As she woke up, Daring Rose looked around and couldn’t recognize exactly where she was. Last thing she remembered was a dream about one of the long dead Princesses of Equestria, one which she was quite intimate with and, if she was any judge, a friend.
However, when she looked a bit further into the room she was, she doubted it was only a dream. The room was very fancy and had a rather large wardrobe at the side of plenty of shelves on the left side and a couple more shelves at the left with a large table. And, standing on the table, she noticed a bright orange bird looking straight at her.
“It wasn’t a dream was it?” she asked the bird, looking around a bit more. She had slept on a large four-post bed with rather expensive and fancy design as all other furniture in the room. The colors white and gold dominated the area, even in the weak light from the moon of the previous night, shyly seeping through the windows in contrast with the bright sun light that now bathed the room. The bird chirped and nodded at her.
“So… I’m in Canterlot, right… eh… Philomena?” The phoenix took off and landed above Daring Rose’s head, nesting on her mane. The unicorn smiled and got up. “I’m going to take a bath before joining Princess Twilight…”
Philomena chirped and took off, now to join the Princess, or so Daring Rose assumed.
==================
As the magical energy responsible for the strong distortions approached, the fear and uncertainty inside Twilight’s heart grow. Thankfully, Celestia and Luna managed to get there before the battle started and the mere presence of her old teacher already did wonders to calm her racing heart.
Tense minutes rolled. Whatever it was, it was in no hurry at all. Twilight, without looking, asked Celestia, “Are you afraid?”
“Afraid of what, Twilight?” she asked back.
“You know… Please, don’t make me say it…”
A sad smile parted Celestia’s muzzle, “A bit…”
A bit more of silence passed before Luna also said something, “Kind of exciting is it not? I mean… since Discord’s attack we have not been under this kind of pressure…”
“I see nothing exciting about a life or death battle…” Rarity commented. “I mean, we’re giving other ponies their chance to live and all, but…”
“But it will not be our first time doing this,” Rainbow Dash said. “Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis, Sombra, Discord’s seedlings, Tirek… Not counting others ‘minor’ dangers we faced, like that dragon…”
“The Everfree Forest… Hydra comes to mind…” Applejack said.
“Cockatrice…” Fluttershy commented.
“That entire Mysterious Mare-do-Well thing!” Pinkie Pie said.
“Yes… We had quite an exciting life…” Twilight said with a smile, her confidence somewhat restored.
Not too long after that, they could see in the distance the form of a creature slowly walking towards them. For an instant, they thought Tirek had returned somehow, for the silhouette had two separated arms like he did. However, the shadowy form lacked the long horse legs of the centaur. It was Rainbow Dash the first to recognize what the lower torso of the creature looked like.
“What the! Is that a snake tail?” she asked in amusement.
“A naga…” Celestia said Rainbow Dash’s question. “Indeed they have a snake tail and an upright torso, like Tirek. However, they have two pair of arms instead of one and are extremely powerful magic wise.”
“I know it’s a silly question but… Is she evil or good?” Rarity asked.
“I guess we’re about to find out…” Luna said as the naga approached them.
Twilight, though, felt something different in the air. A quick glance at Celestia and she knew the Sun Princess also felt it wasn’t quite right, “Be alert. I believe it’s only a diversion…”
With Celestia’s short nod, they all readied themselves for the possible coming trap. And it was a surprise when they could finally see this naga in person. Her body was mostly covered in cuts of all deeps, her lower left arm missing and a large hunk of her body was taken way, like a bite, from her snake tail. With a gasp, they noticed she tremble and fall on her face.
Fluttershy was over her in no time, but even with her newfound powers, she knew that this naga person was beyond salvation. The naga looked at her and whispered, “Beware… She’s… coming…”
Out of sheer exhaustion, the naga breathed her last. The others approached the deceased body and Luna asked, “What in Tartarus could cause this to a naga?”
“For the first time, I don’t know the answer, Luna,” Celestia said.
“Allow me to enlighten you then,” said a female voice.
In a flash of light easily recognized as a teleportation spell, everypony could easily identify a fox stopped in front of them. Different from common foxes, though, this one was sitting and looking at them with intelligence in her deep green eyes. Her snow-white fur was just beautiful to the eye and the tip of her tail had a bright golden fur swinging casually but giving the impression of having many more. Only after a second they noticed it wasn’t an illusion: the fox in front of them had nine luxurious tails swinging behind her.
“I am Empress Nikko Burashi, or Daylight Brush on your language, and I am a kitsune from the far eastern lands.”
“And may we know what you’re doing here?” Celestia asked.
“I would really like to say I’m here to form alliances, Pony Princess,” Nikko looked up to meet Celestia’s eyes. The kitsune hardly reached the height Celestia’s chest, leave alone her face. “But I’m afraid that would be a lie. I need the gems so easily found on your country, so I came in a straight line towards your capital, Canterlot if I’m not mistaken.”
“Straight line?” Luna’s eyes bulged. ‘But that mean… San Palomino Desert…”
“A few interesting lifestyles there have. Found even a nest of those,” she said pointing to the naga with her nose. “Very strong magical beings. Not a match for kitsunes, though. Neither are you.”
“Do not underestimate us, Miss Burashi,” Celestia said. “By the way, I am Princess Celestia of Equestria. If you want our gems, surely we can get to an agreement?”
“I’m afraid you haven’t understood my intentions, Celestia-sama. I’m not looking for a few gems. I’ve came to take all of them, every single one.”
Every pony was ready to burst out when Celestia raised a hoof. She then looked the kitsune in the eye, “I’m afraid we cannot accept that, Miss Burashi.”
The kitsune sighed, “I really thought you would be willing to surrender and go without a fight. As I said, Celestia-sama, your powers are nothing compared to mine.”
“I thought I told you not to underestimate us, Miss Burashi.” Celestia said again.
Surprising them all, the kitsune nodded, “If that’s so, we shall start our battle. Are y-”
Before the kitsune could even finish her speak, Rainbow Dash darted forward to tackle her down and succeeded, now both were in the air until three tails of the kitsune wrapped around the pegasus waist and threw her against the ground. With a swing of one tail, the golden tip literally painted a line in the middle of the air where the kitsune landed and stood on all four paws. Rainbow Dash, though, kept going forward against the ground for at least three meters, making a deep gash along the path.
“RAINBOW!” Twilight yelled, already teleporting to her friend’s side. The kitsune leapt against her to attack, but had to avoid the golden and bluish blasts from Luna and Celestia. The shield she ‘painted’ with a single tail, besides not even cracking, was moved along with her about four meters back. Again she painted a floating platform with a tail and landed over it securely.
“Well, I may have underestimated you a little,” the kitsune, though, still smiled. “Only a little, though. You’re still no match for a kitsune, much less a kyubi no kitsune like me.”
==================
“What happened then?” Daring Rose asked Twilight after the lunch, when they got comfortable in the library she first met the Princess of Friendship.
“We fought. A long and hard battle, one that destroyed most of my home back then, a small town called Ponyville,” Twilight answered. “Nikko Burashi was a formidable opponent. Not even when Cadance arrived we were able to make her use her full power. At maximum, she had to use five to six tails to avoid and attack us back.”
“Use… her tails?”
“Seems like kitsunes’ magic is unleashed from their tail, like we unleash from our horns as unicorns. That’s why they can be a little more artistic with their magic and ‘paint’ it in the air.”
“And what it does have with power?”
“Have you tried to cast a specifically hard spell? One that’s at the edge of your abilities?” at Daring Rose’s nod, Twilight smiled. “Then you have noticed that the common glow that envelops your horn was then overlapped by another glow. If you pressed further, it would overlap again and again over and over. The maximum overlays history registered were, ironically, nine.”
“The amount of tails the kitsune had…”
“Yes. So according to how many tails she used, stronger and more precise was her magic. But even with only two thirds of her power, she was fighting my friends and me on the same level. It was clear who was going to win through sheer exhaustion.”
“And what have you done?”
“My friends gave me their consent,” Twilight said. As Daring Rose seemed to not register, she elaborated, “I used my talent as Princess of Friendship and took their powers to myself. At start, it may not seem to make too much a difference, but in reality it does. Take a shield made to resist stones of 10 centimeter radius. It will not be harmed if your throw ten stones of 1 centimeter radius each, for its resistance is set for much larger stones. However, if you take a stone of the equivalent size of ten of those 1 centimeter stones, the shield will be pushed to its limit.”
Suddenly Daring Rose’s eyes widened as she understood, “You were the most powerful beings in Equestria back then, so she had to use over half her powers to fight you, but when you all fused your powers together, she had to use her whole power!”
“Indeed. And not only just that, but with the power of four fully developed alicorns and the six elements of harmony, even her couldn’t stand a chance. I was just going to take out her magic and trap her in stone. Little did I know what I was about to do…”
“A kitsune that loses all its magic turns into dust,” Daring Rose answered. “Didn’t you know it?”
Twilight just shook her head, “No I didn’t. But how do you know?”
“Well… Equestria build relations with other nations long ago, I mean, about half a century ago. Zebras, changelings, griffins, hippogriffs, minotaurs, goats and even nagas… they all have a strong relationship with Equestria nowadays, including culture exchanges, so we know a bit of each other.”
“So the changelings live in peace with ponies now?” Twilight smiled. “That’s a tale for another time though. But yes, I have no means to know back then that a kitsune without magic turned to dust, unable to return ever more. In other words, it died. It took me most of a week to overcome my mistake and the fact I have taken a life. However, Equestria was safe once more and that, in the end, was what truly mattered.”
“So… how Canterlot became destroyed? I think you said that Ponyville was destroyed…”
“Twilight had killed the kitsunes’ Empress,” Discord answered. “Of course, they decided to retaliate.”
“They launched a full attack at Canterlot. Besides their troops weren’t as powerful as Nikko, They were indeed very powerful, and the Royal Guard was losing ground. Even adding mine, my friends’ and the other princesses’ powers, we were losing. And once again, it had come to overkill or losing our country. This time though, the amount of enemies meant that I couldn’t focus the destruction area only in front of me. By expanding it to Canterlot, everyone inside its radius was killed. Ponies, griffins, zebras, kitsunes… The only four being that still breathed after that massive wall of fire was me, my faithful assistant Spike, the immortal Philomena and my friend Discord.”
“You mean…”
“With their powers mixed with mine, they had nothing left to protect them from the magical blast. Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie… I accidentally killed them all. To save Equestria, I killed all its pillars. And then, out of shame, I hid myself. My only companies being the three friends to survive that cursed blast.
“In the end, I became Equestria’s worse enemy…”