//------------------------------// // The Key of the Seal // Story: Star Knight and the Nine-Tailed Fox // by Rakoon1 //------------------------------// The news about the upcoming war spread quickly by the kingdoms of the regents and even the others, mainly when the regents arrived to their respective kingdoms to begin preparations. In Thicket, Aspen arrived along with his brother and bodyguards. Waiting for their arrival at the castle were Fyr and Bramble. Seeing his dad, Bramble ran up to him and hugged him. "I’m glad you're here, dad" the young deer said. "Yes, my son, I don't like to be out of Thicket for a long time" Aspen replied. "What happened to your horn?" Bramble asked, referring to the horn that Aspen had lost in his fight with Ulysses. "Well... Let's just say I had a pretty intense fight" Aspen ssaid. "But don't worry about this. Don't forget that our horns grow back." "Yes, I know" Bramble said. "But you know, you get pretty cool just with one horn." "Oh yeah?" Aspen asked. "Well, it's good to know. Why don't you go greet your meathead uncle? I need to talk to your mother." Then he turned to his queen who asked him: "How did it go?" "Let's just say that too much has happened and not everything was good" Aspen replied. Approaching his uncle, Bramble said: "I can't believe you've run away, uncle Hawthorn. You know that irritates my father lot." "Oh, Bramble, one day you're going to learn that some things are worth challenging my dear and intimidating older brother" Hawthorn replied. It was then Bramble noticed Shark Skin on his uncle’s back. “Hey, uncle, what’s that?” he asked. “A prize from my battle with one of the Lord of Chaos’ villains” Hawthorn replied. “It has taking a quite a liking to me.” “Wow, amazing…” Bramble said. But it happened that not everything in that sword was amazing. Inside of it, hiding from everyone’s perception, was something that was revealing as being… Kelp, who had merged himself with Shark Skin’s interior. Back to the place where the battle between Hawthorn and Kelp happened, the General of Chaos had opened the grave where supposedly Kelp’s body and head should be. After finding the body, the General said: “It seems my master’s plan went perfectly. With Shark Skin in that foul’s possession, we will get the advantage over our enemy. Furthermore, after we get all the information we need, we will have another opportunity to get Eight-Tails. And we all have to thank you for this… Petal Sprout.” He was referring to Kelp’s body. “If it wasn’t for your shapeshifting abilities, none of this wouldn’t have happened” the General of Chaos said, while the body took the one of Petal Sprout. “Not even a Changeling would be able to disguise its aura like you do, even more underwater in the middle of all that ink. As you are weak, it was not hard for the enemy to defeat you and think that Kelp was dead. Fortunately, you’re a plan-based life and you can be revived, as long we have a piece of you.” Inside Shark Skin, Kelp said: “Now this is when things start getting tough. It was good to let Shark Skin take a liking to the Eight-Tails. But I never imagined it would share energy with him. Luckily, that ended up working in my advantage as well. With me and Shark Skin merged together, we have the same energy signature.” Outside, Aspen called “Blackthorn.” “Yes, Your Highness?” the captain asked. “Make sure that our army is ready for what’s coming” Aspen replied. “Also, I want you to contact all the members of my council.” “Yes, sir” Blackthorn replied. And he walked away. “Can you tell me what’s happening?” Queen Fyr asked. “What’s coming?” “The war, Fyr” Aspen replied. “The war is coming.” In Griffinstone, Gael told the same thing to Greta when he arrived to the castle. “The war?” she repeated. “What do you mean with that?” “The General of Chaos appeared at the summit to make us give him Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails and when we refused, he declared war to all of us” Gael told. “That can’t be good” Greta said. “We have already faced some trouble before, but nothing like this.” “Don’t worry, everything will be fine” Gael calmed her down. “We only have to make sure we are ready when the time comes. Furthermore, we won’t be alone in this fight. We will have the help from kingdoms both from the Pony World and the Enchanted Forest. But I have to say that there is one think good in all this.” “And what is that?” Greta asked. “The tensions between our kingdom and Aeropolis are finally being worked on” Gael replied. In the Dragon Lands, Spike and Ember were having a meeting with the latter’s father in order to get his support for the alliance, as he was the former Dragon Lord and that would get the others to cooperate. “As you can see, dad, the Lord of Chaos’ plan is a threat to us all, not only for the ponies” Ember said. “If we don’t do anything, we will end up under the effect of that curse and be under his control.” “Lord Torch, I know that dragons are not the helping type and that we’re just trying to reform our kind, but this is something urgent” Spike continued. “The alliance is counting with our strength to put a stop to the Lord of Chaos’ evil plan. He may have the power of seven Tailed Beasts, but the power of this alliance is unknown. It can be powerful enough to save us all. Although I can command the dragons to fight for the alliance, I don’t want to be like the former Dragon King. Furthermore, volunteering soldier is much more efficient than a controled one.” Torch remained silent for a bit and then he said: “You are right about one thing, my king, our kind is not the helping type. However, even I recognize the threat that the Lord of Chaos is for all of us. It was wise of you two to search for my support. It just proves your pure intentions for our kind as rulers. My answer is affirmative. You have my support.” “Thank you, Lord Torch” Spike thanked. “Yeah, dad, thank you” Ember said. All the other regents also started their preparations for the upcoming war. They all started to make an inventory of all the weapons they had, as well as the rations, and also started to make a list of all the soldiers they all had, as well as searching for volunteers. Even the older students of royal guard academies were asked to participate. In the Light Kingdom, Star was walking around the citadel, whose half had already been reconstructed, when he was suddenly faced with a lot of fans who all wanted his autograph, as he was now the great hero of their kingdom. All that sudden popularity had been overwhelmed to the young prince who hadn’t adapted to it. Fortunately, Heartbeat appeared to take him to his parents’ presence. “Thanks, Heartbeat, I don’t know for how much long I would be able to survive in the middle of that crowd” Star said. “You don’t have to thank” Heartbeat replied. “I’m just obeying orders.” She took him to the entrance of the throne room before leaving to do other things she had to do. Then, Star opened the doors and entered. He found his mother sitting on her throne with his father and Golden Paladin beside her. Star approached and asked: “Did you call me, mom?” “Yes, Star, we want to talk with you” Twilight replied, referring to herself, Blue and Golden Paladin. “Is this about the upcoming war against the Lord of Chaos?” Star asked. That made a silence, where Blue and Golden Paladin traded looks. Twilight, on the other hoof, remained calmed and then asked: “What is your opinion about that war? What do you want to do?” “I want to participate” Star replied. “I want to help you fight the Chaos side.” “No, absolutely not” Blue said. “You’re too young for this.” “But, dad, I think I already prove myself” Star said. “I was able to reform Pandora and I defeated Rothbart and the General of Chaos.” “Yes, I know that, but…” Blue started. But before he could finish, Twilight made a gesture to her husband to let her reply. He did so and then the princess said: “Star, I know how strong you are. I have absolute faith in you and in your skills. However, I cannot allow you to participate in this war.” “But mom…” “But nothing” she replied. “This is not just a war to defeat the Lord of Chaos and his followers. This is also to protect the remaining Tailed Beasts that hadn’t ended to his possession. That includes Nine-Tails. If you have already heard about the war, then you also must know about his plan, about the curse he plans to cast. He can only do that with Ten-Tails and to revive it he needs all the Tailed Beast. We won’t give him a chance to capture Nine-Tails by putting you in the front line. I’m sorry, but as princess and mother, I cannot allow it.” There was a pause and then Star said: “I understand… but I cannot accept that others will risk their lives just to protect me.” Twilight and Blue could see how frustrated their son was and that let them sad. But then Golden Paladin said: “Well, maybe if you mastered Nine-Tails’ power, you could use it on the war.” That made parents and child look at him. “What?” Star asked. “Golden, what are you doing?” Twilight asked. “Don’t worry, Your Highness, let me handle him” Golden Paladin whispered to her, turning then to Star. “You, young prince, possess inside you half of Nine-Tails’ power and that half is very powerful, more powerful than you can even imagine. If you managed to control it properly, then our chances to win the war would increase exponentially.” “But every time I try, Nine-Tails always gets the better over me” Star said. “If I lost control again, I can harm or even kill the ones I love most.” “But now you’re different” Golden Paladin said. “Now, you have a better control over your own magic. You even managed to learn to control natural energy. Maybe now you’re ready to try again. However, this time, you’ll need something.” “What?” Star asked. “The key of your seal, of course” Golden Paladin. “The one thing that can lock and unlock the prison that contains Nine-Tails.” That caught Star by surprise. “The key?” he asked. “That was the reason why we called you” Blue said. “We believe that it’s time to give you the key to your seal” Twilight continued. Although that only confirmed how much they think Star was ready to have the key, he couldn’t feel that way. Just by thinking in every time he lost control and how much it was taken to seal the power he was releasing, it made him fear what would happen if he went on a rampage without Golden having the key to lock the seal again. “I know you are unsure and I can’t blame you” Golden Paladin said. “Why do you say that, Golden?” Blue asked. “Well, Nine-Tails gets his power by mixing two things together: his energy and his will” Golden Paladin explained. “To control the power, you must extract only the Nine-Tails’ energy and making your own energy in order to make it your own power. But that’s not as easy as it sounds. When you pull out the Nine-Tails’ energy, his will tags along. The Nine-Tails’ will is a mass of hatred that binds tight to his energy by strong forces. No matter how hard you try to shield yourself, he will find some hatred very deep inside to try to take over. That was the main reason why Heartbeat was not able to control his power and lost control completely, as she is very sensible to strong feelings and emotions. In other words, you must have a strong will of your own, one that is completely empty of hatred, one that can completely separate the Nine-Tails’ will from his energy. My seal was design to let a little bit of energy to escape in order to become one with Prince Star Knight. If he uses the key, he can take all the Nine-Tails’ energy inside him.” “And that means all the Nine-Tails’ will would tag along his energy” Blue said. “And, as soon as Prince Star Knight’s will loses to the Nine-Tails’, the Nine-Tails will be fully resurrected” Golden Paladin said. “You don’t have to worry about that” Twilight said. “I know that Star will be able to control it, isn’t that right, my son?” Star looked to his mother and saw her smiling at him. It was one of her sweet smiles that always gave him strength and he couldn’t help but smiling back at her. “Yes…” he said. “I need to control Nine-Tails. After all, I am his Jinchuriki. And it’s my responsability to prevent him from hurting others and use his power for the sake of all of us. And if the key to control it is not to give up into hatred, than that’s something I’ll never do.” Golden Paladin, seeing all that determination of his, smiled and then, accessing to his magic, summoned a key made of golden steel that he then handed to Star. When it arrived to his edge, Star extended his hoof and touch it. The key then turned into light that surrounded Star for a bit before disappearing. “Well, it’s done” Golden Paladin said. “When do I start training to control the Nine-Tails’ power?” Star asked. “That will have to wait” the General of Peace replied. “For now, you’ll have to return to the academy to finish the school year.” “What?!” Star asked. “But you said…” “We still have time before the war” Golden Paladin said. “Meanwhile, i tis essential that a young colt like you does what other colts do: go to school. I believe your parents agree with me, right?” Realizing what Golden Paladin’s plan was, they nodded. “Okay, all right, you win” Star said. “Now, why don’t you go take a walk with Timber?” Twilight asked. “You know that a timberwolf needs a lot of exercise.” After Star left the room, Twilight said to Golden Paladin: “That was good thinking, Golden, but I’m still uncertain about Star having the key.” “Don’t worry, Your Highness” Golden Paladin said to her. “After all, it is his fate to master Nine-Tails’ energy. You’re not the only to have absolute faith on him.” “He’s right, Twily” Blue said. “All the other Generals think the same… and the Lord of Order.” “But for him to control the Nine-Tails’ energy, he will need help, something that only one being can do” Golden Paladin said. “But we need to get King Aspen’s approval.” “I can ask him at the next meeting between regents” Twilight said. “And what’s that?” “The help of another Jinchuriki that can control his Tailed Beast perfectly” Golden Paladin replied. “I’m talking about King Aspen’s brother, Lord Hawthorn.”