Friendship is Summoning

by EmeraldIngot

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Crossover, Human
Length: 6534

For the first time since it's creation, Equestria's Summoning Contract has been signed.

A long, long time ago, two sisters stood up to a monster. They fought with bravery and courage, but were defeated. Unable to best this monster, they made a deal with an extra-dimensional being of great and terrible power. In exchange for six powerful objects, the two sisters had to sign a powerful magically binding contract. Though they feared the concequences of such a contract, they were desperate to bring order and harmony to the land, so they agreed.
The two sisters used the six powerful objects and defeated the monster, forever trapping him in stone. They ruled the land with love and wisdom for thousands of years. Eventually they forgot their worries.

In another realm of existence, a young boy, desperate to reach his goals, stumbles across an ancient scroll. When he signs his name on the scroll, he becomes the first bearer of the Equestrian Summoning Contract.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-10-17 04:58:38 UTC

Ancient History and Graduation Exams

Dear Princess Celestia,

Ever since the Summer Sun Celebration, I’ve been up to my ears in old manuscripts, ancient tomes, and millennia-old scrolls looking for any information I could find on the Elements of Harmony. Aside from a few references to them in old tales, legends, and folklore, I haven’t been able to find any concrete evidence on exactly what they are, where they came from, how they were made, or any information on how they’re supposed to be used. I know my friends and I were able to successfully use them on Nightmare Moon and restore her to Princess Luna, but –to borrow a phrase from Rainbow Dash- we were ‘flying blind’.

I’ve exhausted every source I could think of trying to learn more about these artifacts that my friends and I now, apparently, represent. I fear that the next time we’ll be called on to use them, we may not be able to use them properly. That’s why I wrote you; we need to know more about the Elements. I eagerly await your response.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle.

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To my faithful student, Twilight Sparkle,

The origins of the Elements of Harmony have been a closely guarded secret for more than a millennia. In fact, only my sister Princess Luna and I know about their origins. Though, you need not worry about where they come from or how they were made, because their use is intent-based. It’s as simple as wanting something to happen and unleashing the Elements’ power. Though, there are a few limitations; their effects must be non-lethal and cannot be permanent. For example, instead of simply obliterating Nightmare Moon when I used the Elements of Harmony on her a thousand years ago, I was able to banish her to the moon, but only for a thousand years. That said, I’m confident that, in the event where the Elements of Harmony must be used again, you and your friends will be able to use them to great effect.

However, I know that you would not be content without knowing their origins. I only ask that you do not reveal this information to anypony save your friends, and only if they inquire about the Elements’ origins.

A long time ago, Equestria was ruled by an evil being known as Discord. He had immense and chaotic powers that were seemingly unbound by the laws of magic and the universe. His whims and fancies controlled the daily lives of everypony and everything, from when the sun rose and set to what the rain was made of (and it was not always water falling from the sky when he ruled). He changed the laws of nature to cause chaos and hardship for everypony simply because it amused him.

Luna and I were part of a small organization that was very discontent with Discord’s reign. And his rain, for that matter. I attempted to wrest control of the sun from this evil being, while Luna attempted to do the same with the moon. However, Discord soon found us and confronted us. We fought for a long time and devastated the land around us, but my sister and I were bested in the end and most of the members of our organization were captured. So, we fled.

After years on the run, Luna and I finally resolved to use ancient and forbidden magic to contact a being of great and terrible power from another realm of existence. This being was greater than Luna and I, and Discord as well, controlling an unimaginable amount of power, despite not being immortal.  This being called himself the Sage of Six Paths. We asked him to aid us in our rebellion, but he was not able to. He said to us, “I am bound by the ancient laws; I am not able to interfere with realms aside from my own.” Exactly what he meant by ‘ancient laws’, I do not know. Still, I begged and pleaded him for any aid he could provide, anything to give us an edge to overthrow that tyrant.

He again reiterated that he could not directly interfere, but he was allowed to make an equivalent exchange with us. He offered to forge a mystical contract in the form of a scroll that would allow anypony who signed it to use a powerful spell to summon Luna and I –and, by extension, any of our subjects- to the aid of the summoner. In exchange, he offered us the artifacts that came to be known as the Elements of Harmony. We agreed, on the condition that we could retain the right to strike any summoner’s name from the scroll if we did not approve of them or their actions. He agreed to the concession.

Once the contract was forged, we had the Elements in hoof, and the doorway to the other realm was sealed, Luna and I used the power of the Elements to defeat Discord and bring order and Harmony to the land.

That is everything there is to know about the Elements. I hope this has satisfied your curiosity.

Your beloved teacher,

Princess Celestia.

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Dear Princess Celestia.

Thank you for telling me the tale of how you acquired the Elements of Harmony. I promise that I won’t tell anypony except my friends, and then only if they specifically ask.

That said, now I’m curious about this ‘summoning contract’, for lack of a better name. How does it work? How does somepony know when they’re being summoned? Has there ever been a summoner? Have you ever been summoned? Do you have a copy of the contract? Oh, I have so many questions!

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle.

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To my faithful student, Twilight Sparkle,

I do not know the exact mechanics of how the summoning contract works, only that it is the magic of the contract itself that makes it possible. I do not know how somepony will know if they are being summoned, because there has never been a summoner before. I have a copy of the contract, but nopony has ever signed it. As it has been more than a thousand years since this contract was created, I sincerely doubt that anypony will sign it at this point. Rest assured, my faithful student, there is nothing to worry about.

Your beloved teacher,

Princess Celestia.

The nighttime woods were beautiful, in a dark and dangerous way. Though the moon and stars were bright with nary a cloud to obscure them, the thick canopy cast shadows that flickered and moved with the wind blowing through the branches. The air was cool and crisp, befitting a wonderful spring night. The faint scent of wildflowers, tree sap, and rich earthy soil drifted on the breeze, teasing and tantalizing the nose of anyone who breathed deeply enough.

All this natural beauty was lost on Uzumaki Naruto. The orange and blue clad, blonde haired, hyperactive ninja-in-training was too busy to notice his surroundings.

“All right! Mission accomplished!” He crowed to himself. His already wide grin stretched in elation as he took a moment to relax and wipe the dirt and sweat off his brow. He sighed in contentment as he gently sank to the ground, resting his weary legs; it had been a long run out here, and the strain of learning a new jutsu only compounded the matter.

“Now, I just gotta wait for Iruka-sensei or Mizuki-sensei to show up, and I’ll pass the secret graduation exam for sure!” he half-shouted to himself.

Idly, he brushed the dirt off his pants, took a swig from his trusty ninja canteen, fiddled with a kunai knife, and then sighed in frustration and impatience. Barely two minutes had passed.

“Aww man, how long are they gonna take?” he whined to himself. The wind whistled through the trees, as if mocking his inaction.

He propped an elbow on his knee and rested his face in his palm. Idly, he glanced around, hoping to catch sight of one of his teachers. Eventually, his eyes came to rest on the scroll, lying partially unfurled on the ground just a short distance away. He sighed to himself and stood up, walked to the scroll, and began to wind it back up so that it wouldn’t get damaged. ‘Old Man Hokage would be upset if I damaged anything I borrow from him,’ he thought, ‘especially something as important as the Forbidden Scroll of Seals,’

Just as he was about to finish, the ink on the scroll caught the moonlight at just the right angle to reflect it perfectly into the young blonde’s eyes. This caught Naruto’s attention, drawing his eyes to the words written there.

“Hmm… Summoning Jutsu?” he muttered to himself.

‘The Summoning Jutsu’

This technique is one of the most versatile techniques ever invented. Mastery of this technique allows a ninja to summon creatures to aid him in his endeavors, be that combat, infiltration, exfiltration, assassination, or any number of other tasks. The Legendary Sanin used the summoning jutsu to great effect, leading them to be classified as some of the most powerful ninja to ever come out of Konoha. Other notable ninja from Konoha to use the summoning jutsu are The Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen, The Fourth Hokage Namikaze Minato, and the Copy Cat Ninja Hatake Kakashi.’

Growing bored already, Naruto skipped the rest of the technical information in favor of reading the instructions on how to actually use the technique. “Let’s see… boar, dog, bird, monkey, ram… spread a little blood on your hand, place hand on the ground… sounds easy enough!” he thought out loud to himself. “Caution: Do Not attempt this technique without first signing a summoning contract. Aww man!” he whined. “Where am I gonna get one of those?”

He dropped the scroll and crossed his arms over his chest, pouting. ‘And it sounded like such a cool jutsu, too…’ he thought to himself.

With a sigh, he bent down to retrieve the dropped scroll, noticing that it had unrolled a little more. Just below the warning, the title of another entry caught his eye. “Unknown Summoning Contract?” he read in confusion. Below the ominous title was a bunch of squiggly lines that vaguely made a circle, with the character for ‘scroll’ in the middle. He tilted his head to the side and squinted at it; it looked so familiar.

Then it clicked. “It’s a seal!” he shouted. “Boy am I glad I actually paid attention!” he said to himself, referring to a lecture Iruka-sensei had given on sealing scrolls just a few weeks prior.

He drew a kunai knife and deftly nicked his thumb, drawing a small amount of blood to the surface. He swiped the bloody thumb over the seal and pumped just a little bit of chakra into it. With a ‘poof’ and a cloud of white smoke, the seal disappeared to leave a much smaller scroll in its place.

With a cry of triumph, Naruto snatched the unsealed summoning contract and let the larger Forbidden Scroll once more drop to the ground. He was so excited that he almost ripped the contract scroll in his haste to open it.

His face sunk in disappointment when he realized he couldn’t read the first few paragraphs of text on the scroll. It was in some windy, looping script, like someone had twisted a straight line into all sorts of strange shapes, with only the occasional gap between what he (correctly) assumed to be words. With dwindling hope, he began to unwind the scroll, hoping that there would be something written in a script that he could actually understand.

A gleeful smile split his face when he finally found something he could read.

Instructions: To sign this summoning contract, one must write one’s full, true name in one of the empty spaces below. The name must be written in the blood of the signee. Furthermore, a full handprint must be placed below the name, also in blood. If these steps were followed correctly, the signature and hand print will become black. In the event that the summoner is banned by the holders of the contract, the entire space the summoner’s name is written on will turn a solid black, and that person will no longer be able to summon those who hold the contract.

Sure enough, below that there were a number of rectangular spaces outlined in solid black lines. Eager to get started, Naruto pricked his already healed thumb with his kunai and deftly spelled out his name.

“U-zu-ma-ki… Na-ru-to…” he mumbled to himself. Next, he sliced open his palm and clenched his hand in a fist, partially from the pain and partially to spread the blood to his whole hand. After a moment, he pressed his palm into the scroll just below his name. Absently, he wiped his bloody –but rapidly healing- palm against his pants.

“Yes!” he crowed in excitement when his whole name and handprint faded from blood red to a deep black. He rolled up the scroll and placed it in the equipment pouch attached to his belt.

“Now,” he said to himself as he began to gather his chakra, “time to test it out. Summoning Jutsu!”

(A/N) I’d like to start off by saying that, while I’m not completely new to fanfiction and creative writing in general, I’m a few years out of practice. So, I apologize for any mistakes you might find.

That said, I decided to take my first crack at a My Little Pony fanfiction, even though it’s a crossover. Care to guess the crossover? (Joking…)

To preemptively answer some questions:

For MLP:FIM, this is set just a little bit after The Mare in the Moon, but before The Ticket Master.

For Naruto, this is set during Enter: Uzumaki Naruto!

For both, assume that everything is as canon in each series unless I say or show it differently.

I’m writing this story with the assumption that my readers are familiar with both shows.

Yes, I’m aware that the canon summons in Naruto aren’t actually from another dimension or anything, and actually live on the same planet. Just assume that the Equestrian summoning contract is different. Blame the Sage. Otherwise, they work pretty much the same.

Yes, that means that the boss summons for the Equestrian Contract are going to be Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. However, it would take a hell of a lot more chakra to summon Princess Celestia than it would to summon Gamabunta.

No, Naruto won’t be learning how to use Unicorn Magic; he doesn’t have a horn.

It’s POSSIBLE that the ponies may learn how to use chakra… with a LOT of time and dedication.

Yes, at some point or another, Naruto will be summoned to Equestria. (In canon, he gets summoned to the home of the Toads… so why not Equestria?)

Please don’t take this fic entirely seriously. It’s meant to be slightly tongue-in-cheek.

Right now, this is just to test the waters a bit, to see how well this fic would be received. Assuming I get a decent positive response, I’ll continue it. If pretty much everyone tells me to go jump in a lake, I probably won’t post any more chapters.

That said, I certainly hope you guys enjoy it. Updates will be… inconsistent. My job keeps me busy for about… hmm… 60 to 70 hours a week. I’ll try to update once a week, but I can’t make any promises.

Until next time.

Panic Mode and Playing Ninja

“Come along now, Sweetie Belle. Let’s not be late to school today, hmm?”

“Coming, sis.” Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes with exasperation. The little unicorn filly sighed and pulled the brush through her tail a few more times to straighten out the last few knots. As she set the brush back on the bathroom counter, she took a quick glance at her reflection in the mirror. Satisfied, she hopped off of the little hoofstool she had to stand on and went down the hall into her room.

“It’s not polite to keep a lady waiting!” Rarity called from downstairs.

“Just a minute!” Sweetie Belle shouted back. She slipped the straps to her saddle bag over her back, grabbed a few errant sheets of parchments that she had been doing her homework on last night off of the small desk, stuffed them into the bag, and bolted out of the room, through the hallway, down the stairs, and right to her sister’s side.

“There you are, darling,” Rarity beamed down at her little sister, running an approving eye over Sweetie’s well brushed and slightly curled mane and tail. “I’ve made your lunch for you. Peanut butter and zap apple jam sandwich, apple crisps, and a… surprise for dessert,” Rarity told her with a wink.

Sweetie grinned up at her. “Thank you, sis!” she squeaked and affectionately nuzzled her.

“Anytime, dear,” she said as she nuzzled Sweetie back. Rarity used her magic to pull the door open, and the two left Carousel Boutique and walked down the dirt roads of Ponyville. It was early in the morning, just a little past sunrise, and an unplanned fog drifted out of the Everfree forest and through the town, slowly evaporating in the light of Celestia’s sun. The dew glistened on nearly every surface and, along with the fog, gave the village an almost ethereal look.

Rarity spoke excitedly about a dress idea, inspired by this beautiful early morning visage. Sweetie Belle barely paid attention –“Gossamer, yes, and silk! Ooh, and diamonds!”- and instead opted to walk in silence. School was boring for her. They spent a lot of time going over grammar and arithmetic, and never anything cool or fun, like chemistry or magic. ‘At least it’s better than sitting in my room all day’ she mused.

“Well, here we are, darling.”

Rarity’s voice startled out of her daydreams of becoming a mad scientist, and sure enough the little school house was right in front of her, just a few dozen paces away. Miss Cheerilee was standing at the front door, greeting each one of her students with a heartwarming smile.

“Have a good day, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity said with a gentle smile on her face. “I’ll pick you up after school is out.”

“Okay, see you later, sis!”

Only a half hour into the school day, and Sweetie Belle was already bored out of her mind. Miss Cheerilee was droning on and on about the four times tables. Sweetie had her foreleg propped up on her desk and was leaning her head on her hoof, eyes half closed and slowly looking around the room for anything more interesting to look at than the blackboard.

‘I wish something exiting would happen,’ she idly thought. ‘Anything to get me out of class…’

She was halfway through a daydream about a bunch of ninja  attacking the village to kidnap her sister and force her to find gems for them when she felt like something was tugging on her mane. Irritated over her interrupted imaginary adventure, she turned in her seat to snap at whoever was sitting behind her, only to find an empty desk.

‘Weird…’ she thought to herself.

She returned to her previous bored posture and tried to sink back into her daydream. A few minutes later, she felt that strange tugging again. An ethereal voice whispered in her ear, “Are you busy? Can you go?”

“Go?” she asked softly, turning to look over her shoulder only to find nothing behind her. “Go where?”

“You’re being Summoned,” the voice whispered to her. “Will you answer it?”

“I don’t know how,” she replied.

“Just let go… let go…”

“Let go…” she mused. She could feel the tugging growing more insistent, like someone had attached a rubber band to her, only it wasn’t physically attached. The sensation of being made forcibly aware of one’s metaphysical self was strange, like being told you have an extra limb you didn’t know about until someone pointed it out to you. ‘Well… I do want to get out of class,’ she thought. Her mind made up, she just… let go. The world shifted around her, replaced by Technicolor swirls and a low droning rumbling accompanied by a sound similar to rushing wind.

With a loud poof and a cloud of smoke, Sweetie Belle disappeared.

“Now, time to test it out. Summoning Jutsu!”

Naruto slammed his hand on the ground and watched with fascination as black squiggly lines spread out from the point of contact. A cloud of smoke poofed into existence under his hand, and he stepped back slightly to give whatever-it-was he just summoned enough room.

He waited with bated breath for the smoke to clear while listening to the sound of whatever-it-was coughing and wheezing. Ideas and images raced through his mind at light speed as he imagined just what his new Summoning Contract allowed him to summon.

Just as Naruto was starting to fidget with impatience, the smoke finally cleared enough that he could see exactly what he summoned. His excited face fell when he saw -not a lion or tiger or bear or anything fierce and intimidating- a tiny baby horse. Its coat was a light gray, almost white, and its mane and tail was a pale purple streaked with pale pink. Judging by the cut and curls of the mane, Naruto guessed it was a girl. When she turned to him, Naruto saw that her eyes were also a pale green. Eyes that were widening in shock and alarm.

“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” the little thing screamed and scrambled backwards on her hooves until her back was against a tree.

“Woah, woah, hey, shhhhh!” Naruto lifted his hands to his chest, palms out, trying to shush her. The little thing turned away, curled up into a little ball, pressed her hooves over her head, closed her eyes, and pressed herself against the tree, whimpering in fear.

“Hey, it’s ok,” Naruto reassured her, “I’m not gonna hurt you…” he said as gently as he could.

Slowly, the little thing stopped trembling, and slowly opened her eyes to look up at him. “Y-you promise?” she asked with a trembling voice.

“Promise,” he said, smiling reassuringly at her. Slowly, the little thing relaxed and stood up, still wary but not shaking like a leaf any more.

“So… what are you?” Naruto asked with his usual lack of tact.

“I’m a pony, a unicorn pony,” she responded, mildly offended.

Sure enough, when Naruto looked at her forehead, he saw a little stub of a horn poking out from between her curls.

“A unicorn?” he asked, incredulously.

“Yeah, a unicorn,” she replied. “What are you?”

“Me? Well… I’m a human, I guess…”

“You guess?”

“Yeah."

The little thing rolled her eyes. “Well, my name’s Sweetie Belle. Who are you?”

“I’m Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage, Believe it!”

“Ho-ka-ge?” Sweetie asked. “What’s a ‘Ho-ka-ge?”

“The Hokage is the leader of the village, and the most powerful ninja!”

“So… does that mean you’re a ninja?”

“Well… not yet. But I will be soon! You see, I failed the graduation exam but Mizuki-sensei told me about this super-secret make up exam, and all I had to do was sneak into the Hokage Tower, steal the Forbidden Scroll of Seals, and learn at least one jutsu. But I learned two jutsu from it! Maybe I’ll get extra credit…”

“Um… what’s a jutsu?”

Naruto cocked his head in confusion. After all, how could anyone not know what a jutsu was?

“You don’t know what a jutsu is?”

“…no.”

“Oh. Well, a jutsu is a ninja technique that allows us to do all sorts of things, like spit fireballs and transform into other people. That’s what makes ninja the strongest people in the world!”

“Oh! It’s like magic!” Sweetie Belle perked up. “Can you show me one?”

“Sure!” Naruto put his hands together in the ram seal and yelled “Transformation Jutsu!” The smoke generated by the technique quickly dissipated, and right where Naruto was standing before was an exact replica of Sweetie Belle bearing a wide grin.

“Wow!” Sweetie exclaimed as she bounded over to look at her doppleganger. “You look just like me!” She used her hooves to ruffle Naruto’s mane and tweak the little stub of a horn. “This is soooo cool!”

The two wore nearly identical beaming grins as they both giggled at each other.

“So, where am I, anyway?” Sweetie asked. “And how did I get here?”

“We’re in the forest just outside of Konoha, my home village,” he said with pride. “I summoned you here.”

“Summoned?”

“Yeah, it’s this really cool jutsu that allows me to summon awesome creatures to help me in battle and do all sorts of awesome stuff. I just learned it tonight, and I signed the contract and everything! You’re the first… um… pony that I summoned.”

“So, does that mean that we’re gonna fight bad guys and rescue princesses and stuff?!” Sweetie Belle asked, her voice squeaking with excitement.

“Definitely!” Naruto said, enthusiastically. “Well, once I graduate the Academy and start getting sent on missions and stuff,” he added.

“Awesome! So, when do you graduate?”

“As soon as either Mizuki-sensei or Iruka-sensei show up and I show them one of the super awesome jutsu I learned from the Scroll.”

“Well… how long will that take?” she asked.

Naruto shrugged.

“Well… in the mean time, do you wanna play a game?”

“Yeah! We can play ninja!”

Sweetie Belle grinned at the still transformed Naruto, and soon they were lost in an epic struggle between the evil changling overlord (Naruto) and the young unicorn ninja who rose up to stop him.

Thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk!

Twilight groaned and rolled over in bed, the pleasant dreams she had been having slipping away like water through a sieve.

“Can you get th’ door, Spike?” she mumbled.

“Five more min’ts, Twi,” came the mumbled response.

“Ugh, fine,” she grumbled. Twilight sighed as she rolled out of bed and began shuffling to the front door. Bleary eyes barely managed to guide her way down the stairs as she yawned widely. ‘Ugh, that’s the last time I stay up studying ‘till 3am,’ she mentally complained, even though she knew that she said that every time she woke up after a late night study session.

The pounding on the door came again, a little more frantic this time, so she picked up her pace a little bit. ‘This had better be important,’ she complained to herself as she opened the door.

“Oh thank Celestia, Twilight, you have to help me!”

“Miss Cheerilee?” Twilight asked, slightly baffled. “Shouldn’t you be at school right now?”

“Yes, but it’s an emergency! One of my students has gone missing!”

“Missing?!” Twilight exclaimed, now fully awake.

“I don’t know what happened, I was just teaching them their times tables, when little Sweetie Belle just disappeared in a cloud of smoke! She was just gone!” The poor schoolteacher was near tears.

“How long ago did this happen?” Twilight asked as soothingly as she could with her own mounting panic.

“Maybe 10 minutes…”

“If we hurry, I might be able to find out what happened. Let’s go!”

Twilight and Cheerilee took off at a furious gallop through the town, dodging bystanders an market stalls at a furious pace.

“Hey, Twilight!” a voice called. Twilight looked up and to the side to see Rainbow Dash flying alongside the two frantically galloping ponies. “Where are you off to in such a hurry?”

“No time to explain! Go get the girls and meet me at the school ASAP! It’s an emergency!”

Startled, Rainbow nearly fell out of the sky, but a quick aileron roll and a midair somersault kept her flying. “Right!” she shouted and veered off, heading towards Sweet Apple Acres.

Twilight put on a burst of speed, sprinting to the school house that was just around the corner. Students were milling around the playground, huddled in groups and talking in hushed whispers, as if they were scared that if they spoke too loud, they’d disappear next. Twilight ignored them and slowed to a walking pace just in front of the door, panting slightly.

“Which classroom?” She asked over her shoulder at Cheerilee.

“This way,” she said, squeezing past the purple unicorn. They entered a normal looking classroom. Books were still open on the desks, the writing was still on the board, and there was no sign of any kind of struggle.

With a frown, Twilight’s horn lit up, sending a wave of purple light that started refracting at random points around the room, usually centered at one desk or another.

“Where did Sweetie Belle disappear?”

“S-she was sitting at that desk, over there,” Cheerilee pointed at a desk near the back. Twilight cantered over and began inspecting the refracted purple light, tracing the patterns the refracted light made.

“Hmm…” she hummed to herself. “There’s no spell residue, only latent magic residue, which is normal for any place a unicorn spends a significant amount of time… and a residue spell would have erased the latent magic as well… so however this happened, it wasn’t by magic.”

“But, if it wasn’t by magic, what could it have been?”

“I don’t know…”

“Well, what if it wasn’t unicorn magic? Would your spell show different types of magic?” Cheerilee asked.

“No, that spell only shows unicorn magic… but you do have a point. Now, let’s see…” Twilight shut her eyes in concentration and began mumbling to herself, mentally sorting through a list of possible spells.

“Aha! I’ve got it!” She cast a spell at the desk Sweetie Belle had been sitting at when she disappeared. The purple bolt of magic washed over, around, and through it. Strange, faintly glowing purple markings began to appear, like lemon juice on paper exposed to the sun. Squiggly lines and characters in a script unknown to Twilight formed a circle with ‘spokes’ of text radiating out from the middle of the circle, through the circle, and several hoofs past it.

“What… what does that mean?” Cheerilee asked, her voice wavering.

“I’m not sure,” Twilight answered. She looked out the window and saw her friends, the other Elements of Harmony, outside on the schoolyard. She walked over to the window, opening it with magic as she approached it, and called out. “Rainbow Dash!”

The cyan pegasus zoomed over to the window, and asked “Whatcha need, Twi?”

“Can you get me a camera?”

“Sure thing, I’ll be back in 10 seconds flat!” A rainbow contrail was left in her wake as she jetted away.

“Twilight, darling,” Rarity called as she and the other mares cantered over. “What is all this fuss about an emergency?”

Twilight sighed and looked at the fashionista, her eyes shining with sympathy. “In the middle of class, Sweetie Belle just… disappeared in a cloud of smoke,” she said as gently as she could.

“Oh come now, darling, surely you’re joking! That’s just preposterous. How could she have just… disappeared? And in a cloud of smoke, too!” Rarity chuckled nervously. “Next you’ll be telling me she’s secretly some kind of ninja pony.”

“Rarity, I’m not joking. Cheerilee saw the whole thing.”

“But… but… well, are you sure she didn’t just… accidentally teleport or anything?” Rarity bargained. “After all, when a young unicorn starts learning to access her magic, like Sweetie Belle is, sometimes strange magical accidents happen…”

“As far as I can tell, it wasn’t unicorn magic that caused it,” Twilight said. “Whatever it was, it left some kind of residue that one of my spells revealed. That’s why I sent Rainbow Dash to get me a camera.”

“Here you go, Twilight,” Rainbow said as she slid to a stop next to the window, her words slurred by the camera’s strap she was holding in her mouth.

“Speak of the devil…” Twilight muttered under her breath as she floated the camera into the classroom.

“Well,” Rarity huffed, “if it wasn’t unicorn magic, what kind of magic was it?”

“I… don’t know,” Twilight admitted as she positioned the camera to take a picture of the strange glowing circle thing.

“How could you not know, Twilight!” Rarity accused. “You’re Princess Celestia’s ‘personal student’” Rarity mocked, her cheeks flushed with anger.

“That’s just it, Rarity, I’m a student.” Twilight halfheartedly glared at her friend. “It’s not like I know everything there is to know about all types of magic.”

Twilight sighed, her eyes softening. “I know you’re going through a hard time, Rarity, but trust me when I say that I will figure out what happened to Sweetie Belle, and we will get her back. I promise.”

Rarity’s eyes were moist with unshed tears. She sniffled a little bit and ducked her head. “Yes,” she murmered, “yes, of course we will.”

“There there,” Fluttershy crooned gently as she nuzzled her dear friend. “I’m sure everything will be fine. You’ve got to be strong now, for Sweetie Belle.”

“Of course, darling,” Rarity weakly smiled at the yellow pegasus. “Ugh, these tears are going to make my eyes all red and puffy and it will totally clash with my coat,” she somewhat lightheartedly complained. Fluttershy smiled back at her and continued to whisper reassurance in her friend’s ear.

Off to the side, Rainbow Dash was standing next to Applejack, the two conversing in hushed but furious whispers.

“Say, where do you think Pinkie Pie ran off to?” Rainbow asked.

“She said somethin’ ‘bout playin’ with the schoolfoals,” Applejack said, jerking her head towards the playground. “T’ keep ‘em busy an’ outta the way.”

“So, what’re we gonna do when Twilight figures out who took Sweetie Belle?” Rainbow asked her friend.

“Ah reckon we’ll confront it,” Applejack growled, “an’ teach it just why foalnappin’s a bad idea,”

“Heh… I bet I could take it down faster than you could,” Rainbow smirked at her friend. “In fact, I bet I’ll take it down so fast you won’t get even one buck in.”

“That so?” Applejack smirked back at her. “I suppose we’ll just see about that, now won’t we, sugercube.”

“Limit break!” Sweetie Belle shouted as she reared up on her hind legs and waved her forelegs around in what was supposed to be an intimidating manner. She suddenly leaped at Naruto, who had long since dispelled the transformation and was back in his usual form.

“Counter cross!” he yelled back at her as he grabbed her around the middle and –gently, mind you- sent her into a tumble across the forest floor. Sweetie Belle lay there, panting, after she came to a stop and slammed a hoof into the ground.

“No fair,” she complained. “You’re so much bigger and stronger, I can’t beat you.”

“Hey, I’m a super awesome ninja, even if you were as big and strong as me, I’d still win,” Naruto bragged.

“Nuh uh!” She countered, eloquently.

“Yeah huh!” He respectfully disagreed.

“Nuh uh!”

“Yeah huh!”

“Nuh uh!”

“Yeah huh!”

“Nuh uh!”

“Yeah huh!”

“Fine,” Sweetie Belle growled. “But I bet if I had an ally or two, we’d be able to win.”

“You think so?” Naruto taunted her.

“Definitely!” She replied. Suddenly, she had an epiphany. “Hey, why don’t you do that summon-thingy and bring my friend Scootaloo here! She’d team up with me and we’d totally win!”

“Hey, that’s a great idea!” Naruto grinned at her. “Alright, watch and be amazed!”

Naruto bit his thumb and quickly spread the blood to all of his fingertips, flashed through the handseals, and slammed his palm on the ground. “Summoning Jutsu: Scootaloo!”

The cloud of smoke slowly dissipated as Naruto and Sweetie Belle waited with bated breath. As soon as Sweetie could see the figure obscured by the smoke clearly enough to make out the dull bronze coat and purpleish mane of her friend, she called out “Scootaloo! Hey! C’mon, let’s play!”

“Wha… Sweetie Belle?” the little pegasus filly asked in confusion. “What’re you doing here? Where are we? What’s going on?”

“My new friend Naruto Summoned us here, and we’re in the forest outside his home village. But that’s not important right now,” Sweetie Belle babbled, excitedly. “Wanna play ninja with us?”

“Us?”

“Yeah… OH!” Sweetie began tugging her fellow pony over to where Naruto was standing. “I need to introduce you! Naruto, this is Scootaloo, my best friend. Scootaloo, this is my new friend Naruto. He’s a ninja and can do some amazing ninja magic and is a lot of fun!”

Scootaloo looked up at the orange and blue clad, blonde haired, furless ape-like creature, and her eyes widened and jaw dropped.

“W-w-what is that thing!” she shouted, pointing a hoof.

“Oh, he’s a human…” Sweetie said. “It’s ok, though, he’s really friendly!”

“You sure?” Scootaloo asked, skeptically.

“Positive.”

“Well…” Scootaloo paused. “If you say he’s cool, then he’s cool.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Scootaloo,” Naruto said as he crouched down to the little filly’s height. “We were playing ninja, but Sweetie was complaining about how it was too hard to beat me, so I summoned you here so you could help her out!”

“Ninja, huh… Sounds like fun. I’m in!” Scootaloo exclaimed. “Uh… how do you play it?”

“Well, you see…”

“Ooh, a scene change!”

Pinkie Pie was having the time of her life. She’d convinced most of the schoolfoals to participate in the largest game of hide n’ seek that she’d ever played! The bright smiles and joyous laughter was music to Pinkie’s ears, especially after how worried and scared they’d been earlier.

She bounced along humming a little tune to herself; she’s already flushed out a half-dozen hiding foals and chased them back to base, purposely letting them stay just barely a step ahead of her. It was so much fun she could barely stop giggling long enough to hum an infectious tune! Of course, the reason why she was humming was so that it would get stuck in the author’s head for the next few days, but that was only because he was a meanie-beany-grumpy pants who complained too much, and he really needed to smile more. Besides, it would keep his mind on the ponies, and he’d be able to write more!

… dammit, Pinkie. -_-;;

From the corner of her eye, Pinkie spotted a purpleish tail trailing out from under a bush. Pinkie, wanting to have a little more fun with this one than the others, said “Now where oh where could that little silly filly be?”

The bush rustled slightly and the tail retracted into the bush.

“Now, is she over here? Nope. How about under that rock! Nope. Maybe…” Pinkie made her hoofsteps as loud as she could as she walked over to the bush. “Is she under this bush?”

The pink pony shoved her forehooves into the bush and shoved the branches out of the way, only to find a slowly dissipating cloud of smoke.

“Ooo, she’s gooooood…”

(A/N) Meanwhile, in the Fortress of Solitude, Aquaman makes himself a sandwich because he's too useless to do anything else!

"Hey, you know what would go great with this sandwich? Sardines..." moom moom moom moom moom

... dammit, Pinkie. Y U Do Dat to meh?. -_-;;