A Tale of Tails, Sunsets and Burned Bridges

by Ozone31


Well, Isn't This Place Fun?

(Kurama's POV)

I awoke, what I could only assume was, an hour or two later with a throbbing headache. I picked myself up from the flooded ground and promptly fell flat on my snout again.

"Ow. Gotta get used to these feet" I grumbled to myself, as I rolled into a sitting position, rubbing my bruised nose. "Stupid dragon."

I switched to a crouch, resting my knuckles down for support, as I looked around my surroundings. I appeared to be in the flooded basement of a factory, with pipes and vents sprawling across the walls. There was no visible ceiling, only blackness, reciprocated in the walls both in front of and behind me. The floor was there, but it couldn't be seen through the layer of murky water that covered it. There was some light, but it was a faded, mustard yellow that seemed to emanate from somewhere on the opposite side of the massive room, barely reaching far enough to illuminate my outline, as when I looked down at my huge, clawed hand all I saw was a squarish shape with five pointy cylinders sticking out of it. My final observation of the room was the gate, probably should've been my first one. It was very tall, reaching up into the darkness of the ceiling, made of thick metal bars that were covered in mystic runes that I couldn't read. There was also a piece of paper on the other side (god knows how I saw it) that had the rune for 'seal' on it.

"Probably a spiral lock under that, yeesh this is just like Naruto." Wait. "I can remember! Some...things. Damn it"

I then proceeded to comb through the memory I'd just regained, memories of family, friends, negative-friends! I chuckled at my big brother's alternate term for enemies and then at my cousin's outburst at how stupid it was.


"You can't get negative friends! Just call them what nature intended-Assholes."


I quickly found myself laughing out-loud at how annoyed my cousin had actually become and, just like then, I was quickly on the floor splitting my sides as I watched my brother simply pinch his neck and immobilize him. Unfortunately we had to then drag him home, where we then had our asses kicked by our guardian, our Grandpa. My brother for knocking my cousin out, my cousin for swearing in front of me and me for then calling my Grandpa my cousin's equivalent of negative-friend.

We'd been in our Grumps' (that's what we called him) care for as long as we could remember, or at least I could. The others didn't really talk about it.

"Good times" I sighed. I'd absent-mindedly been sending out small waves of chakra while wrapped in my thoughts and now these waves 'brushed' lightly against, something and before I knew it I had hearing and, if not a bit blurry, sight back."Huh?"

After more 'brushing' more recent memories came back.

"Oh yeah, I got sealed didn't I. How the heck did I forget that?"

"Are you feeling alright Princess Celestia? Did you lose consciousness at any point?" A voice asked. It was clearly female, young, but still professional sounding.

"I'm fine, Nurse Kind Heart. Please see to the child." That voice, it belonged to that winged, unicorn mare. Looking through the eyes of this 'child' quickly gave me a perspective on just how tall this being was, she towered above every other pony present and there were a lot of ponies present, none of whom even came up past her neck.

"Celestia, huh? Well at least I know the know the name and position of the pony who dropped a dragon on me." I deadpanned, knowing full well that I shouldn't, considering that a lot of ponies were probably killed in the assault, but I did so anyway. "Who's going to find out I'm being sassy?" I asked no one in particular, before realizing, "Great the insanity is already kicking in, I'll just have to-"

I was cut off when a wave of cold suddenly passed over me. I remained still for a second, thinking about what had just happened, before whipping around to look behind me and for a second I thought I could see a pair of glowing, bright red eyes staring straight into my own greengage pair, then they were gone as if they were never there at all.

"Hmm." Looking back at the image of the bright white unicorn above us I realized, "I can't afford to sit back and do nothing. I may not be able to practise outside, but I can still do so from here. And there's no time like the present."

With that I stood up fully (most of me getting lost in the darkness in the process) and focused my chakra, using it to alter my shape and size. Soon enough I was a far smaller, orange coated, bipedal fox/human combination, in a black waistcoat with red flames on the sleeves, hem and high riding collar. The Japanese for Nine Tailed Fox written in red going down the back. I also wore a pair of black combat trousers and boots of the same make and colour. On my head, along with a head of messy red hair with blond tips, was a black baseball cap with metal plate on it that had the Japanese symbol for nine engraved into it. With my clawed hands wrapped in training tape, I punched my right fist into my left palm.

"Time to see if I still got it!"

I came from a family of fighters. My brother was a Fifth Dan black belt in Tae Kwon Do, my cousin had an advanced brown belt in kick boxing, last time we exchanged blows and Grumps was a street fighter who, in his prime, could wrestle a polar bear to the ground in five minutes without breaking a sweat, although it's pretty difficult to sweat in the ice caps.

After living with them all my life, I'd picked up a lot of stuff and while the others were taught in dojos by 'professionals', I was taught directly by Grumps and pretty soon developed my own style, which, while it was unorthodox, worked.

"I don't know how some gun-wieldin' dumbass managed to put a bullet in me. But nothin' like that will ever happen again." I promised myself, as I, with the Shadow Clone technique, I summoned my training dummies.


Over the course of ten years, I trained rigorously, while remaining completely out of range of my prison's 'radar'.

Princess Celestia had never told Sunset Shimmer about me or what happened all those years ago on her birthday, only being informed that both of her parents were in the royal guard and had died in the line of duty, which wasn't strictly untrue.

She, unknowingly, had called on my chakra several times throughout the course of her short life. During the entrance exam for Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, when using a spell which allowed her to read multiple books at once and she'd even once used the Shadow Clone Jutsu-that was my fault.


(Third Person POV)

"Right" Kurama grinned as he punched his hand to palm as he always did. "Time to give 'that' technique another go!"

........

"Okay, Sunset" The young unicorn said confidently to herself. "Your gonna do it this time!" She was standing over half of a daisy and hay sandwich, looking down upon it with horn lit.

........

"But first, as usual, some Shadow Clones." Kurama said with one of the largest smiles he'd ever had, spread from ear-to-ear, on his face. He wouldn't have been in such a mood if he knew what was about to happen.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

........

"Repleca Atomica!"

*POOF*

"Argh my head"

"Yeah, you said it"

Sunset promptly stopped rubbing the back of her head. Had she just heard what she thought she'd just heard? Turning around, slowly, to the source of the voice and came face to flank with...herself?

There was only one appropriate course of action in such a situation. She screamed and in turn so did the clone.

........

From inside the seal, Kurama could only watch his living container and her clone as they screamed at each other whilst running around the room, knocking down just about everything that wasn't tied down, or a shelf.

He could only assume that the streams of magic and chakra had crossed and, being so similar in purpose, had swapped their respective targets and power levels. It would explain why he was currently sitting in a pile of soggy daisy sandwiches.

He sighed. "This will be difficult to explain if Sunbutt finds out."


I chuckled at the memory. I only wish what happened later that night could have been so comedic.


(Kurama's POV)

It was exactly 9:00pm in Canterlot and Sunset was having another argument with her teacher-Princess Celestia. These heated discussions have been becoming increasingly more frequent lately, and I'd been paying more and more attention to them as they continued. I'd discovered that Sunset had been creating mountains-out-of-molehills over just about anything she could. I know ten can be a strange age for both foal and adoptive-parent, but this was weird. Who could start a massive argument over one piece of pasta being a square rather than a circle, like all the others.

But this was different, this was actually bad.

"So you're giving up on me! Is that it?" Sunset yelled at the solar princess. "I'm not living up to you're ridiculously high standards, so your gonna drop me?"

It had all begun with Celestia saying that she was starting trials for fillies and colts to join her School for Gifted Unicorns and had then said she was looking for another, possible, personal protege. Sunset had evidently missed the word 'another' in that sentence and the words 'to work with you' in the next one, as by that point she'd stopped listening.

"Of course in not giving up on you, I'm only say-" The princess tried to explain

"No, I get it, I'm not doing well enough and you're gonna drop me and get another student before I make you look bad." The filly cut off her mentor and then went off on a tangent. "Well don't expect me to create a big fuss."

"You already have" I muttered to myself, but choosing not to interfere. In Sunset Shimmer's younger years, when she couldn't read the emotions in pony's eyes, I'd swear that Celestia would shoot looks straight through my Jinchuuriki and into me, as if saying you'd better not be planning anything in there. It was an unnerving experience.

"Sunset please just-" Celestia tried again, but the filly simply ducked her head, tears in her eyes, and ran from her room. I didn't see Celestia give chase, but for a short time I could hear hoof steps behind us, at least until Sunset jumped into an air vent.

After crawling around for a short while, Sunset pushed open a grate that was covering an exit to the ventilation system, back in her room. I could only watch as she began throwing objects of importance into a bag. A photo of her parents, her favourite book (The Filly And The Flea), a bag of bits, her journal and few other things, all shoved hastily into her saddle bags. Placing them on her back and donning a black hooded cloak, she dashed of towards the library, gathering her magic all the way.

Curious, I lightly touched against her thoughts with my chakra and instantly withdrew it again as I felt an overwhelming wave of cold, rush through me from that connection.

"The hell?" I questioned myself as I looked up to the blackness that was the ceiling. Something wasn't right.

After reaching the library, Sunset made a bee-line for the restricted section. With the guards hunting high and low through the city and more public areas of the castle for her, the more private locations were left completely unguarded. She searched for about ten minutes for the book she, apparently, needed.

I could feel it all around me now, the cold, the pain, the hate-filled rage. And it was all too familiar a feeling. I couldn't let it consume me, not now, not ever. Retreating back into the darkness, sitting myself down, crossing my legs and putting my fists together with my palms up and thumbs on the outer side. Finally I wrapped my tails around myself and closed my eyes.

Negating all emotion and thought, my entire body went numb and I entered a deep meditative state.

"I hope you can hold out against this on your own Sunset" I said quietly. "I'll help you when I can, but I can't fight him yet, not without...your...help"

As my consciousness was going dull I began to hear voices from the outside, one was quite clearly Princess Celestia crying out to Sunset, telling her to "Please stop!" But listen my container did not and the spell continued and ended with a bright, blinding flash

"Great Plains Transportation!"

My body went completely still and my mind grew silent. I became invisible. Where ever we would end up, it would be Kyuubi's playing field. But I would not give up, I failed to lock him away when we were sealed, I failed to notice him slowly take over Sunset's mind, but I would not fail to destroy him. Even if it destroyed me in the process, I would remove this demon from the face of existence. One-way-or-another.