nervous about a weapon coming so close to him in a non playful manner

“What kind of weapon is this?”

“One of a kind, maybe you’ll get to see what it really looks like if we go on a mission together someday.” Zeko said as he put his weapon on his back once again, Hunter looked relieved that he wasn’t at risk of being hurt anymore but the adrenaline reminded him of something

“Speaking of missions you go to either the board in the grand hall that has missions posted or you come to me or any of the other higher ranked members. After a while Fortis might have something for you to do but for now...” Hunter pulled a letter from an inner pocket out and gave it to Zeko. “A Manticore’s been sighted around Appleloosa so you have to go there and get it back to where it belongs or take care of it yourself, consider this a first test.” Hunter walked off to where Zeko believed his room would be and Zeko looked at the paper which held a small map and a note

“We here in Appleloosa are being disrupted by an angry Manticore, we can’t have our peaceful lifestyle with it around so somepony please take care of it signed Braeburn.” Zeko read to himself as he walked to the door to leave the guild. “This could be a really fun opportunity to fight new things!” Zeko opened the door and made a cloud of sand to the shock of his guild mates and floated off

“That was something I never thought I’d see.” Fortis said to which everypony around him agreed

=======

Author's Note

New chapter and more questions but that’s what makes things so interesting isn’t it?

Arc 4 Chapter 2: Behind the Veil

(Hidden Sand Village)
(Day after the Reunion)

Kotetsu had to let Zeko’s parents know that their son had decided to go somewhere else for an inordinate amount of time to train and deal with issues there; “He’sstaying somewhere else to train for a while, he said he’ll be able to visit every now and then.”

“WHAT?!” Needless to say it wasn’t going to go well but Kotetsu never expected to nearly go deaf

“Damn! No coming back now, there’s problems that he felt like he could deal with so he’s gonna-“

“No he’s not!” Zeko’s mom interrupted. “You better go tell him that he needs to be here strengthening our ties to the other villages.” Kotetsu scoffed once he remembered what she meant

“Ok I’ll try to convince him but he was pretty sure that he would-“

“WE DON’T CARE! BRING HIM BACK!” They yelled simultaneously forcing Kotetsu to cover his ears and run outside where he was greeted by Nouka

“So that didn’t sound like it went too well.” Nouka said and received an angered look from Kotetsu who decided not to vent his anger yet and walked to the Village exit with Nouka in tow

“It didn’t go well at all, and now I have to tell Zeko what his parents said...we all know how this is gonna go...” The duo got onto Nouka’s clay dragon and took to the sky leaving some villagers surprised at the display of a rare technique.

==============================
(Appleloosa Outskirts)
(2 Hours Later)

“A Manticore on the loose and they sent the newest member? Granted I’m me but if it was anybody else this could be pretty damn dangerous.” Zeko commented while he walked through the town searching for the Braeburn from the bounty so he’d have a clue as to where to look but he found that most were scared of the Manticore being around.

“Excuse me sir...” Zeko turned and saw an Earth pony colt with ranchers clothing on. “Are you here to take the Manticore away?” The child asked with overly large eyes

“Why are children always adorable here?!” Zeko thought while he was mesmerized with the inherent cuteness of a child but broke out of his internal struggle in time to move the colt out of the way of a scorpion stinger. “Damn! That couldn’t have been closer, kid you need to get indoors now.” The colt ran into a saloon while the Manticore made itself better known to Zeko by giving off a lion’s roar, making townsfolk look out windows to see what was happening

“Is that a colt out there?” A yellow stallion questioned while witnessing the Manticore sizing up its prey.

“It looks like it but that thing on his back... it looks like a weapon. Is he with the Golden Blade?” A mare pointed out that the figure was armed and the yellow stallion noticed as well

“I hope he knows what he’s doing...” By this point Zeko dodged a swipe from the Manticore and another sting attempt

“Geez, I just gotta relocate you why are you so...” Zeko looked closer and saw that there was a scar and a purple mark on the Manticore’s head. Before he could further connect the dots the beast crashed into his chest headfirst to both of their displeasure, but before the fight could be finished the Manticore found its paws covered in water

“Wait did he turn into water?” The yellow stallion saw the display and slowly made his way to the door of the building while the Manticore found Zeko who was holding a hand over his chest

“Didn’t expect that but you’re the same one I fought when I first got here aren’t you? And by the looks of it I hit you harder than I thought.” The Manticore was dizzy from its injury and shook its head some to focus. Zeko made a chakra rod come from his finger and aimed at his target. “Just focus on pushing the piercing hard enough but not to kill... Almighty push.” The needle like rod shot to the Manticore and embedded into its cheek stopping it entirely while Zeko walked closer causing the town inhabitants to come out and investigate

“Did he stop it?” A mare questioned

“It’s not moving.” The colt from before stated while others watched on unaware of the conversation they couldn’t hear...

“Why can’t I move? What did that thing do to me now?” The Manticore struggled against its paralysis but could only shiver

“Calm down, I’m trying to help.” The Manticore looked up and noticed it was in a black void with Zeko who had his palms pressed together

“How are you supposed to help me? You’re why my head hurts now.”

“Talkative for an animal, I had to link our minds because you’d feel more pain than ever if I didn’t.” Zeko closed his eyes to focus while the Manticore decided to humor the one before him.

“So what do we do? They’re both just sittin there?” The yellow stallion asked while the sheriff walked forward

“We need get this Manticore out of our town, and fast. I don’t know much about magic but spells can’t last forever and this... thing that did it can’t keep it up.” The Sheriff said sternly but stopped once Zeko created mosquitoes out of water and sent them to the Manticore where they drank the white fluid from the wound on its forehead while the townsponies looked disgusted or completely covered their eyes

“That... oh dear Celestia...” The yellow stallion turned and took his hat off, revealing auburn hair. The mosquitoes drained the fluid away and flew to the ground where they burst leaving no trace that they were there.

“So that’s over... now I owe you a life debt so what do we do now?”

“You can come live in my part of the Everfree.” Zeko offered to which the Manticore agreed. “You wouldn’t have a name would you?”

“You may call me Lachlan.” Zeko removed the chakra piercing and explained to the inhabitants of Appleloosa what happened while Lachlan started towards the Everfree

“Well we’re thankful for what ya did. I’m Braeburn, a member of the apple family.” The yellow stallion introduced himself

“Like Applejack? That’s cool to know but we can’t delve into that, I have to let the guild know the Manticore isn’t a problem.” Zeko formed a cloud of sand and floated leaving a crowd of waving ponies behind him

“He’s a weird one but he got that done... I wonder how he knows Applejack.” Braeburn wondered while their savior drifted off

==============================
(??????)
(That same day)

A Red Claw member was rushing through a forest searching for something; “Where the? Ok Titus calm down... the door has to be around here somewhere.” The Griffin told himself as he continued going from tree to tree searching

“Having trouble there Titus?” A silken voice called out and was revealed to be a Unicorn mare sitting on a branch, twirling an arrow in her magical grip. “Because the door’s in this tree.” She jumped down and pushed a knot of bark on the tree inwards, opening a built in door that lead downwards

“That’s one way to have a hideout I guess..Titus walked in after the mare and noticed the door shut itself, scaring him noticeably while the mare was surprised at his lack of experience

“Wow Titus, I know you’re kinda new but you really gotta catch up on the basics.”

“Well not every member can be as good as True Shot.” Titus raised his hands over his head to add flair but didn’t get a response as the duo walked into a large crowd of Red Claw members seated in rows and sat down themselves once they saw one of their leaders walk drop from above the stage like area

“Why does Mistress Culina need all of us here?” True Shot asked and earned a shrug from Titus but there wasn’t a chance for further inquiries as Culina raised a hand and sent a weak shockwave through the room prompting silence

“I’m sure you wonder why you’re here and I can tell you that we may have a threat to our entire organization.” The crowd began to murmur before calming down to listen again. “A target we were sent after managed to kill five of our more experienced members and we cannot allow this, so I’ve gathered you here to select eight of you to go on a mission to alert the four other groups of the threat and to inform them of his abilities.” A hooded figure walked out and perused the crowd and randomly tapped the heads of eight individuals, True Shot and Titus included. The pairs had one pony and a member of another species: Pony and Griffin, Dragon, Yak, but one pair was two ponies leaving them the odd ones out

“These are the ones who will carry this out, I’m sure they will not fail.” The figure spoke in a raspy voice indicating their age and subsequent wisdom. The chosen eight walked to Culina and bowed their heads while she gave each pair an envelope

“Why do we need to do this? How dangerous is the target?” Titus thought as he took a red crystal from the robed elder and walked back down an aisle with True Shot who was looking over a map

“So we have to go to the Griffin kingdom... looks like they made one of the pair the corresponding species for the branch.”

“So we have to go to the Black Talon? My brother was recruited a few years ago...” Titus held a look of remembrance as the duo left through the same tree they entered through.

“You might see him while we’re there, maybe he can come back with us so you can catch up.” True Shot suggested to the currently daydreaming Griffin who continued to walk, narrowly avoiding a tree in his path before being guided back on course by the Unicorn.

“Oh, yeah let’s do that.” Titus said once he realized what happened and followed his friend out of the forest

==============================
(Ponyville)
(30 minutes after Zeko’s mission)

“I need to see if Rarity can make me a new shirt or just patch this one up.” Zeko said to himself as he fiddled with the hole left in said shirt due to the assassins. He came closer to the Boutique but as he went to knock the door opened and he was pulled in quickly and thrown onto a couch where Kotetsu was waiting.

“This gave me the wrong impression but I’m not wearing these.” The older teenager was seated next to a series of well made outfits next to him which he showed no signs of wearing

“May I know as to why you would deny such lovely articles of clothing and continue to wear your... strange attire?” Rarity gestured to Kotetsu’s asymmetrical shirt

“It’s a typical shirt in my village. And I’m not wearing that fancy shit.” Rarity was flabbergasted by his choice of words but said nothing and refocused on Zeko

“As for you... how did you do this?!” She held up a magazine with Zeko modeling for Photo Finish. “Why didn’t you tell me you were modeling for THE Photo Finish?! Rarity questioned Zeko with a ferocity that neither shinobi would have expected from her but their shock was reduced when she calmed down

“I didn’t know you’d be interested, next time I gotta model I can tell you.”

“That’s a generous offer. I’ll need time to prepare outfits.” Rarity nearly ran off but was stopped by Zeko getting in front of her and pointing to the hole in his shirt

“Do you think you can fix this? It’s a replica of a family member’s and it means a lot.” Rarity looked at the damage silently while Kotetsu looked on

“I could try, it is a different material than what I’m used to. How did this happen anyhow?”

“Caught on a thorn in the forest.” Zeko lied but luckily Rarity didn’t notice as she had walked back into her working area telling Zeko she would try to find a similar fabric allowing the cousins to leave. Once the two were outside Kotetsu decided to drop the information right onto Zeko’s head

“Your parents want you to come back and finish what they-“

“No thanks.” Zeko didn’t let him finish, “I’m busy here, I don’t really care what they want me to do.” Zeko interrupted and continued to walk, showing his cousin the town

“You live in this place? I don’t see how you do it, I’d have killed everything by now if I was stuck here.” Those within earshot practically scrambled to be as far from the pair as possible while Zeko looked at Kotetsu accusingly

“I don’t live here, I made a desert in the forest. And can’t you tell my parents I’m somewhere... practicing my courting skills?” Zeko shivered from disgust

“That might work, but before I do anything I gotta go get that treasure.”

“Let’s go together, I have something to test.” The duo jumped dozens of feet into the woods to the shock of many spectators including a certain Apple family member

“Did they just... I gotta tell Applejack.” Applebloom ran off to her family’s farm leaving the apple stand she was at

==============================
(Mountain Top)
(Minutes later)

“So this is where the dragon lived. And that’s where it is now.” Zeko pointed to a charred mass at the base of the mountain with occasional scavenging birds flying to it.

“Who gives a damn? The treasure!” Kotetsu ran into the cave leaving Zeko standing outside shaking his head.

“I just need to see if I can use gold dust... or maybe even gems for-“

“WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!” Kotetsu yelled right before a pillar of flame erupted from the cave

“The hell?!” Zeko thought right as the flames got near him but were split around him in a cone. “Thank you Rinnegan.” After the flames stopped Kotetsu appeared out of his Kamui next to Zeko

“Didn’t think that would work, there’s some lizard guys in there.” As if on cue two teenage dragons walked out, one was a crystal blue with green eyes and the other a reddish gray with silver eyes both were male.

The blue dragon spoke first, “Ash it looks like some hairless monkeys want our treasure.”

The dragon now known as Ash crossed his arms and glared at Kotetsu. “Yeah Selonus, do you think they know what dragons are?”

“We know what you are, and if you wanna keep your legs you’ll leave.” Kotetsu unsheathed his sword, then activated his Sharingan and Zeko grabbed Samehada’s hilt. There was silence as both sides eyed each other until a sole leaf fell to the ground prompting Zeko to rush Selonus and Ash to drive his claws into Kotetsu’s stomach.

“Looks like your friend couldn’t step up to a dragon after all.” Selonus said while struggling to hold Samehada away from his neck, but a smirk remained on his face. “All I need to do is hold you back then we’re gonna roast you.”

“So that’s all you had? Thought you’d be fun.” Ash grinned as Kotetsu coughed up blood, then Kotetsu threw his sword over to the mountain side where... he was standing making Ash do a double take. “What! How the?!” He looked at what was in his grip before it smiled and its mouth swelled and spat a large spider onto Ash’s face before turning into a swarm of spiders

“I never get sick of seeing that one.” Zeko commented as he slammed Samehada into his foe’s side, sending him straight into the wall next to the cave. “He’s not dead... I think.” By this point Kotetsu walked back to Ash who managed to get the spiders away and lunged to swipe Kotetsu with his tail but made a huge mistake when he tried to do so... he looked him in the eye

“Now the fun can begin.” Kotetsu said as he lifted his left arm and let thousands spiders pour from his sleeve and crawl to Ash who panicked instantly

“AAH! GET THEM OFF!” He screamed and tried to swat them off but couldn’t. Soon he found that he couldn’t move as they bit into his skin with no resistance from his scales and pumped venom that felt like fire in his veins. He could no longer scream since they started crawling into his mouth and biting his tongue, swelling it and his throat. As he blacked out he looked at the sky and saw that it was blood red with a moon that resembled Kotetsu’s eye.

Fortunately none of this truly happened to Ash but he would never forget it and would be traumatized for the rest of his life. “How’s that for fun?” Kotetsu sheathed his sword and walked into the cave where Zeko was waiting. “Now before I start filling my back with gold and jewels, here’s your tool pouch.” Kotetsu tossed a satchel to Zeko who caught it and looked inside

“This makes things a lot easier on me.” He said before enjoying the sight of someone essentially swimming in riches. After a few minutes of watching Zeko got to work on his idea and grabbed some harder looking gems and took his gourd out, sand came from the gourd and circled the gems at high speed. Kotetsu saw this and came over with hands filled with gold coins

“What’s going on here? Are-Are you mixing those with your sand... I get it, you’re making it tougher and those particles are sharp so it’s pretty much bladed. Zeko nodded at every sentence while Kotetsu put the gold to his eye and sent it to the Kamui with a flourish of his hands. “Magic at its finest, not even a trace of where it went.”

“As funny as that is shouldn’t you be getting back and telling my parents about my... charisma training?” Zeko tried not to laugh but let snickers out while his cousin gathered more treasure

“I guess I should, by the way something tells me that I’m going to be back to help you with something. I don’t know what or why but I got a feeling, and check this out it took me a while but I can do this now.” Kotetsu took his right arm and waved it over his face making it disappear, the rest of him following and lastly his arm all went into he space where his left eye had been.

“That’s pretty cool. I wonder what my Sharingan will do... If I ever get it...” Zeko continued to grind gems down as the sun began to set over the horizon

=======

Author's Note

Even more comes from the shadows. What can you interpret to happen? What will actually happen? Even I don’t truly know but I hope you’ll be there when it does

Arc 4 Chapter 3: Captured (Part 1/3 “Bound”)

(Depths of a Rainforest)
(3 Weeks later)

A group of a dozen mares all with brown fur and various hair colors along with one unicorn with azure fur were carrying Zeko, who was tied to a spit without Samehada to his displeasure. The mares were strange in the sense that they were almost three feet larger than the average earth pony and were scantily clad in fur clothing. “How do I get myself into these situations?” Zeko thought as they trekked him further and further into this forest

===
(Flashback)
(Hours Prior)

There have been multiple instances of disappearances along the edge of this forest and those who enter do not return. Most who go missing are stallions but some mares have disappeared as well, we request that you find some clue as to what happened or find those who have gone missing

Zeko held a look of confusion as he read the missive, he’d been with the Golden Blade for a few weeks now and between that and caring for Mist he was somewhat stressed. “So this is a missing pers-... Pony-persons report? Either way they sent me for something dangerous... not even eighteen yet and I have to go into a forest with who knows what in it. This better be fun.” With that Zeko trudged into the forest, not even knowing what he’d be facing. He walked for almost thirty minutes and found no clues about those who were missing, going as far to use parasprites to help him in his search

“I still can’t believe these things got to the thousands just by me feeding them. I could’ve destroyed the whole forest if Zecora didn’t figure out that potion, these parasprites would have eaten everything.” Zeko remembered how feeding his one insect soon turned to feeding three and the forest was nearly overrun until he realized his Cragadile was a predator and quickly culled the issue, mixed with Zecora’s knowledge the issue was resolved in barely two days.

After an hour of searching with no clues Zeko was tired and his clothes were soggy, luckily he wears open shoes otherwise his very feet would be rotting as well. “Damn it! Now my outfit’s ruined.” Zeko examined his clothes which were muddy and torn by thorns. “I’m gonna take a nap and then I’m going home to change.” Zeko leaned against a tree and slid to the ground with closed eyes and he rested there until five shadows closed in on his form

===
(Present Time)

The group continued to carry Zeko deeper into the forest and aside from the occasional glare he wasn’t receiving much attention. “Can I know where we’re going, or at least how long it’ll take?”

“QUIET! Disgusting colt.” The unicorn spat to the subdued shinobi who just decided to listen and wait but a few minutes later when they came to a stop at a pair of trees about twenty feet apart, Zeko was confused until the unicorn’s horn began to glow yellow and the space between the trees began to shine yellow as well until a pathway opened.

“Some kind of genjutsu... it’s there but hidden.” Zeko thought as they went into the passage revealing... a hidden village of Amazonian mares wearing little clothing for the most part forcing Zeko to avert his eyes whenever one came into his line of sight but this became nearly impossible once a crowd began to form around the group which some had splintered of off leaving five mares including the unicorn

“Look mommy! A male!” A child, obviously female said while pointing at the bound teenager and getting her mother’s attention

“I see him but you shouldn’t look at him, he’s inferior to you.” Zeko heard the mother reply while moving her child away. The rest of the children had gathered rocks and began to pelt Zeko with them but rather than harming him it was more of an annoyance. The children themselves seemed to enjoy what they were doing and weren’t being stopped.

“I’m guessing men aren’t well liked here, explains why I haven’t seen any around...ok this is annoying.” With his thought came sand from his gourd and catching the oncoming stones to the surprise of the onlookers. The sand caught the stones and dropped them before returning to the gourd leaving those carrying Zeko with a sense of urgency

“We must get him to the chief now!” The Unicorn told the mares carrying Zeko as they ran to a large building of wood and leaves that resembled a long house. They went through a curtain doorway and were greeted by two mares wearing leather armor and holding spears that were trained on Zeko but lowered them when the unicorn raised a hand, and continued walking with the rest not far behind.

“Karmiah.” A voice called making the Unicorn and the mares carrying Zeko kneel down before an elaborate throne set high in the room. “Why have you brought a colt into my presence?” Zeko saw that the voice came from an earth mare with an ornate gold trimmed robe, in contrast to the barely dressed females he’d seen. The unicorn stood up and offered her counter to what seemed to be her leader

“Lady Mjoll, we found this one while scouting our further borders, but I noticed something very strange about him.”

“Weird names but let’s see where this goes.” Zeko thought as Karmiah looked back to him

“He is no pony but I can sense a substantial power from him, as if he has access to magic greater than mine.” Mjoll stood up and began to walk down the stairs to meet Karmiah who tensed up with every step and was ready to be struck but was taken back when Mjoll crouched to examine Zeko and look over his features

“I know I’m good looking but you don’t need to be so close.” The eyes of every mare went wide and Mjoll stood up with an eyebrow raised

“A typical male, you think I’d be determining if you were worthy of being my seed giver? You’re a child and not even a stallion.” Mjoll crossed her arms and looked as if she’d kick Zeko but was brought from her rising temper by Karmiah

“He may be better, he managed to move sand freely using his magic. It was almost like it was living!”

“Controlling earth in a manner like that? It could be interesting if we add diversity to our breeding field. But he’s still a child so he’ll need a pen until he’s fifteen.” Mjoll said to Karmiah’s displeasure

“I’m seventeen and what the hell do you mean breeding field?” Zeko said while wriggling his wrists.

“Hm... Karmiah luck is on your side, take him to the breeding fields then. We can send a warrior to break him in an hour.” Mjoll went back up to her throne as the group left.

“I have so many tests to conduct and you’ll be my subject”. Karmiah said as she followed closely behind while they went through a wide path that lead to a wide field that had naked stallions firmly connected to the ground, some were starved to the point where bones were protruding. The mares chained Zeko’s legs to a large rock and the unicorn came to talk to him. “Oh and I’ll have to take everything you have so you can’t try to escape.” She went for Zeko’s gourd but sand got in the way.

“You can have my shirt, hell maybe my shoes and pants but this stays with me. It won’t do you any good.” She smirked and went to slap the shinobi across the face but wound up with a bleeding hand, once screaming was heard a slightly larger mare came to help. “Sharp crystals mixed in the sand. It’s a nasty cut if I want it to be.” Karmiah was taken by a separate mare leaving Zeko with the larger one

“You have a strong spirit but you don’t deserve it, you’re dirt compared to us.”

“Why? I fell asleep and got taken by those girls and here I am. How exactly do I not deserve my strength.” Zeko said, sand whipping around him in a display that wasn’t threatening as much as it was for attention

“You’re a male: you lie, cheat, and want to make us weak then take over the world for your own evil.” Zeko covered his mouth to snicker

“Is something funny?” She pulled out a whip while Zeko tried to stop his laughter but wasn’t making a huge effort

“It’s just... you really think all males are like that?” She nodded. “Let me guess, you were raised in this village and taught that men were evil and could only be used for breeding?”

“That’s correct. But don’t think your words can trick me child, I know that they tried their hardest to trick me and it didn’t work.” She gestured to the others being held down by chains or being tied to poles, Zeko could swear he saw... an action that should at least be somewhere more private. His blush let his tormenter know what he saw. “The breeding its disgusting to me but some do it but they can crush a pelvis if they aren’t careful. That’s your future and you deserve it.”

“If you think I’m just gonna let that happen you’re wrong, my sand can keep you back and I can fight up close.” The sand moved more aggressively around Zeko at his words

“Lady Mjoll may need to know this... a gladiator child? Never thought I’d see a stallion who can fight.”

“I never got a name from you and yeah I know ‘I don’t need to give my name, you’re an inferior male’ and that.” Zeko tried to imitate the masculine-feminine voices the Amazonian mares has but failed. “You’re clearly gonna have to come back often, so we could at least know each other, my name’s Zeko.” He extended a hand but she scoffed and walked off. “This is a weird situation.”

==============================

After a few hours it was dusk and the adult mares met up in a dining hall and were enjoying food and cups of apple cider, some who’d been in contact with Zeko were being hounded by others. “I told you I don’t know anything about him.”

“But Aeris you helped carry him, and you had to beat him to bring him here. You have to know something.” A normal Pegasus asked

“Cloudburst I didn’t fight him, we found him when he was asleep and Aela used a sleeping potion on him. That sand stuff he had would’ve made him a problem.” Aeris recalled what happened to Karmiah’s hand and winced when she realized that her group could’ve been seriously hurt

“Well if he has magic like that then our tribe can be even stronger than the Unum tribe.” Cloudburst shook in disgust at the mention of their enemy tribe. “To think that they live together with stallions.” Her words were heard by the others at the table who cheered while Aeris maintained a thousand yard stare

“That kid might be a threat to us all.”

==============================
(Nighttime)

“These berries aren’t half bad, could be a little sweeter but a beggar can’t be a chooser.” Zeko commented on the fruits he’d gotten parasprites to gather as to deny becoming frail like his bound peers. “It might be too late for you guys though...” He looked around at the mentally broken stallions around him but noticed that something was approaching him so he stood ready but didn’t expect a mare that looked slightly older than him to come by. She looked at him and the fruits with curiosity

“Where’d you get those? They don’t feed you that much, especially if you’re new.” She questioned while Zeko continued to snack on the berries

“Came from some bushes in the forest. The hard part was figuring out what I could eat. But let me ask you, are you supposed to be the nice interrogator?”

“I’m just curious... I’ve never seen a colt like you before and that thing with the sand was amazing.” Zeko rolled his eyes and continued to eat

“I know that you’re a male and I’m supposed to be better than you but you don’t seem all that bad, I’d say you’re almost nice.”

“I could kill you if I wanted to you know. Not even with the sand. Fire, water, earth, wind, lightning. Hell I could do something with wood if I wanted.” Zeko looked back to her to see she was stoic and was surprised at her response

“Why don’t you? If you’re supposed to be so bad and you say you can do that stuff then why not?”

“I’m interested in this place and maybe getting some eyes opened and minds changed. What’s your name anyway?”

“Celona. Whats yours?”

“Zeko...” He offered his last berry to her and she took it with a smile. “So why are you so nice? Haven’t you been told all of my evils?” He added sarcasm to his last word

“I have but I’ve seen that most of you aren’t all that bad. And most of them tell me go away so they don’t get in trouble but you didn’t care.” The two continued talking about the village and it’s customs for a while, marriage being the most interesting since two females would be together and if they wanted a child... needless to say that Zeko wasn’t familiar with this but they had to stop once Zeko noticed the nameless mare from before was returning

“See you around Celona.” Zeko said as his new friend snuck away in the nick of time as the unnamed mare just came up to him with a knife and whip in her hands. “What are you planning?”

“Break you, so you can be bred at some point.”

“Good luck, you can’t get close to me. So how can you hurt me.” Zeko taunted

“This whip nullifies magic, all I need to do is wrap it around you.” She tied the whip around him but the sand surrounded his body, not letting the whip touch him

“I can feel it slowly draining my chakra from the sand. If I stay like this all night then there’s a problem but I should be fine.” Zeko thought while his tormenter smiled

“You can feel it draining your magic can’t you? Not much longer now and then you’ll be weak as you should be.” She wasn’t aware of how little she was truly affecting the shinobi but his bored expression managed to give her a hint. “Is it working? I’ve used this before and it was fine then.”

“Might be that my chakra reserves are huge, might be my chakra being different than mana so the whip can’t siphon it like should.” Zeko said with a shrug of his shoulders. “You might as well give up.”

“It doesn’t matter! You’ll just begin to starve and we can do whatever then. I’ll just tell everymare not to feed you.” She took the whip off of him but no sooner than she did he put a hand to the ground and summoned dozens of parasprites

“I have these little things to get food for me. I don’t even have to stay here I could leave if I felt like it but I wanna see how things work here.” The mare’s shoulders were slumped and she looked like a child who’d been told a toy they liked broke, she was mumbling to herself and turned to walk away in silence while Zeko dispelled his swarm

“H-How d-did? I need a good nights sleep and to tell Lady Mjoll in the morning.”

Zeko was standing with his hands on his hips since he mentally broke the one who was to break him. Unknown to him Celona watched the entire altercation from afar and pulled out a small book to write in. “It’s that feeling again...”

===================================
(Mjoll’s throne room)
(The next morning)

“Is it true boy? You can leave anytime you desire?” Mjoll asked Zeko who only nodded, his hands were bound but he still carried a dangerous aura that Mjoll was experienced enough to notice.

“Leaving wouldn’t be too tough. I’d just have to break free then leave.” Mjoll started to laugh once Zeko said this and her guards seemed to find it funny too

“You think you could just walk out of this place of warriors without having to fight? I was told you claim to be able to fight so how about you go against one of my guards hmm? I’ll be sure she doesn’t break too many of your naive bones.”

“Why not? Hell let’s go right outside and do this.” Zeko walked out to the shock of the guards excluding the largest one who was angered at his disrespect to Mjoll who simply pointed outside prompting the guard to follow Zeko.

“So you want to do this child? How did you?” The guard looked at Zeko and saw his chains were on the ground and mothers nearby were shielding their daughters as if they’d be attacked if they were seen

“What’s your name?” Zeko asked

“I’m telling a cocky male like y-“

“Ok I’m sick of hearing that I’m a dirty male, I haven’t done any wrong to any of you so shut up.” The guard was angered and rushed Zeko and tried to jab his chest with her spear but paused when she saw him grab and snap the tip off in one motion. She tried to follow up with a punch to his chest but a low sweep kick from Zeko made her acquainted with the ground

“How can’t I hit him? I trained my whole life and he’s just some filthy...?!” She thought as she sprang up and managed to kick Zeko and knock him back, now a crowd was standing around and watching, including Celona

“I felt that one, you’re pretty strong for a girl.” This made her go berserk and throw a flurry of hits at Zeko who managed to activate his Rinnegan and saw the attacks potential landing points, allowing him to dodge until his opponent became tired

“You *pant* You think you can run and wi-“ She was cut off when Zeko raised a hand and made her levitate into the air and he quickly slammed her back down shocking the crowd. The guard was left in a divot on the ground and was clearly unconscious

“HEY LADY! Your guard lost!” Zeko said as he went back into the building. He looked at his escorts who were nervous after seeing the “fight” but didn’t show it.

“That was... interesting.” Mjoll barely managed to hide her anger towards Zeko

“So... who’s taking me back to the breeding fields?” They all looked at Zeko with confused expressions until he walked out with one of his escorts who decided to go with him, Karmiah had come to Mjoll’s side with her hand in bandages

“We can’t let him stay, he’s a menace and he might cause an uprising. Those stallions might be weak but with him they can ruin everything like they do.” She said frantically

“You’re right but after that display I feel that he’ll leave on his own... and maybe we can ‘convince’ him to breed with a willing warrior so we have one of our own like him...”

=======

Author's Note

Hello readers it’s your favorite Rinnegan user... At least I hope. I know what you’re thinking “Why would Zeko just go to sleep in a place where pony people got kidnapped?” And I get that doesn’t make sense but I’m kinda known for falling asleep on missions, so it’s not out of my character but the author is making this a three parter and he’s working as hard as he can on that. And in case you were wondering this is what I look like now since I’ve been here for almost two months and hair grows... but we hope you like this and we’ll see you next chapter!

Arc 4 Chapter 4: Captured ( 2/3 “Freedom”)

(Breeding Fields)
(Later that day)

Celona and Zeko were sitting and talking about whatever had immediately popped into their minds for almost ten minutes. “I have a living sword as a weapon.” Zeko said to Celona’s disbelief

“No way, a sword can’t be alive. It probably just feels like that since you use it a lot. I have a special bow that I thought was alive but it’s just wood.”

“Ok I’ll show you.” Zeko bit his thumb and slammed his hand onto the ground

“Why’d you do-“ Celona was cut off by Samehada appearing in a ring of black etchings. Zeko unwrapped it entirely allowing its form to be fully seen. “That’s your sword?! It looks weird but not ali-“ Samehada opened its mouth and licked Zeko playfully before shutting again

“Told you it’s alive.” Celona didn’t respond since her mind was nearly shut down trying to process what she’d seen. Zeko decided to bring her back to the world the way he liked, by opening the water portion of his gourd. “Water style: Mini shark bullet.” A shark barely the size of a finger came from the gourd and splashed onto Celona’s cheek bringing her from her confusion

“What was that? It kind of hurt.” Celona rubbed her cheek which was turning red from the impact. “I’ve seen the unicorns here use spells but they never hurt somemare.”

“That’s the thing. I don’t use mana like the unicorns do, I use chakra which is way more versatile. That’s how I can control my sand.” He accentuated his statement by shaping his sand into a sculpture of his face.

“So you can use that sand stuff to fight? That’s so cool!”

“It’s not just the sand.” Celona raised a brow at the statement while Zeko smirked and changed his eye to its ringed form.

“What’s that?”

“The Rinnegan, it’s what let’s me master different techniques like this.” During his sentence Zeko formed a rasengan in his left hand to Celona’s awe but when she tried to touch it her hand was slapped away. “This is wind spun into a ball, it’s not something you just touch with your bare hands.”

“So you can control elements and you have that sword?” Celona asked awestruck

“That’s pretty much it, yeah.”

“How did you get that sword anyway?” Zeko’s eye’s opened quickly at her question and he chuckled to himself before deciding to answer her

“That’s a funny story and it has a good ending in my opinion, it was two years ago...”

==============================
(Hidden Mist Outskirts)

One of the Seven swordsmen has gone rogue and is killing whomever he comes across, please stop his rampage and retrieve the weapon. Be cautious, Samehada drains chakra through physical contact so don’t risk getting hit.

Zeko remembered his mission while approaching a figure with a large weapon on his back, who like him was standing on the water. “Hey!” Zeko said aloud to the figure who was now looking at him. “Are you the A-Rank rogue ninja that wields one of the seven swords, Hoshigaki Onoeske?” The figure walked closer allowing Zeko to make out his face which was an amalgam of a human and shark, mainly noticing his hollow fish like eyes and gill like marks on his cheeks

“Oh?” Onoeske spoke in a raspy voice and had a smirk that showed his sharpened teeth to Zeko. “I assume you’ve been sent to ‘handle’ me?” He took the blade off of his back revealing it to be Samehada, uncovered and snarling. “Unfortunately you aren’t as strong as the others so I don’t think you’ll be the meal I want.” Zeko held his fan tightly at the swordsman’s words but relaxed and activated his Rinnegan.

(Play Me)

“None of those others were me, none of them had the advantage that I got.” Zeko lunged to Onoeske and tried to land a hit but it was deflected by Samehada. “Damn! I can feel my chakra draining.” Zeko jumped back with Onoeske’s laughter angering him

“Did they tell you that I’m not just a predator but Samehada is too? First it’ll eat your chakra then I’ll eat you!” Onoeske sprang forward and tried a downward slash but was forced back by Zeko’s fan sending a strong gust of wind forward. Once the cannibalistic swordsman recovered Zeko was the one smirking

“Can’t eat that can you? Looks like my fan’s better than that stupid sword.” Zeko sent another gust to his enemy who braced but had no time to react to the foot that slammed into his jaw that sent him reeling. Once he got up he made hand seals that Zeko didn’t recognize and slammed his hand onto the water surface

“Ok he did tiger, ox-“ Zeko’s thoughts were interrupted by a shark made of water crashing into him and throwing him back almost eighty feet. “Ok... that hurt but I gotta- Where’s my fan!?” Zeko looked around but only saw his enemy approaching.

“Looks like your little eye can’t help you as much as a weapon.” Onoeske slashed down at Zeko but met resistance in the form of chakra rods stabbing Samehada and his leg. “Agh!” Zeko jumped back with both rods in his hands while Onoeske’s wound began to close

“So that sword heals him too? I need to separate them.” Onoeske decided to create another shark and use it to close the newly made distance but was met with a sand clone.

“Didn’t figure you for a coward kid! Where are you?! I’ll cut your arms off so you can’t hide weapons up your sleeves!” Onoeske’s eyes were bloodshot from anger at the resistance he faced but his anger only raised one Zeko revealed he was floating on sand just above the water but jumped down, leaving the cloud.

“These weren’t in my sleeve, my eye did that and this! Tiger, Ox, Dragon, Rabbit, Bird, Dragon, Ram...” Zeko repeated the signs he saw Onoeske perform and slammed his hand on the water making a water shark erupt from the surface, but he took it further and coated it in sand before sending it to his quarry

“What the?” Onoeske cut the projectile but ended up getting Samehada covered in sand and knocked away from him. “Ok kid I’m not playing around anymore!” Onoeske started another jutsu but Zeko copied his signs perfectly. “Water style: Super shark bomb!” Two colossal water sharks came from the water beneath them and rushed towards each other and collided forming a giant wave that swept their users underwater.

Onoeske was first to recover and swam to the surface and stood back up. “Looks like that brat bit off more than he could chew. So where the hell is my sword?” Onoeske walked forward looking around for his weapon but stopped when he saw bubbles hit the surface from below the water, as they grew in number he prepared himself and managed to dodge the air bullet that could’ve killed him there.

“I take back calling it stupid, it’s really nice once you get to know it, if only you got to know it.” Onoeske turned and saw Samehada playfully biting Zeko which pissed him off to no limit

“You- You backstabbing spiny-!” Onoeske sprinted towards the younger shinobi and reeled his hand back to punch him. “THAT’S MINE!”

Anyone watching would have only seen Onoeske suddenly stop in his tracks with Zeko suddenly behind him with Samehada in his hands. Slowly Onoeske’s torso separated from his legs and both sunk into the water. “Never thought I’d see a shark become fish food. But your anger is why you lost ‘mad shark’. Since you made me lose my fan, I’ll keep your sword. It needs someone to take care of it.” Zeko places Samehada on his back and walked into the approaching mist

==============================

When the story was finished Celona was wide eyed and Zeko was grinning to himself. “That’s amazing! He was a monster but you came and- then he tried to take- but you just-“ Celona started multiple sentences but was unable to keep any of them understandable

“I know it was pretty nice. And I got Samehada out of its terrible situation... but I may have left some details out of the story...” Zeko smiled sheepishly as Celona lost some of her excitement and squinted at him.

“Well it’s still impressive. I have a question, why were you naming those different animals in the story?” Celona questioned

“Different... Oh the hand signs! Those let me focus my chakra to use a specific jutsu.” Celona was blank faced at the explanation

“I’ve just seen Karmiah’s horn light up and then a spell just happens. But that Rinnegan thing, what can it do?”

“It really depends from user to user. I think I have the six paths which are just six different abilities but I gotta have something unique to me, it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t.” Zeko fell backwards in an overly dramatic way to show his displeasure making Celona snicker

“Well you just have to keep trying and you’ll figure it out eventually.” Zeko just groaned at her encouragement. “And guess what? I’m getting married in a few days.” Zeko’s breathing stopped for a second then he sprang up with a look of disbelief

“WHAT?! You’re getting married and didn’t tell me?!”

“Well our parents thought it was time for us to get together. She’s a hunter and I can care for a home so it’s just...” Celona trailed off

“Do you want to be together? I’m pretty sure marriage isn’t the same if you don’t love each other.” Celona looked at the ground in deep thought at Zeko’s words. “You’re not into her are you?” Zeko held a bored expression at his sudden question

“It’s not that... I just... I think I like stallions.” There was silence for an entire minute before Zeko voiced his opinion

“Ok.” Celona looked upset

“It’s not ok, I’m not supposed to like stallions. I have to get married to another mare and maybe one of us can bear a foal.” Celona said, red faced with anger

“You weren’t biologically made to like stallions. I’m willing to bet Mjoll or whoever was the first leader here hated stallions so much that she decided to make you all believe that males are evil.” Zeko stated in a calculated manner making Celona less angry visibly.

“Lady Mjoll’s a lot older than she looks. A spell from Karmiah’s mom made her age slowly.” She noticed Zeko’s confusion and decided to give her estimate on the age of her leader. “If my grandmothers are right then Lady Mjoll is at least one hundred and ten.”

To say that Zeko was shocked was an understatement as his jaw nearly dropped to his chest in a ridiculous fashion but he snapped out of it and began to think to himself. “This bitch has a grudge, and I’m finding out why.” Zeko put Samehada on his back and walked towards the main part of the village with Celona at his side. “So you’re sure that you like stallions? Because you need to be sure for my plan to work.”

“I tested it on a colt that was in the field last year. I kissed mares before and it was nothing, just our lips touching. But when I kissed him it was... different.”

“Remember what you said about the Unum tribe?.” Celona nodded as the two reached the village and received harsh glares by the assuming mares who Zeko ignored. “Where do you live?.” Celona lead Zeko to her hut and they went in only to be greeted by two mares and a filly

“What... is he doing here?!” The taller mare said in a threatening way

“I got bad news lady, I’m taking your daughter to the Unum tribe.” Zeko produced chakra piercings and put one into Celona’s arm before launching the other two into her now angry moms. “Celona, think about how you feel about the marriage.” Celona’s pupils were dilated but started to focus at Zeko’s words

“I don’t wanna be married to her, I want to marry a stallion I love!” Celona’s mom’s heard the message and felt the emotion behind it, giving them more insight until Zeko removed the piercings from the three

“If it makes you happy then you can go to the Unum tribe, but I want to know why this boy is with you.” She gestured to Zeko who rubbed the back of his head

“I was sent here to find missing pony people... I need to find a better name.”

“The newest males have been here for a few days, are they the ones you need?”

“Sounds right, I’ve got a plan but I need you to gather all the mares who don’t think males are evil by the gates in thirty minutes.” They nodded and ran off leaving Him Celona and her sister. “You meet them in thirty minutes and don’t worry, I’m good at this type of thing.” He pat her on the shoulder in an act of support. “Earth style: Subterranean voyage.” Zeko burrowed into the ground and went who knows where

“I hope this all works...” Celona said not noticing that Karmiah was outside listening in on the entire situation

“Perfect chance.” She said before running to Mjoll

==============================
(Tree Gateway)
(30 minutes later)

A crowd of around twenty was gathered and on their knees surrounded by warriors with swords, shields and spears. Mjoll was in the front with a vein nearly popping from her forehead. “So this is what happens, a male comes in and offers lies and you believe them? They all lie! They cheat and want to drag us down! Now you can get one more chance... pretend that you weren’t swayed by that child and you may come back to our tribe refuse and you die.” Her warriors lifted their swords to show the seriousness of the situation

“No!” Celona spoke up. “We don’t have to stay under your hoof! We can be better than this!” She gave her subjugated peers inspiration and made them start cheering her name but it stopped when Karmiah pulled her closer in her magic grip and held her close.

“That boy got to you, he’s corrupted your mind to the point of no return. I’ll do you the favor of ending it.” Karmiah pulled a knife out and prepared to kill her

“NO!” Celona’s taller mother yelled while the more timid one shut her eyes. Before Karmiah could do the deed she noticed a mark on Celona. “What is that? It looks like... rings?” There was a blur of red and suddenly

*CRUNCH*

Karmiah was knocked back into the wall of a hut but was missing her horn. “I’m glad that worked, it was touch and go for a bit.” Zeko held Karmiah’s horn which began to glow yellow. He aimed it at the space between the trees and shot a beam that opened the path leading out of the village. “Universal Pull!” Zeko forced Mjoll and her warriors away from the crowd who caught on and ran out of the village

“How did you get here like that?” Celona asked as she stood up, nauseous from being encased in mana

“My first ever attempt at a Flying Raijin. Before you ask, it basically let’s me warp to wherever I put a marker for it.” He explained to an even more confused Celona

“When did you put this on me?” Zeko pat her on the shoulder and removed the mark. “Wait... that wasn’t just-“ Zeko deflected an oncoming arrow from Mjoll

“You will not ruin what I’ve tried to save!” Celona followed her mothers’ examples and ran out of the village leaving Zeko alone. “You’ve ruined them but I won’t let you leave here alive!”

“Actually you will. But don’t worry I’ll be back later to clean up.” Zeko turned and sprinted out, shutting the passage behind him and regrouping with the others

“That was a good plan. I think you might be worthy of marrying our daughter!” Celona’s fighting mom slapped Zeko on the back and made Celona blush with the exclamation

“Sorry but I’m not sure I’m her type. Let’s just figure out where the Unum tribe is.” They walked for an hour to the discomfort of the few children present but they soon managed to encounter a river that had an unusual flow.

“This is the Unum tribe’s river. Once you cross it you enter their village but it will trick you into turning backwards every time.” A pegasus spoke up revealing herself to be Cloudburst

“I think I can see why... it doesn’t trick you into turning backwards, it reflects whatever goes past a certain part.” Zeko tossed a pebble over the river only to have it sent back to him with the same force. “What happens if I just...” Zeko let Samehada touch the water and was surprised when it absorbed a good deal of energy, making it grow larger than before

“It gets bigger when it eats?” Celona questioned

“Yes it does.” Zeko threw another pebble only to have it disappear entirely. “I think we can go now, stay behind me just in case.” Zeko made a bridge of sand and lead them across it. Once they reached the halfway point they went through a portal that was filled with spiraling colors and designs and it deposited them at the gateway of a village with stallions and mares both walking around and no breeding field in sight to Zeko’s pleasure.

“These are what stallions should look like? They seem so strong and don’t look like they’re evil.” Aeris said to Zeko’s shock

“You never got to see a healthy stallion?.” He received multiple head shakes. “I’m gonna find out what made Mjoll tick and I’m gonna-“

“Did you say Mjoll? As in Amazon leader Mjoll?” A familiar voice made Zeko turn around and see who knew about his target of anger but he couldn’t have been much more happy with the fur clad stallion that was there.

“Hunter? What are you doing here?”

“I got sent to find you and I stopped by here since I was born in the Unum tribe so why do you need to know about that crazy Mjoll?” Hunter questioned his underling who was only so in title

“Well.” Zeko looked at the mares behind him. “That’s a long story...”

=======

Author's Note

Zeko’s past has had some revelation... what did you think about it? What did you think about my choice in a combat theme? Comment below

Also the conclusion of Captured is coming and I believe that you’ll love what happens but no spoilers...

Arc 4 Chapter 5: Captured (Finale “Saviors”)

(Unum Village)

Zeko just finished explaining the story to Hunter who had multiple facial expressions throughout it, from anger to sorrow he understood what happened quite clearly. “That’s the situation, so what do you know about Mjoll?”

“What I was told is that she’s a crazed, gender biased leader of the Amazonian mares. If you need to know why she went off the deep end then you’re asking the wrong stallion because it’s what made her use some kind of age delaying spell so she could keep her place in power.”

“Celona, you said your grandmothers knew about Mjoll.”

Celona looked down in thought before she answered. “They could’ve helped but they stayed at the village. They believed that males were evil to their very hearts.”

“Maybe one of the village elders knows more than we do.” Hunter pointed out

“Where are they at? If they know then we need to ask.” Zeko questioned Hunter who lead the group to a large clay hut by the tree line.

“This is elder Kesh’s hut, he was around when Mjoll went into power over the Amazons.” Zeko was elated by the turn of luck but his happiness would be taken quickly

“There’s just the problem of his age.” Zeko’s smile dropped immediately. “He’s almost one hundred years old so he’s a bit... out of it.”

“Damnit! Nothing comes easily does it?” Zeko asked rhetorically while he walked into the shockingly well kept hut. “Hey Kesh are you in? Oh hell, don’t be dead before I get some answers.”

“I ain’t dead yet you whelp! I’m trying to nap in peace!” Zeko looked and saw an old stallion with a grey fur and mane with a long white beard

“At least he looks like an elder.” Kesh fumbled around with a walking stick trying to swat at Zeko but wasn’t close

“What’d ya want anyhow youngling? Nopony comes to visit the elderly out of the kindness of their hearts anymore.”

“You’re not wrong about that one. I need to know about Mjoll-“

“Of the Amazons... the Berserk Tigress.” Kesh interrupted Zeko to finish the nickname that he knew Mjoll by. “I think I still get terrors of what happened when she lost it.” Kesh looked upwards as if remembering something truly horrifying but was cut off by voices from outside

“LET ME IN! I’M HIS COUSIN!”

“Kotetsu, why do you always do things like this?” The door opened and Kotetsu stepped inside and directly behind him was a taller shinobi that Zeko knew all too well

“Rei? Why are you here?” Zeko asked with sincere surprise

“Well Kotetsu told me about how you were off training somewhere, and I wanted to know more so I asked further and he let me know that you were in a different world. I didn’t believe him but...” Rei looked around and shrugged his shoulders at their surroundings

“Where are all you youngsters coming from?! I just want some peace and quiet!” Kesh broke the conversation between the teenagers and reminded Zeko of his intention

“Ok you’ll get peace but tell me how Mjoll came to be the way she is.”

“That’s quite the story, grab a chair all of you... You see I was born in the Amazon village when it wasn’t tough on stallions...”

==============================
(Amazon Village)
(90 years ago: Kesh’s PoV)

I was only ten years old at the time-

“You’re a hundred years old?!” Kotetsu questioned before receiving a hard smack from Kesh’s cane

Like I was saying I was only ten years old when it all happened and I still count my blessings as of today that I got out when I did. I was down by a creek when my sister called me back for something important. “Do I have to go? I want to play with the fish.”

“It’d be easier if you just come now, father says that Mjoll the Huntress called a meeting and since he had to attend, I have to watch you.”

“Ok Cienna.” I walked away from the water and back to the hut where I stayed for about half an hour before there was an explosion that came from the gathering place. “What was that?!” I asked Cienna and she ran out to see but I followed her and saw a purple dome slowly covering the village

“Both of you get away from that now!” My father came running, picked us both up and ran back to the river. By the luck of Celestia our hut was on the farther edge of the Village and the dome didn’t reach us but when we came back mares and stallions of all ages were writhing on the ground and Mjoll was in the center of it

“Looks like you three didn’t get caught but that won’t matter now.” The mares started to get up and I saw that their eyes were red. “Get them!” At Mjoll’s command they started running to us, if my father wasn’t so quick to grab us and run... He ran out of that village with us in his arms and he kept running until he collapsed by the river to the Unum and here I am now.

==============================

“As oddly investing as that story was, I don’t think it had the answers that Zeko wanted.” Rei pointed out the problem with the story but Kesh decided to clear up the issue

“I know what I said! You see it wasn’t until a stallion managed to escape and make it here that we found out that Mjoll was the oldest of four kids and her father never let her take part in important issues because she’s a mare and he wanted her to stop being a warrior and prepare to be a caregiver for kids.”

“So that’s why she subjugates every male that enters her village territory?” Zeko questioned

“It is, of course I don’t agree with what her father did but taking her anger out on stallions like that isn’t right.”

“How’d she control everyone in the village?” Kotetsu asked

“Some sort of artifact that changed the memory of all the mares and nearly killed the stallions, so if you’re planning on doing something you need to be careful.” Kesh warned right as Zeko decided to stand up

“Can the effects be broken?” Zeko inquired but was dejected by the response

“No. When she first did it you could have tried but now there aren’t any of them under the effects, they’re under the effects of her words rather than some form of magic so there’s no spell to break kids.”

“Before we go we need to figure out a way to save those captive stallions. I can tell if things go bad they’ll get killed.”

“Well you have a decoy expert right here.” Rei gestured to himself. “So I have a plan to get them out and so they won’t notice.”

“Before you boys go, I have a request...” The trio looked back to Kesh who was sitting again. “I’m old and I could never take revenge on what she did to the old way of life but if there’s any way that I could be there, even in spirit, can you grant me that?” Zeko thought before looking to Kotetsu who pulled out a small blue crystal

“We can help but you’ll lose your physical form and be sealed into that crystal.” Kesh nodded prompting Zeko to take the crystal and walk over...

==============================
(Amazon Village)
(An hour after the escape)

“Lady Mjoll...” Karmiah said dizzily due to her intense headache. “The breeding fields... the stallions are gone, and that... thing is there...” Mjoll fumed and got up from her throne and walked outside telling Karmiah to gather everymare to fight the imminent threat

“Where is my armor? Wait I remember where.” Mjoll rushed to her home to don her battle gear before dealing with the massive thorn in her foot. She met her warriors and Karmiah at the breeding field where Zeko and Kotetsu were waiting for her

“Look who showed up... some bitches ready to die!” Kotetsu cracked his knuckles while Zeko stood with his arms crossed and Samehada not on his back

“Unfortunately our only option is to do this, that’s the only reason why you get to go crazy.” Zeko clarified to his cousin. “Remember leave Mjoll to me.” Kotetsu started to walk towards the horde and slowly picked up speed, unsheathing his sword and activating his Sharingan.

(Play Me)

The mares let out a raucous battle cry and charged at Kotetsu who met them head on, he chopped the first one to meet him in half and deflected a slash from another before chopping her arms off and flinging her to the crowd. Three ran up to him with spears and tried to stab him but ended up losing the speartips to his blade and before they could process it he managed to cut one’s head off and stab the other two simultaneously. “Is this all you ‘warriors’ can do? My pet turtle’s more dangerous!” Kotetsu taunted prompting an even taller mare with a battle axe to shoulder bash him backwards

“This more like it whelp?” She asked before trying to chop Kotetsu in half and barely missing. Two other mares ran behind him and nearly stabbed him in the back but they were stopped by an outside source, that being Zeko

“KOTETSU!” Zeko yelled and threw a kunai with a paper bomb attached to the end at his cousin who caught it and stabbed a mare with it then threw her into the axe wielding warrior as he jumped back

“What is this?!” She made the mistake of touching the paper bomb...

*BOOM*

The explosion ate every mare nearby and launched Kotetsu into a duo allowing him to snap one’s neck instantly and break another’s leg and toss her into a small oncoming group. “This is what I needed! A reason to kill something in this world, didn’t even need to be good.” Kotetsu looked at the number of fighters left and saw that a good deal got taken down with that paper bomb and decided to thin the rest for Rei. “Let’s see if it works; Ox, monkey, bird, serpent, dragon, rat, ram, dragon, tiger!” Kotetsu finished his self made jutsu and pictured what he wanted before launching it. “Fire style: Scorching serpent!” Kotetsu opened his mouth and exhaled a large flaming dragon that rushed to the army and horrifically burned many who were there. He decided to do something that would confuse them entirely, he pulled his pants around his ankles and kept a blank face; “Alright who’s next?” None stepped forward but he had to Kamui himself to avoid a dagger aimed at his groin

(Now Me)

“Alright that disturbing vision aside, it’s my turn.” Rei said from beside Kotetsu, seemingly appearing out of nowhere with a large wrapped item on his back. Kotetsu went back to Zeko while Rei pulled a polearm from a scroll and charged into the remainder of the army who followed and came to him only for the ones leading to end up on the end of his weapon and flung behind him to the charring masses. Two came from his sides and nearly took his head off but his movements had no delay and he dodged the swipes as he delivered his own to their Achilles’ tendons forcing them to the ground where he speared them quickly

“Lady Mjoll, let me go down there and stop him.” Karmiah suggested and received an approving grunt from her leader as she made her way onto the battlefield where Rei had managed to execute a dozen more warriors until he was face to face with Karmiah. “This is where your path ends.” Her hands began to glow yellow and spikes of the same color formed in the air around her

“I have to disagree, I have a goal here so you can either submit and leave happily or I’ll have to kill you.” There was silence until the spikes flew forward, Rei deflected most but one ended up in his rib cage, knocking him down immediately to Karmiah’s pleasure

“It seems you’re the one to die here scum! No surprise a male was so overconfident and couldn’t keep his word.” She brought up another spike. “Next is your pale friend and that red maned one.” The spike impaled Rei’s forehead and he fell onto his side like a puppet with cut strings. Mjoll was laughing to herself wondering how strong these boys really were when Karmiah killed one without more refined magic from her horn

“Maybe their strength was over exaggerated, or they’re like a glass arrows...”

“Well that’s one now for the other-“

“So are the jokes over?!” Rei asked suddenly to Karmiah’s horror but she was more confused when she saw his face become sand and fall off while the wrapping on his back was cast off revealing the real Rei. “They say we look alike but I don’t see the resemblance.” He made his puppet pick up the polearm and sprint to Karmiah, who hadn’t recovered from shock enough to attack and wound up bisected vertically. The remaining warriors stopped and considered their options but couldn’t make a decision before Mjoll walked down to Rei, clad in her metal reinforced leather armor with a bow and sword on her back

(End Theme)

“First there’s one of you and now there’s three? I suppose I’ll have to tear your spines out myself... or use you to repopulate my dying tribe.” She smirked and pulled her bow out

“Your tribe isn’t coming back, there’s nothing left of what you had.” Zeko came down, signaling Rei to jump up to Kotetsu

“I still have warriors left and some gatherers... I WILL NOT LET YOU RUIN MY WORK!” She fired a volley of arrows that Zeko dodged but her assault was short lived because Zeko changed to offensive as soon as the arrows missed

“Lateral Bolt of Pain.” He sprang forward and tried to chop Mjoll with his hand but met a glowing red shield. “What the?!” Zeko jumped back once spikes came from the shield

“This is the power of my amulet! The unyielding targe is mine! Try as hard as you want, it can’t be broken and if you can’t hit me you can’t win.” She jumped at Zeko with her sword in hand to cut his head of but was unable to make an incision through his sudden lightning armor

“You aren’t the only one with defense. I might not be able to dent that shield but I’ll just move faster than you can protect yourself with it.” He vanished and appeared behind her with a hand cocked back but when he punched he met the shield again and dodged a slice that was backed with red energy

“The shield moves itself to protect me, I don’t need to know where the threat is for it to defend my life.” She tried to chop Zeko’s arm off and didn’t notice the sand beneath her until it encased her body

“Perfect! Sand burial.” Zeko closed his hand but didn’t hear a crushing and when he opened the sand casing he saw that the shield changed into a barrier and coated all of Mjoll. “I know it’s kinda stupid coming from me but that’s unfair.” He was distracted long enough to miss the arrow laced with energy come from behind him and he was hit in the back and ended up kneeling on the ground

“The power you had meant nothing compared to me... I’ve lived far longer than you could have ever hoped so now you-“

“Let me stop you there and just let you know that I got every child out of your village and got them to the Unum tribe where they’ll learn that just because their leader is bitter over a bad father, it doesn’t mean they can’t get to have one.” Zeko turned into a cloud of smoke making Mjoll look around and see that Kotetsu was firing fireballs into the clouds over her village, making them larger and darker

“My TRIBE!” Mjoll and the remainder of her warriors ran out of the field and back into the village where huts showed no sign of life and the only one there was Zeko who had Samehada

“Just in time hang on a second...” He vanished in a blur of red and dark blue and came back with Kotetsu and Rei who rewrapped his puppet. “Kotetsu.” Zeko looked to his cousin who raised his hand and made a dragon appear from the darkened clouds above the village

“You think you can just walk into MY village and disrupt MY way of life then slaughter MY followers?!” Mjoll asked

“Yeah.” Zeko responded quickly

“NO! You’re going to die like the scum you are!” She sprang at Zeko who activated his Rinnegan. No one saw what happened next but Mjoll was stopped in her tracks and hunched over from pain

“It worked!” Zeko exclaimed happily. “I have something unique for my Rinnegan.”

“The hell did you do?” Kotetsu asked

“I sent my soul out and used it to hit hers in the lung directly. I’ve been going over how to use that path better and I found a way.” Zeko continued a personal celebration before being broken off by a mare

“What are you going to do to us?”

“Do you still believe what Mjoll’s fed you for all these years?” Zeko inquired which made the mares nod

“After what you’ve done I don’t see a reason not to!”

“After saving those captive stallions and defending ourselves against your warriors who wanted to kill us? We’re complete monsters.” Zeko sarcastically stated

“It doesn’t matter! You’re monsters all males are!”

“Then we’re done here. We’ve gotten your daughters somewhere they can realize that they can get along with stallions and this village... let’s just say that won’t leave a real trace.” Zeko pointed up at the Kirin

“I’m about to do this so maybe-“ Zeko took Rei away and left Kotetsu only to come back immediately

“I just figured this out, I can only do one at a time.” Kotetsu brought his hand down fast and was taken away by Zeko to the Unum tribe

“Maybe I could’ve been father’s favorite if my brothers were girls instead. No who am I trying to fool? I guess I just didn’t try hard enough...” Mjoll thought for the final time as Kirin came down onto her remaining tribe.

When Zeko and Kotetsu made it to the Unum they instantly turned around and saw Kirin crash into the forest, anyone who went in that area would see a massive crater the size of a town and glass around the edge of it from sand that was to prevent fire from spreading. “I didn’t think I could call Kirin here. And here’s that old guy’s crystal.” Kotetsu handed Kesh’s crystal over which Zeko turned and gave to Hunter

“If there’s some kind of memorial hall then you can put him then you should, he got to see the one who ruined his life have what she had taken so let him rest.” Zeko said to Hunter who walked off. “That was a fun time though boys!”

“I still wanna kill something...” Kotetsu looked around for something to sate his thirst for blood but Zeko’s hand on his shoulder stopped him

“You can go find a deadly rogue ninja to kill, this world is protected by me remember.” Zeko’s words fell on deaf ears as Kotetsu stared at his hair

“You need to cut your hair... that’s way too long for you to be able to fight.” Kotetsu grabbed Rei and sent the two into his Kamui

“After all of that he manages to realize my hair was long... it’s not bad looking is it? I can see just fine so it’s not impractical...” Zeko messes with his hair as he left the Unum village but was stopped by Celona who was now wearing tan leather clothing and had a bag slung over her shoulder

“Hey Zeko! I’m going with you.” She caught up to him letting him see that she really was just taller than him

“Why are you tagging with me?”

“You helped the Amazons and I want to try to return the favor by helping you on your adventures.” She responded with a smile

“If you think you can handle it then fine but if it’s ever too much you can go back...”

“I think love can get me through any trouble I have...”

=======

Author's Note

I said I was grinding these out... I may need a break for a few days since this has been uploaded at nearly two am. Nonetheless the fact that you all like this keeps it going.

The Amazons have had their retribution for their acts and some saw that it was wrong and wanted to change, a lawful ending in my opinion. And Zeko being with Celona? Could be interesting but how do you all feel? Comment below, like or dislike but give a reason for a dislike I can’t improve without them

Until next time

Arc 4 Chapter 6: Catching Up

(Wasteland)
(Dusk)

“Would my moms believe that I love a stallion? Would any of the mares I got along with believe me or would they think Zeko tricked me?” Celona was having a mental debate while riding on Zeko’s back in the wasteland. The pair had been walking for hours and Celona exhausted herself trying to keep up with the more enduring shinobi. “Sorry but I’ve never been so high up and I panicked.”

Zeko recalled how initially he tried to float them back but ran into Celona’s fear of heights, which he understood since she wasn’t a Pegasus nor used to climbing high positions. “It’s fine, we’re gonna have to make camp now since it’s getting dark.” Zeko looked around and saw a rock around the size of a small cottage and he walked towards it.

“How is this rock so big?!” Celona exclaimed to Zeko’s temporary surprise

“You’ve never seen- Oh right you lived in a forest... a rainforest at that. Rocks this size aren’t too common.” Zeko set Samehada, which he ha to carry by hand, down

“What are you doing?” Celona questioned while Zeko brought his hands up and formed a hand sign

“A jutsu sign.” Zeko said before opening his mouth and sending out a burst of air that carved a hole in the rock. The hole was as tall as him and nearly punched through the other side. “Ok you can sleep here, I’ll make a fire.” Zeko set her down in front of the rock and created a set of branches with wood style to Celona’s amusement.

“Well I should get the food I packed then, might as well eat. Why didn’t those stallions come with us anyway?”

“They weren’t in condition to make the trip back... even floating could’ve been dangerous.” Zeko responded as he stoked the now lit fire while Celona pulled out salted meat, fruit and some vegetables. “Wait you have meat? I thought you ponies were vegetarian?”

“The tribes can eat meat too, we live in a different place so we just got used to it.” Celona answered casually. She made stew with the foods using a pot she took with her as Zeko kept watch for anything that could threaten the duo. Shortly after Celona had made the stew which Zeko was passionate about...

“How... How?! This is amazing! You never said you knew how to cook!” He aggressively ate using his spare set of chopsticks and finished before Celona started hers. “I have to go on a walk otherwise I’ll just eat it all myself, if something happens just scream.” Zeko walked off with Samehada leaving Celona to think about things aloud

“I never thought I could cook that well, maybe my moms weren’t just being nice when they told me my food was good.” Celona decided to let her thoughts leave her mind since nobody was around to hear. Her thoughts quickly shifted to her feelings for Zeko and she pulled out her journal and wrote in it for a few minutes.

I don’t get how I fell in love with him. He just came and stood against everything I knew but he opened my mind to something better. There has to be a way to know if he feels the same way about me. Maybe there’s somepony that understands him.

She thought about what she wrote repeatedly until she fell crawled into the carved rock and fell asleep in her blanket while Zeko kept watch from afar until he fell asleep

==============================
(Ponyville)
(The next day)

“Wow! This is such an amazing tribe, their village is huge compared to the Unum’s!” Celona looked around in awe at the scale of her surroundings while Zeko gave a slight smirk

“What would she think if she saw the Hidden Sand?” He thought while Celona started to notice the stallions walking around

“Even more of them? How many stallions are in this place?”

“Surprisingly there are more mares than stallions, I’d think a mare your age would know that.” A familiar voice said prompting Celona and Zeko to look and see a purple unicorn mare in a white blouse and purple plaid skirt

“Twilight. It’s been a while, what’d I miss?” Zeko asked to Twilight’s notable irritation

“Well a few things; we had our winter wrap up, Rarity made our dresses for the Gala, and today Rainbow Dash is going to the best young flier competition.” Before Zeko could question any further he saw a hot air balloon being dragged along by Spike and Applejack with Pinkie Pie inside. He noticed Rarity flying... and did a double take when he saw her wings

“How is she doing that?” Celona asked. “I’ve never seen a unicorn fly!”

“It’s a spell that I found, I managed to give her a pair of wings so she could cheer our friend on. It took a lot of magic so I can’t do it again but I can use a spell that’ll let you walk on clouds.”

“I don’t think she’s doing that, Celona here has a fear of heights.” Zeko informed Twilight while Celona nodded. The rest of the group, excluding Spike, got into the cabin of the hot air balloon. “I’m guessing you aren’t gonna tag with them Spike?” The drake ignored Zeko as he still had hearts in his eyes from staring at Rarity until Zeko slammed Samehada in front of him, breaking Spike’s gaze

“Huh!? Wha?! Where am I?” Spike looked confused by his surroundings until he saw Samehada in front of him. “Zeko? When did you get here and... who’s she?” Spoke gestured to Celona who was still in awe over Ponyville’s appearance

“Well that’s a long story and- Hey Spike you wanna see where I live? I can explain the story on the walk there.”

“Sure I can- Wait don’t you live in the Everfree Forest?” Spike started to sweat from nervousness but he was calmed quickly by Celona giving him an herb that smelled like gems to him

“Calm down Spike, the forest is pretty peaceful when you get to where I live. Just stick close by and you’ll be as safe as an Ursa in any given situation really.”

“Can we come?!” Three female voices nearly screamed from behind and were revealed to be none other than the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Applebloom stepped forward

“We’re tryin to get our cutie marks in adventurin and the forest is the best place somepony can go!”

“Yeah! There’s so much scary stuff that we can find in there!” They continued to bombard Zeko with “Please” until he decided to put Samehada on his back and walk away gesturing for them to follow him. The group walked through the town and received stares from mares and stallions alike.

Celona was quick to notice the looks she was getting and decided to voice her concern to Zeko before they went into the forest. “Hey Zeko, why is everypony staring at me like that?” She continued to shift her gaze to the occasional stallion and didn’t recognize why they looked at her strangely

“Pretty sure it’s jealousy either way.” Celona looked confused by the blunt statement. “The stallions are jealous that you and the CMC are with me. Even though they’re just twelve.” Zeko’s inner voice added, “The mares are angry that the stallions aren’t focused on them and from what I’ve read up on they might think I’m starting a herd and see me as desirable... makes my head hurt thinking about this world’s customs.” Zeko shook his head to clear his mind of the strange things he’d learned over the past month but stopped when a hand touched the side of his head.

“Um what’s she doing?” Sweetie Belle questioned Celona’s actions while Zeko seemed unfazed.

“Your head doesn’t feel like there’s anything in it and your hair makes you look like a gathering mare.” Celona’s made a white tick mark appear on Zeko’s head as he walked faster ahead

“You can say I’m brainless but don’t insult my hair, I don’t insult yours so- whatever let’s just get to the forest.” The group continued to walk until they reached the border of the forest where Zeko reminded them to stay close to him but before they could go in a kunai pierced the ground in front of them and when they looked up they saw a clay bird coming down to them

“Hey Zeko! It’s me!” Nouka said from above

“I don’t know anyone else who learned how to use that clay. I also don’t know anyone who has a Sharingan in one eye.” Zeko looked to the duo who jumped down to greet him but before they could say anything, Kotetsu noticed something

“Isn’t this one of those Amazons? Shouldn’t she be back at that village?”

“Actually she wanted to tag along with me and witness my greatness up close.” Zeko said right before resuming the walk to his land

“Ok but who are these kids? I thought Kotetsu said children were evil and you shouldn’t let them-“ Nouka was interrupted by an angered Kotetsu slamming his fist against the clay user’s head

“Why don’t you just blurt everything out?! Go ahead tell them my life story why don’t ya?!” He was interrupted by an enormous burst of rainbow energy from the sky and a booming noise that put them all in awe

“Ok that was amazing and I’m asking about it when I come back to Ponyville, oN with the walk.” The group walked through the forest and eventually came across the small desert Zeko calls home, the CMC and Spike were immediately impressed while Celona was baffled, Nouka and Kotetsu were surprised that Zeko would make a desert within a forest but said nothing and followed him to his house which was now hardened to sandstone. When they walked in they were greeted by Mist in a wheelchair.

“Zeko! You’re back, and you brought guests. Those two look like humans so they’re your friends but everypony else...” She rolled over to the group

“That’s Kotetsu, Nouka, Spike, Celona, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo.” Zeko pointed at each respective being as he listed them while Mist nodded her head and remembered names and faces. “The younger ones here just wanted to see where I lived and they’re free to walk around as long as they don’t break anything.” The kids of the group took that as an opportunity to leave the house and explore. “This is Celona, she’s going to stay with us from now on so get acquainted, and these two are my best friends.” Zeko slung his arms around the shoulders of Nouka and Kotetsu to show his point

“What’d I say about touching me? You know what? I’m gonna go burn something before dinner... shoulda mentioned we’re staying for a day or two, gotta make it seem realistic that we’re visiting.” Kotetsu walked out to Nouka’s alarm

“Aren’t you going to stop him? He’s gonna burn the forest down!” Nouka said in worry

“No he won’t, that’d be too easy. He’ll probably turn some of my sand into glass.” Nouka calmed down and decided to walk around himself.

Zeko looked at Mist and thought about her wheelchair, and how she came to be in it. When the two had fought he pierced her legs to immobilize her but his aim was off and he severed major nerves in her legs, if he was a better healer he could’ve saved them but now she was crippled just because she was helping her “family”.

“I’m gonna go add more to the house so they can all sleep somewhere if they want.” Zeko walked outside as the CMC gasped when they heard him

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS SLEEPOVER AT ZEKO’S! YAY!”

“HOLY SHIT! MY EARS, I’m gonna kill something!” Kotetsu screamed right as a tree hit the ground.

“His friends seem nice, except the black maned one. I know a psycho when I see it, but if they’re friends it’s under control.” Mist thought to herself as she rolled into the kitchen.

After a few hours it had gotten dark and the group was enjoying food made by Celona, sans the meat for the most part, and stories were being told every now and then. “So I called Kirin, a dragon of lightning, and held it over the village. That Mjoll lady tried to say how she’d get us but Zeko used the Raijin and brought us away right as I told Kirin to strike and after that no more Mjoll.” Kotetsu told his perspective of how they liberated the Amazon mares and they were enjoying it until Zeko came back inside and let them know the addition was done and that boys would sleep on the middle floor and girls got the very top. Mist deadpanned for a second but was levitated to the top by Zeko, along with the CMC and Celona.

“That’s one way of getting someone somewhere.” Nouka said as he reached into his bag and pulled out a nightshirt and pants while Kotetsu and Zeko already had theirs on. Spike decided to wear his underwear from a lack of anything else

“Alright its time for boys night.” Kotetsu pulled out measuring tape and made Zeko laugh while Nouka and Spike were confused

==============================
(Zeko’s Mind)

Zeko was meditating with his body in two different halves showing different versions of power. One was his right side where his Rinnegan was active with floating chakra rods next to him, and the other side had a deep orange aura with a tail made out of the same energy and sand was in a ball with many black markings covering it. “I have to find a balance, I feel like a jinchuriki would have this way easier. They just have to beat the tailed beast but controlling the chakra yourself? Just can’t let it merge into mine unless I want to be the new Shukaku.” Zeko continued to meditate while the sand and black rods continued to drift in the air as he floated above the swirled pool of water.

“Hello once again Zeko!” Luna appeared in Zeko’s mind for the second time but was taken aback by his current situation and lack of acknowledgement

“Can’t talk, need to focus so please leave.” Zeko murmured to the Lunar Princess’ displeasure

“You seem to be struggling against the forces of good and wicked, I’ve had the same issue in the past and it lead to mine corruption and being trapped in the moon.” After hearing this Zeko’s eyes opened and both the rods and his aura dispelled

“Forces of... that Nightmare Moon thing? Twilight told me about what happened before I showed up but she wasn’t too specific.”

“That would be correct but the circumstances were more detailed. One thousand years ago I was jealous of the attention my sister was receiving from our subjects and over time this hate manifested into the Nightmare.”

“I can understand jealousy and that evil consuming you but that’s not who you are so why bring that up.” Zeko questioned, not understanding the point Luna tried to make

“I see that very same struggle in thee, the energy surrounding thy body was laced with anger while the other half was peaceful, almost divine.” Luna explained further, making Zeko think about her statement

“Are you talking about Shukaku’s chakra?” She nodded, believing that to be the name of his demons. “That’s not evil... at least not while it’s in me. He gave me some of his chakra so I could use the sand and wind like he can... there’s some sealing abilities too but that’s not as important.”

“Then is this... Shukaku, an evil one? There is clear malice behind the aura and I don’t want you to fall victim to a-“

“He’s not evil, he doesn’t like humans since we act like we’re better since we can seal him and other tailed beasts into someone. I befriended him... after a long process of getting him from my mom and eventually ripping him out myself and nearly dying in the process but he decided to give me some of his chakra to save me from biting the dust then and there. Damn a year goes by quick. I just need to figure out how to control it to the best. So please leave so I can keep practicing.” Zeko resumes his meditative state which was shortly followed by his aura and chakra rods returning.

“I suppose that would be a good reason to practice, I’ll be on my way then.” Luna created a portal and left the domain to the lone shinobi who continued his calming action

“What does control over the first tail look like? I’ll find this out if I keep working for it!” Zeko’s aura and rods sped up in accordance with his thoughts until they slowed down again. “One step closer, Ill make you proud Shukaku!”

=======

Author's Note

This one wasn’t as long as usual but I’ve noticed that when it’s filler that can be ok, but more things have been brought to light: Zeko’s struggle, and Mist being crippled, it’s something to dwell on. But remember to like or dislike depending on how you feel and comment on how you felt and I’ll see you all again.

Also this is an accurate representation for the young ones... and yes they’re between 12-14 it’s an alternate universe remember?

Arc 4 Finale: A game to play

(Everfree Forest)
(The Next Morning)

Kotetsu was the first to wake up and he decided to walk around the forest in solitude, rather than having his cousin who can be silent or Nouka who he saw as a lovable bumbling idiot. “This place is pretty dark. It’d be scary if I didn’t have a Sharingan and good night vision.” Kotetsu had seen how the forest canopy doesn’t allow light to pierce it but it wasn’t a deterrent to his activity as much as it was an annoyance to deal with the occasional creature bothering him. So far he’d burned a Timberwolf and just scared off a Manticore

“That wasn’t Zeko, but they smelled similar so maybe a friend?” Lachlan suspected Kotetsu of knowing Zeko or having met him, he noticed the similarities between the two and figured they knew each other

“So there’s Lion bat scorpions in this world... wonder what they’d taste like. This forest is pretty damn weird though, no wonder Zeko likes it so mu-“ Kotetsu bumped into a statue and nearly knocked it over but it stopped its tilting. “The hell was that? Wait isn’t this that librarian girl?” Kotetsu investigates and saw that the statue was in fact Twilight Sparkle. He tapped on the stone and used his Sharingan to see her life network. “This is her, and this isn’t a genjutsu either... something tough did this.” A noise came from a bush revealing a rooster. Kotetsu threw a kunai where it was, forcing it to move and reveal that it had a wyverian body with green scales.

The creature hissed at Kotetsu and flew to him attempting to land a bite but Kotetsu’s visual prowess predicted the attack and let him dodge. “Ok small but fierce. You remind me of a certain red haired person.” He went for his sword but realized he didn’t have it. “Shit I’m not in my real clothes. I left em at Zeko’s!” He kicked the creature when it tried to strike him with its tail but it wasn’t fazed by the hit and nearly landed the hit but Kotetsu replaced himself with a log and appeared a distance away. Before either could make a move the reptilian bird looked Kotetsu in the eyes

“That’s a weird... what in the?” Kotetsu looked and saw that his legs were slowly turning to stone. “SHIT!” The creature came over and saw that Kotetsu was fully encased in the stone and pushed the statue over making it shatter. But there was no flesh like it expected, instead spiders came from the husk confusing the creature

“Ok chicken-lizard, playtime’s done.” Kotetsu made the animal turn and face him. “Try and turn me to stone again, you’re gonna fail and I’ll have breakfast.” The animal hissed and stared at Kotetsu but he didn’t change which confused the creature until it looked and saw that the sky was dark with a red moon and the ground was coated in purple. It tried to move but couldn’t budge and then it saw a pack of Timberwolves approach and close in, mouths open and snarling they got closer and pounced...

Of course this was all an illusion brought by the opponent with stronger eyes but an animal had no way of telling the difference.

“You saved me? How and what happened?” Twilight asked while holding her head

“That thing turned you to stone so I had to reverse the effect by tricking it into looking at you again.” Kotetsu explained and made Twilight’s eyes grow larger

“You stared down a Cockatrice and won?! How strong are your eyes? I don’t even think Fluttershy’s stare could beat a Cockatrice!” Kotetsu was snickering at the name of the monster he faced against but Twilight was only confused at his laughing

“What’s so funny about handling a Cockatrice? They’re pretty hard to manage.” More snickering until Twilight our two and two together and covered her mouth and blushed

“I just can’t believe... the name... ok, it tried to turn me into stone but my spiders are pretty helpful and then I just locked it in genjutsu.”

“Zeko told me about that, It traps your mind doesn’t it?”

“He’s stupid.” Twilight raised a brow and blinked in surprise. “Genjutsu is way more complicated than just trapping the mind, you can alter what someone perceives as reality and make them experience something that isn’t happening. Zeko’s Rinnegan gives him a good resistance so only the strongest stuff works on him so he thinks it’s just trapping the mind.”

“He seemed so confident when he told me that, so he doesn’t know as much as he let’s on does he?”

“No he does, he just has a different experience so it’s not wrong but it’s not right. He wasn’t allowed to get to a higher point in the academy so he taught himself.”

“That’s still impressive if he knows what he’s talking about and figured things out on his own. I’d personally prefer a teacher so I could have the best guidance possible.”

“Dumbass never liked being taught, I’m not much different though.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask... you two are family and friends but you’re so mean to one another, why is that? Friends can’t act this way, I mean I’ve studied friendship for this long and it goes against everything I’ve learned as a student of Princess Celestia.”

“Well did Celestia ever tell you that different kinds of friendship exist?” Zeko’s voice was heard from the canopy making Kotetsu and Twilight look upwards but were nothing short of surprised when Zeko sprang from the ground level trees and slammed his arm into Kotetsu, sending him reeling across the ground “You’re up early, let me guess... you went on a hunt and encountered something freaky so...” Zeko stopped once he saw the smile Kotetsu had right as he walked over to him. “What uh-What are you up to-AH!” Kotetsu wrapped his arms around his cousins neck and held him

“Apologize now!”

“You know I’d die before I did that.” Kotetsu tightened the grip

“Just apologize and I’ll let you go.”

“You wouldn’t kill me like this and you know it.” The grip tightened more

“Wouldn’t I? I don’t see why not?”

“It’s not the fight that would change the face of the world, that’s what we both want.” Zeko pointed out which made Kotetsu think

“I guess that’s right. Fine but you do something like that again and I’ll kick you in the shin.” Kotetsu released Zeko who flopped to the ground, concerning Twilight but her brain nearly shut down when he jumped back up as if nothing happened, the only sign he’d been in a headlock was him rubbing the side of his neck

“Not a bad headlock but you were way too far to the right, I’m not gonna suffocate with something like that.”

“...Shut up.” Kotetsu said before turning and heading back to the sand dwelling leaving Zeko and Twilight, the latter being incredibly confused by the previous events

“So Twilight is there a reason you’re out here or did that thing just turn you to stone and bring you to the forest?” Zeko looked and saw Twilight’s face was blank, even after waving a hand in front of her she didn’t move. “Oh boy...”

==============================
(Golden Blade Base)
(2 hours later)

“So a bunch of mercenaries that handle jobs? That’s why you got kidnapped by a bunch of lady ponies?” Kotetsu questioned while smiling at Zeko who was slowly turning red

“I... let them... take me to their village. It was the only way I could figure out where the stallions went, I figured since they lived in the forest they knew!”

“Sure you did...” Kotetsu said right before Zeko was grabbed and ended up between the noticeable bust of a mare wearing a black shirt and plated leggings

“Zeko! You’re back, you took way more time than I thought you would!” The mare said as she shook the shinobi with happiness, Zeko however didn’t appreciate her actions and decided to leave a water clone in his place and reappear next to Kotetsu

“Hello Diamond-chan.” Zeko was unenthused at the actions of his female guild mate

“Did-Did you just call her chan? You’ve never added that to anyone’s name... is she your girlfriend? I’m not judging, she is kind offfff...” Kotetsu trailed off once he noticed that Zeko’s water clone left Diamond drenched and her shirt was clinging to her chest leaving very little to Kotetsu’s imagination

“Aw, Zeko you’ve gone and made me wet... I hope you don’t mind drying me off.” Diamond said suggestively with half lidded eyes, meanwhile Kotetsu had been making a noise like a broken motor

“Urgg. Damn it why did I have to be with Shiro? Then again she never said anything about it having to be a human girl to count as cheating...”

“You go ahead and find out, I’ll be sure to tell her about it.” Zeko smirked

“On second thought I’ll just close my eyes and sit down... maybe turn around too.” Kotetsu did as he said but that didn’t stop Diamond and her taunting

“Oh! Are you Zeko’s brother?” She walked closer and leaned down to Kotetsu. “I’ve always wanted to try it with two boys at the same time...” This earned another strange groan from Kotetsu but Diamond was shocked when he started to vanish into his eye right before her. “Where’d he go?”

“Why do you have to act like this? I’m just used to ignoring it but really why all the flirtatiousness?” Zeko asked, sincerely wanting an answer from the mare who embarrassed him for a week straight when he initially joined

“I don’t just do it to anypony, I only do it to stallions I think are cute... and younger since you’re so easy to tease. But I’m still wet so are you gonna dry me out?” She asked again to Zeko’s confusion

“Don’t you mean off?” She shook her head to his question but before he could ask further Kotetsu came back and Hunter showed up

“Zeko, Fortis wants to speak to you and I guess your cousin.” Zeko and Kotetsu sighed in relief while Diamond huffed. The duo walked to Fortis’ room in the guild and knocked on the door which opened revealing the leader of the guild

“Zeko, I’ve got a mission for you.” Zeko raised an eyebrow

“I’m guessing you don’t get missions from this guy that often?” Kotetsu questioned

“No, I never have. I got told a mission from him was always something important.” Zeko informed to Fortis’ surprise but he smiled and decided to elaborate

“Yes it’s true you wouldn’t normally get a mission from me, but this one seemed best for you Zeko. We’ve been getting reports of strange events happening in different parts of Equestria; objects disappearing, gardens growing things that don’t grow from the ground, houses vanishing only to appear where they weren’t before and sometimes just floating in the air.” Fortis explained to the duo who’s eyes widened throughout the explanation

“If this stuff is happening all over how am I supposed to find out how if there’s no source?”

“That’s the thing, the disturbances are happening the most in the area surrounding Canterlot, the source must be in that area, and I’m sure the Princesses can help you find it.”

“Well let’s go find this thing and stop it.” Kotetsu said which made Zeko and Fortis notice that his hair was wet, when he noticed the looks he was getting he decided to let them know why. “I had to cool off from that Diamond girl.”

“Yes she is rather suggestive, but she means well most of the time and I feel she has a liking towards Zeko.” Fortis added

“Not mutual, let’s go Kotetsu.” Zeko grabbed his cousin and walked away passing Diamond in the process who made a joke about it being cold and showing off her... assets to accentuate her point, which earned nosebleeds from Kotetsu and Zeko.

==============================
(Canterlot Outskirts)
(15 minutes later)

“You think Shiro would be okay with Diamond, y’know if she were to ask to join in on-“

“Let me stop you right there and say that I don’t want to hear it.” Zeko interrupted his older cousin in his hypothetical debauchery as the two ran at speeds that would challenge Rainbow Dash at her finest. “Anyway we’re here so look around for any weird display of magic.” The pair slowed down and activated their Dōjutsu and searched for strange energy signals. “This is gonna take a while since it’s a large area to cover but we just have to be consistent with our-“

“FOUND IT!” Zeko’s ears were ringing at Kotetsu’s scream but he recovered quickly once he saw the swirling ripple in the air. “Some kinda weird energy is leaking from this, it reminds me of the ripples that I jumped through to find you but your chakra isn’t there.” Kotetsu explained what he saw while Zeko was nothing short of speechless for what he was experiencing, to say he wanted to stare at the amalgam of mixed energy for days on end was not enough of a description but he was cut off once a voice spoke to the duo

“Oh are you boys enjoying my little tear?” The shinobi were on guard once they heard the voice which must have noticed their feelings. “Calm down you two, I just want to talk... this time. You’ve been up to a bunch of chaotic things Zeko. I’m impressed with what you two can do together.”

“How the hell do you know us? Have you been watching him since he got here?” Kotetsu questioned, locking in on the ripple which started to turn dark purple

“That thing’s changing... it’s not as beautiful.” Zeko mourned, making Kotetsu roll his eyes. “Back to business, who the hell are you?”

“I go by a few names but you can call me your helper, I’m somewhat responsible for you making it to this world. That portal Twilight opened wasn’t enough to take you here so I helped...” Zeko and Kotetsu slowly lowered their weapons and listened. “And I have a gift for you, it’ll help connect you to the alternate realms.” Two coins emerged from the fissure, which Zeko caught and examined

“Alternate realms? What would they have to do with anything? And what are these for?

“Hmm, well in a way you’re what I’d call a displaced. That means you were brought to this world by an outside source. Now usually you’d be brought here by my friend who goes by the name ‘The Merchant’ but he just takes people from their worlds and put them in realities revolving around this one, usually after he gives them some sort of overpowering strength just because they were willing to spend thousands of their hard earned money on props and-“

“Again What does that have to do with the coins? And the other realities? You’re just making more questions instead of answering them.” Kotetsu added to the question Zeko initially asked

“You two aren’t all that fun, you speak a message into one token and toss it into this tear, it’ll go to the other realms and if someone wants your help then they can ask. You might come across objects connected to others and can ask them for help, the one you keep let’s you know if a token is nearby and if someone wants you.” Zeko looked at the ringed coin and realized it greatly resembled his Rinnegan but decided that must’ve been to show his connection to it.

He held it on his palm and decided to speak a simple message. “The names Kusanabe Zeko, if you want a good fight, or need help then contact me. If you’re evil then you should just ignore this unless you wanna die painfully, better yet contact me so I can take care of a problem.” The coin began to glow a dim purple to which Zeko tossed it into the fissure where it was sucked inside. “So based on this interaction I can tell you’re why these disturbances have been happening, and I just need to know why and if you’ll stop?”

The fissure dimmed in intensity before returning to its previous resonance. “Well I did this for your attention since you’d been here so long and we hadn’t met, and as for why... it’s just chaotic. I mean taking people from worlds of violence, hate and war then putting them in a land where peace is prevalent, it’s just amazing to sit back and watch what happens. Now my friend might be disgruntled over me giving you a token since you didn’t go through the whole Comic-Con interaction with him but the chaos you’ve caused in almost two months has just been too good, so I think he’ll forgive me thanks to the opportunities. With that I must say goodbye but we’ll get to meet in person eventually and all I can say is that your worst enemy...” The fissure began to move erratically making Kotetsu and Zeko get into defensive positions until it changed, resembling a mirror with their Dōjutsu being in the opposing eye. “Is yourself. Hehe, haha... HAAHAAHA!” The voice cackled loudly and began to sound more and more distant until the rift closed and it stopped entirely, leaving two shinobi shocked from the experience.

“So you were taken here to be a part of some experiment just to make mayhem? I can buy that. I just don’t get how you getting help from others would matter.” Kotetsu broke the silence with his statement as the two turned and started running back to Ponyville to tell Nouka what had occurred.

“That reminded me of that crazy lady who captured us and put us in that maze, it was like a game to her and it’s a game to... whoever that just was...”

“So what? You can just come back to our dimension and act like this never happened.”

“You know I don’t work like that, if someone wants to mess with me that’s fine but when you make it seem like a joke then I gotta take part.” Zeko replied as the two picked up speed and began to leave a trail of dust

“So whats the plan from this point?” Kotetsu asked, already knowing the answer and smiling because of it

“Oh, we’re playing his game, I could tell you figured out he’s damn strong and you’re as excited as me. But we’re not just playing for fun...” They leapt over a gorge that was in their way and landed on the other side and looked back

“We’re playing to win...” They said simultaneously before starting to run again.

=======

Author's Note

Yes... yes... and yes... the effort that went into this was tremendous. Now to clear some things up:
1. No Zeko isn’t displaced but think about it; who would benefit from people used to violence being put into a peaceful world of ponies or pony people in this case? If your answer isn’t a being of chaos then I’m concerned about your mental condition
2. Realistically speaking the displaced would be in different realities since they all get sent to a version of the universe but can’t interact otherwise
3. Last but not least I made this move so I can have other crossovers which I won’t usually consider canon(like a DBZ movie, it’s amazing but didn’t happen in the timeline) but some will be involved

This was a long explanation but I hope you all enjoyed until next time since I can’t figure out a steady upload schedule.

Arc 5 Chapter 1: Kindhearted (Republished)

(Ponyville)
(That same day. 5 minutes later)

Rarity and Applejack were running throughout Ponyville in a frantic attempt to find something. “Where in tarnation could they have gone to? It ain’t like them to just run off for a whole night!” Something being the word that was subjective, someone working better for the two of them

“Where could my dear sister Sweetie Belle have gone?! I may not show it but I love her dearly and can’t stand the thought of her being in any danger!” Rarity exclaimed with a dramatic gesture of her arm

“Rarity! Ya need to calm down an just think, where could those three have gone lookin fer cutie marks?” Applejack’s question made them both stop and think about the possibilities. After pondering, Rarity came up with the location that made the most sense

“The Everfree Forest!” She bolted to the edge of the forest with Applejack right behind her. The two rushed through the town and nearly knocked over a number of mares and stallions that were in the way, once they made it to the edge of the forest they saw Fluttershy feeding her animal friends. “Fluttershy! Have you seen Sweetie Belle?!”

“Or Applebloom? We can’t find em anywhere and I know Scootaloo’s with em too!” Their tones made Fluttershy recoil and cower but she recovered

“N-No I haven’t seen them at all. Is there a problem?” She meekly asked but the other two didn’t reciprocate her calm tone

“We ain’t seen em since yesterday! We think they went into the forest for their cutie marks!”

“Well if they did, wouldn’t Zeko watch them and make sure they were safe?” She covered her face with her wings in anticipation but was calmed when both Rarity and Applejack sighed loudly, prompting Fluttershy to resume her previous actions

“I’d forgotten he decided to reside in that dreadful place. But how can we be sure that they’re with him?” The sound of large wings flapping caught their attention and when they looked up they saw a familiar face

“Oh Applejack and Rarity! How are you two today?” Nouka came down on his clay bird and landed near the still somewhat hysterical mares. “Zeko and Kotetsu ran off to do something and just left me and Celona and Mist and the Cute crusaders.”

“The cute cru- So Sweetie Belle is with you?!” Rarity scanned the bird but saw no sign of her sister

“Well technically they’re with Celona and Mist having a girl’s day or something but I don’t know and I just wanna find something to do on my own and a-glglglglglgl.” Nouka finished with his signature sound to the displeasure of both Applejack and Rarity

“Um Nouka darling, why do you do that? From what I’ve seen you’re the most well adjusted of your group and don’t seem to be openly violent but that noise is just so...”

“Kotetsu says it’s because of my brain missing some parts but my parents let me know that it’s fine. Zeko tells me it’s just what makes me... me and that anyone who has a problem with it can take it up with him but he still likes to say something’s wrong with me too.” Applejack took her Stetson off and looked at Nouka with sympathy

“How can ya call those two friends if they treat ya that way? That’s not how friends should act.” Rarity nodded in agreement before adding her own thoughts

“From what I’ve seen, friends should be there to help one another and the way they treat you is simply appalling.”

“You don’t get it, yes they’re both terrible and yes they treat me badly but that’s who they are. They aren’t even nice to each other but technically that’s how they show that they’re friends, I get back at them for it.”

“I think that ain’t friendship and if it was its been goin against what we’ve been learning from Princess Celestia. Twilight’s the expert and she’d say tha-“

“It’s friendship for them, it’s not what we’re used to but they mean it when they say that they’re friends. From what Kotetsu said they might be the best of them.” Nouka nodded while Applejack and Rarity’s mouths opened wider once they realized that even Twilight was convinced about their friendship and couldn’t believe what they’d heard. Nouka took the opportunity to climb on his bird once again and went elsewhere. “I couldn’t believe it either you two but maybe there’s more than just the friendship we know about.”

For a few minutes Nouka was casually being carried by his bird and was somewhat surveying the ground below since he’d in the past learned that anything below sees a bird and that he was always useful for reconnaissance. He hadn’t noticed anything strange until he heard a voice screaming,”HELP! PLEASE!” Looking down he saw a mare being gagged and thrown into a carriage by two large unicorn stallions

“That doesn’t look very good, I should help her.” Nouka thought, changing his bird’s flight making it perform a dive that put him a short distance from the stallions

“What the?! What do you want freak, can’t you see that we’re busy?” The taller stallion said, irritated at the nuisance that had shown up

“Yeah kid why don’t you go back to your herdmoms and leave the adults alone?” The other suggested cockily, brandishing a knife

“Actually I’m an adult, I turned eighteen a couple months ago, and a knife doesn’t scare me. I’m going to ask that you let that lady go.” He pointed to the carriage which had a lock on the door and occasional rustling from inside. “I saw you throw her in there and I can’t let you kidnap her.” Nouka reached into his bag and produced clay to the confusion of the taller stallion who quickly started laughing

“Hah! What? Are you gonna sculpt us into prison?” He managed to get out as his partner looked confused, even more so when Nouka put the clay into his mouth and began to chew it before spitting it out into four well formed spiders as large as hands

“What kinda magic is that? You some kind of art hero? It doesn’t matter anyway, you saw what we were doing so you gotta go, it’s not personal so don’t try to-“ He was cut off by the one spider lunging at him but he used his magic to grab it before it could do anything. “So what is thing supposed to do? Cause it’s not doing it.” He taunted right before the

*BOOM*

The spider detonated with enough force to launch the stallion against the carriage and leave a dent in the side while the other watched in shock. “Wha- You brat!” He tried to rush Nouka but the spiders were faster than he thought and clung to him, swaying him away from the carriage before detonating and knocking the stallion unconscious

“Don’t underestimate my clay a-yeeh!” Nouka formed a small clay centipede in his hands and sent it into the lock on the door which split into pieces shortly after revealing the mare who was bound and crying until she saw Nouka’s face. “Calm down miss, I stopped those two.” He undid the knots and removed the gag she had on, allowing her to get up and hug him then walk over to the stallions and kick their jaws as hard as she could before running off. Nouka took the opportunity to check the pockets of the stallions

“Might as well see why they tried to kidnap her, they have to have a note or- Ha! A note; ‘I gave you two a job you couldn’t ruin, all you have to do is find me some new girls for the business. And if you get caught I don’t know either of you.” Nouka read the note aloud and came to the conclusion that these two were a part of something bigger so he checked the carriage for clues and found a crystal that acted as a map to a place marked by an x and he figured that was where their base was.

Before he could leave he decided to tie the stallions up and coat their horns with clay, since Zeko told him it stops their telekinesis, and leave them next to the carriage with a note that read “Criminal” and explaining what he saw the doing. After that he took to the skies and followed the map to their base.

==============================

After flying through over the badlands, admiring the cracked and desiccated earth below him, Nouka had found the indicated building but was taken back when he saw that it was a run down warehouse rather than a base for kidnapping ponies. “I can’t just blow this place up, there could be more inside.” As he thought of a plan he dropped a series of clay creatures, from spiders to malformed humanoid figures, onto the ground and directed the smallest ones to explode near the entrance. While this went on he landed and snuck through the rear entrance.

“What the buck was that?!”

“It doesn’t matter, go tell the boss, I’ll check it out!” Nouka heard two voices and then the sounds of somepony running away, he followed the sound and was nearly caught a few times but luckily his diversion was still available and perfectly timed detonations were his crutch. As he followed the stallion he noticed that the building was larger on the inside and there must have been a lower level since he was now sneaking past a lift.

“How far away is this boss guy?” Nouka covered his mouth once he realized his mistake and hid behind a barrel when the stallion looked behind him. “Ok he didn’t see me.” Nouka peered over the barrel and saw the stallion go into a lift hidden by a poster and quickly tossed a clay beetle to follow him into the lower level. “Ok let’s see what’s going on.” Nouka closed his eyes and saw through the beetle’s, the stallion was sweating from what he saw, he figured he was nervous from having to meet his boss.

The lift went down for what seemed like hours to the two but was only ten seconds and when it opened the stallion was grabbed by a massive claw and pulled out. “Why... you down here?” The sconces on the wall were flickering and revealing a blue dragon, not as large as the one Zeko, Kotetsu and Nouka dispatched but a competitor in size

“I have to tell the boss, something exploded by the entrance... might be mercenaries.” The stallion pleaded to not be crushed and was released by the dragon and ran down the large hallway and past a large metal door.

“Ok, I should probably do something about him or her... Can dragons be girls?” The beetle expanded and grew to the size of a dog and was noticed by the dragon who tried to squash it but missed. The beetle swelled more and burst revealing Nouka. “I like doing that. I’m gonna have to beat you dragon, I’m sorry for having to do this.” Nouka jumped back and threw a dragon of his own that quickly grew and slammed into the blue dragon’s chest and stuck like glue.

“That... not hurt... at all.” The dragon tried to swipe the human in front of it but just missed. It tried to crush Nouka only to stop and cough up blood. “What... you do... to me?”

“My tiny art attack, the dragon didn’t hurt but the tiny bits of clay inside of it started to explode once they hit you. Since they’re so small they technically start killing you without you noticing, the explosions go right through your nerves so you can’t feel it until it’s too late.” As Nouka explained, the dragon coughed more and more until it collapsed to the ground with a crater in its chest and stomach. Nouka walked to the metal door and blew the lock off with a spider. When he opened it he saw rows of cages with females of different races being trapped inside. “What the frick is all this? I gotta save them... but that boss guy needs to get taken care of.” He ran straight down to the door and opened it to see the stallion from before crash into the wall and fall unconscious.

“Nothing is getting down this far! The amount of anti-magic runes on this place, and the dragon are enough! If something wants to knock on our door then fine but if you think anypony’s getting to me you’ve got another- Who are you?”

“I’m the guy who beat your dragon and blew up your shack.” The leader was speechless until he began to chuckle, slowly picking up in mirth. “What’s so funny, you don’t believe me?”

“Oh no I do, you wouldn’t have gotten to me otherwise. It’s just that... you wouldn’t happen to know a Zayko would you?”

“You mean Zeko? Yeah he’s my friend even though he technically doesn’t act like it sometimes but I’m thankful that he’s such a good friend.”

“Not the brightest either, this couldn’t be more perfect.” He went to his table and sat on a cushioned chair. “Well let’s get introductions done, my name is Silver Tongue and I’m the leader of this little operation.”

“I’m Nouka and I’m going to stop you from... uh...whatever it is you do here.”

“You could call it pony trafficking.” He picked up a glass and poured a drink into it. “But the profit it brings in can’t be beat, now you killed my dragon which was my best guard so I want to offer you the chance to have that position. I know you’re thinking I’m a bad guy but I just make the money in the end, I’m not actually selling these girls and you won’t be either so what do you say?” During his explanation Nouka created a serpent and let it move to the corner

“I’m not joining you, you peasant! I can tell that selling another of your kind is wrong and you don’t deserve to keep living!”

Silver Tongue sighed and stood up with a sword in his hand. “Well I can’t get the revenge I wanted but killing you will suffice for now.” Silver rushes to cut Nouka but he was stopped by the snake from before, it coiled around him. “What is this thing? Get it off of me!”

“I’m sorry but I can’t just let you get away with all of this stuff, Kotetsu told me it’s fine to joke about kidnapping but if you do it you have to die.”

“You rotten-! Let me out of this no-mph!” The serpent had fully encased Silver Tongue as Nouka walked away with a horde of tiny spiders behind him

“Now I just need to break these locks and get the rest of the team here a-yeeh.” The spiders went to the cages and planted themselves into the locks, Nouka put his hands together and closed his eyes. “C-True: Fine art detonation!” The room with Silver Tongue exploded with enough force to cause the entire subterranean portion to vibrate and each lock on the cages shattered from the concentrated explosions

“W-Who are y-you? A-And why are you helping us?” A mare with ragged clothing asked out of suspicion but she didn’t receive an answer as Nouka had his eyes closed and didn’t notice the figure approaching him from behind with a sharp rod held high

“Die!” He thrust it down but didn’t hit his mark because a female changeling rammed into his side. “Urk! You-learn your place monster!” He struck her with the rod and knocked her against the bars of a cage allowing the noise to bring Nouka out of his trance and identify the horrifically charred figure as Silver Tongue

“Wha-How’d you survive my C-True? It’s the best explosion I can make without bringing the place down?”

“I put up a barrier around myself... it saved my life and from what I saw with that Zayko, you don’t have any energy to fight do you?” Nouka’s eyes widened once he was called out for low chakra, he planned on Silver being dead and the explosion to scare his goons away from the lower level until he could contact Kotetsu or Zeko. “That look tells me I’m right and without that you’re just a vulnerable little colt.” He walked closer to Nouka, wincing from pain with each step. Nouka was incredibly able with his clay but when it came to taijutsu he had no ability and was compared to a flailing baby by his friends

“Hey now, if you try and hurt me, my friends won’t be very happy! They’ll burn down what you care about.” Nouka tried to stall but Silver Tongue was only laughing maniacally in response. ”This isn’t good! I don’t have enough chakra for a bird or even a spider... Wait! I can try that thing Zeko showed me. The lary- laro- the lari- Lariat!” Nouka stood straight up and held his left arm, he ran forward to meet Silver head on. ”C-True lariat!” Nouka’s arm slammed into Silver Tongue, who took the hit as if it were nothing, Nouka however was gored on the rod.

“Looks like you weren’t as smart as you thought.” Silver Tongue pushed the rod further which made Nouka go limp. “I think I should celebrate my victory, where’s that changeling from earlier?” Silver Tongue looked around with a manic smile at the prospect of violating the one who made the mistake of attacking him but he stopped once he heard something hit the floor. Once he looked back he saw that the human wasn’t on the rod and the only thing there was a small lump of clay, it didn’t take long for him to notice Nouka standing not far from him,”Oh bu-AAAHH!” The explosion wasn’t as powerful as the previous ones but the charred stallion wasn’t in any condition to be so close to such an event and was blasted clear.

“How’s that for *pant* not smart?” Nouka collapsed backwards with the group of mares leaving their cages to see if their savior was ok. ”Hey uh Zeko, I need your help with something really important.” Nouka managed to send a telepathic message to his friends just before he passed out, hoping that the mares he rescued would be ok.

=======

Author's Note

I couldn’t be more sorry, the conclusion was left out somehow and you all couldn’t see what happened. If you didn’t read it until now then don’t mind this.

Who’d have thought the most simple one of the group would be so fun to write? And while yes he’s the weakest that’s only relative to Zeko and Kotetsu.

If you liked it comment why, if you didn’t, do the same I’ll take criticism. Stay tuned for the next chapter because things only can get better.

Arc 5 Chapter 2: Mostly quiet day

(Ponyville)
(Carousel Boutique: 6 days later)

“I can’t believe we get to go stop a... Mantispider? From getting to a town.” Nouka exclaimed as he stood in place with pins through his sleeves.

“All I know is that I’m gonna taste it... the mantis part at least. Should just be some claws and legs so this’ll be easy.” Kotetsu said with confidence and notable hunger

“So you guys are coming back for the Gala right? Because I had a plan that really needed you two to be there.” Zeko asked his friends, who much like him, were being measured by Rarity so she could make formal attire for them.

“No, I’m just letting her measure me because I have my own shit to wear and I just wanna waste her time.” Rarity huffed and resumed measuring Zeko who only rolled his eyes at Kotetsu’s behavior. “Yes we’re coming to this thing, if we didn’t then there wouldn’t be rich people getting beat down.”

“I would hope you boys didn’t intend on doing something so barbaric at the Gala, after all I’ve got my heart set on meeting Prince BlueBlood.” Kotetsu and Zeko could have sworn that Rarity had hearts in her eyes from saying that name, which awakened a vivid memory for Zeko

“Did... Did you say Prince BlueBlood?”

===
(Flashback)
(Last Month)

Zeko was in Canterlot again just for the sake of learning about the Princess on his own time, and as he talked nobles were ogling him for his lack of formality to their Princess. “So you ever just go and traverse all of your kingdom? Just go and walk around, meet new people?”

“You mean new ponies?” Celestia corrected

“You look like humans for the most part so I’ll call you pony-people... doesn’t sound much better, but yeah you have to have some kind of magic that can disguise what you look like so it’s not completely impossible.” The two were walking around the lower land of the Castle which was where nobility started to reside which allowed them to come into contact with a snow colored stallion

“Auntie! I’ve been looking all over for- Oh, is this a new guard?” The stallion asked

“No I’m not, Name’s Zeko and do I want to know who you are?”

“I am Prince Blueblood.” Blueblood extended a hand to Zeko who looked perplexed. “You’re supposed to kiss my hand in respect.”

“I don’t kiss anything if I don’t know where it’s been, and I’m not gonna suck up to anyone, Prince or Princess.” Zeko said sternly to Blueblood’s shock

“Aunty is this true? Does this child give no respect to royalty?”

“He’s being honest. When I first met him he refused to bow in front of Luna and I.”

“Well then... it seems that we have...” Blueblood stopped speaking, further raising anticipation for those watching. They’d believed that due to what they’ve experienced from the spoiled Prince, he’d berate Zeko for his actions but never thought they’d see what happened in their lifetimes,”Somepony who can stand up to Royalty! All my life I’ve been spoiled by the upper class here and I was so bored by their behavior: ‘Allow me my Prince!’ Or ‘I can pay my Prince!’ And even ‘Please take my wife, she knows how to handle a-‘“

“Ok didn’t need that mental image! So what you’re like that Fancy Pants guy I met? That reminds me, Celestia how did Photo Finish figure out where I live? And who’s actually getting the bits to my house?” Zeko asked which confused both Celestia and Blueblood

“I’m not sure. From what I’ve heard she’s a very eccentric mare and with her things just happen.” Celestia attempted to answer which made Blueblood clear his throat

“Well that’s interesting but... Zeko was it? I’d like to have a chat with you, now if possible.” Zeko looked bored at the request but decided to entertain himself with his next line

“Yeah sure I’ll just blow off the time I came to spend with the Princess and start walking with you!” Every noble in earshot Shot a glare at both Zeko and Blueblood, to their amusement while Celestia stifled a chuckle and went back to the castle. Zeko and Blueblood walked together for about an hour and exchanged stories of foreign events and different adventures including how Zeko acquired Samehada which surprised the Prince at the very graphic climax but nonetheless the two got along fairly well during the walk and were prepared to get something to eat at a very high class restaurant but were interrupted by a mare stopping them at the door

“Oh Prince Blueblood! I never would have expected you to come to a place such as this to eat.” She was wearing a low cut dress which alerted the two males that she was trying to gain attention but Zeko didn’t acknowledge it. “Well you’re here and I insist that we eat together.”

“Yes, Gleaning Gem, we should.” Blueblood walked next to her and looked at the door expectantly. “It’s only right that one hold the door open.” He gestured his hand to it prompting Gem to pout and open the door allowing Blueblood in and her following suit leaving Zeko alone

“Wait what just happened?” Zeko opened went inside and caught up to the two who’d already gotten a table.

“Oh is your servant going to take our coats?” Gem looked at Zeko who raised an eyebrow at her question

“No he’ll be dining with us.” Gem looked surprised at the statement but didn’t pry. The group ordered a three course meal and at multiple points Blueblood had been incredibly rude; having Gem pull out his chair, feed him, and even tried to make her pay to which she stormed off angrily. “And that’s the end of that.”

“I really want to know why that just happened.” Zeko asked with sheer curiosity, going so far as to pull out a notepad and pencil

“Well I didn’t tell you this before but I’m the most eligible bachelor in Canterlot and I attract the attention of many mares.”

“I get that, my parents tried to do something similar with me and at every turn I... threw them off completely.” Zeko realized what Blueblood was saying and smiled at the realization

“That’s the point, these mares only see that I’m wealthy, royalty, and incredibly handsome.” Blueblood said with some smugness

“Handsome is kinda pushing it-“

“And to counter this I just act as impolite and demanding as ponanely possible so that only one who loves me for me wouldn’t be deterred.”

“That’s an amazing idea but what if a mare wants your status so bad she uses a love potion on you? Or she just toughs out the treatment?”

“Auntie Celestia and Luna know about the plan so they would help me should that happen.”

“As nice as this was I gotta go, this girl Diamond handles missions for anyone who goes missing and I have to turn mine in to progress so I’ll see you some other time.” With that Zeko stood and walked out of the restaurant leaving Blueblood to finish his meal

===
(Current time)
(A few hours later)

“This is really soft grass, never thought I could just relax here.” Zeko was laid down on the ground near Fluttershy’s cottage with Celona approaching, clad in her leather armor with her bow, and she didn’t seem happy

“Hey Zeko, how have you been? Enjoying that grass? You look pretty comfortable.” Zeko adjusted his eyes to look over to Celona

“Oh hey Celona, when’d you get here?” Zeko asked in a relaxed manner

“Just now actually. You wanna know what I did before I was here?”

“I feel like no matter what I answer you’re gonna te-“

“I WAS FIGHTING A MANTISPIDER! You shoulda been there, I’d say it was amazing if it wasn’t trying to kill us by throwing webs and spitting acid.”

“Wait, since when do spiders spit acid? And shouldn’t there have been claws if it was part Mantis?”

“Oh it had claws but they were coated with venom!” Celona exclaimed

“Ok maybe I should’ve been there but at least Nouka and Kotetsu killed it before anything bad happened.” Zeko said with closed eyes to Celona’s irritation

“Actually they showed up after two stallions sacrificed their arms to buy time for everypony else.” She pointed out with a twitching eye. Zeko didn’t respond to Celona’s surprise and he laid there breathing almost silently as the winds swirled the grass. “Alright why are you so uncaring about this? Any other time you would be mad that you didn’t get to take part in something fun but now you’re just calm.”

“Well I couldn’t find Zecora so I decided to be an apothecarian myself and drink some herbs I mixed together, they weren’t poisonous but now everything is just really nice.” Celona’s eyes widened once she realized that her romantic interest was practically in a different world from whatever he’d ingested and decided to wait out whatever happened to him by sitting at his side

“When this passes I’m going to yell at you. That’s a fair warning, so don’t complain.”

“I’m glad you decided to relax and watch the stars with me.” Zeko responded with the same level of attention, which wasn’t much to begin with.

“It’s the middle of the day, the stars aren’t out until night.”

“That’s only if you’re perceiving with your eyes instead of your mind. You need to look beyond what you think you see...” Zeko’s words made Celona resign to laying back and looking at the sky where she almost could’ve sworn she saw a strange light but regarded it as a high flying creature

==============================

The two rested on the grass for a few hours and managed to drift off into sleep. As the day passed others who’d seen them made remarks on the taboo nature of the two being together but weren’t acknowledged by them. “Zeko get up!” A kick to the side woke Zeko up harshly, and broke the last of his drugged state. His anger at being awakened in a violent way was magnified by this and lead him to punch Kotetsu in the stomach. “Urk! Geez you’re acting like I killed your pet snake!”

“You know I don’t like to be woken up when I’m sleeping. What do you want anyway?”

“Celona asked me to kick you when I saw you and in exchange she’d make dinner tonight.” Kotetsu answered without any care for his cousin’s health

“Speaking of which, how long are you guys staying here? It’s been a week since you showed up and you even started helping the Golden Blade.” This statement earned a strike from Kotetsu which put Zeko on his knees

“That’s for making us fight a Mantispider on our own. It was cool if it wasn’t trying to eat us, there was acid and webs flying every-“

“Celona told me...” Zeko was straining to speak and only made Kotetsu snicker. “I’m sorry ok? I forgot the mission was today...at least the town was ok.” Kotetsu and Celona shrugged at the statement since no lives were lost in the event. The trio decided to get up and walk into the town where they saw that no Ponies were out, after activating his Rinnegan Zeko saw that they were all in Sugarcube Corner. “Let’s go to SC, and get this over with.” He led to two into the dark building and were met by a

“SURPRISE!” The ponies and Nouka were immediately brought from their jovial state by Kotetsu’s hand being wrapped in lightning, the effect was stopped when Zeko grabbed his hand and calmed his reflexes down

“We were waiting for you guys since this is technically our welcoming party!” Nouka ended his statement with a tiny explosion from a bee he made and only got looks of disbelief from his squad mates

“You know if it’s a surprise party...” Zeko began

“Especially if it’s for you and your friends...” Kotetsu added

“You shouldn’t be apart of it!” They said in unison to a smiling Nouka who rubbed the back of his head, unabashed by his irate friends

“Sorry but when Pinkie told me about how you had a welcoming party, I had to be part of it.” Nouka sheepishly elaborated

“Well we don’t mind one bit ya hear? Now I’m mighty curious about how strong ya are, Applebloom told me how you jumped all the way to the Forest from the town and I’d like to see somethin to prove it.” Applejack said, cider in one hand as Kotetsu started drinking one. “What the? You can’t drink that if yer just a kid.”

“I’m not drinking this because it’s weak, did you just mix apple juice with a drop of alcohol?” Everypony gasped and looked at Kotetsu

“Now hold on a minute, you think yer such hard drinkers than why don’t ya take me and my brother on in a contest, you too Zeko since y’all got stronger stuff in yer world. Big Mac, get the hardest cider we got!” A hulking red stallion went into the back and came out with barrels of cider which somewhat intimidated Zeko and Kotetsu. Once they were set down they each grabbed a mug and the crowd started cheering

“So what are the rules? Not like it matters when we’re gonna win.” Kotetsu’s gloating visibly annoyed the farmponies and Zeko to a lesser extent

“I’m not a heavy drinker like you and your mom, I barely drink at all.” Zeko pointed out his shortcoming but was ignored by his cousin

“The rules are simple, we all take a drink at the same time and the last one standing wins fer their team.” Big Mac explained as he handed out the filled mugs

“If y’all are ready...” Zeko and Kotetsu raises their mugs. “Go!” Applejack and Big Mac downed their drinks and saw that the shinobi did the same

“Not as bad as I thought it would be, and I’m gonna assume Kotetsu would drink these like juice.” Zeko thought as the mugs were filled up again

“Ya might want ta give up while ya can, we Apple family ain’t known as lightweights.” They drank again and Kotetsu only shook his head

“Neither am I.” He responded. The crowd kept cheering and rounds progressed over the next half hour. In that thirty minutes Big Mac was unconscious and Zeko was noticeably drowsy while Kotetsu didn’t look dazed and Applejack was barely holding herself together. “Come on AJ, I thought you weren’t lightweights.” He downed another as did Zeko who decided to give up before he wound up causing property damage

“Yeah this was fun but if I keep going I’m going to pull of an almighty push in my sleep.” Zeko leaned back to watch his cousin dominate the competition

“Don’t think I *hic* can’t keep goin...” Applejack slurred as she feebly brought her mug up but dropped it to the floor and slumped onto the table

“That means we win!” Kotetsu filled his mug once more before looking at the crowd which only consisted of Celona, Nouka, Twilight and Pinkie Pie. “So we keeping that a secret? I wouldn’t want it out there either.”

“Let’s just go home... speaking of which when are you guys going back?” Zeko questioned as he tried not to stumble over his own feet

“Well that’s funny since we made it look like it takes a week to get here and we said that we were gonna stay to make sure you don’t ruin what your parents are building for you.” Kotetsu explained as they walked outside and towards the forest. After walking for ten minutes they reached the miniature desert and went into the makeshift house.

“Hey Zeko I’ve been meaning to ask, how did you make this place? I know a lot about art but technically I can’t create anything to last and I thought your sand couldn’t do stay in one shape for long?”

“I was curious too.” Celona gave her input as Kotetsu threw his shirt off and walked to the boy’s area

“I don’t care.”

“I hardened the sand to be tougher than stone, I could toss a rasen-shuriken at the wall and the place would just shake.” Zeko used a cloud of sand to levitate Celona to her and Mist’s room. “This was a short day really but I did spend most of it on mystery plants.” Zeko said to himself as a figure watched from the tree line and retreated as fast as it appeared

“So this is where the target lives, I think I can take him down solo.” A Griffin in a black bodysuit said before taking to the sky

=======

Author's Note

A bit shorter than the usual chapter but there was just filler so it didn’t seem like an issue. And yes there’s an obvious SAO abridged reference here

Like or dislike, comment on what you think and stay tuned, I love you all platonically

The Scaled Mage Appears (Non-Canon Chapter)

(Ponyville)
(Morning)

“Wow, that would’ve been a huge problem if I didn’t seal it away.” Zeko said as he walked with Twilight and Rainbow Dash through the streets of Ponyville.

“Discord, the lord of chaos, was almost free and you stopped him with... what jutsu did you call it?” Twilight inquired

“Actually I had to use two different sealing jutsu and neither of them are weak in any way; first I had to use something called the Four trigrams seal and put some of my chakra into the statue, then I used the Five pronged seal to disturb the flow of his mana. The energy he spent that time gathering’s locked away from him and he shouldn’t be able to get more.” Zeko explained with Twilight taking notes

“So these seals, they’re like runes? They can alter the qualities of what they go on right?”

“I guess... seals need to lock something away and can be dispelled to bring it back. The jinchuriki hosts have seals on their bodies so tailed beast chakra doesn’t leak out in high amounts.”

Rainbow Dash decided to speak up when she heard this. “So those monsters are put into them but they get to use their powers? It doesn’t seem right to do that.”

Zeko turned back to face her and his face showed traces of something he hadn’t shown during his stay in Equestria, anger. “Don’t say the tailed beasts are monsters.”

“But th-“ Dash tried to object but was stopped by Zeko’s next statement

“They never wanted to be forced into people as a source of power, they just wanted freedom. You girls learned not to judge things so quickly so act like you’re an element of harmony.” Rainbow Dash sulked ya his words when she realized that she shouldn’t have been so fast in her judging of the tailed beasts. Surprisingly enough Zeko did a full turn in mood and got out of his fit and resumed walking

“I guess he doesn’t want things to just be seen as monsters? Or maybe he has a lot in common with them being used for power?” Twilight pondered while looking over her notes on the seals and confirming their similarity to runes. “So Zeko, Do you know anything about runes?”

Zeko recalled the lessons he began with Twilight that he decided on for the sake of improvising a technique that would let him use chakra without hand seals. “You haven’t taught me a thing about-“ He was cut off by Spike rushing to them with a letter in his hand

“Zeko!” The drake yelled as he ran, the training he started with the shinobi having helped build his physique better which showed from the attention he started getting from fillies and the CMC. “Princess Celestia sent this, it just said it was urgent and it was for you!” Spike handed the letter off and stopped to steady his breathing. Zeko opened the letter and read silently while the others looked on.

“So I have to fight another dragon? This place has a problem with dragons stealing treasure.” A cloud of sand appeared under Zeko who was lifted off immediately while the others looked on in silence. Until Spike decided to speak

“I wonder if I could go with him, maybe I can test out the fire move he taught me.”

“No, he’s going to an adult dragon. You’re still just a kid.” Twilight said with care due to her older sister like relationship with the drake who just sighed and walked off.

Zeko drifted to a mountain with a cave at its base with smoke coming out signifying a fire within. “So an adult or a teenage dragon... hopefully a teen.” Zeko didn’t feel scared at the prospect of fighting an adult dragon but he didn’t feel like having to relocate one since he was told not to kill the target. Once he walked into the cave his attention was drawn to the dragon that stood as tall as Celestia that was currently eating a leg of some animal with a slightly smaller dragon nearby.

“Can you believe this haul Blaze? Who’d have thought that town just throws their treasure into the street?” The smaller dragon said as he ran his claws through the pile making the larger dragon swallow his meal.

“I didn’t think it’d be so easy Flicker, but they didn’t fight back so don’t relax. They’re probably sending ponies to retrieve the treasure now.”

“You’re right about that.” The dragons turned and saw a wave of sand encase their hoard and return to a creature that resembled a pony but didn’t have a muzzle or legs ending with hooves.

“Hey! That’s our treasure!” Flicker was angered and Blaze was furious that some weird thing came and took their property.

“You’d better give us back our hoard and leave before you get burnt to a crisp.” Zeko looked at the two and smirked before pulling a strange bluish-white crystal from the pile and holding it

“Yeah no, you took this from a town of hardworking miners and I’m gonna give them back what’s... theirs?” Zeko noticed the crystal started to glow brightly and levitated from his hand.

“Hmm? Looks like I picked up another contact.” A rough voice echoed from within the diamond. Zeko can hear what sounds to be something being written.

“A contact?” Zeko uttered to himself thinking on what the crystal was communicating to him, “Another...displaced guy? Makes sense since crystals don’t usually talk.” The dragons were listening in and were growing angrier by the moment

“Don’t try to ignore us shrimp!” Blaze let a burst of flame out in an attempt to harm Zeko but it was stopped by a wall of sand which blocked them from seeing him.

“That’s out of the way for now, so who are you?” He asked the crystal which had dimmed but the glow returned

“Athre’us-Ei, or Magic-Eyes if you are unable to speak the argonian tongue,” The voice said as the writing sound slowed down. “Judging from the sounds coming from my side, you sound like you’re in a bit of a predicament.”

Zeko looked at the wall which was being assaulted with fire and heated rocks, looking closer he saw that the sand was turning to glass from the constant heat. “That’s a way of putting it…”

“Place the crystal on the ground, preferable something made of stone or jewels. I need material in order to create the gate needed to enter your world.” Magic-Eye’s stone said.

“I feel like that’ll make them more angry… so let’s do it.” Zeko let the treasure fall to the cave floor and placed the stone on top of a pile of gems. “So do I do anything else or do you make it on your own?” Before he heard a response, the sand, now turned glass, shattered revealing Blaze with steam pouring from his nostrils

“Now I’m gonna cook you, then I’ll eat you!” He climbed through the hole with Flicker behind him, steam coming from his eyes

“Tori… Wind Style: Air Bullet.” Zeko opened his mouth and let a burst of air escape and knock the scaled duo through the wall again.

The crystal slowly rose into the air, taking the gems along with it. They started to mold themselves and shrink down into almost perfect orbs. They came together to form an arc way, each stone lighting up in a strange language. With a loud pop of electricity, a portal appeared in the arc’s center.

A blue robed humanoid stepped through, its face hidden in the darkness of his cloak, all Zeko could see inside were a pair of glowing orange slitted eyes. While he certainly appeared mostly human, the scaly tail was a dead give-away of what he was. His eyes scanned across the room, taking in the event before him.

“So a dragon to solve a dragon problem, makes sense for the rescue to know the enemy on a higher level.” Zeko quipped based on his new ally’s appearance.

“Not exactly a dragon.” Magic-Eyes said as he lowered his hood to reveal his blue scaled face with green markings along his cheeks. The top of his head had a brown and aqua green fin.

Before Magic-Eyes could explain further the draconian duo came back with shards of glass embedded in their backs. “You guys won’t give up will you?”

“If you think this is enough to stop a dragon then this won’t take long punk.” Blaze ran to Zeko with a furious gaze and tackled him out of the cavern leaving Flicker with Magic-Eyes

“You might look like a dragon but I can tell you’re just some copycat.” Flicker spat a group of heated rocks at Magic-Eyes.

“Shirudo Rejisuto,” Magic-eyes whispered as he quickly held out his hands, causing a glowing ward of magicka to appear in front of him. The barrage of molten rocks collided with the shield of energy, negating the attacks but reducing his reserves. When he lowered his ward, he thrusted his other hand out. “Futan,” he whispered, altering the gravity around Flicker. The dragon could feel a sudden shift of weight pushing him down. “I suggest you rethink about who you’re up against.” Magic-Eyes explained as he kept his hand aloft to keep the spell’s power going.

Outside Blaze was trying his hardest to pulverize Zeko with his superior size but found it hard to even touch his smaller adversary. “Stay still so I can hit you!” He threw a haymaker and made Zeko jump over him to dodge but before Zeko could counter a plume of steam shot into his eyes, temporarily blinding him

“Agh! I forgot you have heat on your side!” By the time his vision was back Blaze had him in his grasp and pinned his arms against his body.

“I’m gonna crush you kid.” Blaze said with a grin

“If your plan was to squeeze me to death then you should know that six arms beats two.” Zeko’s eye changed to it’s swirled form

“I musta hit you too hard back there since you only have… two arms…” Blaze started to lose his grip when he felt additional limbs pushing his then he noticed that two extra pairs of arms came from Zeko’s shoulder sockets and were forcing his away. “What kinda monster are you?!” Blaze was starting to feel fear at the idea that he attacked the wrong creature and his hunch was confirmed when the extra arms on the right worked together and formed a ball of air, earning a gasp from Blaze

“Asura Rasengan!” Zeko said as he slammed the ball into Blaze who could only describe the feeling as being gored by a blunt sword that was spinning as he ragdolled across the ground.

Meanwhile, back in the cave.

“What will you do?” Magic-Eyes asked the dragon, testing to see if he’d choose to be reckless and fight, or realize what that fighting him would not be a good idea.

“This can’t be any dragon! He didn’t even touch me and I’m stuck to the ground!” Flicker thought about his options and decided that dragon’s pride wouldn’t apply in this situation. “Ok I give you can have the treasure just don’t kill me or Blaze. We’re egg brothers and we’ve always had each other’s backs.”

“I had no intentions of killing you nor am I interested in your treasure,” Magic-Eyes said before looking over the trove of treasure. “Unless you have some sort of unique magical artifact among your collection. Kenshutsu Majika.” Magic-Eyes said, causing his eyes to take on a gentle glow of blue. With this spell, he could see if there was anything magical or enchanted among the pile. He didn’t find anything in the immediate area but sensed a powerful presence from outside.

“Ok so Blaze is taken care of.” Zeko walked back in with three arms coming from his shoulders carrying said dragon to Magic-Eyes’ surprise. The argonian raised an eye-ridge at the display considering how the situation was at first. What made Magic-Eye raise his ridge higher were the extra arms by Zeko’s sides. “Something wrong Eyes?” Zeko questioned not noticing the obvious object of Magic-Eyes’ attention.

“Despite the universe containing endless possibilities, I’m still not used to seeing the many different powers of the Displaced,” Magic-Eyes said before looking at Flicker. Magic-eyes extends his hand out. “Feza.” he whispered, allowing the gravity around the dragon to be reversed and returned back to normal.

“Blaze! Are you ok?” Flicker ran over to his brother who’d just been tossed onto the floor by Zeko. Blaze only groaned in response to Flicker who sighed in relief that his brother survived the now six armed being.

“Now to get the treasure back and tell Celestia what happened.” Sand whipped around the mass of gold and some remaining jewels and lifted off of the ground but before Zeko and Magic-Eyes left the sand allowed a small amount of the valuables to fall off and remain in the cave. “I’m glad I was wearing my Uchiha shirt or else I’d have ruined it with those arms.” The arms Zeko had grown had retreated back into his body through his large sleeves. “So Eyes what’s your story, how’s you end up in your version of Equestria?”

“I was transported when I tried to get a ayleid portal activated.” Magic-Eyes explained before looking back at the cave they left. “So, is there any reason why you needed the treasure?” he asked.

“I got sent on s retrieval mission for it and I coincidentally found a displaced token, weird how it’s a dragon like guy but I can’t judge since you’ve probably never seen anything like me.” The pair walked onto a larger area of sand and floated off

“As I’ve said, I’m not a dragon. I’m an argonian.” Magic-Eyes corrected the sand-wielding ninja.

“So you’re a magic using lizard-person? That’s pretty cool, so are there any strong people… or otherwise in the Equestria you were in or is it just a bunch of pacifists?” Curiosity dripped from Zeko’s words and excitement was noticeable in his tone at the idea of fighting a strong enemy

“Equestria is a bit like Cyrodil, but in a different land all together along with all sorts of creatures. It can overwhelming at first for those not used to talking ponies,” Magic-Eyes explained as he stroked along his scaley chin.”Their land is just as dangerous as well, especially when traveling.”

“Talking ponies… Oh that’s what you meant by the endless possibilities, in this world the ponies resemble humans with some animalistic traits. It weirded me out for a while but I adjusted once I realized they were like residents for a smaller hidden village in the way that they want to live their own lives in peace. Speaking of which, I think that’s the town.” Zeko pointed towards a town built against the base of a small mountain.

“Animalistic traits?” Magic-Eyes asked with a questionable look. “So in a way, I would not look out of place among them other than my magic. Makes sense considering one of them mistook me for a dragon.” The Argonian looked and saw some of the residents of the town carrying mining equipment, and when they saw the approaching cloud of sand they stood in anticipation at what it could be. “What is the name of the town?” Magic-Eyes asked in curiosity.

“Says in the letter.” Zeko pulled the message he’d gotten earlier out and read over the missive. “Says it’s called the Rearington mining community, they go into the mountain and bring out precious ores to sell to larger businesses.” The cloud descended to the ground and a crowd began to gather around it when they noticed the two riding comfortably.

“Hey there stranger, name’s Silver Swinger.” A stallion had walked up to the pair and attempted to introduce himself but once he noticed Magic-Eyes he recoiled in fear. “D-D-Drag-!”

“He’s not a dragon, he’s a something called an Argonian. The dragons that took your valuables were handled and I’m here to give it back.” The sand retreated back to Zeko’s gourd and allowed the townsponies to see the items they’d lost and swiftly went to retrieve them. “So that’s done, now I’m assuming you have more of a reason to be here than helping with those two dragons.”

“I always come when there are others who need me, it also allows me to learn about the many different powers each Displaced have. By the way, do you still hold my Varla Stone?” Magic-Eyes asked as he turned to look at the sand ninja.

“It’s right here, are you supposed to take it back or something?” Zeko pulled the illuminated stone from his thigh-mounted pouch and handed it off to the Argonian

“No. You see, when I accidentally sent it into the void, it became a pinpoint to allow me to form a ayleid portal to your world, however returning requires the holder of the varla to send me back home. It has something to do with me not being a true Displaced.” Magic-Eyes explained.

“So that means the same applies to me… if I go somewhere I need something to send me back, I can tell that’s gonna bite me later.” The shinobi thought on the technicalities of being displaced but stopped once he noticed the problem at hand, “How the hell do I send you back?”

“If you speak the words ‘your contract is complete’, the Varla Stone will then create the portal back to my Equestria by forming the runes from stone as you saw back at the cave,” Magic-Eyes said as he pointed at the stone. “Just don’t allow its magic to be drained, otherwise it’ll end up useless to you.”

“Your contract is complete.” Zeko said causing the stone to vibrate intensely and glow brightly before creating the same symbols from before and forming another arc of electricity which formed a gateway.

“If I walk through this portal, I’ll be gone from your world until you need me again. All you got to do is talk into the Varla Stone and i’ll hear you on the other side.” Magic-Eyes explained as a crowd formed again to witness the event.

“Makes sense. I’ll see you when something big happens.” Zeko put his hand up in a dismissive manner as the crowd watched the Argonian depart. The moment Magic-Eyes went through the portal, the runes faded away as the rocks returned to the ground, becoming nothing more than part of the earth, like it was never disturbed. “Well this was an experience…

Author's Note

Your friendly Rinnegan wielder again and we have the first crossover, not as action packed as you may have wanted, but this was to see if the author could do it. We wanna give credit to DisplacedWriter for Magic-Eyes and his dialogue, check his work out it’s pretty good in my opinion but The Seeker cares for grammar too much so he’s got a bias. Also because these aren’t canon some things I or other characters do won’t be in continuity of the story, like that Asura Rasengan.

Either way the author’s working to have the next chapter out as a Christmas gift to those who celebrate it so stay tuned and don’t forget to favorite, like follow and yadda yadda... till next time...

Arc 5 Chapter 3: Black Hurricane

(?????)
(?????)

The sun was ruthless on the two Red Claw assassins who were searching for the Black Talon sanctuary. “Ok True Shot, we should be coming up on the sanctuary.” Titus was walking ahead of True Shot through a meadow, the Unicorn was tired from the constant walking and her mane was sticking to her face which made her constantly sweep it off with her hands, leaving them to slowly accumulate sweat.

“You said that thirty minutes ago! We’ve been walking in this field for an hour, so where’s the sanctuary?” True Shot was looking down, exhausted and overheated while her partner wasn’t tired nor was he showing any signs of being hot. This was one of the times True Shot was jealous that she didn’t have feathers like Titus since she couldn’t let heat from her fur as easily as he can. “I’ll ask again, where is the sanc-“

“It’s right here.” Titus interrupted her to point towards a bed of flowers that had a small stick among it, he pulled the stick and opened a hatch with a ladder leading into the dark. “So you wanna go first or- Woah!” He was nearly knocked over when True Shot pushed him out of the way and sped down the ladder. “That’s one way to beat the heat.” He followed her down into the darkness and splashed into the shallow water that was running by.

“Titus please tell me that splash was you and if it wasn’t I’m going on your back.” True Shot said with a frantic tone but was calmed by Titus’ hand on her shoulder

“I’m right here and don’t worry this place is safe, Quicksilver took me here once before so I remember where the door is.” Titus lead True Shot down multiple pathways and above a drained aquifer and eventually they came to a small garden against a wall with a small crack through the stone providing light. “The door’s right here.” Titus pulled a stone from his pocket and held it to the garden

“What’s that supposed to do?” True Shot asked from Titus’ back after being piggybacked from the beginning of the underground trek.

“It’s a key.” The stone shifted multiple colors and shot a ray of light that revealed a door on the wall. The two walked into a massive cistern with Griffins in black and grey bodysuits walking around, buying and selling wares from merchants and practicing combat in a larger section. Titus looked mildly surprised at the expansions that had happened in a matter of years while True Shot was speechless at the sight.

“Wha-Bu-How is there so much here?” She looked around wide-eyed at the near city level design of the cistern, earning strange looks from the Griffons who didn’t recognize their outfits

“Hey, you guys aren’t wearing Talon colors.” An older male Griffon confronted the two on their outfits but before True Shot could say anything Titus spoke up

“Yeah but we wouldn’t be able to find this place if we weren’t in the same business. Where’s a seeker at, we have some information from the Red Claw.” The elder went quiet but quickly turned and gestures for them to follow him, they went through a hallway that led to a door which True Shot knocked on right as the elder left.

“Come in...” A gravelly voice said to them eliciting a chill in their backs as they walked in to share their report from Mistress Culina.

==============================
(Waterfall Overlook)
(The next day)

So you’ve noticed I have some things of yours and you have something I want, meet me on the top of the Waterfall in one hour unless you want to see mares swim with no arms

Zeko stood across from a Griffin in a black bodysuit with an expression of silent rage while the Griffon smirked, this cocky action was due to having Mist and Celona tied to a tree. “So kid, you know why I’m doing this?” He asked with an arrogant tone

“All I know is that you’ll die today and I’ll make sure you get your just punishment.” Zeko responded quickly to which the Griffon pulled out a pitch black sword

(Play me)

“You took down those fledglings in the Red Claw but you made the mistake of killing my brother.” The Griffon’s words made Zeko think about what he meant and concluded this was for revenge and decided to play along

“You talking about Rhyken? Because technically speaking-“ Zeko summoned his Cragadile and it’s gaze focused on the Griffin. “This is what killed him, so should I get your name before you get to meet each other in the afterlife?”

“You can call me Kanek, but that Cragadile can’t stand up to my sword.” Zeko rolled his eyes at the statement while Kanek smirked. The sword morphed from a bladed weapon to a longbow with a string laced with black lightning and a shadowy quiver appeared on Kanek’s back. He nocked an arrow and drew the string back but before he fired it Zeko could tell something was wrong

“Wait, Cragadile skin is tougher than stone so why would... Oh shit!” Zeko barely dodged the giant shot of black lighting that grew and obliterated his pet. “Ok this is a problem.” He rushed forward with his Rinnegan active and two chakra rods in hand, he clashed with Kanek’s weapon which changed back to a blade and crackled with small black arcs of electricity

“This was my father’s weapon and he gave it to me. You’re not leaving alive.” He pulled back and slashed one of the rods, snapping it in two, he went for a downward strike to kill Zeko but wound up having to fly backwards to dodge the other rod aimed for his right arm, while he flew back Zeko leapt backwards and made the tiger sign.

“Fire Style: Fireball jutsu!” Zeko spat a giant fireball at Kanek who chopped the attack in half to Zeko’s displeasure. “Not making this easy huh?” Zeko deadpanned at the display

Kanek’s smirk made it look like his beak would crack if he kept it up. “This sword contains the power of one thousand storms, your little flames aren’t anywhere near that.” He changed the blade to a bow and fired a smaller shot that left a hole in Zeko’s chest. “So that was the divine eye holder... Pathetic.” Kanek walked over to examine the body and once he touched it it turned to sand and caught his hand.

“Divine eye holder, I like the sound of that.” Kanek turned his head and saw his target leaning against a tree. “So what’s your next move there pal?”

“Ever see a storm clone?” Kanek used his weapon to scorch the sand and raised it to the sky. “Hah!” A bolt of lightning came down and struck the spot next to him and created a clone of himself with a grey sword. “You make a dummy with sand, I’ll make one with lightning.” They used their wings to add speed to themselves and rushed to Zeko and tried to slash him diagonally but only struck the tree, they turned and saw the shinobi with his hands clasped when suddenly another one of him appeared by his side.

“Might as well go along with what you were doing.” Zeko said before the pair ran to their enemies, knocked the clone away and prepared an attack. “Let’s call this...” Zeko kicked Kanek into the air, and the clone kicked him higher, using him as a launchpad and returned to the ground.

“The double Zeko slam!” The clone finished as they both lunged above Kanek and dropped their heels onto his stomach, sending him to the ground. The pair fist pumped in celebration. “You didn’t even need me fo-“ The clone was dispelled by a sword through the stomach revealing the lightning clone.

“How’d I forget about you? Almighty Push!” Zeko barely dodged a swipe and managed to destroy the clone by sending it straight into a tree but before he could plan his course of action he had to dodge another shot from Kanek.

“Don’t forget about me! One wrong move and you die!” Kanek fired a volley of weaker shots but they weren’t to be brushed off, each one scorched where they touched and forced Zeko to shift positions faster than he could form a strategy, he was grazed by some of the bolts but ignored the pain and remembered his goal but this was where Kanek decided to amplify the stakes, “If you’re gonna run how about I make this a challenge?” He pointed the sword at Mist and Celona and created a weak cyclone around them. “That’s gonna get bigger until it tears them to shreds, you need to beat me before that happens.” He grinned maniacally from his own threat but Zeko stood unfazed by his words.

(Now Play me)

“Then I need to be more serious, here goes the sand demon’s gift.” Zeko raised a hand up with one finger extended. “Shukaku’s blessing!” Kanek watched the odd display and was ready to write it off as just a distraction but then he saw a strange orange substance begin to leak from Zeko’s skin and clothes and it encased him, it moved along his form like a second skin and even formed a tail like shape. All Kanek saw next was a blur before he managed to block Zeko’s roundhouse kick but he was helpless from the series of punches that landed across his chest, pushing him backwards and leaving skids in the dirt.

“He’s faster and stronger now... but Morsus won’t fail me.” Kanek thought as he shot a bolt that pierced the aura and cut Zeko’sleg but he didn’t register the wound as it began to close to Kanek’s displeasure.

“Gonna have to hit harder than that.” Zeko went to punch Kanek but his hand was caught by a Kanek’s weapon which was now gauntlets. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” He caught the swing Kanek threw and the two headbutt to end the grapple. They clashed fist to fist and exchanged punches, but neither caused heavy damage and ended up jumping away from each other.

“How aren’t you dead? I’ve been landing solid hits!” Kanek’s face was contorted in rage at his opponent’s survival, Zeko however maintained a calm demeanor

“I noticed that you’re right about that sword-“ He crossed his arms to block the attack from Kanek, the two struggled to beat one another but were at a standstill. “That thing actually has the power of a thousand storms but you don’t know how to use it so it’s a hundred at most.” The clash broke and the two came at each other with a barrage of hits but neither landed any that would change the fight. Kanek tried to shoot another large bolt but wound up lifted above Zeko’s head.

“I’m gonna kill you for this!” He swung at Zeko’s head but his flailing gauntlets met air.

“Liger Bomb!” Zeko slammed Kanek into the ground, winds shot out in every direction making the cyclone holding Mist and Celona stronger

“What was that?!” Celona asked in panic

“He told me about that... unless he’s going easy nopony can survive that!” Mist answered as the wind died down revealing that Kanek was cushioned by black clouds .

“Seriously?!” Zeko dodged a stray lightning bolt from the clouds and created two more clones and started a Rasen-Shuriken. “Let’s see if I can part clouds.” He threw the bladed orb towards Kanek who was now encased in clouds, the attack blew the clouds and Kanek away, leaving a long path in the dirt. “Girls!” Zeko ran over to the cyclone and split it and the rope with a chop

(Music Ends)

“Zeko!” Celona Shot up and hugged the shinobi tightly, leaving Mist leaning against the tree until Zeko outstretched a hand and levitated Mist in the hug. “Who was that and why did he want to hurt you so bad?”

“He’s wearing a Red Claw suit so he’s probably part of a clean up crew.” Mist gave her input as Zeko pondered. Celona looked at Mist and the two managed to reach an agreement and decided on their next action.

“Based on what he told me he was avenging his-“ Zeko stopped once he felt lips press against both sides of his face and a blush formed across his face.

“I think that was overdue for everything you do. You helped both of us and gave us a place to live.” Mist explained their actions but didn’t get through to the shinobi who stood there dumbfounded and speechless.

“Hey!” The trio looked and saw Kanek struggling to get up, one of his arms was bleeding and his leg was busted with a gash running down his face. “Don’t you dare act like this is done.” He leaned against Morsus and coughed up some blood. “I’m going to avenge my brother.”

Zeko levitated a sliver from a tree and brought it to his hands. “Almighty Push.” Before he could tell what happened, Kanek was on the ground with both of his legs disabled. “I can respect wanting to avenge someone you loved so I’ll give you this one chance, leave now or die.” Kanek looked at Zeko with anguish in his eyes, trying to find a way to win but realized at this point it was impossible.

“You might’ve won this time...” He leaned up so his face was visible, “But I’ll come back *pant* and when I do I’ll be even better and you’ll beg for mercy!” He raised Morsus to the sky and was taken into the sky by lightning.

“Well that’s gonna be a knife in my foot but at least you two are safe.” Zeko sighed at the fact that Mist and Celona were safe but he was quickly kissed again by the pair. “Cut it out!” His blush was back and the two snickered as he made a sand cloud for them to leave on.

“Make it harder to embarrass you and we will.” Mist said while she was hauled onto Zeko’s back

“Ugh, I’m not gonna get used to some things am I?” The group floated towards the Everfree, leaving a scorched battleground with a large crater from Kanek’s departure.

===================================
(Ponyville)
(2 Hours later)

Nouka was leading Kotetsu and Zeko through the streets of Ponyville where they were stared at for the energy the clay user displayed. “Come on guys let’s visit them, I wanna see how they’ve been doing since then!” Kotetsu looked as if he wanted to flail his friend while Zeko looked as if he were thinking.

“So what was that Kanek guy’s deal, why’d he want to kill you more than others do?”

“I killed his brother a while back and he wanted to avenge him, his sword’s what I’m stuck on. It literally had the power of a thousand storms and changed from form to form, if he was better with it I could’ve been hurt really bad back there.” At this the two went silent and followed Nouka to a fairly large building where they went in and were met by a large group of mares

“Oh hello again boys, you’re here to see Blue Chord aren’t you?” A mare with a long dress asked to which Nouka nodded and walked down a hallway with Zeko and Kotetsu in tow. They passed a number of doors which all had either mares or children beyond them.

“And to think Nouka uncovered a trafficking ring and found a group home in Ponyville for some of them, blows my mind that there was one here.” Zeko said with his hands rested on his head.

“I can’t believe he managed to go outside and find both of his hands.” Kotetsu mocked his squad mate but before they could start bickering a voice called out to them

“Hey guys!” They looked and saw an azure unicorn mare who was shorter than average and was wearing a white blouse and a grey skirt. “Come on Nouka, the foals want you to do another art display.” Nouka was dragged along by his arm to go with Blue Chord.

Zeko decided to voice his opinion on what just occurred, “I still don’t know if I should tell him that she’s feeding off of his happiness, and before you say anything, not every female does that so quit it.” Kotetsu’s mouth closed and he decided to look out a window before responding

“Well she’s a changeling or whatever so she has to to live and do you think he’d be worse off knowing she needs to eat emotions or letting her starve because she eats emotions?” Zeko didn’t need to answer since it was rhetorical.

But while they were here another individual was licking his wounds and recalling the battle he’d been in earlier that day and how his enemy decided to spare him unlike his brother. Kanek was in a grey cloud, lying in a glass bed that was mostly filled with a purple fluid while a Red Claw Pegasus stallion was writing on a clipboard. “You’re lucky to be alive, the damage was worse internally and if you came just a few minutes later you could’ve been confined to a bed for the rest of your life.” He explained as Kanek drifted in the water with Morsus next to the tank.

“He might’ve won but now I see that he’s not invincible like they made him out to be... and once I master Morsus I will avenge Rhyken. He was supposed to inherit the sword but now our tradition is gone, that... Zeko... is going to pay for what he’s done.” Kanek’s muscles tensed in the water, turning it from purple to blue

“Hey now, you can’t afford to do anything until you’re healed. If you so much as flex too hard you might risk tearing something important.” Kanek’s nurse scolded him but was right, the loss he’d taken out him out of commission for a while but now he had nothing but time to use for planning his revenge...

=======

Author's Note

Here’s the fight scene that you all craved, and it’s unique in the sense that the enemy got to leave but who knows when he’ll be back? And the mares that Nouka saved are okay, they’re close enough to their savior.

But here’s your Christmas gift everyone I hope you have a happy holiday

Comment on what you liked or didn’t like and be sure to like the story or dislike it until next time

Arc 5 Chapter 4: The Gala (Part 1/3)

(Zeko’s house)
(That evening)

“Are you sure you want to go to the Gala? That Kanek guy looked like he was apart of the Black Talon and they’re viscous when it comes to a target, especially when one of them gets hurt.” Mist was questioning Zeko who was putting the final touches on his outfit, much like Kotetsu and Nouka.

“I’m more worried about this Gala, and Zecora’s here to teach you about the plants of this forest and you’ll be safe with her. She’s got amazing mana control, pretty sure she’d give Shiro a run for her money.” At this Kotetsu looked over and slowly shook his head

“No... just no.” His tone was flat, showing his lack of satire for the statement. “Even if she would... she wouldn’t, and you know she wouldn’t.” Kotetsu’s eyes held none of the hidden happiness he had when mentioning his significant other, instead they were now hollow, almost soulless.

“I would like to know, who is this Shiro?” Zecora chimed in, curious about the thrown around name. Zeko, Nouka and Kotetsu all went blank faced at the question and sweat droplets appeared on their foreheads. “It seems she must be very rigorous to make the three of you so nervous.”

“Let’s not focus on my girlfriend.” Kotetsu resumed closing his shirt and enjoying its great similarity to his far older relative. “This Gala thing, there’s gonna be rich and snobby ponies everywhere right?” Zeko nodded as Kotetsu smirked

“Some of them are decent but most are insufferable. And you’d think that a gathering of most political figures wouldn’t be a good thing but I guess we’re too used to assassins and...” Kotetsu’s face said everything Zeko needed to know while Nouka stood with a childish smile, signifying his overall ignorance

“I have absolutely no clue what you guys are talking about but let’s go meet up at the Boutique.” He tossed a clay figure which grew and revealed that it was a large lion like construct. “I’ve been trying new types of art since I met Lachlan, I showed him and he thought it was nice.”

“Glad I’m the one who communicates with animals since Lachlan said he’d kill Nouka if he saw him mock his species again.” Zeko thought as the trio climbed onto the construct. “So how is this thing gon-WHOA!” The clay creation bounded into the trees and leapt throughout the canopy, bringing the group closer and closer to Ponyville. “So this is the type of art you’ve been making? I like it.”

“Yeah a-gl- Ow!” Before Nouka could finish his sound, Kotetsu’s fist collided with the back of his head. The construct continued through the canopy and ended up running through the town to the distress of the citizens, the trio paid them no mind and kept riding in peace until they came across the Mane six, more so Rarity convincing two stallions to pull their carriage along for them. Once the two agreed they began to walk back to the Boutique and didn’t notice the shinobi in the distance.

“That’s how you use your feminine skills to convince a stallion of anything. Now we just need to get ready for the Gala.” The mares walked inside leaving Kotetsu to say something relatively insightful.

“We’re gonna be waiting forever.” He moaned to the confusion of Nouka and Zeko, “It takes women years to get ready... damn it!” He jumped off of their ride and landed at the door where Zeko appeared next to him, Nouka was behind them, they walked inside where Spike was knocking on the door loudly.

“Aw come on guys let me in!” The Drake pleaded

“Sure thing Spike.” The tomboyish voice of Rainbow Dash rang before Rarity interrupted her

“Heavens no! We’re getting dressed.”

At this point Zeko decided to let them know they were there and ready. “From what I’ve seen clothes are optional so it’s not a big deal.” Spike turned around and saw the three shinobi.

“Wow, you guys got ready fast.” He fist bumped Zeko and Nouka, Kotetsu however showed he wasn’t interested by activating his Sharingan and staring intensely at the adolescent dragon who nervously backed into the now open doorway. “Well tonight’s gonna be special, we’re gonna be in Canterlot! Our hometown Twilight! And the best part is that we get to hang out together.” At his proclamation Zeko nodded.

Kotetsu smirked. “All I know is that this night’s gonna end with an explosion.” All those present, excluding Zeko, took a step back.

“Uh yeah... This night’s gonna be great!”

==============================
(30 minutes later)

The carriage was being drawn by two earth stallions with Spike holding the reins and wearing a simple black tuxedo. “I planned out an insider’s tour. I gotta show Rarity the Crown Jewels and Applejack the Princesses Golden apple tree. And Pinkie there’s this one doughnut shop you need to try, I think you guys would like it.” Spike looked back to the shinobi trio sitting on top of the carriage.

“Sounds pretty interesting.” Kotetsu said

“A golden tree is something I need to see for myself.” Zeko added

“Doughnuts?!” Nouka shook with joy at the thought of such a pastry

“Then let’s go- Hyah!” The stallions turned and looked at him angrily

“Excuse me?”

“If you weren’t friends with-“ He heard something pierce the ground behind him and saw a kunai, once he turned back he saw Kotetsu smiling creepily

“I’d get back to pulling if I were you... I don’t miss twice.” The stallions quickly resumed pulling the carriage until they found themselves outside of the Canterlot Castle. Spike and the shinobi jumped down from the carriage and the Drake opened the door for the mane six.

“Ok we’re here and- Woah, you all look amazing.” Spike was taken back by the sight before him but the group began to walk nearly leaving him behind.

“I can’t believe we’re finally here! With all that we’ve imagined the reality of this night is sure to make this the best night ever! At the Gala”

Chorus:
At the Gala

Fluttershy:
“At the Gala
In the garden
I'm going to see them all
All the creatures
I'll befriend them at the Gala”

Chorus
At the Gala

Fluttershy:
“All the birdies
And the critters
They will love me big and small
We'll become good friends forever
Right here at the Gala!”

Chorus:
All our dreams will come true
Right here at the Gala
At the Gala

Applejack:
“At the Gala (It's amazing)
I will sell them (Better hurry)
All my appletastic treats (Yummy yummy)
Hungry ponies (They'll be snacking)
They will buy them (Bring your money)
Caramel apples, apple sweets (Gimme some)
And I'll earn a lot of money
for the Apple family!”

Chorus
All our dreams and our hopes from now until hereafter
All that we've been wishing for will happen at the Gala
At the Gala

Rarity:
“At the Gala
All the royals
They will meet fair Rarity
They will see I'm just as regal at the Gala”

Chorus
At the Gala

Rarity:
“I will find him
My Prince Charming
And how gallant he will be
He will treat me like a lady
Tonight at the Gala!”

Chorus
This is what we've waited for to have the best night ever
Each of us will live our dreams
Tonight at the Gala
At the Gala

Rainbow Dash:
“Been dreamin'
I've been waitin'
To fly with those great ponies
The Wonderbolts, their daring tricks
Spinning 'round and having kicks
Perform for crowds of thousands
They'll shower us with diamonds
The Wonderbolts will see me right here at the Gala!”

Chorus:
All we've longed for
All we've dreamed
Our happy ever after
Finally will all come true
Right here at the Grand Gala
At the Gala

Pinkie:
“I am here at the Grand Gala
For it is the best party
But the one thing it was missing was a pony named Pinkie
For I am the best at parties, all the ponies will agree
Ponies playing
Ponies dancing
With me at the Grand Gala!”

Chorus:
Happiness and laughter at the Gala
At the Gala

Twilight:
“At the Gala (At the Gala)
With the Princess (With the Princess)
Is where I'm going to be (She will be)
We will talk all about magic and what I've learned and seen (She will see)
It is going to be so special
As she takes time just for me (This will be the best night ever!)”

Chorus:
Into the Gala we must go
We're ready now, we're all aglow
Into the Gala, let's go in and have the best night ever
Into the Gala, now's the time
We're ready and we look divine!
Into the Gala

Fluttershy:
Meet new friends

Chorus:
Into the Gala

Applejack
Sell some apples

Chorus:
Into the Gala

Rarity:
Find my Prince

Chorus:
Prove I'm great

Rainbow Dash:
As a Wonderbolt is

“To meet!”

“To sell!”

“To find!”

“To prove!”

“To whoop!”

“To talk!”

“Into the Gala
Into the Gala
And we'll have the best night ever!
At the Gala!”

“Take it away boys!” Pinkie gestured to Zeko, Kotetsu and Nouka who threw small attacks that created a large explosion in the sky. “Or not...” Pinkie backed down sheepishly as the group continued inside.

===============================

“Alright so what are we gonna do first?” Spike asked but the mane six quickly dashed off to do their respective activities leaving the four boys. “At least I can count on you guys right?”

“Yeah you can, lets go see that golden tree.” Zeko decided on their next action which earned a smile from Spike who led them past a crowd where Zeko saw Rarity looking at Blueblood with an expression of having a clear goal and he figured it was to win his attention. “Oh I can’t wait to hear about this one.” They continued walking for a few minutes in silence and found themselves in a less populated wing of the castle.

“Are we supposed to be here? Not that I’m opposed to breaking and entering but there’s a lot of guards around.” Kotetsu broke the silence with a practical question which Spike answered quickly.

“Most of the castle is open to visitors since everything that’s important is locked away with powerful spells and runes.”

“What are runes anyway? I heard Twilight talk about them and I think they’d be similar to sealing jutsu from our world.” Zeko asked as they walked into a large garden

“I don’t know that much, Twilight should have books on it and the Princesses definitely know.” He stopped and pointed to the large solid gold tree standing before them. “It’s awesome isn’t it? I wish it was its time to grow apples so we could- Uh guys...What are you doing?” While looking at the tree Kotetsu and Zeko walked over to it and rested a hand on it

“Using our chakra to speed up that process, I want to be the first human to eat a golden apple.” The duo channeled chakra directly into the tree and made it shine brightly. The branches began to glow and form bumps that grew into golden apples.

“What can’t you guys do with that chakra stuff? Can you teach me how to use it?” Spike asked as the apples started to fall into a net of sand, courtesy of Zeko

“Why not? Maybe that fire you breathe will be useful.” Kotetsu taunted

“That’s not nice Kotetsu. He just wants to do cool stuff like we do.” Nouka countered while Kotetsu rolled his eyes and bit into his apple and stopped moving entirely.

“Is it that good?” Zeko,Nouka and Spike took a bite of theirs and stopped moving as well. The only way they could describe the taste was to call it pure euphoria, like the cosmos itself allowed itself a taste and then let the boys have some. “That... was amazing.” They looked at their apples and proceeded to slowly eat the remainder while Zeko’s sand lifted into the sky. “I’m saving those ones and the seeds so I can have my own.”

“Good plan, where to next Spike?” Nouka asked, still in the afterglow of the delicious apples

“We can go see the Crown Jewels.”

“No, Kotetsu can’t help himself around valuables.” Zeko said

“Hey I resent- Who am I kidding you’re right.” A loud rumbling stopped any further words and scared Spike. “That apple just made me more hungry, let’s go find some food.”

“I saw Applejack at a stand, she had a ton of stuff.” Nouka said which caused Kotetsu to appear behind him almost instantly

“Lead the way moron.” Nouka led them back through the halls and into the main hall again. “Hey Zeko, that little music number seemed really coordinated didn’t it?” Zeko thought intensely and realized that the sudden song was incredibly well done despite being sudden and unscripted.

“Yeah it was, I wonder how the hell that works. They didn’t have time to prepare and those random civilians just knew what to say... and where was the music coming from?” Zeko’s hair pulsed white from the roots to the ends and made Kotetsu laugh.

“You’re that concerned over a song and dance number?”

“It’s not that big of a deal... this place is really weird sometimes.” He ran his fingers through his hair once he noticed his cousin eyeing it

“It’s a big enough deal to make that jutsu lose effect little rabbit.” Kotetsu taunted and received a slap across the neck. “I deserved that but I’m still gonna laugh.”

“Howdy Spike!” They heard the familiar voice of Applejack and saw that they’d made their way to her stand. “And you fellas. You wanna buy something? I’ve got-“

“Everything.” Kotetsu interrupted to Applejack’s surprise

“Excuse me? Didja say-“

“You heard him... Everything here.” Zeko pulled out a bag of bits with an audible jingle and tossed it into the bin by her legs.

“Sure! You want a bag or something?” Zeko raised a hand and the stand was lifted and taken with the four boys. “With all of these bits i can fix the whole farm up. But I could use more business so back to it.” Applejack started setting up another stand while the boys departed to a garden where Fluttershy was trying to bait animals into a net.

“What in the Six Paths am I looking at? Hey!” Fluttershy let out a squeal and stumbled into her trap, getting pulled into the air and suspended. “What have you been up to? These animals are terrified.”

“Animal abuse isn’t ok... Unless they’re the ones abusing.” Kotetsu received a hard punch to his rib for his statement

“I’m sorry, they weren’t trying to be my friends so I got carried away.” Fluttershy meekly answered

“They’ve never met you, try being more relaxed and don’t scare them. They’ll get used to you and will start to come to you.” When he finished his explanation Kotetsu shot a stream of lightning from his finger and freed the ensnared Pegasus.

“O-Ok then. I’ll see you both later then.” She waved softly.

The boys walked into a clearing and sat down, Zeko made the food land in a square array. Kotetsu and Zeko exchanged a look and started eating voraciously to the disgust of Nouka and Spike. “Why are they doing that?” Spike asked, trying his hardest to enjoy his apple fries while Nouka managed to enjoy a caramel apple.

“They get like this when there’s technically a lot of food around. Just ignore it cause they won’t stop until they’re full.” After a few minutes the drake looked and saw that a majority of the food was gone and the two were eating at a more relaxed pace.

“It’s not that Golden apple but it comes close. Hey Spike, you wanna learn a fire jutsu?” Zeko questioned which made Spike jump up and knock over Kotetsu’s cider.

“My drink... it wasn’t guilty of anything.” He got on his hands and knees and hid his face.

“Uh sure Zeko I’ll learn a fire thing, how do I start?” Zeko placed a hand on Spike’s head and Spike got a rush of information, the most notable being a description of how to use his inner focal energies, some strange hand symbols and something called “Goukakkyu”. “My head hurts really bad!” Spike whined, holding the side of his cranium for emphasis

“The headache’ll stop in a minute but once that’s done I want you to focus the mana within you then think of breathing fire and make the hand signs at the same time.” Spike took his hand from his no longer aching head and focused on his stomach and welling flames up from it

“The symbols were... Snake, sheep, monkey, pig, horse, then tiger.” When his claws were together he breathed in and when he exhaled he shot a large green ball of fire... aimed straight at a bush. Before Zeko could intercept the attack, a unicorn stallion in a loose Red Claw outfit jumped out of the bush. He stood at about six feet and had spells ready in his hands.

“You’re the otherworldly fighters aren’t you?”

Zeko and Kotetsu activated their Dōjutsu and Nouka was riding his feline creation, even Spike got into a fighting stance. “I’m guessing you came to kill us, you made a huge mistake though since there’s four of us against you Hex.” The stallions eyes opened wide at the mention of his name. “Pod knew most of the members and now I do too.”

Hex started to chuckle to the surprise of the others, his laughter was coarse and made him sound much older than he seemed. “I’ll admit you seem very threatening but there’s not just me. With all of these political figures gathered in one place you couldn’t expect somepony to want to rise through the ranks as easily as possible?”

*CRASH*

The sound of breaking glass made the four boys turn and see a few dozen red Claw members going into the Gala through the now shattered windows. “Damnit! Wait the Princesses are in there, there’s no way you have a way to beat them.” Kotetsu argued, making Hex stop his chuckling

“Actually we’ve found a way to temporarily null the magic of even an Alicorn so they aren’t as big of obstacles as you think.” Zeko threw a chakra rod and cut part of Hex’s outfit away, barely missing his rib and lung in the process. “Feisty... youth has that effect, but let’s see how you do against experience!” He drew a knife and cut his hand, letting blood drop into the ground where he placed a rune. A pair of dark skeletons wearing a dull metal armor and horned helmets rose from the earth with axes in hand.

Zeko made hand signs which caused a wall of rock come from the ground, while Kotetsu put a hand to his mouth. “Lava Style: Molten river!” Kotetsu blew a ball of flame at the wall and turned it to a molten liquid which coursed and drowned the skeletons. Before they could focus on Hex the lava dissipated and the skeletons appeared unharmed. “How the hell- They’re bones! Bones melt!”

“These are imbued with the corrupt souls from the afterlife, they can’t be destroyed by any normal means since they draw power from death itself.” Hex taunted and threw spells that left burn marks where the two shinobi were.

“Ok... Nouka you stay out here with me and help deal with this, Spike go with Kotetsu and stop the Red Claw inside.” Kotetsu nodded and grabbed Spike before lunging to the walls of the castle.

“That was a cowardly move on your part.” Hex’s tone was condescending at this point

“Why would that be? We’re splitting up our strength so we can take care of the problem.” Nouka prepared an array of clay spiders and Zeko produced two chakra rods.

“Because child... You’d have been better off fighting me as a group, I can make more of the bone shades. Your chances were better as a gro-“

“How are we cowards for being a team old guy?” Zeko interrupted with an irritated tone.

“Because my friend... Suicide is the easy way out...”

=======

Author's Note

And here I go again with a three parter, but that’s what you all seemed to like last time I did it so why not give it another try? Happy New Year everyone. Like or dislike comment on what you liked and I’ll see you next week.

Arc 5 Chapter 5: The Gala (Part 2/3)

*Clang*

An axe connected with a chakra rod, echoing through the garden. “Can’t influence their energy! They don’t have souls of their own either...” Zeko looked at Nouka who was using small clay blobs to repel the attacks of the skeleton he was fighting. Unfortunately during the scuffle Zeko noticed Fluttershy being cornered by a Red Claw stallion.

“You’re way too pretty to be here alone and unless you want the others to kill you you’ll come with me.” He grabbed her by the collar of her dress.

“S-Somepony a-anypony help!” Fluttershy cowered at the gloved hand that was going for her cleavage.

“Drop-ah-kick!” Before the stallion could reveal Fluttershy’s modesty a sandal clad foot slammed into his side, forcing him straight into the ground, buried under the dirt and releasing his grip on the mare who was shaking from the experience. “Fluttershy, I need you to focus and fly away from the castle. Get to Canterlot and stay away from here.” He blocked an oncoming axe and kicked the skeleton in the sternum, pushing it back to Hex. Fluttershy managed to pull herself together and fly off to the displeasure of Hex.

“Of course he was distracted by a mare, never could focus when a pretty one was around.” Zeko picked up the stallion and flung him towards Hex who caught him with his telekinesis. The bone shade came back and tried to cleave Zeko in half but wound up being grabbed in sand.

“That works too.” The bone shade started to struggle and break free but a missed chop of its weapon left it confused as to where its target went. Hex was also flabbergasted at the disappearance of Zeko and used a spell to track him down. “No need for that.” Hex looked to his right and got a roundhouse kick to his jaw, feeling the bones crack and his concussion developing. “Flying Raijin’s pretty useful when I remember it.”

Hex skidded across the ground and landed against a wall of stone Zeko looked and saw Nouka dealing with his bone shade. “Take this, C-True Serpent!” The clay snake wrapped around its target and prevented any movement. “Zeko I have a plan, get that one over here so I can blow them up!” Zeko used his lightning chakra mode and stabbed the bone shade hard enough to go through the armor and its chest. He dragged the deathless creature towards his friend while it swung its axe against his skin in a futile act of desperation.

Zeko was unabashed by the attempts on his life because they weren’t getting past his armor. “I figured out how to use this to its best, now it’s a weapon and a shield.” He threw the skeletal being at its partner and the pair were blown to their simplest bones and left in a crater. “Wow Nouka, that was a really good plan.” Zeko pat his friend on the back in an act of sheer pride.

“Wait they’re putting themselves back together! Look!” They looked and saw the bones of their foes reassembling and slowly forming their bodies again.

Zeko decided to stop them from finishing their reconstruction and covered them in sand, he rested a hand on the ground and closed his eyes. “Sand sealing coffin.” The black seals came from Zeko’s hand and formed lines in the sand, sealing the bone shades into the ground indefinitely. “Alright that’s done... I wonder how Kotetsu and Spike have been doing?”

==============================
(Simultaneous Time)

Kotetsu and Spike burst through a window behind three Red Claw members, showering them with glass and leaving major lacerations. “That looks like it hurt a lot.” Spike blatantly said to Kotetsu’s amusement

“Good, they made me have to come in here with you and help pony people. I coordinate with Zeko the best, we’ve got too many combination moves to not be a team.” Kotetsu stabbed a Griffin in the shoulder and kicked him against a wall during his explanation as Spike grappled with a stallion.

“I saw that when you fought that skeleton. You both did something with lava.” Spike managed to land his foot in his attacker’s gut and flip him over his head, leaving him flat on the ground gasping for breath. “How did I do that? I never learned how to fight.”

Kotetsu took the time to break the arms of another stallion and save a noble mare in the process before answering Spike’s question. “Zeko probably gave you some basic knowledge on taijutsu, if you wanna get to our level then you need to get out there and fight twenty mercenaries at once.” They saw Rainbow Dash and Applejack holding seven assassins back but they were starting to get cornered.

“We gotta help-“ Spike didn’t finish his sentence since the mares were lifted out of danger by a platform of sand. Zeko and Nouka came through a window on one of Nouka’s birds. Before any words were exchanged the pair was forced to dodge a barrage of arrows and blasts of magic.

“Oh geez!” Nouka exclaimed right as Zeko jumped off of the mount to deal with the ranged attackers, taking an arrow to his shoulder in the process. Zeko hissed in pain but ignored it and created two more chakra rods.

The assassins ran out of arrows to fire and took out daggers to fight with. “He took an arrow, he can’t fight like he should. This our chance to kill him now!” One of the mares of the ranged few exclaimed, they rushed Zeko with vigor but the first stallion was impaled through the chest and propelled into his allies behind him. “Stay strong, the poison’s in his blood! We only need thirty seconds.”

Zeko’s eyes widened and in that moment he made sure that there were no bystanders and outstretched a hand. “Almighty Push!” This variant of his attack was different from the others, instead of a wave of unseen force it was more like a sea of energy charging into its targets, leaving them caved into the wall of the castle. “Shit! Poison isn’t something I’m good with.” He quickly formed the water mosquitos he used on Lachlan and had them drain most of the toxin from his blood but it wasn’t as good a job as a doctor would have done.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack took their chance to run over with Spike who helped them knock their attackers unconscious. “What happened to him?” Rainbow Dash inquired leading Kotetsu to rub his forehead

“He got poisoned...” They all were surprised, even Nouka. “ Well all we can do is get these assassins dealt with now, he already took most of it out.” Zeko stood up and walked over to an assassin embedded in the wall and rested his hand on her head.

“Hmm, they’re after a few political leaders and... Hex wants Celestia herself?” Zeko withdrew his hand and a soul came with it.

“How do they think they can get the Princess? She’s like... the toughest of the tough!” Rainbow Dash pointed out to Applejack’s agreement

“This don’t seem right ta me... an Alicorn ain’t somethin ya should underestimate, least that’s what the legends say.”

“Technically this one guy told us that he had a way to null her magic so technically they could stop her. But that didn’t make sense of why he wants her.” Nouka explained which made Kotetsu think hard about the situation but Zeko decided they should move on to the grand hall before anyone was hurt.

“You girls go and find Fluttershy, she should be in Canterlot’s lower area.” Rainbow Dash nodded and flew away with Applejack. Before a plan could be devised a loud scream broke them off.

“GET AWAY YOU BRUTES!”

Spike’s eyes shot open once he recognized the voice as, “Rarity!” He bolted off with speed to rival the shinobi. He looked back and saw Zeko and Kotetsu running behind him while Nouka rode his bird. The quartet ran into the grand hall and saw four different things: Rarity was behind Blueblood with a Griffin and Stallion approaching, Twilight was holding a barrier against another mare casting a stream of lightning at her, some Wonderbolts were holding back Pegasi attackers but were showing injuries from the skirmish, and Celestia was encased in a sphere of dark magic by a unicorn mare wearing an amulet with a skull on it.

“Dragon!” Kotetsu got Spike’s attention and pointed to Twilight’s attacker. Spike ran to his target and tackled him while Kotetsu ran to save Blueblood and Rarity. “Chidori spear.” Kotetsu Shot a spike of lightning through both assassins which gave Blueblood and Rarity time to get swept up by a cloud of sand along with other nobles who were in the room.

Nouka decided to help the Wonderbolts by creating a series of beetles to land on the backs of the Red Claw members. “Take this, ha!” The Pegasi crashed to the floor to the confusion of the Wonderbolts.

“Hey kid, how’d you do that? They just dropped out of the air.” A mare Wonderbolt took off her goggles revealing an orange and red coloration. “Name’s Spitfire, seriously how’d you do that?”

“Perfect placement of explosives. I infuse the clay with my chakra and then I make it into art...with a bang!” Spitfire was confused until she looked down and saw that the space between the wings of each assassin had a small hole with exposed torn muscle underneath. “Technically they shouldn’t be able to fly again unless they get healed.”

Spitfire gasped once she recognized the damage done and took note of how Nouka was using his bird to fly rather than wings as she would but she couldn’t question him since Zeko decided to bring the attention of all those present, “What the hell?!” By exclaiming his confusion over the axe he took to the shoulder. Before the mountain of a Griffin could finish him he was moved by Twilight’s magic.

“How’d you get hurt? These guys are just grunts.” Kotetsu was showing concern over Zeko’s injury, breaking his typical apathy

“I got that poison out but something’s wrong... I feel slower and less coordinated. Wait a second...smart killers.” The axe came back but it was planted in the floor while a chakra rod ended up in the Griffin’s stomach.

“Urk!” He stumbled back, bumbling into the mare holding Celestia. She turned and picked him up by the neck in her magical grip and snapped his neck to the shock of everyone conscious.

“Damned idiot. As for you all, you’ll be here to witness the fall of Princess Celestia! Once Hex gets ba-“

“I knocked him out and left him in the Garden. What’s the plan here anyway Malum Carmen?” Zeko ignored the wound on his shoulder and stood up with Nouka and Kotetsu.

“Regardless of you knowing my name you’re all going to die here. Hex and I have practiced dark magic for years and now we’re unstoppable.” Malum raised her hand and shot dark orbs into the forms of the dead and unconscious assassins who began to convulse violently. The dead ones simply turned into bone shades but the ones who were still alive lost their eyes and their skin set on fire with a purple flame, the low wailing they emitted let them know they were still alive and being tortured in their current state.

“Heh heh heh... haha ha heh...” A portal opened behind Malum, revealing Hex with a grin adorning his muzzle. “This is where you’ll die and the Princess will be under my control... maybe I’ll be able to celebrate after your deaths.” The look Hex was giving Celestia told a story in its own.

Spike took initiative and fired a green fireball towards the crowd of undead fighters but couldn’t affect the bone shades, however the ones who were living dropped to the floor now surrounded by green flames. The sound of birds chirping filled the air as Kotetsu started a chidori and dashed towards Hex who put up a barrier that caught Kotetsu’s hand. He prepared to taunt the shinobi but his barrier was broken through and Kotetsu’s hand was planted in his stomach. “Thought you had me didn’t ya?” He jumped back to his friends

“These dead things are hard to keep down... how much chakra you guys have left?” Zeko looked at Spike who looked ready to pass out and decided to lift him out with his sand, letting him collapse asleep while he went through the window. “I’d say I’ve used a quarter so far but I’ve still got natural chakra to use.”

“Same here.” Kotetsu said

“Wait how did you guys use so little? I’m more than halfway done!” A tick mark appeared on Kotetsu’s forehead

“Might be because we don’t waste our chakra blowing shit up! And don’t apologize idiot. We need some kind of strategy to-“

A kunai with a paper bomb attached struck a husk in the chest, once it exploded most of the husks were killed immediately, before the bone shades could respond a green blur managed to run by them and strike them where their joints would be and paralyzed them. “You can’t be serious... Jenki?” Zeko saw the figure clad in a jacket with large lavender eyes, seemingly without pupils.

He flashed a grin, “Yeah I’m here, Rei told me what was going on and I wanted to see... but there was a problem with that.” Jenki’s grin slipped away as he looked behind Kotetsu who turned quickly and wound up in a headlock by a girl with dark skin and black hair around his height, wearing a black Hidden Stone ensemble with a red vest.

“Who told ya to go missin for so long? I should kill ya here and now!” Kotetsu froze once he heard the voice, the fact that his air supply was dwindling didn’t faze him as much as the identity of who the girl was.

“S-Shiro?” He prepared to ask how she managed to get to this dimension but remembered why they were in a relationship.

“It doesn’t matter how many of you pests come along you will all die here and you’ll be my new undead slaves.” Hex said cockily while Malum resumed containing Celestia

Shiro let Kotetsu go and walked closer to Hex, with an angered expression. “I hope ya don’t think that I’m gonna just let you go for trying to hurt my boyfriend and his little friends.”

“Making a lot of assumptions.” Kotetsu mumbled but a look from Shiro made him look upwards as if there was something interesting. In that time Hex fired a spell and struck Shiro directly.

“The time you took to threaten me should’ve been used to attack, now that that’s out of the way how will I deal with- WHAT?!”

Shiro was unharmed by the attack but her vest and shirt were torn. “That ruined my shirt...” She pulled out a scroll and released a purple scythe with three separate blades running down the weapon, after she did that the boys took up fighting positions, Nouka with his clay, Jenki in Eight Trigrams fighting style, Kotetsu with his sword and Zeko with five chakra rods scattered along his body. “So I’m gonna tear your monsters in half then pound ya into the ground.”

Shiro rushed to a bone shade and slammed her scythe onto it, tearing straight through its armor and leaving it as a pile of bones on the floor. Kotetsu and Zeko teamed up and impaled a bone shade in its arms and legs. “If we can damage the bones enough-“ Zeko laced his arm with lightning

“Maybe these damn things won’t keep getting back up.” Kotetsu had a chidori in his hand and thrust it forward next to Zeko’s arm. “Chidori!”

“Lateral bolt thrust!” They stabbed into the shade’s chest, tore through its armor and obliterated its rib cage, collapsing it with no sign of getting back up. “So for the first time in years the solution is just hit harder together.” Zeko started a barrage against another shade which had trouble predicting his movements since he was using several blades to fight with. “Come on, don’t tell me you can’t handle a teenager?” He walked on his hands and stabbed through the joints of the armor with his sandals holding blades, effectively removing armor from the shade which was dealt with in the same manner as the one from before.

Nouka and Jenki were paralyzing the remaining husks with precise strikes to their major points of movement. With small explosions to their knees and shoulders or by cutting off the flow of their malicious energy through their bodies by striking certain spots on their forms. “These things aren’t that tough, but they do start moving again.”

“I know, they’re close to being dead but aren’t dead, it’s so weird.” He took down a few more husks and blew off a shade’s leg until Malum noticed what was going on and began an incantation with Hex. They cut their palms and put blood on their arms and began to chant in an unknown language. Luckily enough at this point the nobles and other partygoers were evacuated so they would need to witness this dark act.

“Hey! Whaddya think you’re doin?!” Shiro tried to run up to them but was pulled back by Zeko using universal pull. She was about to protest but when they saw a bug go near the pair it was disintegrated by an unseen barrier. Once they finished their incantation a dark circle appeared on the floor and sucked the shades, their bones, the husks, and the beaten husks into it. It began to glow an eerie purple before turning to a pillar and allowing a massive monster to step out wearing bone armor with pure darkness serving as a head and wielding an enormous axe.

Hex and Malum were visibly worn from their spell but they were smiling. “This will be your undoing. A fighter for death itself!” Hex caught Malum who nearly passed out from her exposition. The mountainous figure raised a hand and shot a focused beam towards the shinobi who substituted and left either logs, spiders, clay or sand which were turned to black sludge by the attack.

“Top priority is to not be hit by whatever that was, but then we need to focus on taking this thing down in the best way possible, this is going to be fun!” Zeko exclaimed, blood pumping in anticipation and the others agreed because they were all preparing for the upcoming fight.

=======

Author's Note

The second part of this three parter. Jenki and Shiro are also apart of the team, Jenki does have the Byakugan and Shiro... is something else.

The final part comes as soon as I can make it... and the I hope the fight is up to par

See you next time

Arc 5 Chapter 6: The Gala (Finale)

(Red Claw Hideout)

Mistress Culina was standing in front of a crystal wall that was displaying the events at the Gala while her underlings cheered at Hex and Malum’s efforts. “This is the power of our family! We may have lost some to this menace and he might have hurt our elite member but the experts in dark magic won’t fail!” Another raucous cry was given by the crowd, save for a few members.

An Earth stallion was seated with an expression of doubt next to his closer friends who shared his thoughts. “All the time Pod spent tailing him and every piece of information I saw just showed how tough that kid really is.” One of the clean up mares was present and seemed to agree with the stallion.

“I’ve seen what they can do with that blood magic stuff but seeing what he did to Dusk and Daybreak... not to mention Mist and...” The mare locked up once she started to talk about who fell to Zeko when they tried to take care of him then.

The stallion looked around somberly at the members who took the summoning of the massive undead being as a turning point in the fight and they voiced their pleasure with loud screams. The fight showed the large figure nearly taking Nouka’s head off but he was taken out of danger by Jenki. Before it could attempt to kill the pair it was hit by an air bullet from Zeko and Shiro’s scythe landing in its back, but when the crowd thought the fight was done it turned and bashed Shiro into a wall with the pommel of its axe eliciting another cry from the seated assassins. “They May have numbers but the sheer power of the Harbinger will not be met by mere children, rejoice when we see what the power of the Red Claw has to offer!” The crowd went wild at this last statement prompting them to focus on the battle and witness the strength of their unit.

==============================

Kotetsu tore Shiro’s scythe from the Harbinger’s back and leapt back before he could be chopped in half. “Nouka!” The clay user looked and saw the crack in the armor and tossed a bird straight at it. “Fire Style: Phoenix flower jutsu!” Kotetsu shot a number of flaming projectiles that met the explosive projectile and blasted a hole into their enemies’ armor, exposing a shadowy aura.

“At least we know it isn’t indestructible.” Zeko said as he and Jenki stopped the Harbinger’s movement by stabbing chakra rods into its joints, where they figured the armor was weaker. They were right and they managed to stop the hulking monster from moving at the moment.

“Let’s do it!” Jenki’s eyes pulsed and veins routed towards them from his cheeks pulsing additional blood and giving him a more menacing appearance. “ Eight Trigrams: Sixteen Palms!” Jenki proceeded to strike his opponent with lighting fast hits and knock it a distance away. “That stuff is harder than a rock, my hands kinda hurt now.” Jenki moved to evade a beam from the Harbinger, stumbling over a sword in the process. Luckily before the beam managed to come to him he was moved by sand and placed next to Kotetsu.

“You uh, you aren’t trying to die are you? I can handle that later if you want but seriously don’t die yet.” He shot another fireball at the downed monster and earned more laughter from Hex

“Struggle all you want but you can’t win, soon we’ll have the power of an Alicorn... and I’ll have the body.” The shinobi rolled their eyes and continued assaulting their downed enemy with throwing weapons until a burst of dark magic pushed them all backwards.

The Dōjutsu users saw the energy points that the Harbinger had repaired as it ripped out the chakra rods but their shock only increased when it proceeded to regenerate its armor, looking as if it were never hit. “Aw come on, ya can’t be serious! All that work to kill it and it healed?” Shiro exclaimed to Malum’s delight, cracking a smirk when she heard the anger present.

“How long will it take before your resolve is broken? Will it happen before or after your bod-“

“Kamui!” Malum’s legs were torn away violently and sucked into the kamui leaving her screaming in agony on the floor, allowing the barrier around Celestia to weaken significantly. Eyes weren’t on Kotetsu for having used his ability however, instead everyone looked at Shiro. “I was gettin really sick of your attitude and that was the fastest way to shut you up.” Her hair parted and revealed her right eye to be a Sharingan matching with Kotetsu’s.

“You gonna try that on the grim reaper imitation in front of us?” Jenki pointed out to Shiro and Kotetsu’s surprise but before either of them could try to transport their foe away it decided to change its weapon from an axe to a bow with arrows made from darkness.

It fired one at Zeko who stood there experiencing deja vu from his fight against Kanek. “Too damn soon but I can handle this.” The arrow struck his location and formed a bubble of a dark, viscous fluid.

“I’ll save you Zeko! C-True lion!” A large clay lion ran to the sphere and blew up upon making contact, unfortunately the orb only vibrated heavily like gel and didn’t show any sign of damage. Once the movement stopped Hex cracked a grin at the fact that Zeko was caught in the attack.

“He’s never getting out of that! That’s malicious slime and it’s unbreakable, once you get trapped you’ll die from suffocation.” Hex tended to his sister during his explanation, somehow not losing the same drive he had from the beginning. “You were fools to think that you could stand against blood magic and now you’ll see how outmatched you tru-“

“Guillotine Drop!” Zeko’s heel slammed into the Harbinger’s shadowy head letting an audible crack reverberate through the room once his foot met the collar of its chest plate. “So It doesn’t have a head...” He sidestepped to barely avoid a swing from the bow, he laid a hand on its abdomen. “Almighty Push!” The massive undead careened through the air and crashed through a wall of the castle, ending up in the training yard. “Less property damage...” He gazed at the room they’ve been in and noted the broken windows, decayed parts of the floor, and blackened spots indicating explosions. “Starting now, follow it!” Zeko jumped out through the hole in the wall with Kotetsu, Jenki, Shiro, and Nouka following. They regrouped in the yard and saw the Harbinger being held by large bones sprouting from the ground like a demented garden.

“So it did that to break its fall. This thing’s really cool!” Once their enemy was up and once again repaired itself it raised a hand and teleported its summoners to its location. Malum was barely conscious from her wounds and Hex was closing off her severed limbs. Zeko and Jenki both noticed the decrease in energy that their enemy had with those two being close by and smirked.

“Jenki! It’s time for ‘that one’ get ready.” Zeko sent a wave of sand to his friend who jumped on and rode towards the incapacitated assassins.

“ Eight Trigrams rapid air palms!” Jenki pushed his hands through the sand and sent out bullets of wind and sand, Hex put up a barrier but it was torn through as easily as paper letting him be struck and was knocked away and gasping for air. “We were right, that thing gets weaker when he gets further away.” The others saw how the Harbinger’s eyes lost some of their glow and was more sluggish when it fired an arrow, resulting in a bush being encompassed by the same fluid from before.

Zeko managed to summon Samehada while this was happening and pulled Jenki back so he wasn’t in danger. “Ok this is the best time to take this thing down, team k.h.u.o taijutsu formation A!” Zeko, Jenki, Kotetsu and Shiro rushed forward leaving Nouka to grab clay in preparation.

“Alrig- Wait... I’m not in that.” The clay user didn’t hear his initial and was dejected at not being able to take part in the attack.

“Ya know I like this one but you ain’t the boss of me Zeko!” Shiro started off with a violent slash to the Harbinger’s chest, making it stumble and leaving a large cut in its armor. She moved and let Jenki start his attack but their foe changed its weapon to an axe again and swung at Jenki.

“Perfect timing, Eight Trigrams 32 palms!” Once the axe nearly chopped into the green haired teen he struck his attacker’s wrist and knocked the weapon away, he then unleashed a rapid barrage of strikes to the weakened armor expanding the chink in the armor and leaving the dark being wide open.

Zeko ran up and slashed with Samehada, colliding with the forearm of the massive being. “So you decided to use your hands to fight? You’re a lot stronger than you look.” Zeko struggled against the strength of his enemy and didn’t its other arm until it grabbed him making him drop Samehada and it began to crush him. “That’s not good!” Zeko tried his hardest to break the hold he was in but was outmatched physically.

“Ugh, do I gotta do everything?” Shiro started to cleave into the Harbinger’s arms and got through the armor entirely revealing shadowy arms. Once Shiro tried to cut them off she nearly ended up hacking into Zeko. She pulled back once she realized her mistake and near crippling of her teammate.

“The hell?!” Kotetsu exclaimed then tried to use a chidori spear but didn’t effect the undead’s limb. “We can’t hit it! It’s like a spirit or something, we can’t touch it but it can touch us.” Zeko’s veins were starting to pulse and his eyes started to bleed but the fight didn’t leave his body. “Shiro, kamui!” The pair ran behind the undead and separated it’s torso from its legs with their technique, sending half of its body into their dimension. Zeko and the Harbinger fell to the ground, but Zeko was able to get up and walk over to his friends while their enemy struggled to get up.

“Ok that didn’t go as planned *cough* but we still won in the end.” He spoke with a hoarse voice but managed to breathe properly.

“NO!” The Harbinger was teleported to Hex and Malum, the latter being conscious again. “Don’t you dare think that this is over, we’ll come back and next time we- Urgh!” Hex and Malum were grabbed by the throat not by any of the shinobi but the Harbinger itself. “Urk! What are you- Ack!”

The Harbinger’s eyes began to glow red before it spoke with an echo, “Must...live... must...be free...” With those words a red energy ran from Malum and Hex and flowed into the Harbinger, giving it a physical form resembling a demonic stallion with a jagged horn. The shinobi noticed that as the Harbinger changed in appearance and power, Hex and Malum got thinner, grayer, and looked like skeletons with skin until they turned to dust at the hands of their own creation.

A universal pull reunited Zeko with Samehada and the team took fighting stances again. “I can’t be the only one who thinks this thing’s awesome.” Jenki broke the serious mood making Kotetsu throw a rock at him. But chills ran down their spines once they heard an ominous voice,

“I’m more than that now.” Their for now spoke but in a deeper, more intimidating voice. They saw that its armor was no longer beige but was pitch black and it now used a sword and massive shield, which were black. “Those two used power they knew nothing and subjugated me but now I-“ Kotetsu sent a fireball at their enemy who blocked it with the large shield without putting in much effort.

“Don’t care about any of that, we’re killing you now.” Kotetsu burst forward and tried to chop their demonic foe’s head off but met his shield instead. He decided to stop any notions of being unbeatable by channeling lightning into his blade and slowly forcing his way into the shield.

“Very interesting. You can strengthen your blade with magic.” Kotetsu was bashed by the shield and left with a gash on his crown. “You’re very powerful but from what I’ve seen you don’t have the power to beat me.” He charged a spell with his horn and shot a massive beam towards Kotetsu who didn’t get up in time. “If you’re only that durable then none of you will be able to-“ An explosion to the face interrupted their gloating enemy, courtesy of Nouka. When the dust cleared Kotetsu was behind Shiro and Zeko who was using lightning chakra mode. “You all must enjoy interrupting, but the game ends here... you will die here.” Kotetsu and Zeko rushed forward, Zeko using Samehada to collide with the sword while Kotetsu cut into the shield and nearly broke through but repulsion spell stopped his progress, luckily he was pulled back by sand and continued his assault. The cousins kept up their teamwork, keeping the sword away while one tried to penetrate their enemies’ defense.

“Alright Nouka now!” The duo jumped aside to let a clay dragon collide with the shield and detonate, blasting it to shards. The Harbinger stood still for a few seconds before vanishing and appearing behind Nouka with its sword raised.

“Your range makes you a threat.” He stabbed Nouka through the gut and raised him to his face, only to get another explosion. “There’s a theme here, you all evade my attacks and try to kill me but I am deathless and you are not, once you begin to make mistakes you’ll die.” He raised a hand and began to create a new weapon but it was chopped off by Shiro’s scythe.

She landed behind the demonic being and turned back with a scowl. “There’s no dealin with guys like you ya know. When we beat ya don’t cry since I’m gonna laugh at ya.” The hand grew back, giving Zeko an idea.

He tossed an explosive kunai as a diversion since he saw the Harbinger’s instant movement, and once there was a covering of dust he produced four chakra rods and tossed them to his allies. “You’ll know when to use them, team k.h.u.o.y killing move! Sage art: Magnet release rasengan!” Zeko made a rasengan covered in black seals and rammed it into the Harbinger’s stomach. The monster tried to counter Kotetsu but found that it couldn’t move leading to its forearm being cut off by a chidori blade and its sword being dropped.

“There’s my part, you’re up idiots.” Kotetsu jumped off and let Nouka create clay spiders and hand off them to Jenki.

“Eight Trigrams explosive points!” Jenki planted the spiders at various weak spots on the Harbinger’s shoulders, thighs and back and pushed him ten feet back with a palm to the gut.

“Now the explosion.” Nouka detonated the spiders and created large fractures in the armor. “Hey Zeko. What am I supposed to do with this?”

“Just follow their lead.” He passed Nouka and performed a lariat from behind their weakened quarry and sent him into the air, he started to fall back down which was Zeko’s signal. “NOW!” Shiro, Jenki and Kotetsu jumped and impaled the Harbinger in the thighs and shoulder once he hit the ground, Nouka pierced the remaining shoulder once he caught on. Zeko used the flying Raijin to appear and stab their enemy in the neck.

“It seems that I miscalculated my odds ever so slightly.” The Harbinger struggled to break free but its mana was being disrupted by Zeko’s chakra, rendering it immobile. “I can tell that I’ve lost this time but should we meet again the results will be different.” A dark purple portal opened beneath him and allowed him to turn into a mist and enter it, leaving his armor behind.

“You lost because our team-“ Zeko started

“Is the strongest there is!” They said in perfect unison as the portal closed, leaving them in the training yard.

After looking around and gazing at the armor for a few seconds Kotetsu decided to voice his opinion on what happened. “So does this count as us fighting death?” Zeko pondered the question while Jenki looked around in awe at the damage.

“Well technically he never said he was a grim reaper, he just said he couldn’t die.” Nouka responded

“My question is if these guys aren’t even the bosses and managed to summon that... how strong is the leader?”

==============================

The crowd was silent at the defeat of the Harbinger and the deaths of Malum and Hex to the point where none could speak and Mistress Culina hadn’t said a word in minutes. The stallion decided to whisper to the mare next to him. “I told you that he would find a way to win, he might be a relative of an Alicorn if he’s that strong.”

“When’s the last time you’ve heard of a male Alicorn? But that wouldn’t matter anyway. Mistress Culina might not be showing it but I can tell that nopony’s ever made her this angry before.” The mare looked and saw the expression of hidden fury on their leader, something she used as to not frighten her underlings but by looking hard enough one could see the anger present.

“Well this has been a nice gathering but this mishap has caused a minor setback.” Culina was lying through her teeth with that statement. “If I ever get a chance I’ll kill that kid slowly for making them doubt me!” She managed a calm facade but was screaming internally. “I must ask that you all depart and carry on with contracts as necessary... I’ll be sure to contact everypony when something like this is to happen again. Reluctantly, those in their seats got up and walked towards the exits, murmuring on the possibility of failing in being able to beat their grand target.

Author's Note

This was a masterpiece in my opinion, not sure if I’m being overly prideful or if my work here was that good or not. Don’t worry there’s an epilogue for those unanswered questions and don’t be afraid to tell me what you thought about this three parter.

Until next time

Arc 5 Chapter 6.5: The Gala (Epilogue)

A world with all ponykind being happy and content with their lives with Zeko as a defender of the Equestria. He only used violence when there weren’t alternatives and even started a family a few years ago. This had been the dream Celestia was trapped in until she collided with the floor. “Oof! What happened?! Where’s Twilight?!” The solar princess looked around and only saw that the grand hall was a mess but Shining Armor came to her side once he heard her awaken.

“Princess! Are you ok?” Shining knelt down to help Celestia who was looking around in panic, her white gown torn in some places. “Calm down, everypony who was here got away, Zeko and his pals helped clear out those mercenaries.”

Celestia looked around and saw the rest of her royal guard picking up the mostly unconscious assassins although some weren’t giving off any signs of life but she figured that the ones who did it had a reason. “Then where are they? Did they catch the pony who did this?”

The five shinobi dropped down and landed a distance in front of Celestia and Shining Armor, with Zeko walking forward. “It’s more along the lines that he killed himself trying to kill us and capture you.”

“Why would he want to capture me?”

“He said something about Alicorn magic and I think it was supposed to complete something. He also said he wanted you in particular.”

Celestia was confused at this, considering that Luna was an option as well. “Why did he need me?”

Shiro decided to voice her mind, “Cause ya got big tits. He wanted to have em to himself.” Everypony in the room blushed while the humans looked at Shiro accusingly. “What?”

“These guys aren’t as crude as us, they’re really childish and pretty immature... kind of like Nouka.” The shinobi in question was playing with one of his birds and payed no mind to the hidden insult.

“That aside, was everypony responsible for this attack detained?” Celestia received nods from the five shinobi but came to the realization that there were five of them. “Wait a moment, who are these other two?”

“I’m Jenki!” The Byakugan user moved so quickly to greet Celestia that her nearby guards dropped the unconscious assassins and reflexively put gilded spears to his back. Before Jenki could turn to respond the spears were chopped with a near perfect slice.

“Only one who gets to kill these boys is me ya hear?” Shiro brandished her violet weapon and made the guards step back in fear. “Name’s Oburona Shiro, I’m Kotetsu’s girl.” This was emphasized by Shiro wrapping her arms around Kotetsu and squeezing him to the point where he reached for Zeko to help but his friends only stepped back since they didn’t want to be in between them.

“Well miss Obrona...” Celestia butchered the name as she got up but Shiro didn’t seem to notice, “How were you and Jenki able to get here? I’m asking because I remember Zeko saying his cousin had the only way to transport between worlds.”

Shiro’s response was to let go of Kotetsu then part her hair and reveal the gift Kotetsu gave her while he activated his and made the two eyes spin simultaneously. “She has my other eye, I gave it to her years ago so she could keep up with me.”

“So you can give anypony that eye thing that you have Zeko? If so then I’ll be able to-“

“No! It’s mine to keep until I die.” Zeko broke Shining Armor off Before he could propose an idea and didn’t leave room for further conversation until Celestia spoke up.

“Well then how has your herd been coming along? I’ve seen you walking around with Zecora and that Celona, so how are they doing?” Zeko was purely confused at the questions and stood motionless until he recalled what little information he knew about herds.

“Oh... I’m not making a harem. Yeah I guess Celona’s attractive and Zecora has a charm to her, not forgetting that Mist has an amazing attitude... I lost my train of thought.”

Kotetsu put a hand on Zeko’s shoulder and reminded him what he was talking about, “You were saying how you weren’t gonna fuck any kind of girl, human or otherwise.” In the most crass way possible which lead him to be put in a headlock by his girlfriend.

“That’s kind of the point, since I’m a human it’s pretty weird.” Zeko turned and looked at the mosaic glass, Rinnegan still active.

“Inter species relationships aren’t uncommon and I think you could at least try since I was made aware by Twilight that you lack knowledge in relationships and your cousin implied that you’re... inexperienced.” Shiro’s grip on Kotetsu tightened until he decided to Kamui away.

Shiro clenched a fist in anger and a tick mark appeared on her forehead, “Damn it! That idiot always has to be embarrassin when it ain’t funny!” Jenki and Nouka stepped back as to not incur any more anger from Shiro but when they did so they turned and saw a quickly approaching figure who managed to grab Shiro from behind.

“Ok everypony calm down and she gets to live! I’m not getting caught and put in a prison, I’m gonna walk out of here and if I see any guards she dies!” The panicking stallion started to slowly back away while holding a dagger to Shiro’s neck but was confused when Zeko started to form a rasen-shuriken. “Hey! I told you I’ll kill her!” Shiro quickly elbowed her “captor” in the gut and moved to kamui him right as Zeko threw his attack, when the attacks clashed a rift appeared and swallowed the wind style move and the stallion without a trace.

“Pathetic. Whatever, we’re done here Zeko.” Shiro grabbed Nouka and Jenki and used her kamui to send them back with a waving Nouka being the last thing he saw.

The remaining guards were awestruck but resumed in collecting the unconscious attackers while Zeko formed a platform of sand. “This was a fun night but I gotta go check up on the others.” He went out the window with Shining Armor being the last one to say anything to Celestia before she walked away

“Maybe he could be our fighter for the tournament? He’s got the skill for it.” He rubbed the back of his neck and brushed against his scar from his quarrel with the shinobi in question.

==============================

The Mane six, Spike, and some partygoers were at a doughnut shop enjoying themselves and talking about their respective nights until Spike voiced in. “Well I got to learn something cool from Zeko! Maybe he’ll start to train me! Another one with sprinkles Pony Joe.” Spike waved to the shop owner who went back to make the pastry

“I would not count on that Spike, I’ve never trained anybody and I can’t say you’d get to walk away.” Zeko was greeted and pulled into a group hug with random thanks from the Mane six and some guests from the party for saving them. “Ok thanks but let’s not hug, I’m still not that big on excessive contact.”

“How’d you manage to beat all those guys? And is your arm better from that pois- What happened?” Rainbow Dash pointed the Zeko’s shoulder which was still healing from the axe he’d taken earlier. He chuckled in response to the question and sat down at a table with a doughnut somehow winding up in his hand.

“Well as soon as I got you guys clear...” Zeko went on to tell about the wound he had, the arrival of Shiro and Jenki and the fight against the Harbinger... then its recovery and transformation into a demonic entity. Spike was interested the most while Twilight looked on in awe at the description of the enemy.

“What you had to fight... it sounds like something I read about.” The attention was on Twilight to the point where even Pony Joe was intrigued

“Was it dangerous? In the sense of total extinction or could just bring down countries?” Twilight shook her head, knowing that she’d have to reread multiple books to find out more on the creature. “That’s kind of disappointing but I guess that it’ll come back since they always do.” He finished with a bite of his snack and was surprised at the taste being better than he expected, Pony Joe was displeased at Zeko’s actions since he didn’t pay for the doughnut yet but before he could object a bag of bits was tossed to the counter with an audible clinking. “Keep the change, and Spike follow me.”

“Is it time for me to train?!” The drake asked, brimming with excitement but it was diminished by Zeko’s lack of a response. The pair walked outside with the party guests following to see what was going on.

“We need to keep my cousin’s promise so shoot a fireball into the sky.” Zeko started forming a rasen-shuriken with the aid of a shadow clone but was straining while he did it. “This is a new level of pain.” Zeko thought as the blades of his move formed and a green fireball shot into the sky

“What’s he doing?” Applejack asked right as the wind style move was thrown at a curve and went to intercept the ball of emerald flame until it collided and produced a burst of energy that filled the night sky with green.

While the concert of flame continued to erupt Zeko turned back to the Mane six and Spike and walked back into the doughnut shop. “So you plan on writing this up as your best Gala yet?”

“Wait this was our only Gala.” Spike pointed out which made Zeko enter the building and uttering a simple,

“Exactly, that’s why it’s the best.”

=======

Author's Note

Nothing to say this time, see you next chapter

Arc 5 Finale: Heated interlude

(Ponyville)
(The next day)

If it weren’t for my knowledge in potions your arm would never again be in motion. The salve will speed up the process of healing but the wounds will need concealing.

The memory of Zecora’s words played in Zeko’s head as he walked around the town. “Should’ve known better than to use that many rasen-shurikens in one day.” Zeko glanced at his right arm which was clad in bandages. He remembered the initial pain from Kanek and his further overexertion during the fight at the Gala, and after thinking on it he figured he was due the temporary loss of his arm. “Good thing I’m ambidextrous with Samehada otherwise I’d be in trouble.” He held his weapon in his left arm before putting it on his back but he was stopped in his path once he saw a horde of stallions appear and run his way towards the train station.

One with a brown coat and dark mane decided to stop and talk to him. “Kid I know we haven’t always been nice to you but you should probably get out of here!”

“Is there an invasion or something? Should I go fight?” The stallion shook his head and looked at Zeko’s arm with a concerned expression. “And where did you guys all come from? I’ve never seen this many stallions in one place.”

“We tend to the house while the mares work- Just listen! The mares are in heat and we’d be doing something about it but for the last few years there’ve been guard’s going on leave to come here and the last time they threatened to- Oh no... they’re here!” The stallion pointed upwards and ran off to catch the train, when Zeko turned he saw six bulky figures flying down with other figures in their grasp.

“Ok this is going to be eventful.” Zeko continued walking through the town looking for a stand to purchase from not caring about what he was just told... yet.

==============================

“It’s strange that everypony here has the choice to wear clothes, in my village we had to be dressed.” Celona spoke with a cup of tea in hand, periodically sipping from it

“Well yes it’s optional for the most part we still have to wear something in an establishment like this.” Rarity said as she looked around at the cafe that she, Celona and Fluttershy were in but returned her gaze to her younger friend. “Now I need gossip, what’s been going on with you and Zeko?” The question made Celona choke for a second but she composed herself quickly. “Don’t try to deny anything because heat season just started, you’ve had something for him since you met him didn’t you?”

Celona blushed while Fluttershy worked up the courage to speak. “U-Um it’s ok if you don’t want to talk about it.”

Celona sighed and caved in, “No she’s right, the way he saved my moms and me, then helped me deal with not liking mares... I just fell into it but it’s not a-“ The door to the cafe was pushed open aggressively and four stallions stepped in.

“Hello everypony, your dreams have come true because we’re here!” The apparent leader announced as they dispersed to talk to the mares in the cafe while the sole stallion barista went behind the counter after a He got a glare from the leader.

“Oh no, they’re back.” Fluttershy managed before drinking her coffee quickly while Celona looked confused.

“Who are they?” The teenager questioned

“These ruffians are members of Equestria’s forces and every year during the heat season they go on leave to come here because there’s so many more mares.” Rarity huffed as she tried to finish her drink and go.

“Well well what have I got here?” The leader announced which made Rarity sigh in frustration while Fluttershy looked away. “A high class fashionista, a shy girl with a huge rack, and a hot blooded fighter from the look of it.” He walked behind each one as he described them then sat in a chair he pulled up. “Why don’t I buy you three some drinks?”

“W-Well we need to go meet our friends somewhere.” The stallion put a hand on Fluttershy’s shoulder, gently but with a firmness behind it.

“You can spare a few minutes to know me.” He smiled cockily but Celona decided to jump in.

“Let go of her now or else...” She stood up and only met the stallion’s chest in height but she still carried an intimidating aura. “I won’t repeat myself.”

“Listen little filly I can tell this is probably your first heat so you’re a little overwhelmed but trust me we can help you all wi- AH!” In a swift motion Celona grabbed his wrist and took his hand away from Fluttershy then pushed him into another table, making him trip over it and get the attention of his friends who stopped their conversations and came to help him up. The other patrons and baristas watched the stallion get up infuriated by his stumbling.

“Turn around and leave before this gets any worse.” She took up a stance with her hands like claws

The lead stallion smiled and shook his head. “I like it when they got spirit, makes it fun to turn you into a mare hungry for stallions... maybe this’ll be better than last year. You two get her!” The Pegasi stallions moved and went to grab Celona but failed, once one got close she managed to land a hit to his jaw and made him recoil. The other threw a jab but his arm was grabbed leading to him being thrown over Celona’s shoulder in one move.

“He was heavier than I thought! Thanks for teaching me that move Zeko.” The first stallion was back and rushed Celona and let a barrage of jabs free. Celona didn’t have enough training to respond so all she could do was put her arms up and protect her face.

“Come on girl, there’s no way you can beat a stallion.” Once her attacker said that all Celona saw was red, she dropped her guard and caught his fist then punched him in the stomach and kicked him into a wall where a painting fell and knocked him out.

The one she threw was up and he looked angry while the other stood next to him, analyzing the Amazon survivor. The enraged one ran with a fist cocked back, he threw his punch but she sidestepped and pulled off a roundhouse kick to his back sending him to the floor. “You bother everymare in this town? You couldn’t bully a rabbit much less a full grown mare.” She decided to go to her enemy and attempt to knee him in the face but he caught it and punched her in the face, she managed to dodge his next one but her vision was blurry from the hit to the head.

Upon seeing the dazed Celona, Fluttershy threw her cup at the stallion who was about to hit Celona again. “Ow, who did that?!” He looked and saw the timid mare acting out of character but that changed once he started to approach. “I can smell your scent and it got stronger when I looked at you that way... so you’re into this type- Ack!” Celona bashed into his side, knocking him off balance but before she could follow up she was put into a full nelson.

“I’m back up, and it looks like you’re in a tough spot.” She kicked and tried to headbutt him but she couldn’t reach.

Once she opened her eyes she was met with the lead stallion. “Remember me?” He punched her in the stomach

“AGH!” Spit came from her mouth, and the breath was taken from her but her reprieve was short because he threw another punch which made her head drop, earning a hard slap from him. He grabbed her jaw and spoke to her

“Don’t pass out on me! If you can’t take this then a round with me will kill you so I’d toughen up or-“ The doors bursted open again to reveal Zeko with an active Rinnegan and a look of neutrality on his face, his arm still in a sling and Samehada on his back. “I thought I said the only stallions that get to be here for this week were us? If you don’t wanna get hurt like her I’d recommend you leave.”

Zeko’s face didn’t change in the slightest, if anything he looked less bothered than before. “If you pick up your unconscious friend and leave I might not hurt you today.”

The sole unicorn stallion decided to take a step forward. “How about I come over there and break your jaw?! In case you didn’t see you aren’t in any shape to make threats, much less the size.” A vein pulsed on his forehead in anger at the child who was interrupting their version of fun.

Zeko decided to produce a chakra rod about the size of a finger as response. “You’re a unicorn, how about a magic trick?” He stabbed the rod into a table. “If you come over here I’ll show you how to make this disappear.” The stallion walked forward and threw a punch but Zeko deflected the oncoming fist and put his hand behind the stallion’s head and slammed him onto the rod... pushing it into his eye.

“AAGH SWEET CELESTIA THAT HURTS!” The unicorn screamed and wailed on the floor in pain, going so far as to roll in pain but he started to twitch and convulse until he stopped moving entirely.

Rarity and Fluttershy saw the display and were speechless. “D-Did h-he just?” The yellow Pegasus squeaked

“I... I don’t know...”

“Look at that, vanished without a trace...” Zeko walked closer and put the other stallions on guard

“Hehe... haha.” Celona laughed weakly to the concern of the lead stallion

“What’s so funny? That was a fluke so don’t think this changes anything!” There was a hint of fear in his voice and it was only worsened when Celona managed to look up and smile with her canines showing

“You’re gonna die the worst way possible...” He stepped back in fear but shook it off and punched her again, his comrade dropped her and they stood facing Zeko.

“Look you gouged our friend’s eye out so now you’re gonna-“

“She’s right you know. You’re going to die and even then you won’t be dead.” Zeko interrupted to the displeasure of the pegasi

The leader looked to his friend and the two threw a table at Zeko who caught it but it was only a diversion as two fists crashed through it and knocked him into a wall. “We did it...? I mean- Yeah we did it, he was some weird child in over his head and we’re trained soldiers.”

His friend agreed and expressed it by looking around. “So where did those mares go? And our friends...? Where’d everypony go?” They looked around and saw that the cafe was barren with chairs being stacked on tables. “What happened to this place?!”

“I don’t know! Try the door!” The pair ran to the door but found it sealed shut, no matter how hard they bashed into it it wouldn’t budge. “What the buck is going on?” The two continued their assault on the door and even tried to break the windows but the chairs they threw only bounced off like rubber toys, leaving them trapped in futility...

===================================

“It’s the same as any other year really, I just hope those bozos don’t show up.” A rainbow haired Pegasus said as she flew around her ground bound friends.

“Who are you talking about?” Twilight questioned

“Oh right this is yer first year here. Ya see every year this group of miscreants comes around and try to pick up mares in heat, they even chase off all the stallions.”

“How are you ladies doing?”

“Oh great.” Rainbow Dash said with a roll of his eyes. “We’re not interested pal, you guys can trick mares all you want but it’s a dirty move.”

The Stallion was taken back by this. “Ok look we got off on the wrong hoof. I’m Cloud Jumper and yeah I’m part of the squad that comes here but me and my friends aren’t as bad as the lieutenant and his crew. We’re just single and ready to mingle, but they want to prey on mares.”

“How can we trust ya? I seen one of ya trying to convince Applebloom last year!” The stallion shook his head at Applejack’s words

“That sounds like the lieutenant. He’s a total creep and he doesn’t even care about age differences. Ok I know you probably don’t trust me but I’ll try and tell my friends to be less aggressive.”

“And what about making the stallions leave?”

The stallion looked around before sighing, “That’s not my call as much as the lieutenant’s. He threatened the stallions so you have to take it up with him.”

“Maybe we can get Zeko to-“ Rainbow Dash started but a figure ran up and started to hit Cloud Jumper

“HOW DARE YOU?!” Rarity screamed as she struck Cloud Jumper with balled up fists before being pulled back by sand by Zeko who was holding Celona bridal style with his only functioning arm. “Why are you bringing me back? He-“

“Didn’t do anything that I know about...” Zeko interjected, once Twilight looked at him she ran over to see him closer.

“What happened to your eye? It’s different.” She examined and brought out a notepad to write what she was seeing.

“If it’s my two tomoe don’t be scared, they pop up when I get angry enough.”

“Then why are there three of those marks?” Twilight said to Zeko’s shock. Rarity handed him a mirror and he saw that the ring closest to his pupil had three comma like marks instead of the two he’d seen before.

“That’s something new...”

“Hey, aren’t you that colt from another world? This is amazing! I never thought I’d get to meet you, I’m Cloud Jumper.” He extended a hand but realized Zeko couldn’t shake it. “Uh sorry I forgot you’ve got your... what happened to her?!”

Zeko examined Celona and continued healing her injuries with his hand. “This was because of your group or those four specifically. The leader was a tall brown guy with-“

“A silver mane, that’s the lieutenant alright, where is he anyway? After seeing this I can report him to our Captain since there’s evidence of what happened.”

Zeko smirked slightly and looked to his left before thinking on his response. “You might just want to declare him missing in action.”

“Did someone say torture?” Kotetsu said, appearing from his dimensional rift to the shock of Cloud Jumper. “Or at least imply it?”

“That’s not what anypony-“ Rainbow started

“Body.” Kotetsu interrupted

“Whatever, that’s not what got said.”

During the back and forth between Zeko and Kotetsu, Cloud Jumper looked at Zeko with curiosity at why he said declare his squadmates missing. “Hey what did you do to Lieutenant Bolt?”

Zeko didn’t answer and instead looked at Celona who started to move around in his grip, she started to mumble and coughed a few times before slowly opening her eyes. “What...happened?” Celona looked around and saw some familiar faces and she looked up and immediately wrapped her arms around Zeko. At this point she was standing up. “Zeko! If you didn’t show up when you did!” She planted a kiss on Zeko’s cheek to the surprise of all those present and held it for what felt like hours but was only a few seconds until she pulled back and continued hugging him.

Kotetsu decided to slap Zeko’s back and smile, “Going back on what you said last night?” The glare he got made him back down

“I was beyond angry when I walked in and you’re shrugging off what happened like it wasn’t anything...” Celona looked sad until Zeko smiled and pat her arm. “I guess you’re learning something from me.”

Celona smiled and kept hugging Zeko but she felt like she’d forgotten something important... something she should be concerned about. “Hey Kotetsu, you mind coming with me somewhere? I think you’d be perfect for what I’m up to.” The Sharingan wielder nodded in response while Celona continued to hold onto her three time savior.

===================================

Moderately graphic Gore ahead. You’ve been warned

“My... my head... where am I?” Lieutenant Silver Bolt asked himself as he opened his eyes. Upon opening them he saw that he was on a reddish-grey platform in a hexagonal shape. “What in Celestia’s name? Ow!” He clutched his head again when pain shot through it making him close his eyes again. He tried to leave the platform but couldn’t move, his legs weren’t responding to him. “What? Somepony! Help me! What the?!” He looked up and saw a landscape with purple earth and deep red flames scattered around, he looked and saw Griffins and Minotaurs in chains mining rocks and some being marched by monstrous creatures.

“Zeko it looks like he’s awake.” Silver Bolt turned and saw a being similar to the one he beat. “Hi there, you’ve been selected to-“

“Kotetsu don’t spoil anything.” Silver Bolt was both in denial and enraged when Zeko floated down and landed in front of him.

“Y-You! But we-“

“You see Mr. Bolt there have been times in the past where death was too good for someone... or somepony in this case.” Zeko walked casually during his explanation. “Some just don’t deserve the easy way out.” He pointed a hand at Bolt and lifted him off of the platform and jumped to one with a door and a small building, about the size of a bedroom. Kotetsu opened the door with a flourish.

Silver Bolt couldn’t move of his own accord and was pushed in and once he saw what was there he wanted to scream. “C-Cobalt?!” The Unicorn of the group was naked and on his knees, looking upwards as if to symbolize prayer. Bolt saw wires around the room but paid them no mind once Zeko let him move freely. “Don’t worry I’m getting you out of there.” He started to run to his ensign

“I wouldn’t-“ Zeko tried but Bolt tripped over a wire. “Do that.”

*Boing* *Squelch*

“AAAGHH!” Cobalt’s skin was flayed off, blood splattered on the walls and onto Silver Bolt. “UUAAAGH! WWHYYY?!” He thrashed as much as he could but was bound to the floor and only served to have his muscle torn into by the wires surrounding him. Silver Bolt was frozen in place and didn’t register Zeko lifting him into the air and exiting the room with Cobalt’s screams still audible.

Kotetsu looked back at Bolt and chuckled. “I think he has it easiest.” They jumped to another platform where Bolt was given freedom before entering the room.

“Why are you doing this? I didn’t do anything wrong!” He turned to hit Zeko but was forced through the door with an almighty push.

“Preying on innocent females sounds wrong to me... hurting Celona sounds wrong to me... and I looked through your memories and saw something involving a filly a few years ago.” Bolt’s eyes widened when Kotetsu’s foot sailed at him and planted itself into his chest

“That’s some sick shit so don’t say you don’t deserve this bastard.” He grabbed Bolt’s head and turned it so he could see another of his ensigns. He looked confused once he saw him backed against a wall with a sleeping parasprite in the center of the room.

“Lieutenant Bolt... help me...” The Pegasus whispered, shivering in fear.

Silver Bolt deadpanned at his underling’s reaction to a harmless creature. “Snow Wing you should be ashamed of yourself, let me help.”

“No!” Snow Wing exclaimed and covered his mouth but the Parasprite woke up and revealed that its right eye was a normal Rinnegan. It flew up towards Bolt and looked at him with a smile but turned back to Snow Wing and beamed. “No...No...” The small insect flew to him and bit his arm, tearing into his flesh with unnaturally sharp teeth. “Agh! Little bucker!” He smacked the insect away but it recovered and spat out another which quickly joined in eating more of Snow Wing’s arm.

“What the- Those are just parasprites! They don’t eat ponies!” Bolt looked and saw the parasprites rapidly reproducing after leaving Snow Wing’s arm and left wing as exposed bone. The parasprites opened their mouths and swarmed Snow Wing.

“Hmmf! No! Somep- Augh!” The screaming stopped once a strange piece hit Bolt on the cheek, once he picked it up he jumped back to Zeko and Kotetsu in fear once he realized that he had Snow’s tongue in his hands.

Zeko grabbed him by the neck this time and threw him to the next platform. “Excited to see your little brother? Funny how you can make someone younger than you a version of yourself... shame that he deserves what’s he’s going through instead of being on a better path.” Zeko threw Silver Bolt into the room where he collided with a tree.

“Jeez Zeko it looks like he might be hurt. Maybe he’s had enough.” The cousins looked at each other and laughed at the joke.

Silver Bolt rubbed his head and looked at the tree that was solid gold. “I thought the only golden tree was in The Princess’ castle.” Bolt’s surprise was replaced with apprehension once he heard groaning and a dripping sound.

“S-Silver... H-Help m-me.” Silver Bolt looked up and started to cry with the sight before him... His brother was gored through arms, legs and chest. “P-Please h-help.” He spat blood onto his elder sibling who dropped to his knees.

“Why... WHAT DID HE DO?!” Silver Bolt screamed through his tears and the blood on his face.

“You made him just like you, a monster willing to take something special... willing to hurt others for his own sake and pleasure.” Zeko answered as he levitated Bolt out of the room and back onto the tallest platform.

“So... So now what? I gotta die now?!” Bolt broke down crying until he was sprayed by a stream of water from Kotetsu’s mouth.

“Actually no you see your squad isn’t dead because you’re all in this Tartarus place, the deeper part if I’m right. It’s funny, almost no ponies get this low it’s usually fighters who’ve killed when it’s not necessary. You four are the first in a few years.” Kotetsu said to Silver Bolt’s surprise

“He’s telling the truth, you see I wanted to punish you guys personally and the Watchers are letting me but one of you had to be visible by everyone down here...” Zeko pointed directly up where Bolt saw a giant mass of rock. “That’s the biggest Planetary Devastation I’ve ever made.” Zeko closed his fist and let the mass crash down onto Bolt while Zeko and Kotetsu floated backwards.

*Crunch*

“Hagh! Agh...” Bolt was able to hold the giant mass up somehow but he was in horrific pain throughout it. “H-How?”

“Wouldn’t be punishing if you just got crushed right? You’ll be able to hold it up while your bones constantly break and heal.” Zeko explained while blood started coming from Bolt’s mouth and eyes.

Kotetsu decided to float closer to taunt the tortured stallion. “Do you even lift? There’s no way it’s that heavy, hehe.” The Sharingan wielder floated back to Zeko.

“That crushing in your bones... remember it because you’ll be well acquainted.” The duo started to float away while Bolt bit down hard and sent two of his teeth flying, making more blood come from his mouth

“Can’t think straight... pain too much.” Silver Bolt tried to black out but he found that his adrenaline was pumping hard, he was stuck like this for who knows how long.

“And before I forget, every now and again your squad mates will switch punishments and they’ll see you suffer!” Bolt looked at the rooms with his squad and could only think

“You... I’ll get you for this!”

Kotetsu and Zeko floated out of the depths of Tartarus through multiple large demonic looking gates. “So you were talking about torture from the start?”

“I’m not letting anyone who hurts what I care about get away with it.” Zeko answered with his three tomoe Rinnegan active. “And before you start yes I like Celona.”

“Hah! Spike owes me a gem, but really I saw it from a mile away. Wait does that mean you’re gonna-“

“Shut up! Just enjoy the trip back since I knocked you out to get here.” The pair went through another gate but weren’t close to being out and enjoyed the different landscapes, not thinking on the torture the stallions will have to face, “They were destined for this once they did what they did to that child.”

=======

Author's Note

Longest chapter I’ve ever made and I’m proud. Also yes Zeko’s Rinnegan has tomoe, we’ll learn more about that another time.
Those stallions... don’t feel bad for them because I don’t, but remember to enjoy the story and tell me what you liked(I had to change the rating since things like this’ll happen every now and then)

See you next time

Arc 6 Chapter 1: Loss

(Ponyville)

“So why did you come back? You didn’t leave anything after Shiro chased you out like a dog.” Zeko got a slap against the head after his bold statement

“You’re not funny and there’s a problem that Shiro told me about and it’s about you.” Kotetsu looked at his cousin and sighed before laying a hand on his shoulder

“What the-“ Before he could finish his sentence Zeko was taken into the Kamui dimension along with Kotetsu. He looked around and saw the familiar black ground. “Damn it why’d you bring me back in here?!”

“That’s because you have something I need back...” The cousins turned and saw four masculine figures with blue clothing and silver masks behind a single man with black hair clad in a silver and blue kimono. “Hello Kusanabe Zeko...”

Zeko was taken back but changed his expression from shock to a cocky smirk. “Well if it isn’t Onanome Ritsuyo himself, what can I do for you this time since it’s been around two years since we last met?”

One of the fighters behind Ritsuyo pulled out a katana, “How dare you disrespect lord Seventh?” Before he could act any further an arm blocked him from attacking

“Calm down you’re apart of the Mizukage’s entourage so act like it, and as for you Zeko I think you can imagine why I asked Kotetsu to bring me to you...” Zeko shifted his eyes to glance over his shoulder. “That’s right, we need Samehada back for the new swordsmen. You had your fun but it belongs to the Hidden Mist so kindly return it.” The bodyguards tensed and rested their hands on their swords but before any action could take place Zeko raised a hand to calm them.

His smirk was gone at this point and a sheepish smile remained on his face, “Not necessary guys, here take it back.” He levitated Samehada to Ritsuyo who caught it in a sphere of water. “No need to make a big deal over nothing.”

Ritsuyo signaled his guards to stand down right as Kotetsu walked back to them. “There, that’s all you needed from me so where’s-“ Kotetsu was cut off by a bodyguard handing him a stack of ryō which made his eyes shine. “Well then let’s get back and Zeko there’s a door that leads back to where we were.” Kotetsu held onto the Mizukage and his entourage then vanished in a spiral with them, leaving Zeko alone.

The red haired shinobi looked around and saw a simple silver door standing out of the ground without any other structures in sight and once decided to open it he was pulled into a body of water. “How the?” He swam to the surface and found that he was in what used to be the mirror pool.

“Hello Zeko, how’ve you been?” The shinobi turned and saw Ano standing by the water

“You aren’t stuck down here are you? Last time we spoke you were here and again you’re here.” He pulled himself out of the water and shook his hair, lamenting the fact that his clothes would stay wet

Ano chuckled at the statement and proceeded to turn into a whirlwind of leaves and amber dust. “I am the matron of this forest, I can move through it as I please.” She exited through the tunnel with Zeko following but he didn’t want to talk, no, he had to be somewhere important.

“What does Fortis have for me?” He thought, going through the air on a cloud of sand, leaving Ano disappointed.

“And here I thought he could spare some conversation, perhaps Mist would be able to talk.” The whirlwind traveled towards Zeko’s house in search of social activity in the opposite direction from the cloud of sand.

==============================
(Minutes later)

“Hunter you haven’t seen Zeko around have you?” Diamond asked the stallion who firing arrows at a target on a rock face from inside.

“Haven’t heard from him in a few days, I just know he went to the Gala so-“ A door opened fiercely revealing Zeko, upon seeing him Diamond ran over with her arms outstretched but only found air when she tried to hug him.

Zeko walked directly to Hunter, avoiding Diamond entirely to her displeasure. “Most dangerous mission you have... give it now...” Hunter nearly flinched from the obvious restraint in his partner’s voice while Diamond came over with a visible pout

“Hey! You never turn down a hug from me and what happened to your-“ He shot her a glare that made her stop talking almost instantly while Hunter pointed to a piece of paper on a support beam with a knife through it.

“Apparently some teenage dragons started hanging around a town and are scaring away travelers but I don’t think you can handle that with one-“ Before Hunter could finish his sentence Zeko had already grabbed the note and started for the door, nearly knocking others over in his departure. “What’s wrong with him?”

“We’re following him.” Diamond said, seeming to have heard Hunter’s mind. “Let’s go!” She grabbed an axe and went towards the door.

“He’s never acted this way before, what happened?”

==============================

On a plateau with rocks serving as the terrain making it jagged and uneven a group of about a dozen dragons sat around a large pile of gems. “Look at this gem hoard! These dumb ponies didn’t know what hit them.” A reddish gray scaled teenage dragon said with the others surrounding him. “We’d never get this many working alone.”

“Starting to sound like a pony Ash. I hope you didn’t pick up any pony books to read.” A female with black scales said, dragging a claw over Ash’s chest. “Cause then you wouldn’t be the toughest dragon we know.”

“Whatever Onyx, hey Gard we got any sapphires left? I’m getting kinda hungry.” A rounder blue dragon looked around and didn’t see any of the gems in question but before he could tell his leader a small rock made its way into his back

“OW! Who did that?!” They all looked around and only saw the rocky terrain around them. “Quit being a cow-“ Another rock crashed straight into his head, sending him to the ground with a dent in his skull.

“And here I thought you guys were tougher.” A figure jumped from above, left arm in a sling, “Guess we’ve all gotta be wrong sometimes.”

“Hey... I remember you! You did this to me!” Ash pointed to a scar on his side.

Zeko stood still for a moment before chuckling, “Oh I remember you, how’s Selonus been?” The comment made Ash clench his claws in anger

“I got this Ash.” A red dragon said and flew towards Zeko with his claws ready to rend flesh but was stopped by a knee to the stomach. “Urk!” He was sent to the ground by an elbow to the neck and remained motionless.

Two silver dragons decided to run to hit Zeko but missed once he jumped back. “Trying to run away? Makes sense since nothing could beat this many dragons.” The taller of the two noticed that Zeko was holding a hand up with his index and middle finger aimed upwards. “What’s He up to?”

“Fire Style: Fireball jutsu.” Zeko thought as a ball of fire left his mouth and swallowed the scaled group. But once the smoke cleared they were all fine visibly.

Ash smiled and showed off his sharp teeth, “You thought fire could hurt a dragon? You’d be better off using that stupid club you had!” A chill nearly ran down Ash’s spine once he felt a change in the air. He looked and saw Zeko gain an orange aura around his body and that it even formed a kind of tail. The silver dragons breathed their own fire to try to roast their attacker but were stopped when a stream of air came at them and blasted them both away.

“What was that Ash?” Zeko walked closer inviting the other dragons, excluding Ash and Onyx, to rush him. A pair came to swing but the first wound up with a knee into the elbow, breaking their arm, and being thrown into two others while the other was kicked in the stomach and wound up on the ground. One dragon managed to claw Zeko’s cheek and leave a cut that slowly began to bleed but once he looked at the offending dragon it was clear what was to happen.

“Uh oh.” She said with sweat coming down her face, she suddenly crumpled to the ground like a puppet with cut strings and only Zeko saw that he used his soul to strike her stomach with a great deal of force.

“Well you managed to cut me so not bad.” The sling was cast off allowing Zeko use of both his arms. “Now you get to lose faster.” Zeko looked at Ash and if looks could kill Ash could tell he’d have set on fire right there, even if it wouldn’t affect him. Zeko vanished from sight to Onyx’s fear.

“A-Ash I don’t know how to fight, what should we-huh?” She was pushed into an oncoming hand...that went straight through her chest. “W-Why?” She looked at the hand that gored her and blacked out, the action made Zeko’s eyes glimmer for a second until she fell to the ground.

Ash started to back away, “Sorry toots but I’m not dying today.” He took to the air while Zeko stared at Onyx’s body.

“What the hell happened?”

“You gave into rage but for the wrong reason, when something bad happened to Celona it was right but you losing something that didn’t belong to you wasn’t an excuse to kill something.” Zeko clutched the side of his head once he heard his own voice.

“Great, I’m dealing with you again... why’d you come back?” The shinobi muttered almost rhetorically since he knew the answer but the headache he was getting was limiting his common sense

“You knew the risks of having a tailed beast’s chakra, something had to take form and you let your negative emotions be your source so sit back and let me handle that dragon.” Zeko’s iris’ went from their typical black color to yellow and his sclera were black now. “Now let me in on this.” He clasped his hands together and encased himself in sand, creating a tornado in the immediate area, this made a certain dragon focus on him.

“Huh, what’s that guy doing?!” Ash looked back and saw something step from the tornado on all fours. He saw that it was covered in sand and its face was a haunting shade of red with large claw like teeth that didn’t look sharp but he didn’t want to test that, a tail and there were some black marks along its arms which were now almost as long as it’s legs, “This kid’s crazy but I’m in the air so I should be ok.” No sooner than those words were uttered the creature sucked in air and looked at Ash directly.

“Wind style: Air bullets.” The being spoke in a deeper, gravelly voice, and spat out a volley of air cones that headed towards Ash and made him shoot fire in retaliation, creating small explosions in the sky.

“That all you got? I could do this all day. I could even fight you claw to claw!” Ash descended from his higher position to canopy level but this made the sand being smirk. “What’s so funny? Don’t you know that sand turns to glass when it’s burnt? I’m gonna make you pay for killing my crew by torching you then shattering the sculpture!” He only got a chuckle in response.

“Heh, the only one dead is the one you sacrificed to save yourself and I’m going to win this with my arms behind my back so I can humiliate you.” True to his word the being stood up straight and put his hands behind his back.

Another gout of flames was shot by Ash while the creature stood there, and once the smoke cleared Ash saw he was unharmed. “How’d- Why- Aah!” His nostrils started to steam. “If that’s not hot enough then how’s this?!” He fired a continuous stream of fire that turned the air red, the sand creature inhaled and fired a series of air bullets back. The explosions filled the sky and turned the air as dry as a desert, forcing Ash to stop. “Thought you said you didn’t need arms?”

The creature used its arms to block the flames that were headed for him and a look showed that they were now glass. “Before you move I have something to ask, did you know that when a predator thinks it’s won it will not be aware of its surroundings?” Ash’s face shifted from smug to confused at the odd question but a sound from behind brought him back to his senses.

“Wha-“

*Thud*

A massive tail made of sand slammed into Ash and brought him into the ground. “The moment I stood up I began to turn rocks around us into sand so I could do that, you were caught up in your own overconfidence that you didn’t manage to hear the sounds.” Once he thought about it Ash realized that he heard loud scraping from underground but ignored it. He struggled to move from under the tail and was relieved when it retreated into the ground but it was short lived once he saw the sand coated feet in front of him.

“Wai- Hang on... we can talk this out...” Ash rolled over and dragged himself backwards but was stopped when his already injured wing had a foot placed on it.

“How do you think that dragoness felt when you shoved her into his hand?”

*Crash*

“AAAH!” Ash’s chest was being cut and impaled by small glass shards, and the sand creature was reforming a new arm.

“I think that was along the lines of the physical pain but I think she felt betrayed, maybe she felt she lost a friend...”

*Crash*

“DAMN IT!” Now shards were embedded into Ash’s stomach but before he could voice any more pain a hand wrapped around his throat.

“I’m not going to kill you but this will definitely hurt.” The being pulled a hand back and prepared a punch to the face. Ash quivered and raised a claw but didn’t make it to eye level in time

*Thud*

The first hit pressed Ash against the ground

*Thud*

The next made a crater underneath the dragon’s head, his eyes were still open and blood gushed from his nose.

*Thud*

The last hit was much softer than the previous two and was the tipping point that sent Ash into unconsciousness. The sand creature stood up but clenched its head in anger more than pain. “You had your fun now go back where you belong.” Zeko said as his eyes returned to their normal color and the sand encasing him fell off, fixing his bodily proportions.

The inner demon was less than pleased that its fun was cut so short but it didn’t part without a warning, “Just know that the next time you need help... I’ll be there so watch your back.” The sand was off and Zeko walked over to Onyx.

“Damn it, I shouldn’t have had a tantrum like that but... it’s just a job in the end I guess.” He reached down and closed the dragoness’ eyes, fighting the tear that wanted to leave his eye

“ZEKO!” Zeko turned and saw Diamond with Hunter right behind her. “What was that thing? You just shot air like a bolt of magic then your tail-“

“That wasn’t me.” He interrupted calmly but his statement made Hunter walk closer.

“Is that the ‘inner evil’ that you deal with? And before you ask Princess Luna told me, she said I’d be able to help you somehow.”

Zeko sighed before explaining, “That’s a form of my negative emotions, he shows up when I’m in a bad situation or just could use help and I’m in a bad mindset. Remember that sword I had?”

“The one you treated like it was somepony else? Kinda hard to forget.” Hunter replied.

“Well I had to return it and something else happened earlier that helped push me over so he took over just then. But that’s not important, let’s just go turn in the mission.” He jumped off leaving Hunter who turned and saw Diamond examining the dragons.

“They’re all alive except for her... she didn’t deserve what that guy did.” She looked from Onyx to Ash but registered the crater he was in and figured he had a fair punishment.

“So I need to help him tame his own emotions? That’s not the weirdest one yet.” Hunter thought as he and Diamond walked away from the plateau, leaving the dragons behind.

===================================

Once again Zeko was meditating in his dream world but the difference this time was that his left half was covered in sand rather than orange chakra. “Zeko!” He opened his eyes and saw Luna. “There were two disturbances earlier today, would thou know anything about it?”

“You say that like I should know what you mean, what kind of disturbances?”

Luna crossed her arms in thought, “There was an incredibly high power midday and an even higher one mere minutes later and- What’s that on thine body?” She pointed to the sand covering his left half.

Zeko closed his eyes before deciding on his response. “Well that first power you detected was the seventh leader of the Hidden Mist Village and I’m guessing Kotetsu left kamui open for too long so you noticed. The second was me and... I lost something important so I got carried away with something.” He rubbed the back of his head but Luna’s gaze was stern.

“Then the only issue is that same energy thine showed before has gotten worse.” She turned to leave and flew towards a door in the air. “Be careful, dark energy can be very tempting but if one falls into it, they may not be able to return.” She left, the door vanished and Zeko was alone again.

He resumed his meditative position but this time he had chakra rods in his hands. “That’s the exact reason why I’ll control it.”

“Or you could fall into-“ The demon tried but a vacuum sound cut it off and sent it into the deeper recess of Zeko’s mind.

“Shut up because once I figure this out, you won’t exist anymore.” He stabbed the rods through his palms and the sand fell off and revealed the orange chakra underneath. “One step closer to getting this down....”

Author's Note

Zeko’s sand demon form resembled this but with one tail and of course he was covered in sand. And yes... Samehada is no longer in his arsenal

We’ll see you next time

Arc 6 Chapter 2: Chaos Reigns (Awaken)

“Alright Spike I want you to come at me with everything you’ve got, don’t hold back.”

The drake nodded, his new training outfit having a slight flow to it, the sleeveless top and baggy pants giving him additional movement. “Ok here goes.” He rushed forward with an arm reeled back and threw a punch at Zeko but it was caught with relative ease.

“Come on Spike focus your energy and make yourself stronger otherwise you aren’t going all out.” Zeko’s words made Spike close his eyes to focus.

Spike felt his energy from his stomach move towards his arms, flowing like a river through his upper body and giving him the strength to overpower Zeko and push him back. “Whoa! I did it! Does that mean I’m stronger than you?”

As soon as the words left Spike’s mouth a hand hit the back of his head. “Don’t say that until you can land a hit hard enough to hurt me.”

Spike was confused until he looked and saw the Zeko he knocked back was now a pile of sand on the forest floor. “Oh right that substitution thing. How am I supposed to do that anyway?” He got a light punch to the arm.

“If you’ve been practicing you should be able to replace yourself with something related to you, it’s been a week so you’ve had to have made some progress.” Zeko said while looking at the sky.

Spike focused and tried to think of a way to replace himself with something he had and he managed an idea. “Zeko! I think I got something, I want you to hit me.” There was a short lived silence after the request but Zeko quickly struck Spike’s chest but as soon as his fist made contact scales dropped to the ground. “I did it!”

Zeko picked up the scales and put them into the pouch on his thigh before looking back at Spike. “Yeah you did but try to substitute as late as possible next time, that way an enemy thinks they got you and you have time for a counterattack.” Before Zeko could offer any more advice Ano decided to make herself known to the pair by stepping out of a tree.

“Something is very wrong, my forest is disturbed and the clouds nearby aren’t making normal rain.” A Timberwolf emerged from the thicket and stood next to its master. “I’m not able to leave the forest for long so I’m sending this one to go with you.”

Zeko raised an eyebrow at the proclamation and glanced at the Timberwolf. “You’re ok with this coming with me? Pretty sure I destroyed the last ones I saw.” He referred to his introduction to this world but Ano seemed to have no issue

“Those were rogue wolves,made by malice, this is one of my own and has remained loyal.” She pointed at its eyes and both Spike and Zeko noticed they were a calming blue rather than a vile green.

“I guess we can go find the girls, something tells me that if you noticed then Celestia should’ve by now.” Zeko turned and jumped into the trees.

“Wait! How am I supposed to- Woah!” The Timberwolf bit the neck of Spike’s shirt and tossed him on its back before running after Zeko.

“This Magic seems unorganized and possibly chaotic, be careful.” Ano warned the trio as they went through the forest, looking for the ones who bore the Elements of Harmony.

==============================
(Canterlot Castle)

“Someone I thought I had defeated long ago, has returned. His name is Discord.” Celestia explained to the girls as they walked down a long corridor and Fluttershy looked at a large stained glass window of a man with various different body parts, she hid behind her friends quickly. “Discord is the mischievous spirit of disharmony. Before my sister and I-“

Celestia was interrupted by the door being opened loudly and she saw Zeko with... a Timberwolf accompanying him. “Sorry I’m late but it was a rough week, so what’s going on with this crazy weather?” He pointed out a window towards a pink cloud that was raining a brown liquid.

“I know! Cotton candy clouds with chocolate milk rain!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed

Celestia cleared her throat and brought attention back to herself. “As I was saying, Discord ruled Equestria in a state of unhappiness and unrest, luckily Luna and I discovered the Elements of Harmony and turned him to stone.

“So let me guess... The spell you used to trap him is broken because these six are with the Elements now?” Zeko gestured to the mane six and earned a nod from Celestia. She walked to a wall and placed her horn into a slot, in an uncomfortable position for her head at that, the wall opened to reveal a gilded box upon a pedestal.

“Now you can put a stop to Discord’s actions using these.” She opened the case but it was empty. “That... That doesn’t make sense! The room was locked by magic only I could use.” A cackle broke the tension in the room.

“Oh what fun is there in making sense?” They looked up and saw a figure in the window and he was... moving from portrait to portrait. “I’ve always-“

*Crash*

Zeko threw a chakra rod as big as himself through the window but missed the figure entirely. “You sound just like that guy who gave me a token!” He prepared another rod but Applejack grabbed his arm

“Now hold on partner! Ya can’t just break windows and try to beat him.” Applejack reasoned, calming Zeko down from his nettled state.

The figure laughed more before stopping in a window with the Elements beneath him. “You should listen to her Zeko, just breaking things can’t stop me. To think such a strong ninja would be willing to stay in a world so peaceful... a waste of talent. As for you little ponies...”

“They’re still like people, why are they called that?” Zeko though as Discord told them about his imprisonment and where he decided to hide the artifacts, but as a riddle and he quickly teleported the mane six away. “Hey!” Discord looked back at Zeko. “You can have them do that riddle but what’s stopping me from fighting you here and now?”

Discord paused for a moment and seemed to contemplate his actual options since he’d observed that the shinobi can and will stop his plans if given a chance, but he thought of something that would give him plenty of time to put his plan into motion “Oh don’t worry kid...” He snapped his fingers and made a mirror appear, it went to the floor and glowed for a moment before two figures stepped out what took Zeko by surprise is that the ones who stepped out were him and Kotetsu wearing blue robes with black pants and crimson sandals but what stood out most was that their eyes were switched. Copy Kotetsu’s right eye was his Sharingan while copy Zeko’s left eye was a Rinnegan.

“So I got made by that loser? I’m just gonna beat him or whatever.” The copy Zeko said, sounding bored while the Kotetsu copy stood and looked at his surroundings.

“It seems that we were made with the purpose of beating him. I’d wager that this would be trivial.”

Zeko wasn’t able to understand what he saw nor could he process what he was hearing. Seeing he and his cousin’s polar opposites angered him to almost no limit. “So your plan was make copies of us to fight us?” He vanished only to crash into the floor heel first, making the copies dodge. His eyes widened once he realized that they somehow had Dōjutsu and could read his attacks. “This is gonna suck isn’t it?”

Discord only started laughing at the attempt. “Oh come now Zeko you should know it wouldn’t be so easy. Every little jutsu I’ve seen you and your cousin use they can do it too.” He proclaimed right as Zeko launched a fireball at his copy who used his own to counter it.

“Oh that’s great... Wait every single jutsu?”

“Well I did have to come back to my statue to re-energize.” He turned himself into a lightbulb to demonstrate. “So there were times that I missed, I didn’t see too much of when you left and came back with that Celona and after the Gala I did notice a few large powers but I wasn’t able to get there quick enough but I think these two will be enough to keep you out of the way and maybe get you out of the picture.” He reverted back before teleporting away.

“I think that we’ve had enough talking for now.” Copy-tetsu lunged and clashed his sword with Zeko’s chakra rod. “I’m rather invested in this fight and let’s not ruin it with unnecessary words.” The two tried to strike each other but each hit was dodged or parried entirely and Zeko was so enthralled in the sword fight he’d managed to forget about his doppelgänger.

“Just get hit so I can be done here.” Monstrous sand arms burst from the ground and tried to catch Zeko, but he disappeared in a crimson blur while Copy-tetsu was grabbed and pinned into the floor. “...Whoops.” He lifted the arms away and walked to his partner.

Copy-tetsu pulled himself from the crater in the floor and glared at his partner. “I would’ve preferred that you notified me of that attack.”

“Was too much work. So where’d he-“ A chakra rod cut through the sleeve of Copy-ko’s shirt and managed to graze his skin. The pair looked up and saw Zeko standing on the ceiling, Copy-ko used lightning chakra and burst up to strike Zeko but only hit the bricks of the castle.

“That’s a fast technique but mine is better.” Zeko was on the other side of the ceiling with a chakra rod in his hand. “Tossing these with Raijin marks might be my best bet at living, but if these guys are our opposites then...” Zeko jumped through the window he broke earlier and landed in the courtyard. “They’d kill innocents to lure me into a fight, gotta get to a less populated area. Oh no!” He dodged an oncoming fireball with an air bullet behind it

“Can you not keep running? I just wanna get this over with.” Copy-ko still had his lightning armor and he and Copy-tetsu slid down the side of the castle.

At that moment Zeko had an idea that he normally wouldn’t consider against the toughest enemies he’s faced, much less himself...and it was, “Run!” He bolted away from the castle and jumped onto a building in the upper district of Canterlot. He jumped from roof to roof while dodging fireballs and air bullets. “That’s right, away from the city and into the wasteland.”

==============================

“The plan is coming along perfectly! Now I just need to make those five forget about who they are and then I’ll be able to rule forever!” The Draconequus teleported into the hedge maze and followed through on his plan and found his first target; Applejack, alone among trees...

==============================

“Would you mind slowing down some so that we can-“ Copy-tetsu’s request was interrupted by an air bullet that he managed to evade but Copy-ko’s sand platform took the hit and he was thrown to the ground.

After rolling for a bit he recovered and stood up to survey the area and noticed that they were in a field and he saw a pond. “I know every jutsu you know so just give up so I can go sleep.” He weaved hand signs that Zeko recognized. “Water style: shark bomb.” A shark shaped bullet of water came from the water and headed straight for Zeko.

“That is an interesting move, I’ll add on to it.” Copy-tetsu shot a chidori spear at the water projectile and amplified it, making it look more dangerous. Zeko’s eyes widened as the attack got closer but his instincts kicked in once it was ten feet away.

The attack collided then exploded, a sphere of chakra was created and a crater formed in the spot. “Good we win, let’s go tell the dragon guy.” The clones turned but the sound of air being sucked away snapped their attention back.

When they looked back they saw Zeko with a hand outstretched and the air was heading towards it, upon using his ability he figured it was time to annoy. “If you thought i would be annihilated, then you should know your chakra was incorporated into my body and unlike yours isn’t a copy.” Copy-ko’s left eye twitched and saw that Zeko did in fact absorb the chakra from the attack

“What the? What jutsu was that? Almighty Push!” Zeko jumped to escape the attack made from the clone’s frustration but it was short lived, he noticed the air near his leg swirling and looked at Copy-tetsu.

“Kamui!” A hole opened and started to pursue Zeko while siphoning air into it, he already didn’t like going into Kotetsu’s dimension but this wasn’t his real cousin so there was no telling where it lead and he didn’t want to find that out the hard way. He leapt backwards to keep dodging but the vortex got closer and closer.

“Shit! Wait...” Zeko looked and saw that the clone’s eye was... bleeding? He’d never seen that happen to Kotetsu but started to put it together but as he was focused on cause he didn’t see effect and the hole got closer. “No!” His leg was sucked into the kamui and the hole closed. Zeko turned into a cloud of parasprites to the irritation of his opponents.

“I think he got away, maybe the attack landed.” Copy-tetsu was holding a hand over his right eye while blood flowed down his cheek. “Hopefully we can-“ The clash of weapons made him turn and see the Rinnegan users clashing with chakra rods.

“By taking part in this you made a mistake, I’ll just use jutsu never seen by you fakes.” The two tried to stab one another but only clashed further while Copy-tetsu watched in pain. Zeko broke his clone’s focus with a feint strike to the head and managed to stab his arm and jump back and look at Copy-tetsu. “He can end this by looking at me so I gotta take care of him, he held that kamui for thirty seconds so he’s done for a while.”

“Ok I guess I need to care to win.” Copy-ko summoned a Cragadile and made it rush Zeko who smirked.

“Its wrong to think that he could do me any harm...” He weaved ram, horse, serpent, dragon, rat, then tiger and inhaled. “Have a taste of fire style: dragon flame bombs.” A sea of fire engulfed the Cragadile and headed for the doppelgängers, swallowing them as well. Once the flames died out there was molten glass and roasted spiders. Zeko turned and saw his clone healing Copy-tetsu’s eye, which opened and showed that he could see again.

“That rapping is annoying and I’m not doing it but I can just copy what you do.” He crossed his arms and shut his eyes, slowly a familiar orange aura started leaking from his skin until it encased him. “I’m just as good as you, maybe better since I didn’t even need to train so just give up.” He disappeared in a blur and punched Zeko, who crossed his arms in defense and used his own lightning style armor.

“Not a bad hit!” He spun and kicked his copy in the head, making him stumble. “But that’s the problem.” He followed up with a punch to the stomach, cheek and finished the combination with a kick to the chest, sending his opponent flying into a tree. “You just got what you know by watching while my team practiced.”

“Chidori.” Copy-tetsu tried to stab his hand into Zeko’s back but only made it an inch or so into his skin. “It seems I miscalculated the strength of-“

“Eight Trigrams air palm!” Copy-tetsu looked and saw a bullet of air right before it crashed into him and knocked him away from Zeko who turned and saw Jenki, Nouka and Kotetsu. “So what’d we miss and why are there...” Jenki looked and saw Copy-ko and Copy-tetsu picking themselves up. “This is making my head hurt.”

Copy-ko’s Rinnegan eye was twitching and his other eye’s iris turned yellow. “Now we gotta deal with you idiots?” His aura flared and made winds push everyone else on the battlefield, Zeko and Copy-tetsu mimicked him.

“HOLD ON A DAMN MINUTE!” Everyone focused on Kotetsu as he pointed at Copy-ko. “That’s you! And he’s as strong as you!” He pointed at his doppelgänger. “And is that me?! Why is he stronger than me?! I’m gonna kill myself!” He encased his hand in lightning then stabbed himself in the chest and fell to the ground. Everyone stared in shock at the apparent death of Kotetsu until Zeko spoke up.

“Shit... Nouka take him and lead Copy-tetsu away, Jenki we’re handling this guy.” Zeko looked at his clone and saw sand whipping around him violently. “I’m getting a bad feeling.”

Nouka’s bird grabbed Kotetsu and flew off as small projectiles blew up near Copy-tetsu. “I suppose I don’t have a choice but to follow.” He turned into a bolt of lightning and pursued them from the ground.

“Well guess what?! You’re dealing with me so get ready...” Copy-ko surrounded left arm in sand, creating a vicious claw with chakra rods as his nails. “Cause I’m not holdin back now.”

“Can we take this guy before he- You know?” Jenki questioned as he got into his fighting pose.

Zeko created three chakra rods, holding two in his hands and one in his teeth. “I don’ kno.” His words were muffled but he stared down his enemy and flared his chakra once again. “Buf I’m shtil fightin.”

=======

Author's Note

Yes this is happening, by popular demand keeping these short and sweet unless it’s something huge.

See you next time (Wednesday maybe)

Arc 6 Chapter 4: Hero of Virtue (1/2)

Author's Note

My outfit got ruined so I wear a kimono now, the colors make it look cool okay?! Anyway this is a canon crossover with the story, Balanced As Everything Should be by Omnicsarebest18, go check it out I think it’s pretty good. This is canon here but for the other story it’s not, I encourage that you read that story otherwise you’ll miss some important details.

Arc 6 Chapter 4: Hero of Virtue (1/2)

(Ponyville)
(The next day. 20 minutes until sunset)

“So now you have two?!” Twilight asked dumbfounded while looking at Zeko who flashed a confident smile before activating his complete Dōjutsu to the shock of Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Spike.

“It’s completed but there’s a major problem. Having one of these was already something special but having two would make me... unstable. If I used an almighty push now I’d probably be able to annihilate all of Ponyville.” Twilight gaped and stopped writing in her notepad but right as Spike was going to ask a question...

*Boom*
*Boom*
*Boom*

There were three incredibly loud explosions that shook the very ground that the group was standing on. “Whoa! What was that?” Spike asked while Zeko looked towards the source of the noise.

“That’s not good.” He saw plumes of black smoke rising from the forest, luckily it wasn’t his house that was harmed but that didn’t stop his hands from hitting the ground and making a cloud of white smoke that cleared and revealed the rest of the Mane six who were surprised at their sudden change in location, Pinkie Pie was in distress since it seemed that her baked goods had vanished from her hand.

“My cupcakes!” Pinkie dropped to the ground in a state of disbelief.

“How’d I get here?” Applejack looked around and saw her friends

“Get those Element things, there’s a pretty high energy signature by that explosion.” Twilight’s horn flashed and the chest containing the Elements of Harmony was transported into her hands and once she opened it the corresponding element went to its bearer. Zeko crossed his fingers and made five shadow clones appear and lay a hand on each of the Mane six before they all were teleported inside of his house in a crimson blur.

“Zeko! What was that noise?!” Celona came down the stairs and saw the six Zekos along with the Mane six and that Mist was on the ground.

“Don’t know but I’m about to find out. Stay here and be safe.” He helped Mist back into her wheelchair and started for the door.

“Is it the Claw? And if it’s not then what could’ve done that?” Mist asked as the shadow clones were dispelled

“Like I said, I don’t know and I’m going to find out.” Zeko walked out the door with the six girls in tow.

They ran towards the plumes of smoke and saw ruins that were smoldering. “N-No... the Castle... The Library!” Twilight fell to her knees over the apparent loss of literature while Zeko walked closer to investigate the still warm site while Fluttershy consoled the saddened librarian.

“Looks like it was blown apart. I’m not finding any odd chakra signatures anymore so where’d th-“

"Hello.” A malicious voice rang prompting Zeko to look and see a projection of a tall masked figure with a dark, shifting aura. “I could tell you are very confused at my antics. All will be explained in time, I promise you that. You, are now officially partaking in an experiment. I'm a displaced like you Zeko, so I wish to test your resolve. Some may die, and others will live. How many will you sacrifice to survive, before I tear you apart?" As soon as the line was finished Rarity screamed and pointed towards Ponyville where Ash and flames were going into the air. "So run little ponies, run."

“Damn it! Why the hell would someone do this for an experiment?” Zeko clenched his fists and looked towards the smoke and thought of a way to stop the flames from claiming any lives, he also hoped Spike could handle any potential attackers. “Girls, stay and look for any sign of who did this, I need to get back to the town.” He jumped into the trees and bound from branch to branch and left the sight of the Mane six.

Pinkie was about to say something but started to shake violently and stopped almost as fast as she started. “Uh oh.”

==============================

“Come on you mindless zombies, it can’t be that hard to burn down a town.” A tall blonde haired human stood with his hands on his hips as undead roamed the streets, attacking ponies and setting fire to houses with prejudice. “I can’t believe that I, Dio, have to oversee the drones that the Master created.” Dio said with cockiness right as a kunai sailed towards him. “Hm?” The blade stopped in midair to the surprise of its launcher

“Is he a unicorn?.” Spike asked himself as Dio turned around and revealed his face to the drake. “Wait are you a guy wearing lipstick? I wear an apron and I think that’s girly.” Spike chuckled while Dio smirked and clasped his hands together menacingly once he saw the crowd of fallen undead behind the unassuming drake.

“So he managed to take down that many on his own? Impressive for a child.” The kunai in the air snapped in two. “So what’s your name brat?”

“I’m Spike, student of Zeko and the kid who beat fifty of your zombies.”

“I’ll make you an offer...” Dio said. “You can join me and help me turn on my creator or die here to me.” Another thrown kunai answered the question and was dodged easily. “Then it’s time to die!” He jumped for the drake and threw a punch to his chest, Spike managed to block but was unprepared for the kick to his stomach.

“Urk!” Dio smiled but he was confused when his target turned into scales and dropped to the ground. “Surprise!” Spike appeared at Dio’s side and delivered a punch to his rib, knocking the blonde off balance and allowing a barrage of punches to be landed on his body, ending with an uppercut. The drake shook his hands after his assault. “That kinda hurt.”

Dio was pushed back with his eyes closed and regained his cocky smile once he opened them. “Not bad kid but I’m afraid playtime’s over.” A golden aura enveloped Dio and Spike felt an additional presence as townsponies clashed with the undead in the background. “Time to meet your end.” Dio and Spike rushed towards one another. “Muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda!” Dio cried as he and Spike clashed fist to blade and claw, with the younger fighter having no chance against his larger opponent. “Muda!” Spike was thrown into a wall by an unseen force.

“What was that?!” He got up with his training shirt scratched and his pants with scrapes on them. He weaved the signs to his move and inhaled. “Fire Style: Giant fireball.” He shot a massive ball of green fire towards his enemy.

Dio’s eyes widened at the attack. “A form of Hamon?” Spike saw the attack headed for Dio and figured he couldn’t dodge.

“Can’t beat fire can you?” Spike said to himself.

In the very next moment Dio was in front of Spike with his hands being held cockily on his hips and a smirk was held on his lips. “Hello.” Spike was sent straight through the wall behind him. “Foolish mortal creature, you never had a chance against me.”

“I think I’m doing pretty good.” Dio’s jaw was introduced to Spike’s foot, and the drake jumped back. “Okay. What would Zeko do in this situation? This... Dio just teleported in front of me, and if he just attacked instead of saying hi first...”

“You’re a persistent one aren’t you?” A golden aura surrounded Dio once again but three chakra rods around Spike’s size landed in the ground in front of him.

“Watching you beat up my friend isn’t something I like so now I’m involved.” Zeko said as he jumped from the roof of a building. “Bird, rat, ox, monkey, rat, serpent.” Zeko formed the hand signs to Dio’s confusion and suddenly large dark clouds started to form over the town and rain began to fall, extinguishing the flaming buildings. “Now I can tell if anyone else shows up. So how’d you move that fast?” Zeko questioned.

Spike looked over and saw Dio’s aura leave him. “He had some kind of spell that-“ The drake looked at Zeko and saw that his Rinnegan were active.

“What is that?” Next to Dio Zeko could see that there was a slightly taller humanoid figure with golden accents on its body.

“That’s strange, you aren’t a stand user but you can see it. This is The World and it’ll be your deaths.” The figure got into a fighting stance

“Spike go help deal with those dead soldiers.” The drake turned and ran towards a group of the Draugr but turned to warn Zeko.

“He has some kind of teleportation! I didn’t even see him start it!” With that Zeko was facing Dio and The World.

“So you’re the displaced that I was told about? I was expecting so much more but now I can kill you and then move to the Puppet Master.” The World crossed his arms as Dio raised his to his sides. “AGAIN, THE WORLD!”

“Time has stopped!” The World said in a metallic voice. The rain slowed and stopped entirely and the fighting in the background froze.

“I tested this once before unleashing the Draugr and it was only for a second.” Dio walked towards a destroyed building and picked up a brick. “Then against that brat I managed three seconds.” He crushed the brick in his hand but the powder stayed in the air. “And by that logic this should be five seconds.” He pulled six knives from his pockets and lined them in his fingers. “Hm hmm. MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA, MUDA!” He threw them at Zeko and they froze two meters in front of his chest. “One second left... Zero.” The rain started, the brick powder fell and the knives sped to their target but were deflected by an unseen force.

“So this guy... can stop time?!” Once the flow of time resumed the every action that Dio went through during its pause was visible to Zeko up to his count of zero. This meant that the shinobi‘s eyes could pick up the movements while time was frozen but he could only process what happened once it resumed.

“Oh so you can respond to The World’s power? I’ll just need to be closer to kill you!” He flew towards the shinobi and the two clashed fist to fist with Zeko keeping pace with the near blinding speed of The World’s fists.

“Muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda!” The World repeated with each hit.

“That World thing makes his punches harder. If I take it out first then he should be vulnerable.” During the clash Zeko applied his orange chakra cloak and caught the stand’s fists.

“What? Only a stand can-“ Dio stopped once his fists started to bleed and he saw that Zeko had started crushing The World’s hands. “This shouldn’t be happening!” Zeko raised his leg and kicked The World and Dio into rubble. The rain washed the blood from the back of Dio’s head as he stared at Zeko.

“That’s why Spike couldn’t see it.” Dio got up and brushed himself off as his wound started to close. “The World is a spirit.”

“Ha ha ha ha, it seems you figured it out, stands are a manifestation of one’s fighting spirit and are connected in such a way. I don’t know how you can touch mine but so long as I can stop time you can’t win.” Dio taunted. Zeko clasped his hands together and brought sand towards him, creating a familiar whirlwind. “Controlling sand? An interesting stand ability but before The World it’s completely power-“ A tail made of sand burst through the ground behind Dio to the surprise of the stand user. “Shit I have to stop time, again The-“ The tail slammed into Dio’s back and pinned him to the ground.

“That looked like it hurt, huh?” Zeko emerged from the whirlwind in his sand demon form but unlike before was in control of himself and saw the dozen undead warriors around him, one of which seemed to be the leader of its armor was anything to go by and was holding an unconscious Spike by the neck of his shirt. Zeko moved his arm but the soldier raised a black axe to the back of Spike’s head.

“Stand still or he dies.” He spoke in a coarse, hollow voice.

Dio started to laugh from his position under Zeko’s tail. “It seems these Draugr aren’t as useless as I thought, so stand still while they cut you to pieces!” The Draugr moved in and started to chop Zeko and cast spells that shot streams of fire or ice at him. “And I nearly thought I’d lose. What?” The tail went back into the ground and gave Dio the ability to breathe freely but his momentary celebration was cut short by the tail springing from the ground and lifting Spike to the safety of a rooftop.

“Kill him n-“ The leader was grabbed and crushed by Zeko’s tail. The others were quickly grabbed and decapitated, crushed or cut in half by Zeko’s claws.

“I’ll have to- What?! My legs won’t work... What happened?!” Dio thought as he tried to stand up but only managed to push his torso up with his arms.

“When I hit you with my tail I made sure to crack your spine, your legs are disabled.” Zeko turned and lunged for Dio.

“Come to me, THE-“ A sand clad fist made its way into Dio’s jaw and stopped his ability.

“You keep saying ‘useless’ how about I say what I’m going to do to you?”

“Shit!”

“Tōtsū! Tōtsū!” Two punches to Dio’s chest, but the attack was far from finished. “TŌTŌTŌTŌTŌTŌTŌTŌTŌTŌTŌTŌTŌ!” Zeko let loose a ferocious barrage of punches to Dio’s body and ended the onslaught with an uppercut. “TŌTSŪ!” But before Dio could be thrown out of Zeko’s range, Zeko grabbed his ankle and pulled him back. “And for part two!” He slammmed Dio into the ground, the blonde coughed up blood upon impact.

”This shouldn’t be!” Dio thought as his clothes and body were being subjected to the violent attacks.

The attack wasn’t done as Zeko slammed Dio into the earth four more times. “Tōtsū, tōtsu, tōtsū, tōtsū!” On the final impact Zeko punted Dio into the air, sending him crashing into a building. “There, I’m useless and you’re in pain.” He turned around and started to walk away on all fours but as he walked off he was struck in the back of his head and knocked to the ground. Dio was back and missing his orange jacket, leaving him aim a black sleeveless shirt, and to Zeko’s irritation he wasn’t injured.

“You didn’t think it was over did you? This will be the nail in your coffin! Once more The World!” Time slowed to a standstill right as Zeko turned over. “One second has passed.” Dio took to the air. “Two seconds.” This time Zeko was able to see Dio’s movements but had no clue as to what he was saying.

“This time I’m aware of what happened, and I think I get it now. I can’t kill him unless I kill his World, he just regenerates but his hands are still wounded from what I did earlier...”

“Five seconds.”

“Whatever he does, I’ll be ready when time resumes. A large shadow appeared over Zeko’s body. “Oh God!”

Dio came from above with a relatively small brick house his his hands. “I’m going to crush you!” The building landed on Zeko without resistance. “Time to die brat!”

“MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA!” The World joined in on slamming the roof of the building repeatedly.

“Six seconds! Die!” He hit the building one last time, embedding it into the very ground. “Seven seconds, time resumes again.” The rain continued and the house thudded into the ground. Dio smiled at his apparent victory. “With the strength he had, drinking his blood would put me far past the puppet master!” The sound of something breaking in the house made Dio pause and put his ear to the roof. “What was-“ Zeko’s tail came through and snaked its way around Dio’s arms and waist, preventing any resistance. The appendage separated from its owner, allowing him to break through the roof and make it known to Dio that his sand prevented any external damage.

“That hurt but this sand isn’t gonna be stopped by one building.” Hands made of sand came from Zeko’s back and grabbed the bound fighter.

“I still have The World to fight with brat!” The stand came out but Zeko grabbed it around the torso and stopped it from moving. “I-I can’t call it back...” Dio tried to call his stand back but to no avail, it was trapped in Zeko’s grasp.

“I’m guessing that he can’t be too far from you so this’ll be quick!” Zeko jumped into the air with Dio being held above his back and The World in his claws over his head. “Burying Liger Bomb!” He crashed The World into the ground back first, cracks formed along its back and broke open revealing beams of light under its “skin” this happened to Dio as well.

“NO! I AM THE IMMORTAL VAMPIRE, DIO!” The vampire screeched as his upper body exploded in a burst of blue fire, leaving only his legs with flames coming from them.

“A vampire huh? Makes sense since he kept getting back up.” Zeko buried the limbs in sand and started walking towards the castle of the two sisters. “I’m tossing those into sunlight when it’s daytime again. Good grief first a horde of zombies and a blonde vampire, what’s next for this bizarre day?”

=======

Arc 6 Finale: Hero of Virtue (2/2)

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Arc 7: Mysteries (Arrival)

(Moving Train)
(5 days later)

Hunter was sitting at a table on the train, trying to read a newspaper but his surroundings didn’t give him the best opportunity.

“Sign my card?!” A green and blue unicorn pleaded

“Sign my shirt!”A blue Pegasus said

“Sign my cutie mark?!” The tallest of the trio, an earth pony, requested.

Three young mares were swarming him and asking him for autographs. “I guess that’s A-Rank for you...” The few surroundings passengers took note of the activity and marveled at the guild member but didn’t go as far as the mares, a majority of the passengers were located in boxcars further back So Hunter was lucky in that aspect but still didn’t appreciate the attention.

The rear door opened and revealed an earth pony that was around five and a half feet tall with azure fur, dark eyes, a slender build and long white hair that ran down their shoulders to their upper back. They were wearing a kimono like Zeko’s but it was a dull silver and of course they were barehoof. The figure walked over to Hunter’s table and jumped over the excited mares and landed on the vinyl seat. “Excuse you! That’s Crescent Hunter you just sat across from! We’ve been waiting for our autographs so beat it girl!” The Pegasus said threateningly, while looming over the offender.

Before the earth pony could open their mouth Hunter decided to speak up. “Blue Dart is my friend and he’s a B-rank member of the Golden Blade.”

“That’s a boy? But he’s wearing the same robes that human boy designed for mares.” Blue Dart’s head was against the table and his face was showing dejection.

“He’s small for an earth pony and his mane is too long for a stallion, are you sure that’s not a mare?” The unicorn felt Dart’s hair and noted that it was particularly silky and well kept. “Unless his herd mothers take good care of him I can’t see why it’d be like this.”

“They just ignored my ranking and that we’re friends...” The azure stallion managed with a defeated tone.

“Well we’ve never heard of somepony like you, how do we know you aren’t just-“

“I think you girls should leave.” Hunter got their attention away from Dart. “He might be a lower rank than me but he can beat me in a fight.” Eyes widened and the mares walked away leaving the pair alone.

“Thanks, so why are we staying in-“

“Manehattan.”

“Right, why are we going into that city?” Hunter pulled out a piece of paper.

“Three days ago some weird activity started in the suburbs; some robberies without trace of who did it, and supposedly some bad luck hexes. There’s also been reports of ponies going missing but that’s been happening for months now.” Hunter shook his head at the statement while Blue Dart looked out the window

“Luck isn’t really a thing but that still sounds weird and how can anypony not mind missing ponies? Seems crazy to me. So why couldn’t you take that Zeko guy?” Dart laid back in his seat and looked curious at why he was brought along.

“Apparently something big happened in Ponyville and then part of the Everfree Forest got burned down so he stayed to fix it. He said he’d just train on his own while I was here since it’d be safer.”

“So tell me more about the rank system, I got put straight into B-rank but it goes down to D and up to S.”

“Well the ranks were made to place everypony accordingly. I’m an A-rank because I’m strong and smart, plus I worked hard and show up when there’s trouble. To rise through the ranks you need to complete missions and gain public attention but-“

“Since I’ve only been around for a couple of months and haven’t done too many missions...” Blue Dart leaned forward

“You’re in the lower half of B-rank. There’s about fifty in S-rank, almost one hundred in A-rank, more than five hundred in B-rank, and ranks C and D are tied at eight hundred.”

Blue Dart was flabbergasted at the numbers but shook his head and got up. “I’m going to take a nap.” He started back to the door he came in through, passing the pointing and whispering mares.

“He can’t be a B-rank, he’s too small for an earth pony. What could he do?” The unicorn said as Dart walked by.

The Pegasus eyed him as he left. “I don’t know but why would an A-rank be friends with him if he wasn’t?”

Blue Dart walked to the sleeper car and laid down on his bunk which was conveniently above Hunter’s. He closed his eyes and rested while thinking about where they were going. “I don’t like big cities though, glad that we’ll be in the suburbs.” The train went on and traversed through stretches of plains and small forests before reaching the outskirts of Manehattan after a few hours. The large buildings and crowds were overwhelming to the pair as they stepped off of the train with their luggage in hand.

“Busy isn’t it?” Hunter joked as they left the crowded station. Walking down a busy street they bumped into others constantly to Dart’s irritation. “You don’t have to deal with it for much longer as a matter of fact...” He took a slip of paper from his pocket and handed it to Dart. “Here’s the address, just hang around for a while and come by sunset.” Hunter walked through the crowd and got attention once a few pointed recognized his face and drew attention towards him, allowing Dart to slip into an alley.

“That worked...” He walked out and ended up next to a market and decided to go inside. “I wonder if...” He walked towards the produce section and found, “Tomatoes!” He grabbed two and went to buy them, taking out his pouch of bits in the process and not noticing the looks he’d gotten from a teenage unicorn colt by the door. He walked out while eating one of the tomatoes and marveled at the massive buildings surrounding him, wondering how look they took to create.

“Oh sorry!” The colt from before bumped into Dart’s side and continued walking. Dart continued down the quiet sidewalk before taking a bite of his tomato and turning around.

“I’m not just gonna let him get away with that am I?”

==============================
(15 minutes later)

The colt was in an alley with two other figures. “I got your payment...” He said to a pair of tall Pegasus stallions.

The slimmer one shook the pouch some and opened it. “This it? Might be good for a week but I don’t know...”

“Wha- You said if I got you two hundred bits my mom would be safe!” The colt moved forward but ended up with a fist in his stomach. He fell to the ground wheezing and the more solid stallion put his hoof on the colt’s head.

“Look kid, you should’ve known it’d be hard to pay back your debt and that little stunt you just tried to pull might make me-“ A cough broke him off and the malicious pair looked and saw a feminine figure with long white hair. “Well well, hey there cutie. You wanna come here with us?” The figure walked closer and revealed their face.

“A pretty mare too... Don’t worry we’ll take good care of you.” The stallions walked towards the kimono clad figure, not being aware of the danger they were in. The larger stallion reached out and grabbed air. “Wait wha- Agh!” Blue Dart’s hoof connected to the stallions back

“Should I mention that I’m a stallion?” He chopped the muscular stallion’s neck and sent him to the ground unconscious. “Kid you ok?”

“Y-Yeah I’m fine, I’m sorry for what I did but they would’ve hurt my mom if I didn’t keep paying them.”

Blue Dart walked over to the conscious stallion and took his pouch back. “We’ll find out who you are and I’ll break your legs for this.” Dart pulled out his other tomato and started eating and suddenly kicked the downed stallion’s head, knocking him out.

“That’s if you can catch me, hey kid you wanna come eat at my place? Your mom probably told you not to accept stuff from strangers but it’s an offer.” Dart walked out of the alleyway and picked his suitcase up. As he walked through the streets he saw that the colt was following him and decided to slow down so he could catch up.

“I’m Gleaning Coin, and how’d you move so fast back there?” The colt inquired. “It couldn’t have been a spell since only us unicorns can do that.”

Dart finished the last of his tomato before answering. “I’m Blue Dart and I move like that by using magic. Yeah unicorns can use spells and stuff but us earth ponies are physically in tune with magic so if you learn how, you can be the Azure Flash like me.”

“Wait...” Coin inquired. “The B-rank member of the Gold Blade?! I’m so sorry I tried to-“

“Speaking of...” Dart looked back. “How’d you get my pouch away? My pockets are under the kimono so how did you get it?”

“That’s... a long story... Something changed my magic a few days ago and now...” His horn glowed and created a shirtless child sized version of himself, with yellow fur and baggy brown pants. “He’s been calling himself Yellow Haze and he can just take things from others.”

“Do you have any orders for me?” Yellow Haze asked and when he didn’t get a response he vanished.

“Hmm, Hunter would have to hear about this.” The two walked for a few minutes and came upon a suburban neighborhood, looking at the address Dart saw that the dwelling he’d stay at was moderately sized and had a small garden in front. “Hunter I’m back and I brought a guest!”

“Good thing I was just setting the table. I’m lucky I had time to get to a market, this is your guest?”

“He might know something about what’s been going on here.” Dart elaborated as he put his luggage on a couch and looked at the second floor. Dart told Hunter about Yellow Haze and its ability to procure objects.

“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about any robberies around here would you?”

Gleaning Coin looked as nervous as a spider in a frog convention before looking at Hunter. “Well the thing is...”

“We’re all ears kid, dinner’s being served now so we’ve got time.” Dart pointed to Hunter holding a large pot of soup with three bowls and a ladle.

“A month ago these strange ponies came to my house and told my mom that she was running out of time to pay back my dad’s debt, but they were different than the ones he had dealt with before.” Coin took a break to try the soup and found it to be better than what he was used to. “This is good!”

“It’s just my recipe, it isn’t that special. When’s the last time you ate good food?” Hunter inquired but Coin’s smile faded at the question.

“That’s apart of it... The ponies told my mom that I’d have to help her pay them back, I used to help with labor at the docks but a few days ago one of them stabbed me with a needle with some green stuff in it. Later that day I made Yellow Haze for the first time and showed him to my mom, she freaked out but once she realized he was just my magic she calmed down. Here’s where it gets bad...” Dart and Hunter listened attentively while they ate. “Not long after that those two you beat up came and took me to the docks and had me test what Yellow Haze could do-“

“Do you have an order?” The one in particular made himself present and floated beside his creator.

“His ability was to teleport any object that was up to my size, he just had to touch it at least once and could get it back.” Yellow Haze produced Dart’s bit pouch as an example but it was taken back.

“And this is where they made you steal bit purses and pouches?” Dart asked as he got another helping of soup.

“We managed to get some good hauls by going to jewelry stores but I didn’t get to keep any of the profit. It was almost like my dad’s debt was just growing and growing... I figured them giving me Yellow Haze was a part of it.”

Hunter leaned over and handed him a slip of paper. “Now if there were any others with abilities like yours write down their names and if you can, their actual abilities would be helpful.”

He looked around for a moment before looking at the pair of high ranked mercenaries. “Can you promise that my mom will be safe?”

“Kid if I couldn’t make sure one pony was safe why would I be in the Golden Blade anyway?” Hunter looked at him disapprovingly

“Yes we can promise you that your mother will be safe.”

“I don’t know any names aside from those two Dart beat up and they were normal but I know that their boss has something called ‘The Devourer’ it can eat anything in its way but supposedly can only eat so much at a time.”

Dart got up and took his bowl to the kitchen. “Well it’s better than not knowing anything.” He said as he came back.

“There’s also rumor about where the green stuff came from but it didn’t make sense so we just stopped talking about it. Something about the Black Talon and things called... changelings? But we stopped talking about it fast when the boss told us to drop it.”

“That’s something... Either way we’ll do our best to solve this.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask... why are you wearing the same outfit my mom ordered like two weeks ago?”

“The kimono comes to my thighs! And you’re supposed to wear pants underneath! That’s what that Zeko guy told everypony but why am I the only one who can listen?!” Dart has his head against the table in anguish while Coin looked somewhat scared

“He does this when he feels like he made a bad choice but we can most definitely help you with your problem, if you want you can tell your mom she has our support.”

“Really?! That’s so cool! I’ll do my best to help!”

“Is that a command? Must we retrieve an object?”

“No Yellow Haze, but we have help now.”

The small being of magic stood with his arms crossed before shrugging. “It won’t matter, the boss has an incredibly powerful magical projection. We’re out of our league.”

They all looked at the surprisingly pessimistic being before Dart decided to speak up. “That’s not very helpful.”

=======

Author's Note

I think the name fits for this arc. We’re taking a short break from just Zeko and seeing how what transpires affects ponykind.
Like if you enjoy and if you don’t try to tell why otherwise you’re not helping anyone.

And I’d like to thank all of you for:
Over 100k words
Almost 25k views
You’ve all been great supporters of this and I never thanked you before

See you next time

Arc 7: Mysteries (Experience)

(Manehattan)
(3 days later)

Blue Dart and Gleaning Coin were walking through the streets at night, almost aimlessly. “I’m still in total denial that she was your mom.”

“Can you not keep talking about it?” The teenager pleaded but Dart only remembered to earlier that evening.

(Flashback)

“This should be his house... I guess that poor here isn’t really that bad.” Dart gazed at the decent looking dwelling that had a well done paint job and an overall clean appearance, even noticing a cellar door despite the lack of a second floor. He knocked on the door three times and heard hoofsteps from inside.

“Hello?” The door parted and revealed a mare who looked as if she were in her early twenties. “Are you Coin’s marefriend?” Dart’s head dropped and he smiled sadly

“I’m his friend... and I’m a stallion.” She walked out of the doorway and gazed at Dart, she revealed that she was wearing a white blouse and black pants. She was taller than him by a few inches, which surprised Blue Dart since unicorns aren’t as big as earth ponies.

She gained a predatory look in her eyes and leaned against the door frame. “You really are a stallion, well can I interest you in a warm drink? I’d enjoy the company since I’ve been so lonely since my husband disappeared all those months ago...” She gave a sultry smile and beckoned Dart who managed to keep a solid expression but it was cracking quickly.

“MOM!” At a nearly blinding speed, Gleaning Coin pulled his mother back into the house and shut the door leaving him outside with Blue Dart. “Don’t say anything! She’s been like this for a while now... Ever since my dad-“

(Current time)

“Hello?!” Coin exclaimed and shook Blue Dart’s arm and brought him back into current time.

“Huh? What happened? Why are you touching my arm?”

Coin carefully pointed behind himself so their followers wouldn’t notice and when Dart looked back he saw six different stallions following them, with the same two he’d beaten down a few days prior. “Perfect timing, down this way.” They turned and started walking down an empty street.

Coin looked nervous as the figures followed them down the street, the one in the back being the most noticeable since he was taller than the others and had a horn. “S-So what’s the plan here? You just told me we were going to lure them out but how are we supposed to win?”

“Hey pansy!” Coin looked back and saw the two stallions he knew pointing at Dart, who was standing there with a look of disbelief. “I’m not a liar and I’m about to show you that.” He referred to his threat from before and his group pulled out pipes and knives. Coin managed to get through his newfound fear and made Yellow Haze emerge.

“Hello master, do you have any orders?”

“Just protect us!” The projection crossed his arms as the grunts headed for them while the unicorn stood back.

“Hah!” The first one swung for Dart but missed and embedded his pipe into the brick wall of a building, before he could remove it Dart appeared by his side. “Oh-“ His head was smashed against the wall and he was rendered unconscious.

“Gotcha!” A grunt got Blue Dart from behind and put his pipe to his neck, cutting off his air supply. “One o’ you come here and kill him!” Dart hit his attacker in the head and tried to pry the arm away but didn’t have enough leverage. “Nice try but- Wait why is he so cold?” Before another grunt could help him the pipe disappeared. “What?!”

“Yellow Haze: Recovery! I’ll be needing this!” The magical projection used the blunt object and swung it at a knife wielder’s hand and broke his fingers.

“MY HAND!” Yellow Haze spun and smacked the pipe into the wounded assailant’s head, sending him to the ground unconscious.

“These ones don’t seem all that strong master-“ Yellow Haze stopped to appear behind Coin and block an oncoming strike. “We should worry about the one in back.” Coin looked back and saw the unicorn throw his coat away and reveal a black shirt with long sleeves that matched his dark pants.

At this point Dart had just thrown the one who had him a grapple into another and put them both out of the way. “Looks like you just took down most of my crew.” He spoke in a voice that didn’t fit his size since he sounded young, only a few years older than Gleaning Coin. “So I guess we’re gonna have to do this the hard way kid.” His horn began to glow a purple color and a silhouette as large as him began to form. Yellow Haze threw the pipe at the remaining stallion and hit him square on the nose, making him retreat behind the unicorn.

“Fine then you can stay behind me.” The silhouette became more and more detailed

Blue Dart stood at Yellow Haze’s side and looked between the small being and the large figure. “Hey Yellow Haze-“ The Yellow child-like being looked to his side. “You wouldn’t be able to gauge his power would you?”

“Hmm...” He contemplated as the shadowy figure formed and stood beside its creator. “The enemy has an immense amount of power so I’m not sure that we can win this, we’re out of l-u-c-k...”

The magical projection revealed itself to have brownish fur much like its creator and had no defining clothing aside from silver plated armor on its chest, knees, and along its arms. It also wore a crimson scarf. “This is Infest, he’s way better than your little Specter.”

“So they’re called Specters?” Blue Dart asked right before Infest charged him and threw a punch that connected with his forearms. “Woah! It feels like he hit me with a brick!” Dart pushed the Specter’s arms aside and landed a kick to Infest’s side, stunning him.

“Chaa!” Infest recovered and started an unyielding barrage of strikes to Dart, luckily the stallion managed to put his guard up and block the oncoming strikes.

“If you keep blocking then your arms’ll end up broken. Infest hits as hard as a speeding cart!” The dark being pulled its right arm back and slammed it into Dart’s, a cracking sound followed after.

“Blue Dart!” Coin exclaimed while Yellow Haze put his hands together.

“Primary ability activated, Yellow Haze: Rift!” The small Specter separates his hands and a rift appeared behind Blue Dart, he was pulled away from an oncoming strike for his head and landed next to Gleaning Coin.

“Wait what? Yellow Haze what was that?”

“Well master when I teleport an object it transfers through my pocket space, your desire to save your friend let me activate it so I made a portal and pulled your friend to us... It seems we’re in l-u-c-k.”

“You guys are pretty good, might as well introduce myself before I break you both. I’m Deep Shadow so remember that before you’re in comas. Infest!” The Specter turned its head. “Use Last Resort!”

“Infest: Last Resort.” He spoke with an echo and raised his hands, his nails grew and sharpened. “You will lose...” He stabbed his sides to the surprise of Blue Dart and Gleaning Coin. When he removed his hands they were coated in blood but the attack came from the Specter chopping the air and sending two blade like streaks out.

“MOVE!” Dart jumped out of the way while Yellow Haze moved Coin while the blades of blood impacted with the wall behind them and carved straight through the brick, leaving a clean slice.

“Last Resort is what Infest does to end a fight, he can use his nails to turn any liquid into a weapon like those blades. I can even have him use his blood but the cost is-“ He paused and his horn sparked while Infest shook. “It’s harder to keep him active.”

“Dart? What do we do now? We can’t stay far away but he broke your arm up close!”

Blue Dart only smirked and cracked his neck. “He broke my arm because I focused on defending until I knew what he could do... Now I can fight Infest no problem.” The stallion and the Specter charged and began their clash while Coin, Yellow Haze and Deep Shadow watched on. “Let’s go!”

“Agreed...” Infest replied as Blue Dart began his assault.

*Clang* A solid right hook

*Clang* An elbow drive

*Clang*

And a backwards roundhouse kick all connected with the guards on Infest’s arms. “He’s keeping his guard up now...” Infest started its own attack and prepared its sharpened nails. “Uh oh!”

*Clang*

Dart hit the plating on Infest’s forearm and bounced the oncoming strike. He aimed a hit for the Specter’s side but it jumped and lashed with its nails.

*Clang*

Deflected again, the two faced each other...

*Clang*

They clashed fist to fist and struggled to push the other back, neither gave way and both started to form grooves in the concrete sidewalk, somehow nopony was around to witness the clash but that didn’t make a difference to Blue Dart or Infest since they were both smiling. Infest broke the struggle and used a low sweep kick to knock Dart into the air. “Woah!”

“Dart!” Coin and Yellow Haze prepared to jump in but didn’t get a chance.

*Thud*

Blue Dart was petite by all means and against the Specter didn’t appear as if he’d have a chance physically but forgetting that he was still an earth stallion was Deep Shadow’s mistake, because while he was in the air he spun and bucked Infest in the jaw with everything he’d had. “Nice try... But I’m too good for that.” Infest was sent crashing into Shadow but once the Specter made contact he was pulled into his horn.

“Agh! You actually beat Infest?!” Shadow clutched the sides of his head. “My head! This hurts so bad...” He fell backwards and hit the ground motionless.

“It seems that we were able to win today, we truly have luck master.” Yellow Haze vanished while Gleaning Coin walked up to Shadow and checked his pockets and found an ID card.

“Wait, he’s only fifteen? I thought he was a grown stallion!”

“That changes things...” Blue Dart thought, but he snapped out of it and looked around. “Where’d the other stallion go?!”

===================================
(Two days later)

A steady beeping sound filled the room while a calming breeze came in from the opened window and a semi conscious figure stirred in bed. “My... head... Somepony stop that ringing...” Deep Shadow murmured as he tried to move but only had migraines come to him.

“Considering Infest returned to you so forcefully I can see why the resonance would leave you like this.” Shadow’s eyes opened wide once he heard a voice and he saw none other than Gleaning Coin, Blue Dart and a stallion he quickly identified as

“Crescent Hunter?!” Shadow took a moment to think about why these three were here before he came to his conclusion and quickly called Infest.

“I wouldn’t do that... there’s three of us now and my arm isn’t broken this time.” Shadow looked at Dart’s arm and saw that it was in fact fully recovered despite having nearly felt the bones being crushed by his Specter. “Look we just want any information you might have and-“

“Not happening.” Shadow interrupted. “I’m not telling you guys a thing, I’ve got way too much to think about keeping safe than to-“

“What then?” Hunter asked calmly. “What do you have to keep safe?”

The question almost seemed to give Deep Shadow a mental lapse but he refocused and looked back towards them. “I have to protect my family pride...”

Surprisingly it was Gleaning Coin who got up and walked over to the tall teenager and looked at him accusingly.

*Smack*

Before a red handprint made its way onto his face. “REALLY?! Family pride is why you’re up to this?!” He yelled as Dart pulled him away, kicking and ranting.

“You don’t understand...” Shadow looked downwards. “About six years ago my sister went missing in this city and ponies just wanted to call it an accident... I knew something happened to her and since then I’ve been doing my best to figure out what. The boss promised me he’d do his best to help me if I help him.”

“You got injected with that stuff so you could avenge your sister? I’ll admit that’s pretty bold but do you really think that you’re the only one who has problems?” Blue Dart asked.

“What do you mean? Nopony else has to deal with my issues.”

Coin was standing up again. “The guys I worked for, you get help from, keep me and my mom in an endless chain of debt and they do it to plenty of others too. They’re greedy and don’t care about us, I’m almost willing to bet that he’s got no idea of what happened to your sister and he’s waiting to stab you in the back.”

To say that Shadow looked angry would be an understatement but to say it was hiding growing sadness would be a good observation. The more the young stallion thought about it he realized that Coin was right, the group never gave him any form of assistance when it came to finding out what happened to his sister and when he fully realized this he let a tear fall down his cheek. “So now what can I do?” He looked up to see the three of them with fists outstretched

“You can give us a fist bump and not be a lump. Then tag along with us to take the boss down, help Coin’s mom, and find out what happened to your sister.” Dart said with a smile.

Shadow made a full one eighty and went from dejected to ecstatic and quickly fist bumped the others simultaneously. “Alright! If it’ll give my sister peace and restore my honor for being tricked so long...” He got up slowly while rubbing his head but seemed to be ok. “Then I’m all for helping you guys.” He threw off his hospital robe and put the clothes he had beside the bed back on. “So what do we do first?”

“We work our way up to the boss, while looking for clues about your sister’s disappearance... At least that’s what a detective would say.” Dart said while Hunter rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“Well I suppose this is going to go well... but not for me.”

=======

Author's Note

I know what I did here... who else can point it out?

See you next time

Arc 7: Mysteries (Average day?)

(Gleaning Coin’s House)
(A week later)

There was a knocking on the door that interrupted the quiet of the house that morning. “I’ll get it!” Coin’s mom said as she walked to the door and slowly opened it.

“Hey Coin you ready to- Woah!” Deep Shadow stopped himself once a mare made herself known to him.

“Oh are you another one of my son’s friends?” Shadow nodded and looked off nervously, he held his notebook in his hand and his black uniform revealed why he was here. “Well if you’re going to school together than he’ll only take a second.” She turned and looked upwards toward the staircase but the nervousness that Deep Shadow had would be replaced with pain, “GLEANING COIN GET DOWN HERE NOW! You have a friend waiting.” A crashing sound happens at the end of the yelling and Gleaning Coin quickly came down the stairs with a binder in his grip and was wearing a black uniform.

“I was coming already mom! Good thing I was cleaning Emerald’s tank or else she’d be mad that I dropped her.” The teenage colt explained as he hi-fived his massive friend. “How’d you get here so fast?” Coin asked as his mother rubbed his head affectionately.

Deep Shadow pointed down the street towards a large manor with a brick wall topped with a fence surrounding the land and a single mare was visible watering plants. “My family lives right there. Since my dad and herd mothers have so much combined we can afford it.”

The duo waved to the mare and walked down the sidewalk towards their destination.

==============================
The odd pair walked for about ten minutes and were back into the city as they navigated the near empty early morning streets. “I’m glad that the break’s over, I miss seeing my friends.” Coin sighed. “But it’s stupid that the break ends on a Friday, why not make it Monday?”

“I don’t know and I don’t really have any friends... but I can still hang out with you and those other two stallions. It’s hard to believe we’re in the same year but never met until now-“

“SOMEPONY HELP!” A scream rang from a small crowd in front of a shop. The teenagers raced to the scene and saw two officers behind a barricade with a dozen ponies behind them, all staring at a stallion holding...

“Is that... Silver Star?!” Coin pointed at the captive who was a Pegasus mare around his age with silver fur and a black uniform like his and Shadow’s.

“Nopony get any closer or I’ll break her neck!” The stallion’s eyes were frantic and unfocused. “I want all of the bits from this store and a safe way out of this city!” He held his captive higher in the air and looked at the officers.

“We need to do something!” Coin got closer to the barrier but was held back by Deep Shadow. “Why are you stopping me?”

“If you care about that girl then you’d think about it... in the time it’d take for you to use your Specter he’d hurt her... that’s why I’m using mine. I’ll show you later but there’s a way to make it so only we can see our Specters.”

“Hey sir come back! That’s a dangerous criminal!” An officer nearly yelled as Shadow jumped over the blockade and approached the stallion.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” His grip tightened. “I’ll kill her you know!”

Tears started coming from Silver Star’s eyes and she struggled to speak. “P-Please... G-Get b-b-back...” Shadow wasn’t deterred and walked until he was only three steps from the pair.

While Silver Star wept the stallion’s eye nearly clenched shut from anger and veins were popping out on his face. “You’ve got a pair but it looks like your parents raised an idiot!” Shadow froze at the proclamation and a dark aura appeared around him, but only Coin could see even a trace of it while everypony else watched on in horror.

“You mind saying that again?”

“Your parents must not know how to raise their hands if you’re dumb enough to come up to me.” He held Silver Star closer and tightened his grip.

“Kid get back before he snaps!” An officer yelled

“You stay back before I break this filly!”

“You can say whatever you want about me but...” Infest formed fully with a dark cowl over his head.

“You should’ve listened because I’m gonna kill this girl right now!” He screeched and brought his other arm over.

Silver Star grew more frantic and struggled to get away while pleading for her life. “No! P-Please don’t!”

Shadow had a dark look on his face as Infest stood beside him, an evil smile under the Specter’s cowl. “My parents worked hard for what they have and we even lost my sister... And despite everything they keep smiles on their faces so anypony who disrespects them...” Infest appeared behind the stallion with a hand cocked back.

“We don’t forgive!”

“What?” The stallion heard a voice but a sudden pain deep in his torso stopped him before he could react. “Wha-“ Shadow walked closer and pulled Silver Star away.

“What’d you do to him?” Coin asked as Shadow walked back to him, allowing Silver Star to run to him and cry onto his shoulder.

“AAAH! M-MY CHEST!” There were sharp points pressing against the inside of the stallion’s chest, almost breaking through but not quite. The officers moved in and apprehended the stallion.

“You took him down in like ten seconds! How didn’t he see Infest?” At this point the officers gave Silver Star a blanket and lead her to an ambulance. “I could’ve sworn that anypony can see Specters so how?”

Shadow snickered and held a cocky pose with a finger beneath his chin. “Well it’s all about- Huh?!” An officer tackled Shadow and pinned him to the ground. “Wait what’s going on? I’m the hero here!”

“We’re apprehending you kid!”

“You should’ve stayed back when we told you!” They struggled on the ground while Gleaning Coin looked off at the rooftop of a skyscraper.

“Is that...?”

“Gleaning!” Coin snapped back and saw a handcuffed Shadow being put into a horse drawn carriage. “Call Blue Dart or Hunter!” The door was shut and the carriage pulled off to a police station.

“Great start for today...”

===

On that rooftop there were four figures clad in black or deep red skintight clothing, three were griffins while the other figure was a mare. “So Titus you think the rumor’s true?”

“I don’t know True Shot... supposedly the Blue Dart guy showed up around the same time so they’re probably friends.” Titus answered while the male Griffin shakily walked forward.

“If it helps me get my revenge and end the blood contract then I’ll take it. We didn’t get that blood from the Changeling agents for nothing and I definitely didn’t make sure to distribute it around Equestria to not draw him out. Gale!”

The female griffin stepped forward with a canister in her hand. “I’m here Kanek, I’ve got the medicine.” She took a salve from the container and rubbed it against the clothing on his leg and arm, the bluish paste quickly absorbed into the material.

True Shot laughed while Titus shook his head. “Hard to believe you got beat Kanek, and so badly at that. It’s a shame what happened to Rhyken though.” Titus would’ve taken what he said back but the pain from a clenched talon hitting him in the face took any chances of that away.

“We aren’t here to talk about the past, we’re here to lure that... huumain and bring him before the council. It seems we only have those two ponies here to see what we’ve done so I want you two to stick around until he shows.”

True Shot helped Titus up, making sure his beak wasn’t cracked in the process. “Why are we still after this guy? He’s just defending himself from what I hear!”

“I’m curious too since he’s not trying to hunt us or anything.”

“You idiots! You think that’s not his plan? He wants to make us think we’re safe and then get rid of us... we are the Red Claw! Every major political figure hires us to get a job done except that Princess, and she’s probably pulling his strings... he might just be a familiar she summoned, regardless we aren’t taking that chance.” Kanek turned and stepped on a cloud and floated away with Gust flying behind him, leaving Titus and True Shot alone.

“They say good ponies keep good company right?” True Shot asked

“Um...”

“So Hunter and that Blue Dart guy both know the kid so why not ask them?” Titus stood up straight and looked around before asking a simple question.

“How do we get down from here?”

==============================

Blue Dart was standing in a cellblock with his arms crossed, Gleaning Coin next to him while Deep Shadow was behind a set of iron bars. “So you got in the way of police business and you’re surprised they arrested you. Why didn’t you just use Infest from behind the blockade?”

“I can’t!”

“What do mean you can’t?”

“From what they told me, there’s different types of Specters and Infest is close ranged, he’s made to punch. The farthest I’ve got him was twelve feet away then I get dizzy.”

Coin brought out Yellow Haze, who floated on his back. “But Yellow Haze can fight and I got him to hang back when we fought.”

“Maybe he’s not a close ranged Specter...” Dart added

Shadow sat up as a guard came and unlocked the door. “Yer free to go kid, Mr. Dart settled everything here but next time leave the police work to the police.”

The group walked out of the holding area and regrouped outside. “There’s close range, long range, augment and object Specters. Close and long range are opposites since one punches and the other shoots but augment is dangerous since it can change somepony or its surroundings and object Specters just exist and the pony it’s attached to can make it do crazy stuff.”

“So Yellow Haze is an augment, then out of everypony in the gang who has what?” Coin asked.

“Me and one other guy had close range and a mare had long range. This one stallion had an augment to turn you into a foal again and nopony has an object anymore since he fell off a crane. I don’t know if there’s anymore who got the injection so I’m guessing by now there might be.”

“What about the boss? You said his ‘devourer’ was able to eat so much but what type is it?” Dart questioned

Shadow decided to answer the question this time. “Nopony knows since they get eaten if they ask too much. The boss is smart so he doesn’t want- Wah!” Dart pulled him out of the street in the nick of time to avoid an oncoming carriage. The driver waved and smiled nervously while the passenger rolled the window down and revealed that he was a blonde unicorn stallion with a blue suit and a mare with a sun hat was next to him.

“Be more careful next time boys.” He spoke with a smooth voice. The window went up and the carriage began to move again while the trio continued to walk.

“It seems like a lot of crazy stuff’s going on recently. Wait what time is it?! Shadow we’re late!”

“Oh no! It’s the first day back and we’re late?!”

“Calm down guys I’ll write a note.” Dart produces a quill and paper and scribbled a message onto it and put a symbol at the bottom. “He- Ok?” The paper was snatched and the teenagers sprinted to school.

“We’ll see you later Mister Dart!” Coin yelled

==============================
(Sunset)

“They should have set up around here somewhere... so we need to figure out where.” True Shot said as she and Titus covertly exhamined the suburban neighborhood. Titus managed to peer through windows to find ether Blue Dart or Hunter but had no luck.

“Maybe we're in the wrong neighborhood... or maybe they know we’re looking for them?” He said ominously but got a glare from True Shot

“We need to find them and hear about that Zeko guy. What Kanek gave to Bright Inanis was way too much and if we don’t at least tell them what they’re in for then-“

“Why do you care so much? I guess I get not hearing both sides but why are we doing this for the enemy? If mistress Culina found out...” Titus gave his input as a cat ran across the street.

“I don’t trust Mistress Culina, and I know you don’t. Admit it, when you met her you thought she wasn’t telling us the whole story.”

Titus rubbed the back of his head and looked into another window from the ground. “Ok you got me but I think that just because she wants revenge for her daughter doesn’t make her a liar.”

“Mist was an arrogant mare who got carried into leading that team. She didn’t deserve the ranking! Whatever... you can do what you want but I’m gonna find some answers.” She resumed identifying potential houses while Titus shook his head. He continued to follow her and exhamine living situations to identify their target.

“You owe me a steak for this.”

===================================
(A few minutes into sunset)

(At 2:12 I’d hope you’ve made it to the climax))

“My ancestors migrated here hundreds of years ago and even watched Manehatten become what it is. Because of that I’ve lived here my whole life, been a nice quiet place to enjoy. Especially since I live just a short walk from the beach. I work at a nice little iron production company in upper management, I just handle business transactions and exchanges but it pays the bills and then some.” The blonde unicorn said to his partner as the carriage pulled into a street with large houses and villas. “But since my mother and father passed I’ve lived alone and come to enjoy solitude but occasionally I’ve had guests such as yourself.”

“Just ahead sir?” The driver asked

“Mm hm.”

“Ok.” He pulled the reins and turned the horses next to a gate to a modest villa with a tree in front. Ten foot walls surrounded the building allowing privacy.

“I suppose this is the end of our ride.” He opened his door and stepped out, walking around to his partner’s door and opening it all with a friendly smile. “No need to be nervous now... I even bought you a nice hat to go with your dress.” He took her hand and she stepped out with a fine bag slung over her shoulder and a neat white dress.

The driver looked back at them. “Not to intrude but-“ A small pouch of bits was tossed to him he tipped his hat and lashed the reins, leaving.” The pair walked past the gate and the stallion closed it behind him, the gate was wooden and allowed even more privacy.

“Now then... we can enjoy our weekend...” He took off her sun hat and revealed she...

Was missing her head...

She slumped but his magic stopped her. “Woah now!” She straightened and stood as if she were alive again “Almost lost you there. Hm?” He looked at her bag and saw that blood had dropped onto it. “Oh now you’re making a mess, not very ladylike. Of course you’ll have to clean it.” He put a handkerchief in her hand and directed it to wipe the liquid away before staring at her chest. “The sad thing is that I’d forgotten your name but at this point why does that matter?” He withdrew her hand and the cloth. “All better. Now let’s enjoy ourselves for the evening hmm? I know how to make an amazing dinner.” He walked with the corpse into the house.

The outside of the gate had a name on it, reading... “Inanis”

=======

Author's Note

It should be obvious what I’m modeling here.
I think I’ve made the tension thick enough to cut with a steak knife. Any questions feel free to ask

Early upload since it was done today.
See you next time.

Arc 7: Mysteries (Old Bonds)

(Alleyway)
(A week later)

It was quite the scene in the alleyway, anything walking by would’ve stopped to stare or run altogether but our quad

“How does he have so many?! Yellow Haze!”

“Yellow Haze: Rift!” The Specter said as he opened a rift and pulled Gleaning Coin towards him as Blue Dart and Deep Shadow fended off a legion of bug like Specters.

“These things just keep coming! Where’s their user?! Infest: Last Resort.” The dark Specter used a nearby puddle as ammunition for its attack and sliced through a dozen of the offenders but even more sprang forward from seemingly nowhere.

Dart smashed his back against a wall to crush his attackers but more tried to climb onto his legs. “So this is what all that effort made itself to?”

(Flashback: Earlier that day)

“Well be glad it’s Wednesday already, how’s the density training been going?” Dart questioned to the uniform clad Colt

“I didn’t know I could change how tough Yellow Haze was so fast. You aren’t a unicorn so you might not understand.” Dart smirked at the statement.

“Try me, I know more about magic than the average unicorn.”

“So a horn works as a focus for magic and lets unicorns control what comes out, and these Specters are related to our talents which is why we can use different abilities. So by controlling the amount of magic I dispense instead of just pouring it all out lets Yellow Haze appear on a different spectrum so...” He looked at Blue Dart who just looked as if he was told everything in his life was a lie, his face was completely bland and had little to no emotion. “The point is I can control how much magic I put into Yellow Haze so he can be noticed by others with a Specter.”

“Alright I got that, then if Shadow learned this then how do we know that the boss can’t? Somepony has to show Shadow cause I don’t think he’s bright enough to figure that out on his own.” Coin stopped suddenly on the sidewalk and clutched his ribs. “You ok kid?”

“I-I don’t know! Chest just started to hurt!.” Dart lifted the colt’s uniform to the shock of the ponies around.

“I’m checking for a wound, get your minds out of the gutter!” They turned and went about their business while Dart saw a dribble of blood coming from Coin’s rib. “What is that?” A small munching sound was heard right before Dart pushed a pin into the hole and pulled out a bright blue maggot. “What in Tartarus is this thing?” Dart closed his hand and crushed the maggot but Coin exclaimed in shock.

“Wasps! Loads of wasps!” Coin pointed down the street at a massive horde of wasps and other insects that nopony noticed. “The Specter user is nearby... but how- Huh?!” Blue Dart took Coin’s hand and stood up.

“In a time like this I have to utilize an old trick I learned when I was even younger. My friend taught me this when we had to run from his sister.”

“What was the trick then? If it can help then let’s do it before they get here!”

“Hm, heh heh.” A hoof slammed against the ground. “RUN AWAY!” Dart sprinted with Coin in tow, dangling in the air like a ribbon in a bird’s talon.

While the two departed the nearby citizens noticed the odd behavior but only two were able to see the horde. “Looks like this’ll be fun.”

==============================

“This is really good! I gotta bring Gleaning Coin next time!” Deep Shadow was sitting outside of a cafe under a parasol enjoying a plate of pasta. “So they should be at- What the?” Past the retail buildings just up the street Shadow could make out two figures running towards him. “Is that? Hey guys!” He waved them down but noticed the dark cloud that none of the pedestrians seemed to notice directly behind them and he saw that their clothes were being torn by the cloud.

“Shadow run!” Coin Yelled as he sprinted just ahead of Dart. The two got closer and closer while Shadow stood still. “What’s he doing?! He’s gonna get himself torn apart!”

“This better go like he’s planning!” Dart grabbed Coin again and burst towards Shadow a flash of blue and dull yellow courtesy of Gleaning Coin.

“Infest: Last Resort!” The dark Specter emerged and used Shadow’s drink to coat its nails. At that time Dart and a now nauseous Gleaning Coin appeared just behind the table.

“Now’d be a good time!”

“Ok, don’t need to rush me.” Infest threw the liquid at the cloud where it expanded and formed a large bag shape, capturing the insects. “Problem solved. So now we need to figure out where-“ Shadow dropped to the ground, there was a grey centipede on his back and two bite marks on his neck

“Of course!” Dart kicked the creature away as Infest disappeared along with its improvised net. “Alright fine! Time for the flash...” Dart crouched down and before Coin could ask, the cloud of insects was being blitzed by a streaks of blue that were so fast that sparks of electricity were created and shocked the bugs, getting rid of most of them. “That’s how it’s done, let’s find who did this before any more show up.”

He slung Shadow over his shoulder and walked in the direction they came from leaving more confused ponies, including Coin, behind . A few moments later Coin broke his state of shock and followed the Stallion. “Hang on, how’d you do that? That was storm magic and only the best unicorns know it... you’re an earth pony!”

“It wasn’t magic that made the lightning. I was moving so fast that the friction made static against my fur, now we need to-“

“What happened... why does my neck hurt?” Shadow said as he struggled to stand on his own.

“Specter with insects.” Dart crushed a wasp as it flew for his eyes but was pulled away by Yellow Haze.

“I can’t deny that you three are the strangest group.” A feminine voice rang when the ground suddenly split and revealed a large cocoon. “I’d never thought somepony would find any way to best my Queen Bee and all her single ladies.” The cocoon split open and revealed an attractive mare with a small box like object in her hands, she opened it and revealed a nest made of grey material.

“But it looks like my Hard Knock is going to need to help here.” A stallion stood from a bench and pulled out a mirror. Five ponies stood in anticipation and in the time it took for a pin to fall from the mare’s hair and hit the ground a few things happened...

“Infest: Last Resort!”

“Yellow Haze: Rift!”

“Queen Bee: The Single Ladies!”

“Hard Knock: Life come forward!”

Blades of blood surged forward to slice through the stallion and mare but a cloud of hard shelled beetles managed to deflect the attack right before it reached its targets. At the same time the trio of good stallions were pulled into an alley by Yellow Haze right as a cloud of white dust headed towards them. The dust surrounded the beetles and turned their shells into mush, killing them. “Looks like luck wasn’t on their side but it can still change.”

The mare was visibly agitated at the loss of her armored beetles and threw a pebble at the stallion to show it. “Those are the hardest ones for Queen Bee to make!” She brought out a massive swarm of wasps, beetles, and centipedes.

“Sorry June Bug but I can’t control what type of luck Hard Knock gives, I can just give more of what somepony has.” The swarm followed the three into the alleyway while the pair stood back.

(Present time)

“That’s it, Infest is done!” Shadow resorted to smashing wasps with his own hands and stomping on centipedes but was getting overwhelmed.

“Master, I don’t run out of energy but we’ll be overwhelmed by these things soon. That one with the dust is familiar but I don’t know how...” Yellow Haze said as he used his rifts to move the clouds away from them.

“Mister Dart If you have a plan, it would really help!” Coin said as he held a biting centipede inches from his face. Dart was being stung and bit but didn’t show any pain from the violent assaults on his body, and instead was staring at a cloud of the oncoming attacker.

“So her Specter is one thing and it makes more...” He crouched down to the surprise of June Bug who saw him through her soldiers.

“There’s no way he can...”

“Azure Flash!” Dart turned into a streak and charged into the cloud, dispersing the insects with his personal electricity. June Bug on the other hand recognized the danger and brought up a wall of beetles but Dart made it to her before the Wall was up. “I’m the fastest stallion alive-“ He punched her in the cheek and sent her to the ground. “Don’t forget that while you’re in jail.”

“Hard Knock: Life For us!” The mirror created another white cloud but this time it stayed near its origin. “Now my good luck is even better. You can’t even hit me now.” Dart tried to land strikes on the cocky stallion but every time something would stop him be it a pigeon hitting his face, a steel bar falling from a roof or another pigeon.

“You can’t be serious!” Blue Dart drooped, exhausted from his overexertion

“And it looks like you’re tuckered out. Now I’m going to have to go now and since I’m at my luckiest you can’t follow-“

*Bzzm*

“Yellow Haze: Recovery”

“Hm?” The mirror in the stallion’s hand was pulled to Yellow Haze. “What?!”

“Looks like Gleaning Coin saves the day on this one, so tell us what you know.” Shadow cracked his knuckles at the proclamation.

“Like I’d- Wait... did you say Gleaning Coin?”

“Yes he did, now you might know him but you’re not going anywhere until-“ Dart was interrupted by the stallion walking towards Coin.

“Don’t you remember me? It’s me Lucky Break! I’m your uncle!” Jaws dropped at the statement and even the unconscious June Bug was groaning, whether it was out of surprise or pain was up for debate.

“Y-You’re what?! But how? I thought that...”

“I started working with this group just to try and pay off your father’s debt, how’s my sister been? She always was the one that would have a family, I’ve been a loner since I was... how old are you again?” He asked but at that point Coin wasn’t able to speak, and Shadow was panting from overusing Last Resort. Blue Dart stood up to question the stallion.

“So you’re the kid’s uncle? Then what do you know about the leader of this little mob?”

“All I know is that nopony who ever went against him came back alive but nopony knows who he really is.” Lucky uttered as Blue Dart picked Shadow up and supported him.

“He hasn’t met me yet, so what’s your plan? These two have been protected by me and my friend so-“

“As of today they’re with us again!” June was up and her Queen Bee wasn’t happy since it emerged from the nest and revealed its massive bee like form, save for the scorpion stinger and centipede pincers. “Queen Bee, kill him!”

“I can’t do anything without my- Mirror?” Lucky Break caught the mirror that Coin threw at him

“Do something to help him!” He yelled

“Hard Knock: Life For us!” A grey cloud came from the mirror and surrounded Blue Dart. “Kid now’s your best time!”

Dart threw a handful of concrete pieces at the insectoid monster. “Spiral dance.” Dart burst forward and struck Queen Bee in the face, side, and tail at the same time. Streaks of electricity appeared around the Specter, forming a sort of cage.

“Wait... he’s using the rocks to jump off of. But I need to help, he can’t beat that on his own.” Coin said

“Master. I suggest you attack the mare.” Coin nodded and charged at June, blindsiding her.

“What? Augh!” A hoof to the stomach made Queen Bee vanish, and sent the mare to the ground again.

“Wow, Coin you’re getting better at that stuff. Here I thought you were a goody goody two hooves.” Shadow recovered and made his point on his friend’s maturation. Dart nodded and pulled out a small blue crystal, tapped it and sent it to the air towards his home.

“Let’s get Hunter here so she can be taken care of, and Coin you should try catching up with your uncle. Might be good for later. Shadow I need you to carry me, using the flash puts me out for a while.” The teenager complained but after a promise of two course dinner decided to accept.

As they left pedestrians came to investigate the noises and saw that the alleyway was damaged and Coin was littered with scratches and his uniform was torn in some places. “My mom’s going to freak out when she sees this isn’t she?”

“What are you all looking at?! If you’re not calling the police then go away!” They all continued walking since the urban mentality was to let another deal with a problem. “I’m sure Sapphire Flare won’t mind... especially if I can vouch for you kid.” He gave a playful hit to Coin’s shoulder and the two started to walk back to Coin’s house

“How long has it been since you saw my mom?”

“How old are you? Because its been a while.”

“I’m sixteen now.”

“I was there when you were two... makes sense why you don’t remember. I barely remembered and I’m breaking fifty.”

“What?! How old is my mom then?”

Lucky Break looked up as if he were reminiscing and shuddered. “Take it from me you don’t want to ask.”

=======

Author's Note

Sorry it was later in the day, I passed out before I could upload it last night and lost it.

See you next time

Arc 7: Mysteries (Monster)

(Gleaning Coin’s House)
(3 weeks later)

“GLEANING COIN! ANSWER THAT DOOR NOW!” Sapphire Flare screamed from her room while a knocking had been occurring on the front door for almost twenty constant minutes.

The young stallion burst up from his bed and started for the stairs. “Ok mom! Geez if you’d try to get up instead of-“

“WHAT WAS THAT?!”

“Getting the door!” He sprinted down the stairs, nearly tripping at the last one. “Who’d stop by this late on a Frid-“ Upon opening the door Coin saw none other than Silver Star standing there in her school uniform.

She was still knocking on the door despite it not being there, as if she were so enraptured by the action that she didn’t acknowledge the door being gone. “Oh... Hi.” The combined nervousness would’ve made any watchers recoil visibly but luckily it was just those two. “I just wanted to thank you and your friend for uh... You know...”

“Don’t mention it, it was the right thing to do. Most ponies here in Manehattan would’ve walked right by and just went on with their day but my mom tells me do what’s right. And Shadow doesn’t live here, he’s up the street.”

“Oh well I figured that since we know each other it’d be easier to come to you...” The two stood there silent, as awkward as two teenagers could be, the tension rising between the two.

“Kid if I ever did something like this my brother would slap me, ask her on a date.” A familiar voice said

“You want to go somewhere? Like a cafe or something?”

Silver Star was surprised at his sudden boldness and decided to answer. “Like a date?” She nervously asked. “I-I’d like that, so can we go now?”

*Slam*

The door slammed shut and the sound of something sprinting up stairs was heard while Silver Star stood at the door, incredulous. A crashing sound followed along with an irate voice. “GLEANING COIN WHAT WAS THAT?”

“You don’t have to yell Sapphire!” Lucky Break said aloud. “I was writing something important for Blue Dart.”

“I’m going somewhere with a friend mom!”

“Oh ok then, be safe and back before midnight.” Coin’s mom changed her tone at a drastic speed. The door flung open to Silver Star’s surprise.

“Sorry about that. I had to grab some bits and change.” Silver Star snickered while Coin looked confused. “What’s wrong?”

She stood there chuckling to herself, almost hypnotically to the colt before her fit of laughter stopped and she managed to answer. “You forgot to put pants over your underwear, nice trains though.”

Coin looked down to see that he was in fact only clad in his blue underwear with red trains. “AAH!” The door was left open this time but a faint outline of dust remained, but it was replaced with a fully clothed Gleaning Coin in the blink of an eye. “Ok let’s go to the diner not far from here.” The pair started walking, unbeknownst to them they would be in for trouble during their time.

==============================

“Our time must truly come to an end... it’s not like I can risk you stinking up the place or my clothes for that matter.” Inanis said to the headless mare who was now a shade of deep green and her flesh was starting to visibly rot. “I’ve most definitely cherished the time we had but I’ll need to find a replacement...” His horn glowed a light shade of purple and a white mist appeared around the mare that was now on the floor. “I must say goodbye and begin my search for a new-“ He stopped to lick his lips. “Partner.”

*Voom*

A deep sound reverberated through the air and like that the mare’s corpse was gone, not a single trace of the mare not even her clothes were left behind. “Now let’s go for some lunch...”

==============================
(Diner)
(10 minutes later)

“I’m just taller than she is... that’s a surprise.” Coin thought as he munched on his hay fries. “So where have you been this whole time? I haven’t seen you in a while.” Silver Star enjoyed her soda and looked out the window at a passing stallion with blonde hair who waved at her. “Isn’t that the stallion from-“

“Well I was in a therapy group to get past my trauma of nearly dying and before the the police had to talk to me about what happened so I had to wait before I was ready to come back to school.” The door opened and revealed Deep Shadow, still wearing his uniform.

“Shadow! Funny seeing you here.” Coin jumped up to hi five his friend but Shadow had a serious expression on his face.

“Coin, Dart and Hunter might’ve found the boss, so you’re gonna have to meet up with your girlfriend some other time.”

“How’d you figure that out?” Silver Star questioned while Coin looked surprised. “We never made it public and who’s this ‘boss’ you’re talking about?”

Shadow turned to her and shook his head. “Don’t worry about it, it’s not your problem. Coin take her home and meet us at the alleyway we met in.”

Gleaning Coin took Silver Star’s hand and gave her a reassuring smile, the two left the diner with haste. “HEY! You need to pay for your food!” Shadow Sighed and took out his wallet to pay for the food.

Silver Star was pulled along by Gleaning Coin for about five minutes, various onlooking stallions gave him a congratulatory thumbs up at the implication but it was ignored since he only had the goal of keeping his girlfriend out of danger. “We should be right up the street. Is it ok if I use your bathroom? It’s a longer way back.”

“As long as you flush.” They ran up the street to a modest sized apartment complex and sprinted up the stairs, both were out of breath by the time they reached the fourth floor where she lived. She unlocked the door and led inside.

“It’s right off the living room right?” Coin shut the door.

*Thud*

A hand stopped the door before it could close, and Inanis was there peering through the creak. Coin called Yellow Haze in response to the danger. “Who are you?!”

“My name is Bright Inanis and I have a lust- No a need to kill mares and remove their heads.” The teenagers were shocked at the proclamation. “I’m the leader of the underground organization that resides in Manehatten and I’ve been committing these acts for almost a decade and a half now and I’ve gotten away with it because of my unique spell that can get rid of any evidence, but now...” The same white mist appeared around Inanis and Yellow Haze’s eyes widened.

“Master! This is the Specter!” Coin held a hand behind himself to protect Silver Star but the Blonde stallion took a small step closer, striking fear into the other three figures.

“Star go down the fire escape and run, don’t look back!” Silver Star hesitated but looking at the blank expression on Inanis was enough to make her go to and out a window.

“Well kid you’re awfully chivalrous... too bad you’re dying here.” The mist stayed in the air, drifting calmly as the three figures stood silently until...

“Yellow Haze!” The small Specter rushed at Inanis and threw a flurry of punches that were blocked with the mist. “What?” Each hit sounded as if it was hitting a solid wall but Inanis continued to walk closer. “You seemed so nice at first, that mare... The mare with you was dead!” Coin didn’t notice how close his enemy was until a hoof was in his stomach.

“She was but now I’ve found the perfect replacement and that’s your little friend.” The mist formed into a Specter so tall that it had to slouch to fit into the room. It was surprisingly pink and seemed to have no clothes save for a green cover over its mouth. “The Sickness is unrelenting in its pursuit for victims.”

“I thought it was the Devourer!” Yellow Haze used it recovery to pull the couch to itself and fling it at The Sickness but the Specter removed the cover over its mouth and Coin was both disgusted and shocked at what happened next.

“Graah!” The Specter’s abdomen expanded and made it look like a bloated creature but the fact that the couch was sucked into its stomach is what surprised the colt.

*Voom*

It’s stomach returned to normal. “My magic connects me to a void of vast space, I don’t know where it is but whatever goes in can not come back.” The Sickness revealed its sharp teeth and lunged at Coin who blocked the incoming claw strike with Yellow Haze and even then his arm was nearly taken off by the force. “Even before getting The Sickness I’d never been harmed in a fight and this won’t be different.

“Not good!”

==============================

The sun was just setting as a female figure ran down a street. “Have to find somepony to help- Huh?” Silver Star landed on the ground after running into a figure just taller than her.

“Hey are you ok? You look like you took-“ She clenched her hands into the figure’s clothes. “Geez watch the material.”

“P-Please you have to help Gleaning Coin... He’s my-“ She tried her best to speak but shock was holding her back

“Where is he? Who’s he fighting?” Dart questioned

“He said he was a boss. And his name was Bright Inanis.”Dart’s eyes opened wide before he took her by the shoulders and asked

“Where are they right now?”

(Flashback)

“No really why are two assassins at my doorstep?” Hunter had a bow with an arrow nocked while Dart stood with his arms behind him, Titus and True Shot hand their hands and talons held up.

“We just wanted to warn you about the leader of the little mob around here.” True Shot said with her hands shaking slightly from the wrapping in front of her

“Why should we trust you? You’re with the Red Claw!” Dart replies as Hunter remained silent and calm.

“His Specter’s really strong, we aren’t all that happy with our leaders and this crazy feud with the visitor from another world. You’ve had to have met him by now.”

Dart looked at Titus before answering, “No I haven’t but still why should we trust you?”

Titus decided to speak up and he managed to ask one question that caught everypony off guard. “Would we risk fighting you two for nothing?”

(Present Time)

“So this building up ahead?” Dart and Star ran and came to the apartment complex where a window broke and revealed The Sickness floating down without legs and holding Coin in its massive hand. “Put him down you freak!” He said boldly

The Specter hovered above the ground and opened its mouth to spit its own legs out right before they re-jointed themselves. “Your mistake was coming back here, I will have your body.” The Specter pointed directly at Silver Star who hid behind Blue Dart with her eyes slammed shut

“Give me the kid now...” Dart spoke with a tone that bled anger and the Specter begrudgingly gave his opponent back over. Upon feeling, Dart discovered that Coin was worse for wear and was barely breathing. “What happened to you kid?”

Coin managed a slight smile despite the blood coming from his mouth and remembered his interaction before being hurt. “Everything hurts... So bad.” He remembered laying on the floor with walls and furniture having been prey of The Sickness.

“Looks like your luck ran out kid, and to think you said you’d break my untouchable streak. Heh heh, hah hah hah!” The Sickness pulled a hand back but right before it landed its strike a pin managed to pierce Inanis’s cheek. “W-What?!”

“Looks like you aren’t untouchable...” Inanis’ face was contorted in rage and his eye was twitching. “Here I got a hit on you... And you were calling yourself untouchable? You’re... JUST A COCKY IDIOT! I’M A KID AND I HIT YOU! WHO KNOWS HOW BAD MISTER DART’LL BEAT YOU?”

“THAT’S ENOUGH!” The last thing Coin remembered was a hoof coming towards his face and he looked back up at Dart with that same bloody smile.

“I got him.” He raised a hand but it slowly fell back, trying to resist but gravity won in the end as his breathing became more and more shallow until his chest stopped rising entirely.

“Kid? Kid?! Coin wake up!” Dart shook the colt but had no response since a gentle smile was etched into Gleaning Coin’s face, it was his last one. “COOIIIIN!” Dart yelled but got no response while Silver Star began to cry over the death of her significant other.

“Your tears can’t bring him back, he’s dead because he thought he could hurt me.” The Sickness opened its maw and let Inanis poke his upper body out. “You’ll end up in here so resisting is pointless.” He fully emerged from the mouth of his Specter in a dress shirt and pants, his suit having been stored in the vast space within his Specter.

Dart walked over and set Coin down to rest against a building wall. “Stay close to him, I’ll handle this.” He walked closer to Inanis.

“At least you want to get this over with, most ponies would run.”

“I can’t break you in half from over there can I? And before you ask I don’t have a Specter so I’m pummeling you with my bare hands.” Dart took his kimono top off and revealed a long sleeved black undershirt and the cuffed part of his navy blue pants.

“Alright fine then.” Dart sprung forward to deliver a punch but his arm was guided into the ground by The Sickness. “I don’t think you can match it’s speed.” The Specter had Dart by the wrist and his arm pinned into the cement.

“We’ll see about that.” He jumped and kicked it in the side, stumbling it. He threw a hit at the same time as The Sickness.

“Die!” The Specter said. “Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die!” It started a barrage of hits each topped off with the word, die, in rapid succession until it clashed fist to fist with Dart.

“You’re not getting off easy with what you just did to that kid.”

=======

Author's Note

I might start doing this again, uploads in Friday’s turned hard fast.

See you next time, it'll be back to 3k words on average I promise

Arc 7: Mysteries Finale (Case Closed)

(?????)
(?????)

Drifting, floating. No direction nor purpose only movement... A space of clouds and light was the surrounding area while the light didn’t have any origin... it simply was. In the midst of this dreamlike realm of quiet there were two figures, one of which wearing casual clothing and the other had a white dress and a sunhat. “W-Where am I? Where’s... STAR?!” The figure in the white dress floated over to Gleaning Coin and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“It’s okay little Coin, I’m sad that you’re here but relieved at the same time.” The mare spoke in a calming tone which placated the teenager.

“Little Coin? It’s Gleaning and where’s Bright Inanis at? He was near Silver Star and... I have to help Mr. Dart! I think he’s out of his league.” The colt started to move the clouds around but made no progress in escaping his location, the clouds were replaced as fast as they were removed. “Oh come ON!”

“You should quit doing that, there’s no point in trying to leave that way.” Coin’s face went from holding a sense of urgency to being flat out confused. “You can’t just leave here, especially through force.”

“Why not?! I have to-“ Yellow Haze emerged with his palms together

“Coin stop! What do you think this place is?” He looked around before looking back to the mare who’s face was still hidden by her hat. “It’s the space in between the fields of Elysium and Tartarus.”

“D-Does that mean I’m?”

“Yes and no, you can see me because I died recently and you’ve met me before.”

“Wait I don’t know you.” He said while gazing around, not losing hope on escaping.

“You don’t remember me?” She moved to take off her hat

“No! I don’t think I should any-“ Coin’s face was twisted in shock once the sunhat was off, the mare’s face was revealed but the fact that her head was floating above her neck added to the horror of the situation. “Y-You’re m-“

“That’s right, your old babysitter Golden Day.” Her Amber fur around her neck had a slow trickle of blood from the clean cut around her neck.

“But that means that...”

“I was a victim of Inanis, he told me everything about him before he took my head off.” She grabbed a handful of clouds and shaped it into a ball. The ball changed from clouds to glass and showcased the fight between Dart and Inanis.

“Seriously this Specter sucks!” Dart was parrying strikes from the claws of his massive quarry while it’s owner hid within the confines of its mouth.

“Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die!” The Sickness repeated with each thrust of its hand, trying to pierce the flesh of Dart but being deflected each time.

Coin watched in anticipation while Day just put her sunhat back on. “He told me who he was and how he came to be the way he is. He said he was a sheltered child and his mother was always there for him. One day somepony broke into his house and killed her but he had a spell that sent that pony to a void and he couldn’t stand to see the fear on his mother’s face so he cut her head off, sent it to the void and well... He was attracted to her body and...” Coin was on the verge of vomiting from what he’d heard

“So he’s been doing everything he said he did because of that?” He received a nod. “So why am I here instead of Elysium or...”

“Something must be keeping you here just like me, my desire for reconciliation for me and the others is why I’m here.”

“You’re the only one here.” Coin answered and gestured around but Golden Day chuckled.

“I’m the only one you see because you only knew me, I can see the others because I knew some of them before they were taken and he showed me their graves and drawings to torture me before I ended up that way.” They looked back at the sphere and saw that the fight was still ongoing.

==============================

“The Sickness is unrelenting, eventually you’ll run out of fight.” Now Dart was using a kunai as a blade to parry the aggressive strikes.

“Don’t even remember where I found this but thank you Zeko for bringing these things to the guild.” Dart lunged backwards in time to avoid the stomp that broke through the concrete. “Just need to get Bright out of there.”

“I’m almost curious as to why you decided to fight me head on, even after telling your young friend that I’ve never even been hit you-“

“Spiral Dance!” The same spiraling rush of attacks brought on by tossed marbles led to The Sickness suffering a brutal assault from all sides and Inanis being knocked free from its mouth.

“What?!” He threw up an arm to block the oncoming strike from Dart’s weapon, he protected his body but lost his hand and most of his forearm. “H-How? The Sickness is supposed to be- Ah!” Dart stepped on his other arm, pinning him down

“I’m going to avenge Gleaning Coin, I refuse to let you get away.” Dart kicked Inanis in the side before raising his weapon but he noticed the blood on the ground was... moving. “What the?” He was distracted and didn’t notice The Sickness until it’s large hoof impacted his chest. The Specter stood over its user, awaiting further commands while Inanis looked at his hand in complete shock.

His blood moved towards his severed hand and worked as small threads to reattach the limb. “It looks like the demon blood worked better than expected, even though you managed to hit me... I just fixed myself! It looks like fate is leaning towards me!” He was in his Specter’s mouth again and headed towards Dart who was picking himself up.

“So I can’t do lasting damage? Then how-“ Dart was grabbed around the neck by The Sickness and thrown into the air.

“Die Die Die!” Three punches sent Dart further up before The Sickness grabbed him around the neck and held him still. The three floated above the city.

“That demon blood was something extraordinary! I feel more alive than I ever have before, almost as if I could burst into song for all of Manehatten!” They were suspended over a busy street, unsuspecting ponies walking through the city right after sundown below them. “I’m going to enjoy this, and then that mare, WRYAAH.” The Sickness let go and started a barrage on Blue Dart’s torso, the sound of bones breaking was music to Inanis’ ears, a final punch sent Dart flying through a neon sign to the shock of ponies below who heard the crash and barely avoided the falling sign.

“Urk!” Dart spat up blood and watched as the sign was caught by a familiar face but his focus returned to the massive figure approaching him behind sharpened teeth. Dart flung the kunai he had at the Specter but it was deflected almost effortlessly.

“Didn’t you say you’d avenge that colt, but this is all you can do in his name? You’d have been better off fighting for your own peace before anypony else’s!” The Specter spun and drew its hoof back, while Dart put his arms up in an act of protection. “HAAH!”

“Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die!” Furious mixtures of kicking and stomping broke through Dart’s guard and started breaking his ribs and his sternum produced an audible crack. “DIE!” A final roundhouse sent Dart into the wall of a building, sending bricks flying below.

“What just happ-“ He didn’t finish his sentence

*Squelch*

The Sickness’ claw was in Dart’s stomach and the Specter opened its mouth and exposed the void within itself, but before it could swallow the Azure colored stallion

“Last Resort!” The Sickness lost a leg to a blade of blood and managed to eat the rest before it could lose its torso. Shadow floated up to Dart while Inanis moved to allow his Specter to recover. “What happened, and where’s Coin?”

“That’s kind of a long story, he’s dead and this guy can regenerate like a worm. And I’m here in no condition to fight.”

“So what can I do? Do you need me to hold him off while you heal up, or is there some ultimate attack we can pull off?” The Sickness held its severed leg in one hand during Shadow’s monologue

“Look I’m not gonna lie to you, I can’t fight and he’d kill you if you fought him like this. Take my hand, don’t question it just take it.” He shakily put his hand out and Shadow took it while The Sickness slowly reattached it’s leg.

“So how is- Wait a second, woah!” A surge of energy rushed through Deep Shadow, pumping him up to a level he didn’t know existed causing his Specter to glow a dim purple and even he started to give off an aura. “Is this how you feel all the time? Dart?” He looked again at the stallion but got no response and once he saw the blank expression on the stallion’s face and the lack of light in his eyes he turned to Inanis.

“Well that didn’t seem to go well for him but now-“ Inanis wasn’t able to process the speed at which Infest appeared and threw a punch since it barely happened in the blink of an eye. “What?” The Sickness recovered and put up its guard in time to block a red hot punch from Infest.

“Chaa!” Shadow floated directly behind the Specter as it pushed into The Sickness’ forearms.

“I’m not that smart of a guy but I’m willing to bet that despite your Specter’s size he isn’t as strong as Infest is right now... I’m gonna make sure you’re don’t go to jail.” Infest kneed Inanis’ Specter in the side and grabbed its arms in one fluid motion before slamming it into a building. The Sickness burst from the building with rage in its eyes while its user’s head was healing from a gash. “So he can heal?” The Specters clashed, physically equal despite the large difference in size, a flurry of punches but Infest started to outmatch his larger quarry in speed and ferocity.

“Chada!” A solid right hook sent The Sickness spiraling towards the ground, creating a small crater and dissipating entirely. Inanis was on his knees and slowly rising.

“No no no no no... I’ll kill you for that, I’ve worked too long and too hard for my organization and my need to prey on-“

“Is that Bright Inanis?” A mare asked, making the blonde stallion freeze

“He works in the iron company I work at, but why is he beat up and did he fall from the sky?” A small crowd gathered around the blonde stallion, quickly identifying him from his normal upstanding role in society.

“Looks like nopony knows who you really are...” Shadow walked up and set eyes on himself.

“You might want to watch yourself Shadow, or else you’ll never find out what happened to your sister.” Inanis said from the ground

“I’m not scared of you, and I’ll be fine with not knowing.” Shadow told the blonde before raising his head. “This stallion is the leader of the underground group that’s been terrorizing this city!”

Two officers walked up behind Shadow and one put a hand on his shoulder. “I remember having to arrest you for getting in the way of our business, so I hope you have some evidence to back up that statement.” Shadow reached into his uniform pocket and pulled out a black notebook.

“A Golden Blade member asked me to help him find as much evidence on this guy as possible so we searched his house and found this, it talks about every step he’s made to get to where he’s at... And that’s the normal stuff, you don’t wanna hear about what he does in his free time.”

The officers glanced through the journal but right behind them a dark presence loomed...

*Voom*

One of the officers gasped when he heard the noise but before any harm could befall him, “CHAA!” The Sickness’ stomach returned to normal when Infest’s fist struck with enough power to set its fist aflame.

“Graah!” Inanis lunged at Shadow with his sharpened teeth bared, whether he was going for a bite or enraged beyond comparison was up for discussion.

“Not tonight bastard!” Shadow said as Infest kicked the transformed stallion’s ankle and cocked his burning fist back.

“Chaa!” The first strike was to Inanis’ jaw. “Chada! Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da!” Each hit scorched Inanis’ flesh and burnt his clothes to a crisp. “Chaa!” He was sent to the ground covered in flickers of flame.

“E-Everything I’ve d-done... I h-have no regrets...” His body turned grey and then to dust and drifted along with the wind.

“He tried to kill me... you saved my life.” The officer said while the other one wrote on a piece of paper and handed it to Shadow.

“What’s this? A hundred bit fine?!” Shadow read the paper and saw that he owed a good deal of money. “Why?! I saved the day here again!”

“For littering and profane language, I hope you have the coin to pay for it soon.” Shadow stood there thinking about what the officer said before jumping into the air and looking for Blue Dart but finding nothing.

“Maybe...” Infest appeared and flung him towards the trail of broken buildings that Inanis and Dart left behind in their skirmish. “Come on Coin, be alive somehow...”

==============================
(?????)

“What the? What happened?” Inanis looked around and saw that he was in front of the apartment complex. “Some kind of daydream? Oh well, back to business.” He walked up to the stairs.

“I wouldn’t if I were you, you don’t really belong there.” He turned and saw Golden Day standing there with Coin next to her. “But I do need to pay you back for what happened six years ago.”

“You might not get it Bright, but just like us... You’re dead.” The stallion looked around for a second before clutching his head in pain and remembering his demise, his appearance changing to a scorched brown with singed clothes and hair quickly after.

“Argh! I remember that stallion and his Specter! The Sickness, eat them both!” The massive Specter formed and rushed towards the mare and colt.

*Bzzm*

“Yellow Haze: Rift!” Inanis was pulled backwards towards the stairs of the apartment, a hole opened in front of them with hands, talons, and claws grabbing onto his back, arms, and legs.

“What?! Where are they taking me?!”

Gleaning Coin started to shimmer and disappeared completely while Inanis struggled. “I don’t know for sure if it’s Tartarus or someplace worse...” Golden Day walked closer and put a finger on his chest. “But I hope you’re never going to have peace again.” She pushed

“NO!” The limbs pulled and spiraled into a vortex, sending a vile individual to an eternal punishment.

“Good luck Coin, I’ll do my best to watch over you. Now we can be at peace again.”

At her words over two hundred mares appeared from nowhere and clapped over their collective retribution.

==============================

“Geez kid you can take a hit, if only Dart could say the same.” Coin looked up and saw a hairless red haired colt holding Blue Dart over his shoulder. “And your girlfriend might need to know you’re alive.”

“HE’S OK?” Silver Star rushed over and embraced Coin with enough force to leave him gasping for air.

“Zeko we should get going! Kotetsu’s got some ‘important shit’ to tell you.” A white bird descended to the shock of Coin and Silver Star, and a brown haired creature similar to the one they’d just seen was resting on its back.

“Alright Nouka geez, have some respect for the dead.” Zeko jumped onto the construct and the two flew off into the night sky.

Silver Star was the first to recover from her shock. “Who was that? And do you know him?”

“I don’t know but I feel like I should. Can you let go of me though? I did just come back to life.” Silver Star let go and helped him up before they walked back to her apartment.

“COIN! I beat him!” Shadow ran up and put his friend in a headlock position while the two laughed but Coin looked back in the sky once he was released and remembered what he just witnessed.

Zeko and Nouka flew through the sky with Dart’s body beside them. “Wow, this journal is really meticulous. Not sure why he’d keep more than one copy though.”

Nouka examined the corpse beside them and gawked at the hole in the lower chest. “So how are you going to fix that?” He pulled a small black rod from the arm and one from Dart’s neck.

“How should I know? Fixing a broken arm was already hard enough, guess Dart stays dead.” Zeko made a one handed sign and Dart’s eyes went from black to having two Rinnegan. “I kinda think I should feel bad for Shadow and Coin though, in a way I let their mentor die but at least they didn’t find out about Bright or Golden Day.”

“I’m still surprised that Bright would have a kid and act like he owed the boss money but he was the boss, and Shadow’s sister was helping Coin in the afterlife? How’d you see that anyway?”

Zeko produced a chakra rod, “Put this in his arm before he ‘died’ just in case, so what’d Kotetsu have to tell me?”

Nouka sucked air through his teeth in preparation and looked at Zeko slowly. “He and Shiro have their wedding in a week and you have to come.” There was only silence in the air until Zeko grabbed Dart’s body and flung it into the horizon.

“Fire Style: Dragon Flame bomb!” A stream of flame left Zeko’s mouth and created a blaze in the sky, incinerating Dart’s corpse in the process.

“Didn’t you tell me to be respectful for the dead?” Nouka questioned

“He was one of the Red Claw, so the wedding is this following week? Damn it! Ok I have a stupid idea so bare with me on this one: we convince them to hold off for a little while.” Nouka looked into the air with a thinking expression. “It’s the best chance I have since I’m here dealing with things.”

“We can ask when we get back to your desert. Kotetsu said it’s weird that you were using a dead pony person as a puppet.”

“Doesn’t Rei use his dead twin? Ok then.” The two went silent as they flew in the sky, the moon overlooking them.

=======

Author's Note

A late gift but a gift nonetheless, in all honesty who saw those twists coming? I didn’t even see it and I’m the writer

See you next time

Arc 8 Chapter 1: A plan

(Zeko’s Desert)
(Dawn)

“And that’s why you should push the wedding back.” No sooner than the words left Zeko’s mouth, he was sucked into Kotetsu’s kamui.

“Why did you do that?!” Nouka and Celona questioned the sudden and seemingly dangerous event but mere seconds later a rift appeared and Zeko fell through it, landing face first on the floor. “Damn it that hurt!” He stood up while Kotetsu looked on in confusion

“Hold on it takes you like an hour to get out of there, how are you already back?” Kotetsu looked at his cousin up and down until making eye contact with him. “Wait, that thing’s real?! I thought you did that just because... How’d that copy have a real Rinnegan?”

Zeko smirked at his cousin’s surprise but it quickly dropped once he realized, “I don’t actually know, that Discord guy is supposedly a god but if that was the case then I don’t know how we beat him.”

“Maybe we’re stronger than a god! We have been training for a long time so-“ A slow drifting shell of air made its way towards Nouka and caught his attention as it traveled closer and closer until it struck his face with the force of a simple slap.

“Even the Kage don’t compare to a god level threat so don’t try to say that we’re there yet.” Zeko spat at his friend who was now holding his cheek. “Regardless there has to be a way to-“

“I know what you’re going to say.” Kotetsu interrupted. “I’m not letting these candy colored horse people be at my wedding! And Shiro isn’t doing it either so don’t try to use the ‘he’s like a brother to me’ card.” He referenced the sibling like relationship that his fiancé and how his cousin was able to convince her of nearly anything under the right circumstances.

Zeko walked out of the house with Nouka following, Celona just glared at Kotetsu while he looked relatively calm. “Why are you being so mean to him? Aren’t you two supposed to be-“

“Let me stop you there.” Kotetsu interrupted. “I can tell you like him, I’m willing to bet he might have something for you but it’ll never happen.”

“Wha-“ She stuttered but Kotetsu interrupted again.

“And it’s not even his fault, it’s his stalker’s. She’s obsessed with him and I can only assume she’s been hunting him down all this time. If she even thinks that you’re trying anything with Zeko... All I can say is she fought my bride to be and it was a deadlock.” Kotetsu followed his friends out the door and left Celona alone with her thoughts, none of which were positive.

She stood there alone in the room with light peering through the windows on the side even noticing Lachlan walking by with what looked like a branch in his mouth. “Timberwolves...” She idly said to distract herself, not from the harsh words of Kotetsu but his message. Celona knew that she wouldn’t be able to be with Zeko but held out hope that it would work out for her in the end... unfortunately it doesn’t seem that it would go that way.

“Looks like whoever else was here is gone so you mind telling me what this place is and how I get back to the land of fire?” Celona snapped around but a hand caught her around the throat...

==============================

“My brother’s getting married to Princess... Mi Amore Cadenza? Who’s that?!” Twilight exclaimed while her friends gathered around her, reading the same missive she was holding.

“I can’t say that I know darling, and I know every major figure in Canterlot.” Rarity added as she moved a well crocheted pillow onto the picnic blanket.

“You even know us and we’re not from here!” Nouka said as he plopped onto the blanket, appearing out of nowhere.

“And you couldn’t even mention me... And apparently I’m-“

“An eligible bachelor, at least I can stand you unlike certain princes...” Rarity chimed as Zeko floated from above, the action didn’t surprise them since they’d seen the teen perform more astounding feats.

“Ok so what’s this about another wedding? Because I’m already dealing with Kotetsu and Shiro’s.” Zeko questioned as he took a bite from an apple

“My brother is marrying a princess! And he never thought to tell me about it!” Twilight’s friends and even Nouka backed off some once a small field of magic appeared around Twilight but dissipated quickly. “I just don’t understand why he wouldn’t tell me that he was getting married, we started keeping in touch after he recovered from...” She gestured to Zeko and looked back to her friends.

“Well maybe he was trying to make sure you didn’t overreact, Kotetsu always says that women overreact over anything and everything.” Nouka decided to speak but only got strange looks from the mares and Spike.

Zeko stood up and looked towards Canterlot while munching the apple he had tossed away with only the core remaining. Noting the crisp texture and flavor of the fruit before expressing his own thoughts on the issue. “Why don’t we just go and see why? We know where he lives so let’s ask him why he kept it a secret.” There was total silence for a few moments before Twilight ran towards her house. “Guess we’re going then.” He finished his snack and started towards the unicorn’s house while the others cleaned up their picnic spot.

The next few hours consisted of the group riding a train to Canterlot while the trio of shinobi rode on a bird courtesy of Nouka, and throughout the trip the mane six were being assaulted by the words of their own member Twilight who continuously asked somewhat rhetorical questions about her brother and why he didn’t tell her about his wedding. “And another thing! Why didn’t he think to tell me then?! There’s no way he just met this... Mi Amore Cadenza, out of nowhere so-“ A tapping on the window turned her attention to Zeko standing on the side of the train and pointing ahead, indicating that they were there. They left the train station and headed for the castle, Twilight not stopping her rant in the process.

“Would you shut the hell up?! I’ve got a wedding coming up too and I can’t even think about the finalizations of our designs with you nagging like an old bitch!” Kotetsu’s outburst earned some very shocked looks but he continued walking while the onlookers, save Zeko and Nouka, stood shocked.

“It might not‘ve been the best way to say it, but he might’ve answered your questions sugarcube.” Applejack said

“How?” Twilight questioned, prompting Rarity to step closer.

“Well perhaps Shining has been preoccupied with preparing his own wedding and hasn’t been able to come tell you himself.” Twilight looked at the ground solemnly and thought about what her friends told her but a Royal Guard ahead of them stopped them from going to the castle.

“I’m sorry but we have a dangerous- Oh forgive me, the element bearers and the visitors. You may be truly necessary here.” He lifted his spear and let them start running towards the training yard where they saw a small crowd.

“Ok look I don’t know where I’m at and if any of you gets closer, I’ll kill her!” A voice rang

“We can come to a peaceful resolution, I only ask that you let her go.” Celestia’s voice rang

“I’m not stupid! Shinobi are trained to see past deception so I’ll ask again, where in the hell am I?” A voice that none of the group identified. But once they came into the yard they saw

“All of you back off now or- Hey you’re shinobi!” A ninja like them but he was clearly an adult and dressed in dark, baggy clothes with closed toe shoes.

“Rogue ninja! He’s from the stone!” Zeko pointed at the headband which bore a depiction of two angled stones with a horizontal slash across it, but he also noticed who was in his grasp. “Celona!” The brown mare had a kunai to her neck, and her arms were at her sides.

“Yeah I’m missing, B-ranked matter of fact! I don’t know who you kids are or how you followed me but I’m gonna run free and there’s nothing you can do to bring me in.” The man taunted while the forces around him watched on in surprise.

“We need to find a way to save her! I can use my clay to-“

“Don’t!” Celona spoke up and interrupted Nouka. “Don’t bother saving me! Just beat him!” Eyes widened at the sudden statement and even the rogue ninja looked surprised.

There was a madness inducing silence after Celona uttered the sentence but the calm was broken by Kotetsu approaching the pair and a kunai being clenched closer. “I don’t think you heard me kid, I’d recommend you back up unless you want horse girl to-“ The kunai vanished... “What the?!” He looked at Kotetsu and saw his eyes. “N-No... You’re- One of the Uchiha?!” He pushed Celona away, turned and ran but a hand on his shoulder made him pause.

“The only thing I hate more than Nouka’s stupid noise-“

“Hey!”

“Is a coward. And you wanna know how I deal with cowards? They get to feel the anger of a dragon!”

“Huh? Huh?! Aah!” Kotetsu spun the rogue ninja to face him and jumped onto his chest, stomping onto his ribs in the process.

“Go to hell you damn coward!” Kotetsu raised one foot and kicked, repeating the action until his feet were a blur and only the sounds of his shoes colliding with the ninja’s chest were audible.

*Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!*

“Now get out of my sight!” He kicked the ninja in the chin and vaulted off of him, allowing the rogue to fall to the ground unconscious.

“Wow Kotetsu! It’s been a while since you did the dragon fury barrage!” Nouka exclaimed as he made a large clay spider to carry the ninja on.

“Why did you save me? You were right earlier so why bother if I’m just-“ Celona started but Kotetsu’s raised hand interrupted her and him walking over to her with his Sharingan still active unnerved her.

“I was telling you the facts, not trying to make you crave death. Zeko’s a simple guy but the girl who loves him more than anything isn’t someone you want to be in the way of. It’s a lost cause but you’ll find someone else, if I can get engaged you can definitely get a date.” He whispered to her while Zeko and Nouka tried to identify the missing ninja to no avail.

“How’d he even get here? I thought your kamui was the only access point.” Zeko looked to his approaching cousin but Celestia brought attention to herself.

“I meant to contact you about that, there is a rift in the castle that I contained not too long after he managed to find his way here. I looked into it myself and saw a terrible dark realm.”

Zeko and Kotetsu glanced at each other before answering. “Sounds like the kamui.” But a twinkle appeared in Zeko’s eyes.

“Where’s the rift?” Celestia pointed towards the main hall of her castle and Zeko darted towards it, ending up right in front of the massive staircase. He reached a hand into the small sphere and noticed the different feeling of the very air before looking into it with his Rinnegan active. “This might be one of the best ideas I’ve ever had... Or it could be the worst and end up costing thousands of lives. Only one way to find out!” He went into the rift and left no other trace that he was there.

“So what was your plan from this point? You never like going in here any other time.” Kotetsu asked, appearing behind Zeko.

“So this is on the south side of your base, that’s why I didn’t see it before. And my plan is to try to make a way to reach our dimension from here, that way I can make your wedding and be here in case anything goes wrong.” Kotetsu stared at Zeko before rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“So you want to just leave my kamui open for anything to just go into? And ruin my honeymoon with Shiro? You know what go ahead, if anything goes wrong it’s not my problem how many of your bones Shiro breaks.”

Zeko smirked before starting towards the building. “That’s all the inspiration I need to get it right.”

=======

Author's Note

Sorry about no Chapter last week but these make up for it in my opinion

Arc 8 Chapter 2: Planning Events

Author's Note

I wish I did this faster so you all weren’t in anticipation, but here’s the second one and I’ll see you next week.

Side note: Yes these three have done this dance before, they’re a dysfunctional team

Arc 8 Chapter 2: Planning Events

(Kamui realm)
(Time is immeasurable)

“Almighty Push!” Intense winds pushed in the direction of Zeko’s outstretched hand, but again he failed in creating a fissure in the air of Kotetsu’s realm. “Why isn’t it working?!” Zeko was frustrated by his attempts to rupture the dimension as he’d done in the past and the disapproval in Kotetsu’s eyes didn’t help him deal with his slowly rising anger. “Don’t say anything! That’s the third one and I don’t want to hear your voice right now!” Kotetsu visibly winced at his cousin’s words and started thinking to himself.

“Well at the very least being in pony world for so long hasn’t made him soft, he’s still the same person. Good to know we’ll be back to normal when he’s done with this.” Kotetsu twirled a kunai while he thought about his cousin’s tantrum over his failure.

“Damn it!” Zeko resorted to punching the ground below him in a fit of anger, induced by his inability to do something he’d done fairly easily in the past. “This doesn’t make sense I should’ve gotten stronger so how-“ He battered the ground and managed to move some of the purple earth beneath him.

“If you’d calm down for a second.” Zeko’s head snapped to look at Kotetsu. “We both have two eyes now right? Maybe when I got my second one back it strengthened my kamui, to the point where you might never be able to break it again.” Kotetsu put a hand on Zeko’s shoulder to help calm him but Zeko continued to bash the ground. “I think I know how to cheer you up, we need to interrogate that missing-nin and I’ve got the perfect way how.” Kotetsu warped away while Zeko picked himself up and left through the same rift he came in through, leaving Zeko alone to think about what was happening.

“There’s gotta be a way to do this... I’m just not thinking hard enough!” The crimson haired teen thought as he walked out of the castle and saw Nouka speaking to guards and the members of the mane six. He walked over towards them and started to hear Nouka explaining something to them.

“They run off and try to start a cause away from the village bet we say ‘nope’ and stop them, ayeeh!” The few ponies around him winced at the sound but once Zeko came over they looked his way. “Zeko! Kotetsu said we have to figure out how he got here and what he knows.” Nouka moves over to hi five his friend but missed when Zeko passed him and approached the bound ninja, stooping down to his level Zeko took the headband off of the stone nin.

“Give that ba-Grf!” Zeko’s heel was in the bound human’s mouth. Zeko held the item and looked at the shinobi with disdain.

“Kotetsu really hates cowards but Zeko can’t stand traitors, especially to their own village.” Nouka explained while Zeko continued to grind his heel into the traitorous ninja’s mouth.

“So if I’m right you’re gonna be having a terrible time when Kotetsu comes back so just cough up how and why you got here and you won’t be hurt.” He removed his shoe and was spat at by the rogue.

“Like hell I would! You’d just figure out a way to claim all of this for your own villages and-“ He was cut off by Kotetsu placing a boom box mere feet away.

“Disc’s in there, did he spill yet or what?” He questioned with his Sharingan still active as Zeko produced a wire from his red sleeve. “So I’m guessing he didn’t?” With a flourish of the hands, flinging of rope and the creation of a two sand poles with a connective middle portion... The rogue ninja was hanging by his hands with wire and had sand encasing his feet.

“I don’t know where I got a magnifying glass from but it works for this pretty well huh?” He used some spare wire to hold the magnifying glass directly under the sun and focus the light into the eye of the rogue shinobi, namely his pupil.

“Hey! I don’t think there’s a need for that.” Zeko turned and saw a familiar face. “It’s me Fortified Wall, been a while hasn’t it? Why are you doing that to him? This isn’t how an interrogation should work.”

Wall got no response as Zeko walked over to the bound ninja. “Last chance to tell us what happened to you and how you got here.” An angered mutter and attempted kick to the face was given by the rogue but then the effects of the light in his eye started to kick in and he stopped fighting in place of thrashing angrily.

“What can’t handle a little light there pal? That’s a shame since he gave you a chance to avoid this.” Zeko was silent as he walked to the boom box while Kotetsu snickered at the bound ninja and the ponies watched on in shock.

At this point Zeko pressed a button on the music player and started a song.

(Choreography in order: Zeko, Kotetsu, Nouka)

Vocal percussion on a whole 'nother level coming from my mind.

Zeko started walking in place before moving to more intricate moves

Vocal percussion on a whole 'nother level coming from my mind

Snapping his fingers in rhythm

Aaah, We're Golden Wind
Kono me amareri maroreri merare maro

Shifting to the right he moved towards Kotetsu who joined in and performed the finishing cross while Nouka looked at them.

Aaah, We're Golden Wind
Kono me amareri maroreri merare maro

Kotetsu looked the rogue in the eyes and started his interrogation, pulling him into a purple world. Nouka joined the dance

It's like a burning sunrise Ahi makareru makare punpun kete

Explosions racked the rogue’s body, causing great pain.

It's like a burning sunset
Ahi makareru makare punpun kete

Spiders bit into his body, sending searing pain through him

It's like a burning sunrise
Ahi makareru makare punpun kete

Sand encased the rogue and started to crush him slowly

It's like a burning sunset
Ahi makareru makare punpun kete

They ended the dance by crossing their arms once more

“So if you aren’t gonna tell us how you got here...” Kotetsu started

“We might have to get into the real torture.” Zeko finished with a smirk while in the real world they had only performed the dance peacefully as the rogue sat motionless, nearly going blind in one eye.

==============================
(Hours later)

“I only wish to know what form of dragon you are, I have seen many in my life but none as unique as yourself.” Ano spoke to the sand bound Sahloknir but only made him growl in fury towards her. After knowing of him for a month now she tried her best to communicate but only got fragments of sentences or complete phrases in a separate language.

“Zu’u Sahloknir! I will not bow to a mere spriggan!” He nearly shouted despite the chakra rod through the roof of his mouth. This was quickly his anguish as he suffered a massive headache right as some bushes started to rustle, out of the flora came Zeko.

“I’m back again, and Sah... The rest, you might want to calm down. I can tell when you start getting too heated, that chakra rod is our communication system.”

Sahloknir sneered and looked back at his torn wing and tail, remembering how he’d lost it to a disabled foe in the first place. “The only one I would bow to is Alduin, mere mortal! Once I am free I will rend your very soul boy!” Another headache pained the dragon. “Fo-“ His mouth opened wide with ice crystals forming on his teeth.

“Uh oh.”

“Krah Diin!” A great blast of ice breath went straight for Zeko but his hand was outstretched and the attack was quickly absorbed, and Sahloknir was angered. “Are you a damned mage? You absorbed my thu’um with no strain, what power do you have that defies the dovah?”

Zeko was visibly confused but decided to clear himself of additional energy at that point. “Hm!” Using his lightning style armor to sift through his additional reserve. “Look I don’t know what you’re talking about but I know that I absorbed your chakra and here I am using it, and I want to know how you work since dragons in my world are mythical or at least we haven’t seen them. What is your sage mode like?” The immobile dragon sat there with an expression Zeko could only read as confused. “Your natural chakra? How did you manage to turn from snake to dragon, and what is your natural energy?”

“I don’t understand you mortal, my thu’um is mighty and you stole its magic... Hmm are you possibly...”

“If I may... Zeko I’ve been meaning to tell you that the very air in Equestria May be different than what you know. The world is tuned with nature and as such it contains a great deal of energy, I’ve noticed that you can take this directly.”

Zeko pondered her words as he stopped using his armor, and quickly put his arms behind his head. “Gathering natural chakra has been really easy here, it’d take me an hour to do it normally back in my world but here it’s just a few minutes... I should’ve noticed earlier but I’ve been preoccupied with my other things.”

Kotetsu warped from his dimension and appeared next to Zeko with a smirk. “Apparently there’s already a rift in my kamui and he used it to get here. Also he’s really sorry about being a bully when he was younger, so let’s find this rift.” He placed a hand on Zeko and sent the two into the realm once again. “It should be nearby so keep your eyes peeled for anything-“

“Almighty Push!” The cry made Kotetsu look over and see that not only had his cousin found the very rift in question but he’d already launched an attack to open it even wider. The tear started to violently expand before opening and forcing the two in. “My head... What happened?” Zeko got up and when he looked around he saw the outskirts of-

“The Hidden Stone, Zeko! That stupid plan actually worked.” Kotetsu sent the two back before they were spotted, in the kamui again Zeko was spinning in joy.

“Yes! I knew it’d work, just took some luck and effort. Kotetsu I can get home anytime now, and I can make the wedding! When is it anyway?”

Kotetsu looked up to signify thought and managed to recall his answer. “Exactly twenty two days from now.” Zeko went back through the rift to Canterlot And was met by the mane six and Nouka who had the rogue ninja on a spider.

“What’d I miss?” The crimson haired teen questioned

“Well I talked to Shining Armor and I guess I’m ok with his wedding, I just wish I could’ve known about it even sooner.” Nouka took the time to come up to Zeko who placed a hand on the missing ninja’s head. Once he removed it Nouka exited through the rift to meet his other friend.

“Better than not knowing until the last minute, when is the wedding anyway?” Zeko started for the door.

Rainbow Dash decided to answer the question. “It’s in twenty two days, weird huh?” Zeko froze in place when he heard the answer.

“Did you say twenty two days? As in three weeks and a day?” He turned his head to see them.

“Yes and it will be a fantastic gathering, I can’t believe that I get to make dresses for a princess and a captain!” Rarity was visibly exited and the remainder of the group started chatting about their places while Zeko stood right in front of the door.

He managed to whisper-scream his next words so he’d be unnoticed in the matter but his feelings weren’t negated. “I hate my life!”

=======

Arc 8 Chapter 3: New allies, newer enemies

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Arc 8 Chapter 4: Dragon Quest

Author's Note

It feels great to be back, and better since my life took a turn for the better in the last month.
But I’m not going to bore you with that, here’s what I promised and I’ll see you next time

Arc 8 Chapter 4: Dragon Quest

(Ponyville)
(The next day)

“So much to think about and so little time to think about it... That’s what she’d say in a situation like this.” Zeko was exiting the small town to meet a particular seven a distance away. They’d only told him that it was a very rare occasion and that he should try his best to make it. “So they should be right up ahe-

“Yoo hoo!” A red carpet rolled out and at the start of it was Rarity in a dress that Zeko would only call

“So useless it hurts, of all the- Wait are they in a ditch?” He walked closer and saw that Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash were in camouflage outfits and had binoculars.

“Well am I the toast of the trench or what?” A burst of brightly contrasting confetti erupted from seemingly nowhere.

“Oh you’ll be toast alright.” Applejack looked back to her warily. “If the dragons see you parading around in that getup.”

“You look very nice Rarity but could you maybe look nice down here in the trench with us?” A flash of Twilight’s horn and the confetti was gone, the red carpet as well.

“What’s that about dragons?” Zeko appeared in the trench and made the mares jump in fear.

“Geez Zeko don’t scare us like that!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed with a hand over her chest.

“How should I scare you?”

“Like this?” Another Zeko appeared behind them and tapped the shoulder of the rainbow haired mare.

“Aah!” Another yelp from the white mare

“There be dragons!” Pinkie called attention to the sky where a massive horde of dragons were flying overhead, one even taking the time to do a rolling maneuver.

Zeko’s clone disappeared in a puff of smoke and a certain daredevil scoffed at the trick. “Big deal, I wouldn’t say that was as impressive as me.” At that moment a dragon collided with another, causing the second dragon to spew a burst of flame towards the ground. The flames nearly hit the group in the face but a burst of wind blew them away.

“Well now I’d say that they’re fierce more than impressive.” Rainbow Dash was shivering from the close call right as a cart rolled up behind them.

“Yep, us dragons are definitely scary. You don’t wanna mess with us.” Spike announced, while wearing a frilly pink apron over his training outfit. He handed cupcakes and cookies out while Rainbow Dash snickered

“Yeah right Spike! That might have to be the scariest apron I’ve ever seen.” The laughter resumed with Pinkie and Applejack joining in.

He looked down at his attire, visibly confused. “What’s wrong with wearing an apron? You won’t be laughing when you get blueberries on your scales... Er feathers, that’s one tough stain!” At this point Zeko walked over and tore the apron off

“Spike be a man... Or dragon in this case, you aren’t supposed to wear frilly aprons. A basic blue works just fine.” He tossed the offending article out of the trench where it was carried off by ants

“So does that mean I don’t act like other dragons?”

“No and why would you? My little Spikey wikey has the best features that those dragons don’t, these perfect chubby cheeks.” Rarity kneaded the drake’s cheeks, prompting him to break away and look at Zeko.

“You’ve met dragons... t-they aren’t supposed to be cute right?” Spike used a handheld mirror to give himself a once over and saw the traces of baby fat that he still had, namely on his cheeks. “What am I? Who am I?” He walked off with a look of sorrow and anguish.

“Do you think we went too far?” Applejack questioned as the drake walked off but Rainbow Dash put an arm around her to ease that thought.

“Nah, he’ll be fine. Just needs to chill.”

During this Zeko looked upwards towards the dragons overhead and managed an idea. “That might work.” He told himself right before heading towards his house.

“Well gee if we’re all gonna leave then why’d I dig the trench?” Applejack questioned as she witnessed two of the guests walk in two different directions.

The very next morning is when Zeko appeared at the door of Twilight’s library with a bag on his shoulder, but before he could knock on the door. “Stop him!” He heard, along with some rustling and sounds of objects falling.

“Why do my mornings always go wrong?” The teen prepared to open the door with all of the grace...

*CRASH*

Of a tornado meeting a house, the door being busted down interrupted Rainbow Dash from trying to pull a bindle bag from Spike and sent the two crashing to the floor. “Zeko!” Spike grabbed the bag and ran behind the teenager... which was awkward since they were about the same height. “They won’t let me go to the dragon migration!”

“That’s cause you’re too small Spike!”

“And far too delicate to be around those ruffians.”

The drake looked at Zeko who only shook his head. “They’re right Spike you’re too young and not as big as those dragons.” Spike was visibly dejected while Rarity sighed in relief and Twilight pondered. Zeko grabbed the bindle bag and threw it outside, planting it in the dirt. “That’s why I’m going with you, if I’m there you’ll be fine if anything happens.” He turned to leave and Spike nearly yelled in excitement.

“Wai- What?” Rainbow Dash looked at Twilight incredulously. “Are you just gonna let them go?!”

“Yes.” Twilight answered

“What?!” Only Zeko and Twilight remained silent at the response.

Twilight walked over to Spike and gave him a hug. “I couldn’t answer the questions you had but maybe this is for the best, you’ll be able to learn so much and with Zeko there I don’t have to worry.” She pat him on his head as Zeko tossed another training outfit at him.

“No slacking on this walk, perfect time to train.” He grabbed his bag and walked in the direction of the ongoing airborne horde of dragons.

“Alright! I’ll tell you everything I learned when we come back!” The drake quickly tried to catch up to Zeko while struggling to put his pants on, inadvertently creating a comic act.

“We’re following them aren’t we?” Rarity said once they were out of earshot.

“Definitely.”

==============================

The duo walked by a large lake while following the migration and decided to set up a temporary camp. “Well this is as good a spot as any.” Zeko clasped his hands and allowed sand to leave his gourd and create a small patch on the ground.

“Oh finally!” Spoke collapsed onto the patch, exhausted from the hours of constant walking that he and his mentor had been doing. Unfortunately for the young drake his rest was short lived since Zeko tossed his bag onto Spike who yelled in pain. “So sore! Why’d you do that?” Zeko walked over to the edge of the lake and looked at the migration and noticed that they were greatly ahead of some dragons that he’d seen earlier.

“Making good time Spike, so I decided that I’ll teach you something useful in the future.” Spike nearly launched upwards, not showing any signs of fatigue. Zeko took a step towards the lake but to Spike’s shock he didn’t fall into the water but started to walk on it.

“How can I do that?”

“It’ll be easier for you since you’re always barefoot so just focus your energy into your feet and focus on staying above the water.” Spike stopped for a second to breathe deeply and closed his eyes to focus.

“Alright here goes!” Spike jumped for the water, feeling that he had a good balance of his energy...

*Splash*

And sunk below the surface of the water like a brick. “Ah! Zeko help!” The Drake cried for help as he splashed around.

“Spike-“

“Help! I’m not a good swimmer!”

“Spike-“

“Is this how I die? Drowning with my friend right next-“

“SPIKE! Stand the hell up!” Zeko had lost his temper at the drake’s antics and Spike took his advice and stood... in the waist deep water.

“Oh.” He smiled sheepishly. “Uh, why couldn’t I walk on the water? I did what you said.”

Zeko looked towards the sky again and saw the ongoing migration. “You have to completely focus before doing it, no excessive moves. Focus on walking.” Spike waded out of the water, clothing drenched from his attempt. “Well now you can’t do it, you couldn’t do it dry then how will you manage to do it if you’re soaked? We’ll wait a while and try again.”

And so they waited for Spike to dry and when that time came they tried again. “Woah!”

*Splash*

And again

“Waugh!”

*Splash*

Each time it was failure after failure, as if Spike wasn’t able to focus himself into performing such a basic yet necessary action. “I don’t get it! Why can’t I do this?” Spike was drenched again but this time he was steaming from anger, although he didn’t seem to notice.

“Hm... Spike did you notice that you’re steaming right now?” The drake gave himself a once over and saw the water vaporizing from his clothes at an alarming speed. “Ok I want you to stop bringing your energy to your scales.”

“My scales? That’s not where it’s going. I’m- What the?” Spike looked at his arms and saw the steam stop but his scales were a slight orange at the tips, blending with his purple coloration

“Looks like we figured out why you can’t walk on water, your scales must be a separate layer than your actual skin so you just keep pumping more and more energy towards them and heating them up rather than using it to keep yourself on the water surface.” Zeko’s Rinnegan were active and he saw the flow of energy only created currents beneath the scales of the drake.

“And since dragons are resistant to magic and energy like that, my scales just reflect the energy I build up-“

“And get heated up in the process. So bad news is that you can’t walk on water but good news is that this could lead you somewhere better. But we need to get back on our trip, the dragons we kept pace with caught up so if we wanna make good time we need to go.” Zeko returned his sand to his gourd and the duo grabbed their bags to begin walking once again.

“I might not be like other dragons but I’d like to see them do anything like that.” The drake thought as they walked on past the lake and through a forest that cut into a cold mountainous region, where Spike used his ability to warm himself while his mentor summoned a Timberwolf to use as material for torches. The two trekked up the mountain and made it to the summit, both panting heavily.

“Spike... you have to get your breathing... under control.” Zeko started to compose himself but still had trouble while Spike looked ready to pass out. “We’re on the windward side... you go first!” Zeko made a large claw of sand and threw Spike down the dry side of the mountain and slid down after him.

The two floated in a swamp on a raft made of glass, and hours later were walking through a forest with two birds that appeared as if they were flaming hot perched on a branch. “That’s something...” Zeko twirled a chakra rod as the two looked at a volcanic mountain.

“That’s our stop!” Brimming with energy, Spike dashed forward and started to ascend the mountain while Zeko floated on a platform of sand.

“Well he’s not complaining anymore, and maybe he’ll learn a little about-“ An outstretched hand absorbed the oncoming gout of flame. “Damn it.” Zeko reaches the crater and saw Spike sliding down towards a group of younger dragons while the adults eyed him suspiciously.

“Is there a problem monkey?” A dull silver dragon said with a booming voice

“Not as much as what your face would look like when I’m done with you.” The sand around Zeko’s legs started to move and caught the dragon’s attention, making it stare the teenager down before returning back to its resting position. “Damned bluff, where’d Spike go?” Zeko looked around and saw the drake being teased by the younger dragons and went to investigate.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were part pony...” A red dragon was in Spike’s face, sneering

Sand fell onto the ground beside them and Zeko jumped down. “That doesn’t make sense, he’s clearly a dragon.” He gestured to the drake but raised eyebrows and clueless expressions were his response.

“And what are you supposed to be? A- A shaved monkey? You aren’t even much bigger than him, I think you should leave the dragon business to the dragons.” He stood taller than most of the other dragons and had almost two feet over Zeko.

“You should back off.” Spike took a step back from the two while the red dragon held his cocky smirk

“Even the dragon-pony told you to leave, unless you wanna be hurt.” He cracked his knuckles.

The sound of sparking brought attention towards Zeko and led to Spike taking another step back. “He was talking about me...” Zeko had his arms crossed and when he separated them his body was coated in lightning, creating an intense force to push back the nearby dragons and cause the adult dragons to bring their attention towards him. “Going back to version one, at least I mastered it a while back.”

From a rut in the ground the red dragon peered and looked in awe at the warping electricity around Zeko’s body. “H-How did you do that? Are you part storm dragon?!”

The lightning sparked and jumped around Zeko’s body, constantly shifting around him. “I’m Zeko and you aren’t bullying Spike anymore...” As fast as what Coates him he was at the red dragon and grabbed him by the neck. “Got it?”

“O-Ok...” He said shakily but managed to fill himself with some faux confidence to retort. “But we still need to prove him as a real dragon, hanging with those ponies might’ve turned him soft.”

“Hey! I’m not soft, I can take whatev-“

“Alright he’ll do it.” Zeko abruptly answered to Spike’s confusion. “Spike this is your chance to show what kind of dragon you are.” He ceased his cloak of lightning and crossed his arms as the red dragon stood up.

“You sure the shrimp can do this Garble?” A large brown colored teenage dragon came up by the red dragon’s side.

“No but I wanna see him fail. First will be a belching test!” The adult dragons looked down as three teenage dragons lined up and performed one after the other, ending with the brown dragon sending flames so strong that Zeko had to step out of the way.

“Dragons have tough scales I guess.” He said as Spike gave it his all... and produced a scroll with a tiny burp in comparison

“Hey what’s that?” Garble reached for the parchment but it was quickly taken by Zeko. “Whatever, next is tail wrestling.” Two dragons wrapped the tips of their tails around one another and started to pull, leading to the bigger dragon winning.

“Oh, good old tail wrestling.” Spike held his tail in doubt but remembered his training and his increase in strength. “So who am I going against?” Zeko saw a very peculiar looking dragon prepare to step forward but looking at its underside let him know what or rather who it was and he subtly forced a needle into its tail, pinning it to its spot.

“I’ll take you on shrimp.” A teal dragon stepped up and locked tails with Spike.

“And, GO!” Garble said, the two pulled one another and did their greatest to win but neither was giving in.

“Just... a little...” Spike muttered but he remembered what Zeko told him about enhancing his strength and put his hands together. “Hah...” Slowly but surely Spike began to pull harder and before he know it

“Wagh!” He pulled his opponent right off of the ground and made him smack onto the stone.

“Whoa, that was impressive. Even though you’re shrimp you won.” Garble was astonished at the display. “But that doesn’t make you a real dragon, how you do in the next test will determine your standing.” Garble grabbed Spike and flew to the top of a pile of gems while Zeko walked over to the odd looking dragon.

“So how many pony people are under here? I know there’s one unicorn but what else could be hidden under this cheap cloth?”

“Take that back! This was a very fine, well woven-“

“So two unicorns and who else? Rainbow Brash?”

“Hey!” A boyish voice answered

“All three of you need to go now, these dragons aren’t a joke.” Twilight peered through the eyes of the costume.

“But we came here to make sure Spike was safe and I wouldn’t be able to-“

“This is a day where I interrupt everything isn’t it? I’m more than enough to keep him safe and from what I’ve seen-“ He looked over to see Spike throw a dragon off the pile of gems and climb even higher. “He could’ve done this alone if he tried.”

“Ok we’ll leave... but if anything happens.” She looked back at him but he was waving a hand nonchalantly.

“Yeah yeah, just go while you can.” Zeko walked back to the pile that Spike was atop.

“That’s two for two, I guess he is a real dragon.” Garble rolled his shoulder to ease the soreness from tackling another dragon.

“That was awesome!” Spike slid down to Zeko. “Did you see me back there? I was great!”

“What have you learned? Is this the type of dragon you are?” Zeko questioned.

“Well it’s fun so I think it’s the one I want to be, I don’t see anything wrong with it so I might just stay here if this is the stuff I get to do.” Spike was brimming with excitement over finding what he saw as himself but Zeko had a piece of information to share.

“I’m gonna tell you this, sometimes it’s best to carve your own path instead of using what others set.” Zeko gestured to the dragons who were now wrestling while Garble approached them.

“That’s...” Spike deflated quickly once he understood what his mentor was saying. “Wow, so we never even had to... wow.”

“Hey Spike its time for your ceremony, gotta name you as a rookie dragon.”

“Actually Garble, I’m not going to stick around. It’s been fun but I’m gonna make my own way as a dragon!” Spike grabbed his bundle bag and started to walk away but Garble had grabbed his shoulder and stopped him.

“No one...” He leaned in close to the drake. “Tells me no.” He reeled an arm back but couldn’t throw the hit he planned on. “What the- Gack!” A fist to the snout sent Garble to the ground.

“Spike you can get behind me and learn a thing or two, I’ll deal with this no problem.” Zeko tossed Spike his bag and the drake moved behind his friend. “So any good reason for me to not break your arms?” Hands behind his head and a bored expression on his face, this body language only made Garble more angry when he saw it.

He whistled and got the other teenage dragons to come to him and help him up. “You might be tough but there’s this many of us, so what are you gonna do monkey?” They stepped closer towards the duo but at that moment Zeko sat down and meditated. “Ha! He’s so scared he closed his eyes!” The dragons began to laugh while Spike looked confused.

“This isn’t me being afraid.” Zeko stood back up after half a minute with his Rinnegan active, but his pupils were like stars with four points. “This is my mom’s gift!” He formed the ram seal with his hands. “Sage art Sand style: Dozen clashing tails!”

The ground rumbled right until over a dozen massive tails made of sand and covered with black seals burst from the ground and each one crashed straight into a dragonand carried them into the air, right before slamming them back into the ground leaving craters. The tails crumbled and turned to simple sand almost as fast as they came, and Zeko’s pupils returned to simple black circles. “What was that?” Spike asked in total disbelief at what just happened.

“My mom was a very powerful shinobi, and the one thing she left me was that while my dad taught me more about lightning style and taijutsu. Let’s go, I’ll explain more on the way back.” They walked to the edge of the crater right as the sun set but back towards an opposing edge laid an adult blue scaled dragon with red eyes and silver spines along its back.

“It appears that I found the target.” It made its bristle-like spines vibrate and almost immediately a group of similarly colored younger dragons flew to it, each looking like smaller versions of the adult.

“You summoned us elder?” The young dragon in front asked.

“I’d told you that you were all born for a single reason, and it seems that the time for you to fulfill it is now.”

=======

Arc 8 Chapter 5: A new Wave

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Arc 8 Chapter 6: Blazing Wings (part 1/2)

(Ponyville)
(Later That Day)

Spike was wearing a new training outfit that seemed like it started to fit his figure a bit better than the original had, and had little baggy space aside from the pants. He was seated at the same bistro that Twilight attempted to eat at during the ticket fiasco for the Gala and directly across from him was an alabaster white unicorn. “I’m surprised that you wanted to eat with me Sweetie Belle.” The drake stated as he munched on a bright red ruby in front of the nervous filly.

To say that she was only nervous would be a massive understatement. “Well I just wanted to catch up with you...” Flashbacks of the night Spike was held by the neck by the massive figure,The Puppetmaster, remained in the mind of the filly but Spike didn’t seem to remember or at least didn’t hold it to a high degree. “Since you tried your best to protect the class but got hurt...”

A look of confusion flashed across Spike’s face before he’d realized what she was talking about. “Oh right, yeah that was a crazy night but we’re all ok so it worked out just fine. At least that’s what Zeko said.”

“B-But you were being choked!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed and shook the table, garnering attention from other patrons who quickly went back to their business after seeing that they were staring at the disciple of their local hero.

“Well yeah but I’m alright, and more importantly you’re alright.” Spike had his eyes closed but they sprang open and a blush went across his face once he realized what he said. “I meant- That’s good you’re- Well uh!” The red creeping along his friend’s face was becoming more and more apparent. The two went silent and continued to blush to themselves but before any of them could speak-

“So the awkwardness here is choking me.” Zeko’s voice was heard and the two preteens yelped and saw the crimson haired shinobi rise out of the ground. “No really this was so terrible to watch for the last few minutes but you’ll have to pick up later, Spike I need your help.” Zeko gestured for Spike who quickly left his seat and followed behind his mentor, leaving Sweetie Belle to sit and stare at the table.

“What did he mean it’s better I’m ok?!”

==============================

An open field is where Zeko hovered just slightly over the ground in a meditative position. The gentle wind blowing the grass and his short hair. “Cutting this down was a good choice, it really was effeminate.”

Spike say on the ground directly across from his mentor with a look of slight annoyance. “Why’d you have to get me when you did?! I was having fun with-“

“Your new girlfriend? And here I thought you had a thing for Rarity but her sister might be the best you’ll get.” A smirk was spreading over Zeko’s face while Spike only blushed increasingly harder.

“T-That’s not true! She’s just my friend!” The drake turned around to seem angry but the facade didn’t fool his older friend.

“I called you here for a reason Spike, I need your help with something so listen carefully because if you fail...” Spike turned back to Zeko to give him his attention better. “You could die a lot younger than you’d like so pay close attention.”

“A-Alright.” Spike wavered but steeled himself, knowing he trained hard to be better than his previous self and could handle what Zeko needed as long as he was confident.

“It’s noon right now so in one hour I will summon you to my location but you’ll have to put that receiver I gave you into your skin. When you’re with me just follow my instructions closely, the good part is that they’ll go straight to your head the bad part is that you will hesitate more than once no matter how confident you are.” The wind stopped as Zeko spoke, leaving the two in a serene field within the once chaotic Everfree Forest.

Around thirty minutes later the complete plan was done and Spike knew exactly what he’d have to do when the time came. But to his surprise the sound of something approaching the two from the trees caught his attention, and Celona revealed herself.

“Am I too late for that idea you had Zeko?” The young mare was pushing Mist in her wheelchair who looked at the forest calmly.

“I still think this place is pretty creepy, but I have to deal with it I guess.”

Zeko stood up and walked over to the two and started to talk but was out of Spike’s earshot, he assumed that they were discussing the plan because of their role to play in the event. “I could die...” Spike started to think negatively and zoned out until a hand pressed against his chest and formed a black marking.

“There’s yours, and they have one too. If this goes right then everyone will be fine, worst come to worst somebody’s gonna be hurt.” Zeko leapt into the air and a large puff of smoke formed as a screech was heard and a massive bird of prey flew away with Zeko on its back.

“What was that?!” Celona gaped but another rusting of bushes revealed Zecora donned in leather armor.

“Be calm and have no shock, that creature is simply a Roc. A massive bird that hunts large prey, not something one would see everyday.” The four made a double take and looked at one another before looking back at the near out of sight bird.

Spike broke the odd silence by voicing what he’d realized. “We’re gonna be a good team aren’t we?”

==============================
(1 hour later)

Quicksilver was in the same meadow that Titus and True Shot found the hatch to the Black Talon hideout, he had a stern look on his face and even sharpened his beak in anticipation. The wind slowly blew over his dull silver feathers and his Black Talon suit with a griffin talon on the chest remained taught against his skin. “I know something’s there.” He turned and flared his wings. “Show yourself.”

A figure leapt down from the sky itself and was clad in a crimson robe with a hood covering their face. “So you’re the Quicksilver I know of, it must be strange to have nopony near to admire and show love.” The hood was pulled off and revealed Zecora’s face

“A Zebra? I know that rhymespeak from anywhere... but based off your voice I know you aren’t the Zeko that’s coming here for me so you must be an ally or maybe his lover?” Quicksilver’s wings came closer to his body, signaling Zecora of his guard being let down. Which is what she wanted. “Hm?!” She rushed at him with her arms under the robe, out of his sight. “So you’re an ally? Then I’ll just cut you down to get to him.” His wings turned to metal and protected his front from Zecora’s powerful roundhouse.

“This was unpredictable, I can only hope this fight will be simple.” The wings opened and blew Zecora back and made her crash and roll against the ground before coming to a stop in a rut.

“My brother and I have the ability to turn our feathers into metal except his is only as strong as iron...” With great force Quicksilver flapped his wings once and covered the distance between him and his quarry, but to his surprise she spun and landed a kick on his beak and sent him reeling backwards. Once the two recovered separately they stared each other down. “Can’t say that was a bad kick... but we have more than that to do if you want to protect the human. This one against one isn’t very fair all things considered.”

Zecora cracked her neck in response and pulled a corked vial from her robe with a purple fluid in it. She opened the bottle and it turned red before releasing a burst of red smoke into the air. “And my signal has been completed.” She pulled out a black piercing as opposed to her gold accessories and placed it through her ear like a bar piercing then gripped her head before dropping her arms to her sides.

Quicksilver was confused but his experience let him know to keep his guard up in this situation and that payed off once Zecora recovered but he saw that her eyes were very different. “So what’s this supposed to do? A power up with your eyes?”

Zecora smirked before she spoke but the change to her voice disturbed the griffin greatly. “This is the result of the Paths of Peace.” Sounding like an amalgam of Zecora and an unknown male figure but there was a wicked edge to the tone sounding like a demented creature was involved. “But I’m not your biggest problem... WE are.” Slamming her hands into the ground Zecora spoke and a puff of smoke brought three other figures clad in the same hooded robes out of seemingly nowhere.

“So Quicksilver...” The shortest figure spoke with the voice of two boys with the same wicked undertone and upon taking his hood off he was revealed to be Spike with a piercing through the bridge of his snout. “Would a four on one be more fair to you?”

“I’m curious too, this should be fair right?” Celona pulled her hood down and revealed her voice to be almost overtaken by Zeko’s, her piercing was through the ear like Zecora’s. The last figure was revealed to stand over the others but was Mist in her Red Claw outfit as opposed to the plain white shirt and black leggings she’d been wearing, however the issue wasn’t her attire... it was her standing up unassisted, with her piercing not being visible.

“You- You’re Culina’s daughter! Why are you helping these ring eyed freaks?” Quicksilver questioned but once he looked closer he saw that Mist had the same spiral eyes as the rest and they all had their sights directly on him. Gritting his teeth the griffin reached down his protected chest area and pulled a necklace with a red engraving on it out and placed it on his back allowing red lines to go to his wings and turn his metallic feathers red hot. “This should be a pretty fair fight actually, let’s go!” Another burst of speed brought Quicksilver straight to his enemies who dodged the vicious slash he attempted. All four dodging in different directions.

(Theme for the fight)

“Fire style: Giant fireball!” Spike blew his green flame at his enemy who slashed through it and proved his heat was greater. “That’s inconvenient.” Quicksilver made for the drake but was charged by Celona from the side with... lightning encasing her arm...

“Lariat!” She collided with her enemy’s right wing and both struggled to push the other back until one gave way. “Hah!” And it wasn’t Quicksilver. The gust of desert like wind not only pushed Celona out of the way but nearly singed her very fur.

Quicksilver blew towards a backwards shifting Spike but feigned and lashed at the cragadile that came at him from the side, harboring the same eyes as his opponents. The skin of the reptile had little chance against his blades and was cut into like paper, leaving a wound on its back. “You’re a well organized team, this is quite the challenge.” Quicksilver looked around and saw that Zecora was to his left with a large serpent by her side, Celona was pulling herself from the dirt to his right with Mist being behind her, and Spike was directly ahead of him and decided to speak.

“Why do your cults do what they do? What type of deity do you worship that would reward you by spilling blood? And what reward would one even give for that deed?”

“Hm... Because I’m either going to die here or live just barely I’ll tell you what I know. The Black Talon act as a base for the worship of Apoxis, our lord and creator.”

“Creator of what?” Celona questioned. “Ponykind is aware of Faust being their creator and gifted up with the Alicorn race to guide us. Even I learned that and I wasn’t in traditional society.” This outburst only made Quicksilver chuckle.

“The ponies now worship Faust when she is only a mimic to true greatness, only elite members and leaders of the Apoxis followings are made aware of his very existence because the weak minded can’t comprehend the very name... meaning I’m truly dealing with something impressive since not one of you even wavered.”

“I wasn’t even aware of his existence, meaning my mother truly didn’t believe in me... But that’s a past I won’t live, what is so special about Apoxis anyway?” Mist questioned as she folded her arms

“His greatness is what shall heal this world of all of its suffering, with a thought alone he could cleanse this very land of anything vile. The sacrifice is that we have to amass enough magical strength for him to rise again, the power that the human has will be enough to complete the ritual.” He raised his arms to his sides and let his wings flare with a passionate heat before blasting himself backwards and turning to slam into Mist who put her guard up last second.

“You’re insane! None of that’s happening since not only are you going to die here but-“

Spike cartwheeling in the air to the side got the attention of the devout griffin who also saw his other enemies. “I’ll take her back!” Mist was pulled directly into Spike’s grasp and Celona crashed into Quicksilver’s back but another heated gust pushed her away and he came to a stop.

“Spike, Celona, Mist, and Zecora you’re all a very interesting group... it makes sense Zukako would remember your names. Now-“ A flick of the wing sent a volley of razor sharp feathers towards the approaching cragadile and impaled it sending it to the ground lifeless. “Now I’ll be a little more serious.” His wings flared with white hot fury and sent a crackling gust of wind towards the four.

“It’s a great change of pace.” Mist said as she formed hand seals. “Water Style: Wall of Water!” Mist sent a torrent of water from her mouth, when it collided with the heat it turned into her namesake. The blazing heat told them to evade again and the four managed to dodge the attack that split the ground and desiccated the soil.

Mist and Spike rushed in and clashed against their enemy. “Watch his wings, one swipe and we’re done.” Spike ducked under the very danger and delivered a kick to Quicksilver’s side, stopping his motion for a short time while Celona coated her arm in electricity again and aimed to punch him in the chest but he ducked backwards and blew into the air.

“What can you do against this?” Flapping his wings, Quicksilver sent down scalding feathers in a massive orderless array The four reunited while Zecora and Mist weaved a series of signs before both sent a large burst of air and water respectively that turned into a massive spiral that caught the oncoming projectiles. Once the attack stopped Quicksilver’s grin was noticeable from the ground and a quick check revealed that Celona had been too slow to get under the barrier and was struck through the chest by a stray feather.

Spike went to her and checked her body. “She’s hanging in there, just barely... she might not make it...” A scowl formed on his face and he set her down as he and the other two walked forward as the serpent slithered along with Zecora.

“Oh I hope the fire you had isn’t gone Spike and I mean that literally since you were only heating up my feathers with it.” Quicksilver joked but when Spike began to slowly levitate into the air he was confused and visibly so since he was told that the drake was just a drake, wingless.

“So you want to have a god to worship? You holding try outs for the role?” An outstretched hand confused Quicksilver but he has his answers soon enough. “Almighty Push!” The nearby clouds were cleared and only Spike was visible until he landed again and looked at his allies and Celona. “She’ll be fine, we can’t give him time to rest.” Spike dashed towards where their enemy went flying and the smell of molten rock told him the mountain ahead was relevant to his location.

The other two caught up quickly and saw Quicksilver using another rune on his chest but this one had purple lines come to his arms and talons. “Another little boost for me since one did what it did so two will finish this.” He walked forward and dragged his talons along a tree and it bubbled, began to rot and warp where it was marked. Bursting forward he clashed with Spike alone throwing two swipes with his claws and a sweep with his wing, all of which were parried and acted on with a jab to the face and a kick to the stomach pushing the griffin back.

“Fire Style: Phoenixflame scarlet claw!” A series of burning scales were sent right at Quicksilver but before he could deflect them.

“What the?!” The serpent wrapped around his body and was cut apart by his wings but it made a window for the scales to embed themselves into his flesh. “Agh!” He took a breath before flying like a dart straight at Mist who was preparing a jutsu. “She’s Water, Spike is Fire, and Zecora is Wind... Then she goes first.” He thought and he spun and sent a volley of feathers at Mist right when Spike’s foot came crashing into his neck and was almost lost to the corrosive talons.

“Water Style: Severing Wave.” Mist spewed a stream of high pressure water and deflected the projectiles, right when a gust of wind was launched and scorched the grass as it went for her but Zecora pushed her aside and took the hit, sending her into a nearby boulder shattering it.

“I have to go retrieve Celona you two will have to fight alone.” She bolted back towards where they came from with Quicksilver aiming a feather at her but his idea was stopped fast when a cooled feather whizzed by his face.

“You remember you’re fighting us right? That’s not too big of a demand is it?” Mist declared as Spike walked next to her.

“It shouldn’t be, I’ve beat one of you and sent another running. At this rate I should come out on top but I won’t jinx that.” Spike smirked at the statement before crossing his forearms defensively.

“Might have done it already...”

=======

Author's Note

It feels good to have my mojo back, and I’m proud of the setup here. Comments, questions, concerns, you know what to do.

See you next time

Arc 8 Chapter 7: Blazing Wings (2/2)

A cooling wind blew through the sparse trees as the three figures stood motionless, like rocks with puppet strings. Spike had his forearms crossed on one another, claws fully extended and eyes locked on Quicksilver with a burning fury behind them. “Waiting for you...” He taunted the older fighter who didn’t move from his position, wing still extended from his attempt on Zecora.

Quicksilver smirked at the comment, heat emanating from his white hot wings caused the entire area to raise in temperature. “Don’t worry-“ He burst forward and his closed talon impacted Spike’s forearms. “I didn’t want you to wait much longer.” At that moment Mist released another torrent of water from her mouth and doused Spike and Quicksilver who was visibly distressed by the event to the point where he jumped as far away as he could and flared his wings to get any and all water off of himself.

“What the hell was that?” Mist thought only to hear

“I don’t know... it looks like he doesn’t like water- HIS WINGS!” The pair snapped their attention to the metallic wings of their enemy and saw that the water cooled them down greatly, even his talons were temporarily rinsed of their poison. Both looked at each other and nodded their heads before changing the script and lunging at Quicksilver with chakra rods in hand, clashing with his orange tipped wings. Both dodged swipes from the slowly heating wings and had their weapons grabbed by the corrosive talons.

“So you both got some courage to approach? Doesn’t matter!” He pulled the rods away and broke them both against his left wing. “I’m guessing you two are the more experienced in fighting, so after I beat you the other one will be an easy takedown.” He ran at them this time, talons ready to rend flesh. Spike jumped to the left and barely evaded a swipe from the talons and ducked under a wing swipe. “Hah!” Spike looked back and saw that Mist’s arm was pierced by a feather. A large lion paw ended up in Spike’s chest. “Don’t take your eyes off of me.”

Spike was pushed back hard and sent barreling through the air, but landed on his feet before putting a hand out. “Universal pull!” The griffin was pulled towards the drake forcefully but whatever Spike had planned...

*Slash*

Did not go however he wanted it to as evidenced by the nails in his stomach, leaving their venomous trail behind and a painful burning sensation that caused Spike’s eyes to return to a slitted green state and he fell to the ground in pain with his own voice being back to normal. “Aaagh! What happened to me?!” The drake thrashed on the ground as the venom coursed through his body bringing even more pained cries.

“It looks like that eye boost that you had wore off and now you’re just a vulnerable child.” Quicksilver approached the injured drake as he writhed in agony until he blew an oncoming ball of water away and knocked Mist to the ground with scorched air.

“Leave him alonnneeee-“ Mist passed out right as her eyes returned to their rose red coloration, leaving Spike at the mercy of the griffin.

“AAAAAAGH!” He cried aloud but there wasn’t anything around to help him.

“Well I guess I was right, I’d be the one who barely survived. Finishing the Zebra off should be pretty easy from here.” He plucked one of his feathers, not harming his claws in the slightest and prepared to stab Spike

*Squish*

The feather fell to the ground with little to no force behind it, an envenomed talon following it. Quicksilver didn’t even register that it was his own limb that fell but once he did he brought his wing closer to cauterize the wound. “W-Who did that?!” A scythe with a chain was embedded in the ground nearby and pulled back to its owner. “Y-You’re...” Quicksilver was shocked

“H-Help me...” Spike said with tears in his eyes.

The two managed the word together and had an equal amount of surprise. “ZEKO!” The teenager stood there with his fan and chained blade in separate hands but for some reason his hair wasn’t its usual crimson... it was as white as Celestia’s fur and nearly radiated light that bounced off of it.

“Might as well let you see the real me, even though I’ve been called a rabbit like this. Spike!” Zeko crossed the fingers on his hands and made a shadow clone then flung his scythe at Quicksilver as a distraction.

The shadow clone ran to Spike and scooped him up in the diversion, and slung him over his shoulder before picking up Mist bridal style and running away with the two. “So you’re the one I’ve wanted to meet, I can’t say I’m in the best condition but if your friends are anything to go by I just need one feather to hit you-“

“They’re all alive.” Quicksilver stopped entirely once he heard the words entirely. “You heard me right, they’re all ok. I’m not quite sure you understand but let me try to break it up for you... I’ve been using my Rinnegan, so that I could know what’s going on.” In time with his words he activated his eyes to the recognition of his enemy.

“So you cast the spell on them too?” Quicksilver clutched his stump and looked at his dissolving bodypart, the rune going into a higher effect now that the limb wasn’t attached and was being taken over by its own ability.

“The power I hold isn’t some weak spell cause it’s something you can’t quell. The powers I hold thanks to my eye will aid in how your guilds will die.” Zeko pulled his scythe back and twirled it in the air to his side. The two stood facing each other until Zeko slowly began to approach with his weapons in his grasp. “It’d be useless for you to try and fight back, even right now you can’t stand against me you hack.”

Now the words may have been in a taunting lyrical style but there was a serious tone to them that told Quicksilver if he fought back it’d only make things harder for him. “I’ll be the first step to the rising of-“

*Thud*

Quicksilver looked down and saw his wing on the ground, setting ablaze with his own rage, overtaken by the heat he used to fight. “W-Wha-“ the sound of chains and another swift slash took the other talon away from the flabbergasted griffin. “H-HAAGH!” He quickly cauterized the wound but his vision started to blur and he saw double of his white haired foe. The talon bubbled away in a fizz of green like the last one

“I told you it was pointless, that fight earlier was me testing a technique that showed me everything you had.” Quicksilver fell to his knees as his vision started turning dark. Zeko retrieved and rewrapped his scythe onto the handle of his fan and approached. “I played you from the start, but you did much more to them than I expected so that’s the first and last time I use living bodies for that approach.”

“Y-You...” He muttered

Zeko was ten feet back but mockingly leaned closer to hear his beaten opponent. “I what now? Didn’t catch the last part.”

“Y-You... YOU AREN’T DOING ANYTHING ANYMORE!” In a fit of adrenaline infused anger he flung all of his white hot feathers at Zeko and fell back to the ground. “Saving everything for a last attack, at least Culina can take it from here.” The sound of wind made Quicksilver look up and see all of his feathers be swatted away like flies by a gust of wind.

“As much as I loved Samehada you can’t beat a classic weapon.” Zeko crouched down to meet Quicksilver’s face and placed his fan onto his back. “So you were fourth strongest, and considering the trouble you were without any knowledge it’d be useful to have some on the next target. So who do you know as a leader?” Zeko reaches his hand out to an unresponsive griffin and back with it came a soul. “At least I know what to expect this time, but I’m gonna go it on my own this time. The energy I need to put in to make sure they live is pretty high...” He grabbed the runes off of his enemy’s corpse and put them into his gourd before kicking the husk in the ribs. “That’s for making me disable my transformation jutsu! Saving that little bit of chakra means nothing if I get laughed at for my hair!”

==============================

Spike awoke in a cold sweat in his bed with Twilight asleep in hers beside him. “What?! What happened?!” He looked around frantically, feeling as if he just recovered from near suffocation. The librarian awoke from his frantic voice.

“Spike... it’s the middle of the night...” She pointed out. “Don’t you remember? You spent time training today and got stung by something in the Everfree, Zecora healed you up and Zeko brought you back out cold.” The drake looked at himself feeling phantom aches but looked perfectly normal entirely, not being being able to find any strange issues with his body.

“Oh, I guess I just had a really bad dream. I’ll tell you about it in the morning Twilight...” He rolled over to go back to sleep but couldn’t shake the strange feeling he had about that dream.

============================

Mist snapped out of her drowsy state and fell to the floor in a failed attempt to stand suddenly. “Wha- Huh?! What happened?” Celona quickly picked her up and put her back into her wheelchair. “Wait didn’t you-“

“It was a dream, I had the same one. Princess Luna must be getting lazy if we had the exact same nightmare.” Celona pushed Mist outside to see that it was early in the morning as opposed to late afternoon as the dream suggested.

“Oh you two are awake, you were thrashing so much in your sleep I wanted to wake you up.” Mist and Celona both froze once they saw Zeko but it wasn’t his words as much as his appearance that shocked them.

“Z-Zeko... What happened to your hair?” Mist questioned fearfully while Celona was more so confused at the change in appearance.

“Hm? Oh I decided to stop wasting my chakra gradually with a transformation jutsu. I’ve got big fish to handle so I need everything I can spare, if you’re shocked at the color then you should know my hair is naturally-“

“White? I actually think it’s a really nice color for you, why isn’t it what you have all the time?” Celona questioned

“That’s a story for another time, I need to go see if Zecora managed to grow some plants I gave her... that was a really interesting day.” He bounded off towards the hut leaving a confused Mist to babble to herself.

Once the white haired teen arrived at the hut he opened the door to reveal Jenki sitting across from Zecora drinking tea. “Oh hey Ze...ko? Going back to your white hair? Nice.” The green haired boy said with his usual mirth.

“Good to see you too Jenki. Zecora are you feeling ok? Yesterday wasn’t too strenuous was it?” Zeko questioned as Jenki walked over to him

“I’ve recovered from yesterday’s skirmish, but my body still suffers from some soreness.” She rolled her shoulder as she made her statement.

“Zeko I have something for you, Kotetsu told me you had big things going on so I brought you something. The Hokage wanted me and Nouka in the Anbu and he even gave me an extra set of the clothes, so here.” Jenki handed over a black scroll that Zeko took, along with some vials with his name on them.

“Thanks Zecora!” Zeko ran out the door with the scroll and bottles in hand but a missive dropped from a passing bird told another story. “Of course. The Princesses need me for something, can’t get a break can I?”

==================================
(Canterlot Castle)
(An hour later)

Zeko entered through the grand doors once again and saw the massive figure in front of him. “So what’s the threat to this place that you needed to call on me for? The Minotaurs? Dragons? Red Claw? Or maybe some thousand year old prince of darkness that’s preparing to return and bring back an entire lost empire?”

Celestia and froze at those words. “That isn’t what we requested, but that’s a situation that has some relevance to a historical event... how did you manage to guess that?” Celestia leaned in closer to question Zeko about his knowledge but he shrugged his shoulders. “Well in any case we need you to return to Ponyville and help Pinkie Pie deliver something as per my request.”

“What is it? Some ancient artifact that gives you the power of an Alicorn?”

“How are you aware of these things?!” She asked comically, eyes widened and only received another shrug from Zeko. “The delivery is a treasure in its own, the Marzipan Mascarpone Merengue Madness.”

Zeko was completely confused to say the least and only managed to mouth a single sentence. “The hell is that?” It was crude but told his feelings in a direct way.

“I believe Pinkie Pie would be able to explain in a better light, go back to Ponyville and find her so that you can aid in its delivery.”

Zeko turned to exit the grand doors but decided to turn to the right and crash out a window. “No doors for a real ninja!”

Celestia and the two guards in the room were dumbfounded by the sudden act. “I’m not sure if he is a blessing or a curse anymore.”

=======

Author's Note

He’s late but better than nobody getting to see me at all, that’s right I have white hair... classic protagonist deal. Not sure why Giorno is Polpo but the song worked... and no I couldn’t ever beat GER saying that now. We’ll see you next week

Arc 8 Chapter 8: Reduced

(Skies)
(10 minutes later)

Zeko floated along gently on a small cloud of sand, taking his time in going towards his goal. “Delivering a... whatever she said the name of the damn thing was. This is going to be very boring I can tell already.” As he drifted through the skies he teenager took the time to think about various things that have occurred over the last few weeks in his life... going so far as to consider the few months he’s spent in Equestria. His thoughts were cut short as he saw Ponyville in his sights and decided to quicken his pace to see what he had to deliver. “And here I thought I was done with D-rank missions.”

“ZEKO!” He’d heard a familiar bubbly voice scream, causing him to look down and see Pinkie Pie jumping up and down with her arms flailing next to a giant cake being carried on the shoulders of a larger than average red stallion with the Mane six helping to hold the massive confectionary with ropes, a trampoline behind him, and a sphere of mana surrounding the cake. Two earth ponies stood behind and looked between the cake itself with concern and the train just ahead of the group. “Ok everypony... We’re almost there.”

The train car grew closer and closer as the group approached and Zeko floated down to greet the hyperactive pink mare and the group carrying the massive cake. “Please don’t tell me this is the delivery I have to help with.” Zeko stated as he jumped from his sand platform to the ground, his weapon having been left at his residence due to the nature of his job.

“Okay! We’re here, now all we need to do is get the Marzipan Mascarpone Merengue Madness into the...” As Pinkie opened the small boxcar door she saw that the giant confection had no chance of going in on its own. “Train?” Zeko stepped forward and grabbed the sphere surrounding the cake, carrying it to the boxcar and to the surprise of everyone there... walked through the wall. The protective sphere was left outside of the wall.

Twilight was the most shocked considering she’d had the teenager lost his various abilities to her and even went so far as to pull out her notebook to chart down the new skill. “Phasing through solid objects... when did you learn this?!” She got close to Zeko as the rest of the Mane six piled into the boxcar but he only stepped back as the train engine fired up and Pinkie began to describe the flavor of the Marzipan Mascarpone Merengue Madness to her friends.

“Well it’s not new... but it’s not really old. I haven’t fully figured it out but I’m starting to learn a little more about it. But right now I don’t know enough to tell you what it really is.” Zeko said as he went to lean against a wall right as a heavy accent filled his ears.

“Your silly cake will not be winning this competition... For I Gustave Le Grand will win the competition with my-“ A flourish of a white covering allowed the griffin to reveal. “My Exceptionally Exquisite Eclairs!” The group was blinded by a bright light that turned out to be a personal spotlight which was discarded immediately. “They will surely win the competition and crown me Le champion!”

“Not a chance Le Grand.” A white tarp covered cart was wheeled in and behind it was the expert of doughnuts, Pony Joe.

Zeko leaned off the wall and walked into the next car, uncaring for the idle chatter of the dessert competition going on in the background. “I’m not here to worry about their bickering, it’s the job I have to worry about.” Zeko said to himself as he checked the luggage in the room and made sure there weren’t any objects that could take him off guard or risk the delivery going anything other than smoothly.

An object hitting the ground behind him caused him to draw a chakra rod and ready his Rinnegan but he calmed down once he saw that it was just a small bag falling over. The silence was broken by a pinching feeling on Zeko’s neck, followed by him grabbing and throwing a small insect away and feeling a small bump on his neck. “Hmm... A bite...”A familiar voice rung from Zeko’s head.

“Do I want to know why you decided to be here at the worst possible time? I’m on a harmless mission so leave me alone.” The white haired ninja walked towards the door to go back to the car with the desserts.

“Unfortunately whatever that bug was must’ve done something since I’m not going anywhere.” Zeko shook his head and tried his best to will the less than desirable voice away but to no avail. The sand demon was unable to be willed away. “Don’t think of this as me taking over, I don’t know why I’m stuck here with you instead of me pushing you away.” The sand demon explained to the surprise of Zeko who quickly used his Rinnegan to look for the insect that bit his neck.

“There’s nothing else here but whatever happened is starting to make me feel weird...” Zeko looked at his hands and saw that his clothes started to grow around him. “What the hell?!” He looked at the luggage near him and went to it, emptied it out and found a mirror which he used to look at himself and see that his clothes hadn’t grown.

“Looks like you’ve shrunk boy, it seems like you’re twelve again.” The sand demon said but it fell onto deaf ears once Zeko had seen that his eyes stayed the same but he started to notice that his stomach was burning and tore through his top to see a black spiral appear on his stomach. “Now that doesn’t make much sense. You aren’t the host of Shukaku anymore so why is the seal there?”

Zeko took five deep breaths as he took his sandals off and his ripped top as well, then proceeded to cuff his pants and tighten the waist. “I’m at least gonna be presentable if anything else happens. But my top priority is making sure...” Zeko stopped once he’d heard something strange but paused when he realized the odd sound was his own voice. Whatever had happened to the previous young adult didn’t just give him the appearance of his younger self but he’d actually reverted back to his preteen state. “I-I’m gonna...”

“Gonna what? What will you do little boy?” A voice spoke from seemingly everywhere, intimidating Zeko as he scanned the room for any sign of an enemy but found nothing in the vicinity that was a threat to him. “Oh you’re looking for me? Sorry to say but I’m not near you... But shortly we’ll be acquainted with one another very shortly.” At that proclamation the train shook violently.

“The hell?!” Zeko brought out one chakra rod

“There’s something else on this train.”

Zeko went to the car with the desserts and saw multiple dents in the walls of the car, with more coming in. “Looks like the best thing is- Taking the fight off the train?” Zeko paused when he heard his voice and fully heard how young he sounded before jumping out a window cross armed. Looking back at the train going down the tracks from a steep incline he saw the culprits of the attack.

“Ah those bug like ones. Hmm these ones are different.” The sand demon saw that the changelings were in fact different than the regular variety in the sense that they had a yellowish coloration to them and a more feral appearance to them.

“These aren’t normal at all. And those weapons look like the ones those Minotaurs had... this could be bad.”

The changelings looked up at the falling human and quickly changed their target from the boxcar to him and flew towards him weapons in their hands. As Zeko fell he managed to count his assailants and saw that there were six in total; one with a battleaxe, two with swords, and the remaining three had bows with full quivers on their hips. The odd thing was that they all had armor that fit them and their chitinous bodies perfectly. “Don’t kill him!” One snarled as they flew down the slope of the land. The bow users each fired a shot as the battleaxe wielder rushed after the volley and after the arrows were each crushed into dust he swung and clashed with the rod in Zeko’s hand.

“Why is he so strong?!” Zeko thought as he was sent careening into a small forest canopy, and ended up stuck in a tree. “Wait he’s not strong... I’m twelve!” The teen realized that his physical strength has changed along with his body. “Ok so I can’t rely on overpowering them physically, and I’m willing to bet my chakra is going to change too.” He stabbed a black rod into the tree but was confused when a pattern didn’t appear on it.

“This could be unfortunate for you brat. It seems that you’re starting to forget some things you taught yourself.” The sand demon said as Zeko struggled to remember the jutsu he was trying to apply but couldn’t bring back any memory of it. The sound of falling trees let Zeko know that he had to start moving but decided to begin a better plan than running and hiding.

The changelings flew through the forest, blade users chopping down trees as they went. “Where could he be? The effect of the Queen’s spell should’ve started to work.” A raspy feminine voice spoke.

“I’m not sure but I’ll chop down every tree in my way until he falls down with it.” The fall of another tree was followed by a springing sound and a scream. The battleaxe user was relieved of his arms and his axe fell to the ground and the other changelings took notice of the wire coming from the branches of the fallen tree and the green blood slowly dripping from it as their ally screamed in pain.

“Ok so he’s not fighting anytime soon, now-“ Zeko stopped his thoughts as he started to get a pounding headache. “I- I just-“ He grabbed his head before he slipped from his perch and was caught by the female bow user.

Two of the others helped their injured partner up, leaving the axe behind. “Do I get an extra reward for catching him? Praise or even promotion?” She beamed at the idea but her groaning associate brought her back to reality and made her realize their mission was mostly complete.

A sword user spoke up. “None of us get anything until he’s at the hive, so come on!” He led them out of the forest and into the cloudless sky above.

“What’s happening to me?”

==============================
(Hidden Leaf Village)

“Huh?!” Nouka stopped causing Jenki to bash into him, and fall backwards.

The green haired boy rubbed the back of his head in frustration and looked up at his older friend. “Why’d you stop when I was right behind you?” He got no response. “Nouka? Hello?” He walked around his friend who was starting to sport a thousand yard stare.

“I’m not sure... But my fifth sense is telling me Zeko is weaker now...”

“What do you mean weaker? Just cause he’s in rainbow-ponyland doesn’t mean he’d stop training.” He dusted himself off and popped his neck.

Nouka looked over towards Kotetsu’s village with an expression of confusion. “No not like soft. Like his strength just... got reduced. Almost like- I dunno but he can handle whatever it is.” Jenki only stared at his friend as he thought to himself.

“He might be a little slow sometimes but he still has his moments, so what does he mean by ‘reduced’?” He shook his arm before speaking again. “Well either way it’s not our problem right now so let’s get back to our drills.” He jumped over Nouka and followed his older friend after he started running, no longer concerned about the destructive artist’s premonition.

======

Author's Note

A bit shorter than some but it’s overdue, unfortunately there’ll be another break for a few months because I ship out for the army this coming Tuesday. But I’ll be back for Christmas and I’ll do my best for a longer chapter

Arc 8 Finale: Unleashed

(?????)

“Oh... my head... What happened?” Zeko tried to stand but was unable to move, he even tried to move his hands but found that his arms were completely bound to chains. He opened his eyes and found that he was in a large stone room, arms connected to wall mounted chains that were wound tight. He looked and saw that his ankles were locked in place with a chain and a black ball for each limb. “What the hell?” He tugged at the metal but it didn’t give way, he looked around closer at the room and saw that he was on a sole pillar elevated above what he heard was water and the room itself didn’t look like it was properly built but was instead carved by sharp objects. “Where am I? And where the hell are those bugs?!” Zeko exclaimed as his arms charged with lightning but it didn’t go past the cuffs of his chains. “What the hell?” Zeko tried to send another shock through the chains but it stopped at the cuffs again.

“I’m as lost as you brat. I didn’t see how we got here and I don’t know what type of seal is on these chains but your chakra isn’t working on them.” Zeko heard as he looked around the area and saw a wooden door across from him and the pillar he was on move some as chains rattled faintly. The door opened as a taller changeling walked in with chains in its claws

“Well then it seems that I have the liberty of tormenting you child...” It’s voice was feminine with a raspy tone and a hissing like a snake. “Now I’m kind enough to warn you that none of this needs to happen and you can willingly give us the key to your powers so that we may remove them and then you won’t be injured... or you can be stubborn and this can go my way.” Zeko as a response spat at the changeling’s eye, temporarily stopping her. “My way it is then.” She threw the end of the chains at Zeko and they lashed around his neck, almost instantly they began to shock the boy to the point where he screamed in pain.

“This hurts! I’m not as tough as I should be anymore, shit shit shit!” He thought as he moved about wildly, trying to escape the agony of the electrifying chains but it was useless as the pain went on for minutes and what felt like hours.

When it was done the changeling released the chains and walked closer to Zeko before grabbing his head and tilting it up to her. “Are you feeling more cooperative now? Or will this have to resume later?” Zeko breathed heavily as his eyes changed to the shock of his tormenter. “What-“ She didn’t finish her sentence fast enough before she was sent flying out the very door she came in. Zeko resumed his breathing as his eyes turned normal again and he dropped his head to calm down and recover from the shock... literally.

(Meanwhile)

“I know what happened my Queen! His eyes were different than what they were and then something pushed me out of the cell! It was like some magic I’ve never seen exists in him!” The changeling exclaimed as she stood in the center of a large circular room with a jagged throne holding a much taller, more regal changeling who sat with a larval changeling in her lap.

“Well this certainly seems like an issue that I’ll have to personally oversee from this point forward...” Her voice sounded like more than one being lived in one body but they spoke with perfect synchronization. “You are dismissed for now, the next interrogation will be overseen by myself rather than a praetorian.” With a wave of her hand her subordinate turned and walked away into a hallway while the queen was left to pet her child. But she didn’t notice a smaller figure in an adjacent hall listening in on the conversation.

(Holding cell)

“So my Rinnegan still work despite whatever seal these chains have, so it really just limits hand seals. So the question now is when is the best time for me to break out? I’m not strong enough to fight head on right now unless...”

“I wouldn’t bother unless you plan to fight whoever did this to you, I’d say you have one transformation with this body before you won’t be able to fight so I’d use it wisely.” Zeko heard as he contemplated using the sand demon chakra but instead of heckling or judgement he was given a good bit of advice from his inner self.

The door moved slightly and Zeko steeled his mind for whatever would walk through but he was surprised when a child walked in, barely coming up to his chest from what he saw as it cautiously walked closer to him.

“H-Hello?” It squeaked with a quivering tone.

“Well it’s a girl that’s obvious.”

She shook in place as she reached behind herself. “Um here.” She pulled out what looked like a maggot. “It’s called a honey larva, they’re really tasty.” Zeko eyed the squirming creature before levitating it towards him to the surprise of the small child.

“Might as well.” He took a bite that left a yellowish fluid dripping from the remaining half of the larva before he ate the rest. “That’s the best bug I’ve ever eaten! It was sweet and sour but I can tell it was packed with protein!” He thought as he licked his lips free of any sweet ichor that remained on his face.

“How did you make it float? You don’t have a horn?” Zeko broke from his foodgasm as he heard his guest question him.

“That’s not something I can tell you since I don’t know who’s listening... how’d you even get to this room?”

“I-I can go wherever I want since-“

“Of course it’s like that.” Zeko said to himself

“I’m going to be the next Queen. Once our Queen can’t lay eggs anymore I become the next Queen. Queen Gena sounds nice to me... but I don’t think that the hive wants me to lead them.” Gena looked down towards the rushing water around them as the door opened again and revealed a new interrogator and the Queen herself.

“Ah I see you wanted to witness the birth of a new hive yourself Gena?” The Queen asked as Gena looked at Zeko then back to the Queen and nodding. “Well allow me to explain, you see this... creature holds a power that we’ve been unable to measure using Equestrian magic but we have found that his power could be used to revive the ancient one.” She stopped herself once she realized she’d walked directly in front of her captive. “So have you decided to give me what I need?” She leaned closer to him but all he did was vibrate his eyes and shift them to their swirled state.

“You want them so bad then take them bitch!” Gena cowered at Zeko’s yelling whereas the queen and her interrogator recoiled for a moment before she thrust her claws at his face, aiming for his eyes but a barrier stopped her from getting them.

“What?!” She would’ve been sent flying but her interrogator threw himself in the way, his chest cracked and he got sent into the canal below. “You- It seems that you need some discipline.” She pulled a sword with green flames that had etchings in a different language on the blade. She pointed the blade tip at him and one of the marks phased off and hovered to Zeko’s cheek where it burned itself into his flesh.

“AAAAH! DAMN IT!” He screamed and thrashed at the pain before he passed out. Gena hesitated to move closer but her queen chuckled to her surprise.

“He’s harmless now Gena, he’ll be much more cooperative very shortly. Keep an eye on him until he comes to.” She turned and left the room while Gena stared at Zeko’s cheek as the fire on it flickered and moved in his flesh.

“Zeko! Find your father and run!” A figure with red hair called as it fought off nine shinobi with shifting sand formations. Zeko ran away as fast as he could away from the conflict. He looked around with one of his eyes having more sight than the other and saw a figure slam another into the sand ferociously. The figure had tanned skin and white hair and wore a blue vest with tan pants and no shirt.

“Zeko!” He called and ran towards the boy in question before picking him up and holding him close. “Where’s your mother?”

“I don’t know... I ran for so long.” Zeko looked at his small hand then the sky and the sun and realized he ran for a while until he’d actually found his father. “She was fighting with her sand and she told me find you. Is she ok?”

Zeko’s dad looked at the direction his son came from and smirked before he spoke. “If she is then good, if not then whoever she was with better have died. Let’s go!” He sprinted with electricity coating his body, nearly turning him into a bolt of lightning as they dashed towards their crimson haired matron. After their short lived explosion of speed they slowed up when they came across a field of sand with multiple figures on the ground and multiple standing over one of them. The next few minutes were all a blur to Zeko but before he zoned out he noticed that the figure on the ground had crimson hair.

When he came to he was being hugged by his father and he had a red coat of chakra around him that started to fizzle out and dissipate. He began to shake and cry once he realized two things; the first being the blood on his hands and face, the second being the image of his mother’s corpse that was burned into his mind

Two boys stood behind a young man with auburn spiked hair, in front of them was a small army of fighters with various blades and blunt weapons, all of whom looked like a mix of fighting aged men and women and even some who looked as if they were adept fighters. “Damn, they really want you huh Zeko?” The young man said as he glanced back at the white haired boy.

“Big bro I’ll help you, my art isn’t much yet but I’ll-“ The other child tried to step up but his brother put a hand up to dismiss his actions.

He stepped forward towards the force in front of him right as what seemed to be a samurai chuckled. “Really? All for one of the Desert dwellers? We lost good people to them!” He drew his blade with an expression of personal anger but the auburn haired man only started to laugh as he reached into his pocket.

“Nouka, Zeko... run as fast as you can and get as far away as possible! If you two don’t get away then it’ll have been a stupid plan!” His younger brother tried to object but Zeko quickly grabbed his arm and started to run which made someone from the mass throw a knife but a flick of the Auburn haired man’s wrist made it explode without a trace. “I might be strong, but I can’t beat all of you alone and nobody’s around to support me.”

“So you’re just going to stall for time until we catch those kids? Well, Okuyo, I guess you’ll die a hero.” The samurai said as he started to advance but Okuyo pulled a black blob from his pocket and quickly put it into his mouth and swallowed. “Huh?!”

“There’s something I learned from that kid Zeko, and it’s that I look out for my brother...” His skin started to fade in color while dark lines formed in place of it and started to move towards his abdomen which was now visible as his shirt had fallen off. “But that’s not all, I’ll look out for anyone who looks out for my brother. And Zeko did just that, so that means I’d do everything for him that I’d do for Nouka... that even means I’d give my life for him!” The samurai started to understand and raised a hand to rally the people to his back.

“Retreat! Full retreat!” The command was echoed and the army started to run away but Okuyo only smiled and shut his eyes.

“Nouka... I hope that your art gets even better than this, and Zeko... Take care of him for me...” The samurai remained and charged with his blade ready to attack even as his enemy stood there and continued to stand as he was ran through by the weapon.

“No jutsu if you die!” He twisted the blade to further injure Okuyo but he just kept his calm appearance.

“I’ll show you what beauty is... what art is. Art is the process of creating something that’ll last, but, before you can create you have to destroy... There’s beauty in both. Art is both creation… and destruction…” There was a flash and a pillar of light right where the two stood. And flying there right as it happened was a crow with crimson eyes and the one who saw and heard what happened looked on in horror as he watched a person he idolized and treated like the big brother he’d always wanted perish.

“O-Okuyo?” Zeko’s voice wavered as he said the name but nothing responded as his external vision was caught in the pillar and it went white. “Look!” He pointed over the wing of the clay bird they rode on and saw the pillar grow in size until it reached its limit

“Looks like a whole kilometer got taken out, you think Okuyo will be ok?” Nouka asked as Zeko looked at the sky and saw a large blazing green symbol but as he stared at it he started to see strange and warping visions of-

“ZEKO!”

Young Zeko was on a lake with black spirals on it and he noticed something in the distance from him. “Who are you? Where am I?!” He summoned a shadow clone and started to form a Rasengan in his left hand as the figure started to run towards him. “Rasengan!” The ball of swirling air was thrust at the figure who... caught it immediately and sucked it away. “Huh?” Zeko looked at the figure and saw that it wasn’t much taller than himself

He chuckled after absorbing the attack but Zeko only grit his teeth and jumped back and inhaled. “Oh one of those?” He said as Zeko shot a series of fireballs at him but each one was quickly deflected.

“W-Who are you? How’d you get past my moves?” Zeko stepped back right as the figure chuckled at his question but it wasn’t an evil nor ominous action... it was light hearted and mirthful

“Well it’s not too hard when you’ve used them dozens of times, especially when I know exactly how you like to use them.” He stepped forward and revealed that his hair was short and spiky but the most noticeable quality was it being stark white and his eyes matching the water beneath them. “Oh and it helps to be you.” Young Zeko looked like his brain shut down entirely but some water to his face brought him out of it

“You’re- YOU- You are me. This shouldn’t be possible, you can’t just go back in time and meet me so how are we- We both can’t be here! The natural balance of-“ Adult Zeko grabbed his shoulder and shook him lightly

He looked around the water and back to his younger self. “I didn’t travel anywhere, and you didn’t either. I’m here to help the both of us.” The water under them turned a murky red right before a crimson pillar burst from it forcing the two to jump back. “And it looks like that’s our problem.”

The pillar started to collapse and a red hand reached out from the water and revealed a chakra coated humanoid that resembled Zeko in his transformed state but had no sand armor and was a blazing red with hollow black eyes. It growled as it stood up to look at its enemies and released a roar that made the water around it rise and fall violently. “What is that?” Young Zeko asked as the monster burst at them with breakneck speed but it was intercepted by adult Zeko who now had lightning armor around him.

“Don’t know but I’m still gonna kill it.” It tried claw him but he caught its wrist and went for a punch but it’s other claw grasped his hand. Zeko grunted and had a simple idea but he was mimicked as they headbutt each other violently. “Great minds think alike don’t they?” They struggled in place until Zeko grit his teeth and dropped his armor but almost instantly gained a red cloak of chakra

“What the- But I can’t-“

“Not yet you can’t.” Zeko pulled his hand back right as the beast opened its mouth, and he sent it flying with a strike to the side of its head. “But you’ll learn when you’re older. And I know what you’re thinking but enjoy it while you can cause he won’t always be around, he’s not that bad when you get to know him.” The two leapt aside to dodge a beam that nearly tore them apart and saw the beast forming a tailed beast ball in front of its maw but to their surprise it swallowed it and sank partly into the water.

Young Zeko pulled out a ball covered in spikes and paper with seals on them and flung it at the rapidly expanding beast. “Little but packs a punch!” The ball made contact and immediately exploded in the face of the creature but as soon as the smoke cleared the two different aged ninja could see that it was unharmed and was now opening its mouth.

“Move!” They both parted once the purple beam left their enemies’ mouth and nearly hit them both. The beam traveled into the distance and left a trail of smoke and water vapor in its wake while two shinobi looked at the damage left to the air alone and both realized that they had to avoid any more at all costs. Before they could make a move the beast decided to charge at the younger of the two and delivered a bite to his torso and held on tight. “Shit, I’m coming young me!” Zeko’s hand coated in lightning as he burst forward and drove his hand straight into the beast’s eye but it’s massive jaws didn’t let go of its prey even as young Zeko embedded his foot into its other eye.

“He won’t let go! Let. Me. Go!” Each word was lead by a punch to the face but the beast held firm as it grappled with adult Zeko who pulled a leg back and kicked across its face, knocking his younger self from its mouth.

The creature growled and caught them both in its expanding claws and started to crush them but the two were equally quick thinkers and left sand in its grasp that clung to it. “Follow my lead!” Adult Zeko ran up and started an assault on the monster, he kicked it in the face and started delivering ferocious punches to its torso. Immediately he dodged a claw swipe and was joined by his younger self in striking the beast as hard as they could before it swung its tail and nearly snapped the two in half but they ducked under it and kicked it in the back and repeated their assault with even more force even as it looked at them and snarled before it grew even larger, now more than double the two in size then rolled to try and crush them.

“Watch out!” Young Zeko said as he started to move back but his adult self vaulted upwards and stomped their foe back onto the surface of the water. Young Zeko grabbed the beast’s tail and pulled it back allowing Adult Zeko to drop his heel right on its head. The two looked at the unmoving creature, checking for the slightest movement. “I think we got it...”

Adult Zeko raised a hand and looked closer at the downed enemy and saw its cloak of chakra sizzle against what he assumed was skin underneath but his examination was stopped by the massive claw that sent him flying and his younger self was ferociously rammed like a bull. “Should’ve known, but I think this is the finale...” Adult Zeko groaned as he sprung up to catch his younger self.

Young Zeko was dazed from the hit to the point where even his eyes were spiraling... without his visual prowess but rather dizziness. “What makes you say that.”

The two looked at their enemy and saw that the beast was low to the water, ready to pounce. The creature had its eyes locked on the both of them and planned to kill them both with its next rush and they knew that in their minds. “So we’re all using our everything here I think you know what to do.” Young Zeko fully recovered and held his right hand in front of himself and started forming his rasengan but he was surprised when his adult self reached out and helped. “Gonna need something better than that...”

“What’s that supposed to-“ He stopped once the ball of air turned as black as night and spun faster. “Wha- How the?!”

“It’s already a contradiction so don’t think about it, let’s go!” The beast burst forward and the two shinobi sprinted ahead to meet it. The water, which was calm most of the skirmish, was parting with the movement of the two opposing sides. Once they met the shinobi pushed their arms out to the head of the monster.

“Onyx Rasengan!” Adult Zeko flung his younger self back once the attack connected and he, along with the beast were caught in a small explosion. Zeko skid back along the water while the beast was sent flying and splashed into the lake.

“Heh, the risk of that one doesn’t match the reward usually. The two types of chakra needed don’t match and make the jutsu unstable.” He said as he walked to the figure in the water but he stopped once he saw what it was and he looked around and saw that he was alone. “What the hell? That’s impossible...” His younger self was still partly releasing the crimson armor as he floated in the rippled water. Zeko started to realize what this fight meant and once he did his body healed and his own chakra cloak grew brighter.

“So I was right... The reason I had to fight that with younger me was just because I kept limiting myself.” As he spoke the younger version of himself started to fade into orbs along with the red chakra. “My own trauma was keeping me weaker, I never could fully access that chakra because of what happened to my mom but now all bets are off and I guess I’ve got an infestation to take care of...

“You think the Queen would care if I had one bite?” A changeling asked as he looked at Zeko’s unconscious form, his partner a few steps away with an axe in hand.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, she’s been happy these last few days with him here, just pour the stuff down his throat and let’s go.” He responded but his hungry partner had a starved look in his eyes as he opened his mouth next to Zeko’s hand. “Bad idea.” He was ignored as his friend bit down on the human’s hand but his eyes changed from hungry to panicked once he felt the burning pain in his mouth.

That pain quickly spread to his neck once a hand caught it and slammed him into the ground, breaking the chains in the process and pinning the changeling into solid stone. “Damn. Never managed to burn someone with it... I feel so refreshed without these chains on me.” Zeko said as he pulled and broke the rest of the chains then tore the clasps on his ankles off as the other changeling started to back away.

“S-Stay back, the Q-Queen still has you in her grip!” Zeko’s cheek burned but nowhere near as bad as it did initially. The changeling swung the axe but only cut Zeko’s wrist cuff, the metal hit the floor at the same time as the changeling was embedded into the wall next to the door.

“I should find Gena before I do anything else, and if I remember anything that I’d heard... she can go anywhere so shit.” Zeko said to himself as he walked up to the changeling and kicked him fully through the wall then walked through the hole.

“What the- He’s free! Alert-“ Before the sentence was finished a neck was broken and two others remained. They raised their swords and ran at Zeko believing that they would be enough to stop him, their hope was shattered once their necks were sliced and they dropped like flies.

Zeko looked at his bloody hand and remembered is childhood, but this time he smiled. “Lesson learned, nothing to cry about when it’s something that deserves it. At this point I’m wondering if I’m moving too fast for them to see.” The shinobi thought as he started down a stone passage that quickly started to become coated with a hard dark yellow and black substance. He felt the walls and noted that it was like the chitin from an insect and started to walk faster, every few moments a random changeling would come from a hole in the wall as he walked by it but they were short work for him and either had their neck snapped or slashed.

The hallway started to widen and grow taller and at one point in the wall... it glowed? Zeko walked to it and looked through the door sized hole and saw a large chamber carved from stone with the same chitinous residue lining the floor but the most interesting part of the chamber was the mass of of yellowish-green orbs amassed in a pile with some bulging in grotesque movements. Zeko listened to the few changelings visible among the orbs that seemed to be tending to them. “Yeah that’s what I heard, the next batch will be even stronger since the new Queen will have the powers of that prisoner.”

Another one of them picked up a warbling orb and bit it, tearing a part of the top off. “This one had some trouble getting out, won’t be very strong when it’s older.” From the orb came a larval changeling, with a yellow ichor pouring out after it.

“They’re eggs!” The changelings looked at Zeko who realized he said that louder than he should’ve. “Oops.” He jumped down and picked up one of the eggs. “So these are eggs? I’m betting the queen laid them. Be a real shame if this hive got-“ He crushed it between his hands and let the fluid drip down. “Purged...”

They drew their weapons and looked at Zeko with snarls. “Didn’t I already catch you when you first got here?” That threw Zeko for a loop, his concept of time was actually quite warped and that let him realize that he had no clue how long he’d been in the nest but that didn’t matter as much as making sure that the queen wouldn’t bounce back from him being her prisoner. “You think just cause you’re red now you’re not still stuck like that?” He charged with a battleaxe held high and swung it downwards but it hit the floor with his clawed hands still being attached to its hilt. Before he could even scream Zeko’s hand was in his chest.

“Now that I’m closer I do remember you, can’t believe you had me on the run even for a minute...” The shinobi looked to his sides and saw the others charging their horns to a blazing yellow color.

Two beams were fired that immediately swallowed the two where they met and left a large scar on the floor along with small, scattered yellow flames. “I think we got-“ He was interrupted when he was grabbed from behind and slammed into the ground but it wasn’t over, Zeko then grabbed the changeling by the legs and threw him at his relative with enough force to send the two across the room. He then jumped onto one of the curved walls of the chamber and looked at the mass of eggs beneath him and then slowly formed the horse seal.

“Time for some extermination. This one might hurt me too though, Fire style: Majestic destroyer flame!” Zeko opened his mouth let a literal sea of fire free into the chamber, but his destruction didn’t stop there as the opposing wall of the chamber quickly crumbled and fell revealing a cavern on the other side that also started to fill with the overwhelming fire, the entire chamber started to crumble from the heat and Zeko quickly stopped the attack and left through the same hole he went in through... as he coughed smoke from his mouth. “Knew it-“ He coughed more but stopped once he sensed a familiar presence.

He started to run down the corridor, taking two lefts then a hard right... into a mob of changelings that were quickly torn through like wet paper. At the end of the hallway there was a wooden door that was more ornate in craft than the ones that he’d passed this far and the presence of a certain future Queen was behind it. Zeko was about to open the door but it opened and he stepped back but the same proto-Queen was there with a fearful look on her face, and it only grew when she saw the yellowish fluid dripping from his nails.

“Is that from- It is...”

Zeko held his hand out and gave Gena a choice. “I think you could do much better with your own hive than what they had here, you have the option to come with me and escape what’s going to happen here.”

Gena looked at the outstretched hand and shook her head in denial at the proposition. “I’m sorry but this is my hive, I can’t abandon them.” Zeko slowly drew his hand back to his body and turned away.

“Well nobody can say I didn’t give you a chance.” She blinked and he spun and quickly cut her head off before she could open her eyes. “And nobody can say I didn’t give you mercy.” Zeko started running again to find the main bug...

Atop a jagged throne carved from dark stone sat the feral changeling queen, but her expression was one of expectance and preparation as if she knew a storm was brewing. She’d managed to snap out of her thinking when she heard a knock on the doors to her throne room followed by another one and then finished with a changeling going through the door entirely. The entire door quickly came down afterwards and standing where it was was a furiously glowing red figure. “So royal centipede... you ready for me to cut your head off?”

His foe was eerily calm at the implied proclamation of her death, as if she’d either prepared for the event or didn’t believe it could happen based on her opponent’s current size. “If you believe you can then try. You’ve massacred half of my hive and destroyed most of my eggs, I fear I won’t be able to help my sister in the future. I digress but I’m sure you know by now that killing me will-“ An arm encased in crimson energy broke the jagged throne but the target wasn’t present in the rubble. “Now that’s just unsporting of you, announcing your name is customary in a duel to the death.” Her blade flickered with a green, causing the marking on Zeko’s face to glow a deep green.

He winced at the burning feeling but he steeled himself against the pain and made his chakra cloak glow brighter with anger. “I am gonna tear your heart out.” His eyes began to shake as his sclera turned black and his pupils changed to yellow stars. His coating of chakra sprouted a tail and ears that had the same crimson color. “And when I’m done I’ll tear this bug nest down!” He burst forward at near blinding speed, shedding his tattered black shirt and revealing that his torso was rapidly peeling and regenerating skin. Zeko tried to speak again but it only came out as incomprehensible growls and guttural roars that only showed the fury of the preteen. The chitinous queen dodged the small figure that was now deeply rooted in the ceiling.

“Oh I hope you don’t hurt yourself before I manage to take your powers for myself, it’d be a shame if you wound up-“ A forearm connected with the green blade, energies colliding and making a sound like cracking glass, before the queen could respond to the attack Zeko grabbed the blade and swung his shin into his foe’s side. The crunching sound preceding the double heeled kick into her stomach but the assault was cut short by a burst of yellow magic striking Zeko in the chest and sending him back to the ground. Coughing and clutching her side, Queen Nymph’s horn blazed with her mana as she waited for her foe to leap at her again it only shock was on her face...

“-Engan.” Three of Zeko were there, the one in the middle held two rasengan the size of a body. He threw them as the to on his side turned to smoke, along with himself. The second one passed and crashed into a wall while the first puffed and revealed Zeko who dodged the oncoming slash and tackled the Queen through the remainder of the wall leading to them both falling into the aquifer surrounding the subterranean castle of chitin. Zeko recovered and quickly kicked the blade and quickly kicked the blade from his enemy who blasted him in the face with her magic and flew into the air as the preteen was blinded from the sudden flash.

Queen Nymph levitated her blade back to her and looked at her crumbling castle and sneered as she looked at her quarry who lost his cloak and was on his knees, panting with one hand covering his eyes. “It looks like it’s time for you to pay what you owe and I suppose if I bring you back to Culina we can find a way to extract your power.” She stood above him with her blade held high, green flames shifting in the dim light of the cavern. “But I don’t think you need your legs for that!” She swung the sword down and made a clean slice... into the ground. Before she could start to question her accuracy she felt a heavy pressure in her eyes and pain swelled in her chest right as the Zeko in front of her turned to sand.

I told you in your throne room what I’d do to you.” A deeper voice stated, prompting the Queen to turn and gasp at Zeko who was once again eighteen but an equally pressing matter to Queen Nymph was the pain she felt from attempting to gasp in shock. “Having trouble catching your breath? I’m the one who got thrown into a wall. And your huffs and puffs are pretty useless without this.” He held his left hand out and what he had in it immediately made the changeling queen shuffle towards him. In Zeko’s hand was a greenish red heart, coated in ichorous blood and was ever so faintly beating. Queen Nymph dropped her now rusted, dull sword and continued to trudge towards the organ in front of her, not noticing the blood dripping down her back. “T-That’s... Give it b- to-“ Her words were weak and no longer taunted but begged and pleaded as she began to slow down, pain she never knew existed flared in her body and her eyes began to bleed.

“You want it back?” Zeko questioned and the only response was a weak nod, barely noticeable to the average pair of eyes. Zeko shrugged and took a step forward with an arm outstretched... and smiled as he crushed the heart in his hand and tossed it to Nymph knocking her to the ground. “Had to subtract a fee for what you owe me. Debt can’t get overdue.” Zeko said as he stood over the fallen queen, her eyes without color and her body going still. “Now to deal with a bigger problem, can’t let the pests come back stronger.” Zeko clasped his hands together then changed them to the tiger seal. “Wind style: Drilling Air bullet!” Zeko blew a massive cone of air that collided with the roof of the cavern. Almost immediately the cavern started to collapse and within seconds the castle was crumbled with rubble still falling until light started to peer in. “Looks like my window, don’t go anywhere ok?” Nymph laid there as rubble fell onto her body while Zeko leapt from rock to rock as platforms until he reached the surface and took one last look into the resting place of the feral changeling queen. The sunlight beamed on Zeko’s face and he walked twelve steps before he fell to the ground and laid his face onto the grass.

“Wow... freedom feels good...”

Author's Note

Wow... just wow... all this time it felt like years... BCT... AIT... but now I can get back to what I loved... and finish strong. This is something I’m truly proud of; 6K words. Like, comment, and ask any questions you have of me in the comments or through PM see you next time

Arc 9 Chapter 1: Release (Part 1)

“Do you think it’s dead?”

There was a sound like that of someone groaning before the voice answered. “Maybe... I mean if it is then whatever it’s got is ours.” Zeko felt something graze his pocket and remove one of his tool pouches before he pushed his upper body up and snatched it back.

“Not dead yet!” Zeko exclaimed as he stood up and stretched his arms out with a few pops coming from them. He also noticed that the ones who discovered him were both earth stallions but he didn’t engage in any conversation and took to summoning his Roc to their surprise and taking to the skies. “Damn how long was I down there, my skin even looks lighter...” Zeko gave himself a once over and not only figured that he needed a change of clothes but also saw that lack of sunlight did cause his skin to pale some. He noticed as he rode his massive avian that this hive was quite a ways from his residence, mainly due to the distant mountain that held Canterlot which he noted as being the furthest he’d gone from thus far. After nearly a half hour of flight he drew closer and closer to his home but took a detour and flew deeper into the forest surrounding it and jumped off of his mount entirely to free fall into a small clearing that held a decently sized hill.

“Ah so you’ve returned?” A voice growled as soon as Zeko floated the last few feet of his fall. He turned to the large figure perched on a wall like mass and saw a large serpentine figure staring at him. “Here I’d thought you had... krosis... forgotten me.” Sahloknir spoke despite the black spike through his mouth, preventing him from opening his mouth which would only make one curious as to how he managed to speak at all.

Zeko walked up to look at the carvings on the ground and was left confused. “Nope... still don’t understand what it says, but that’s not why I’m here.” The dragon didn’t move but he was confused as to why the young adult had literally dropped by.

“Hind siiv suleyk? If power is what you seek I cannot aid you... the words are unreadable to you. Unless a different, yah, pursuit is what you have.”

Zeko stopped looking over the etchings on the ground and instead focused on the sky. “I’m gonna have to really get serious now. The wedding’s coming up and I don’t have enough time to prolong anything so my goal for today is to kill the head dragon of the Gleaming Scales.” He jumped nearly four stories up and caught his trusted avian by the talon.

Sahloknir only let out a simple; “Hmm.” Before pushing himself forward with his wings and taking to the skies in pursuit of the alabaster haired teenager who was going in the direction of his house.

Once again Zeko dropped from the air to fall through the air and land unscathed onto his miniature desert where a mass of parasprites erupted from the sand to swarm him and to his semi surprise, nuzzle against him like kittens. “I wasn’t gone that long geez, where’s Xerxes?” The swarm dispersed save for one gold colored fuzzball that flew ahead to the house. Mist was visible through a window but the teenager decided against being seen for the time being and climbed up to his own window and landed in his own room. “I’m imagining that word spread of me getting kidnapped?” The parasprite seemed to nod as his owner took his ragged clothing off, grabbed a towel and a scroll. “Great guess I have to check in with... pretty much everyone who I’m usually with.” He thought as he moved through his house so silently and skillfully to the point where he’d looked Mist directly in the eyes as he slunk past her to enter his underground river and began to cleanse himself of the dried blood coating his body.

He would’ve been uninterrupted from his actions had a gust not blown by, bringing fresh green leaves with it. “You’ve returned. What happened child?” A group of brambles sprouted from a wall and from it stepped the same ancient alder that allowed Zeko to live in her forest from the beginning. She seemed concerned as Zeko nonchalantly lathered his messy hair free of tangles and clots of... fluid he hoped was entirely blood otherwise he would head back to the cavern he brought down.

“Eh, same old kidnapping routine... literally since they turned me into a kid, but I think that it was for the better.” He poured a bucket of water over his head and shook the suds free of his form.

“Harrowing... But you managed to find your way back and now you plan to?” The spirit let her tone read strongly as Zeko put on a black mesh undershirt and followed it with the remainder of a black kimono much like the red one he wore.

He slipped on a fresh pair of his calf high sandals and cracked a smile. “I’m gonna go kill a dragon.” He snuck out the same way he came in and managed his way out of the house entirely unseen by its other dwellers, even grabbing his gunbai and small scythe in the process. He stood outside and took a deep breath before looking up and seeing the circling wyvern that called itself a dragon. Zeko crouched down and exhaled as he jumped over fifty feet then grabbed onto Sahloknir’s spade tail once he was close enough.

“Where must we go thuri?” Zeko slipped at one point and scrambled humorously to not fall as the dragon started picking up speed but once he was comfortably on Sahloknir’s neck he pointed straight at towards the ocean at the very edge of the horizon. The two flew directly over Ponyville and immediately started to fly even faster to the point where only a well trained Pegasus could keep up with them.

As the two started to get closer and closer to the ocean Zeko realized something that could pose a not so minor problem to him. “I don’t know what this dragon looks like...”

(15 minutes later)

Sahloknir touched down on the red volcanic rock of the dragon lands allowing Zeko to jump off his back. “I shall watch the skies thuri, I am ready for battle at your call.” He took the the air and roared loudly but Zeko was more focused on finding his target but he remembered the vague description the dragons that interrupted his meeting had given him and started looking around for any that filled the description of a blue scaled, red eyed dragon. Of course due to the shinobi’s usual luck he wandered around for almost two hours asking any dragons he found but none had any helpful information, leading him to sit in a crater and rub his forehead.

“How the hell has nobody seen the oddity of a dragon I’m looking for.”

“Boy.” A voice boomed from above prompting Zeko to look at a suddenly darkened sky but his concern was abandoned as soon as flashing red and blue lights started to appear in the air, making way for more and more lights that spread out more and more along the sky but as soon as the young adult noticed a face against the light he knew that it was not an illusion. “I apologize if I startled you but after witnessing what you’re after I had to aid you in some way.” The full form of the dragon was visible as it’s... membrane shifted from pitch black to blue with orange wingtips and accents.

Zeko lowered his guard at that. “So how are you helping me? You know who I’m looking for or are you what I’m after?” He only received silence as a response as the dragon landed and allowed Zeko to see that it’s form was as sleek and majestic as the ocean itself.

“Hm... I’m helping you help me, follow me.” The jelly like membrane of the dragon shifted as it turned and started to walk on all four of its powerful legs, Zeko followed behind as they went in one direction until the ground changed from red rocks to red sand until lo and behold on a higher perch was the exact same dragon Zeko was looking for. But as he tensed an arm it spoke

“Stay your weapons, I must speak to you.” Zeko stopped to listen but his curiosity grew when Sahloknir landed behind him and said nothing. “I’ve already informed your dragon of what I need, and I must ask you to help us.”

“Excuse you?” Zeko was flabbergasted but continued to listen despite his outburst.

“I’ve cut my ties with the Red Claw and the other groups once I discovered that they wish to raise Apoxis himself. You may not be familiar with whom this being is but count yourself lucky for this. He is an ancient being that only seeks destruction and calamity.”

“Doesn’t sounds much worse than the Discord guy but I’m assuming it has to be for you to cut your ties and ask an enemy for help.” Zeko chuckled at his statement despite the serious tone.

The blue scaled dragon looked at its ward that stood beside Zeko before it spoke again. “You will see in one way how Apoxis cannot rise again, my ward will guide you to the mark bearer for the Gleaming Scales and you will kill him. Before you ask why know that he is a descendant of Apoxis and is much more dangerous than I as the leader. He hungers for all and was a better choice for the runic seal.”

“So the Gleaming Scales have stepped down? Makes my life easier, and I just have to beat one guy? I’m detecting a catch...”

“I pleaded with Dragon Lord Torch for aid and he refused for the safety of all Dragonkind to dispatch of the bearer himself, do not enter its lair unprepared or you will become its next meal.” As that was said the jelly fleshed dragon and Sahloknir both began to fly while Zeko jumped onto the blood dragon’s neck again and followed their guide to the beach. During the flight he noticed that the colorful dragon didn’t flap its wings at all but simply soared through the sky much like a ray in the water

“So how are we doing this?” They landed again and a silver mist started to coalesce around the blue dragon before it flapped it’s now smaller wings to clear the vapor.

“Your guide cannot follow you to the beast’s lair.” She spoke with a soothing voice. “And for one thing my name is Namielle, we have to swim down to find the beast and end its life. From what the elder told me this creature is very dangerous and if we make any mistakes we will die so if you have any question on what to expect then ask now.”

Zeko threw a glare at Namielle from how her tone implied that he wasn’t capable but he digressed since he was fighting something entirely new and was supposedly able to frighten the dragon lord into not fighting it. “For one Nami I want to know-

“That’s not my name.” She stopped him and they glared at one another before she gurgled and blasted water at him. “Water and electricity are mine to command and if you don’t want to end up dead before we-“ The crackling sound of Zeko’s lightning armor made her stop but the sound of the water vaporizing made her eyes widen momentarily but she regained her blank expression once again.

“I like your kuudere personality but don’t try and compare our skills because we aren’t enemies here. So Nami what is the name of what we’re fighting and what are the three most dangerous qualities about it?” His second sentence was much less hostile as he dropped the aura and regained his calm tone.

Nami decided to bite the bullet and respond since she was ordered to help him as opposed to her original orders. “It has no name that elder told me but it’s deadly in every way. It spits a sticky gel that will force you to bond with the next thing you touch, it’s armor is made of bones, and worst of all is that we don’t know what it looks like so we have no idea what’s waiting for us down there.” Zeko cracked a smirk and shrugged his shoulders in an ‘oh well’ gesture once she finished

“I’m ready, let’s go.” As soon as he said that she came closer to him and wrapped her wings around him then leapt into the water. “Is this what babies feel like?” He commented on the soft membrane that warmly caressed him but as soon as he got comfortable he was thrown out onto a crunching surface. Once he stood up he was greeted by the same emotionless face but now she was a little different... she seemed more vivid in color but before Zeko could ask about it the ground around them started to shift until two heads of reptilian creatures attached to long necks burst free of the ground and behind them was a mass of what looked like a shell.

Zeko wasted no time in flinging his scythe at one of the heads and chipping some of its bone armor away but as soon as they were removed he dove to dodge the other head sweeping at him while Nami was out of its range. Before he could try to attack again the first head made a move and pushed straight towards him but missed as he jumped onto the back of its neck, the second head tried to bite him but a gurgle and a blast of water pushed it backwards which let Zeko jump and send a fireball straight underneath him. The head reeled back and shook the flames off violently. “It seems that fire is more effective than water.” The still drenched head was moving for her with its jaws open, she didn’t move anything aside from her right wing that had a spark at its tip and once it contacted the creature the water burst into steam and blew off a good deal of bones.

“Good hit!” Zeko was on the back of the shell, he charged his fan with lightning and swung it against the shell, forcing the beast to to violently shift and thrash its heads around as the weapon began to pierce the shell. “Damn! Tough shell to crack.” One of the heads started swinging Zeko’s way and was dodged easily but when the monster raised its body some from the bones he was concerned, even more so when a giant blue blob of fluid came at him. “Shit...” A direct hit sent him careening to the ground but the worst came when his arms and torso were encased in bones, his legs having a few attached to them as well

Nami noticed that Zeko was ultimately trapped and flew towards him but the beast was faster and in two swift moves managed to knock her away with one head and bite down on the shinobi with the other. “Struggle! No matter what you can’t let it devour you!” More bones piled onto Zeko’s legs as the bone armor started to latch onto him, as much as he struggled it was in vain as the creature started to tighten its grip. It’s other head and part of its body kept Nami at bay with mixtures of rushing sweep attacks and ejections of the blue slime. The scraping of jagged bones along his form started to tear his outfit and a single one managed to cut his right cheek along his cheekbone.

“I refuse to get eaten in a marinade of bones! Shinra Tensei!” With those words not only did the bones fling free from Zeko’s form but also the slime coating, the monster’s heads and body... along with a great deal of the floor and Nami herself. “I hope that one hurt.” He floated down with his Rinnegan active and twirled his gunbai.

Zeko glared at the beast ahead of him, he didn’t need to be an expert psychologist to feel the rage radiating from the slowly rising beast. He and Namielle were completely unprepared when the monster reared up and, for a lack of better words, revealed it’s true colors... and it’s horrific beaked maw laden with rows of wickedly sharp teeth.

The monster in front of them quickly shifted to a demon once it unleashed its ear-splitting, sky cracking roar with so much force behind it that its enemies that were present recoiled at the sheer fury present. Zeko wasn’t staggered for long, he burst back to the limb that grabbed him and swung his weapon straight into it. Bones broke and muscle fought against him but his attack was stopped once the other appendage was brought next to him and started to glow red at the mouth before firing a dark crimson beam straight at him, hitting him square in the side and sending him straight into a wall of the cavern but the monster failed to fire another one at Nami once Zeko slammed into its other limb as his copy turned to sand. He jumped back and watched as Nami flew closer and started sending a massive flow of water from her mouth to the shell of their enemy, the fluid encasing it more and more as her body started to glow brighter, her bioluminescent colors flickering more and more until her wingtips sparked and she slammed into the beast as well causing a the water to instantly vaporize and an explosion to blow bones straight off the monster. The beast roared again and dove its limbs into the bones below them and when they came back the tips were replaced by a club like bone and a razor sharp bone. “Now it’s using weapons, I hope you can dodge Nami!” Zeko said as he evaded a swing from the blade while the club swung for Nami and struck her body and flung her to the ground. The massive monster rose up and aimed itself at Namielle as it opened its mouth and prepared to attack again.

“I’ve dried myself out, and I can’t move after that hit!” Nami struggled to get up but she couldn’t work herself from her crumpled position despite her best efforts. Luckily her partner in this advent was quickly in front of her as a crimson ball formed in the maw of the multi limbed beast. Zeko stood and put his hands into the tiger seal, his chakra surging to the point where blue wisps started forming around his body. His eyes both gained three tomoe as the crimson ball grew more and more as his own chakra flared.

Zeko smiled internally as he charged himself up more and more until his body was encased in lightning but it quickly started to corrupt and turn black as night. He separated his hands as the crimson orb reached its zenith and a colossal beam fired at him, Nami closed her eyes but Zeko grinned and put his hands forward to catch the blast and get pushed back from the sheer force behind the attack. “This...” He started to trudge forward while holding the massive blast. “Might be at...” He lost some ground and was pushed back again but he continued forward against the onslaught of raw power that he was opposing. “Tailed beast levels...” He couldn’t tell how long had passed but he could tell from how much more intense the force was that he was only a few feet from the monster cephalopod. “Shiro won’t be ready for this one!” He drew his right arm back as he held the concentrated energy, he lowered himself and thrust his body forward into a lateral bolt of lightning that pierced straight through the focus point of the blast... and through the shell of the beast until he struck a rainbow colored object and leapt backwards to the face of the monster once again. He dropped his onyx cloak as the beast bellowed in pain that it had never known, it flailed its bone encased limbs wildly and struck larger carcasses along with any rock formations around as it charged a a Hail Mary blast in its mouth and aimed at its now exposed enemy. “I guess that was a last resort? I’ll chalk this one up as my second favorite blasting octopus.” With a clenched fist he delivered a powerful diagonal uppercut and forced the deep red blast to hit the ceiling of the cavern while the kickback sent the beast straight into its bone riddled resting ground.

Nami looked on in shock as the ceiling crumbled and gave way to reveal the light of day... along with an unfortunate cow that suffered from wrong place wrong time. “Never did I picture- No... never could I understand that the Nakarkos would fall... I watched it but I don’t believe it, the elder-“ She stopped as the corpse began to glow a light blue until crimson light rose from it and moved like a snake as it left through the roof of the cavern. The abyssal dragon was so distracted by the spectacle that she didn’t notice her pain fading and the green aura coming from Zeko’s hands. But once she could stand she did and she flew ever so gracefully from the cavern while the white haired shinobi made a few bounds to leave.

Directly outside of the hole he found Sahloknir sneering at a group of Minotaur while he saw Nami flying away, no doubt in his mind to tell of what happened below the surface. “I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t watch it, but you just took down a descendant of Apoxis.” A relatively smaller Minotaur with leather straps across his chest spoke.

“That certainly doesn’t make me feel confident about this ambush but orders are orders.” A bare chested greatsword wielder with asymmetrical horns added. The rest of their gang drew their weapons as Zeko wiped a thumb across his scraped cheek and glanced at his torn blue top.

“No rest for the weary I guess.”

Author's Note

Wow... I’m so sorry it took this long... both my grandmas caught corona and my cousins had to live with us for a bit so I’ve been distracted but I’m still in the game.

Wash your hands, wear your anime shirts, and buy what you need. See you next time

Arc 9 Chapter 2: Release (Part 2)

A warfan collided with a greatsword and a scythe clashed against an axe. Zeko spun and used his chain to trip the greatsword user, simultaneously blinding a dual sword using Minotaur with a lash from his chains. “MY EYES!” A blast of wind from a fan strike sent him crashing into another Minotaur but Zeko stopped for a second once he saw something that confused him, of course this lead to him having to expend the energy to make an inhumanly fast movement of his fan to block a war hammer.

“All this time I thought Minotaurs were just men but she’s very clearly not... Head out of the udder- GUTTER!” The young adult internally blushed as he grit his teeth to try to forget the image but the chest bindings and armor that the cow was wearing did very little to restrain her massive chest. Zeko swung his gunbai and with a great burst of wind sent another Minotaur out of his way as a medic seemed to help the now blind bladesman.

“Slashing strike!” Zeko fully left his distracted world to parry the oncoming attack but a quick glance around showed him that the few that were knocked down started to get up so he did what came naturally, he spun and knocked his quarry off his hooves then brought the hilt of his scythe into his spine as he fell.

“One down... at least nine to go.” He thought right as the tauress attacked his side with a mace and tore away the side of the now sand figure. Zeko immediately thrust his fan into the ground and flipped onto the hilt right as Sahloknir flew down and grabbed one of the fighters in his talons and carried him into the air while Zeko flung one into the grave of Nakarkos. Without missing a beat he embedded his weapons into the ground and ducked under the attempted strike of one fighter then swept his leg, he quickly grabbed the same leg and swung the Minotaur over his head.

The Minotaur tried to strike Zeko but only had his arm grabbed, unfortunately that was the key the shinobi needed for his attack. “What the- Put me-“

“Down? Your choice.” There’s a saying of using your head but it doesn’t typically involve slamming another living being down onto your neck and snapping their spine in half. “Spinebreaker!” The broken fighter was tossed with all the care of a broken bottle. “Alright I’m low on chakra and there’s still seven left so this is where planning has to-“

*Boom*
*Boom*
*Boom*

The sudden explosions interrupted the monologue and drew Zeko’s attention to Kotetsu flicking the fresh blood off his blade while the tauress laid at his feet. “Problem. Big problem. You need to be back in the next three days.”

The loud flapping of a clay bird moved closer towards the two as the taller Uchiha sheathed his blade. “And everyone’s favorite green haired-“

“Shut up.” Kotetsu flung a pebble at him. “Your ‘parents’ are registering you as missing, and they’re using all the resources they have to make sure you come back by choice or in chains. Weird since I’m pretty sure you’d be a ‘run on sight’ ninja but I’m not the guy in charge of that.”

When the bird was fully empty of any passengers it vanished in a puff of smoke allowing Zeko to see a familiar bright yellow haired girl in the back of the group. “Why’s the banana board here?” He questioned as he picked up his weapons but his words angered the girl in question

“Shut up! I’m not the one in gay horse-land prancing around in flowers!”

“Better than being flat in the end, on top of that you’re kinda useless overall.” At this Kotetsu held up a hand to signify he had input.

“Hold on. Don’t judge her for being flat, tits are tits my friend.” If one listened closely they’d hear the bones in Zeko’s neck crack as his head turned violently towards the heresy in question.

“Excuse you?! The only types of boobs that matter-“ He kicked the tauress to emphasize his point. “Are big ones.”

The two glared at each other harshly until Kotetsu spoke up. “Stop trying to put your mommy issues onto me cause you only like big boobs. Flat ones are fine!” He coated his sword in electricity as he stated this but his cousin only scoffed

“How about you quit hiding the fact that you’re a closet pedophile? Flat chests are a trait of little girls so if you like that then you like little girls.”

Nouka tried to speak his mind on the matter. “Guys you shouldn’t objectify women, the personality is what matters the most.” Of course his arguing associates stopped to look at him in unison to demonstrate that they disagreed with his belief. And they continued their back and forth for a few minutes while their friends only stared at them until their green haired comrade decided to mediate.

“Guys we’re wasting time, let’s just agree on thighs saving lives.” Again the Uchiha cousins stared but this time they shrugged and nodded.

“That all aside, you’re telling me I have to come back or be a missing ninja? Just what I needed at this point in time.” He thought as he looked the group over again. “Seriously though why is Kizura here?”

The yellow haired kunoichi crossed her arms over her beige jacket and smirked. “If you must know it’s because I was put in the group of shinobi that know you close enough to bring you home.”

Nouka spoke up next. “I could tell that some things went wrong so I let your parents know!” He stopped himself for a moment to process his own words and facepalmed when he came to the realization. “It’s my fault it’s crunch time isn’t it?”

The sand ninja rolled his shoulder as he looked back towards the massive pit he recently emerged from, his gaze focused into the massive cavern of death as his cousin approached him. “I can tell that thing wasn’t at its best... a juvenile maybe?”

“What’s in the cavern of cadavers that’s got your panties bunched?” Kotetsu crudely asked to Zeko’s confusion

“Can you not see the dead giant black octopus? We’re Uchiha, sight is kinda our thing.”

The taller of the two only shook his head before glancing back at the trio, bickering over something new he assumed. “I think I’m suffering from the loss of eyesight, the one you won’t have to worry about since you just skipped up to the Rinnegan.” The white haired shinobi nodded in response but Kotetsu wasn’t done. “Using my Susano’o was the start, now things are just slightly blurred and the darkness down there doesn’t help.”

Zeko pondered and came to a realization. “The only way to lose the blindness is to use your sibling’s eyes... but you’re an only child.” Kotetsu crossed his arms and closed his eyes as to show his understanding but Zeko had a moment of clarity that could’ve given a partial solution. “What about Shiro?”

“Excuse you?”

“Shiro has your original eye, and you implanted your copy’s. If you use the eye you gave her then you’d at least cure your blindness for good in one eye.” Before the older Uchiha could respond the familiar sound of a head being hit brought the pair to look at their Byakugan user rubbing his scalp with a furious Kizura beside him.

Kotetsu sighed as he walked closer to the pair. “Ladies, ladies.... neither of you are pretty.”

“That’s why she hit him, he said she didn’t have the thighs to save his life.” Nouka chirped but only got the exact same treatment as his fellow leaf ninja, that being a strike on the head while a tick mark only grew larger on Kizura’s head

“I didn’t come here just for you idiots to judge my body! I’m here because two is better than one!” Nouka, Jenki, and even Kotetsu froze at those words which were nearly shouted all the while a sound like shattering glass could be faintly heard. Zeko turned around with a small smile on his face, eyes closed childishly.

“I didn’t quite catch that? You said what was better than what?”

Kizura’s teeth sharpened as her fists clenched harder. “We both know if you didn’t have that stupid eye I’d be way stro-“

“Last I checked...” Zeko interrupted, his innocent appearance not breaking. “When we went all out against each other I didn’t use my Rinnegan, no I recall breaking your arms with regular nin-taijutsu. But let’s not dwell on the past, let’s get back to my temporary house.” Zeko leapt into the air and caught the tail of Sahloknir while his friends looked on in surprise.

“Is that a dragon?!” Jenki yelled aloud but his friends were equally quiet as they watched the large beast soar ahead, only starting to move when another clay bird formed before them

“I’ll ask once more, why have you come to my forest to do such harm?” The matron of the Everfree has multiple Minotaurs, Griffons, a changeling and even a few ponies caught by vines and brambles. The more gruesome sight was what had happened to the ones she saw as more dangerous due to their bottles of combustible oil, the spatters of blood and organs from jagged roots and briars did the surviving fighters no good in holding control of their situation.

“You’re nothing compared to us you pile of twigs, when we have-“ Vines elongated and covered the mouth of the defiant mare while the stallion next to her only smirked.

“We knew about the cycle, we had orders to make sure you couldn’t stop the cleanser before he could-“ His words turned to pained gurgles as a vine coated in brambles dragged across his throat slowly and painfully.

“You know not of the powers at work fool. The rising of Apoxis would mean the death of this world!” Her vines gripped tighter around the remainder of the assassins. “The powers that be are more than mere mortals could understand. But it’s good that this has decided to happen now, putting the ancient one back will be child’s play with-“ The draconic roar told Ano everything she needed to know at that moment and at that point she’d gotten all the information she needed and decided to raise and close her hand which caused the vines to tighten to the point where sickening squelches came from their prisoners. “You need not be seen,be food for my forest.” The cadavers were swallowed by the earth itself to feed the vegetation of the forest as a number of shinobi landed nearby.

Zeko broke the tree line first and saw the spirit ahead of him. “Weird, smells like blood around here.” Nouka was behind Zeko and saw the forest spirit ahead of them

“Hey forest lady!” He beamed happily you the confusion of the yellow haired kunoichi behind him, who quickly saw the being in particular and regarded it as something she’d be told if it were important enough. The group almost started their usual joking around but they were interrupted by Ano

“Zeko.” Ano’s tone was serious, an unfamiliar moment to the resident of her forests but he quickly shifted his attention to her. “Apoxis will rise soon won’t he? I cannot allow such an evil to return for long.” Zeko was confused but remained silent since he could detect an explanation coming. “I have seen the destruction and rebirth of this world many times over but I’ve managed to stop the cycle of disharmony by besting Apoxis where and whenever he rose for nearly five millennia.”

Kotetsu raised his hand respectfully to interrupt which only made his friends look at him with a mixture of worry and genuine confusion. “How the hell have you been alive for so long?” Jenki held back his laughter while Kizura facepalmed. Nouka and Zeko however looked as if they had the same question to ask.

Ano herself smiled at the question before deciding to answer. “Well crude child I am not limited to the mortal world like yourselves, I don’t only exist here physically but spiritually I have existed as long as this world. I counter the mindless destruction that Apoxis stands for. But that’s not all... This is not the only Equestria I exist in but it is the only one where Apoxis exists, so I decided to place most of my consciousness here.”

There was a deafening silence upon the revelation, but before any of the shinobi could make any comments an explosion echoed through the forest. “That’s-“ Zeko vanished in a white streak.

“Wait what? Where’d he go?” Nouka looked around to find his friend but much like most of the others they couldn’t find him.

Kizura closed her eyes and immediately opened them to see a deep purple colored pillar of flowing chakra half a kilometer away. “He’s mad... no not even mad... Zeko’s furious.” The group immediately leapt to the clay bird that formed and headed towards the disturbance, noticing that as they got closer the atmosphere itself was getting heavier to the point where they began to struggle with breathing

Veins appeared around Jenki’s eyes allowing him to see what was going on as they closed in on the location. “What’s he fighting?” Kotetsu asked but Jenki’s wide, pupil-less eyes almost seemed to get wider at what he saw

“I wouldn’t call it a fight, cause that looks like an execution!” He almost yelled as they were all reaching view of the small desert and the massacre that was taking place.

Zeko himself was, literally, tearing through the mixture of Minotaur and griffin fighters that stood in the way of his partially destroyed house that was still burning, glass shards littering the ground. Two Minotaur ran at Zeko with their blades at their sides but they were both grabbed by the neck and slammed onto the newly formed spikes of sand beneath them. “Calm down now youngling! You don’t want to start burning up like your friends...” A sole Minotaur was standing in front of the smoldering house, silver war paint lining his bare chest. Zeko quickly marked him as the leader and stopped moving entirely after slicing through a throat with his bare hand. “There you go, be calm and we can make this quick and easy. We just need those eyes of yours so let this be simple for everyone here.” He held his hand out to Zeko as the remaining fighters surrounded him from every other side, save for directly ahead of him.

The clay bird started to descend, Kizura leapt off and weaved her hand seals quickly. “Fire style: Sapphire Blaze!” A blue ball of fire with black accents coursed straight towards the assassins surrounding Zeko as a dome of sand quickly surrounded him, protecting him from the flames that scorched the fighters too quickly in the white haired teen’s opinion for that moment.

“Well it looks like they couldn’t handle the heat, but I’ll let you know now-“ The rest of the shinobi were moving closer but Zeko raised a hand to signal them to move back. “My body is stronger than iron, you can’t hurt me boy. But you would know who I am by-“

“I don’t care.” The Minotaur blinked twice but didn’t get the chance to speak. “I don’t care how strong you think you are... you’re nothing compared to me...” As Zeko spoke black powder gathered by his right hand making Kotetsu’s eyes widen, he silently urged the other shinobi to back away as the mass grew into a pole-esque object. “My friends and I have fought stronger things than you... I’ve killed stronger shinobi than you... I’ve seen what happens in war and I gotta say that a cow with two legs doesn’t impress me in a world where the dominant race is walking talking horse people.” The pole started to gain a sharpened tip

“They May be the largest race in number but-“ Zeko burst into a full ninja sprint with the now formed triple tipped pike made of a black dust that followed him as he rushed towards his sole enemy, more powder being pulled from the sand as he runs. “I told you boy you won’t be able to break my- Urk!” The pike was stabbed into the minotaur’s stomach. Zeko’s expression remained unchanged as he started to lift the weapon and subsequently the impaled bull and slammed him back to the ground knees first. He clawed at the pike desperately to remove it from his body but he was done the minor favor of Zeko ripping it from his flesh quickly and without mercy. He stabbed it into the sand around him and grabbed the left horn of his victim.

“Does it hurt to have these removed?” A pair of eyes widened as a sick crunching noise reverberated through the desert and a Minotaur was down a horn. “I’m surprised, you have yet to scream from this.”

Through clenched teeth and an angered expression the Minotaur managed to speak. “I won’t give you the satisfaction of showing I’m hurt or afraid, with my death comes the unsealing ritual... So I’m content that my soul will be at peace upon my death.” The Minotaur would have smiled but internally was disturbed and even felt a pang of fear go through his heart once Zeko himself smiled.

“Heh... Heh heh heh. HA ha ha. You said you wanted my eyes before right?” A hand grasped the side of Steel Pell’s head, as Zeko’s eyes shifted to their ringed form. “I can tell you one thing and it’s that you won’t be resting peacefully. But because I’m not completely evil I’ll give you these few seconds to cherish the pain you’re in and my smile because they are so much better than the void that’s waiting for you. Silence now...” He started to pull his left hand away with Steel’s soul in tow. “Existence is past you!” Zeko grasped the soul with both hands and shattered it like glass under a hammer.

“I don’t know what to say... Kotetsu has- Have you ever seen him like that?” Jenki asked as his eyes returned to their normal state.

The dark haired Uchiha made no movements as Zeko walked to his still warm house and fell to his knees. Kotetsu walked up to his cousin and sat down beside him. “It happened again... I promised to protect someone and it happened AGAIN!” The desert came to life, swallowing the corpses littered around it into the ground, leaving only the black pike standing above the sand. Kotetsu rested a hand on his cousin’s shoulder as a single tear went down Zeko’s face.

The other shinobi approached the two and knelt or sat behind the Uchiha pair. They all sat there silently, quickly following what their friend was experiencing. Jenki stood up first and walked to what remained of the door and took a small vial of water from his pocket and sat it down at the doorstep. Nouka followed and pulled a glob of clay that he deftly formed into a rose and sat it next to the vial. Kizura pulled a kunai from her tool pouch and embedded it beside the white rose. Kotetsu got up and went to the pike that stood in the sand, he grabbed it and laid it in front of the other items. Zeko himself stood up and placed a letter underneath the pike. “I know I’m the bonehead bomber but I think I speak for all of us when I say that this was an attack on our friend and we won’t let that happen right?” Nouka flinched ready for judgement but a tap on his forehead revealed Kotetsu with a smile on his face.

“He’s right cousin... so what’s the plan from here?”

Zeko crosses his arms and let his eyes return to normal. “How long until your wedding?”

“That’s why your parents want you back, it’s in a week and you have to be there cause of political reasons.”

Zeko closed his eyes. “I’ll make sure that your wedding will go well, a bit of justice will be served and I’ll put them through hell.” He managed to smile and rap to his enjoyment, he put his fist out to Jenki. “My rapping partner I hope you’re ready for a duo!”

“They don’t know what’s about to hit them hard Zeko! These shinobi are gonna give em a show!” He bumped his fist to his friend’s

“They’re about to experience a one day war Dattebayō!” Zeko finished as his friends smiled at his proclamation, they knew that they would have to fight when they came to retrieve him but seeing how one of their friends was wronged only strengthened their resolve as a group. “Despite not having everyone here, we ain’t gonna let them escape from fear.” Zeko paused for a moment once a few words were processed. “Wait how long was I in that cave? I need to eat! But first my group of friends let’s go get some food, I’d prefer if it was ramen.”

“Good to know that my cousin really didn’t get soft on me. Let’s grab something to eat before we rain hellfire down on these fools.” Zeko leapt into the forest towards the nearest town, Nouka’s bird appeared again and the others started piling on. “If only these fake assassins knew what was coming to them... It’s been three years since I saw him use iron sand and oh boy are these guilds fucked.”

Author's Note

Sorry it took so long, a black cat crossed my path...

Arc 9 Chapter 3: Release (part 3)

(?????)

Imagine a typical house of worship maybe a white cathedral with golden accents presenting a sense of welcome and belonging, the participants singing calming notes and all enjoying fellowship in the name of their deity... This is the polar opposite of the grand hall in which the pious assassins are currently in; walls that go up into a pitch black void, decorated with an ichorous rust colored fluid. Both ends of the great hall held massive door like constructs but the one that held the importance of this exact moment had five large markings etched at the lower and upper corners while the last one marked the very door. Each one was a different color with the yellow one being at the lower left portion of the door and resembling an insect wing. To the opposite of it was a brownish razor tipped horn. They both began began to glow their respective colors as none other than Mistress Culina walked up to the door with a flowing black gown that had red slash accents. “My children of the darkness, today we gather here to bring the reformation of the world!” As the crowd ahead of her cheered the next two markings, a set of scales and a single talon, began to glow blue and white respectively. As the crowd grew more raucous a group on an overlooking balcony was silently dispatched by a pair of dysfunctional cousins. The shinobi looked over the railing to see the last seal of three red slash marks glow. “May our liberation be brought by his love!”

Kizura and Zeko grunted as they vaulted over the rail and leapt down to interrupt the ritual. “I’ll put you down quick you crazy bit-“ The two froze in the air, a malicious aura surrounding them with the source being Culina’s horn.

“And right on time, my special guests for this turning point. I welcome the hooman who made this possible.” Zeko’s look of pure ‘excuse you?’ Prompted Culina to elaborate. “This ritual would have taken another century had you not shown up, our normal suits can absorb mana from attacks but you’ve been overcharging them with how much raw power you display. None of our failures to capture you have truly been failures, but now the last piece to allow Apoxis to stand unrivaled is here... KILL THE OTHERS!” Kizura was ejected from the aura while the rest of the shinobi started their assault on the fodder assassins.

“What makes you think I’ll stand by idly while my friends are tearing it up wildly?” Culina smirked as darkness seeped from her horn and formed a ring around Zeko before it turned into a pillar that engulfed him right as he dropped free of the mana field he was encased in. “It sucks that she’s the strongest but this is her best? I’m dissatisfied in your act so I hope-“ He didn’t get to finish as a hand grasped his back and pulled away with a white wisp

Culina pulled the wisp to her mouth and swallowed it whole. “Being blessed by Apoxis helps my hunger for the souls of the blind, now I’ll make sure your friends follow-“ She started coughing mid sentence but it wouldn’t calm down. “A white soul was rare enough but-“ Another fit of coughing broke her monologue, but this time she hacked up something coarse that ripped her throat as it left. “S-Sand?!” Her cheeks puffed and she started to vomit sand but her pain wasn’t done there, as soon as it left her the sand began to encase her body until she was nothing but a worm in a cocoon of sand.

“The information was misleading, but nobody will be grieving. I guess it didn’t mean combat strength for her. I can see how she’d be the most dangerous, since I can manipulate souls I got out of that but literally anyone else would’ve been done for.” Zeko extended and closed his hand, ending the pagan devotee.

No sooner than when the sand burial was completed did the darkness around Zeko drop revealing the massive room to be laden with bodies, none of which were his comrades, but the most notable detail was that the massive door was cracking with deep red energy peering through the fractures. The second most noticeable detail were the two very familiar figures in front of the door, one of which was kneeling down facing the dwindling crowd.

“Long time no see... Me.” The voice was none other than Zukako who knelt beside a still severely crippled Kanek who had a wide grin on his cracked beak. “I’m glad you could drop in with all your friends, you see I figured something-“

“Why are there two of Zeko?!” Kizura came up to Zeko’s side to question why she was seeing double. But Zukako spared her question no time.

“As I was saying I figured something out about myself, and it’s funny how I’m not even a jinchuriki but I have the sand at my side.” As he said this a pillar rose in front of him to catch the volley of shuriken that came at him that was courtesy of Kotetsu. The door behind them exploded in a shower of light. A large serpentine figure burst through and coiled around the room until the building couldn’t take its size anymore and the foundation began to crack as the being expanded. As the group of shinobi and even the remaining assassins stopped their fights as the figure grew and became more detailed, massive ridges formed on its back and it grew what looked like arms near its massive head. The being continued to grow even as the roof was torn off and the blue sky was revealed.

“Uh guys, weren’t we underground?” Nouka asked while Jenki’s eyes intensified with pulsing veins around them. Soil and rubble falling in from above them.

He was surprised to see that as the figure grew so did its power until it started leveling out. As it’s power reached a climax it’s body stopped glowing and the light was replaced by scales that were as dark as night, its forelimbs ended with digits that had claws that looked as if they could cut through the strongest metals. The last formed detail was the most intimidating to the five person team that moved outside of the collapsed base and that was the piercing red eyes with dark slits that stared directly at them. “We have no room for mistakes! This thing is above tailed beast level!” Jenki exclaimed as his hands coated in blue chakra.

“All out from the start? What the hell have you guys been up to?” Kizura questioned as orange chakra leaked from her skin, forming ears and a tail behind her.

Kotetsu’s eyes shifted from their regular tomoe to their linked form as a shadowy aura surrounded him. “And here you made fun of me for trying to befriend the fox.”

Nouka formed a clay dragon and leapt onto its back. “I’m ready to make some art!”

“You can’t just become the jinchuriki of the nine tails by hunting him down Kotetsu.” Zeko clasped his hands together as his pupils turned to stars and his iris turned yellow. Giant sand claws erupted from the ground and bound the gargantuan snake from moving.

“And you’ve made my work easier...” Zeko heard his doppelgänger say from the destroyed building as a formation of seals around the bound serpent and trapped it but that was the beginning as it began to glow again.

Realization flashed over Zeko and Kizura’s eyes, they both flashed through hand seals to form a jutsu to stop what Zukako was doing. “Fire style: Sapphire Blaze!” A blue ball of fire with black accents coursed towards Zukako

“Sand dragon!” A serpentine figure that resembled the rapidly shrinking deity burst from the ground and charged towards the target but the attacks were both cut off by a formation of black clouds.

If a grin could break a face then Kanek would be injured even further from how wide he smiled. “Can’t have you interrupting the bonding!” With a wave of Morsus the shinobi leapt back to dodge the oncoming lightning bolts. In that short period the glow had finally been absorbed into Zukako to the anger of Zeko. The light shrunk down to accommodate his body, he floated upwards into the view of everything that was still alive as the light began to dim. Zukako’s body began to change as the light vanished, he grew scales that ran from his torso to his face. Two sharp, ridge like bones, broke through his back as his waist sprouted a gown-like growth that went to his knees. His skin changed to accommodate his appearance, turning ash gray as his transformation finished.

“How does it feel to be in the presence of God?” He brought a hand up to emphasize his statement and once he did the earth began to shake as a mountain began to rise from the earth, splitting the group as they each avoided the crags that emerged from below them.

“Remember our deal Zukako, you promised to heal me if I helped you rise to godhood.” Kanek moved closer as a smile still adorned his face, while Zukako looked at him with complete apathy. “Don’t just stand there, fix me!” He repurposed the pitch black sword as a cane and hit the ground to show his point.

Zukako eyed the weapon for a second only to hold his hand out and Morsus immediately recognized its new master once he did. “Something for something, that is the law of equivalent exchange.” Before Kanek could object Zukako formed a ball of light in his hand and planted it into Kanek’s chest, immediately allowing him to stand up straight as his body began to recover from its crippled state. His feathers darkened and his talons sharpened as he fully recovered front he damage dealt to him many months ago.

“I feel better than ever! I could rise to the heavens like this!” He extended an arm to a rising rock formation ahead of himself and fired a bolt of lightning at the boulder, blasting it to pieces.

As Kanek marveled at his newfound power, Zukako coiled Morsus around his right forearm and brought a hand to his covered eye socket, a light emanated from his palm as and as he withdrew the hand he removed the covering allowing his vision to become whole once more. “Not what I had before but better than nothing at all.” He clasped his hands together and brought a massive amount of sand from the ground, he shifted his hands through a number of seals before landing on ram. As the shinobi reached the summit of the newly formed mountain they began to slide down and see what the host of the godly being was doing, and to see a mass of sand was bad enough but to see figures rising from it and taking shape was even worse.

“Anyone else starting to think that this went from zero to a thousand really fucking quick?!” Kotetsu exclaimed as the figures took shape and resembled Zeko in his sand demon form without the crimson chakra leaking through, meaning they were all completely sand. “He’s not even done!” They looked back to Zukako and saw him raising a changeling and a Minotaur from the dead, their eyes dark and their faces blank until they both inhaled and took in their surroundings and realized they were alive again.

As the enemy bolstered themselves, the shinobi had a team huddle to asses how to survive the situation they were in. “So we all tasted how much power other me was putting out right?” Nods all around. “This isn’t gonna be easy so-“

“Hang on...” Kizura interjected. “Why do we have to deal with this? We can just leave through Kotetsu’s eye.” Everyone but Zeko and Kotetsu seemed to agree and for a moment thought it was better to flee entirely.

“The hell you say? Who’s to say this asshole won’t come into our world? I’m not letting a discount Uchiha ruin my wedding!”

“Yeah, anyway I noticed that his body isn’t fully merged with that snake, no, that dragon... He keeps spiking that energy to keep up appearances but I wouldn’t call him any god just yet.”

Jenki pondered was his eyes remained locked in place. “I might have a way to seal some of his chakra away, I’ve been practicing a new coarse fist move.” Zeko nodded and the group broke up to look back at the scene and notice the legion of sand demons approaching the mountain.

“So should I start bombing them into glass?” Nouka had his dragon on standby, ready to start his artillery fire but a howling sound tore their attention towards the summit they had descended and allowed them to see a large amount of blue eyed Timberwolves emerging and running down the mountain, but these Timberwolves were more wolf-like. Narrower snouts, actual paws of wood instead of blocks and more lupine bodies.

“Well let’s divide and conquer!” The shinobi leapt in different directions to start the assault.

‘Never thought I’d be fighting a bug-horse person!’ Kizura thought as she clashed with the changeling. “So do you have any tricks or is this gonna be an execution?” Kizura questioned as the two backed away from each other’s attacks.

“Well I’m Omma, I like long walks on the beach and killing you.” She finished with a smile as her hands shifted into blades, she rushed the blonde and swung but only met claws.

Kizura smirked as her chakra cloak grew more dense and sprouted another tail while her nails had extended to be almost three inches long. “Sorry but this cat’s got claws!” She parried the blades and swept Omma off her legs with a leg sweep but Omma used her wings and evaded the thrust of the kunoichi’s claws. The two were stuck exchanging blows that both regenerated in the end, from slashes to thrusts neither could make lasting damage.

Throughout the fight Omma changed her hands from axe like blades to sword ones but no matter how much force she applied her carapace wasn’t enough to even chip Kizura’s nails. The two eventually clashed and vied to push the other back but the longer Omma’s blades touched the chakra cloak the more her chitin started to burn away. “You probably taste good.” Kizura was nothing short of flabbergasted but once Omma opened her mouth and inhaled some of her chakra cloak it made sense, she kicked the bug away from her and clasped her hands together to flash through the rat, ram, boar, and tiger seals.

‘Fire style: Cobalt Ash!’ A smokescreen of blue ashes ejected from her mouth and covered the ridge they were fighting on, the sound of the wooden wolves battling sand demons in the background. Even with the smokescreen both fighters could see but only one of them could breathe properly in the cover yet again they met and traded blow for blow, each bladed strike only being regenerated as fast as it appeared with Omma’s lasting slightly longer.

A kick to the chin made the changeling retreat to morph her hands to normal and bring them together only to pull them apart and reveal a green glow of her mana. “You have a strong life force... thanks for letting me use it sweetie.” Kizura froze entirely once the taunt registered and she didn’t move even as Omma launched the wave of energy towards her. Once the wave was right before Kizura she vanished and allowed it to slice into the boulders that were behind her. Before Omma could voice her confusion she felt a hard strike against her left arm that sent her skidding across the ground.

“What... did... you... say...” The changeling had to roll to avoid the barrage of small azure fireballs that left scorch marks along the ground where she was but she had no reprieve as her sternum was assaulted by a double heeled kick from the furious kunoichi and she barreled into the mass of sliced rocks, narrowly avoiding the slash from the near feral Kizura as whisker like marks appeared on her cheeks. Omma scrambled and fired a green blast from her hand straight at Kizura’s face but the damage wasn’t even registered by her, even as her skin regenerated from the burn and her eyes slowly lost their pupils then turned green and blue respectively. “This ain’t the best you’ve got right?” She grabbed the still extended arm and planted her right foot onto Omma’s shoulder and ripped the arm right out of its socket before beating the changeling with the limb.

The beating started to shake some anger into Omma as well since her body started to shift and grow but that did nothing to stop Kizura in her rampage and she only started to swing harder until the arm broke entirely. Omma looked nothing like she did before, now resembling a gigantic spiderthat towered over Kizura. Omma was beyond words but the clicking of her mouth parts practically read, ‘the fly pissed off the spider’. She spat a mass of webbing at Kizura and bound her for a split second but her burning chakra cloak dealt with the issue but not fast enough to dodge the spider leg sending her flying away. The speed of the transformed Omma wasn’t a joke as she managed to pass the kunoichi and strike her again and again, launching her quarry to herself until her leg was caught and her motion stopped entirely. Omma clicked quizzically and used her multiple eyes to see that Kizura stood upright without a chakra cloak surrounding her, but the part that concerned the spider queen was that two blue tails with black lines came from her body but the transformation wasn’t done as another smoke screen of blue ash blinded the spider entirely this time.

In her blind anger Omma lashed out and tried to strike Kizura but her leg was stopped entirely by something just as big as her, through a great deal of strain she opened two of her eyes and managed to make out the form of what slashed the offending leg off. Before Omma was a massive flaming cat with black lines in the blue flames of her body, Matatabi was before the spider and somewhere in her mind she knew being brought back to life was pointless since she was now going to die again.

Omma scampered back and spat a massive net of webbing to restrain her target but Kizura was faster and dodged to the left before charging straight at the spider. “Fire style: Azure Assault!” The tailed beast opened her maw and leapt into the air, she fired a stream of blue flames at Omma who didn’t dodge the initial gout and lost another leg, it charred and detached from her body as she evaded the rest of the attack. The spider screeched in pain and launched a barrage of webbing globs, followed by leaping directly at the transformed Kizura. The webbing did nothing to deter the tailed beast but the massive spider slammed into the flaming feline and sent the two crashing down to the mountain. As the dust cleared Kizura was slamming Omma into the ground, her tailed beast form making use of its strength to rip the spider apart. Omma’s struggling grew weaker with each impact to the ground, she changed one of her legs into a massive scythe and attempted a swipe but she was slammed down again and had the weapon torn from her body.

“P-Please, I c-can’t...” Her plea meant nothing as the two tailed cat opened her mouth over the slowly shrinking spider’s eyes.

“Fire style: Sapphire scorch.” Blue and black flames came from the two tails’ mouth and turned the spider into a curling, crisp corpse. The form of Matatabi started to shrink, the flames extinguishing as the tailed beast was once again contained. “Don’t call me sweetie you basic bitch...” Kizura fixed her jacket and returned her nails to normal, she gave the spider corpse one last kick before turning and sending a fireball at the sand demon that tried to sneak up on her, turning it to glass. She looked at the petrified imitation before scoffing at it. ‘At least the real Zeko can sneak up on someone.’ She ran back to the fight to move to the next part of their assault.

Author's Note

Things have officially gotten crazy, I hope you can keep up

Arc 9 Chapter 5: Release (Finale)

Zeko and Kizura stood with their hands still clasped into the snake seal while Kotetsu walked up to their right with Jenki on the left. “This doesn’t last long as a boost, I’d say you have about eight minutes like this.” Kizura said as she moved her hand from Zeko’s.

“On the upside I have a Sharingan but on the downside I don’t think fake you cares.”

Once Kotetsu’s assessment was fully processed by Zeko his yellow aura dimmed for a second. “Wait... Why did you have to mention your eyes?”

“It’s obvious, my eyes can see exactly what’s going on with his... chakra? I don’t know what to call it anymore. And Kotetsu can protect us with his susano’o. Looks like your Rinnegan isn’t so cool right now.”

A tick mark appeared on Zeko’s head at that statement. “And he can’t even use his Rinnegan when he uses any tailed beast chakra, guess Sharingan is the best after all.”

The tick mark only grew more as even Zukako started smiling at the bickering and decided to speak up. “To be clear-“ They all shifted their attention to the figure floating lightly over the water ahead of them. “We had the Sharingan since we killed our mother... But when our Rinnegan manifested we hid the other away when we were done with that battle, too much power to have lying around at the time.”

The entire group looked, mostly confused at the statement while Zeko himself was unnaturally disturbed. “I know snakes are lying little bitches and all but white rabbit was born with that eye. And his mom died in her fight, not from him. Could’ve fooled any one of the other idiots but I wasn’t born this morning.” Kotetsu flickered and clashed his chidori blade with Morsus while Zukako strained against him.

“How am I lying when he and I are the same? I’ve been getting his memories, his past, the many things he’s done. It’s only a matter of time before we see everything through each other’s eyes.”

The Susano’o ribs formed to protect Kotetsu from the explosion of black lightning that came from the black blade. Zukako took that moment to jump backwards, somehow not touching the water with his leap, a gleam crossed his serpentine eyes right as he put a hand over his mouth. Almost immediately he moved his hand and from his maw a bright red beam was sent towards Kotetsu, who leapt out of the way with his armor still surrounding him. Had he not moved he would’ve ended up like the mountains behind them, a massive hole being blown straight through the mass of rocks. “Well shit... that would have hurt.”

Kizura flashed through several hand signs before landing on tiger. ‘Fire style: Blue bird barrage.’ A gout of blue flame came from the girl’s mouth and true to the name of the technique, turned into a flock of nondescript birds. At the same time Jenki rushed in from behind and prepared a barrage of his own, all the while Zukako’s arm was barely functioning from its tenketsu being closed off. He decided to tank the flames and used a wall of sand to push Jenki backwards as the birds collided with his body, burning his scaled flesh temporarily before he started to regenerate. Unfortunately for him a palm ended up on his back and once he saw that iron sand lined a hole in his wall he saw a smirk cross Jenki’s face.

“Eight Trigrams: Hazan strike!” A vacuum of air pushed through Zukako and sent him directly into a literal coffin of iron sand. Zeko held his closed left hand out while raising his right above himself, and to the surprise of everyone who could see, red sand gathered into a tree sized spike.

“Iron sand: Bloody nailed coffin.” The spike broke the black formation in one strike, both ends protruding through.

At that exact moment Jenki voiced a concern. “Wait if he’s you can’t he use iron sand too?” The coffin shook until black clouds dispersed the entire attack and revealed Zukako with a massive hole in his abdomen that was slowly closing as he turned to the Hyūga.

“Unfortunately I can’t. I’m just a copy that was made able to do everything he showed off, if Discord didn’t see it then I can’t do it. But that only relates to his bloodline abilities.” Morsus wrapped itself around its master’s wound as he weaved two hand signs. A massive shark composed of the water underfoot formed and rushed at Jenki who got into his family stance but he flew through the air to Zeko right as the shark passed where he’d been.

“I was fine where I was geez.”

Kizura took that moment to dash at Zukako and strike with her claws but her attack was blocked without him turning. He turned and touched his bare feet to the water and began a clash with Kizura, his own strikes being barely deflected by her claws. “Super shark Bomb eats chakra to get stronger, it would’ve drained your defense until it got to you.” Kizura’s wrist was grabbed and Zukako’s hand coated with deep blue lightning, the kunoichi’s last second movement saved her chest from being impaled but did not spare her from injury.

“Damn it!” She spat a mouse shaped ball of flame into her captor’s eyes, breaking his grip and allowing her to grab her arm, shoulder barely holding it to her body, and place it back against her while a green aura came from her hand. As soon as her limb didn’t risk falling away from her body Jenki and Zeko decided to spring into action. The Hyūga appeared next to Zukako and thrust a palm out, it was nearly caught but a spike of iron sand went through Zukako’s forearm and stopped his arm.

“Eight trigrams-“ A spire of sand pushed him into the air while Zukako ripped the spike from his arm but he didn’t look back up until he heard Jenki again. “Revolving Heaven!” The rapidly spinning Hyūga formed a sphere of rotating air that dropped directly onto a surprised Zukako. Before he could sink into the ground from the assault he thrust his arm in the direction the orb was spinning and grabbed Jenki’s leg through it. Zukako held the green haired teen upside down and opened his maw of sharpened teeth.

“Tailed beast-“In a split second Jenki was gone and Zeko was in his place with his knee ramming into his copy’s chin. The explosion from the interrupted attack sent the two flying with Zukako having recovered first. “I’m annoyed, no more games.” In that moment Zukako began to radiate killing intent, the very aura of his malice was so heavy that the each shinobi tensed. “There’s no move you have that I’ll fall for again. I’m prepared for anything.” Morsus returned to his hand and revealed his rejuvenated abdomen and his arm now moved freely

Zeko brought his friends and cousin closer and whispered a plan to them. They all nodded when he said he’d provide a distraction for everyone but didn’t elaborate on what it would be. “I don’t wanna risk him seeing what I saw or something.” Zeko looked back ahead with his chakra cloak blowing gently on him, he crossed his fingers and made seven shadow clones then leapt straight at his enemy.

‘This better be a good distraction!” Jenki got into his fighting stance while Kizura and Kotetsu held the tiger signs after weaving jutsu.

Zukako looked at the oncoming shinobi and prepared himself for any possible outcome but no amount of mental preparation could have prevented him from falling victim to what happened next.

“Take this!” With a puff of smoke the shadow clones all transformed-

‘Let’s see what I’m taking!’

“Sexy jutsu: Bikini harem jutsu!” A group of busty bikini clad women all appeared directly in front of the serpent host ranging from blonde haired beauties to dark skinned delights, all of which were perfectly statuesque and reaching their arms out tantalizingly towards Zukako with the closest one being a short platinum blonde with dark brown skin. ‘I wouldn’t have even seen this one coming, there’s no fortitude you can have for a sexy jutsu to not work.’

Kotetsu was frozen in place with a blank expression on his face but he didn’t lose focus on his prepared ninjutsu, Jenki on the other hand suffered from a nosebleed but did not falter from his position. That only left Kizura- ‘DAMN IT!’ She dropped her hands from the tiger seal and grit her teeth at what she witnessed. ‘This was your brilliant idea?!’ Her chakra cloak started glowing brighter as her fists clenched at her sides. ‘That might work on a copy of any other moron but for the sexless idiot you-‘ The women puffed away and the platinum blonde turned into Zeko who was right on top of his doppelgänger

*BAM* A knee to the solar plexus

*BAM* An elbow drop to the head

*BAM* And a resounding right hook to the jaw sent Zukako flying backwards with some of his teeth missing, face a bloody mess. ‘NO WAY!’ Kizura’s face was contorted in shock as she fell backwards in total disbelief that the half baked plan managed to work, and Kotetsu only eyed her as she hit the ground.

Zeko shook his right hand as his bones snapped back into place from his self harming strike and as soon as his hand was healed his eyes changed to their ringed state. ‘I act like I’m not a horny teen but that’s just a seal doing it’s job.’ Zeko used a universal pull to bring his copy right back towards him. “Since you’re just me the chakra flowing through your body is as plentiful meaning your reproductive system is as hyper as mine... it was the perfect distraction!” Zeko tried to grab his copy but he recovered and managed to impale the original on Morsus.

“I’m ashamed that I fell for that but bringing me right to you was stupid even for us.” Zeko grabbed the blade right before he smashed his head into Zukako’s. At the same time Jenki appeared behind the dazed Zukako and between the ridges of his exposed back saw the seal that was holding the massive serpent inside of him.

Jenki could have cracked a smirk at how simple the seal was but decided to let his words and actions display his feelings. “Let’s see what happens when you molt.” Zukako reflexively tried to swing his weapon but it didn’t budge as Zeko had a firm grip on Morsus, but Jenki was forced to jump back when more ridges burst from the serpent host’s back and nearly took his hand off.

“Hey me.” Zeko brought attention back to himself as a hand matching his cloak came from his back. “I can use my back as a weapon too.” The hand chopped the ridges away and allowed Jenki to place his hand on the unstable seal and twist it.

Faster than either of the two expected, Zukako burst with energy and sent them flying and once they recovered they saw that he was touching the water surface while holding his face, but the entire group noted that inhuman growls and warped noises were coming from him. That same shape burst from his back and reached out, growing more and more as time went by until it reformed, much faster than the first time, and looked at the group of shinobi. Zeko himself noticed that the longer he looked it in the eyes the more and more he felt like the world was slipping into...

I felt so tired, so lost in the abyss of... nothingness. It felt like years went by in such a short period but once I started to come out of it and open my eyes I saw that everything was dark, darker than the sky at night. I bit my lip out of nervousness but once I saw my arms I knew I was still powered up and I shouldn’t have felt that way, as I looked around I noticed that the only thing on the near blank terrain was a giant spire of earth that tried its best to pierce the sky. The next thing I noticed was the sound of something scraping the ground, something huge- No... something colossal was moving behind that spire, the noise only got louder with each second that passed and eventually I could only wait for the impact of something to break through the mountain entirely. But that didn’t happen, instead a massive claw grabbed hold of the mountain halfway up the body of the being was mostly hidden but it didn’t stay that way once the massive serpentine figure cooled around the landmass faster than its size should’ve allowed.

It’s ruby eyes stared at me intensely, awaiting any action but there wasn’t any that came to mind. I didn’t feel threatened so I didn’t raise a hand to fight, and once it managed to see that it rumbled and then spoke. “I have witnessed the birth of many stars. And I have travelled the edges of this world.” As it spoke it came down the mountain and crept closer until it was only mere meters in front of me. “I’ve tasted the blood of many godly beings, and I can give you their power. You could destroy civilizations, create worlds all with the flick of your wrist... and all I ask-“ It coiled ahead of me. “Is for you to be my vessel, you to hold me within you as the fake did.”

I steeled myself before responding. “Why? Why should I do that? Better yet why would I do that?” I watched every minor movement the serpent made, awaiting any form of a response from it. It took a few moments for the monster to decide to speak to me again but its words were clear.

“Very few can survive being my host, and I require one to prevent being locked away. You would not deny this if you were smart, I’ve seen into you and I know your goals.” It extended one of its massive claws and a dark red flame formed in it. “My weapon is already in your hands, accept the offer and you will rule as a lion among sheep.” I felt myself reaching out to the flame, whispers of power and everything I could imagine being told directly into my mind.

But over that I heard something else, something reminding me that accepting this would be the opposite of what I stand for something that allowed me to swat its claw away with an enlarged hand of my own chakra. “No. I don’t need some fake god trying to give me the same power up as a fake Zeko. I’ll keep using my own skills to get that title on my own.” I formed a long chakra rod from my right hand. “As the real Zeko!” I stabbed myself through the abdomen and the entire world around me fell apart, the last thing I heard was the roaring of the massive snake as it’s mountain crumbled.

Zeko snapped out of his daze in time to dodge the same blast of energy that Zukako wildly sent at his cousin. “Now you decide to come back!?” Speak of the devil, Kotetsu was being held up by Kizura with blood coming from his closed right eye. “This thing’s been kicking our asses for the last two minutes!” Zeko looked at the dragon and saw that the damage done to it for the moment was regenerating even as Jenki ran up to it.

“Water style: Typhoon Cone!” In his right hand was a cone of water that he used to drill a hole through one of the limbs of the serpent but as soon as he landed his attack he had to dodge the swipe from an impossibly flexible tail but ended up being struck dead on and sent into the water covering the ground.

“Kotetsu drained his bone thing and Jenki’s been distracting that so you didn’t die.” Kizura said as Jenki appeared on the back of the dragon, holding onto a kunai that was embedded deeply between scales.

‘Coarse fist technique: Chakra burst.’ Jenki slammed a palm onto a large scale and leapt away with his kunai in hand, as soon as his hand made contact the serpent let loose an ear splitting roar and once he left the area of its back it began to swell. A moment later and part of the serpent’s back was blown off and it was screeching in pain. The kunai appeared at Zeko’s feet and instantly Jenki was there with it. “So now you’re back with us? I had to use coarse fist on this thing, it won’t stay hurt.”

“Did you try hitting the soft spot on its chest?” The obvious to Zeko was sometimes not so for others.

The Hyūga shook his head. “Can’t get close, it goes ballistic and blasts right in front of it every time. Kotetsu burned through his Susano’o trying.”

“Yeah I need to get to a hospital if I wanna keep seeing. Her healing isn’t helping me.” Kizura decided to let go of Kotetsu entirely and let him drop to the water underfoot. “Speaking of which-“ He got up and shook like a dog to get the water off his head. “Don’t you want that sword out of you?”

Zeko looked down and saw that he was still impaled but brushed it off. “I’ll keep it in case I need some spare chakra, for now let’s bust his chest Kizura.” The kunoichi shook out of her daze and jumped ahead while shifting back into the two tails. Once she was transformed she was still dwarfed by the snake by a wide margin but that didn’t stop her from launching a blast of blue flames into its face, the serpent was sent reeling but only for a moment as its back was nearly healed and the scorch its face took was only surface level.

Zeko walked forward and popped his neck as sand gathered around him but he pushed it back with a hand motion and instead clapped his hands together causing a mass of chakra to appear and take form. “That’s not what Shukaku looks like!” Kotetsu yelled once the mass took shape.

The mass looked back at him and smiled, mainly in the eyes as it’s mouth was stuck with a massive underbite and yet it’s “teeth” perfectly interlocked to form a stoic expression. “It’s what I see him as though.” Zeko’s voice came from the amalgam of the first and nine tailed beasts, head and tail matching the tanuki while the body and limbs resembled the nine tailed fox. If anything Zeko saw this as a compliment to the pair and his homage to respecting them both but he always could tell that neither of them would appreciate the sentiment. ‘We only have another minute like this so I’m just gonna put it all in.’ Zeko rushed in while Kizura was drawing the enmity of the serpent and leapt at the soft spot on their enemy and got exact response he planned for.

The dragon stopped dealing with Kizura and snapped to grab the cloaked Zeko with its forelimbs and succeeded. “So when is this plan supposed to get good?!” Jenki cried out as the dragon opened its maw and revealed an orb that was about to turn into a landscape changing blast but this was all apart of another hastily formed plan by Zeko and he quickly jumped out of the opened mouth of his tailed beast form.

Four chakra arms formed from his back as he fell towards the chest that looked like cracked glass. “Tailed beast bomb!” A heavy purple orb formed between all four arms and was the first thing to make contact with the chest of the dragon, the scales of the beast were blown off entirely and raw red skin was exposed as the dragon wailed in pain once more too. The massive damage seemed perfect but Zeko was the closest and noticed the problem of what was going to happen once his eyes saw that the flow of energy throughout the dragon- “I broke open a gate!” His tailed beast form used its tail to lash at one of the arms holding it and broke free, grabbing its creator as it leapt to him while the dragon looked towards the group of shinobi and prepared an even stronger blast than before.

The tailed beast form Zeko took dissipated as his chakra cloak left him in his normal state, his clothing still having scraps of the chakra he had and managing to hold their form. Kizura flickered next to him as Jenki and Kotetsu sat behind the two, Kotetsu holding his right eye while Jenki tried to stand up but was exhausted and only wobbled before going back to kneeling. “Any more plans that shouldn’t work? Because I don’t have any protective jutsu!”

“Shut up Hyūga! You don’t have shit cause your eyes suck!” Kotetsu spat as he tried to remove his hand but searing pain struck him when he tried.

Jenki smirked at the act. “At least I don’t go blind using my eyes.”

“No but you’re already blind.”

Zeko looked back at the two. “Shut the hell up! Neither of you are helping the situation!” Zeko looked forward and raised his hands, forming both a spear of normal iron sand and creating a wall of it ahead of the group. He made a shadow clone and used both of his hands to hold the wall up while his clone sent the spire forward. The dragon fired its beam directly at the wall of iron sand, Zeko grit his teeth and held up the defense knowing that at the moment he had to protect his worn out friends, he took his right hand and grabbed the blade still lodged in his abdomen and drained it of whatever energy he could find and felt himself rejuvenated while his clone charged forward with the iron spire over his head.

The clone saw an opening as soon as it was away from the wall but got closer since he only had one shot, and once he reached the perfect distance he reeled his arm back. With a grunt he sent the spire straight for the soft spot and by the time Apoxis saw it it was too late. With a disgusting squelching he was gored right through the chest and lost control over his blast as his body spiraled and wildly flailed in pain, the massive amount of muscle that he had failing to stabilize him as his attack cut right through the mountains that were just formed and weakened until it stopped and allowed him to drop to the ground. The shaking of the earth was the sign that it was safe for Zeko to drop his shield and pant heavily.

Before anyone could confirm whether or not their quarry was dead, Kizura quickly weaved hand seals and placed her hand on Zeko’s back which let him fully gain his cloak again to match her however before the two could finish the dragon off a mass of trees formed ahead of them and from it walked Ano who raised her wooden arm and immediately her wolves ran up to the dragon. None of the shinobi could speak as the wolves broke apart and began to form a massive door behind the fallen dragon who weakly tried to resist as the construction was nearly finished and the door opened revealing a soft green aura.

“If you have anything to say to him now would be the time.” Ano said with a warm smile. Kizura and Zeko quickly went back into their tailed beast forms, Zeko forming hand seals while Kizura only opened her mouth.

“Fire style: Sapphire scorch!” A gout of blue and black flames came from the two tails’ mouth.

“Wind style: Great Desert Howl!” Once Zeko’s construct opened its mouth it began to inhale through it, air spiraled around and formed what looked like an orb until it exhaled and a powerful spiral of air came barreling from its mouth, meeting and enhancing the flames that Kizura spat at the dragon, blasting it towards the door which practically swallowed it and slammed shut noiselessly. The two went back to their normal forms, only their clothes showing they were cloaked in tailed beast chakra. Zeko took his chance to fully absorb the energy from Morsus and remove the blade from himself. The water on the battlefield was evaporated with the massive energy output and revealed the ground to be decently soaked as Morsus hit the dirt with a sound like a sponge being tapped.

“I have to thank you all for doing the heavy work in ridding this world of Apoxis. I can now remain awake until he awakens again and have a much easier time when he resurfaces.”

Zeko rubbed the back of his head, where his hair was once again red. “I couldn’t have done it as well without my friends being here, especially Kizura since I can’t use that special mode without her.” The mentioned kunoichi pulled Zeko against her and smiled

“And I can’t do it without him, as annoying as he is.”

Kotetsu gagged before deciding to speak. “Why don’t you just fucking kiss each other while you’re at it?”

“Don’t ask and be upset when you receive cousin.” Zeko didn’t look at his relative but still heard him having a fit. “If it’s to bother you then I’ll go to an entirely different dimension just for it, and you know that.”

“How’d that sexy jutsu work back there? I didn’t even get distracted by it.” Jenki spoke from his kneeling position beside a still retching Kotetsu.

Zeko smirked at the question. “Of course I took measures to make sure my hormones never got in my way but a bargain bin version of me? He wouldn’t know to do it.”

“You never act like they bother you. What’s the secret?” Kizura questioned

Zeko smirked. “I can’t tell all my secrets, Jenki knows that best.” Said Hyūga tried to get up again and found himself much more stable but his happy expression changed to horror quickly as his mouth opened.

“MOVE!” Zeko turned and moved away in time to see his one of his friends only a foot away with a hand coated in lightning through her lower chest and only inches from his own. But before he could act it quickly reached his face and pulled out his left eye.

“Well it’s good to have this back, I was trying to make sure I hit your heart but things can’t go perfectly all the time can they... me?” Zeko could see his copy behind Kizura’s form, she fell forward and he caught her as his left eye clenched shut. “It’s good that you made the silent chidori, I mean what type of assassination jutsu should be as loud as a thousand birds?” Zukako was still shirtless but most of his snake like features were gone and only the occasional cluster of scales were on his body.

“How dare you-“ Zeko was cut off once a chakra rod entered his arm, he took the hit to save Kizura from any more harm and immediately sent her towards Jenki who caught her effortlessly. Zeko ripped the rod out and stood up.

Zukako had a wicked smile on his face and he chuckled at Zeko’s action. “Come on then, I’m still itching for a fight. I kept enough of that stupid snake’s life force for this so don’t disappoint me. But as a reminder I’m you and I know all your tech-“

“Eight trigrams-“ Zukako opened his eyes and looked to Jenki but saw that It wasn’t him who was preparing a Gentle fist technique but the crouched form in front of him was the original Uchiha he was formed from. “You know how I fight but do you know how Hitomi fights?”

‘He’s copying my sister? But that was five years ago and one time! Wait he can’t even see the tenketsu, this has to be a bluff... unless he- he memorized the sketch I made back then?!’ Jenki remembered the time Zeko spent in the Hyūga estate so many years ago and all the events occurring from their first spar to seeing his elder sibling fight, and even Zeko teaching Jenki the necessity of death... Jenki Hyūga realized realized that even he still underestimated the Uchiha sometimes.

The eight trigrams symbol formed beneath Zeko but instead of a yin and yang symbol it was instead a series of ripples matching his remaining eye. With all kanji being replaced by three tomoe marks in their stead. “Uchiha copy fighting styles and I’ll admit the Hyūga have a good one, but I can make it better with my tweak. One hundred twenty eight draining palms!” Zeko burst forward and struck faster than most of the group could even notice, the only one keeping up was Kotetsu and even then he was barely managing as Zukako was struck from every angle almost at once until Zeko appeared in front of him and delivered a final palm strike to his copy’s chest.

Zukako was launched into the wooden door, his chakra dangerously low until a maniacal grin spread across his face. “What’ll happen if I drain this damn door?!” He started to siphon power from said construct, whether his goal was to free Apoxis or simply have more energy was unknown but Zeko spared him no time as his remaining eye gained three tomoe.

“Like hell you will!” Zeko extended his right hand and clenched his fist at the door. Zukako was confused until the ground started to break apart and head for the wooden construct. “Chibaku tensei!” The door floated into the air as more and more earth gathered around it. Zukako moved quickly once he figured out the attack, otherwise he’d have been stuck right away. Once the door was no longer visible under the earth that flew at it Zukako snarled and looked at Zeko before forming an onyx chidori in his right hand, his left eye gaining three tomoe as well. He charged directly at Zeko and right before he managed to strike him the duo vanished entirely.

Kizura stirred at that moment, the damage done to her having closed enough render her conscious and as she looked around at the shocked faces of Kotetsu and Jenki she could only ask one questions hat she asked with a faint voice. “Where’s Zeko?”

A silent and tranquil place, the ground was somehow blue and cracked. The air acrid and still while there were no signs of life around... that is until two young men came from the air and landed directly onto the ground, one of which was hit in the right pectoral by a hand coated in black lightning. Immediately Zeko kicked his clone off him and flipped onto his feet, green aura coming from his hand to close his wound. “You know I’ve seen so much of your life through these memories, and I can’t for the life of me see why you deserve to LIVE IT!” Zukako exclaimed.

Zeko was silent as he mended himself, leaving Zukako to grasp his head in pain. “Probably because it’s mine.” Zukako looked up once Zeko spoke and that comment only added to his rage

“No! NO! Every single time something happens you play blame off to someone else! You didn’t even avenge your mother... YOU KILLED HER!” Zeko froze as the memory of what happened that day flooded back to him. “You know that the Mist wasn’t responsible. You KNOW that it’s your fault and yet you act like it’s not. You know that Touka wasn’t kidnapped by them but you never did anything to make up for the massacre you had in your anger, ‘I’ll tear Kirigakure down!’ Sound familiar?!”

“It does, but guess what? It’s still my life and I’ve never wasted any sacrifice made for me.” Zeko stood up to match his copy.

“But guess what else?! You couldn’t even bother coping with things yourself! We both know that everytime you wanted to cry you had Ichika there singing... even when nothing was wrong you made her waste her time, your own cousin- No, your own sister there patching up your injuries even when they weren’t there. Just because you wanted a replacement mom.”

Zeko closed his remaining eye, his fists balled at his sides but as he did this he felt no anger and instead looked forward. “And guess what? After you’re dead she’ll be there to sing it all over again, I can almost hear it now.”

A young Zeko stood across from a girl his height, blue haired with vibrant ruby red eyes. Both holding the seal of confrontation, the sandstone they stood on was cracked from drought.

Zeko and Zukako opened their eyes and rushed at each other and threw punches that connected but overshot, both turning back with an elbow aimed at the other. Neither made contact as the other caught the attack but they didn’t give in as they kept up the flurry of strikes, both trying to breach the other’s defense. Zukako throwing hard strikes while Zeko caught them and tried to pay back with swift jabs, a fierce one forcing him to jump back with his clone in pursuit.

Touka and Zeko tried their hardest to crack through the other’s fighting style, Zeko doing his best to employ his brutish nin-taijutsu techniques while Touka only brushed them off with her carefully executed strikes. She managed to land a hit to his chest and followed it with-

A kick off the ground that let Zeko pull off two more kicks to Zukako’s chest but they were tanked through and only led to Zeko being grabbed by the heel and slammed to the ground, in his daze Zeko saw the oncoming heel and rolled to see the newly formed crater where he’d been. He pulled a kunai out and charged back at his copy and-

Slashed at his torso. Touka missed but pressed on with her assault while Zeko dodged and used his hard hitting fighting style to keep the blade at bay, managing to almost trip his partner as she attacked. She tossed the kunai into the air and resumed her quick jabs while-

Zukako slugged hard against Zeko’s arms, each hit landing but they were turned to where the damage was superficial. Zeko managed to pull off a knee strike to the side and side flipped to grab his kunai and throw it through Zukako’s cheek. This earned him a hard left hook that sent him rolling across the ground, while Zukako pulled out the offending object and cracked his neck while forming a short chakra rod and running to Zeko.

Touka clashed her crystal kunai with Zeko’s iron ones with the clanging resounding throughout the area, they clashed until Zeko managed to slip an arm against Touka’s and somehow snaked his body along hers until his leg was at her throat and-

Zukako forced Zeko to the ground and stabbed but his wrist was hit by Zeko’s foot, and he had to block the rod coming for his throat. Zukako threw his own strike but Zeko caught it and deadlocked the two, both trying to overpower the other until they both grinned. “I need this.” They said in unison as they used each other’s hands to form seals and kicked each other in the chest.

‘Katon: Gōrūka no jutsu!’ A dragon shaped flame coursed ahead and it was-

Smirked at by a prepared Zeko.

Touka crouched and inhaled for her-

“Suiton: Mizurappa!” A powerful stream of water left Zeko’s mouth and collided with the flame dragon, bringing heavy steam to the area. Zukako ran into the cover, Zeko hearing his footsteps all the way. A sound to his left made Zeko turn and fling his chakra rod but once the steam cleared the only thing there was his kunai wrapped in cloth. He turned and was greeted by Zukako’s shin slamming him into the ground.

Zukako looked down at Zeko and drove the rod down but the earth under him split and another Zeko burst out and grabbed him from behind. ‘This... is a fake, you’re in front of me!’ Zukako elbowed behind himself and drove his chakra rod down only to see Zeko turn to sand.

They always fall for the sand, Zeko felt something grab around his waist and pull him up and over into a perfect suplex-

Zukako laid on the ground in pain until he started to get up and felt a kunai at his neck.

Touka stood over Zeko, and as he saw the kunai in her hand he saw that the match was hers.

Zeko quickly pulled out the other Rinnegan and placed it back into his eye, Zukako didn’t even register the pain as he felt something new in his chest. “Well I lost, but I’m not even upset. Bleached fang is hard to counter after all... but we know that.” Zeko’s face was unchanged, still stoic as he held the kunai in place. “No monologue about how I was doomed to lose? No ‘The difference is that I lived it all and you just got the memories’ or anything?”

“Do I even have to say it if you know?” Zukako tried to form a sentence but couldn’t find any words and laid back once more. His face slowly formed into a frown as his sole eye began to tear.

“I didn’t choose to be made just to fight you, Discord had no actual plan for me. I don’t even know what I’d have done if I won, I had no path I had nothing!” Zeko listened intently to himself. “I started getting your memories and I just wanted a chance at being happy, I wanted to experience it!” He cried to himself, hypocrisy not being lost on Zeko as he remembered the prior conversation.

“In the end you’re still me, and the fact that I have those memories means you did live them. Even if not directly you still felt the emotions I felt, I’m willing to bet by now you felt how glad I was to kiss Kizura and think this was over.” Zukako only wept more at the words.

“Sh-Shut up!” He exclaimed as he tried to wipe his tears but he couldn’t stop them. He kept trying even as he felt his arms getting weaker and his body giving up, he tried his best to give Zeko one last message but couldn’t speak at all due to his cut throat but deep down he knew his message was clear.

Enjoy her song

Ano rooted into the ground to feel for the presence of the real or even the fake Zeko but nothing could be found by her. Jenki used his Byakugan but also saw nothing that was out of the ordinary until a spiral formed in the air. “Something’s coming!” The group looked in his direction and saw that under the floating mass was a spiral that let out Zeko, who unceremoniously dropped to the ground.

“Well I think that’s nine months well spent, let’s go home.” Zeko stood up with a bloody kunai in his hand and walked to a shocked Kizura who quickly embraced him, he returned the action immediately as the other two came over.

“I suppose this is our last time speaking, I wish you luck in your life Zeko. I’ll be sure to tell your pony friends of your departure.” Zeko looked at Ano and offered a smile which she returned and once she did she sprouted roots to bring the planetoid down and began to form a hill around to blend it in with the area.

Kotetsu wordlessly took the group into his dimension where Zeko quickly split to go to the rift he’d left near Canterlot and closed it with a wave of his hands, with that he let his eyes return to normal. And went back to the group where Jenki just picked up Nouka. Kotetsu let Jenki, and Zeko out as they held the unconscious artist. As the rift closed they saw Kizura waving goodbye while Kotetsu put up two fingers to signal the same. Jenki pulled a scroll from... somewhere and pulled his phone out. “Well it’s only nine so I can get Nouka to the hospital, I hope Rya doesn’t get too worried about what happened.”

“Just being clear, this is all a secret between us.” Zeko stated and earned a nod from Jenki.

“You coming with me? It takes three days for you to get home and all so you can stay-“

Zeko waved it off as he pulled out his own scroll and brought out his phone. “Yeah it’s early, I’ll grab a bottle of water and just run. I’ll be back this time tonight.”

Jenki gaped, his eyebrow raised high. “You’re gonna make a three day trip in twelve hours?” They started to walk towards the hospital, with Zeko stopping at a vending machine and grabbing a bottle of purified mineral water.

“It’s about twenty eight hundred kilometers, so I’d have to go at two hundred forty eight to make it in roughly twelve hours. That’s not that hard of a task and it’s why I’m bringing the water, I’m not gonna take a break. I’ll get some ramen before I go.” Jenki decided to chalk it up to the “don’t worry about it” list and carried his friend to the hospital while Zeko walked around and managed to find a ramen restaurant . “Ichiraku‘s, been a while.” Zeko walked to the door and opened it. He went to the bar and was greeted by the woman and man working there.

He ignored the stares at his hitai-ate and any side comments about him being from the sand and sat down. “What’ll you have young man?” The woman asked without even caring about his village affiliation which made Zeko lighten up some.

“I’ll just have miso ramen with chashu pork.”

She smiled and began to prepare the order as the man came up. “That’ll be three hundred ryo.” Zeko produced the money and handed it off to the man as he took a sip of his water. Of course his peace wouldn’t last as someone hit the bar next to him and looked at him.

“So a Suna-nin is in Konoha? Pretty suspicious to me...” A pale faced chunin said from beside Zeko but he was ignored as his ramen was brought to him.

“Enjoy your ramen sir.”

Zeko quickly began to eat his food as the man next to him only squinted. “Ignoring me doesn’t put you in a better light kid, who are you and why are you in Konoha?”

Zeko only continued to eat his ramen, being halfway done already. He looked to his phone and saw that he’d just received a number of calls and text messages over the last few months. “Shit I should’ve known.”

“Known that you have no reason to be in this-“

“Shut up.” Zeko was finished with his meal and had stood up, he barely came up to the man’s chest but his aura wasn’t anything less than threatening. “You’re here having your prejudice all because my village doesn’t have all the important history, you won every war and you have everything. How about you humble yourself before I do?” Other people eating looked at the two shinobi having their dispute, some taking out phones of their own to document the issue.

“Y-You’re talking to a chunin you know, it doesn’t matter how strong you think you are I know a genin when I see one.”

Zeko laughed loud enough to be heard by all other patrons and by the time he stopped the chunin was more nervous. “You don’t know who you’re talking to do you? Don’t worry about it, I’m not gonna brag about what I can do or how you’re outmatched in every way. No what I’ll do is ask for your name.”

“My name?”

“Are you deaf? What is your name? I just want to know who I can report to Granny Sarada for being so hostile to a shinobi of an allied village, much less one of her grandkids.” All of the patrons gasped and the chunin looked just shy of wetting himself out of fear. “But I don’t need to even get your name, people record things like this to report on their own. See ya.” With that Zeko left the restaurant and an even paler chunin who sat down to assess how royally screwed he was if what he just heard was true.

Zeko reached the village gate and got checked out by ANBU there, being allowed to leave without anyone having to tail him. At this time Zeko got to the outskirts of the village and decided to get into a sprinting stance as he saw a relative straightaway through the dense forest. His blood pumped as he crouched and took off without a second thought. ‘It’s good to be back.’

The wind blew through his hair as he started moving at inhumane speeds to make up for distance and within the hour managed to break through the dense foliage and reach more clear sections of land, passing small towns and roads in his wake. He drank more of his water as he continued to run, taking no time in stopping. By his fourth hour he managed to clear a great deal of plains and entered forests once again and eventually realized he was in the land of rivers, managing to run over a number of them in his sprint.

Hour eight brought him into the ever familiar land of wind and the harsh desert terrain he knew and loved. By the eleventh hour he could see the wall to Suna so he slowed down dramatically to the point where he started to suffer from whiplash but pressed on as the gate got closer and closer and even when ANBU stopped him he kept his momentum going as he handed off his identification. “I’m on a roll don’t stop me till I meet the gate!” The gate began to open once they realized Zeko really had no intention of pausing his advance and he made it through right as his phone decided to go off. “Twelve hours exactly, suck it Jenki!” The gate closed behind him as he looked around and saw that the access walkway was larger than he remembered.

Zeko walked through and saw that the village was mostly unchanged save for a few new buildings here and there but being relatively poor would cause very few changes in less than a year. He walked around the main road and saw a few familiar faces some of which were shop owners and others were fellow shinobi. As he walked around he felt a presence behind him but decided to ignore it for the time being until he felt it get much closer. He wasted no time in using his sand to grab the hand of the offender but once he saw a Crystal kunai drop to the ground he knew exactly who was following him. “Where have you been... this last year?” She said quietly as to not wake anyone sleeping but her anger dripped into every word.

“I found the perfect place to train so I lied to my ‘parents’ about it and I’ve improved greatly along the way and made a number of friends.” Zeko bluntly stated before he was immediately grabbed into a hug by his other love, however this one was just shorter than him so it didn’t put a crick in his neck. He stroked her hair as she wept into his beaten up top.

“You can’t just leave for that long and say nothing, at least before you’d tell me and we’d be able to talk sometimes. You just up and left!” She tried to prevent herself from yelling but the gentle stream of tears coming down her face was testament to her emotions.

“I’m sorry but it came up from nowhere and I didn’t want to endanger the people I was with, let’s just say I definitely wasn’t in the elemental nations.” He finished with a peck to her forehead. “We can talk tomorrow, I need to get home since my last day there wasn’t very forgiving.” He gestured to himself and showed the holes, rips, and burns on his outfit. Touka nodded and gave a final hug before Zeko walked off.

“At lease text me before you sleep!” She said before taking her own leave from the street. Zeko walked until he reached a door that was by a sand fall that fell into a darkness he couldn’t make out in the night.

“Well shit here we go.” He pulled out a key and unlocked the door and walked down the stairs that led to his subterranean home. He unlocked a second door and walked inside. “I’m ho-“

“Where have you been?!” A masculine voice rang. “I don’t even care to know, where are they?”

“Where are what old man?”

The man’s face grew red as the woman seated at the table only came to the commotion. “Where are your children? Wives or whatever you have now? You were gone for nine months Zeko, you can’t have come back empty handed.” She said in a sing song voice.

“So where are they?” Zeko only shrugged his shoulders and started to walk towards a hallway with a downwards spiral staircase but the man stopped him. “In case you forgot brat, we own you and any kids you make. This village is poor enough as it is and as a noble family we have to help that pain by-“

“Whoring me out? Don’t worry about it, because at the end of the day I’m not a Kusanabe and I’ll be damned if I’ll keep up the charade of being one.” Zeko continued his walk as the two adults were left in their anger. “I’m moving out within the week, I don’t want anything to do with you two anymore. I plan on taking Ichika with me unless you two want to be real parents to my cousin?” He turned and looked at them but the only thing that happened was that a wok was thrown at him but the sand came to his defense.

“You can take that useless bitch with you, I expect rent for every month that you were eighteen. I know you don’t have it so don’t be upset when you really have to learn what it means to whore someone out, but nobody will want that little-“ In a flash Zeko stood in front of the man with the same kunai that had, by all accounts, his blood on it and it was pointed upwards to the man’s throat.

“Don’t. You. Dare. Don’t forget who the Jonin is Kusuo.”

Kusuo didn’t falter but instead chuckled. “And now I know you’re acting tough, you aren’t a jonin. I may not have ever signed up to die like that idiot of a sister but I still can see through a liar.”

“Well if I’m being honest I’ll be a jonin before Kotetsu’s wedding if all goes well. I texted Rei and asked him to get me registered so now I just need recommendations. I’ll pass the test no problem.” He concealed the kunai and turned back around. “I’m going to sleep, unless one of you is dying don’t bother me.”

“Rikia I don’t know what to do about that... that monster anymore. You saw the look in his eyes, he wanted to kill me then and there.” Kusuo looked at his wife who picked up the thrown cooking pan.

“I’m more surprised that he didn’t bring home any women or kids. You don’t think he’s gay do you? If we’ve been wasting the last five years then I don’t know what I’d do.”

In the stead of his arguing family Zeko descended the staircase by ten feet and opened the door to his room but once he opened it he was hit by light and the smell of citrus and immediately knew who’d been occupying his living space. “Ichika.” The noise of a shocked girl invaded Zeko’s ears and a blushing one looked at him as she laid in his queen size bed. “Well I’m back.”

His younger sister figure spared no time in running up to him and hugging him around the chest, she was even more physically stunted than he was since they were only two years apart in age but she barely reached his neck. “I missed you Nii-Nii! I’ve been sleeping in your room ever since you left so you’d tell me all about where you were and-“

“Ichika.” She looked up at him, eyes full of childlike wonder despite her being a teenager. “I love you.” He pat her head and made her blush again but she earnestly hugged him more. “I’m tired Ichika, do you mind singing to me?”

Ichika was surprised that Zeko had to ask since he knew she liked singing him to sleep when he was upset so hearing him ask instead of tell was nothing short of surprising but she nodded, her red hair waving about as she did. She ran and jumped excitedly into his bed, her lilac pajamas ruffling as she did. Zeko himself only took the time to discard his battered top and his chain mesh undershirt. He went to his dresser and looked at himself in the mirror. “Nii-Nii you can leave them on, I don’t mind seeing.”

Zeko smiled at her but continued to grab for his sternum and he pulled a flap away, revealing a sealing tag. As soon as it was removed the area around his eyes turned dark to match the dark lines around them, giving his face a natural mask. The next thing to happen revealed dark markings that formed very similar symbols along his arms and torso. “Thanks Shukaku, I take the birthmarks in stride.” Zeko went to his bed and jumped in beside his cousin quickly rolling to be face up directly between her legs. “You can start whenever you want.”

Again Ichika was shocked by the formality but closed her eyes and scratched his head. Zeko started to think of the last nine months he spent away.

“Hush little baby don’t say a word, mama’s gonna buy you a mockingbird. And if that mockingbird won’t sing, mama’s gonna buy you a diamond ring.”

He remembered every fight he was in and every path he got to train that he wasn’t allowed before hand, every new friend or ally that he made along the way also popped into his head.

“And if that diamond ring turns brass, mamas gonna buy you a looking glass.”

He smiled at being back.

“And if that looking glass gets broke, mama’s gonna buy you a billy goat.”

He let out a tear for the friends he lost.

“And if that billy goat don’t pull, mama’s gonna buy you a cart and mule. And if that cart and mule turns over, mama’s gonna buy you a dog named rover.”

“Thank you Ichika, you’re the best sister I could have.” Zeko whispered before he fell into the most restful sleep he’d had in months while his imouto followed him shortly after, smile on her face as she laid back on the many pillows of his bed.

‘Sleep well Nii-Nii.’

Author's Note

I stayed up all night, midnight to 7am for this. My thumbs hurt, my eyes are sore, and my neck is screaming. Worth it... this branch of RES is done and I decided against an epilogue in the end, I figure I had things end well enough for our protagonist.

For all the readers thank you for sticking along these last two years and I’ll be on Fanfiction soon enough to get the main story done proper for all of these dysfunctional shinobi.

See ya next time.

(Also shoutout to my primary artist sirsams552 on insta, he does great work and he’s a better friend)

Prologue: Worlds Overlap

Author's Note

I’m never going to fix the formatting errors that the earlier chapters have, I think of it as a reminder that I didn’t start off as good as I managed to get. (Edit, I’m a liar and I’m fixing it.)

Prologue: Worlds Overlap

(Hidden Sand Village)

(Two teenagers are having a no holds barred sparring match, both of which hold significant power)

“Fire style: Phoenix flower jutsu!”. The larger combatant yelled, a tall fair skinned boy with a blue and white top that was missing a sleeve and clad in baggy pants.

“Well that’s not good, Earth style: Mud wall jutsu!” Thought the smaller combatant. A wall of stone erupted from the ground and defended its caster from the barrage of fireballs. “Geez Kotetsu, it’s almost like you want to kill me sometimes.” The shorter boy quipped but his sparring partner didn’t say anything to deny the accusation.

“Well maybe you should get serious instead of waiting for a ‘right moment’.” The one known as Kotetsu responded.

“Well if you want to be serious should we try the eyes today?” The shorter one replied.

“If we do that, Zeko, you better not try and cheat with Samehada” Kotetsu spat.

“Just because I can drain your chakra doesn’t mean it’s all I wanna do, I just wanted to see if I have more control over mine. It isn’t fair that I got something so strong but I haven’t really learned the real ins and outs of it so far.” Zeko whined with a tone of something that would best be described as lying.

“Fine we’ll see what happens but if you send yourself to the moon don’t expect me to bring you back... or anyone for that matter.” Kotetsu said as he shut his eyes, Zeko did the same and when they both opened them they had changed. Kotetsu’s left eye was now red with a black marking resembling a sideways star within it, and four lines coming from the outer edge. “Mangekyou Sharingan”.

While that happened, Zeko’s right eye changed from black to one of a purplish blue with a pattern of black rings coming from the pupil. “Alright Rinnegan lets see if I can do better.” The two fighters stood in silence and then lunged at each other, clashing with their blades.

“You know Zeko I could always just use Kamui again and see if you get out, it helped you learn last time.” Zeko dropped the Samehada and lunged over it to axe kick Kotetsu in the side, “Agh, damnit!” Kotetsu cried in pain but it was more for shock value than anything.

“Don’t say stupid things and expect no repercussions.” Zeko said calmly. “Samehada, back to me.” The living blade rustled then propelled itself to its master’s hand.

“You know Zeko, I hate that sword so much, the thing shouldn’t be able to just come back. But I can say that you’re very right about consequences at least... Kamui!” Kotetsu said before his eye flashed a deep red and a portal appeared next to his blade.

“NO, I hate going in there you bastard! Zeko’s cries were useless as the portal had warped and taken him and his blade within it.

“Well he should be back in a couple hours at most, I wonder what my mom made for dinner.” Kotetsu said to himself, walking off and pondering if his mom cooked chicken for that night.

===================================
(Ponyville Library)

“I should be able to make a gateway to Canterlot after this spell is done.” A stereotypical bookwormish woman was performing some incantation to create a portal from her house to her home away from home.

“Uh, Twilight...a-are you sure this spell is safe?” Spike the Drake asked from behind a basket and pillow wall.

“Well I’m 95 percent sure it won’t blow anything up... at least not anything important.” Twilight answered sheepishly while channeling the spell through her hands.

===================================
(Kamui Dimension)

“I may need to find new friends if this is what my second best one is willing to do to me.” The sand ninja complained to… nobody. “My best means of getting out is just by making a dimensional rip… As usual. This time I should overcharge an Almighty Push and speed up the process.” Zeko then gathered his energy and stuck his hands in front of himself to attempt escape. “Ok here goes, Almighty Push!” A chakra infused wave of gravitational force pushed away from Zeko and began to make a small tear in the dimension. “Well it’s a start”, the teen thought. Suddenly the tear began to grow and swirl with violet-purple.

“That’s kinda weird, it never usually turned purple, but then again this isn’t even the original Kamui realm. It’s Kotetsu’s so rules won’t apply.” Zeko said while picking up Samehada and walking to the portal, but the portal became unstable and started pulling Zeko to it. “Woah, wait this definitely isn’t righ-.” Zeko was cut off as Samehada swallowed him as it sensed there was danger and the two were sucked into the portal before it closed, leaving an empty realm.

===================================
(Ponyville: Outside of Sugarcube Corner)

Pinkie Pie bounced out of Sugarcube Corner to bring cupcakes to her best friend Rainbow Dash. “I can’t wait to have some delicious cupcakes with Rain-.” Pinkie stops abruptly as her body begins to shake violently. “ Uh oh that’s never happened, what should I call it? Ooh I know, EVERYONE, DOOZY.” After hearing this the townspeople rush into their homes knowing that a Pinkie prediction that they’ve never heard could be dangerous.

===================================
(Ponyville Library)

“Well that didn’t go as I expected”, looking around the library Twilight saw that the worst was the scorch mark on the floor, “Spike are you ok?”. There was rustling under a pile of books and a basket popped out with a drake underneath.

“Yeah, I’m fine... I think.” Twilight sighed in relief knowing her assistant was ok. “Well we should start cleaning up, I’ll pick up the-“.

“EVERYONE, DOOZY!” She was cut off by Pinkie Pie screaming and teleported to Sugarcube Corner to find the streets empty of Everypony excepts Pinkie.
“Pinkie what happened out here?”

“IdontknowiwasgoingtobringRainbowsomecupcakesandallofasuddenijuststartedtoshakeandthatneverhappenedbeforesoIcalleditaDoozyandwarnedeveryponybeforethedisastercould-“ Pinkie got interrupted by the sky opening in a purple hole and dropping a large dark object into the Everfree.

“What was that thing!?” Twilight frantically said trying to stay calm but the unknown was just that, an unknown and whether or not it was dangerous was literally in the air.

“I think that’s the doozy Twilight.”

“Ok then, Pinkie go find Fluttershy, and Applejack, I’ll get Rarity and Rainbow Dash then I’ll write to Princess Celestia.”

“Okie dokie lokie.” Was Pinkie’s response before zooming off towards sweet apple acres.

===================================

(Everfree Forest)

After hitting what he thought was the ground Samehada decided to let Zeko out in a spray of mystery fluid that evaporated away once he hit the ground. “Man that hurt my back so much, so where am I? This looks like the hidden Leaf.” He walked around for a bit and came across a river. ”A river, perfect time to test one of my cooler Jutsu”

“Water Style: Shark Bomb.” he said and quickly a large shark made of water erupted from the river surface. “So my chakra isn’t fully depleted yet, here I thought I’d have to rest for a week before I could break Kotetsu’s arm.” The shinobi started walking downstream to find the village and come to a clearing where he sensed a presence stronger than the other wildlife behind him “Not bad getting this close to a person with a Rinnegan.” He said before turning around and extending a hand.

“Almighty push!” The creature stalking him was one he’d never seen but it did look impressive, a large lion with wings. “Well damn are you some new species?” And his only response was a roar to the face. ”Well if it’s even remotely new I can’t kill it, I’ll just incapacitate it and report it to the Hokage”I thought before jumping back to avoid a slash from its large claws. He decided to drop Samehada as to not risk killing the lion. “Ok then after you.”

Almost as if it understood the beast charged but a swift roundhouse to the forehead stopped it’s motion then and there. Zeko jumped back to avoid a crushing bite. “Well that rattled you I can tell, but how tough are you really?” Zeko said trying to agitate the beast, prompting another swipe of its claws, faster than Zeko expected causing him to be thrown back by a minor shockwave.

“Alright tougher than I thought, but not good enough.” The teen said before rushing back and dodging another swipe for his head.

“Sorry big guy but I need to end this and find the village, almighty push.” He said causing an intense repulsive force to push the lion into a tree headfirst and knock it unconscious, and it brought the tree down with it. “Alright let’s get to the village and let them know about this... thing.” The shinobi said before picking up his blade and walking off...

Arc 1 Chapter 1: An unusual being in an unusual forest

(Ponyville: Edge of the Everfree Forest)

Twilight had gotten the remainder of her friends and the dozen royal guards sent by Princess Celestia along with the elements of Harmony.

“Are ya sure we need ta go into that forest Sugarcube? I just don’t think it’s safe.” Applejack said with an apprehensive tone

“Well if we want to find out what fell from that hole in the sky, we need to investigate. Besides we have the royal Guard, the elements of harmony and each other so we’ll be fine.” Twilight reassured

“That’s true but still that place just ain’t natural.” Applejack replied

“What do you mean by that?”

“The plants grow...” Applejack said

“Animals care for themselves...” Fluttershy murmured

“The clouds move...” Rainbow Dash exclaimed

“All on their own!” The trio said simultaneously

Rarity fainted after hearing this

Twilight deadpanned before Pinkie cut in

“And that wicked enchantress Zecora lives there, doing her evil...stuff!”

“Zecora?” Twilight asked not knowing of this pony

“She’s a mysterious pony that creeps into town sometimes and just digs at the dirt and hangs near the market.” Rainbow dash answered

“WAIT!” Pinkie yelled, “What if Zecora brought that thing down from the sky?”

Everyone gasped at this realization save for Twilight

“Perhaps she’s finally decided to curse Ponyville!” Rarity exclaimed

Fluttershy was hiding behind a guard at this point and showed no intention of moving

“Ok, Everypony these theories and ramblings aren’t getting us anywhere. We need to start he search.” Twilight stated

“Alright everypony, move out and stay in a group.” The Captain of the squadron said before he group walked into the forest

===================================
(Everfree Forest)

”Terrain of the sand! I can’t believe that this isn’t the hidden leaf, worse, I don’t think this is the land of Fire”, Zeko thought after transforming this open space into a miniature desert. “I used the Rinnegan to look for the village but not one chakra signature was familiar, I even went a step farther and looked for a Tailed beast but I couldn’t detect anything other than the natives which have an unusual chakra.”

“Well all I can do is just set up my own base and figure things out from there, above all else I need to figure out where we are.”

===================================
(Everfree Forest)

“We’ve been walking for hours, my hooves are sore, Applejack I beg of you let me ride on your back.” Rarity complained

“Ah said ‘no’ 3 times why would ah say yes this time Rarity?” Applejack retorted

“But my hooves are-“she was interrupted by the guard in front telling everyone

“Quiet, I can see a Manticore pinned by a tree.”

“Ahm gonna go see what that feller’s up to.” Applejack said while walking slowly up to the creature

When she got to it she walked around and saw that the Manticore was unconscious

“He’s been knocked out.” She yelled back to them

“Hey look, looks like a fight happened. And there’s some weird tracks.” Rainbow Dash pointed out

“But what could’ve left those?” Twilight said inquisitively

“A-and what s-scary m-m-monster could do throw a Manticore so far?” Fluttershy stammered

“Terrain of the sand!”something yelled

“What was that?” Rarity asked visibly shaking

“I don’t know but it sounded like a stallion and he might know what did this.” Twilight said as the guards lead in that direction

===================================

The group kept walking until a guard pointed out a patch of sand

“Wait there are no beaches anywhere near this forest.” Twilight stated shocked

“Ah told ya the place ain’t natural.” Applejack pointed out

The group continued and noticed more patches until Rainbow noticed something extraordinary

“What is that?!” She pointed towards a large clearing but as the rest of the group closed in they saw that the ground was sand and that there was an oasis further in.

“Wh- ha- ho- where did th- who coul-.” Twilight started breaking down after seeing a veritable desert inside of a forest

“Wait everypony look!” Pinkie exclaimed as she pointed to a figure standing by the water

“Is that the stallion? He’s far to young to be out this far on his own, we should escort him back.” Rarity said as she looked to a pair of guards who nodded

The group walked up when the figure suddenly said

“A dozen and a half is my welcoming party? Seems a bit overkill.” Zeko said with his back turned

The guards look surprised that this colt managed to figure out how many of them there were without looking

“Young colt it’s far too dangerous to be in this forest, especially when something has managed to change this area into a desert.”

“Are you talking about my little base? Well it’s all I could do on short notice.”

The group looked surprised as this colt just claimed to have changed the land around him but had no horn to manipulate magic

“Well either way if you’re passing by I’d recommend moving quickly, the lions around here are something else.”

“Wait at you talkin about that Manticore back there.” Rainbow asked with a cocked eyebrow

“If it’s the one that had wings then yes, I had to knock it out since I couldn’t tell if it was a new species or just rare.”

The mares gasped as the guards raised their swords and spears

“Are ya saying that ya beat that big critter back there? By yourself?” Applejack asked shocked

“Yeah, I mean I start a simple walk after falling from the sky and it tries stalking me but it was in for a surprise there.”

Twilight opened and closed her mouth like a drowning fish

Rarity took a step back, while Fluttershy hid behind her

Applejack and Rainbow Dash stepped forward with the guards

“Well that’s all I needed to hear, young colt I am captain Fortitified Wall of this squadron and by decree of Princess Celestia have to bring you into custody.” The captain said to the young one

“If I say no what are the repercussions?”

“You’ll be swiftly detained” he said as his horn glowed

“Well not only are the people weird, but they aren’t people, but aren’t animals either. I’m starting to think something went horribly wrong with Kotetsu’s kamui.” Zeko thought. “I don’t think I want to do that.”

“You little BRAT!”A guard said before his horn glowed then shot something at Zeko but Samehada was within grasp and let him block the attack. Then it rustled and their bond told Zeko this wasn’t chakra but it was similar.

“I can still get some energy off of their attacks, but it’s a crude chakra compared to what I’m used to.”

The cloud of dust and sand from the explosion blocked view but Twilight was sure the mystery colt was unconscious at least.

“Oh no, I hope he wasn’t hurt too badly from that.” Twilight brought up seeming concerned

“Quick question, what type of jutsu was that because Samehada can’t transfer it properly?” Zeko asked as the dust cleared .

Everyone was shocked that a spell that was simple, but effective was brushed off so easily.

“How did he do that?” Twilight asked dumbfounded. The others looked on in surprise as Zeko was checking his weapon for signs of damage.

“Sergeant, that was an excessive amount of force. No matter how he talks he’s still a colt.” Wall said to his underling before turning back to Zeko; “How did you defend against that attack with a simple club?” He asked

“It’s not a club it’s a sword and it absorbed it.” Zeko responded nonchalantly.

“Princess Celestia needs to know about this!” Twilight said with a mixture of excitement for scientific study and fear at such a weapon existing.

“Ok now I need to know.” Zeko said drawing attention back to himself. “What nation is this and who is this Princess Celestia?”

Everyone was surprised that this child was unaware of its location

“You’re in Equestria and Princess Celestia is the ruler.” Twilight said getting past her initial shock

Zeko started to show worry, “Hold on, what’s the name of this planet?” He asked with some sweat on his forehead

“Equis.” Twilight responded with an eyebrow raised wondering how the child isn’t aware of the name of its planet

“Do you know what chakra is?” Zeko asked trying to maintain a calm demeanor but his facade was slowly cracking

“What’s chag-rah?” Rainbow Dash responded quizzically. This was Zeko’s tipping point before he said one sentence that gave everyone pause

“I’m really in a different world...” He managed to say before passing out into his sand...

“Ok, did anypony else hear that last part?” Rainbow asked making sure her ears worked properly

“I think he said he was in a different world.” Rarity said also doubting her own hearing

Captain Wall decided to speak up and remind what the orders were; “Alright what he said isn’t important right now, what matters is that we escort him back to the Princess!” Wall said reminding the Mane 6 of the mission. “Miss Twilight you can carry him back using your magic and I’ll carry his... sword.”

=======

Author's Note

Alright that’s chapter 1 of the first arc which will consist of another two chapters
Next chapter comes tomorrow or the day after if things go right.
Ok so I’ve edited this and the last chapter as to make the story seem more appealing, I’d appreciate feedback

Arc 4 Chapter 2.5: Party and Preparation

(Sugarcube Corner)
(Later that day)

“Not that big of a surprise if I know about it Pinkie.” Zeko was at the door of Sugarcube Corner and opened it revealing a dark room which quickly changed when the lights went on and what he thought was the entire town sprang out and yelled

“SURPRISE!” There were streamers flying and confetti raining down. Zeko looked and saw a banner that read; Happy Late Welcome to Ponyville Party! And he was immediately given a cupcake by Pinkie Pie herself

“I hope you like it! The party didn’t take so long to prepare so I had time to invite most of Ponyville!” She bounced off once she finished her sentence leaving Zeko blank faced.

“I’m just gonna stand in a corner and wait to leave.” He walked over to a slightly more secluded space and scraped the frosting off his treat before indulging, noting that it was almost perfect

“She does know how to bake doesn’t she?” Zeko turned and saw Spike with a cup of punch in his hand. “Me and Twilight’s party was just like this, by the way I saw you and your friend with Rarity earlier and I just gotta say.” Spike grabbed Zeko by the shirt and nearly growled to him; “Back off...” Zeko wasn’t intimidated by the drake but he wanted to clear up the issue

“You can have Rarity Spike, you just have to be assertive. Also don’t wear shirts with her in a heart.” Spike looked and saw he’d somehow put on a shirt with his crush in the center in a love heart and he ran to take it off in private. “At least his feelings are genuine.”

“Excuse me, Mr.Zeko?” Zeko turned and was greeted by three fillies including Applebloom but the Pegasus is the one who called him. “Do you have a cutie mark?”

Zeko decided to draw some inspiration from his cousin and respond in a way that he would. “The hell’s a cutie mark? Sounds kinda weird.” The trio gasped and many others nearby looked confused. “Is something on my face again?” The shinobi ran his hands along his face to see but found nothing

“Do you humans not have cutie marks?” Twilight asked and got a head shake from Zeko. “I knew you were different but you don’t have a specific talent?”

“Specific... talent? These marks, do they have to do with talents?”

“Exactly! Your cutie mark is what defines who you are and what your place can be.” Rainbow Dash added

“Well we humans are multitalented and we aren’t bound by one specific thing. I have a bunch of different things that I know that aren’t all similar but that’s the Rinnegan to thank.”

“Rinnegan? What’s that?” The unicorn filly questioned allowing Zeko to smile to himself

“I keep forgetting that I shift to normal when I sleep but I might as well...” He looked at the child and changed his eye to its ringed form earning three excited gasps. “This eye is the Rinnegan and there’s a story behind it but most of the crowd left already so they wouldn’t know much themselves.”

“WAIT!” Applebloom yelled making her friends and those who were present cover their ears. “Can we bring you ta show and tell next month when school starts back up?”

“Applebloom! What’d I tell ya about asking anypony for something that’d be embarrassin?” The elder Apple sister started scolding Applebloom for her rudeness

“Sure why not?” Applejack stopped when Zeko said this. “I just need to make sure my schedule isn’t full that day. But you all just enjoy the rest of the party.”

“You’re leaving?” Pinkie Pie asked with wide almost teary eyes

“I’ve been procrastinating with going back to the Golden Dagger and I should just go now.” Zeko walked to the door and heard the Mane six saying their goodbyes but realized something. “Hey, I never got your names.” He looked to the three fillies who brightened

“I’m Applebloom, Applejack’s sister.” The earth pony held a hand over her chest with

“I’m Sweetie Belle, Rarity’s sister.” The unicorn gave a slight bow instead

“And I’m Scootaloo!” The Pegasus reminded Zeko of Rainbow Dash since her voice dripped with pride

“And we’re, THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!” No one was prepared for that outburst but Zeko managed to nod before leaving almost immediately groans of pain from outside were heard by the remaining partygoers prompting the CMC to snicker

“I’d do that too but moving my ears would hurt them more.” Rainbow Dash said before downing her punch as quickly as she could

“Seriously why do they want me to go deaf?” Zeko said as he floated to the base

==============================
(Golden Blade Base)
(6 minutes later)

Hunter was going over some letters that managed to make it to the base regarding, the “Hairless Monkey” they recruited who could fight off a Manticore and force it to leave when Zeko conveniently walked in. “You got fans kid, the ponies from Appleloosa really felt grateful to you.”

“Eh, I got the Manticore out of there, it was just work.” Zeko admitted to caring more about the job in this instance making Hunter roll his eyes

“It’s not a small deal to fight a Manticore but if you think it was just work then fine. And my sister wants to see you, her name’s Llona so just ask around.”

“Ok.” Zeko left and asked some of the other guild members and found out that Llona spends her time in the training area outside, so Zeko went out there and saw multiple target practice boards some training dummies and a shield rack

“Hey new guy!” Zeko looked over and saw a Pegasus mare with silver fur and a blue mane, he also noted she was quite muscular for a female. “I’m Llona and I wanted to see that weapon of yours and before you say no, I’ve been the blacksmith’s assistant for years so I know a good weapon when I see it and that’s something I don’t think I’ll ever see again.”

“I can show you but you can’t physically touch it since it drains energy.” Llona almost started drooling when he said this but he unwrapped the tip of his weapon and showed the mare who pulled out a notepad and greatly reminded Zeko of a certain bookworm

“How did you get a sword like this?! It looks like it’s alive!”

“Well it is alive and I to make a long story short; I beat the previous owner. I’ll tell the whole story some other time.” Llona finished taking her notes and put the pad away

“Fortis wanted me to congratulate you for completing a beast related mission in so little time. To explain: Hunter handles animal missions, I handle bandit groups and things like that, Aeris is a unicorn and she handles wanted ponies, Fortis and the other leaders give the highest assignments.”

“Ok that makes sense, distribution sounds fair. But why couldn’t he congratulate me?”

“That’s the thing, he wanted me to start showing you the basics of combat but I think you got that so how about we just soar every now and again?” Before Zeko could answer Llona flew into the air with a fearful shriek. “BIG SPIDER!” She yelled down to the teenager who saw that a spider was there with paper in its fangs

“Oh he sent one of you.” Zeko took the paper from one of Kotetsu’s spiders and saw what it said

They bought it

“What does it say?” Llona asked while still in the sky

“Nothing important, just my reason to stay.” He answered with a smile and twirl of his weapon

=======

Author's Note

This chapter is a just a snippet that was necessary to tie off some loose ends

There is a sort of timeskip oncoming next chapter... just a heads up

Arc 6 Chapter 3: Chaos Reigns (To Rest)

“Ok Kotetsu’s copy, we’re here. Now let us do battle and see who is the strongest of all a-glglglgl.” Nouka’s art employ hovered in the air with Kotetsu’s limp body still in its claws as Copy-tetsu looked at him incredulously.

“I truly don’t enjoy that, in fact that angers me greatly.” Nouka held his hand out and dropped dozens of humanoid clay figures to the ground, Copy-tetsu’s eye went from its relaxed two tomoe to its partial mangekyō form.

Nouka put his and up and made a sign that made his figures grow to Copy-tetsu’s size. “Genjutsu doesn’t work on them so don’t try it.” The featureless creations focused on Copy-tetsu and all rushed to him.

“Ok.” He jumped over the first one when it went for a swing and ducked under the next which tried to grab him. In the midst of evading his attackers he was put into a headlock, and the figure started to swell.

“Hah! My art is perfect, no bad guys can get out of-“ Copy-tetsu stabbed the figure with a chidori blade giving him time to kick it off and into the ones behind it, triggering a chain explosion. “-It?”

Copy-tetsu looked at his electrified blade then up at Nouka. “So it seems that lightning nullifies their explosive qualities.” He shot a chidori spear through another and directed it through two more that were nearby, effectively taking out the last bit of Nouka’s forces.

“Damn, he just disrespected everything you care about.” Kotetsu said from behind Nouka, nearly scaring his soul from him.

“I thought you died *smack* Ow!” Nouka rubbed the back of his head. “Well I did, how are you alive anyway?”

Kotetsu pulled his hand free from his chest and revealed that he still had electricity coating it. “I just used kamui on my body, I put my chakra into my hand so he wouldn’t notice I was alive.”

“Pardon me.” They turned and saw that Copy-tetsu was behind them. “But I have to kill you both.” He rushed forward to slice Nouka but clashed with Kotetsu’s blade instead. The two struggled until Kotetsu drove him off of the bird.

“Stay out of my way, your art is more useless than an open window underwater.” He jumped from the clay construct and landed near a tree, and had to duck instantly to avoid losing his head to Copy-tetsu’s lariat. “Can’t even wait for me to look at you?” The tree fell with a crash revealing Copy-tetsu with a sincere smile.

“From what I know about you, you’d rather strike an enemy before-“ A flurry of kunai made him stop talking and deflect the oncoming projectiles.

Kotetsu charged him as soon as the last kunai was knocked away and managed to take his foe’s left hand clean off with his electrified blade. “They can finish a sentence. Sounds like me yeah.” Copy-tetsu held his cauterized wound and jumped into his kamui realm. “Oh right... Shit where’s he-“ A foot to the back drove Kotetsu into the ground.

“I might’ve lost my hand but I can manage to fight like this.” He returned to his dimension as Kotetsu stood up and scanned his surroundings.

“Kotetsu behind you!” Nouka said right as Copy-tetsu emerged with a kunai but Kotetsu went into his own kamui before he could be struck. He came out and punched Copy-tetsu in the stomach before returning.

“I didn’t prepare for this but with a calm mind and good strategy I can over-“ He was punched in the face, Kotetsu followed with a kick to the chest and threw a kunai at his clone’s stomach

“Stop being so nice, that’s why I’m doing this.” He grabbed Copy-tetsu’s head and brought his face up. “Now hold still...” He peeled his right eyelids back to the imitation’s horror...

*Squelch*

“AGH!” The imitation held the right side of its face after Kotetsu dropped him back to the ground. He moved his hand and revealed that blood was pouring from his closed eye, he made the tiger seal with his right hand. “Fire Style: Fireball jutsu.” He got ready to release the fireball but Kotetsu clamped his hand over Copy-tetsu’s mouth. He tried to remove the offending limb but he wasn’t fast or strong enough, his struggling slowed down until he went limp entirely.

“Sorry but I can’t let a cheap knockoff run around with my Sharingan.” He took his hand back and let a puff of smoke escape Copy-tetsu’s mouth. He looked at his hand and saw the blood slowly dripping from it. “I guess that’s done so what’s Zeko doing?”

Nouka came down without his mount and stared at Copy-tetsu. “Is he?” His voice wavered, he never thought he’d see any form of his friend dead.

“Shut up.”

==============================

“Wind style: air bullets!” A volley of air bullets shot at Jenki and Zeko who got away fast enough to see the craters left by the attacks. “What’s wrong?! Afraid to get hit?!”

Zeko handed Jenki a chakra rod and let him use it as a projectile for, “Eight trigrams air palm!” He fired the rod but it was caught by the sand on Copy-ko’s chest and was thrown near the pond. The sand had spread from just the arm to most of his upper body and even formed a tail, his face was partially overtaken and his right eye was a yellow four pointed star. “We’re not scared, we just don’t wanna die to a crazy copy.”

“I’m not a copy! You can call me Zukako now!” He took a deep breath and expanded his chest. “Sand Bullets!” He fired hundreds of sand pellets at Zeko who used flying Raijin to evade most of the volley but took multiple hits to his legs before he fully escaped.

Zeko reappeared where the chakra rod landed. “So you’re just ripping off Shukaku’s name?” He wove the signs for dragon flame bomb and shot the wave of flame towards Zukako.

Zukako jumped into the air and shifted sand to his other arm, fully encasing his torso. “Is that all you can do? What?!” Jenki appeared at Zukako’s side with his Byakugan fully active.

“Looks like that sand’s gonna come crashing down on you.” He unleashed a barrage of strikes to Zukako’s body. The hits chipped through the sand armor and the combination was finished with a double palm strike to the stomach, sending him crashing to the ground and fulfilling Jenki’s pun. “I like being the funniest guy in the group.”

Zeko rolled his eyes at the comment and started walking closer to Jenki but froze, unwillingly. “Jenki stay on guard! I can’t move my legs!” A laugh came from Zukako’s crater and built until it was a manic cackle.

“Did you forget I put sand in them?” He rose a hand and sent more sand towards Zeko. “I’ll crush you!”

Jenki rushed in and used his hand to chop off Zukako’s. “Not if I can do-“

“Wind style: Sandstorm Devastation!” Zukako opened his mouth and shot a powerful gust, littered with sand pellets, at Jenki, sending him straight into a rock. “I should get rid of you first. I’ll tear you apart from the inside out!” He raised his arm with his reforming hand and closed his newly formed claws. Jenki screamed in pain from the sand in his body moving around, cutting into his insides. “Your eyes can’t even beat the one I have! What?” He snapped around and blocked a roundhouse kick from Zeko. “You didn’t expect that to hurt me did you?”

Zeko had blood coming from his legs and his overshirt was gone, leaving only his black undershirt. “You have a pretty nice Rinnegan, too bad I’m going to ensure that you never use it again. By that I mean you won’t use your face anymore.” Zukako smirked, revealing a monstrous set of teeth. Zeko coughed and dropped to his knee allowing his doppelgänger to walk behind him.

“That kick was nothing, don’t tell me you think you could beat me in your current state?” He raised his claw and made it larger than before, then he opened a hole in his palm with a large chakra rod, he brought it down to finish Zeko...

*Crash*

Zukako’s right cheek was caved in and he had teeth blown right out of his mouth, and he was falling backwards from the force of the strike. “H-How the hell?!” Before he could hit the ground Zeko grabbed his shrinking wrist and examined his arm. “Where did he get that speed? A-And is he- MY CHAKRA?!”

“Seeing it now, your sand is impressive. But since you only know what you saw me do... Anything I didn’t use in this world levels the playing field.” The sand coating Zukako’s arm fell off and revealed that he was missing his actual hand. “And this is the Preta Path, absorbing chakra is pretty useful but since I had Samehada I didn’t use it too much.” Zukako looked at his arm and saw his wound but once he looked up he made that a lesser problem. “Mini-Tailed Beast bomb.” Zeko slammed a small purple orb into Zukako’s chest, sending the sand clad copy flying away. “Jenki!” Zeko rushed over and began to remove the sand from his friend’s body and started healing him.

(This could be bad...)

But while Zeko was helping his friend, Zukako was in a rut more than a hundred feet away. “N-No...” To day that he was angry would be the understatement of the week. “I’m gonna kill... Every last one of you... then I’ll end Discord for not making me stronger.” A whirlwind of sand overtook his form and more was pulled from seemingly nowhere, stacking higher and higher.

“My head... what happened?” Jenki questioned while coming to his senses. “And why does it feel like there’s something in my- What the? Uh Zeko, big problem!” Zeko turned and saw a giant sand monster, a near perfect resemblance to the first tailed beast he knew.

“So is that why he... Now I get it, Zeko and Shukaku.” Zeko realized the purpose of the name but the question of how Discord knew of the first tailed beast lingered in his head.

“Now I can crush you!” Zukako boomed, his voice being rougher. He gave himself a once over and saw his new form, smiling at the result of his anger. “How ya gonna beat me now?” He raised a hand and slammed it against his stomach. “Have some air bullets!” He fired three air bullets that made the others look puny.

“Move!” Zeko and Jenki managed to barely evade the first and second shots, but landed directly in a patch of Zukako’s sand and were caught by the ankles. “Shit!”

There was an explosion of sand and dirt and Zukako cheered. “After all of that I did it! I killed them!”

“No you didn’t you peasant!” Nouka’s voice rang out and made Zukako look at the spot where his foes were. A massive silver hand was in front of the two but the weird thing was that it... was just bones... no flesh. Zukako looked and saw Nouka on a clay lion with Copy-tetsu, conscious and injured.

“Hey, raccoon boy!” He looked back at the silver hand and saw that another one was coming his way. “Don’t forget about me!” The fist collided with his stomach and sent him crashing into his back, eyes spiraling comically.

Zeko’s eyes were wide once he saw his cousin centered in a large silver rib cage. “What is that?” He questioned in shock at the bones surrounding Kotetsu who smirked.

(That changed fast)

“This, my Sharingan-less friend, is the Susano’o.” The arms drew back towards the rib cage and another bone structure formed upwards and created a silver spine and a skull with glowing purple eyes. The Susano’o looked, blankly, at the sand beast in front of it.

Zeko turned his attention to Copy-tetsu and saw that his right eyelid was shut with dried blood under it. “Hold on...” He looked closer at Kotetsu and saw that he now had...two Sharingan?! “How did you? And why is he still alive? You’d never let there be another you!”

Nouka beamed at the statement and ran to Zeko’s side. “I used the talk no jutsu on them, turns out Kosanu just wants to live peacefully.” Zeko raised an eyebrow at the name and looked back at the clone who smiled plainly.

“Bigger problems!” Kotetsu brought their attention back to the irate Zukako.

“That hurt a lot! How’s about I blast through your little skeleton?” He braced his claws into the ground and took a deep breath.

“This doesn’t look good, Nouka get in here!” Sand wrapped around Nouka and Kosanu and pulled them into the Susano’o. “Let’s top it off!” Zeko clasped his hands and made pillars of sand rise around him, he moved them over Kotetsu’s creation and encased it, giving it sand skin over its durable bones.

“Wind style: Desert Scream!” Zukako exhaled a massive squall that carved straight through the prairie and uprooted trees in its path. After the attack the sand on the Susano’o was blown clear but the shinobi within were unharmed. “How are you still alive?!”

The silver skeleton raised its right hand and coated it in electricity, Kotetsu and Zeko moved to it and formed a shadow clone each. “I forgot what happens when you mix lightning and wind, but this’ll stop him from going full demon.” Kotetsu said as he and his clone made a four blades from the lightning.

“Magnet release, should stop everything he’s doing.” Zeko and his clone formed a large rasengan above the skeletal palm. Kotetsu merged the lightning with the sphere and formed a quad-bladed rasenshuriken with lightning mixed in. They dispelled the clones and looked at Zukako who scowled and extended a claw.

“Oh no you don’t.” Zeko crushed a pellet he had in his pouch and made a blue smokescreen appear. “I can’t see you now but I saw where you were, Universal pull.” Zeko came flying from the smoke to meet the expecting claw but a poor of smoke revealed that it wasn’t him... “Uh oh...”

“Chidorasen-ken!” Zeko and Kotetsu said as their combined attack made contact with Zukako’s stomach, creating a massive explosion.

Nouka clapped and laughed at the display of raw power put on by his friends. “Now that was some art!” A slow clap brought them from their phase of victory and revealed himself to be Discord wearing a foam finger on his tail.

“That was quite the display, didn’t expect something like that to be the finale.”

“Why are you here?” Zeko questioned as Kotetsu’s Susano’o made a full one-eighty.

“Just here to deliver the news. About an hour ago miss Twilight Sparkle gave up on trapping me in stone and Ponyville is the chaos capital of the world!” He finished by making a diorama of said town with pink rain clouds and malformed animals. “Maybe you’d be willing to join in on it?”

“Those clouds look delicious!” Nouka was hit across the head by Zeko instead of Kotetsu for once.

“Nah, I’ll just live in a forest away from it all. I’ve got nothing to prove by fighting you since I had my fill with him.” Zeko pointed to the mass of sand that was collapsing on itself. Discord was surprised at Zeko’s statement but didn’t seem to care much. “Wait an hour? How long was this fight?”

“Well if I can have my chaos then so be it.” She snapped his fingers and teleported away.

“You’re gonna tell pony girl to not quit aren’t you?” Kotetsu asked as Zeko jumped closer to Zukako, he didn’t get a response but knew the answer. After three bounds Zeko was at his doppelgänger. He saw the sand covering the ground and put some into his own gourd before focusing back on Zukako, seeing that his robe was gone and dry blood was on his arm.

“So you finally got beat, I wonder how-“ He caught the chakra rod aimed for his neck. “Of course you aren’t out of chakra, I’ll fix that.” He grabbed his wrist again and started to siphon Zukako’s remaining chakra storage which was surprisingly high. Zeko figures that his missing hand and broken legs were the only thing assuring that he couldn’t fight back further. “These don’t look like wounds you heal on your own you know.” Zeko released his wrist and let it fall back to his side

“So... finish me off...” Zukako panted between words and only got Zeko to put his fingers on his left eyelid.

*Squelch*

“You corrupted yourself, I don’t wanna make myself worse off by doing that.” Zukako didn’t hear the words since he was screaming in pain over losing his Rinnegan and his eyeball. Zeko walked to Kotetsu who had his arms crossed.

“You just saw that I let mine live and followed for no reason didn’t you?”

Zeko smiled sheepishly, “You know me so well.”

“We’re leaving, finish up whatever was going on here. And don’t forget, I’M STRONGER NOW! Ha ha ha!” The trio vanished into the kamui leaving Zeko with Kosanu and a wailing Zukako.

“Well I only want to live peacefully so I’ll be off now.” Kosanu turned and walked towards the thicket.

“Boy...” A voice spoke. “Come with me, I can heal you.” The Timberwolf from earlier sprung from the ground and looked at Kosanu.

“Alright, I could use the help.” He managed to pull himself onto the back of the wooden wolf and they departed into the thicket.

“Ok so that’s that and... Twilight!” Zeko sprinted off leaving Zukako alone, until a few figures approached his form.

“W-Who are you?” He asked as a tall one approached with a large casket.

“Friends...”

==============================

“Without Rainbow Dash we can’t use the Elements.” Twilight stated

A scraping sound from the ground made the girls, excluding Pinkie, look down. Zeko burst halfway from the soil and looked around. “You don’t look like you gave up on anything.”

“Darling what happened to your clothes? I rather liked your ensemble.” Rarity pointed out the tattered black shirt Zeko had on and his pants that were littered with holes.

“Not that important.” He said quickly

“What’s in that tube on your hip.” Twilight reached for the object in question but a slap to the hand stopped her.

“Important.” He said with a stern tone. “So what are we doing?”

“Found Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie pointed up to a cloud with the Rainbow haired Pegasus resting on it.

“We need to get her down here so I can use the memory spell on-“

“Universal Pull.” Rainbow Dash was torn from the clouds and pressed against the ground by the shinobi. “Whatever it is do it!” Twilight pressed her horn against Dash’s forehead and she regained her vibrant colors again.

“What happened? Did we stop Discord?” She was pulled into a group hug by the girls but a group of Bison ballerinas reminded them of their mission and they ended the group hug. “Geez Zeko, did Discord throw you in a volcano? Tag along so we can kick his butt together.” She threw a few punches to the air but Zeko shook his head.

“I have something important to do, I’ll see you girls after the celebration since I know you’ll win.” He walked away leaving six mares confused at the change in attitude but they ran off to complete their mission.

(Hours Later)

Zeko was sitting on a cliff’s edge watching the sun set when Hunter approached him. “Hey that Twilight wanted to know where you were, should I tell her that we’re starting our special training tomorrow or?”

The teenager didn’t turn around and chose to sigh in relief. “If the time scale is the same as my world here then tomorrow should be my birthday and I got the greatest gift from myself and mastering it will be from you.”

Hunter was confused but also smiled. “Well it’s good to know that your birthday is in the Fall but how’d you get a gift from yourself? And how am I going to help you master it?” Hunter looked at the sunset himself and saw the clouds perfectly overlap the sun and provide a unique shade of red.

“Well...” Zeko turned around and showed Hunter his face...

“W-W- Is that? Y-Your eyes?” He was flabbergasted to see that both of Zeko’s eyes were...

“The devil’s in the details on how but now I can protect things way better than before.”

=======

Author's Note

This all nearly brought a tear to my eye.
If you have any questions feel free to comment, and if you want to dislike it... I don’t care if you don’t like it don’t read it.
If you liked it then great I’ll keep up the work so you continue to like it

And yes I toughed through my illness for this

Arc 9 Chapter 4: Release (Part 4)

(Serpent’s Ridge)

The sand monsters clashed with every one of the true Timberwolves and met them blow for blow, neither of the opposing forces would stay down as they only continued to reform after serious damage. Every time one of the sand beasts was battered or reduced to a pile they simply reformed into their previous state, and every shattered wolf only reformed to continue attacking. In all of the mayhem along the base of the mountain there were fights between shinobi and a few resurrected members of the guilds, one of said fights was currently between the bonehead bomber- “You can’t stand against those you peasant of a bird!”

And the newly rejuvenated Kanek who used a cluster of black clouds to protect himself from the cluster of explosions headed his way. “You’ll run out of those things sometime.” The two were airborne, Kanek using his own wings while Nouka stayed aloft on his trusty bird creation. For all of Kanek’s efforts to move closer to Nouka he found himself being pushed back by the small explosives. ‘This kid really doesn’t do anything else! I guess I’ll wait to have a real challenge from that red haired brat...’ As Kanek planned for his real challenge thunder roared across the area and made the two snap to see lightning striking down at Jenki and Zeko, both of whom were either dodging or deflecting the attacks respectively. In the short lapse of his attention Nouka had to dodge an oncoming lightning bolt from Kanek but he wasn’t able to prevent his mount from being struck.

“Tch! Fine you want my bird then take it, ayeeh!” With that the young adult leapt off the bird and sent it crashing into his quickly panicking foe but Kanek’s fear turned to surprise when he found himself throwing the large clay avian away from him. He watched it fall to the ground harmlessly as Nouka got his bearings on a newly formed one. Kanek looked to the now losing its shape and quickly becoming a shapeless blob of white.

‘That would’ve killed me but it didn’t even blow... It was a dud!’ Kanek realized as a flock of much smaller clay birds flew towards him and much like the initial group of the explosive projectiles was warded off by dark clouds as they blew up, causing very little harm to their target. The gears in the griffon’s head started to turn as he saw Nouka fleeing towards the ground, and flew after him. The bomb ninja jumped off his mount and landed midway up the newly formed mountain chain. “So I’ll ask you this since I’m a smart Griffon, can your bombs be disarmed?” Nouka managed to keep his cool at the question and didn’t answer even as some more white arthropods grew to his defense.

“Even if it did you don’t know how to make it inert. This is my C-3 array!” The spiders and centipedes rushed at Kanek while he backstepped to avoid the explosions, he noted that they were much more focused on the ground then they were when they were in the skies.

‘So he doesn’t want to cause an avalanche, wait he said inert... so I can make these things useless!’ Kanek used his clouds to push any of the explosives that got too close to him as he racked his head to find out what he did that made the bird inert. The brawl only advanced as Kanek went into the air right as a centipede managed to latch itself onto his leg. “No!” He shocked it and sent it back to the ground where it began to lose its form and become a blob. “Electricity makes your bombs useless!?” Kanek fired another bolt at an oncoming spider and again the explosive creature lost its form and turned into a blob of white. Nouka threw a volley of kunai and shuriken at Kanek to distract him but they were melted by the barrage of lighting that the empowered griffin let loose to nullify every explosive in the area. “That’s so stupid... and it now makes sense.” Kanek formed a length of electricity and started walking towards Nouka who was not keeping calm at the imminent threat.

‘So my clay is useless, there’s gotta be something.’ His mind clicked as he raised his hands and put them in a unique seal, a moment later he collapsed and Kanek stopped moving. Kanek slowly raised the blade and nearly decapitated himself but a last second jerk managed to only clip most of his right wing away, the wound cauterizing instantly. The sword dissipated and Nouka got back up.

The griffin snapped back into his right mind and stifled a cry of sheer fury before locking his eyes back on the destructive artist. “And now I’m gonna deliver you to your friends in a bag!” Kanek rushed forwards with lightning cracking along his talons while Nouka weighed all of his options.

“It’s not the village so I don’t have anything stopping me.” Nouka bit his thumb and slapped his palms together as Kanek moved closer, the young adult’s skin began to turn stark white while black lines formed on his face. “Ninja art: C-Release!” Kanek stopped his rush of bloodlust and brought a layer of clouds between him and Nouka when the white bodied ninja lunged at him. The griffon was about to deliver a taunt from his cloud cover but-

*BOOM*

The force of an explosion sent him skidding away and as the smoke cleared he saw Nouka standing there with his hands overlapped. Kanek wasted no time in sending a bolt of lighting at Nouka but that didn’t impede the artist as he rushed forward again and made to grab the injured Griffon.

*BOOM*

A sand monster took the explosion that time and others quickly arrived to help deter the bombing demon as Kanek scraped himself off the ground, to Kanek’s horror he noticed that the sand beasts were being blown apart as soon as they were touched so his efforts only grew more frantic. “Gotta get-“

*BOOM*

“Just need-“

*BOOM*

“I have-“

*BOOM*

Kanek’s sense of sound was nearly gone and that silence was all he had but once he felt that nothing around him was happening, no fighting, no explosions, no vibrations were being made his heart was beating so hard that his body shook each time and as he turned around he could’ve sworn it stopped for a moment as he saw Nouka standing above him. “Get away from me you freak!” He swiped at the bomber and got a mixture of pleasure and relief when his claw managed to go right into Nouka’s chest but that feeling changed once Nouka reached out and grabbed his beak.

As soon as the hand touched him Kanek felt an indescribable pain course through his body starting at his face, and where the pain went his body swelled up after it. His eyes being forced out of his skull as his insides ballooned, his skin nearly rupturing as his organs swelled. “You can’t call me a freak. I’m normal and you’re just a mix of bad art.” Kanek gurgled in response as his senses completely shut down. “Begone.” He screamed in pain for all of a split second as his body finally got its bliss of being ruptured painfully. His organs, bones, and flesh all exploding and sending Nouka into the air gracefully, only he could ever truly appreciate that- “Art is an explosion!”

(Serpent’s plain)

“Alright you son of- Uh... son of something...” A smaller than normal Minotaur was crouched ahead of Kotetsu, the two uncaring at the lightning strikes that were happening just over the ridge. The grassland around them swaying softly at the wind’s touch. “Son of a beach- Son of a birch!”

“Bitch.”

The Minotaur grunted. “I knew that, I don’t need a teacher at my age!”

Kotetsu only smirked. “No I was calling you a bitch...” He charged forward but stopped the swing of his sword once he saw the Minotaur ignore him and reach into a pouch.

A small golden coin is all he pulled out and in that second Kotetsu went to finish his slash and was met with a hoof strike to his jaw. “If this is a one on one then you don’t have a chance against me, I’ll be done by the time I catch my bit.” He flipped the coin into the air and no sooner did he attempt to strike the Uchiha. Kotetsu blocked the attack with his sheath but as he swung his blade the Minotaur sunk straight into the ground. As Kotetsu scanned the ground to find any trace of movement he was pulled ankle deep into the earth and the Minotaur halfway burst out in front of him with a series of closed fist punches aimed straight for him.

‘He’s not as slow physically as he seemed mentally.’ Kotetsu blocked every strike as it came, a few getting too close for comfort as he noticed that the Minotaur was slamming his elbows into the dirt. ‘He’s using the ground as a spring for his strikes... he’s getting faster and faster with each punch!’ The rushing combo ended with a hard left hook that sent Kotetsu flying towards a tree but he stopped himself by rooting his blade in the ground.

As soon as the metal went into the dirt the ground began to liquefy and out popped the horned head that immediately had to dodge a sweeping kick. The momentum of the kick followed through and allowed the Uchiha to uproot his slowly sinking blade, and plant it into the tree as a foothold while a trail of rising earth came after him. “Fire style: Fireball jutsu.” A few seals and an exhale sent a large fireball at the ground but the ground reacted like water when it practically swallowed the flame as the Minotaur rushed at Kotetsu again, however he was shocked at the fact that his strikes went right through the shinobi.

“H-Huh?” He flung a rock at the shinobi only for it to pass through him entirely. “That’s cheating! How am I supposed to kill you-“ He caught the coin. “If I can’t touch you?!”

Kotetsu examined his surroundings and saw the massive form of the two tails bearing down on a giant spider that wasn’t familiar to him which only made the man more envious. “Well retard you’ll just have to wait five minutes for my ability to cool down.” He ended with a smile that would’ve disturbed anyone he was close to since it was almost friendly and contrasted his visual prowess perfectly.

Now Terrus was a number of things but a retard as Kotetsu put it wasn’t in that field, and his own smile started forming as he looked at the tree that slowly began to sink into the ground. “So what you’re saying is that I-I can’t hit you and- and you can’t hit me? If you could I’d have been hit by now...” He pulled himself out of the ground completely and looked up to Kotetsu.

“Well maybe you aren’t completely brain dead, but that doesn’t do you much good since I’m not gonna cancel my kamui.”

“Heh heh heh... But that means I can go finish off one of your friends since you don’t wanna fight.” As he said that an explosion rung out and at the peak of the blast was Nouka. “He can’t fight up close can he?! I’ll see you there loser!” He dove into the ground as Kotetsu jumped down with his sword in hand.

‘Well shit, lets see if I can run through land.” A portal opened on the ground and the young adult went right in.

Terrus was gliding through the earth like it was water, his body showing no fatigue. ‘Coming back to life made me feel better than ever, I’m faster and I don’t need to take a-‘ He stopped and looked behind himself, ears flicking. ‘So he’s copying me? That’s not gonna h-help here.’ Kotetsu was running through the ground, blade in hand as he followed the ripples in the earth around him.

‘Wait a minute!’ A sudden movement to his right threw him off and caused him to slip into an open pocket of air, he sent a chidori spear where he fell through but he missed his mark by a few inches at most as Terrus started another barrage of attacks. The two clashed again but this time the shinobi was superior and landed a hit right against the minotaur’s nose, drawing blood. “That sneak attack go how you thought? I can go get Kizura, she’s a better medic than Zeko.”

“Hng... hmm... I’m learning a lot about you, you can’t get hit when you’re not attacking b-but you can’t attack and not get hit... You can’t run through the ground if you’re attacking cause you’d g-get crushed right?” Even with blood running between his teeth Terrus didn’t break his shit-eating grin. Kotetsu’s only response was to coat his blade in lightning and try to stab the Minotaur but he only hit the dirt wall of the air pocket and took a hit to the rib for his effort.

“I’m gonna kill you again...” He struggled as Terrus burrowed into the ground again, another portal and the chase began once more. Kotetsu’s speed before almost seeming like a joke to Terrus as he noticed the shinobi was right on him with all of his swimming speed.

‘What if I slow you down a little bit?’ He swam to the surface of the ground and made Kotetsu stop as he felt the ground around him liquefy even more so. “I can only affect the ground so far away from me but I can make even stone act just like water.” He pulled some fluid together and turned it back into a boulder. “But what happens when something really heavy hits the water?” He lobbed the boulder into the air and dodged a series of slashes from Kotetsu as it came back down.

The ground splashed and sent the two barreling underneath the surface of the liquefied ground, Terrus was quick to recover and see the chokutō in front of him. He noticed a dark aura emerge from Kotetsu as a set of silver Susano’o ribs to ensure that he didn’t stay in the liquidized earth while Terrus taunted him. “What’s wrong ninja? Can’t have a-a swim? Looks like your no touch t-thing wore off, now you’re stuck in that thing down here. And look, your little sword is here with me, come get it t-tough guy.” Terrus pointed at the weapon only a few meters in front of him. As Kotetsu rolled his right arm.

“I’m not a scientist.”

Terrus was thrown off by the statement. “Huh?”

“But I know what happens to someone when something explodes in the water. Not only do sounds travel faster in the water but so does force... since the body is mostly water it’s fine in those parts but anything with air such as the lungs, sinuses, or ears... they don’t do so well.” As Kotetsu sat in safety he smirked. “I didn’t try to hit you earlier, I just needed a second to give you a gift. Genjutsu is really useful.” He pulled his sword from behind him.

“Wh-What are you-“ The last thing Terrus saw was the sword turn into three pieces of paper with markings etched on them, then an explosion sent waves through the ground around him. The power of it immediately bursting his eardrums and pushing pain to the front of his skull as his sinuses did the same. “AAAAIIIUUUUU!”

“Not sure you felt it by now but your body is pretty much dead, I told you that I’d end you for hitting me.” He brought an arm over his face and vanished into his eyes as Terrus drifted in the ground.

‘T-This is nothing!’ Vibrations above him told where Kotetsu appeared and with a final push of his body he threw himself up to grab the shinobi and drown him in the ground. “You’re mine no- AAGGH!” As soon as his arms broke the surface they were mangled by a landslide. “B-But I know that- How did I think that was him?!” He wasn’t anywhere near safe as the rocks kept coming, throwing him around like a rag doll until he came to rest out of the way. “W-Where is-“ He’d never finish his sentence as he ran out of the air he needed to speak, the damage on his body catching up to him as his oxygen starved mind realized that he hadn’t managed to inhale since the explosion.

Kotetsu appeared in a spiral of air right before him, Terrus barely having the strength to look at the Uchiha. “Of course... I’m not a scientist so that’s all up to debate.” Terrus wanted to scream since the last thing he saw would be his killer’s smile but as his eyes dulled he knew that he’d have to be silent and unfortunately compliant.

(Serpent’s Thirst)

The newly formed small desert was a hive of activity for Jenki. “Eight Trigrams: Palm Rotation!” On account of the Hyuga dealing with the swarm of sand beasts trying to envelop him. His outfit had taken a good deal of damage, shirt in tatters and his left pant leg not connecting below his knee anymore. Zukako floated only so far ahead, watching silently as the ridges on his back vibrated.

“Why won’t you just give up Jenki? The last time we clashed it went badly for you.”

The green haired ninja exhaled a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “Last time I made the mistake of underestimating you. I should’ve taken you as seriously as I do Zeko...” His arms tensed as the sand demons reformed slowly around him. A light blue layer of chakra began to surround his arms as the sand demons approached him again. “Water style: Planetary Flooding jutsu!” Jenki slammed his hands down, causing a torrent of water to burst from where he was standing. The monsters were reduced to sludge even as water flowed outwards from the teenager, even raining down as he grabbed his hitai-ate from around his forehead. “Made me use my forbidden jutsu... Could’ve crippled my arms if I messed up. You should be proud that I got this serious.”

“Jenki we’re ready for-“ Kizura deadpanned once she saw how well toned the Hyūga was. “You can calm that down, we’re not having a contest.”

Zeko only nodded in respect while the Hyūga gave himself a once over. “What? Gotta stay in shape.” Nouka and Kotetsu arrived as well, the group eying Zukako as he let his scaled feet lightly touch the ankle high water.

“I’m ready when you are Jenki.” Zeko said as his friend went to his fighting stance and without any warning he burst forward, launching strikes at the serpent host’s body.

“Child’s play.” With a wave of the black blade he pushed Jenki back but that only turned the Hyūga into water, allowing the real one to land a strike on several tenketsū of Zukako’s Morsus arm. To no avail Zukako tried to raise the weapon but had no luck, Jenki leapt back right as a massive wave of sand broke the water surface and started for him but it didn’t get far until an equally large wave of black powder met and overpowered it. Zeko stood behind his friend, hands firmly together.

“Iron is heavier than most other minerals, as long as I’m here his sand is no good.” The black dust broke away and quickly restrained Zukako.

Nouka immediately sprang into action, bounding towards the restrained copy. “My time to shine boyos!” His skin quickly turned stark white again. “I’ll take him down right now!”

‘He could end me in one hit. None of that.’ Zukako thought as Morsus quickly pushed outward and formed into a spear that caught Nouka in the shoulder.

“Big deal, I am the greatest art-“ He wouldn’t get to finish his sentence as lightning coursed up the length of the weapon, causing Nouka to violently spasm from the current. A kunai with seals on it flew up to him and in a flash Jenki appeared with a hand coated in chakra, broke the blade, grabbed Nouka, and flung the kunai towards Kotetsu in one fell swoop.

“I’m not gonna lie, I actually thought he’d pull it off.” Kotetsu said as he looked over the catatonic artist. “He should live but another one like that and he’s done for.” He immediately sent the injured artist into his eyes.

Morsus formed a black orb around Zukako and quickly burst, freeing him from his iron prison. Zeko flickered next to Kizura as clouds began to form around his doppelgänger, the sounds of the wooden wolves and sand beasts still going on. “Kizura... I think we need to-“

“Yeah I guessed, weird how we both have what the other needs for it.” Kizura and Zeko stood just ahead of the other two shinobi, the taller of the two sticking her left arm out, fist balled. Zeko removed the blue obi from his waist, his kimono top opened and revealed the mesh shirt he had on as he stuck his right arm out and bumped Kizura’s fist in return.

Jenki looked at the two in confusion but his Byakugan allowed him to see something that didn’t make sense to him. “They’re mixing their chakra?” The fist bump changed to them forming the snake seal together. With that Jenki saw that the two were almost merging chakra, nearly becoming one person but then he saw that their abdomens, for a lack of better words, unlocked. Ram, horse, dog, bird, and rat were formed as well with each sign unlocking more and more chakra between the two. “That’s not any jutsu I’ve seen yet...”

“I don’t know why but I feel like I’m going to be jealous of whatever happens next.” Kotetsu’s eyes weren’t seeing the specifics but he could tell that there was something going on between the two.

“Everybody knows that one plus two-“ They finished on snake again and to Jenki they practically beamed from a chakra increase, Kizura turning blue while Zeko became yellow. Their outfits appearing as if they were lined with flames of their respective colors while their eyes turned heterochromic for Kizura and, to yellow stars for Zeko. “Equals me linking with you!”

Zukako only smirked at the transformation, his memory scraping up faint ideas of what just happened but nothing that was set in stone. “Maybe now it won’t be boring.”

Author's Note

Already said things would be crazy, next chapter will wrap this fighting up but it’ll take some time. Like or don’t comment yadda yadda see you next time