Star Knight and the Nine-Tailed Fox

by Rakoon1

A Meeting Between Old Enemies

At the medical core, all the members were full hooves with all the wounded they have. There wasn’t one tend that wasn’t full.

Cherry was at one of the tents using his healing magic on a pony that was between life and death. Fluttershy was comforting his wife that was also part of the medical unit. Cherry was doing her best, but it seemed not even her healing magic couldn’t help him. When he spat some blood, she exclaimed:

“Just hold on! Hemostat, quick…”

But the griffon that helped her analyzing one of Petal Sprout’s clone put her talon over shoulder and nodded to her. Cherry felt her heart heavy, knowing that she couldn’t help that guard. The griffon turned to Fluttershy and told her:

“Please, Fluttershy, take her away.”

“Okay…” Fluttershy replied, accompanying the mare to the outside of the tent.

Cherry didn’t know for how long they would be able to support all that. The battles outside were becoming even more intense. Although they did manage to defeat powerful adversaries, their losses were very high.

At the villains’ hideout, Gentle Light was focusing on the Reincarnation Curse when she heard a familiar voice saying:

“I know what you’ve been up to, my little subversive slave.”

She didn’t have to turn to know who talked.

“Well, well, well, the Lord of Chaos in person” Gentle Light, rolling her eyes and then turning to the Deity of Chaos and Destruction. “What do I have the honor? Isn’t enough that I have your dear underling controlling me against my will?”

“Stop with the complains, the whining and the cynicism” the Lord of Chaos replied. “I know what you’ve been doing.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about” Gentle Light replied.

“You know, you, Generals of Order, should be like my brother in the matter of lying” the Lord of Chaos said. “I really can’t stand someone lying to me. I know that you made Pandora and Scorpan be released from your control by that nasty little prince so they could come to release you from my control.”

“You know about that…” Gentle Light said.

“I keep my eyes on my investments” the Lord of Chaos replied. “But, since I know you’ll do everything to prevent them from doing, you’ll do your best to make under control again, right?”

Even though Gentle Light didn’t want anything more than standing to the Lord of Chaos, the spell he had on her prevented her from doing so. She didn’t have any other alternative but saying:

“Yes…”

“Good, now we’re talking…” the Lord of Chaos said. “But now that I’m here, I must show my disappointment. I’m not saying that the reincarnated beings that you brought to my army weren’t efficient, but I can’t help but noticing that most of them are already sealed.”

“What can I do about that?” Gentle Light asked. “The Alliance has very good warriors, mainly now that Prince Star Knight joined the war, and they also have very powerful sealing spells.”

“You can do one thing… increasing the numbers.”

“But how? It’s not like I can create more reincarnated beings from nothing.”

“You have a lot of ways to do that” the Lord of Chaos replied. “Here’s an idea: the Alliance lost thousands of warriors, some of them with great potential. Get their bodies and cast the curse. Don’t tell me you don’t have any more reincarnated beings in reserve.”

“Those bodies are guarded inside the medical unit camps” Gentle Light said. “The reincarnated beings I have are all the failures from being reuniting the reincarnated army I got for you. They won’t be able to recover all those bodies and return with all those guards guarding the camps.”

“I hate to say this, but you’re right” the Lord of Chaos replied. “Well, I guess I have to use another kind of help in this matter.”

And he disappeared in a wave of darkness.

At his throne room, the Lord of Chaos turned to one of his mirrors and then said:

“Very well, my dears, it is time for you to appear and test the new power I gave you to a little task and maybe get your revenge.”

Three pair of eyes and then Icy’s voice said:

“Finally it’s our time to do something and make Bloom pay for everything she did to us!”

And she, along with her sisters, started to laugh.

At HQ, Ingrid went to receive a report that she then lent to her sister saying:

“Sister, I just receive a temporally report on the status of each company.”

Celestia read it and then said:

“This says the number of casualties spiked up in the night.”

“I hesitated even bring this up, but there is powerful soldiers between the deceased ones” Ingrid continued. “If those bodies fell on the wrong hooves, the enemy can use them as weapons against us with the Reincarnation Spell.”

“Don’t worry, Ingrid” Celestia replied, with a smile. “I already took care of that. However, there are many in the battlefield that cannot be recovered.”

“And how exactly is that being carry on, Princess Celestia?” King Aspen asked.

“I instructed the medical unit to reunite all the guards with special skills, like warriors with combined natures and those with superior fighting skills, and then seal them in scrolls with a spell that I gave to them. When this is all over, we will deliver them, along with the other deceased to their respective kingdoms.”

At the medical camp, where the dead were being transported, the medical core was selecting the ones that possessed special skills. After doing her job treating the warriors, Cherry decided to do something less tragic and went to secure the bodies of the ones with special skills. With Fluttershy’s help, who went to confirm the three bodies that were there, the latter told her:

“Yes, these ones are warriors with special skills.”

“Thanks, Fluttershy, I’ll keep them safe now” Cherry said.

Opening with her magic a big scroll, she used a spell that was taught to her and sealed the bodies inside it, along with the ones that were already there.

After she was over, Cherry got out to take a deep breath of air when Fluttershy approached her:

“Are you okay? You just ran away after sealing those corpses.”

“I know, but… I can’t help but thinking” Cherry replied. “I can’t stop thinking about Big Mac. You saw what happened back there, when I couldn’t save that stallion. What if he was Big Mac?”

“I know what you’re feeling” Fluttershy said. “I can’t also stop thinking about Thundy as well. But I know that I must stay strong and do my work at the Alliance as good as I can.”

Cherry made a smile and said:

“You’re very brave, Fluttershy. Even though you don’t be surrounded by all this, you get the courage to do your job.”

“Maybe, but I think you’re braver than I am” Fluttershy replied. “I wouldn’t be able to treat all these guards, even more the ones in a critical state.”

“Oh… thank you, Fluttershy” Cherry said.

“You’re very welcome” she answered.

It was that a big explosion happened, with the shock wave hitting them slightly.

“What was that?!” Cherry exclaimed.

“The explosion came from the vault” Fluttershy replied.

The two went that way, where they met others reunited, guards and members of the medical core. When they look to where they were looking at, Cherry got paralyzed. It was the Trix, but they were different. Darcy had dark purple scales with green marking covering her coat and a long lizard tail; Stormy had the coat covered by dark raspberry feathers with a pervinca feathery neck ruff and talons instead of front hooves and Icy had a dark grayish green skin covering her body with an amphibian tail and ice shards adorning her mane.

They had defeated all the guards that were guarding the tent where the scroll with the bodies of the more skillful warriors, with Icy having the scroll.

“But aren’t they…” Fluttershy started.

“The Trix” Cherry ended, not wanting to believe.

The three witches just laughed to the others, seeing their faces of terror. It was then that Icy noticed Cherry and she said to her sister:

“Well, well, the Lord of Chaos was right, sisters.

“Hello there, Bloom” Darcy said.

“Finally we’re going to destroy you” Stormy said with lightning on his horn.

But then a pain went through her body for a moment, what caused her to stop doing what she was about to do.

“It seems we need to do our master’s will first before getting our revenge” Icy said. “Let’s go, girls!”

And then they prepare to took off, when the medical griffon prepared to attack, saying:

“That scroll contains the bodies of those with special powers killed in action.”

But when she was about to attack, Stormy launched a lightning bolt that prevented her advance. Others tried to attack as well, but Darcy launched shock waves that threw them away. When they had the way cleared, the three flight away.

“This is bad…” the griffon said. “We need to recover that scroll immediately. Notify the headquarters immediately and get all the wounded inside the tents!”

While the others went to execute her orders, the griffon approached Cherry and Fluttershy said:

“There was so many warriors in that scroll…”

“We know those two” Fluttershy said. “They are very powerful witches that come from another reality.”

“I see…” the griffon said. “I heard about them. They are some of the ones that escaped Tartarus, right? I heard they are dangerous.”

“More than you can think” Cherry said. “I know those two. We used to live in the same reality and we were enemies even back there.”

“I see…” the griffon said. “Well, we can’t waste any time. I’ll contact HQ to send reinforcements. Meanwhile, a team has to be sent after them. Cherry, you know them, so I need you to be in that team.”

Cherry nodded and then Fluttershy said:

“I want to go along.”

The griffon nodded and said:

“I’ll also send with you some warriors. You’ll need a lot of help.”

And, when they were joined by two stallions, an earth pony from Stonult and a unicorn from Evermist. They ran through the same rote that the Trix took. When they arrived to a cliff, the Stonult warrior said:

“It will be hard to find those three. We need to find her before they can give that scroll to the General of Death.”

“If there is one thing I know the best about the Trix is that, even they are dangerous and powerful, they are also very overconfident. They use to underestimate their adversary.”

“In that case, maybe they’re not that far as we think” Fluttershy said.

“Then, maybe I can help finding them” the Evermist guard said.

And, having said that, he charged his horn with magic and release multiple bubbles through the air.

“This is a spell created in Evermist precisely to find the enemy” he explained. “If those witches are nearby, I’ll know it.”

“Good, then we just need a little luck” Cherry said.

“And we also need to know who we are up against” the Stonult guard said, turning to Cherry. “Since you know them the better, I think that’s up to you.”

“Sure… Stormy uses the weather as a weapon, something that becomes even more intense with her aggressiveness. Darcy is more analytical and uses illusionary spells, beyond being able to manipulate shadows. And Icy is the most dangerous of the three. She can use ice, like Queen Ingrid.”

“And they seem to be even much stronger” Fluttershy said. “That’s what worries me the most. Only if we could seal them like we do with the reincarnated beings…”

“Maybe we can” the Stonult guard said. “Sealing spells can trap anything, even those who are not reincarnated. We just need to catch them by surprise.”

Elsewhere, the Trix were heading to the villains’ hideout to give the scroll to Gentle Light.

“Ah, we could take care of Bloom at that moment!” Stormy exclaimed with frustration.

“And risking to be punished by the Lord of Chaos?” Darcy asked. “Have you forgotten what he did when he kidnapped her and tried to kill her before ending the job he gave us?”

“Yeah, I think you’re right, but even so” Stormy.

“Relax, Stormy, once we deliver this scroll, we’ll be allowed to have all the fun we want, even taken our revenge on Bloom once and for all” Icy said.

It was then that a mist covered them.

“What’s this?” Icy asked, while the two sisters stopped, landing. “Stormy, what’s the deal?!”

“Yes, we can’t see anything with this mist” Darcy said.

“That’s not me!” Stormy exclaimed.

“That means… we have company!” Icy exclaimed.

And, before they could do anything else, stones emerged around Darcy, trapping her. Those stones had a sealing tag in them, what would prevent her from getting free.

“Stormy, get rid of this mist, quick!” Icy ordered.

Stormy did so and then the mist dissipated, revealing Cherry, Fluttershy and the others to appear, with them securing where Darcy was.

“Bloom!” Icy exclaimed. “I should have known you would follow, even more with such pathetic team.”

“Yeah, it seems to be something you can’t help but do” Stormy said.

Icy looked to where Darcy was and then she said:

“You’ll regret that.”

“Icy, give us the scroll back” Cherry said. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

“Oh, we know what we’re doing, Bloom” Icy replied. “We’re helping the Lord of Chaos conquer this world.”

“The plans he has will also affect you, can’t you see that?” Cherry asked.

But Icy ignored and said:

“We couldn’t care less about this world. When we’re finish here and with you, the Lord of Chaos will return us to our dimension and, without you to meddle us, everything will be under our control.”

“That’s what we’re going to see” Cherry said.

“Don’t make us laugh” Stormy said. “We know that you don’t have your old powers like we do. We have the advantage here.”

And she casted lightning against her, too quick for Cherry to dodge, but Fluttershy was able to put her out of danger.

“Thank you, Fluttershy” Cherry thanked.

And the Evermist guard advanced to fight Stormy. Meanwhile, the Stonult guard used his earth nature to throw big rocks against Icy. However, she was able to use her ice magic to freeze the rocks and caused them to break. The guard then tried to attack her directly, with a rock hoof, but she used a magic shield to defend the attack. She then threw him back and casted ice shards that hit him and threw him against the ground.

Cherry and Fluttershy advanced to him to see how he was, while the other guard used his water spells to attack Stormy who retaliated with lightning bolts, being able to hit him on a shoulder. Icy approached Cherry, with a wicked smile and ready to attack. But then she saw the Stonult guard made a gesture and prepared to face the rocks again, but them weren’t thrown against her, but against Stormy, who was about to hit the other guard fatally, being able to imprison her like Darcy. Noticing her disadvantage with both her sisters incapacitated, Icy decided to retreat.

Advancing to a river nearby, Cherry started to heal the Stonult guard with her magic, while Fluttershy tended the Evermist guard’s wound.

“Don’t worry, I close the wound” Cherry told to the guard, then saying to the other two. “He won’t be able to continue the pursuit.”

“Neither you can” Fluttershy said, while binding the wound.

After finishing the healing spell, Cherry went to get water to the river. While filling her flask, Cherry couldn’t think about Icy told about not being able to defeat her without her fairy powers. She was right, she couldn’t fight her in the same than before. If it wasn’t for her healing skills, she would be useless on that team.

“Cherry…” Fluttershy’s voice said.

She turned to her and the pegasus asked:

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, it’s just…” Cherry started. “Well, I don’t think I can do this… Face Icy I mean. You heard her. I’m not the same I was before.”

“Cherry, you’re you” Fluttershy replied. “If you already defeated her on your home world, then you can defeat her now.”

“No, Bloom is the one tht used to fight the Trix” Cherry said. “Now, I’m Cherry Blossom, a nurse in Ponyville that can only use healing spells.”

“If there is one thing that I learned by having Twilight and the others as friends is that we can do anything, as long we do it to protect our friends” Fluttershy said. “I’m sure you can do this. Beyond that, we don’t have any choice with two wounded.”

Those words filled Cherry with confidence. She then asked:

“Are you sure you can handle them all by yourself?”

“You already dealt with the more severe ones” Fluttershy replied. “Don’t worry about that.”

Cherry smiled and then, getting all the courage she had, she advanced to go face Icy and retrieve the scroll.

For some time, Cherry advanced as fast as she could, wanting to reach Icy. But it was then that it started to get cold, with her breath condensing. That could only mean one thing… And the lower part of her body was frozen.

“No!” she exclaimed.

And Icy’s laugh was heard and she appeared, landing in front of Cherry.

“You’re so predictable, Bloom” Icy said. “You came after me, even knowing you can’t defeat.”

“Don’t be so certain of that, Icy” Cherry replied.

She charged her horn and casted a beam that Icy easily dodge.

“Please…” she said in a mocking way. “You can’t defeat me. Not like that. Face it, Bloom, in this world, you’re loser. Now, if you don’t mind, I have a scroll to deliver. Don’t worry, I will be back as soon as I’m done. Or maybe I’ll after the one you call your husband… or maybe that brat that is your son. He must grow up by now.”

And Icy started to move away, while laughing.

Cherry’s frustration started to increase, while she tried to release herself. But she couldn’t and, for a moment, she maybe thought she wouldn’t do it. Maybe Icy was right and she couldn’t defeat her. But then the images of Big Mac, Jonagold and Apple Flower appeared in her mind, followed by what Fluttershy told her moments ago. She couldn’t let Icy harm her family. She had to protect them and the only way to do that was stopping Icy and recovering that scroll. Cherry had to show her that she was still the Bloom that used to defeat her.

It was then that magic surrounded her horn in an instinctively way and her body started to radiate heat that unfroze Cherry. Her eyes had now a strong fire, the same one that used to exist when she was a fairy.

Icy was advancing when she heard a voice exclaiming:

“ICY!”

She turned and saw Cherry, who was surrounded by a fire that wasn’t burning the plants around.

“You will be stopped right know!” Cherry exclaimed.

“Well, it looks like you found your fire” Icy said, still with her smile. “But, just because you have your powers back, it doesn’t mean you will stop me. The Lord of Chaos increased my power. I’m not the same I was before.”

And, having said that, she cast a beam of ice that Cherry responded with a beam of fire. The two attacks collided and started to measure their strengths. It was hard for both the casters, but then Bloom started to get the upper hoof and her beam advanced toward Icy and hit her, throwing her against a tree. That cause the scroll to hit the ground and roll over a bit. Cherry took it from the ground with her magic.

“It’s over, Icy” Cherry said. “You lost.”

“No…” Icy said, while trying to stand up. “This can’t end like this… I won’t lose again!”

She started to charge her horn again to attack and Cherry prepared to defend, but then a strong light appeared, bringing the Lord of Order with it. With a wave of his spear, he made Icy be involved in light and that made her return to normal.

“What…” she said. “No! How dare you…”

But, with another wave with the spear, he made her become still and then said:

“I thought you and your sister had learned to be more humble before superior entities. And I believe that it’s time for you three return to the dimension where you came from. But don’t worry, I’ll make sure that the three of you go to comfy cell.”

And he wave again the spear and Stormy and Darcy appeared, having been taken from their respective prisons and turned into normal, and then their disappear in a burst of light. After that, he turned to Cherry and told her:

“You don’t have to worry about them anymore. They won’t come back to this reality. I made sure that not even my brother can bring them.”

“Thank you, my lord” Cherry said.

“And I have to say, dear Bloom, I am impress” the Lord of Order confessed. “I never thought you would be able to unlock your fire power like that.”

“I’m also very surprised about that” Cherry said.

“It seems your light got brighter with your desire to save the ones you love” the Lord of Order said. “That we’ll remain in memory, that I can ensure. Well, I guess you have a scroll to return and I already took care of those witches, so… bye.”

And he disappeared in a burst of light.

After that, Cherry returned to her team. Fortunately, the reinforcements had arrived to help them. The scroll was returned and, in that way, they had prevented the General of Death from using the bodies inside to get more reincarnated beings to serve the Chaos’ purposes.