Moonlight observed from afar how Star was subdued, feeling herself impotent to be able to help him, and that was something that anguished her heart.
“You argue that my vision of peace is merely a lie, the one that is also my master’s vision” the General said to Star. “I’ll show here the contrary.”
“You can say whatever you want” Star said. “It won’t change what I believe.”
“Those words about light being the right path to take are completely empty” the General said. “You don’t even understand the mere concept of good and evil. You’re only option now… is to give me the power of Nine-Tails for my master’s own use. And after that, as I told you, your death will lead into peace.”
Continuing to watch Star from afar, Moonlight continued to struggle with her desire to go help him and to honor is decision to face the General of Chaos all by himself. The more the time passed, the more unbearable was to stay there without doing anything.
“Oh, Star…” she said.
The General of Chaos stabbed Star on his back on precise spots with his dark light swords to hold him still. They didn’t caused physical damages but the pain was very real. Star could feel his dark energy getting inside and stopping him from using his own magic.
“I avoided any vital spots, but I guess that doesn’t ease the pain you’re feeling” the General said. “And you won’t be able to move on your own.”
“You won’t get your way” Star said. “My father and the other Generals will eventually return and they won’t stop until they take me from you. You may be stronger than them individually, but I doubt you can defeat seven Generals.”
“By the time they are able to return, it will be too late” the General replied. “And now, it’s time we go our way.”
But before he could do anything to take Star with him, someone appear and tried to attack him from behind, but he just took flight to dodge and landed a few hooves away. Star couldn't believe who had prevented him from being taken. It was… Moonlight.
Her eyes went to Star, seeing how he was immobilized. He couldn’t believe in such cruelty. Well, she could, as she herself once aligned with the Lord of Chaos, but no villain was as much cruel as the General, not even Ulysses.
“I won’t let you hurt Star anymore!” Moonlight exclaimed to the General.
“Reinforcements…” the General said. “And no other than a traitor. How are you, Moonlight?”
“Why did you come up here?” Star asked to Moonlight. “Just run! Please, Moonlight, I don’t want anything happen to you.”
“No” Moonlight replied. “I’m just being selfish now.”
“What’s that mean?” Star asked. “Moonlight, don’t put yourself in danger. Just go!”
“I’m here because I want to be” Moonlight replied. “This time, I’m going to save you, Star. I used to be such a crybaby. Always giving up before getting a chance to start. All that insecurity led me to the dark path. It led me to do terrible things when I was a siren. But you helped me find my way and take the correct path. You brought me back to the light, Star. I always chased after you, wanting to catch up, wanting to walk together with you forever. You’ve changed who I am, Star. Your smile and your love saved me, Star. That’s why I’m not afraid of dying here, if it means I can protect you. Because… I love you. I always will.”
Those words left Star speechless. And so, Moonlight positioned herself to fight the General. With a quick move, she turned to Star and, with a supersonic scream, she broke one of dark light swords, what caught the General by surprise. When she prepared to destroy another one, the General used his repulsive spell on her, sending her away flight and making her fall a few hooves away. But that didn’t stop her and she got up.
Although surprised by that, she didn’t give up and flight towards Star to break another light sword. But when she prepared to do it, the General used his power again, sending to the other side.
“Moonlight!” Star called.
She started to get up, whit some bruises and a thin line of blood going down her head. She turned to Star and saw the General positioning himself in front of him, facing her. It was obvious to Moonlight she wouldn’t be able to get close of Star. But she had to do something.
And then she thought of the new spell that Melody taught her sometime after being released from the influence of the Lord of Chaos. Moonlight concentrated and then her front hooves started to glow. When the glow was at its most intense form, she used her wings to the General and started to try to punch him. He dodged, but then realized those were not ordinary punches. They used the sound of blow, amplifying it and using it. The proximity was a great danger for him with those supersonic punches, so he had to keep his distance. But then she was able to hit him with a blast, what let him momentary confused.
Taking the opportunity, Moonlight used one supersonic punch to destroy another dark light sword. But when she tried to use it again, the General used his power on her once again, this time harder, what made her fly an even higher distance. Seeing the filly he loved the most falling from that height made Star look in shock, while she hit the ground hardly.
“MOONLIGHT!” Star screamed.
Hitting the ground, Moonlight lost conscious for a moment and, while that, she remembered all the good memories she had with Star and also the sad moments, like when Adagio was able to drag her into the darkness, only to culminate with how Star saved her from her fate as a villain. But then she heard his voice calling:
“Moonlight! Moonlight!”
She started to open her eyes. Seeing that, Star said:
“Moonlight!”
The filly tried to get up, only to fall again. But she didn’t give up and got up again, this time being able to do it. And so, dragging her hooves step by step, she started heading to the General of Chaos and Star once again. But, in the mid-way, she fell again of so weak she was and, once again, she get up.
“Just stopped…” Star asked her, not being able to see her like that. “Please, just stay away.”
But she didn’t do it, continuing to advance. Moonlight remembered all the times Star set the example by not giving up, how he worked out to gain the light ponies’ respect, even when they despised him for hosting Nine-Tails, and how he always was by her side, even before they started dating. When she was close of Star, Moonlight fell and, how she didn’t have the strength to get up again, she dragged herself to Star.
Tears covered Star’s eyes, seeing Moonlight like that. Even the General of Chaos didn’t have words to describe what he was seeing. Her determination, her dedication, her insistence in saving the colt she loved made a brief flick of light appeared on his heart, something that made a pain appear in his chest. He remembered that, one day, someone did the same for him.
“But why…” he asked, while Moonlight arrived at the edge of Start and tried to hold the dark light sword that was holding his hooves. “Why would somepony as weak as you, that doesn’t have the power you once had when you served the Lord of Chaos, try to resiste? Why would you fight me… when you know you’ll only die?”
Moonlight tried to use all the strength she still had to try to remove the dark light sword, while fighting to not pass out.
“Because… I never give up” she replied.
Hearing her saying that made Star look to his dear marefriend who looked at him with her lovely and docile eyes, while doing her gentle and beautiful smile to him. And that was the last he saw before the General, whose heart returned to become dark again, used his powers on her once more and Star, with his eyes wide open, saw Moonlight being thrown high in the air, even higher than the last time, and then hit harder on the ground, close to the General than then summoned a dark light blade and stabbed her.
“It was just like this” the General said to Star. “When I saw my parents being killed right before my eyes because of the followers of that Lord of Order you so adore. That was when I started my dark path. Because of the existence of the light, we feel pain and misery, and with it comes the shadows that are able to ease that. And that’s what I want to everyone: to submerge them in darkness so they can be at ease.”
But Star wasn’t listening him anymore. His eyes were on Moonlight’s immobile body, while her blood dyed the ground with red. And then a bunch of feelings started to invade him. It was not sadness or sorrow, it was something much darker and more intense… It was pure anger and hate, feelings that drove Star to, once again, let himself be consumed by the beast inside of him.
And intense shockwave was released and intense. It was so powerful that threw Gleaming back. She was then stopped by someone that was Tough Skin.
“You…” she said.
“Sorry if I disappeared, but with Leaf Mane gone, I and the others were returned to Animarium” Tough Skin replied. “But I couldn’t simply let Star fight this alone, so I found a portal and came back. What is happening?”
Gleaming Shield looked and so an intense blood-red light rising to the sky. It was some kind of energy that she had already seen before.
“No, it can’t be…” she said.
The General of Chaos was seeing how the dark energy surrounded Star, obscuring him and only letting a pair of red eyes be seen.
“Do you hate me now?!” he asked. “Do you feel the darkness inside?!”
And then the red bubbling coat appeared, covering all his body.
“The power of the Nine-Tails…” the General of Chaos said.
Inside of Star Knight, Nine-Tails could feel the anger and the hate rising and rising, that was the moment he was expecting.
The energy was so strong that destroyed the dark light blades and Star rose up, while getting immediately into his second phase, displaying four tails, while dispelling the dark energy around. From his body, clones of himself appeared, but without leaving the original. They created a great tornado that the General of Chaos was able to defend with his repulsive spell.
The clones returning to the original and then he made the ground open, while he made hands of red energy appear. Star then started to throw great pieces of the ground, but the General of Chaos was able of dodge them. But that was just a diversion, as Star appeared before him and gave him a punch so strong that threw him. But the General used his wings to slow down and get on his hooves, but Star wouldn’t let him get away so easily. With the great hands of red energy he took one big piece and hit on the General with it until he was buried to neck.
“Do you hate me now?” the General asked.
With the hands of red energy, Star crushed the piece of ground he used and the General released himself from the ground.
“Do you still believe that light is the answer?” the General asked.
And, from the darkened sky, a blast of red energy descended and hit Star and increased the intensity of the one that surrounded him, creating a fifth tail. It was then that, from the coat, protuberating made of bone started to get out and formed the skeleton of a fox around Star, with the front paws touching the ground beside his front hooves, a column running his back with ribs surrounding his body and his head inside of a skull. He groaned, releasing a breath of red energy.
“As you wish” the General of Chaos said to Star, realizing his intension. “But know this. My darkness is still GREATER THAN YOURS!”
And he punched the ground with force, making an immense quantity of water appear everywhere, trying to wash Star away, but the intensity of the red energy was so strong that made the water starting to evaporate, causing a lot of steam.
“Let’s go!” the General exclaimed, starting to fly over the water to approach Star.
However, the Jinchuriki started to use a great number of hands of energy to catch him, what forced the General of Chaos to use all his flying skills to try to escape. When he saw blast of energy being shot to him, he used the repulsive spell to repel them. After the successive amount of blasts ended, the General asked:
“Is that all that you got?”
But a greater blast came out of the stream and hit the place where the General of Chaos was, blasting him back. When he stopped, using his wings to land on his hooves, he said:
“Not bad.”
The stream started to clear, revealing Star.
Where Gleaming Shield, she started to tremble, feeling what was going on.
“This feeling…” she said. “It’s just like that day…”
Wanting to know what was happening, she enhance her vision and could see Star fighting the General of Chaos. She was able to see, to her horror, Moonlight extended on the ground, concluding she tried to help Star.
Using his powers, the General of Chaos was able to drop on Star one of the pieces of ground he had taken, but the Jinchuriki made his away to the top, but the roots that were there were preventing him from getting out. The General took that moment to summon a dark light blade and toss it against Star, but intense flames surrounded him, burning the roots and causing an explosion that disintegrated the blades.
But it was then that a pure light started to come out of Star, while golden chains get out from there and started to arrest him. Star fought against them, but they only get stronger and tighter. Seeing that, the General of Chaos realized that was some kind of prevention that Golden Paladin put on his sealing spell for cases like this, but Star was able to get loose, breaking the chains, while the sixth tail appeared.
Star then get down, landing over the water that covered the ground, releasing another pulse of energy and started to swim towards the General of Chaos. Seeing how fast he was, the General hold still on the piece of ground he was, while the agitated water tempted his balance. Hands of energy started to attack him, but the General defended himself as much as he could, but they then made fall in the water, but he used his power to repel the water around him. While he was holding, Star appeared in the water, getting his hands out to grab the General of Chaos’ face, while taking his head out of water, growing. He released his face and tried to kick Star, but he was still resisting, even his repulsive power. The force throw both back, but the General used his wings to took flight and find balance, while Star came to the surface of the water.
Meanwhile, Moonlight was still immobile, fortunately in dry land. But she was still alive, as she whispered:
“Star…”
Arriving to the edge of the coast, Star raised his head and started to gather energy to create the same black sphere he did once before. Weakened, the General of Chaos landed, but he didn’t give up. Using his powers, he made a piece of ground get up and then he drop it over Star. But after it hit him, a great explosion happened.
The explosion was seen by Gleaming Shield that feared the worse.
“By Princess Aurora, what was that?” the guard that was with Twilight before asked.
Using her enhance vision, Gleaming couldn’t see clearly, due to her inexperience with that spell, but what she was able to see was that her cousin had six tails now. It was worse than the last time. If he continued like that, it wouldn’t late until he reached the nineth.
“I have to tell everyone to evacuate immediately” Gleaming said.
Getting her message, Shining became very concernfull. Seeing Rainbow Dash and Soarin returning, he said:
“Quick, I need you to send another message to everyone.”
“But we just arrived to tell you that…” Rainbow Dash started.
“This is serious, Rainbow!” Shining exclaimed. “Gleaming just told me that Star’s power is out of control. He already has six tails. We must evacuate everyone immediately!”
Realizing the seriousness of what was going on, they prepared to took off, but Shining said:
“And there is another thing. This message is now only for Thunder Night. There is something he must know.”
And, after he told them what happened, they took off. Shining just hopped that, when he got to know what happened to her daughter he wouldn’t lose his calm. After all, they could still save her.
After the explosion, the General of Chaos get out from the debris, while, at the same time, Star’s tails get out.
“The Nine-Tails’ power… is magnificent” the General of Chaos commented.
And Star started to get out from the debris, while groaning. Deciding the best way to act a that moment, the General started to move away, flying. The tails crushed the debris that were holding Star and then he followed the General.
Gleaming Shield saw that and then said:
“It seems Star and the General of Chaos are moving away from the citadel. He is fleeing from Star.”
“Good, serves him right” Tough Skin said, while laughing then.
“This is no time for laughing” Gleaming Shield scolded. “First, we need to secure Moonlight. And then, we must do something about Star. In this state, he can attack absolutely anypony. If only Golden Paladin was here… But that doesn’t matter. Can you take me to Moonlight?”
“What about your wings?” Tough Skin asked.
“They’re hurt from the destruction of the citadel and curing myself is not as easy as curing others” Gleaming Shield replied. “So I need your help to get to her.”
“Well, you can count on me” Tough Skin answered.
The General of Chaos continued to try to get away from Star. It wasn’t easy, as the Jinchuriki was very fast, but eventually, he ended up in a place in the Dense Forest where he was able to stop to execute his next plan. He then concentrated. From his horn, a small black sphere appeared and then he released it and it ascended.
At that moment, blasts from Star were shot and directed exactly to the place where the General was. He took flight and landed and then he said:
“Planetary Devastation Spell!”
And so the black sphere started to glow and attracted to it every single thing around like pieces of the ground. Star got close, running against the General of Chaos. He then made a gesture and pieces of ground started to be attracted to him also. But he fired a beam that the General defended with a defensive spell, but that allowed Star to get free.
But then the ground where the Jinchuriki stood started to get attracted as well, taking him with it. Star fired more blasts again, but the General as able to defended himself, before all the attracted debris agglomerated in one single thing: a great sphere of pieces of ground that looked like a planet. While being attracted, Star tried to use the blasts to end that, but to not avail. That resistance made the General of Chaos use even more power, even with his weakened state from the fight. But, eventually, Star was trapped there.
The General gasped after all the effort he did. He didn’t planned to do it that big, but his opponent was Nine-Tails and he couldn’t take any chances. But, nevertheless, the capture of Nine-Tails was now completed.
Inside Star’s mind, he was floating on his back in the red water of the chamber where Nine-Tails’ cage was, thinking how could things had come this far. While so, Nine-Tails observed him, observing how Star’s hate started to increase even more. He then started to rise up, saying:
“I don’t know… What should I do? I don’t know anything anymore. Somepony… Please, help me… Give me… an answer.”
“Destroy everything” Nine-Tails’ voice answered from the cage. “Erase anything that causes you pain. Give me your soul, your spirit, your vital essense. Give it to me and, in exchange, I’ll ease you from your pain.”
And then Star feel a sudden pain and the chains around his torso appeared and started to get loose, making a black substance starting to get out and blackening the water around.
“Yes!” the Nine-Tails exclaimed. “You’re doing fine.”
Outside, flames started to get out of the sphere of debris and, from it, eight tails started to get out. Seeing that, the General of Chaos said:
“I can’t believe he is this strong.”
And so and almost completed form of the fox appeared. It didn’t had the fur and skin, being all flesh and bones, but sill with the capability to breathe fire, what caused some debris to fall like meteors.
But the worst part was about to change, as, at the Nine-Tails’ cage, Star’s eyes glowed in red and he started to approach the cage, while Nine-Tails said:
“Now, come here. Yes, that’s it. Come closer and rip this cursed seal off.”
Getting to the cage, the red water surrounded Star and lifted him to the place where the lock was. He then extended his hoof and prepared to break the chains around it. But, before he could do it, a hand grabbed his hoof, releasing a warm light that awoke Star from the influence of Nine-Tails and took him to the ground.
Then, the same hand was extended to him and Star extended his hoof to it that grabbed it and pull him up. Star looked up and, before him, he could see the Lord of Order.
“You…” Nine-Tails said, seeing his creator.
“Lord of Order…” Star said, not believing he was before deity of all Creation.
“Hello, Star Knight” the Lord of Order said. “Long time no see.”