Chief Strongpaw

**Chief Strongpaw** is a pony-panther and the leader of the other pony-panthers of the oasis of the pony-panthers. He is also the former Jinchuriki of One-Tail.

## Personality

Chief Strongpaw is seen as being a great follower of the Lord of Order, having blind faith on him. He doesn't seem to have big tolerance towards villains, but to Shadow Claw he opened an exception, as the oasis where he and the other pony-panthers live wanted to help him thanks to Rarity.

At the early part of his life, Strongpaw was feared and despised by most of the pony-panthers because he was the jinchuriki of One-Tail. Despite this, he was able to persevere due to the love that he felt from his uncle and his mother. His father, Chief Sandstorm, believed these niceties were impeding Strongpaw's development as a jinchūriki and as such had both taken from him: he ordered Strongpaw's uncle to try and kill him and, if he were to fail, to tell him that neither he nor Gaara's mother had ever loved him. Strongpaw's plan succeeded, as following Strongpaw's uncle's death he stopped trying to connect with others. Rather, Strongpaw focused on himself, driven solely by his own desires and his own survival. This changed thanks to the Lord of Order's influence and after meeting Star Knight.

Since then, Strogpaw starts emulating improving his relationships with his fellow pony-panthers. His relationship with Shukaku did improve somewhat when he told the tailed beast he used to hate him, but was grateful to the beast because he was able to meet Star due to the painful life Shukaku made him endure. As leader, Strongpaw becomes much wiser. He forgave his father for trying to assassinate him as he was only trying to protect the village. Strongpaw also gains a new purpose in life by exerting all his energies to serving the village and those who live there; although he still has his detractors, most of the pony-panthers adore him and will do what they can to help him. Ever since he met Star Knght, he wishes for all the kingdoms to cooperate and benefit from each other. Strongpaw believes in forgiving past differences and strife, abandoning antiquated concepts of "honour" that only promote isolation, and serving a purpose greater than one's self.

When manipulated by Shukaku, he can become deeply unbalanced, completely unmoved by others' pleas for mercy and, in certain situations, driven mad with bloodlust. This happens because Shukaku's voice can be heard by Strongpaw alone in his head, who encourages violence at every opportunity, and who torments Gaara with threats to take control of his body if he falls asleep.

## Skills

His main skills essentially came from his pony-panther form, which grants him super-strength, super-speed and super-agility.

It’s revealed Chief Strongpaw have affinity for both earth and wind energy, allowing him to use magnet nature.

   As a Jinchuriki, Chief Strongpaw possesses large energy reserves and, being One-Tail's Jinchuriki, Chief Strongpaw is able to manipulate sand. He carries a supply of sand wherever he goes in a bag at his back. If he needs more sand, he can either use sand from the surroundings or, if there isn't any, use his personal sand to break down minerals in the ground to create some. When he uses it, he remains stationary, using his sand to attack opponents from afar. The attacks seems to typically follow the same formula: capture and immobilise the target. If opponents are able to get close enough to attack him, Strongpaw's Shield of Sand automatically protects him from all threats, even those he is not aware of; the Shield of Sand is commonly thought to be Shukaku's doing, an act of self-preservation. If the Shield of Sand is penetrated, either through speed or brute-force, Chief Strongpaw also has a secondary Armour of Sand covering his body. Nevertheless, Strongpaw's sand is extremely effective at keeping him safe, earning fame as an "absolute defence" and allowing him to go years without experiencing a single injury. Chief Strongpaw's sand is highly malleable and can be used for any number of purposes. Often this is to protect others, such as with a wall for one person or, in his capacity as the pony-panther village. He can also use sand to seal others along with sealing papers, giving him a way of stopping reincarnated opponents.

Like all jinchuriki, Chief Strongpaw can transform into his tailed beast. He does so using sand: by layering sand onto parts of his body, he transforms those body parts into human-sized versions of Shukaku's. The more of his body that is transformed in this way, the more his speed and strength increases. As a consequence, however, Shukaku's personality starts influencing his own the more advanced the transformation, making Chief Strongpaw increasingly homicidal. H has seemingly mastered the transformation enough by the battle with Rothbart as he can at least create Shukaku's arms without this happening. By giving up to the sleep, Chief Strongpaw gives the total control to Shukaku.

## Description in the Saga

### Background

Chief Strongpaw wanted to make a child of his the jinchuriki of the One-Tailed Shukaku to serve as a weapon for the pony-panthers. His child was compatible, and for that reason Shukaku was sealed into him while he was still in his mother's womb. Strongpaw ended up being born prematurely and, from the ordeals of childbirth, his mother, Sand Jewel, died. Before dying, she looked lovingly at Strongpaw's small form and vowed to always protect him.

Due to this, he was raised in isolation during his early life, and, after he father tried to kill him six times, with the first being at the hooves of Strongpaw's uncle, who he loved very much, what caused Strongpaw transform into Shukaku and attack the oasis, which Sandstorm stopped with his gold dust. After this, he learned how to hate and to desire to kill. Fortunatly, the Lord of Order helped him to overcome that and become a better pony.

### *The Taking of Tartarus*

In "How to Cure a Predator", he and his pony-panthers save Golden Paladin and Rarity fro Featherwing, recovering the cell blaster to the General. After the oasis accepts to help Shadow Claw, he helps to contain him and throw him to the water.

### Meanwhile

After what happened with Shadow Claw, Stongpaw had to face a rogue pony-panther who sought to kill Shadow Claw, even if he had to kill inoccents who got on his way as well. He was forced to kill him, an action that he regreted and that led him to clear his name despite everything that happened.

### *Star Knight and the Nine-Tailed Fox*

In "One-Tail Awakes", he is revealed as being One-Tail's Jinchuriki. He goes to the Light Kingdom with a small group of pony-panthers to attend a meeting with Twilight. Once there, Oogie Boogie, who is controling one of his companions, tries to attack him, but Chief Strongpaw's sand is able to block the attack and pin him against the wall. After getting out of the pony-panther's body, Chief Strongpaw, with Blue's help, is able to capture him again. When Golden Paladin is about to capture him, Oogie Boogie casts some sleeping powder at him, what forces him to release him. With Chief Strongpaw almost falling asleep, One-Tail tries to take control of his body.

In "Shukaku, the Demon Tanuki", Chief Strongpaw starts to be influenced by Shukaku, adopting his violent behavior. When Golden Paladin tries to seal One-Tail, Chief Strongpaw uses his Tailed Beast's sealing magic to seal him instead. Knowing he is a danger to the Light Kingdom, Twilight and Blue teleport him to the outside of the citadel, so they can contain him without harming inocent ponies. Chief Strongpaw battles then Spike, at the beginning, and then Blue, Twilight and the Light Guard, but he ends up falling asleep, giving the control of his body to Shukaku. Using his gift, Star Knight is able to get in Shukaku's subconscious and is able to convince Chief Strongpaw to resist One-Tail and so he is able to manifest his sleeping body in Shukaku's so Star can wake him up, what is done. In the end, Chief Strongpaw says goodbye to the rulers of the Light Kingdom and returns to the his oasis with his companions, saying the friendship between them would stand.

In "One-Tail in Danger", after meeting with Silver Mist and his guards, Strongpaw goes to investigate a new presence at the Golden Desert and then he finds Strings who uses his magic to try and extract Shukaku from his body. Silver Mist tries to help him, only to have his own tailed beast also start being extracted. A pony-panther is able to meet Golden Paladin, Mirror Coat and Melody, who stop the extractions by releasing Strongpaw and Silver Mist from the chains. This also causes the chains to turn on Strings. Strongpaw then thanks Silver Mist for trying to help him.

In "The Capture of One-Tail", Strongpaw confronts Rothbart, who was able to get in his village in order to capture his Tailed Beast, One-Tail. Strongpaw attacks Rothbart with the sand surrounding his village and at the same time uses his personal supply of sand to defend against Rothbart's Explosive Clay. Strongpaw uses his personal sand to crush Rothbart's left foreleg, prompting him to drop a great explosive on the pony-panther village. Strongpaw defends the village with a great amount of sand and narrowly blocks another set of Rothbart's explosives. As he regroups within his Shield of Sand, he discovers that Rothbart has managed to sneak some explosives into his personal supply of sand, which detonate at point-blank-range. Before he loses consciousness, Strongpaw moves the sand he's been using during the fight away from his village so that it won't fall on the villagers. Rothbart captures him and takes him.

In "Rescuing the Leader of the Pony-Panthers", Rothbart and Medusa take him to a hideout where the other villains and the Lord of Chaos are, where for three days they extract One-Tail from Strongpaw's body. Chief Strongpaw doesn't die after the extraction and so, by order of the Lord of Chaos, Ulysses prepares to kill him, but he is able to gain consciousness and is able to defend himself until the Generals appear to save him.

In “The Summit of Regents Begins”, Strongpaw receives a summoning from King Aspen to a summit of regents in Trottinghan. He, accompanied by two guards, goes there, where he reunites with the other regents.

In “Discuss Between Regents”, Spike participates in the summit, where he opens the proceedings by discussing his own experiences with the Lord of Chaos and his villains and his previous efforts to collaborate with other kingdoms with Jinchuriki, with only the Light Kingdom and Thicket replying to that. He also agrees with the idea of having Celestia leading the united force.

In “The Power of the Regents”, after Petal Sprout appears and announces the presence of Ulysses, the regents bicker while he's gone. Strongpaw becomes pessimistic that the regents will be able to work together since his peers seem too willing to give up, qualities that he cannot respect. Strongpaw then ends up following Aspen with Shining and Gael to deal with the evil griffon, with him, arriving in time to stop him and Aspen from injuring each other too badly. After Ulysses caused a cave-in to cover his escape, Strongpaw saved the others from the falling debris and joined the others in pursuing him back to the Summit hall. Like the others present at the time of Petal Sprout’s appearance, several clones start growing on him, draining his energy. Eventually, he is able to dispose of them. When they arrive, they are met by the General of Chaos.

In “Declaration of War”, Strongpaw watches the General of Chaos revealing his master’s plan about using Ten-Tails to enact a curse that will put everypony in an illusionary peace in order to control them and declaring war when he and the other regents refused to give him Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails. He then agrees with the formation of an alliance to fight the Lord of Chaos’ evil plan.

In “The Regents’ Decision”, he attends a meeting between regents in Thicket to discuss the upcoming war.

In "The Submission of the General of Death", Strongpaw discuss with the other regents what will they do now, agreeing with letting Hard Stone go check on the island.

In “The Strange Disease”, Strongpaw watches as the Wild Isle is approaching the Alliance’s headquarters. Then, he watches Golden Paladin warning Twilight about Gentle Light and the reincarnated beings and, later, he attends a meeting with the other regents before the beginning of the war.

In "The War Begins", Strongpaw is appointed as commander of the Alliance's Fourth Division and also regimental commander. When some of the warriors from different kingdoms start fighting over past grudges, Strongpaw uses his sand to break them up. He then delivers a speech to the assembled forces, asking that they set aside the factors that once set them apart and focus on what now unifies them: stopping the Lord of Chaos and his villains. The Alliance is inspired by his words and mobilises for battle.

In "The First Confrontation", he is seen guiding his unit with Arcing and his unit before they had to take separated ways.

In "The Bloody Swordsponies", he is seen at the top of a rock at the desert, sensing the enemy approaching.

In "The Brilliant Strategist", he uses his Third Eye Spell to detect any approach by the villains' forces. This ends up exposing a reincarnated Platinum, causing the reincarnated Gusty Blizzard, Alder, and Strongpaw's father, Sandstorm, to be sent to reinforce Platinum.

In "Battleground", Strongpaw is approached by Hard Stone who arrives to give him support against King Platinum.

In "The General of Chaos' Surprise Attack", Strongpaw, Hard Stone and the Fourth Unit retreats for the night.

In "A Father's Hope, A Mother's Love", once they're ready, Strongpaw launches the first attack with his sand, which Sandstorm counters with his gold dust. When Sandstorm sees Strongpaw, he is surprised to find that Strongpaw has not transformed into Shukaku, having assumed he had based on the amount of sand he was controlling. Strongpaw informs him that Shukaku was removed from his body, but that his life was saved by the many friends he's made in his capacity as leader of the pony-panther; he adds that, as leader, he now understands all of Strongpaw's attempts to assassinate him and forgives him. Sandstorm finds this all very strange and asks that Strongpaw fight him so that he can see how Strongpaw has grown. After several exchanges, Strongpaw surrounds Sandstorm and the other dead regents with sand, which takes the form of Strongpaw's mother, Sand Jewel. Strongpaw is surprised to see his mother. Sandstorm, accepting defeat, explains that the sand that has always protected him was not Shukaku's doing but rather his mother's, because she loved Strongpaw from the moment he was born. He confesses that he forced his uncle to try and kill Strongpaw all those years ago and to lie to him about his mother in order to test Strongpaw's emotional suitability as a jinchūriki. Strongpaw cries at the news and Sandstorm apologises for not being as good a parent to Strongpaw as his mother was. Strongpaw places sealing tags on the regent's sand confinements, sealing him.

In "The King of Mirages", although Strongpaw sealed his father, the others escape. Strongpaw then assists Hard Stone in his fight with Platinum, using his sand to locate Platinum whenever he turns invisible. One of Star's clones eventually joins the battle and, with Strongpaw's help, is able to briefly incapacitate Platinum, allowing Strongpaw to seal him before he can speak. Strongpaw angrily questions Star about his presence on the battlefield and his new Nine-Tails Energy Mode, but Star assures him that he knows what he's doing and he should not treat him like child. While Star's clone goes off to fight King Alder, Strongpaw and Hard Stone face King Gusty Blizzard. He berates them for fighting Platinum before fighting him, telling them that he's the stronger opponent and therefore should have been dealt with first. When the Gusty Blizzard is repeatedly able to neutralise his sand, Strongpaw admits this is apparently true. Because the king is protected by illusions, Strongpaw uses his sand to locate the giant clam casting it so that Hard Stone can destroy it.

In "The Infinite Streaming Explosion Spell", Strongpaw saves Hard Stone with a sand clone and then tries to capture Gusty Blizzard with his Desert Imperial Funeral Spell, which the reincarnated king escapes from by using an explosive clone. Strongpaw is able to capture Gusty Blizzard in his sand again, but the clone keeps interrupting before the seal can be completed. Although the reincarnated king has repeatedly given them pointers about how to defeat him, he decides not to help them defeat the clone, believing they now need to prove themselves. Strongpaw uses his sand to protect the Fourth Unit from the clone's attacks and then tries to attack the clone with his sand, but the clone is too fast. In order to slow it down, Strongpaw secretly adds some of Sandstorm's gold dust to his sand which, when heated up by the clone's body, acts as the perfect restraint. Star's shadow clone, having defeated King Alder, comes to join Strongpaw. Strongpaw seals Gusty Blizzard and reports their victory to the Alliance's headquarters.

In "Reinforcements Arrive", Strongpaw's Fourth Unit is confronted by a half of Platinum, who is now accompanied by Tirek.

In "The Regents Assemble", Tirek starts attacking the Fourth Unit and Strongpaw, Hard Stone, and Star's clone team up against him. Their combination is effective enough, but Tirek regains his full force, which he then uses to drop a meteorite upon the Fourth Unit. Strongpaw orders that the Fourth Unit evacuate and uses his sand to help Hard Stone stop the meteorite. Tirek responds by dropping a meteorite, which they're not able to stop. Strongpaw's sand protects him from serious injury, but Hard Stone and the rest of the Fourth Unit are badly hurt. Star's clone tries facing Tirek alone, but the prolonged fighting has left it exhausted. Strongpaw and Hard Stone join him, as do the other regents, having all teleported to the battlefield to help. Celestia heals Strongpaw and Hard Stone and they all team up against Tirek. Confident they can defeat him, they tell Star's clone to entrust Tirek to them and to go defeat the General of Chaos elsewhere.

In "A Will of Stone and a Will of Iron", although they outnumber Tirek, the regents struggle against him; Strongpaw uses sand to keep the regents out of range of Tirek's attacks and uses sealings whenever an opportunity to try and seal Tirek presents itself. Their attacks consistently fail and Tirek, in order to make things "fair", creates thirty wood clones, six for each of the regents to fight.

In "The Fall of the Centaur", the wood clones each use Warrior of Dark Light and fight the regents into the night. Despite the superior forces against them, the regents are able to combine forces against the original Tirek, impressing him enough to use the Warrior of Dark Light's "Complete Body" form. Before he can use it to destroy the regents, Purple Smoke and Melody appear, subdueing and imprisoning the centaur.

In "Grandfather VS Grandson", he and the other regents meet with Heartbeat who tells them what is happening at the front line.

In "The Tree of Dreams", while closing in on the battlefield, they first see the tree form of the Ten-Tails, before being contacted telepathically by Luna who informed every one on the battlefield about what Celestia had learned about the tree from her battle with Hepheus. As Star's anger at the loss of the comrades he had fought so hard to protect grew, his emotions and memories were conveyed to everyone via Silverweed's spell. As he and the other regents arrive, Twilight tells to everyone to help her and Star to fight for their dream of a better tomorrow.

In "Pursuing Hope", on arrival, the regents rally the surviving forces against the recreation of the Divine Tree.

In "Star Shield", after Star is able to destabilise the tailed beasts' energy sealed within Grogar, Strongpaw latches onto Shukaku's energy and pulls it free.

In "Strongpaw's Plea", Strongpaw requests that Shukaku help him seal Hepheus. Shukaku is uninterested until Strongpaw suggests that he'll ask another tailed beast, at which point Shukaku decides to help.

   In "The Beginning of the End", Strongpaw and Shukaku attack Hepheus with a combination of sand and wind nature, slowing his movements so that the other tailed beasts, Hawthorn, and Star can attack him. Once he's down, Strongpaw and Shukaku combine efforts to create a bigger and stronger Desert Imperial Funeral Seal, which Hepheus escapes. Hepheus then starts sealing the tailed beasts into the Demonic Statue. Strongpaw tries to prevent Shukaku from being sealed using sand hooves, his way of thanking Shukaku for enabling him to meet Star all those years ago. Hepheus attacks him in order to stop him, which Shukaku blocks so as to preserve his title as Strongpaw's "absolute defence". Despite Strongpaw's efforts, the tailed beasts - including those sealed in Hawthorn and Star - are successfully sealed. In his final moments, the Nine-Tails within Star communicates to Strongpaw how to save Star's life: have the Nine-Tails' energy sealed within Heartbeat transferred to Star. Strongpaw starts carrying Star to her, but his life is rapidly fading. Strongpaw takes him to Twilight so she can provide medical assistance.

In "On the Brink of Death", while Twilight performs emergency life support on Star, Strongpaw carries them to Heartbeat and, on finding her, tells him what the Nine-Tails told him. Heartbeat starts sealing her half of the Nine-Tails into Star, but he is intercepted by Petal Sprout and they are shortly afterwards joined by Hepheus, who is now the jinchuriki of the Ten-Tails.

In "A Team Linked by Blood", Strongpaw, Shining, Blue and Heartbeat team up to try and stop Petal Sprout from giving the Nine-Tails to Hepheus, but they are easily repelled. Through the combined efforts of Shining and Star Shield, the Nine-Tails' energy is reclaimed and Star is gotten to safety.

In "The General of Balance's True Power", Blue decides to face Hepheus, while taking off his star seeds limits to access to his full power. Because Blue only has a limited amount of time, Strongpaw helps Shining create an opening in Hepheus' defences by carrying him closer so that he can use the disappearance spell on some of Hepheus black spheres.

In "A Meeting With the Lord of Order", Strongpaw can't believe that Blue's attack didn't work on Hepheus.

In "The Eternal Nightmare Curse", Strongpaw is entrusted by Star to take care of Blue after he had healed his star seed. When the Eternal Nightmare Curse is activated, he is put under its effect.

In "The End of the War", he is released from the Eternal Nightmare Curse and is reunited with Hepheus.

### The Elements of Virtue

In "The Element of Healing, Part I - The Tale of the Jaquins", he meets with Gleaming Shield when she comes to ask for help to locate Mage Meadowbrook's mask and takes her to someone that could help her, with that someone being Jade Dune, the elder pony-panther. At her house, he listens the tale of how their kind came to be. When Gleaming Shield prepares herself to meet the jaquins, Chief Strongpaw tries to convince her to take some of his guards to help her, but she refuses.

## Appearances

Legends:

* Y - Appears and have an active role
* N - Do not appears and is not mentioned directly by the characters.
* B - Appears, but have a passive role or his or her appearance is implicit
* M - Mentioned directly by the characters.

## Trivia

* Excluding Heartbeat, who was not a jinchuriki then, Chief Strongpaw is the first jinchuriki that Star meets.