> The Resolute Sword: Awakening > by Aile Alpha > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1- The Journey Begins > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Resolute Sword Chapter 1- The Journey Begins On a strangely cold summer night several years ago, four mysterious unicorns walked up the road to Canterlot Castle. One was bulky and brown, wearing a good-natured smile. Another was green and slender, looking as if she could put up a decent fight in a race against even a pegasus. The third was tall and blue, very serious and seemingly the leader. And the last one was cream-colored with an orange mane and aqua tail, shorter than the others, a foal. This quartet apparently wished not to attract attention, for they had saved this trip for the night. Upon reaching the castle, the two guards at the door stood firm, understandably suspicious of these nighttime visitors. The first guard said, "I'm sorry, but the princess cannot accept visitors at this hour. You may come back in the morning. At this, none of the unicorns said anything, but the blue leader walked forward and focused his power. A second later, a long, curved, blue blade of light grew from his horn. The guards stared in awe, the foal stared in admiration, and the two other unicorns just watched. Apparently this was something they had seen many times before. When the sword-user took note of the guards' awestruck faces, he retracted the blade, shrinking it until it was no linger there. After a few second of silence, the first guard spoke again. "Very- very well, sir. Please...come in, please." The sword-user faintly smiled as the group walked in. The unicorns walked down the castle's hallway, all focused on their final destination straight ahead- except for the foal, who kept looking around at everything. Being very young, he probably hadn't seen anything like this before. The three adults didn't seem to mind the colt's curiosity, at least until they reached a certain, very decorated door. "Keldeo," said the group's leader firmly. Keldeo instantly stopped his observation of everything in sight. "We're here," said the green unicorn in a somewhat motherly voice. Then, the large brown unicorn lifted a hoof and knocked on the ornate door three times. It then glowed yellow and opened, revealing a long room full of stained glass windows, at the other end of which was a throne occupied by a white alicorn adorned with a crown and a mane of many colors. "Cobalion," said Princess Celestia. "Terrakion, Virizion. It's been much too long. Ah, and this must be Keldeo!" Celestia got up and walked toward the group as the three adult unicorns stood aside so that the princess could see Keldeo better. Keldeo looked upon Princess Celestia with an expression of curiosity and mild surprise. It looked as if he had expected to fidn the princess scary, but was pleasantly surprised by her beauty. When Celestia reached Keldeo, she began to examine him. "Hmm...very fit...thanks to your training, of course...and is this his Cutie Mark?" On Keldeo's flank was a picture of a curved yellow blade much like the sword of light Cobalion showed the guards. "Yes," said Terrakion, "in fact, he got it only two days ago." "Heh. He certainly takes after you three," Celestia commented. And she was right; the other unicorns each had a Cutie Mark that looked identical to Keldeo's except for color- Cobalion's, Virizion's, and Terrakion's Marks all matched their dominant body color. "But anyway," Celestia continued, "to what do I owe the company of the Swords Of Justice tonight?" Cobalion explained, "The usual reason. A serious threat is being made. Surely you've noticed how uncharacteristically cold it's gotten lately? We believe that this is tied to the ancient ice dragon, Kyurem." Celestia gasped. Terrakion took over, " We intend to go to the Frozen Valley and, at the very least, keep Kyurem sealed up for a little while longer." Then Virizion started talking. "But...we believe that this huge challenge is too dangerous for Keldeo, and so is the Oath Woods for a colt by himself. So we've come to ask if you could look after Keldeo while we're gone." Celestia answered, "Well...yes, of course!" The Swords Of Justice smiled and nodded. Then Cobalion bent down and spoke to Keldeo. "Keldeo...I'm afraid this is goodbye for now. And if we should...fail to return...we ask only this. Never forget your training. Never forget Sacred Sword. But most of all...never forget us." "Don't worry, I won't!" Keldeo replied. A smile crossed Cobalion's face. Then the Swords Of Justice turned to leave. "Farewell, Keldeo," said Cobalion. "Goodbye, Keldeo," said Virizion. "Bye, Keldeo," said Terrakion. "Bye!" Keldeo said enthusiastically. "I'll be rooting for you to defeat Kyurem!" A smile crossed the face of everypony present as the Swords Of Justice left. They never returned, but the unnatural cold did stop. Several months later, Keldeo had started his training in basic magic. He was in his room practicing a water spell (and getting the hang of it pretty quickly) when he heard a huge crash. Keldeo looked out the window and saw a very large purple-and-green dragon standing in the middle of the castle, as well as what appeared to be a fading rainbow shockwave. "Uh oh! I- I've gotta do something!" But even Keldeo, with all his overconfidence, could not deny that ha was very unlikely to be able to take down a humongous dragon. So he decided to try to find Princess Celestia on the off-chance that she didn't know. On Keldeo's way to the princess, the dragon abruptly shrunk, going out of sight very quickly. Wondering what happened, Keldeo ran toward the dragon's former location. Eventually he came across a wrecked room with several ponies inside, including Princess Celestia, a very happy purple filly, and a much smaller version of the dragon. "What...happened here?" Keldeo asked? All heads present (except for the dragon's, since it was sucking its tail) turned toward Keldeo. Then Princess Celestia walked toward the new arrival and began explaining the situation. "Keldeo, this young filly is Twilight Sparkle. There was a little...mistake during her entrance exam." Twilight blushed. "But it all turned out well- not only will Twilight be joining the school as my personal protege, but she even gained her Cutie Mark!" "Really?" reacted Keldeo. "That's awesome!" Twilight blushed some more. "That reminds me," said the princess as she turned to Twilight. "Twilight Sparkle, I'd like to introduce you to another one of my students- Keldeo Sword." "Hi!" said Keldeo. "H-hi..." said Twilight timidly. Over the years, Keldeo discovered that the only reason Twilight decided to befriend Keldeo was because she had a schoolfilly crush on him. This made Keldeo feel a bit awkward, but he was more happy- the friendship sustained even after Twilight got over the crush, and since Twilight didn't socialize with anyone besides Keldeo and Spike, the dragon she hatched, Keldeo thought that keeping this friendship alive was healthy for Twilight. Not to mention that he himself liked being friends with her. Keldeo, Twilight, and Spike each had an unusual quality about them. Spike's was obvious- he was a dragon, and not many dragons associated with ponies. Twilight had incredible skill in magic, and some said that she was one of the most powerful unicorns in Equestria. And Keldeo had a mysterious ability almost nopony had ever seen- Sacred Sword, a blade of light that Keldeo could grow from his horn. But little did the trio know that soon, they would be pushed even further into the realm of the strange...