My Little Pony, Naruto 1. Chapter 1

_**HELLO! THIS IS SEVENTHHARMONY AND WELCOME TO MY VERY FIRST FANFICTION! THIS IS A NARUTO/MLP-FIM CROSSOVER. WARNING!1! ALL CHARACTERS IN EQUESTRIA ARE ANTHROMORPHIC! NOW ENOUGH WHINING, MORE READING!**_

"ninpou: daidouka no jutsu!" Naruto faintly heard the lone shout across the battlefield. the voice of said shout belonged to a certain Madara uchiha, the madman whose insane scheme of peace shattered the lives of many people. he planned the assassinations of leaders, the destruction of entire villages and a complete genocide if neccesary for his plans.

the five great elemental nations launched one massive assault on the madman and his last two companions. this was however easier said then done, as Obito was a full fledged uchiha with one implanted rinnegan and the corpses of the six dead jinchuuriki as puppets, and Zetsu not only had the ability to create thousands of solid living copies of himself, but also had the legendary mokuton abilities of the shodai hokage. needless to say that even when the allied shinobi forces outnumbered the remnants of the akatsuki, 25.000 to 1, the ancient shinobi proved that quality always prevailed over quantity by flinging mass destruction jutsu around like it was nothing. it turned even worse for the shinobi allies when Obito managed to revive the juubi with pieces that he gathered from the hachibi and the kyuubi. Madara's immortal edo tensei body proved to be a bitch since everytime someone managed to inflict a lethal wound on the old warmonger, it would simply regenerate within seconds. the combination of Zetsu's massive-scale wood jutsu, Obito's rinnegan jutsu and Madara's susano'o quickly decimated the entire army and soon only the most resilient remained standing. it was then that Madara jumped on top of the juubi's head and called out to the hundred or so surviving shinobi.

"I commend you for surviving this long against me and my associates. the mere fact that you are standing in front of me, means that you all have excepional skill. skill that will surely help me in my cause." he finished with a dark smirk plastered across his face. Zetsu folded his hands into the serpent sign and called out. "mokuton: shinjukai kotan!"

an absolutely humongous amount of roots erupted from the ground around the survivors that mowed their way to the center, trapping Naruto and the other survivors. vines started to surround them, and sapped them from a great part of their chakra, rendering all attempts to escape useless. the vines constricted, creating human shaped cocoons with the shinobi trapped inside. Madara's smirk got even wider as he went through a long series of hand seals and stopped at the dragon sign. "your knowledge, chakra and powers will be mine."

"ninpou: daidouka no jutsu!" he called, and one vine attached itself to him, Zetsu and Obito. one by one, the cocoons started to deflate as the people trapped inside were absorbed inside the three superhuman shinobi. Naruto felt his own conciousness fade as he saw his body break down into the paper-like substance that existed inside an edo tensei body.

_'will it truly end like this?' _he thought as his legs disappeared and parts of his stomach got tainted._ 'the war. the training I went through. the bonds I created. were the truly all for nothing?' _he began to question to himself. he had lost Kurama a few hours prior to the assimilation due to Obito's soul-separating abilities. his friends were all dead due to Zetsu's mokuton and he couldn't feel either Gaara's or Sasuke's chakra anymore. meaning that the two of them have already been assimilated into Madara. as Naruto's arms and torso broke down, and the jutsu began to affect his head, he began to see flashes of memories. his childhood, his rivalry with Sasuke, the team excercises with Kakashi and team 7, old man sandaime hokage, his fight with Gaara, losing Sasuke, training with Jiraiya, his fights with the several akatsuki members, battling Nagato, granny Tsunade, Hinata's confession, Killer Bee's training and finally his parents. he could see both his parents standing in front of him inside the white room inside his seal. his mother, with her brilliant red hair and stunning violet eyes, smiling, and his father with his spiky blond hair and his cerulean eyes, grinning like an idiot. the two held a small bundle between them. the bundle was a blonde baby with wisker marks. the two adults smiled at it, before his vision turned to black. only a third of his head was now left. one eye, and the surrounding skin that was still falling apart.

the eye closed.

_'no...'_

the eye opened again, showing an orange pupil with a vertical slit and the flow of chakra going out of his cocoon stopped before reversing, pulling it back in.

_'I refuse to die here...'_

the breakdown of his body reversed too. first his head reformed, then his neck, and slofly his shoulders and torso returned too.

_'I FUCKING REFUSE TO DIE LIKE THIS!' _he roared in his mind as he began to pull the chakra from the web of vines towards him.

outside, Madara felt that something was wrong. Obito and Zetsu felt it too, but before they could pull the vines loose, their bodies started to disintegrate like the ones inside the cocoons. they screamed in agony as the two S-clas nin could feel their chakra getting ripped away.

"it's that little uzumaki shit!" Zetsu roared as he tried to pry the vines out of his back. Obito panicked and started to run through hand signs. suddenly, he began to spasm as the breakdown of his body accelerated. within seconds, he was sucked into the vines. dead before he could even scream. Zetsu was already half gone when he crawled over to Madara.

"Madara-sama! help me, please!" he begged the ancient shinobi. Madara simply looked down as he raised his leg, and kicked Zetsu in the face, crushing his skull and killing him instantly. Zetsu's body got sucked into the vines and Madara grinned. he raised his left hand and saw that his little finger and ring finger had already vanished.

"you truly are full of suprises huh uzumaki? very well. I know when I am defeated, however I shall not go down without leaving you a little present. he lifted his right hand up into the sky and made a half ram sign. underneath him the eye of the juubi lit up, and the incarnation of destruction was awakened from it's mindless state. the ground shook and the trees got uprooted as it roared. the shockwave of the roar shattered Madara's edo tensei body. the body dispersed and the vines sucked the chakra out of every part. the vines retracted back into the forest as the daidouka jutsu wore off. the juubi, for what seemed like hours, stood quietly staring at the artificial forest as the chakra levels inside started to rise to a level that rivaled it's own.

a shockwave erupted from the middle of the forest. the trees ripped away in a circular way as a monstrous tornado formed around a figure in the middle. the figure was no-one less then Naruto uzumaki himself. his shirt was torn away, and black seal-like lines were spread out across his chest and arms. his eyes were an orang tint, his hair red and long. it was spiky with one bang crossing his right eye like Madara had. he was pale. his pants were orange and torn around the edges. he was barefoot as his sandals were ripped away when the trees attacked. the juubi roared as it raised it's hand and brought it down, aiming to crush the human in front of it. Naruto raised his own hand and waited until the last moment. when the hand was almost touching his, he roared "fuuton: reppusho!"

a wave of violent winds shot out of his palm, and deflected that of the juubi, throwing the great beast off balance and onto it's back. Naruto jumped up, before flipping through hand signs. he made a pushing motion as a pure white chakra gathered in front of him and with a roar of "hakureiki no jutsu!" a white dragon holding a purple orb shot at the beast's face, before exploding in a dome of white light and an extremely high pitched screeching sound, both blinding and deafening the great demon.

"the rikudou sennin might have had trouble with you, but he only had the very beginnings of ninjutsu. he had the raw power, but he lacked the refinement we have today." he mumbled as he calmly walked up to the beast. he folded his hands into the serpent seal and called out "mokuton: jukai kotan."

massive roots erupted from the ground before restricting the beast's limbs and tails. Naruto jumped on top of the beast's stomach, before charging a rasenshuriken. he jumped up with chakra enhancing his legs, firing him into the air like a missile. at the peak of his jump, he purposely overloaded his rasenshuriken. the wind blades grew to frightening lengths and the core grew to the size of a chou oodama rasengan. he cocked back his arm and with a roar of "fuuton: chou oodama rasenshuriken!" he threw the wind shuriken, not caring that he was still inside the blast radius. in fact, as he threw it he smiled one of his few genuine smiles. the shuriken made contact with the beast's belly before collapsing into itself. for a single moment everything stopped. there was no wind, no sound, no movement. even the rasenshuriken seemed so small that it was about to vanish into thin air. Naruto's smile turned into a nasty smirk.

"boom." he whispered just before all hell broke loose. the rasenshuriken expanded into a massive dome of violent gales. wind blades ripped into both Naruto and the juubi. Naruto laughed like a madman as the juubi screamed in agony. the microscopic wind blades cut into it's body, shredding it's chakra and dispersing it into the air. Naruto's body kept falling apart, however due to Madara's edo-tensei body as soon as it fell apart, it regenerated, keeping Naruto alive. after what seemed like an eternity, the wind subsided and all that was left of the battlefield was one single crater. the juubi's chakra was now nothing more then a red mist. Naruto crash-landed in the middle of the crater. the lines lining his chest and arms lit up as he slammed both of his palms onto the ground. the lines crawled off of him into the ground, forming an intricate sealing matrix.

"gotta hand it to Madara. he was an ass, but god damn did he know his fuuinjutsu." he concentrated on the red mist that was already slowly reforming back into a solid body. he grabbed the mist with his own chakra as he called out " Idaina chikyū no kyūshū gyōretsu: FUIN!" the mist swirled slowly at first, but gradually it picked up speed. Naruto carved a swirl into the center of the sealing matrix and as soon as he linked the juubi's chakra to it, the chakra got sucked into the earth like a vacuum. the sealing matrix glowed a bright red as the mist vanished. then the last of the red mist was sucked in, Naruto slashed the stone containing the swirl in half, effectively destroying the activation key of the seal. the sealing matrix turned blue, before disappearing completely. Naruto sighed as he stood up.

"as your chakra originated from the earth, your chakra shall return to the earth. farewell... shinju." he used a small doton jutsu to seal up the crater and began carving the names of his fallen friends into several stones.

(two years later)

Naruto sat crosslegged deep inside a cave. in front of him stood a giant scroll with a massive, detailed sealing matrix. in his right hand he held a brush. with quick and precise strokes he added the finishing touches to his seal. he put his brush down and smiled as he observed his handiwork. he inspected every stroke, dot and line on the seal with extreme care.

"perfect." he said to himself as he laid the scroll down. he stood up and stretched his back with a yawn. he stepped into the center of the scroll and put his hands in a rat sign while he channeled chakra into the seal through his feet. "I guess it's time to say goodbye to this world. it's been fun, but it's time that I actually start living from now on. I just hope that the next world will be a peaceful one." he shrugged as the seal began to light up. "sunpo umarekawari fuin." he grinned as his body began to fall apart into edo tensei shreds and his soul got sucked into the seal before everything turned black.

when he woke up, the first thing he noticed was that he was covered in grey fur. he was covered in red blankets and... small.

_'oh you've got to be fucking with me.' _he thought in annoyance as he realised that he had been reverted to a baby. he looked up, and could see that he lied in front of a door. he turned around, only to see trees. as far as he could see, there were trees. it was getting dark, and he could see in the sky that it was going to rain soon so he did the one thing he could in his current body.

he cried.

he let out the most heart wrenching cry a baby could make and squeezed some tears out. soon he could hear a deep voice behind the door speaking with a lighter voice before the door opened. in front of him stood what looked like an anthromorphic horse. he had a yellow coat with a hite muzzle and a deep red mane. his eyes were brown and he had some sort of wooden cup-like mark on the side of his leg. he wore a woodcutter's shirt and a stetson hat. his legs were horse-like, meaning that they ended in hooves, while his arms were just like a furry human's, meaning that they ended in hands, with fingers. he bowed down and carefully lifted Naruto's small frame up.

"hello there li'l one. who're you?" he asked in a deep bass-like voice with a southern accent. both the baby and the adult then noticed a small piece of paper attached to the back of his blanket. on it stood only one word, and one word alone.

'Maelstrom.'

"Maelstrom eh? that's a mighty strong name ya got there, kid." he hummed, smiling.

"what was that Cider?" a sweet feminine voice rang from behind the adult stallion and the now named Cider turned around to the voice. behind him stood a red coated mare. her mane was dark blonde and her eyes were a bright apple green. she wore a white sundress and a pink bow in her braided mane. the sundress flowed freely and Naruto could see a large bump on her stomach. "it's a baby." he said to the mare. a tick mark on the side of her muzzle formed and she bumped his head fith a fist. "no shit sherlock!" she exclaimed. "what's it doing here?" she asked while holding her own belly. he shrugged.

"this li'l one just lied in front of our door with this note attached to his blanket. it says Maelstrom so I guess that's his name." he explained to her. she pulled the blanket aside, revealing his face and a small horn potruded from his head, revealing that he was an unicorn. Naruto, or as he was now named, Maelstrom yawned cutely. the foal shut its eyes and snuggled into Cider's arm, making both adults gush a little bit.

"Peachy, we can't let him out there. we both know just how bad that orphanage is in canterlot and we have enough space on the farm anyway." Cider began while his wife stared at him.

"hard Cider. are you suggesting that we should take a foal into our household while I'm eight months pregnant?" she asked him blankly. Cider smiled at her while rubbing her bump with one free hand.

"why not? looking at this li'l one's age, I guess he's about seven months old. I think he'll make a mighty fine older brother for our li'l Macintosh. we can get Granny Smith to help us with them and when he grows up he can help us out in the orchard. come on Peachy Pie, if we send li'l maelstrom to the orphanage, he won't have a childhood at all." he reasoned with his wife. she contemplated his words and had to agree that he had a point. she looked at the sleeping foal in her husband's arm and sighed deeply.

_'Celestia damn those maternal instincts.' _she growled in her head. "fine. we'll adopt li'l maelstrom. but only because he's so damn cute." she relented and Cider suppressed the urge to cheer.

the two put Maelstrom in the crib they had bought for Macintosh and quietly closed the door.

if only they knew what this little foal would mean to equestria in the future.

_ninpou: daidouka no jutsu: ninja art: great assimilation technique._

_mokuton: shinjukai kotan: wood release: divine forest emergence._

_fuuton: reppusho: wind release: gale palm._

_hakureiki no jutsu: extreme white attack._

_mokuton: jukai kotan: wood release: deep forest emergence._

_fuuton: chou oodama rasenshuriken: wind release: massive bigball spiraling shuriken._

_Idaina chikyū no kyūshū gyōretsu__ fuin: great earth absorption seal._

_sunpo umarekawari fuin: dimension reïncarnation seal._

_**A/N: THAT'S IT! THE FIRST CHAPTER OF MY FIRST STORY. I HOPE YOU LIKE IT, AND I HOPE YOU'LL REVIEW. FIRST OFF: NO, NARUTO IS NOT GOING TO BE GODLIKE. HE LOST HIS EDO TENSEI BODY WHEN HE REÏNCARNATED HIMSELF, AND HE WILL ONLY BE ABLE TO USE SAND, FIRE AND WOOD TECHNIQUES ON A SMALL SCALE IN ADDITION TO REGULAR UNICORN MAGIC. HE'S NOT GOINT TO BE DARK, BROODY, EMO OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT AND THIS IS GOING TO BE A STRAIGHT PAIRING. NO HAREM.**_

_**BYE BYE!**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**heya everypony! this chapter will be a bit of an authors note. I will put up a poll about Maelstrom's future career choice. this will have a large influence on the story as a whole seeing as it will define his cutie mark, relations with family, friend groups and his additude towards stuff. I have three choices ready, and will be explaining those and the effects on the story in a minute. **_

_**also:**_

_**from this chapter on, every chapter will have a short about Maelstrom's childhood with the apple family. an omake if you will. I mean it would be a bit of a shame to just skip to halfway into his teenage years and leave a big plothole just to let the plot pick up. so some will be touching, some silly and some serious.**_

_career #1: royal guard._

_in this career, he'll become a member (or captain) of the royal guard. his cutie mark will become a shield with a green apple in the middle with two swords crossed behind it. his friend group will consist of several OC guards,Flash Sentry and Shining Armor. (of course by extention Cadance, Spike and Twilight too.) he'll have a friendly rivalry with Shining Armor, with the two constantly trying to one-up each other. he'll also have regular contact with Blueblood much to his displeasure. the relations with the Apple family will be good, but he won't always be around to help them out when needed since due to his job, he'll live in canterlot._

_career #2: musician._

_in this career choice, he'll be taught to play the guitar by hard Cider and form a band. his cutie mark will be a flaming blue guitar. his friends will become Vinyl Scratch, Octavia, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and the members of his band (which will also be OC's). Vinyl, he and Octavia will constantly bicker which music style is better: techno, classical or hardrock. he'll live on his own in ponyville but he'll help out on sweet apple acres regularly, giving him a very good relationship with his family. he'll also, either regularly get pulled into Pinkie's misadventures, or go on a pranking spree with RD just for shits and giggles._

_career #3: professional magician._

_with this, he'll be like Trixie in a sense. performing magic tricks for audiences in his free time, while helping the younger generation unicorns develop their magical abilities. (think of Sweety Belle and Dinkie Doo.) his cutie mark will consist of a magic book with red stars flying off of it. unlike trixie, he won't brag about his magical ability and prefer to just sit down and either watch the chaos unfold, or grab a magic tome and read it. he'll become fast friends with Twilight due to her thirst for knowledge and Rarity due to him teaching Sweety Belle to control her magic. his relationship with the Apple family will be good, with him often helping them out in the orchard when he has some free time._

_**so yeah, those are the three career choices he'll get. do NOT put your choice into the reviews because I won't take those into account. the ONLY way you can choose is through the poll. I'll put the poll up today, and it will close on for one full week. meaning that on 13-07-2014 the poll will be closed, and I will immidiately start working on the next chapter. now without ado: the first omake!**_

omake #1: friendship is: making childish schemes.

both Maelstrom and 'big' Macintosh were now three years old and both young parents couldn't be happier. Maelstrom and Macintosh both turned out to be relatively quiet children. they got along just fine and shared almost everything and both of them, especially Maelstrom, turned out to be quite intelligent toddlers. a little too intelligent sometimes. hard Cider sometimes had a hard time to keep his eye on both foals as they often seemed to work together to get what they wanted. sometimes Macintosh would try to make a conversation with his father (which is quite hard since he mostly spoke in one word scentences), while Maelstrom would sneak into the kitchen and grab a couple of applefritters, or Maelstrom would perform a small magic trick (usually just making things fly randomly or conjuring sparks from his horn) while Macintosh would run outside to go 'adventuring' in the orchard, only to be dragged back by a very amused Granny Smith.

"mommy? daddy?" Maelstrom ran up to his father with an 'innocent' smile on his face. Cider and Peachy both stopped bucking the trees and turned to see their eldest child.

"yes sweety?" Peachy asked with a pleasant smile on her muzzle while Cider wiped the sweat off his brows.

"why do you kick those trees?" he asked innocently.

"to get to the apples, dear." Peachy answered.

"why?" he asked again.

" to gather an' sell 'em." Cider answered for his wife.

"why?"

"to gather money."

"why?"

"so we can buy you food and clothes sweety."

"why?"

"so y'all can stay healthy." Cider grunted curtly, getting more then a little bit irritated by now.

"why?"

"so you can both grow up big and really strong."

"why?" by now Granny Smith was silently snickering in the background while hard Cider was desperately trying not to eat his own hat out of frustration. let it be known that hard Cider was never a patient pony. Peachy tried to keep smiling as she kept answering his questions.

"so that you can- wait a minute-" she narrowed her eyes in realisation. " BIG MACINTOSH, IF I CATCH YOU NICKIN' APPLEFRITTERS AGAIN, YOUR ASS IS GRASS!" she suddenly roared as she turned towards the farmhouse. her roar also drew Cider's attention as he too, turned his head to the farm. big mistake on their part because as soon as they turned around, little Maelstrom started sprinting towards the barn like the timberwolfes were hot on his hooves with Macintosh right behind him.

"Maelstrom!" both parents roared at their sons retreating forms while Granny Smith was by now rolling on the floor in laughter.

"tactical retreat!"

"eeyup!"


	3. Chapter 3

_**hiya everypony! I'm sorry it took a wjile but you know what happens when you try to maintain a school career. anyway, here's the next chapter. I noticed that an awful lot of people wanted Maelstrom to either be a musician, or a sentry guard. in fact: the votes were tied so I had to make a few compromises in my story plans to make it work. I've put the two together, sort of and plan to build up to use both career idea's in a good way. how? you'll see. now ONWARDS TO THE CHAPTER!**_

a loud knocking could be heard from Maelstrom's front door. the anthromorphic pony in question groaned and checked his alarm clock.

"it's five in the fucking mornin'. someone had better be dead or someone's gonna be dead soon." he grumbled as he pulled on some pants.

in the twenty-four years that he had been living in equestria he has been adjusting pretty well to the quiet peaceful life with the apple family. as children both he and big mac often helped hard cider in the fields, causing both of them to become prime examples of healthy muscular stallions without looking like weight lifters like bulk biceps. he decided to let his hair grow out a bit and just let it hang, much to the neverending irritation of his sister's fashionista friend Rarity.

he opened the door with a deep scowl on his face, his horn glowing red and his guitar in his hands poised to smash the knocking pony's face in. in front of him stood a pink coated, poofy raspberry maned mare with big blue eyes and a huge smile on her face. she wore a white T-shirt with three balloons printed on the front, with a pair of jean shorts. the one knocking was no-one else but Pinkie Pie. he sent her a glare with a twitching eye but lowered his guitar anyway. he knew from personal experience that if Pinkie wanted to get in, she would get in one way or another. trying to brush Pinkie off would just end up in a major headache.

"oh, it's you Pinkie. c'mon in." Maelstrom told the younger mare who smiled brightly. Maelstrom put the partypony on his couch, before handing her a cup of iced tea. he sat down on one of the chairs around his dining table and stuffed some tobacco into a long, thin pipe. he lit it, before calmly taking a drag as the smell of burning tobacco filled the room. "why are you knocking on my front door on this ungodly hour?" he asked the mare after exhaling some smoke. Pinkie took a sip and grinned brightly. "Mayor mare told me that you have to give the representative from canterlot a tour of the village tomorrow for the summer sun celebration. isn't that neat? isn't it? huh? huh?" she rattled on while Maelstrom pinched the bridge of his nose.

"an' pray tell: _why_ didn't you tell me that _yesterday_?" he ground out in irritation. honestly, he adored Pinkie Pie, but sometimes the hyperactive mare gave him the violent urge to shove a whole bottle of ritalin down her throat. Pinkie giggled lightheartedly before shrugging.

"I forgot." Maelstrom sighed in exhasperation as he hung his head. "what time." he asked lamely while Pinkie scratched her muzzle.

"noon. at the plaza in front of the library. that's what the Mayor said." she said excidedly before putting the cup down and bouncing towards the front door. "I gotta go! I also forot to tell Rarity that she was in charge of decorations tomorrow so I've got to go tell her now!" Maelstrom sweatdropped again at the thought of the purple maned pony being awakened from her beauty sleep as he ushered her out of his house.

"you go tell Rarity then. in the meantime I'm going back to bed to catch some z's." she nodded excidedly and bounced off. Maelstrom slammed the door before putting his pipe down and crawling back into bed. he smiled lightly as sleep claimed him again.

a few hours later Maelstrom walked down the main road towards the library. his outfit consisted of a pair of ripped jeans and a simple red T-shirt. his cutie mark, consisting of a flaming blue guitar, was present on his left sleeve and a black guitar case covered in stickers strapped to his back. he was sipping on a white mug filled with black coffee. on the mug were three black lines. one near the top, one in the middle and one near the bottom. beside each linestood a simple text. on the first line:_** don't even try to talk! **_on the middle: _**talk slowly. **_and on the final line stood: _**conversation now possible, sarcasm may be present.**_ as he arrived, he checked the clock in the distance.

"11:58. hm, must be one of those punctual types from the royal court I've heard of." he sat down and downed the rest of his mug and put it in a side pocket of his case before seeing a golden carriage that was being pulled by two snow white pegasi in golden armor land in front of him. a young unicorn mare stepped out alongside a small dragon. the mare had a light purple coat and a deep purple mane and tail. in the middle of her mane/tail, a lighter purple and a pink stripe were highlighted. she wore a white blouse under a purple blazer and a thigh-length purple skirt with her cutie mark, a pink star surrounded by six white stars, visible on the side. the dragon was a royal purple colour with green spines and a green belly.

"thank you gentlemen." the mare said to the two pegasi, who saluted back and flew off." both started looking around and the mare looked at the clock.

"we were supposed to meet up with one of the locals to help us with the inspections for the summer sun celebrations at noon. where do you think he is?" she asked the dragon, who shrugged in response. "dunno Twilight, let's ask that pony over there if he knows." he suggested while pointing at Maelstrom. the now named Twilight nodded before walking over to him.

"umm, excuse me. do you know who was supposed to meet us here?" she smiled at him as he stood up and stuck out his hand, which she accepted. "the name's Maelstrom. I'll be your guide today here in Ponyville, miss...?" he grinned. "my name is Twilight Sparkle and the dragon over there is my assistant Spike. I am princess celestia's student and I was appointed to inspect the preparations for the summer sun celebrations." she responded with no little pride. Maelstrom lifted the guitar case on his back with a huff and motioned for the two to follow him. "first we'll go and see how the food is coming along alright?" he smiled as he started to move down the main road.

"so mister Maelstrom... what is it that you do here in Ponyville? your name rings a bell, but I can't recall where I heard it before." Spike asked while walking along the two unicorns. Maelstrom chuckled a little bit before tapping with his knuckle on the case on his back. "first off Spike, you can call me Maelstrom or Mael, bein' called 'mister' Maelstrom makes me feel old. second off, I'm a musician. I play the guitar an' perform the vocals in a band that me an' three friends formed a while back. that's only a night job though, during the day I'm either at work managing the 'keytone' music shop, or I work at Sweet Apple Acres with my siblings. now about you hearing my name before; that's quite possible. I've done a few gigs here an' there in canterlot an' manehattan so perhaps that's why." the three talked for a bit when they suddenly crossed paths with Pinkie who was bouncing around like always. Twilight tried to start a conversation with her but Pinkie just gasped very loud before sprinting off in a speed that would impress a certain blue coated pegasus he knew.

"don't worry too much about that, it's Pinkie Pie. she does random stuff like that all the time. let'smove on shall we?" he asked, waiting for Twilight to nod. the three turned right onto a dirt path into a forest of apple trees. Maelstrom began to smile when they heard a faint *twack* coming from behind a few trees. he motioned for his company to follow him until they arrived on a small clearing where they could see an orange coated mare high-kicking an apple tree. the kick sent the apples into cleverly placed baskets on the ground.

"hohoo, nice kick Applejack." Maelstrom said while stroking the fur under his chin like a beard. the mare turned around. her coat was a light orange while her mane and tail were light blonde. the had deep green eyes and freckle like markings under her eyes. she wore a checkered blouse and a pair of simple jeans with hard cider's old stetson hat on top of her head. her grin got bigger as she fist-bumped Maelstrom.

"howdy there Mael, how've you been?" she asked him as she picked an apple frrom the basked and tossed it over to him. he caught it in one hand and pointed over his shoulder with the other one. "been pretty good, busy as hell in the shop but I guess that's a good thing. Mayor mare asked me to tour these two representatives from canterlot around town. help 'em with inspections for the summer sun celebrations and stuff." he said offhandedly before taking a bite out of the apple. Applejack moved past her brother and stuck her hand out to Twilight which she accepted.

"hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle and this is Spike, we're-" Twilight managed to say before AJ shook her hand so hard that Twilight was literally getting flailed around.

"well howdy there Twilight, nice meetin' ya. we always love meeting new friends here at sweet apple acres. so you here to inspect the buffet?" she spoke excidedly. Maelstrom tapped her shoulder drawing her attention and he pointed at Twilight, who was now looking incredibly dizzy. "I don't think that these city folks are used to your handshakes AJ, calm down before you kill the poor mare." he said with a slight chuckle. suddenly he twitched with his ear as he heard a faint rumbling. the rumbling quickly became louder and as he remembered what day it was for the apple family he levitated himself into the tree before yelling at the top of his lungs.

"REDNECK STAMPEDE!"

AJ took a step back and Twilight stared strangely at the two before getting literally run over by a large group of ponies that were running towards the massive red barn. a few moments later Twilight stood back up with a bewildered expression etched on her face.

"what the hay was that?" she exclaimed. only to sweatdrop when both siblings responded with "our family". she and Spike followed the two Ponyville natives to the red barn where Maelstrom took a seat next to a little yellow coated filly and a large, muscular, red coated stallion. "soup's on everypony!" Applejack called out as she put her arm around both Twilight and Spike's necks and grinned.

"lemme introduce you to our family: Apple Cobbler, Apple Fritter, Apple Bumpkin, Red Gala, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Caramel Apple, Apple Strudel, Apple Tart, Baked Apples, Apple Brioche, Apple Cinnamon Crisp." she pointed at the yellow coated filly " my little sister, Applebloom" she poited at the red coated stallion "my other brother, Big Macintosh" she finally pointed at an old lime green coated mare sitting asleep in a rocking chair "and Granny Smith... up and at 'em Granny Smith, soup's on!"

the old mare woke up with a jolt before waddling over to the tables. "wha was that? soup's on?" she mumbled to Applejack who nodded. Applejack quickly set the table with massive amounts of apple related food, making Spike drool and Twilight grin.

"well, it seems that the food is in order so come on Maelstrom, we have a lot to do." she stated before looking down to see the filly in a cute blue sundress and a pink bow in her red mane making huge puppy eyes at her.

"aren't you gonna eat anythin' with us?" she asked innocently. Twilight tried to resist, but eventually relented with a groan and a cheer from Spike. she sat down and took an applefritter from the plate.

"a few bites can't hurt I guess."

two hours later.

"too... much... applepies..." Twilight groaned while walking down the dirt path with Spike and Maelstrom.

"blasphemy!" Maelstrom suddenly yelled. "one does not simply eat 'too much' of granny smith's applepies. there's no such thing." Twilight and Spike nodded simultaneously in fear of what the large stallion could do with that guitar case.

"oookay. anyway next one on the list is the weather which is supposed to be managed by someone called rainbow Dash." Spike read up from the list. Maelstrom perked up by the mention of the name and grinned. "well, whoever this rainbow Dash is, she's not doing a very good job." Twilight noted as she gazed at the sky, which was indeed filled with clouds. Mael's grin grew even more when he heard the familliar 'zoof' of his friend getting louder. he stepped back a bit and began counting backwards in his head.

_'three, two, one, aaand.'_

as if on cue, Twilight got smashed into a nearby puddle of mud by a rainbow coloured projectile. said projectile started laughing painfullly as she stood back up. the projectile was a blue coated pegasus mare with a rainbow coloured mane and tail. she wore a fake leather bomber jacket with two holes in the back to give her large wings freedom and dark green pants. the mare had violet coloured eyes and a silver necklace in the shape of a cloud with a thunderbolt shooting out of it.

"you were talking about my awesomeness?" she asked with a smug smirk plastered on her muzzle as she pointed at herself with her thumb.

"rainbow Dash?" Twilight asked irritated and drenched in muddy water. seeing the soaked mare, RD began laughing even harder.

"ahahahah, s-sorry, I-its all my fault (snort) here lemme fix you up with my patented rain-blow-dry." before Twilight could respond, rainbow already took off and started to rapidly spin around Twilight, creating a rainbow coloured tornado. when she stopped spinning, she took a peek at the purple unicorn and fell into another fit of wild giggles. Twilight's mane was now dry, and poofy enough to remind Maelstrom of a certain pink partypony. Twilight's eye twitched violently before coughing in her hand.

"good day miss Dash. my name is Twilight Sparkle and this is my assistant Spike. we are here to inspect the preparations for the summer sun celebration. you were supposed to keep the air clear for tomorrow if I'm correct?" Twilight stated with a criticizing eye at the cloud ridden sky above Ponyville. RD noticed and laughed nervously. "yeah well I was practicing my routines to impress the wonderbolts. I'll get to that after I'm finished." Twilight's face turned into a smirk as she poked the pegasus in her right shoulder.

"ha! you mean the wonderbolts, as in 'equestria's flying champions' the wonderbolts? puh-lease! they would never accept someone who can't even keep the sky clear for a single day." Twilight's provoking awakened RD's competitive spirit as she took off. "just you watch; I'll have the sky clear of clouds in ten seconds flat!" Maelstrom fished a pocket watch from his pants and started counting. after a stunning show of efficiency and acrobatics the sky was as promised, cloud free. Maelstrom wistled lowly.

"nine point six seconds, dashie. a new record, congrats brat." the unicorn and the pegasus fistbumped. "am I impressive enough that you'll finally introduce me to Fleetfoot?" rainbow Dash asked excited and hopeful. said hope deflated as soon as the unicorn shook his head.

"sorry dashie. but I've told you already that you'll have to make your own contacts. I won't introduce you to her just to get into the wonderbolts. you have to work for your spot with 'em just like everyone else." rainbow Dash kicked a pebble to the side while grumbling. "it's not fair that you know her from highschool." Maelstrom simply reacted maturely by sticking out his tongue and pulling down his eyelid. when he was done with his childish bout he scratched his chin.

"by the way Dash. could you tell Cloudchaser to go get those other two morons an' help set up the stage at the party site? I'll be there to help as soon as I finish touring miss Twilight here around town." he asked before rainbow Dash nodded excidedly. "you're going to perform at Pinkie's party? then I just _know_ it'll be awesome! will octavia and vinyl be there too?" Maelstrom shook his head negatively.

"naw. tavi's got a big concert in canterlot in about a week an' she has to practice with the rest there, an' vinyl's got a huge rave in manehattan tonight. knowing her, she'll probably get drunk off her tits again so the soonest she'll be back is in about two days. anyway I gotta go, Spike is starting to get bored I think." he motioned to the purple dragon, who was drawing circles in the dirt with a stick. Dash nodded before taking off to find Cloudchaser and Maelstrom turned to the duo with an apologetic smile on his face.

"sorry about that, but knowing Cloudchaser she'll be flying around and rainbow Dash is one of the few pegasi able to go faster then her. so... let's carry on shall we?" Spike and Twilight nodded while the three walked towards a tall building that looked like a wooden tower.

the three walked into a large round, dimly-lit room filled with several colourful banners and baby blue ribbons across the balconies and saw a pure white coated unicorn mare with a royal purple mane and tail in an elegant curl. she wore a light purple blouse with black sleeves along with a black pinstripe knee-length skirt. on her nose she wore red rimmed glasses that accentuated her delicate facial figures and around her neck she had a measuring tape. her blue eyes were darting around as she looked back and forth between all kinds of coloured ribbons that floated around the room thanks to her levitation magic.

"oh no! absolutely not. perhaps a deep blue? no, light purple... oh heavens no." she quietly mumbled to herself.

Spike became completely still the very moment he saw her. a massive blush spread across his muzzle and he miraculously started floating as hearts appeared in his eyes and his smile turned into a stupid grin complete with drool. as soon as the change happened, he shook his head rapidly and returned to normal.

"beautiful." he sighed out while Twilight nodded. "indeed. the decorations look amazing so this should be quick. then we'll be in the library in no time at all." she responded while Maelstrom chuckled. "he doesn't mean the decorations Twilight, he means Rarity. don't worry; she has that effect on young men a lot." his chuckle turned into a fullblown laugh when Spike tried to pull his spines straight in a panic. "what about you?" Twilight asked Maelstrom with a smirk as his laughter finally died down to a chuckle. he raised an eyebrow at the purple mare. "nah. she's a pretty one, but she's not my type y'know? someone like ma used to be. someone who's not afraid to knock some sense into me. that's the kinda girls I'm interested in. plus Applejack would kick my ass six times 'round the orchard if I'd even think of dating a close friend of hers."

Twilight shrugged with a chuckle while she walked up to the white unicorn.

"hello, my name is-" she began but was cut off when Rarity raised her hand. "one moment please, I'm in the zone as right now." her eyes squinted as she held a large red ribbon in front of her. "ah! perfect." she tied the ribbon to a pillar letting a few glitters fall to the ground. "glitters always do the trick don't they?" she asked herself before smiling with pride. "why Rarity, you _are_ a talent." she said to herself and turned around to greet Twilight. "now, how can I help yoooouuuuuu" she turned the last word in a massive gasp as she saw the poofed up mess that was Twilight's mane. "oh my stars! whatever happened to your coiffure!?" she asked in shock. Twilight looked up and plucked at her mane. "oh, you mean my mane? that's a long story so I'll just check up on your preparations and I'll be out of your hair." she said with a pleasant smile.

"my hair?! but darling what about yours?!" Rarity nearly screamed out. "this won't do! not at all!" she exclaimed before dragging a confused Twilight into her dress room. Maelstrom pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "here she goes again." he muttered before following the two mares with Spike floating right behind him.

the scene he was met with was, in all honesty, incredibly amusing. Rarity was dressing her in all sorts of dresses while constantly making comments ranging from "too red." to "not red enough". it got a bit awkward when Rarity begun tightening a sapphire encrusted corset around Twilight's middle. after Twilight tried to -yet again- explain that she was sent from canterlot to check up on the preparations, Rarity went back into her own little world of the glitter and glamour that was known as canterlot. Maelstrom quickly ushered the purple mare and the lovestruck dragon out of the building while Rarity was still distracted. after closing the door, he wiped his brow.

"phew. well, Rarity's gonna be busy fantasizing about canterlot for a short while now. by the time she realizes we're gone, we'll be at our next destination. next stop: music."

Twilight looked oddly at Maelstrom, who answered her unasked question.

"it ain't me. I'm not the type you want playin' on a royal visit. I'm the kind of guy that plays the guitar while drinking from a bottle of scotch an' smoking from a pipe. the one in charge for the music tomorrow lives on the edge of the everfree forest. li'l piece of advice though: don't make loud noises. the poor mare gets startled extremely easily."

"but are we going to see your shop anyway?" Spike asked excidedly, before Twilight sternly shook her head.

"sorry Spike, but we have a few things to do after checking up on the preparations. remember?" Spike visibly deflated at that, but nodded regardless. "yeah okay... maybe some other time then."

the three walked into a nearly perfect garden, filled with beautiful flowers and lovely little critters running around. Twilight's ears perked up at the sound of a choir of bird whistles. they rounded the corner of a large tree cottage, revealing a tree filled with all sorts of birds, from blue jay's to hummingbirds. in front of the tree stood a kind looking pegasus mare with a yellow coat and soft pink mane and tail. she wore a green sundress with two holes in the back to let her wings out. her attention was focused on a small bird standing in front of her.

"umm excuse me mister bird..." she began with a melodic soft tone, getting the attention of every bird in the tree. "could you, please, umm, raise your tone a little bit? just a little bit... if you don't mind." she said meekly as the bird nodded and flew back to it's position in the tree.

Maelstrom put a finger to his lips as he silently approached the yellow coated mare. when he stood directly behind her, he slowly tapped her shoulder.

"hey Fluttershy. what'cha doin'?" he asked in a soft tone as to prevent the sensitive girl from startling. she quickly turned around and shied away a little bit.

"oh hey Maelstrom. I was practicing with my birds for the summer sun celebration tomorrow. why are you here?"

as if on cue, Twilight stepped forward with a smile and her hand stuck out. "good afternoon. my name is Twilight Sparkle. I've been sent from canterlot to check up on the preparations for the summer sun celebration. what's your name?" Fluttershy backed away slightly and hid her face behind her mane.

"m-my name is Fluttershy." she quitely mumbled. Maelstrom inwardly groaned and Twilight's smile faltered a little bit.

"excuse me?"

"my name... it's Fluttershy." she now squeaked out. Twilight stepped back a little bit and frowned.

"well. it seems like everything is going well here so I guess we'll be going then. come on Spike." she said to the baby dragon, who just nodded and walked alongside Twilight. upon seeing the small reptilian, Fluttershy gasped deeply and barrelled past Maelstrom and Twilight, coming to a stop in front of Spike.

"A BABY DRAGON!" she shouted enthousiastically, making the birds flee in terror. "awww, he's so cute! what's his name?" the normally quiet mare asked excidedly. "I'm Spike." the dragon answered, making Fluttershy squeal in delight. "hello Spike. my name is Fluttershy. oh wow... a talking dragon. what do dragons talk about?" she asked him.

"all kinds of stuff. what do you want to know?" Spike responded excidedly.

"absolutely everything." Fluttershy said as Twilight groaned deeply and Maelstrom chuckled uncomfortably.

after a thirty minute walk back to the library, Spike was finished with a small summary of his entire life while Fluttershy soaked the information up with a million watt smile on her face. Twilight quickly said goodbye to Maelstrom and Fluttershy before slamming the door shut. the library was pitch black but that didn't bother Twilight in the least.

"phew. finally we're alo-"

"SUPRISE!" the lights flicked on, revealing Pinkie Pie and the entire town's population smiling brightly at her. after recovering from her miniature heart attack, she glared at the pink mare who just kept smiling.

"hi! my name is Pinkie Pie and I threw this party just for you. so were you suprised? were you? were you? huh? huh? huh?" she rattled excidedly.

"very suprised... libraries are supposed to be quiet." Twilight deadpanned, but Pinkie didn't notice. "what do you mean? this is a party and what kind of welcoming party would this be if it was quiet? I mean: duh! bo-ring!" Twilight just walked away with Pinkie right behind her. "you see: I saw you with Maelstrom when you first got here, remember? I mean you were all like 'hello', and I was like 'GASP!' remember? you see, I never saw you before, and if I never saw you before that means I don't know you and I know everybody and I mean everybody in Ponyville. so that means you are new in town, and if you're new in town that means you don't have any friends and I thought that was so sad that I threw you a huge welcoming party and now you have lots of friends!" she finished while hugging Fluttershy, Rarity, rainbow Dash, Applejack and malstrom together. during Pinkie's entire speech, Twilight had managed to keep her poker face on, pour herself something to drink and emptying half of her cup, before turning red and spitting fire while running towards her new bedroom. Maelstrom picked the bottle of Twilight's drink up and checked the label.

"pepper heat's red hot pepper sauce... Pinkie, what have I told you about leaving your drinks out in the open?" he deadpanned while tossing her the bottle. she shrugged while taking a sip.

"Maelstrom!" a deep voice called. Mael turned around and saw three figures stand beside a small stage they had set up. the owner of the voice was a large dark red earth pony colt with a bright orange mane. he wore a black shirt and a pair of jeans with a print of a bass with a music note next to it. next to him stood a greyish purple pegasus mare with a spiky white and light blue mane waving at him. she wore a white tank top and shorts. in her hands she held a pair of drumsticks. the last one of the group was a mintgreen pegasus colt with snow white hair. he wore a blue jacket and black pants with a snowflake on the side of the legs.

"Basstone! Cloudchaser! Minty! good to see you guys set up already." he adressed the three with a big smile. "when are we up?" he asked Cloudchaser who pointed at the clock. "right now, doofus. that's why Basstone called you over." Maelstrom nodded and handed the guitarcase on his back to Minty who unpacked the guitar. it was a grey five snared Gibson Les Paul with white and black tornadoes spray painted on the back. Basstone plugged his black bassguitar into an amp. Cloudchaser sat down behind the drums and Maelstrom stood in the front with a mic in his hand. the four mentally counted down from five. suddently Maelstrom and Minty started at the same time.

(play on youtube: rise against, savior.)

Maelstrom closed his eyes as he started singing.

_It kills me not to know this but I've all but just forgotten_

_What the color of her eyes were and her scars or how she got them_

_As the telling signs of age rain down a single tear is dropping_

_Through the valleys of an aging face that this world has forgotten_

Maelstrom opened his eyes. Minty picked up speed while Cloudchaser and Basstone immideately blended in as the beat started picking up.

_There is no reconciliation that will put me in my place_

_And there is no time like the present to drink these draining seconds_

_But seldom do these words ring true when I'm constantly failing you_

_Like walls that we just can't break through until we disappear_

_So tell me now_

_If this ain't love then how do we get out?_

_'Cause I don't know_

_That's when she said I don't hate you boy_

_I just want to save you while there's still something left to save_

_That's when I told her I love you girl_

_But I'm not the answer for the questions that you still have_

by now ponies all across the library were either listening to the music, or dancing to the beat, like Spike and Pinkie.

_But the day pressed on like crushing weights_

_For no man does it ever wait_

_Like memories of dying days_

_That deafen us like hurricanes_

_Bathed in flames we held the brand_

_Uncurled the fingers in your hand_

_Pressed into the flesh like sand_

_Now do you understand?_

_So tell me now_

_If this ain't love then how do we get out?_

_'Cause I don't know_

_That's when she said I don't hate you boy_

_I just want to save you while there's still something left to save_

_That's when I told her I love you girl_

_But I'm not the answer for the questions that you still have_

Maelstrom took a quick sip from a glass of punch while the small instrumental bit was going on.

_1000 miles away_

_There's nothing left to say_

_But so much left that I don't know_

_We never had a choice_

_This world is too much noise_

_It takes me under_

_It takes me under once again_

_I don't hate you_

_I don't hate you no_

_So tell me now_

_If this ain't love then how do we get out?_

_'Cause I don't know_

_That's when she said I don't hate you boy_

_I just want to save you while there's still something left to save_

_That's when I told her I love you girl_

_But I'm not the answer for the questions that you still have_

_I don't hate you_

_I don't hate you_

_I don't hate you_

_I don't hate you, no._

the small band was met with cheers as they finished their song. rainbow Dash was flying in circles above the rest of the partygoers while 'whoo'ing the entire time while Spike was now running around with a lampshade over his head. Maelstrom grinned as minty started the next song up...

the nextmorning, the entirety of Ponyville was gathered inside the decorated town hall. Maelstrom sat at the front with Applebloom sitting on his shoulders, Applejack on his left and Rarity on his right. Mayor mare gave a short speech about their guest and she motioned for Rarity to open up the curtains. when the curtains opened up, the large group of ponies were shocked to see that there was no-one there.

"princess Celestia has disappeared!" a pony yelled. Maelstrom's eyes turned from a deep blue to a flaming orange for a split second as he sensed a massive amount of negative emotions leak into the building. an ominous chuckle could be heard as a vortex of black smoke gathered in the middle of the stage. the smoke took on the form of a pitch black mare with catlike blue eyes and a plasma-like blue mane and tail wearing what looked like ancient armor. on her chestplate, a blue engraved moon was visible. what shocked the occupants of the room the most though, was the fact that the mare had a horn AND wings!

she was an alicorn.

"finally... I am free!" the alicorn cackled as the ponies backed away from her. lightning shot out from behind her as she kept laughing. Applebloom lost balance and fell off of Maelstrom's shoulders, narrowly ecaping being hit by a loose bolt of lightning.

"who are you, and what have you done to our princess?" Mayor mare asked the strange alicorn with an uncharacteristical glare.

the alicorn looked at the Mayor with disgust in her eyes. "don't you know who I am?"

"ooh, ooh, ooh!" Pinkie called out. "hokey smokes! no wait.. queen meanie! no no no... black snooty, black snooty!"

"you are the mare on the moon. Nightmare Moon." Twilight spoke up with fear evident on her face.

"well well well. somepony who remembers me... that also means you know why I'm here-" nightmare moon began but was interrupted by a grey coated fist infused with a red magic aura. the alicorn flew back and impacted hard enough into a wall to leave a sizeable hole. in her place stood Maelstrom. his horn and fist glowing red and his face in a terrifying expression of rage. Nightmare Moon flew back into the building as rage was now evident on her face as well.

"you insolent welp... you dare hit me? YOUR RULER!?" she roared. Maelstrom jumped at her again and shot a red magic beam straight into her chest, slinging her backwards through another wall.

"I don't care who, or what you are..." he said with barely restrained hatred. "but nobody. NOBODY fires lightning at my family AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!" he roared in absolute fury.

_**A/N: cliffhanger! **_

_**sorry guys, no omake this chapter due to cliffhangers. this will be with every two-parter of my story. aka: Nightmare moon arc, Discord arc, Chrysalis arc... you get the point. I will start writing the next chapter as soon as I can, so until then,**_

_**seventhharmony, out!**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Hello my loyal readers! I'm terribly sorry for the late update, but I've been sick, I've been having a bit of trouble keeping up with school and quite honestly, I just wanted to get this damned chapter right. So here it is: my late new years entry of 2015. **_

_**Enjoy!**_

Maelstrom stood silently in the middle of the room, glaring at the hole where he flung the dark alicorn through. five seconds passed. ten. fifteen seconds had passed and as nothing came back through, maelstrom turned around to check up on Applebloom. The filly was alright save for a few scrapes due to the fall from maelstrom's shoulders. Rainbow tapped him on the shoulder and pointed towards the retreating figures of twilight and spike.

"isn't that a bit suspicious?" she asked him with a frown. He nodded as he helped his little sister up. The two followed after twilight and spike, not knowing that they were being followed by four others.

Twilight frantically tore through the library looking for the one book she needed. With spike covering the second floor they should be able to find the damn thing before-

"lookin' for something?"

-another interruption showed up… great.

Twilight turned around to the deep voice, only to see maelstrom standing in the entrance with a stern glare etched on his face.

"what makes you think I'm looking for something?" she tried coolly, only to get an even harder glare shot back.

"you slipped away from the town hall during the panic, you're tearing through our local library like a hurricane, mostly focusing on books about ancient artifacts an' you even have your assistant looking on the second floor. I am a lot of things miss sparkle, but I ain't stupid. Something's up, an' I have the feeling that you know more." He said in an even tone, displaying a deductive ability she honestly didn't think he possessed.

From behind him a rainbow colored blur smashed her with her back into the bookcase. Rainbow Dash pushed her with her lower arm up to the bookcase and growled. "what are you, some kind of spy?"

An orange furred hand grabbed rainbow's tail and pulled her off of twilight. Applejack gave the purple maned mare a concerned look and then directed her glance at Rainbow.

"simmer down, sally. She ain't no spy, but she sure as hell knows what's going on." She redirected her gaze at Twilight as Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rarity and Maelstrom stood around the three. "don't you twilight?"

Twilight looked conflicted for a few moments, before giving in with a sigh.

"I've read all about the prediction of Nightmare Moon." She walked away from the bookcase towards the middle of the room. "some mysterious artifacts called the elements of harmony are the only things that can stop her, but I don't know where they are, how they work. Hell I don't even know what they do."

"the elements of harmony: a reference guide." Pinkie suddenly said as she grabbed a book from the top shelf behind her. Twilight grabbed the book from her hand with a shocked expression. "where did you find that!?" she gasped while Pinkie grinned.

"it was under E-E!" she sang while hopping from one leg to another. Twilight opened the book and stopped at the right page. "there are six elements of harmony, but only five of them are currently known. Kindness, laughter, generosity, honesty and loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery. It is said that the last known location of the elements is the ruins of the castle of the royal alicorn sisters. The castle is located in what is now-"

"the everfree forest… really?" maelstrom asked no-one specific. The six mares stared at the massive forest with hints of fear, disgust and –in Pinkie's case- childish expectation, while maelstrom remained impassive. He'd been in the forest a lot of times with Big Mac and Hard Cider in the past to gather firewood so the forest didn't really faze him all that much. That did not mean that it did nothing to him though, as he's been in there before, he knew just how dangerous the forest was to newcomers, and he wasn't really comfortable with his little sister going in there at night. With, or without friends.

He's a worried older brother of three farm-ponies. Sue him!

"wheee!" pinkie cried, "let's go!"

She tried to skip ahead into the forest but was stopped by Twilight.

"I'm sorry but I can't let you guys do that, I need to do this by myself-"

"bullshit." Maelstrom interrupted her. "either we all go, or no one goes. I know the everfree forest well enough to know my way in there an' we have a better chance when we go with the group."

After a few moments of staring each other down, Twilight gave in with a sigh. "fine but let's go. The sooner we find the elements, the bigger our chances are at defeating nightmare moon."

"agreed." Called maelstrom and the rest nodded.

A few minutes later, as the group passed a small ledge, a wisp of blue smoke snaked it's way into the cracks underneath the edge. Maelstrom's eyes flashed orange again as he felt another wave of negative energy. Before he could figure out where it came from though, the part of the mountain they were standing on began collapsing with a loud rumble.

"ROCK SLIDE!" roared RD as she and Fluttershy took flight. Rarity used her magic to skid down the side of the mountain, preventing her from falling. Flutershy caught Pinkie in mid fall and maelstrom used his magic to teleport himself to the safe ground. Twilight, however was caught completely off guard by the rapid turn of events and nearly dropped off of the edge to her death, if not for Applejack's intervention. Maelstrom watched as his sister jumped forward, grabbing Twilight's hands as the purple mare started falling. AJ tried pulling back but couldn't find a grip as she herself started sliding towards the edge as well. Seeing no other option, AJ told Twilight the one thing no-one expected from her.

"twilight… let go."

Twilight looked at Applejack in horror while the orange furred mare stared back in confidence.

"let go!? Are you insane? I'll fall to my death from here!" she roared but Applejack smiled a little bit.

"no you won't. I promise you that you will be fine, you've got my _honest _word."

She didn't know exactly why, but hearing that from the hat wearing mare actually calmed Twilight down a bit. She nodded and with her legs she pushed herself off of the mountainside. The two let each other's hands go and twilight started falling. Twilight squeezed her eyes shut as gravity took a hold of her, but strangely the falling sensation never came. When she opened her eyes again, she noticed a red aura surrounding her. Maelstrom stood at the bottom of the cliff with his hands lifted and his horn glowing. After setting Twilight down, who promptly started kissing the ground, he saw Applejack jumping from rock to rock until she too, stood at the bottom.

"everyone alright down there?" rainbow dash called from above. Pinkie raised a thumb and the group moved on.

The further the group moved into the forest, the more oppressive the negative energy became. Maelstrom's senses were screaming to get the hell out and prepare for a disaster but he shook those feelings off in favor of keeping an eye on his surroundings. Rainbow was flying around, chattering excitedly about the 'heroic rescue' she did back with the rockslide much to twilight's ire until a loud thump interrupted them.

in the middle of the road, between two cliff sides, stood a hybrid between a lion, a scorpion and a bat, and maelstrom could sense that it. Was. NOT. Happy!

"A manticore!" twilight gasped as the hybrid lifted itself off of it's front paws with an angry snarl. Maelstrom grimaced, knowing that manticores were by nature, very docile animals. It pounced at rarity and swiped it's claw, intent of batting the white mare's head clean off but missed as rarity jumped to the side in a panic. She quickly gathered her wits however, and delivered a swift punch to the side of it's face.

"Ha! Take that you ruffian!" she shouted triumphantly, which seemed to only aggravate the oversized cat even more. It opened it's mouth in a massive roar that scared the wits out of the poor mare and she rapidly ran back to the others.

"Umm, wait." Fluttershy started, but due to the commotion no one heard her.

The manticore chased rarity around until Applejack jumped into it's neck. She grabbed it's mane in one hand and the poisonous tail in the other as she rode it's back like a rodeo bull. Eventually the manticore threw her off it's back with a loud snarl and Rainbow took it as her queue to intervene. Yet again, no-one haerd Fluttershy silently pleading them to wait. Maelstrom used his magic to manipulate the sand underneath the manticore and anchored it's feet to the ground, preventing it from jumping away while rainbow spun around it with great speed. The maticore then proceeded to slap rainbow out of the air with it's tail. Maelstrom caught her, but was forced to release the sand trap, therefore freeing the hybrid. It scraped it's front claw at the ground while the mane six sans Fluttershy mirrored it's movements.

"Oh for fuck's sake. WAIT!"

Just as the six were about to charge at the same time, Fluttershy jumped in between them with a serious expression.

"Did Fluttershy just swear?" Maelstrom asked no one in particular. The rest just nodded, just as dumbfounded as the rest. Fluttershy turned around and slowly walked over to the angry animal. It raised a claw. Everyone looked away, not wanting to see such a gruesome scene.

"Sssshhh." Fluttershy hushed at the manticore. "It's okay." She gently explained. She stroked the fur on it's paw and lifted it up. On the bottom, in the sole of it's front paw, stuck a thorn. Now it made sense as of why it acted so violently. The pain was driving it to madness.

"Ooooh, you poor little baby." Fluttershy gently cooed with Rainbow Dash exclaiming 'little!?' in the background.

"Now this might hurt just a second." She said, before grabbing the thorn between thumb and index finger and pulling it out. The manticore roared again, but instead of attacking the gentle mare, it gave her a large lick across her muzzle with a loud purr. Fluttershy giggled softly while cooing at it some more. The mare never failed to impress maelstrom with her close connection with animals.

"How did you know about the thorn?" twilight asked Fluttershy, while the latter tried to comb a cowlick down. "I didn't." she explained. "sometimes we all just need a little _kindness_."

Maelstrom felt another wave of negative energy as they continued into a deeper part of the everfree. Rarity and Applejack were quietly arguing about Rarity's hatred for mud and thus no-one noticed the blue wisp that caused the rockslide enter an old tree.

Suddenly the trees around them started lighting up. The lines in the bark, combined with sharp branches and holes made it look like they were being stared at from all sides. Everyone, including Maelstrom, panicked and tried to find a way out. He may have been reincarnated, but Maelstrom still had the unreasonable fear for ghosts Naruto always harbored. Combined with the fact that he was already high-strung about the massive doses of negative energy constantly shot at him and he just snapped. Everyone stopped however, when they heard giggling.

Pinkie was just standing in front of one of the faces laughing her pants off while pulling silly faces at it.

"Pinkie!" twilight called out. "what are you doing! Run!"

Pinkie laughed even harder at that. "oh guys. Don't you see?"

_When I was a little filly and the sun was going down..._

Twilight deadpanned. "Tell me she's not..."

_The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me frown..._

Both Rarity and Mael sighed. "She is."

_I'd hide under my pillow_

_From what I thought I saw_

_But Granny Pie said that wasn't the way_

_To deal with fears at all_

_She said, "Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall_

_Learn to face your fears_

_You'll see that they can't hurt you_

_Just laugh to make them disappear."_

_Ha! Ha! Ha!_

_So, giggle at the ghostly_

_Guffaw at the grossly_

_Crack up at the creepy_

_Whoop it up with the weepy_

_Chortle at the kooky_

_Snortle at the spooky_

_And tell that big dumb scary face to take a hike and leave you alone and if he thinks he can scare you then he's got another thing coming and the very idea of such a thing just makes you wanna... hahahaha... heh..._

_Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuugh!_

By the time that Pinkie was done singing, everyone else was laughing along. Mael chuckled and was thankful to the pink party mare that he had regained his composure. The group found a gap between the trees and managed to squeeze through. Maelstrom looked around, his eyes lighting up as he realized just where they were. He knew that somewhere around here should be a calm river. He was brought out of his pondering by a wild splashing sound. The rest of the group gasped as they stopped by the edge of the river. Calm, however, was everything this river was _not_.

The 'calm' river maelstrom knew was there, was replaced by wild waves. The bridge crossing the river was in shambles, and violent current prevented any chance on swimming to the other side.

'_crap'_ thought Maelstrom. _'of course it just _had_ to get violent today. An' I'm guessing that the bridge is just the universe takin' a shit on us.'_ A small wisp of dark smoke hastily floated away, but was noticed by Maelstrom this time_. _"thought so. Not the universe, but an _alicorn _takin' a shit on us." He deadpanned to himself.

"BOOHOOHOO!" Came a ghastly wail a little upstream. Maelstrom motioned for the rest to follow him as he carefully walked towards the sound. RD and Fluttershy quietly took off from the ground and both Applejack and Pinkie moved closely behind him, Twilight and Rarity. The more they moved upstream, the louder the crying got. They entered a small clearing and stopped before a strange sight.

A massive serpent.

Literally the biggest sea serpent Maelstrom had ever seen was bawling his eyes out. Trashing wildly with his massive tail and whipping up the waves blocking their path. He was a massive purple scaled being with long orange hair and a handlebar moustache on one side of his face. The other side looked like it had been ripped off violently.

"OOOHOOOHOOH! WHAT A WORLD, WHAT A _WORLD_!" he cried out in anguish. A bit melodramatic, but somehow Maelstrom figured it fit him just perfectly.

"excuse me sir?" twilight began carefully. "why are you crying?"

"well I don't know." The serpent began with a bit of sass. "I was just sitting here, minding my own business, when this tacky little cloud of smoke just whizzed past me and tore half of my glorious moustache clean off my face!" he threw his head in his neck dramatically. "now I just look _awful_!" he fell backwards, creating another massive wave which missed everyone but Mael.

'_really? REALLY?!' _

"ugh. Gimme a break!" Dash groaned before Applejack pinched her muzzle. "_that's_ what all the fuzz is about?" Rarity immediately jumped in between the two. "why of course!" she exclaimed. The serpent was now leaning on the shore with a pout. "look at those gorgeous luminescent scales!" the serpent perked up.

"I know right?"

"Or that expertly coiffed hair!"

"Oh I know! I know!"

"not to mention that magnificent manicure!"

"Amen to that sister!"

"all _ruined_ by that torn up moustache!"

The serpent fell back into the water with a dramatic wail "I know! I'm hideous! An abomination!" Rarity glared and grabbed the edge of one of the serpent's massive purple scales before ripping it off. "OW! What'd you do that for?" he sniffed. Rarity poised to strike.

"I simply cannot allow such a crime against fabulosity go unpunished!" she yelled, bringing the razor sharp scale down.

Onto her own tail.

In a fluid cut, Rarity cut off her own beautiful curled tail, leaving only a small patch of hair sticking out of the hole in her skirt. Her horn glowed in an ethereal purple and floated the severed tail up to the serpent's face. With a flash the tail fused with the severed hairs on the serpent's face, completing the torn up moustache.

"OH MY!" the serpent gasped. "why would you do that?"

Rarity merely smiled, though Maelstrom could see that it was a bit forced. "as I've said before. I simply cannot let such a crime against fabulosity go unpunished. This finishes your fabulous appearance, and short tails are in this season anyway."

The serpent calmed down a bit, causing the wild waves to subside as well and stretched his back from one shore to the other. "hop on. This is the least I can do for such a magnificent gift!"

The group carefully hopped onto the serpent's back and swiftly ran over to the other side.

"if you ever need any help regarding serpents, tell them you're friends with archduke Stephan!" he called after them as the disappeared further into the woods.

It was only thirty minutes later that they finally arrived at the supposed burial grounds of the elements of harmony. A humongous ruin of a seemingly ancient castle was vaguely visible in the background, only illuminated by the soft moonlight. Before they could appreciate the sight, however, came a thick mist rolling in the area. A mist thick enough to barely see where you were going. A sudden yelp could be heard as Twilight, again, almost fell down a cliff.

"what is up with you and cliffs" Rainbow asked her with a smirk, at which twilight only responded with an indignant huff. "don't worry." RD called out. "I'll fly over to see if there's a bridge or something."

Maelstrom was barely capable of seeing what was going on on the other side, but he frowned when he saw three strangely dressed pegasi approach RD as she was pulling the old bridge up. They talked with her, and thankfully she seemed to disagree with something they said. She shoo-ed the three away and proceeded to tie the bridge up to a wooden pole. The rest carefully crossed the bridge, each of them thanking Faust a bit when they stood on solid groud.

"what was that just now?" Maelstrom asked the rainbow maned mare, who just shrugged and put her hands in her pockets.

"just some clowns calling themselves 'the shadowbolts'. They tried to persuade me into becoming their leader by abandoning you guys, but there's no way in hell that I'll leave my friends just for a bit of fame." She grinned toothily and Maelstrom chuckled a bit along with her. Genuinely happy that his best friend chose them over fame.

They entered the castle, carefully watching their steps and constantly watching each other's backs until a small problem reared it's head.

A forked hallway. One went left, while the other went right. Maelstrom silently cursed as he activated his negative emotion sensing ability and felt a massive wave of rage, desperation and envy shoot out of the right hallway. The left one, however, emitted peace. No negativity at all. He sighed quietly as he knew what to do.

"well… it seems we need to split up here. That way we cover a lot more ground within a lot less time."

Twilight seemed to agree with his statement and attempted to take charge.

"indeed. We need to split up in two teams. Pinkie, Fluttershy and me go down the right hallway, while Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow and Maelstrom go down the left."

"no."

This was the simple reply of Maelstrom. While he could see the logic of moving into two smaller teams, he was afraid that only three of them would not be enough to fight the likes of Nightmare Moon. He felt it for a split second when he made contact with her during their first skirmish. His beam had hardly any effect on the mare. She merely played along with him in order to lull him into a false sense of victory. He would need every ounce of fighting power to stop the dark mare from reaching the others, and with the others in the way, it was just not possible.

"sorry?" twilight responded incredously. "I said no." came another response. "I'm sorry, but you guys need to stay together. Nightmare Moon is down the right hallway an' there's no way in the nine rings of tartarus that I'm gonna let you fight her." Applejack walked up to him and stared him straight in his eyes. "are you tellin' us to leave you behind? 'cuz I ain't gonna let you fight her all by yerself." He frowned and pushed AJ slightly away. "This isn't up for debate AJ. You're going to find those elements an' I'm gonna keep that maniac away from you guys while you're busy." The two siblings glared at each other for a bit before Applejack finally backed off a little.

"Ya sure you can do it?" she finally asked him. Maelstrom shook his head. "I'm not sure AJ. We're up against an alicorn, basically a demigoddess. But I _need_ to do this. Otherwise she'll be able to stop you all before you can even get close to the elements. This is our best shot at victory and you know it."

With that, he stomped his foot on the ground and a medium sized rune appeared underneath him. A barrier covered the entrance to the right hallway and split him off from the rest.

"This barrier will stay active for fifteen minutes exactly. It will keep you from secretly following me, and it will keep Nightmare Moon from exiting from this hallway. When you find the elements, come back here and wait for the barrier to vanish. I'll keep her busy, now GO!"

AJ nodded with a serious face and ran into the left hallway, closely followed by the other five. As soon as their footsteps faded away, Maelstrom lifted one finger and used magic to cover it in it's red aura. He lifted his shirt a bit and began drawing lines on his stomach.

"better safe then sorry, I guess." He mumbled, before letting his shirt down again and running down the hallway, towards the wave of negative emotions.

He entered a massive rotunda, easily the size of a small stadium and saw that the room itself was in relatively good condition. His senses went into overdrive as he dove to the side, narrowly avoiding a spear made of pure energy. He jumped away and grabbed two spears from a few empty armors and threw them with all of his might. One smashed through one outside wall, and the other pierced a table, completely splintering one side of it. A black blur shot out of it's hiding place and landed behind Maelstrom.

"ahhh. it's been a while since anyone managed to avoid my spear." The dark mare purred seductively into his ear. She pressed her armored assets into his back. "Quick on thine feet, a strong body, magical ability, excellent leadership abilities and quite handsome too. Thou art excellent mating material." she purred seductively as she laid her hand on his cheek. "unfortunately you are currently opposing a member of the royal family, which is high treason, and for that you're sentenced to death!" to his shock she stabbed a rapier made of the same energy as the spear through his shoulder, pulled it pack out and pierced his heart. she laughed manically and looked down at... nothing?

"suprised?" came maelstrom's voice from behind one of the pillars in the room. "I'm not as stupid as I look. I always have a backup."

it was true. as soon as maelstrom was old enough to actively study magic, he went looking for a replacement for his infamous shadow clone jutsu. he found his replacement in the form of the magic doppelganger spell. a spell that created a perfect copy of the user that would fade into nothingness after five minutes, transferring all memories of the clone to the original.

In an instant, he launched himself from his position and yanked a spear from one of the armors standing against the wall. His horn glowed red again as he flung the spear towards the night sky and surrounded the throwing weapon in an ethereal glow. There was a bright red flash. As soon as the flash died down, Nightmare Moon laughed.

"fool! You had one window of attack, and you wasted it with a failed spell!" maelstrom smirked again and pointed his thumb upwards. A slight whistling noise could be heard. As she looked upward, her expression transformed from one of victory, to one of surprise and hastily flung up a pale blue barrier. Not half a second after completing the barrier, dozens of identical copies of the spear rammed into her barrier and the ground around her. Before she could throw up another shield, Maelstrom dashed through the fading copies with his palm stretched out. Nightmare Moon saw the faint magic aura surrounding the appendage and quickly jumped back out of the way before summoning another rapier of pure energy. She struck, he dodged to the side. He kicked, she ducked down. She slashed upwards and he made a backflip out of the way, kicking upwards in mid flip, forcing her to block with the flat end of her blade. Locked in a dance of death, the two eventually reached a stalemate. One that was broken when she stabbed down and he used his palm to knock the edge of the blade to the side. He struck upwards and she bent back, kicking him away. In midair his hands glowed a bright red before firing several magic missiles.

Nightmare Moon deflected the red beams by rapidly spinning her rapier around and made a stabbing motion, her rapier glowed a bright blue for a second before rapidly extending, the tip reading straight for Maelstrom's stomach. He quickly coated his hands in magic and clapped his hands together, catching the blade in between. Unfortunately the blade was still extending, propelling him back.

"fuuuuck!" re roared as he got knocked into a support pillar. he moved both hands to the side, allowing the still extending blade to harmlessly pass by him he pushed himself off of the pillar, reducing it's remains to rubble and propelling him towards the dark mare. he flipped over in midair and mule kicked Nightmare Moon in the chest, throwing her back a few feet into an old dining table.

The impact threw up a cloud of dust and sand, something maelstrom did not hesitate to use to his advantage. He used his magic to manipulate the cloud into a dusty tornado to blind the dark alicorn. With a scream of rage, an electric blue beam shot out of the dust tornado, dispersing the clouds and forcing maelstrom to throw up a round, red barrier. The impact of the beam cracked the shield but he managed to somehow keep it from falling apart under the superior magic user's assault. After a small stalemate, the beam increased in strength and maelstrom's shield faltered a bit.

Big mistake.

"_**shit!"**_ was all that maelstrom could exclaim as the beam penetrated his barrier and nailed him in his left arm, leaving a nasty burn. The force behind the beam was great enough to fling him against the wall behind him and he could feel his left shoulder's joint pop out of it's socket.

'_fuck! Twilight whatever you're doing with those girls, hurry the fuck up! I don't know how long I can keep this up anymore. I could use _that_ spell, but can I use it in combat?'_ from his position on the ground he looked up at Nightmare Moon, whose attention was, thankfully, still fixated on him. He sighed in irritation. _'one way to find out then.'_

He grabbed his left arm and grit his teeth. With a harsh shove and a sickening_ 'pop'_ he rammed his shoulder back into it's socket. With a sharp hiss and a pained grunt he pushed himself back up onto his feet. His horn glowed softly as he gathered more energy. Nightmare Moon scowled.

"Thou just refuses to stay down dost thou not?" she asked rhetorically. "We guess we can admire thine perseverance." She charged another beam in the palm of her hands, this one darker than the last one.

"however. It is over." She opened her wings and dug her heels into the ground for extra support. "perish. _**FILTHY COMMONER!**_" she let out another enraged roar as she unleashed her beam. A massive pillar of pure destructive, dark purple energy quickly closed in on maelstrom, who was still gathering energy. Crouched down and whispered a single word.

"_**portae octo… tri.**_"

The pillar of destruction impacted with a loud boom and Nightmare Moon cackled like a madmare. The annoying thorn in her side was finally gone for good. "now that he's gone, it is finally time to destroy Twilight Spar-

She was cut off by a distortion that appeared out of nowhere that impacted against her chest armor, throwing her back into one of the support pillars of the chamber, knocking the air out of her and cracking three of her ribs. She coughed and spat some blood that had gathered in the back of her mouth. With shaking arms and legs she got up and looked around. She directed her gaze and to her disdain saw that her chestplate had snapped in half.

A 1 inch thick solid steel plate… broken.

"what kind of trickery is this!" she roared as she unhooked the remains of the steel plate and flung it to the side. In the corner of her eye she saw the same distortion as before, but yet again, before she could react, it smashed into her helmeted head. Her head violently jerked to the side, yanking the rest of her body along with it.

Nightmare shook her head as the remnants of her helmet broke and fell to the ground. The distortion appeared in seemingly random places along the walls and pillars, leaving spiderweb cracks wherever it vanished and reappearing in rapid succession. Another hit. This time her left shoulder. The armored shoulder pad didn't stand a chance. It ripped off of her shoulder, breaking apart before it even hit the ground. Another spiderweb crack in the wall behind her and the blur clipped her wing. By dumb luck, she swayed a bit, allowing the distortion to only partially hit. It smashed into the pillar next to her and threw up a massive explosion of rubble and dust.. Out of the smoke came a heaving and panting maelstrom. His muscles were bulged to the point of almost ripping and steam came rolling down his back and legs. Veins throbbing violently across his arms and neck. He turned his head to the side.

"it's over." He said as if it were a fact. He grinned widely as he fell back against the remains of the pillar.

"fuck." He panted. The steam from his body now evaporating and his muscles returning to their original size. Now that the steam was gone, Nightmare moon could see why he just fell over.

Tears across his skin.

Along his legs, arms and chest small, but noticeable tears had formed across his skin. Blood was now soaking his fur and the remains of his clothes. His breathing had become ragged and painful as he gasped for air. He chuckled a bit, much to the confusion of the still sore deity of night.

"why art thou laughing? Hast that spell fried thine brains?" she sneered. Maelstrom only chuckled a bit harder. "stop jesting with me and tell me what's so funny!" maelstrom just lifted his hand and waved her off.

"I knew it was better to use _that_ magic." He grunted and turned his head to the side with a painful sigh. His eyes rolled back and fainted. Before Nightmare Moon could ponder upon his enigmatic words, a bright red glowing circle began forming onto the unconscious unicorn's stomach. The further it completed, the wider her eyes went. As the circle became complete, Nightmare Moon had only one thing to say as she began moving back.

"crafty bastard!"

A red pulse shot out of the unicorn's downed form and spread out through the room. Vines began to glow red as well, before growing at an incredible speed. Nightmare moon took off into the air, hoping to escape the vines, but was blocked off as massive roots began to cover all windows and holes in the walls and roof. She cursed loudly as a single vine grabbed her hoof and began dragging her down. A second grabbed her other hoof, while a third grabbed her wrist. A root sneaked it's way between her shoulder blades, keeping her wings from moving and crept around her neck, keeping her down without choking her. She screamed in absolute fury as more and more vines grabbed her by the hands, hooves and twisted themselves around her midriff.

She was locked in place. She was stuck and she knew it so she did the only thing she could in this situation. She struggled against her makeshift prison as she could hear the voices of her (in her honest opinion 'very worthy') opponent's companions getting clearer by the second.

(with the mane six. Twenty minutes ago.)

"Applejack wait!" called twilight a little bit behind her. The farmer slowed down a bit as her friends caught up to her. Not stopping, the group continued to talk while running.

"so Applejack, do you think he can do it?" twilight asked as she ran beside the hat wearing girl. Applejack didn't look at the Librarian but looked to the side out of the passing windows, occasionally seeing a red or blue flash.

"I have faith that that idiot doesn't get himself killed." They entered a large room with a massive hole in the side, overlooking the rotunda where the dark alicorn and the brave unicorn were locked in combat. In the middle of the room, stood a large, strange statue of some kind of old machine. The machine was surrounded by several pedestals, on which six stone orbs rested. A golden plaque read_: the elements of harmony. _

'_this is too easy.'_ Twilight thought as she carefully treaded near the the elements. A loud boom disturbed her concentration a bit as she looked at the source.

A massive blue beam clashing with a red barrier.

In that moment of lost concentration, she accidentally stepped onto a rune that was carved into the stone floor and activated it. The mane six had to watch in slow motion as Twilight was flung back away from the elements of harmony and a powerful surge of lightning flew directly at the pedestal. The pedestal exploded violently while the mane six could do nothing but watch as their only salvation shattered to pieces.

"NO!" Twilight shrieked distraught. The elements, the only thing that could defeat Nightmare moon, save Maelstrom and princess Celestia, and free Equestria. Shattered.

A series of large explosions shook them from their stupor as they all looked outside towards the rotunda, where Nightmare moon was being flung from one side of the room to the other by some kind of distortion.

"come on Twilight!" Pinkie shouted

"Maelstrom needs our help!" Applejack called out to her.

"Snap out of it!" Rainbow roared.

"get up." Fluttershy said as she pulled the dazed Twilight to her feet.

"we must stop her. Elements, or no elements." Rarity said with finality.

Twilight shook her head to get rid of the remaining cobwebs and seemed to realize something as her eyes widened. She quickly gathered her bearings and took one last look at the shards of the elements.

The trip back was a silent one, occasionally interrupted by a muffled _'boom'_ noise. Back in the main hall, the group could see that the barrier had faded, just as Maelstrom had promised them.

Halfway down the hallway they could hear female grunts and curses, followed by the occasional scream and accompanied by the unmistakable creaking of wood. They entered the rotunda and gaped in awe as they took in just what was happening.

Nightmare Moon was suspended on the ground by countless vines and roots holding her by the hooves, wrists and neck.

"MAELSTROM!" Came Applejacks distraught scream as she ran over to the crumbled pillar where her brother lied unconscious. "MAEL! PLEASE TELL ME YOU'RE ALL RIGHT! PLEASE! SAY _something_!" she carefully hugged the upper part of his torso while the rest watched sadly.

"he put up a good fight." Came the voice of Nightmare Moon. "he even managed to injure me and keep me suspended by these _infernal_ plants." She ground out while tugging at her arms. She stopped as she glared at Twilight. "and? Did you get your precious little elements?" The dark mare smirked victoriously as she gazed upon the empty handed group.

"we did."

"what?" came the gasps of the other girls and Nightmare Moon as they looked at Twilight as if she were insane.

"We do have the elements." She began. "your trap might have destroyed the physical elements but their spirits are still here. With us." She turned her head to the other girls and smiled.

"Applejack whose words reassured me when I was in danger, represents the element of: Honesty!" a beam of orange light shot through the roots and struck Applejack, giving her a bright glow. The glow subsided and around her neck hung a necklace in the shape of her cutie mark.

"Fluttershy who calmed down an angry manticore with her kind words, represents the element of: Kindness!" from the same roots, a pink light hit Fluttershy, startling her. Like with applejack, a necklace appeared around her neck in the shape of a pink, crystal butterfly.

"Pinkie Pie, who laughed in the face of danger represents the spirit of Laughter!" a blue light dropped through a crack in the ceiling, making her giggle a bit. A blue, balloon shaped necklace wrapped around her neck.

"Rarity, who calmed a sorrowful serpent with a meaningful gift represents the element of: Generosity!" a purple glow fell through a window, hitting rarity and making her glow as well. Her necklace took the shape of a purple diamond.

"and Rainbow Dash, who refused to let her friends down represents the spirit of Loyalty!" a red thunderbolt struck through the roof and wrapped around RD, making her glow bright red. After it went away, a red, lightning shaped necklace hung around her neck.

Nightmare Moon laughed as she watched the spectacle. "Fools! You may have the first five elements, but you're missing number six!"

Twilight grinned in a Maelstrom-like fashion. "but we_ have_ found it. I found it when you destroyed the elements with your trap. I almost felt like giving up back there and then, but the others convinced me to get up and move forward. Thanks to their friendship, I felt a spark. One that I have not felt since I was a child. On that moment, I knew what the sixth element was."

A white light bashed it's way through the vines and roots covering the roof, hitting twilight and lighting up the whole room. Due to the intensity of the light, Maelstrom got drawn back to the world of consciousness. Half opening one eye he could vaguely make out the shapes of his friends in the light.

"this is the element of magic!" twilight called out with her eyes closed. The white light subsided and on top of her head sat a solid gold tiara with a pink six pointed star shaped crystal on top of it. The six girls began to float into the air as light started to gather around them. The light got brighter and brighter until twilight opened her eyes, revealing that a white light emitted from them. A massive rainbow-colored beam shot out of the new elements of harmony with a loud _'boom!'_ noise and struck nightmare moon head on.

"NOOOOOO! I CANNOT LOSE HERE! NOT NOW! NOOOOOO!" the dark mare screamed as the rainbow-colored light filled the room and obscured everything from vision.

The light had died down, the magic vines have vanished, and the mane six were all dizzily standing up.

"well…" came a raspy voice from the back of the room. "that was… interesting."

"Maelstrom!" came the excided shout from Applejack as she jumped at him. She pulled him in a bone-crushing hug and sniffled a bit.

"god dammit Mael! You scared the hell outta me! I thought you were dead or somethin'. Never, EVER, do somethin' stupid like that ever again!"

Maelstrom hissed a bit as Applejack's hug irritated his torn skin and muscles. She quickly let go, hilariously dropping him onto his back, eliciting a yelp of pain from him.

"mother_fucker_!"

"suck it up."

"Love you too sis."

"well this seems like a fun family reunion." A majestic voice said, gaining the attention of everyone present. Out of one of the holes in the walls, the group could see the sun finally rising. A beam of sunlight hit the rooms and out of the light stepped a tall, beautiful mare. she wore a white silk toga-like dress, matching the color of her fur. Along with golden bracelets, a golden pendant in the shape of a sun around her neck and a three pointed crown was perched on top of her head. Her mane and tail were plasma-like, much like the now neutralized Nightmare moon, but in a soft pink, bright teal and oceanic blue shades. She had giant, swan-like wings and a long horn on her forehead, signifying her status as alicorn. "mind if I join you?" her smile was graceful. Twilight smiled brightly as she ran up to the beautiful mare.

"princess Celestia!" she called out. The sun goddess' smile widened as she spread her arms and embraced the purple mare. "Oh Twilight. I knew you could do it." She said as she released the younger mare from her embrace. Twilight looked confused. "but you told me that Nightmare Moon's return was just an old mare's tale." Celestia shook her head and crossed her arms as she looked at her student in amusement. "I told you that you needed to make some friends. Nothing more." She looked over to the other elements of harmony and Maelstrom. "I've seen the signs of Nightmare Moon's return and I knew that only you had the magic inside you to defeat her. But you could not unleash it on your own you needed your friends to unlock the inner power from your heart." She then frowned. "now if only another would accept others as well." She looked over to the middle of the room where a grayish blue alicorn laid in a smoking crater. Her dress was torn and her armor was broken and scattered around her, her mane and tail now a dull dark blue. "isn't that so… Luna?"

The smaller alicorn looked up from her position on the stone floor as the larger alicorn gracefully stepped over to her. She gasped in fright and shrunk away as Celestia came closer.

"It has been a thousand years since I've seen you like this." She kneeled down to take a better look at the smaller alicorn. Her eyes were full of concern. "It's time to put our differences behind us." She stuck out her hand which Luna carefully accepted. "we were meant to rule together my sister." She said with a sad smile, eliciting a shocked 'sister?!' from the group. Luna looked conflicted as she bowed her head deeply. A small 'drip' could be heard as a stray tear found it's way down the small alicorn's cheek and onto the ground. Luna jumped up and wrapped her arms around Celestia's neck as she cried.

"I'm so sorry sister! I've missed you so much!" Celestia wrapped her arms around her younger sibling's shoulders and rested her chin on top of Luna's head and let out a few tears of joy.

"I've missed you too."

During the tearful reunion of the two estranged sisters, Applejack subconsciously hugged Maelstrom.

Tighter… tighter… tighter…

"Maelstrom!" RD yelled when she saw the grey furred stallion slowly turn an awkward shade of blue. Applejack looked down and with a surprised gasp let him go. Again. Dropping him, yet again, on his back.

"MOTHER_**FUCKER**_!"

It was about two hours later that they exited the Everfree forest. Maelstrom, now with bandages wrapped around his torso, upper arms and both calves limping while leaning on the shoulder of Applejack while Twilight was busy catching up to Celestia. Luna walked a little bit behind the group, unsure of what to do, or say. Pinkie cheered as they entered the small town. Mayor Mare came running as soon as she saw that the princess was safe and sound. The two mares exchanged a couple of words, occasionally looking over to the elements and Luna. Eventually the mayor nodded and ran off.

The group followed slowly, as not to aggravate Maelstrom's torn muscles even more. They arrived on Ponyville's cental plaza and were delighted to see that the mayor was ordering ponies around to set up the tables, food, drinks and musical equipment outside. Applejack set Maelstrom down on a chair next to the table holding a portion of the confections and went to go get nurse Redheart.

About ten minutes later the white coated nurse unwound the bandages and started inspecting his cuts, bruises and torn muscles.

"honestly Mael. You look like you got hit by a Train cart and flung into a mountain of glass shards." She said humorlessly. "I'm going to need to disinfect these cuts with alcohol and _you_ need to take it easy." She grabbed a small bottle and a cotton ball from her bag and soaked the cotton ball with the contents of the bottle.

"now clench your teeth. This is going to hurt like roadburn."

Before Maelstrom could even react, she swiped the cotton ball across one of the larger cuts and he yelped loudly.

"don't be such a baby." The nurse told him sternly. Something Maelstrom could only nod at. For five minutes straight, nurse Redheart swiped several alcohol soaked cotton balls across his cuts, occasionally hissing a bit at the size of some of them. After she threw the last ball into a plastic bag, she applied fresh bandages and helped him put on his shirt.

"the cuts are numerous, but shallow. They'll be gone in a few days time. I've taken care of any chance of an infection so there's no need to worry about that." Both Maelstrom and Applejack sighed in relief at that news. "your muscles on the other hand, are heavily damaged. For as far as I can see, they're going to heal nicely, but you're going to be sore as hell for about three months so I suggest you take it easy. Don't do any heavy lifting, don't try to race miss Dash and try to keep partying to a minimum and I think you'll be just fine."

With that being said, the nurse got her bag and went back to the doctor's office.

"go." Maelstrom said. Gaining Applejack's attention. "go ahead and have fun with the others."

"you gonna be alright?" she asked him cautiously. Maelstrom chuckled. "the nurse told me to take it easy. I won't leave this table, so go ahead. Have fun. I'll be fine" Applejack nodded before running off to join her friends on the dancefloor. Maelstrom leaned over and grabbed a bottle of liquid. He checked the label and grinned, before grabbing a glass.

"nothing better then a nice glass of good ol' whiskey in the early afternoon." He filled the glass and took a sip, letting the burning aftertaste sink in. he sighed in discomfort before scanning the festival. Princess Celestia was discussing a few things with mayor Mare, his sister was dancing with her friends. He sweatdropped a bit when he saw Twilight's attempt to dance and he had to suppress a laugh when spike turned red in embarrassment.

Then he saw her.

Luna stood by herself by one of the other tables. A cup filled with purple punch in her hands and a forlorn look on her face. he grunted as he waved her over. Apparently she didn't expect that since she jumped a little when she saw him looking straight at her.

Cautiously she walked over to him, her eyes shining with regret. He just patted the chair next to him as a sign to take a seat. She sat down and took a small sip of her punch.

"everyone's got to carry their own burdens Luna." maelstrom began, making her jump a little at his serious tone. "there's no escaping that, but the severity of the burden depends on yourself. in the end, the most important thing is." he took a sip of the alcoholic beverage, looking at his sister having fun with the other bearers of the elements and looked back at her.

"you're no longer alone."

he waved over to the other elements, celestia and the residents of Ponyville.

"even if we have to carry our own burdens, that doesn't mean we can't accept any help from friends, family or even an old enemy." maelstrom grinned at the now conlicted looking Princess.

_'hell. I got help from Sasuke, Gaara and Kurama in the end, and those three each tried to kill me at some point in life.'_ he thought flatly while taking another large gulp from his drink.

"why are you being so kind to me?" she asked him. Making him look back at her. In her smaller form, her voice was a lot smoother. Lighter. Less… malicious, he noticed.

"do you not hate me for attempting to kill you? Harm your sister? Your friends?" she had raised her voice a little bit. "it's my fault that you're bound to your chair while the rest can enjoy the festivities."

Maelstrom raised his arm while Luna shrunk into her chair, expecting him to hit her for everything she'd done to him.

He just placed his hand on top of her head, and started stroking her hair.

"I'm pissed at Nightmare Moon. Not you. You are Princess Luna. One of the two royal sisters, guardian of the night and ruler of dreams. Nightmare Moon was a tyrant, a monster and an idiot." He said with a warm tone. She looked back up, eyes brimming with tears now.

"but what if she comes back?" the princess of the night asked the bandaged stallion. "what if that… that _thing_ takes over again?!"

Maelstrom poked her forehead with two fingers, breaking her out of her line of thoughts.

"then I will be there, to stop her, and save you again." She let a few tears loose. "No matter how many times you fall, I will be there to catch you. That is a _promise of a lifetime._"

_No one knew yet, but this one act of kindness would later turn into a wonderful friendship. And even later, into something much more._

_**A/N: dear god, done! So this is the last chapter of the two-parter that start the canon timeline. Now I'm not going to do a chapter for every episode, only a few of them per season, but do not fret, there is also going to be some original content, regarding Mael's daily life.**_

_**Seventhharmony- out!**_


	5. I LIVE!

I am terribly sorry my loyal followers, that I have not uploaded anything in... like... forever.

my laptop broke down five months ago, and as a college student, I don't have a lot of money to spare for repairs. I finally managed to get this infernal thing fixed and thankfully managed to get my old files back as well, including the newest chapter of this story. hang on tight for a few more days until I manage to finish the chapter and I swear I will upload it ASAP!


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/N: And the plot has kicked off! enjoy.**_

Maelstrom woke up with a pained groan. His bedroom was dark, except for a single stripe of light filtering through his curtains. It has been two months since the entire Nightmare Moon incident and life has somewhat returned to normal. He groaned tiredly as he pushed himself up from his bed and put his pants on. He stretched to soothe his stiff muscles a bit before sighing. His skin had repaired itself in the meantime and his muscles were completely done healing, but he knew that he was still going to be sore when he woke up for a while. After putting his shirt on, he walked downstairs and sat down in the kitchen.

A light gray furred earthpony mare with a long dark gray mane and tail set a glass of orange juice in front of him before taking a bite out of a piece of toast. She had a narrow, elegant muzzle and narrow dark purple eyes. She had a slender frame, fitted in a white blouse with a purple bow tie and black dress pants. Sewn on her breast pocket, was a purple musical key. Her cutie mark.

"thanks Tavi." He mumbled as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. The mare raised an eyebrow and huffed. "there's a daffodil salad sandwich in the fridge. My shift at the store's about to start so if you could wake Vinyl up I'd be really grateful." She said while putting her own plate in the sink. Mael nodded as he put his empty glass down. "you're the best. Your shift ends at two today, right?"

The mare nodded before putting her black jacket on. "are you going to be in your workshop all day?" he nodded slowly. "good. Then I'll have Vinyl bring you lunch at noon."

He pulled his sandwich out of the fridge when he heard the front door open and close. He took a bite and went back upstairs with his sandwich and a glass of orange juice, to one of the two smaller bedrooms. He opened the door to reveal a huge mess. Empty cans of beer and energy drinks were strewn across the floor along with all kinds of clothes, shoes and music records. He sighed deeply as he witnessed the mess that his childhood friend made of his house. A snort broke his train of thoughts. He blinked twice as he saw his housemate Vinyl scratch, or better known as DJ pon-3 asleep, naked, on top of her blankets. Vinyl was a white furred unicorn mare whose mane and tail were cobalt with brilliant cyan streaks. She lied on her stomach, showing her exposed back and butt, which showed her cutie mark, consisting two black bridged eighth notes on both sides of her wide hips.

She snored loudly into her pillow, hiding her face from the world. Maelstrom smirked amusedly as he took another bite out of his sandwich. his horn glowed and an aura appeared around the blankets underneath her. One side of the blankets lifted quickly, rolling her over the edge of her bed and with a yelp she hit the wooden floor.

"motherfucker." She groaned from her position between the empty cans and discarded bras. Her ass comically sticking up. Maelstrom snickered as he listened to the long string of curses coming from the owner of said ass. "love you too Vinyl. Now get up and get dressed." The mare got up, showing her face. She had a short, thin muzzle and deep, almost mesmerizing, violet eyes. "why?" she asked a little too innocently. "too embarrassed to look at this hot young body of mine?" she purred playfully as she pressed her breasts together, making them look slightly bigger.

"with those tiny tits? hardly." He deadpanned before taking another bite and throwing a white tank top at her. She caught it with a pout on her face and put it on. "I'm a late bloomer you know?" She said while pulling her shorts up. Maelstrom snorted. "Vinyl you're twenty four. The only way your breasts could grow, would be if you'd get pregnant." He drawled before taking a sip from his orange juice.

"well then." Vinyl said, now sporting a grin. She quickly pulled her top up, showcasing her entire front side. "wanna help me make a baby then?" she purred as Maelstrom made an actual spit take. He glared at her while wiping the juice off of his shirt as she put her shirt down and laughed.

"Octavia would rip my dick off if I tried so I'll pass." Mael deadpanned. " also your shift starts at two." Vinyl gave him a thumbs up as she opened her curtains and bathed the room in sunlight. "sure thing, boss-man. What about you?"

"I'll be working at the workshop today. I've got a guitar and a violin to finish this week, a new shipment of Sapphire Shores' new record is scheduled to arrive around noon and Lyra wants to discuss some plans for her new lyre this afternoon so today's going to be a bit busy." Vinyl opened a can of energy drink, taking a loud sip and looked at him with some concern "you going to be okay? I mean with your muscles and all." Mael shrugged. "I'm done healing so I shouldn't feel any pain during work. He finished with a slight chuckle. Vinyl shook her head and shooed him out. Maelstrom grabbed his jacket and left for his workshop.

The velvet note was a small, but very popular music shop in ponyville. It had a wide selection of music , ranging from classical music to techno and rock, and sold custom-made instruments as well. Behind the cash register sat Octavia, rapidly ringing up the amount of bits for each sale. Inside the shop, a few ponies were searching the shelves for that one record they wanted, that one amp they needed or that one instrument that just felt right. Some of them having friendly conversations with each other and some standing in the corner with headphones, listening to records.

In the back room of the velvet note, was a workshop. One that Maelstrom built by himself where he tunes, repairs and even makes his own instruments. The walls were lined with odd instruments that he collected from all over the world. Bongo's from Maredagascar, a pair of lamian maraca's, several biwa's from Neighpon, Saddle Arabian lutes, a Griffonian bagpipe and even an old flugelhorn from before the Crystal Empire vanished in thin air. In the back of the workshop was a massive closet filled with all kinds of drawers. Inside those drawers were strings, screws and other small parts necessary to make all kinds of instruments. On the floor beside the closet lied all kinds of wood and metal in all kinds of shapes and sizes. On the other side of the workshop sat Maelstrom behind a wide wooden desk. He was busy with an electrical saw to cut out the ornaments meant for his newest guitar. It was a nice little project that didn't really require much muscle power so for now he could handle that much. He peered through a magnifying glass as he grabbed a tiny file and started smoothing the tiny details out. After the last stroke he leaned back and admired his work with a proud smile. The ornament consisted of two minotaur's locking horns in a sea of fire. Not his idea, the client wanted it that way.

"finally. Now to just add the paint an' this beauty's done." He said with an air of finality. The rest of the guitar was already assembled and only needed some fine tuning before he'd deliver it. Then another customer would be happy, and he'd be able to eat for another month, so everybody wins. Just as he was about to grab a tube of red paint, the door to the store opened up and Vinyl peeked her head in.

"yo Mael! There's someone in the front who needs to see you. Some dragon kid." She said, before looking at the unfinished ornament. "nice!" she said before Maelstrom shooed her out and following her into the store.

There, leaning against the front desk, stood spike, looking as if he had just run a marathon.

"yo Spike!" called Maelstrom. "Vinyl said ya needed to talk to me." Spike nodded. He handed Maelstrom a rolled up scroll with a wax seal holding it shut. "we got a letter from princess Celestia with a side note that was meant for you. Twilight wanted to read it but that would've been an invasion of your privacy, so I told her that I'd bring it to you." The young dragon explained. Maelstrom smiled slightly and patted Spike on the shoulder. "alright, thanks buddy. Y'know what? While I'm going to read this letter, you get yourself something to drink. Fridge's over there." He pointed behind the counter. Spike nearly dove for the refrigerator and grabbed a can of energy drink. He thanked the older unicorn and began the short walk back to the library. Mael grabbed a can of soda as well and broke the seal on the letter.

_Dearest Maelstrom,_

_It is my pleasure to courteously invite you to Canterlot Castle for a pleasant high tea with both Luna and me._

_This is mine, and my sister's way of apologizing and thanking you for the entire debacle three weeks ago. Therefore we both hope that you will be able to attend. There are also some things to be discussed while we are at it. _

_We have included a ticket for the train to Canterlot and a member of the Solar guard will be waiting on the train station to pick you up. _

_After that, you will be spending the night at the castle and you will be served as royalty, before taking the afternoon train back to Ponyville._

_We sincerely hope to see you tomorrow,_

_-Princess Celestia._

_-Princess Luna._

A small rune on the bottom of the letter lit up, and a single train ticket fell out. He checked the ticket for information and nodded a bit to himself with a single thought.

'_well this should be interesting'_

The next morning, Maelstrom stood up a little earlier than normal. He checked himself in the mirror and with a groan, he grabbed a brush. His hair, unfortunately was very spiky, and incredibly hard to control, therefore making it impossible to look neat. He eventually settled for a ponytail and a smooth trim of his facial fur. He put on a black blouse with a red undercoat along with a black tie, a black overcoat and black dress pants, hoping that that would be good enough for royalty. When he got downstairs, Octavia was eating her breakfast. He ate a piece of toast and with a word of goodbye, he left for the Ponyville train station.

The ride to Canterlot took little over two hours and he was glad to get out of the stuffy cart. A small distance away, he saw a large white Pegasus stallion in solid golden armor holding a sign saying '_**Maelstrom**_' he walked over to the Pegasus and shook his hand.

"you Maelstrom?" the guard asked gruffly, his face a mask of seriousness. Maelstrom slung his bag over his shoulder with a 'yup'. He lit his pipe and both him and the Pegasus started walking towards the city gates.

Canterlot was a massive ivory city built in the side of a mountain via a series of colossal plateaus. The walls were made of white marble and the colors gold and purple were quite prominent. All in all, it reminded Maelstrom constantly that the royal family resided within these white walls. The city was the epicenter of glitter, glamor and sophistication in the kingdom of Equestria and just looking at it made him feel like a bit of a hillbilly. Sure, he'd been there before but something about the high towers, and expensive villa's just made him feel a bit uncomfortable. In his eyes he was just a humble music shop owner, while the people here were all jetsetters, rich families and ranking officers in the Equestrian military force.

"welcome to the city of arrogant pricks and stuck up ladies." He mumbled loud enough for the Pegasus guard to hear him. The guard kept a straight face, but maelstrom felt that he was amused on the inside. "what makes you say that sir?" the white guard asked him, unable to keep the curiosity away. Maelstrom shrugged while exhaling a cloud of smoke, flipping his bag from one shoulder to the other.

"be honest. How many decent people do you know here? People who don't look down on you for being 'nothing more than a guard'." The Pegasus thought about it for a little while. He looked around, seeing a lot of snobbish rich people walking around with their muzzles held high. He sighed a bit, sagging his shoulders. "you've got a point there. Besides captain Shining Armor, the royal sisters and some artists, most people treat others like the dirt under their hooves." Maelstrom patted him on the back, puffing out another cloud. "that's what I mean. I mean not all of them are bad, but some of them could do without the ten foot poles up their asses."

At that, the guard actually dropped his emotionless mask and chuckled a bit at the idea.

After a ten minute walk through a long shopping boulevard, they arrived at the massive golden gates of Canterlot Castle. Mael whistled lowly at the sight of said gates as they swung open and a trumpet could be heard across the courtyard.

"sir Maelstrom of Ponyville has arrived!" a voice shouted. The Pegasus appointed Maelstrom's bag to a butler who took it to his chambers and motioned the grey unicorn to follow him inside. The inside of the castle was elegant, yet eccentric. A couple of massive purple rugs covered the white marble floor of the hallways, while plants, tapestries and paintings lined the walls. The windows were filled with stained glass, depicting festivals, battles and other historically important points in history. The two stopped in front of a pair of large oak doors, which swung open with a loud creaking sound. The throne room was absolutely colossal. A red carpet ran from the door to the throne, which was almost a piece of art by itself. The windows ran from the ground to the ceiling and like the rest of the castle were made of stained glass, bathing the room in a myriad of vibrant colors. The ceilings were very high, and decorated with several chandeliers made of the highest quality crystal.

Celestia sat on top of the throne, mane flowing in the nonexistent wind. She wore a pure white dress and the usual crown was perched on top of her head. Luna sat on a smaller throne next to her elder sister, looking slightly different than the last time he saw her. Her fur had become a little bit darker, and her mane and tail a bit longer. Much like her evil counterpart, her mane and tail had gained a more plasma-like state, making her mane look like a starlit night. Her eyes had also turned a little bit darker and more pronounced. She wore a simple black sleeveless dress with a cobalt blue sash around her waist, accentuating her curves. All in all, she looked a lot better since they talked three weeks ago. The two sisters wore a welcoming smile as they watched their esteemed guest enter the throne room.

"Welcome to Canterlot, sir Maelstrom." Celestia began as she and Luna both stood up. Maelstrom quickly kneeled when the two alicorns approached him. "miladies, it's an honor to be invited by you." He said with bowed head. Both princesses shook their heads in amusement as Luna pulled him up. "stand, Maelstrom. Today you are here as our guest, not as our subject so kneeling is not needed." Celestia said with a hint of amusement in her voice.

"very well." He said, immediately bouncing back to his normal attitude. "how are you doing?" he asked, losing all sense of formality, making Luna smile and taking Celestia by surprise a bit. The present members of the Solar guard bristled and quickly drew their weapons. Maelstrom quickly swiped his hand out, said hand coated in a faint red aura. Celestia halted every last member with a single hand motion. The guards lowered their swords and stepped back into their original positions.

"I'm sorry Maelstrom." Celestia said with a hint of mirth. "They are awfully protective of us and they do not like it when someone talks to us in such an informal way." She said with a small bow. "nonsense." Maelstrom responded curtly. "they were just doing their jobs. If they are as well trained in combat as they are vigilant, then I can understand why Equestria has been so peaceful for over a thousand years." He commended the royal guard. The members within earshot immediately puffed their chests out in pride and Luna laughed.

"besides." He continued with a friendly smile on his face. "those blades wouldn't be able to reach me anyway.

He snapped his finger and with a series of loud _**'clang!'s **_the blades were shattered as if struck by a powerful hammer blow. The pieces fell to the floor and each guard just stared at their broken hilts in disbelief.

"so." He began chipper, as if nothing happened. "you mentioned something about tea." Both Celestia and Luna chuckled as they got up from their thrones and told him to follow them. He followed the two princesses onto a large marble balcony overlooking the entirety of Canterlot. In the middle of the balcony stood a modest round table surrounded by three elegant chairs. On top of the table stood a plate filled with an assortment of confections and next to the plate stood an elegantly crafted porcelain teapot. He sat down along with the two ladies and waited for a servant to pour him a cup of steaming hot tea. The two sisters engaged in a friendly talk with the young stallion about everything that had happened in the months since they had last met. After catching up, Celestia asked him a few questions about Maelstrom's childhood, which he responded to with some amusing stories.

"-so dad finally realized that I made his pants disappear and he started chasing me all around town screaming bloody murder, and not realizing he was still in his heart print underwear!" maelstrom finished his last story with a roar of laughter. The princesses were giggling at the thought of a full grown stallion running around in his undies while the guards were trying –and failing- to keep their faces straight. Luna gazed at the clock and widened her eyes as she saw the time.

"sister, the clock has already struck three." Luna informed her sister, to which Celestia emptied her cup and stood up. "very well, time really flies when you're having fun it seems." She turned to Mael and bowed her head slightly. "excuse me Maelstrom, but it seems I need to get back to my duties. Luna would you like to keep our esteemed guest company until it's time to raise the moon?"

Luna answered with a happy yes and beckoned Maelstrom to follow her. He stood up, bowed to the goddess of the sun and followed Luna inside. Two guards immediately wanted to follow the pair but were held back by a smiling Celestia.

"I think my sister and sir maelstrom can handle themselves quite well if something happens."

"no disrespect your majesty, but the council told us to-" one guard began but was cut off by Celestia, whose smile had turned into a scalding glare. "forget the council. this kingdom is still a diarchy*, so no matter what the _esteemed_ council tells you to do, mine and Luna's word will always overrule theirs. Am I clear?" she said sharply, causing the guard in question to shrink back into his armor and realize just why the princess had been in control for over a thousand years.

The mare was fucking terrifying when she was angered.

"C-crystal clear, your highness." The guard squeaked out as he quickly shot back to his original post as the princess retreated back into her office.

Celestia shook her head in exasperation and glared at a portrait of a beautiful, white coated, red maned alicorn mare holding a large golden zweihander in one hand and a silver cross-shaped tower shield in the other.

"why did you insist on keeping those bumbling idiots as high council, mother?" she sat down in a comfortable chair behind a massive mahogany desk filled with small, organized stacks of paper.

On the back wall, underneath the portrait of the former queen hung a massive, elegantly crafted polearm. It's staff was made from seven feet long ebony wood with a blade made of ruby encrusted, heat treated titanium, giving the blade a blue-ish color. On the bottom of the staff hung a small golden pendant in the shape of the sun.

Celestia sighed again and grabbed both a quill and a piece of paper from a moderately large stack of documents.

"let's see. Request to have princess Mi Amore Cadenza be betrothed to the duke of Fillydelphia, prince Blueblood." She dipped the quill in a bottle of red ink and wrote in big, bold lettering.

'_**DENIED! **_Signed, princess Celestia.'

Luna let out a content sigh as she and Maelstrom walked through the halls at an easygoing tempo. Both of them weren't in a hurry and sundown wasn't for another five hours _(the merits of summer.)_ so they had all the time in the world to do whatever they wanted.

"Do you mind?" Maelstrom asked Luna, motioning to his pipe. Luna shook her head and Mael stuffed some tobacco inside, before lighting the pipe and sucking in a mouthful of smoke.

"I have to ask you." She began, gaining Maelstrom's attention. "during out little… skirmish a few weeks back I noticed that you have a considerable amount of magical power." Maelstrom raised an eyebrow at Luna calling a battle to the death a skirmish but kept quiet. "where did you learn those techniques? I mean no offence, but while some of the spells you used are of grandmaster level and excellently executed, you don't exactly strike me as a second coming of Clover the clever. It should be impossible to learn spellcasting of that level without at least a lot of help."

Maelstrom pondered the princess's words for a bit, exhaled the smoke through his nose and shrugged. "you're right. I've had plenty of help in the past. Ya see, from my sixteenth until my twentieth I've traveled the world on foot. I've been pretty much anywhere and along the way I've learned many useful skills. Not only music related, but also other things. I studied the meditation arts with the monks in Neighpon, a Zebrafrican shaman taught me the basics of runecasting an' alchemy an' a Xingese master taught me how to fight with a sword." This caught Luna's attention.

"you know how to fight with a sword?" she inquired making Maelstrom snap out of his musings.

"yup. I prefer to fight with my bare hands but I know my way around a blade. Though I do have to admit that my last teacher was the most powerful." He drawled, smiling wistfully as he thought of his last teacher." He was a dusty old unicorn, damn near ancient. Had a really long white beard an' he didn't really talk much about himself. He was really strong though. He zapped my ass six times around the field when I didn't listen to his lessons about proper mana distribution an' stuff. He was a stubborn, stingy, grumpy old bastard, but I wouldn't trade the eight months training under him for anything." His smile vanished as he thought of a slightly younger version of himself getting hit in the ass by a low powered lightning bolt thrown by a grey unicorn dressed in simple green robes with a curly white beard that reached his hooves and a slightly manic look in his eyes. "then again I could've gone without the 3000 volts in the butt." He grumbled as he unconsciously rubbed a phantom burn on his left ass cheek. This made Luna giggle even harder and even one or two guards were having difficulty keeping a straight face.

"yeah yeah, laugh it off why don't ya?" he grumbled before exhaling another cloud and playfully nudging the dark blue alicorn in the side.

The two left the castle's main building and entered a massive courtyard. It was a fairly simple piece of grassland with a few massive ivory walls surrounding it and a watchtower on every corner. In the back of the courtyard stood a few simple white buildings with soldiers going in and out every once in a while.

'_must be the barracks.'_ Maelstrom thought to himself before gazing over to a pair of rookie guards practicing their sword fighting skills in the form of a simple sparring match. In his own humble opinion the two guards weren't all that bad, but the critical eye he possessed due to Naruto's life of training, the memories absorbed from old man Mifune and the training under the master during his travels through Xing picked up a few flaws in their stances along with several holes both their defences. Unconsciously he shook his head, something that Luna picked up on.

"Is something the matter Maelstrom?" At her question Maelstrom merely nodded in the direction of the two sparring guards. "their stances are wrong." He began. "the left one's too low to the ground to properly defend against a low sweep. Not only that, but he has his sword held a bit too high. If the other guy gives one fast swing to his leg, he will fall to the ground and the match'll be over."

Before Luna could ponder his words, a cry of surprise rang out across the courtyard and Luna looked up to see that Maelstrom's prediction had come true. The left guard laid on his back with the right soldier standing over him, practice blade aimed at his partner's throat.

A slow clapping sounded across the training field and Maelstrom walked over to the two guards. He helped the one on the ground up and smirked at Luna, who was genuinely impressed that his quick analysis was enough to predict the exact outcome of the match.

"Impressive. I see you talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?" Luna teased him causing Mael to stiffen. He turned to her with a funny look on his face. He deeply inhaled another cloud of smoke before extinguishing his pipe, putting it away, exhaling the large cloud and staring her straight in the eyes.

"Lady, are you sayin' I can't put my money where my mouth is?" He asked her. Luna motioned the guards to hand over their wooden training swords, and handed one to the grey unicorn.

"so what if I am?" She teased. Maelstrom chuckled and stepped into the ring. "Very well princess, what are the rules?" Luna thought for a bit and took position on the other side of the ring. "No magic except for physical enhancement magic, this means no levitation, no teleportation and no magic missile. No blows below the belt or bone-breaking blows. The first one to give up loses, the first one to fall out of the ring loses and the first one to get knocked out loses. To make it even, I will not use my wings as long as you refrain from using runes. Does that sound fair?"

Mael nodded eagerly before taking layout of the ring in. it was a simple piece of flatland. the ground was hard enough to move around without trouble and yet soft enough to slightly cushion a fall. Here and there a small patch of grass stubbornly grew. the edge of the ring was marked with a red painted line. Simple, but not too simple.

Their banter attracted a small crowd of off-duty guards who now casually stood and sat a safe distance away from the ring. An elder pegasus Stallion in a large red coloured armor than the rest stepped forward and raised a nasty looking, gold plated war axe.

_**(music: la distancia para un duelo)**_

"the rules have been set! Are both participants ready?" He called out in an authoritative voice. When both he and Luna nodded, the stallion made a chopping motion with his war axe and quickly stepped back.

Both fighters exploded into action. Maelstom, horn glowing red channelled his aura through his body, doubling it's average speed and strength. He sprang forward, wooden sword by his side, preparing to stab. Luna laid her hand on her 'sheathed' sword sprang forward as well.

Mael stabbed forward. His sword was parried by Luna's sword in a fluid motion. She swung in a wide, yet precise arc at his midsection. Something he evaded by digging his hoof slightly into the ground and jumping back a bit. As soon as he landed, Luna flew at him, sword raised over her head. Mael raised his own blade and with a loud 'CLACK' the two made contact. Both participants struggled for dominance, bringing their bodies close while wearing wide smirks. Maelstrom noticed that, even without Nightmare Moon's powers, Luna's physical strength was still a lot greater than his own. Acting upon that realization, he purposefully gave in.

Luna suddenly lurched forward due to lack of resistance and before she could correct herself, Maelstrom had already ducked underneath her. He swung his sword upwards, tapping her right arm and raking the tip from her right side to her left shoulder. In retaliation, Luna gave him a kick to his inner leg, making him lose balance as well. The two both fell, Maelstrom on the bottom, and Luna on top. The alicorn firmly planted her knees on his shoulder and pointed the tip of her sword at his throat. He smirked and whipped his legs around her throat, before tensing up and flipping her off of him. She flipped in the air and landed on her feet the same time as he did. Not wasting any time or movement, the Fighters both flew forward again to continue their dance of savagerie. One stepped forward, the other back, one struck and the other blocked before countering and getting blocked. They spun circles around each other; her dress fluidly following her movements, and his tie whipping out as he struck.

The soldiers could only stand and watch as the two expert swordfighters spun around, striking, dodging and blocking at a level of mastery they could only wish they possessed. The elder stallion grinned as he saw the ability with which his leader and the unicorn from the reports were dueling.

Both Luna and Maelstrom were grinning like loons; unlike their earlier battle, this time nothing was on the line so they could thorougly enjoy themselves. It had been years for Maelstrom since he had a decent opponent and Luna was unlike any sparring partner he ever had. She enjoyed their little savage dance as much as he did and she did not hide it, her abilities were far above that of any run-of-the-mill soldier and he could feel that she was actually holding back a little, much like himself.

'Ah fuck it!' he thought to himself as they disengaged from yet another lock. he threw his wooden sword up, slightly distracting the lunar princess and charged his palms with magic aura. he quickly closed the distance between himself and the shocked royal and thrust both hands forward with open palms.

"_murum percusserit!" _(wall strike!) He called out as his palms made contact with her chest and the aura gathered in his hands released outward. a violent gale erupted between them and Luna was thrown back. She skidded over the ground, digging her hooves as deep as she could and grit her teeth as she pushed as hard as she could. Slowly she came to a stop mere millimetres away from the line and she laughed.

"Tis unbelievable. You actually almost got me out of the ring." She commented before her smirk turned savage. "But seeing as you were serious about that, I guess I'll just have to take off the kiddie gloves as well."

Maelstrom's eyes widened as she instantly closed the gap between them and struck out with one fist.

"OH FU-" he called out hefore her fist struck him dead centre and he got launched off of his feet. he flipped twice in the air before landing on his back roughly three metres out of the ring.

"Oh dear." Luna ran over tot Maelstrom along with the elder stallion who had broken up the crowd, only to see that her guest was smiling widely at her.

"Are you okay?" She asked him with some concern as she helped him up. Maelstrom slapped himself on the shoulders, getting rid of some dirt and grinned. "I'm fine Luna, how about you?"

"the princess is fine young Maelstrom." the elder stallion answered him before sticking out his hand which Mael accepted. "greetings young man, I am general Galewing; the general of the seventh aerial division." They shook, staring each other in the eye and smirking. "An honor to meet you sir." Maelstrom drawled as the elder pegasus nodded. "Though what I'm wondering is what the famed hydra slayer of the east is doing in Canterlot this time of the year? I thought the general summit took place in September."

"very perceptive of you." the general noted. "Yes, usually I'd be stationed in the fire swamp this time of year but seeing the circumstances a few months ago princess Celestie thought it to be wise for her three top generals to be present in Canterlot until all of the paperwork is taken care of." Mael raised a sceptic eyebrow at the pegasus. "paperwork?"

"Princess Luna's reïntegration into the royal family, division of the workload between them and of course the expenses for the entire Summer sun celebration fiasco two months ago." The general responded smoothly.

a little too smoothly.

Maelstrom's eyes turned orange as he reached out for Galewing's emotions and realised that the stallion was only telling half-truths. His eyes returned to their normal colours as he turned around.

"As a general you are allowed to keep any secrets, sir Galewing; but I don't like bein' lied to."

the General frowned before lightening up and laughing boisterously.

"you really are way more perspective then you appear!" he called out before flapping his wings and taking to the skies. "I hope to see you around young one!" With a last laugh he entered a window in the highest tower and vanished out of sight.

"Strange man." Mael commented offhandedly before looking at Lun who shrugged. "Perhaps he is, but I've read his reports. He's one of the most powerful and efficient members of the equestrian army in several generations. Ithink that he's entitled to a few quirks."

As the pair continued, they shared some more stories, jokes and banter before Luna was fetched by a random guard.

The raising of the moon was a beautiful experience. First, Celestia covered her hands in her unique golden aura, before rising into the sky with her massive wings spread out. The sun itself flared a little bit as the mare's tremendous mana made the connection. Maelstrom could not help but feel insignificant as he could feel the absolute vastness of his Lady's ocean of mana compared to his. A twinge of jealousy sprouted in his heart as he thought back to his previous life's chakra, which he quickly suppressed.

The princess's gown billowed a bit as she descended, the sun's golden rays constantly touching her back and bathing the white mare in a golden cloak and a serene smile playing on her lips.

As soon as she touched down, luna spread her own wings, before lighting up her own cobalt aura. She raised her hands as the top of the moon peeked over the edge of the horizon. She gave a flap with her mighty wings and ascended, the moon following her, bathing her in it's glorious silvery light.

Maelstrom simlpy could not stop staring at the ethereal beauty of the lunar princess as the guided the moon to it's location. Luna lowered herself back to the ground and stared up at the sky as her aura intensified and the stars started aligning themselves into amazing patterns. Swirls, animals and even vague pictures appeared in the night sky as Luna expertly moved them around like a seasoned artist. She reopened her eyes and smiled at the small crowd she had attracted, before noticing Maelstrom staring upwards with open mouth.

"you're going to catch parasprites like that you know?" she asked the unicorn teasingly before Mael quickly snapped his mouth shut.

"S-sorry. It's just... Wow. It's beautiful." He said breathlessly as he motioned for the panorama above their heads; to which Luna grinned proudly.

"Yes. Sister did a fine job at keeping the night intact but she lacked the finesse needed to form full pictures in the sky." She joked halfheartedly as Celestia sent her a playful glare.

"Now then."Celestia began with an amused smirk. "How about dinner."

Dinner was a relatively quiet affair at Canterlot castle. Surely only the most exquisite grains of corn, grass and hay was being served, along with a very expensive wine and several cheeses, pies and other lavish food. But dinner itself was rather quiet. The table was not as big as you would expect from the rulers of a country, but that just showed that they appreciated the simplicity and closeness of having a meal with your loved ones.

After dinner everyone except for Luna went to bed. Maelstrom was shown his room by one of the maids. it was a large white room with a bathroom attached to it and a balcony that connected the two while overlooking Canterlot city. his bed was a simple queen sized bed with white covers and many, many pillows. Maelstrom wondered why he would need so many of them but decided to just let it go and go to sleep. As he laid down he recalled everything that had happened that day and grinned. He gained a new friend, and a damn interesting one at that.

In the Canterlot garden, Luna sat on a chair as she stared at the moon. She reviewed the dreams of the millions and millions of ponies that were yet again under her rule. Some were happy dreams, some were nightmares, and some were about her sister. Luna could not help but let out a shudder at the thought of her sister being like the ones in those dreams; absolutely disturbing.

When the last lights in the castle were dimmed, she closed her eyes and started focusing her conciousness on one particular persons subconciousness. Her world went black and she appeard before a sturdy door. on the door stood a single name.

_**'Mealstrom 'Naruto Uzumaki' Zap-apple Smith'**_

_'time to see what our dear friend dreams of.'_

_**END CHAPTER!**_

_***diarchy: a kingdom or empire ruled by two people of equal political power.**_

_**so that took me a while to write. The main reason for that was simply because my laptop is a piece of shit that decided to crap out on me in the middle of my final semester. I am sorry for the extremely long wait.**_


End file.
