King Aspen

**Notes**: King Aspen's story in my universe doesn't follow the plot of the issues about him.

**King Aspen** is a deer who rules over the kingdom of Thicket, being also the overlord of the Enchanted Forest, after Falancia was taken over by the Lord of Chaos.

## Personality

King Aspen has a magnificent posture that reflects his personality. He has a calm temper and is able to impose respect just with his presence. However, when he tends to lose his calm when someone dear to him is threatened or in danger. Because of that, his short temper and eagerness can cause him out to act recklessly with regards to certain matters. Hard Stone is left exasperated by Aspen's rash behavior, commenting that it undermines his position as king.

Aspen also loves and deeply cares about his father Alder, his wife Fyr and, especially, his son Bramble and his brother Hawthorn. When Hawthorn became Eight-Tails' jinchūriki and his father died, Aspen became determined to keep his kingdom and Hawthorn safe, confining his brother's movements to the kingdom even if it went against Hawthorn's personal wishes.

When confronting his older brother during war, Hawthorn points out the flaw in Aspen's viewpoint: his over-protection of Hawthorn prevents him from acknowledging and believing in Hawthorn's own strength. When Hawthorn and Star prove their worth by surpassing Aspen in strength and speed respectively, Aspen realises they are truly essential in ending war and lets them pass.

Acording with Queen Fyr, King Aspen is a sports lover.

## Skills

He has the skills of a deer. Like any deer, his antlers can be use to form a pownder that can be used to revitalize the forest. He can also link himself to the Heart of the Forest to get some of its dust so he and his kind can continue to counter the increasing anomalies in the Enchanted Forest.

He seems to have some skills in elemental manipulation, as he is seen making electricity passing through his body, what makes him have an affinity for light nature. He surrounds his body with it and enhances his physical parameters and reflexes to a level almost equal to Heartbeat. This mode also allows Aspen to minimize the damage dealt by other light-based attacks. Aspen is known for his immense physical speed, being able to intercept an opponent before they realise he has approached them.

## Relationships

### Family

#### Prince Bramble

He is King Aspen's son and they seem to have a close bond. Because of his shy nature and respect for his father, Bramble has been shown to be very obidient to Aspen. However, because of his personality growth because of the influence of his best friends, Bramble has been becoming more confident to stand up to his father when he feels he has to.

#### Lord Hawthorn

He is King Aspen's brother and they have a very close bond, as one of the deers that watched his brother being defeated by Ulysses said he would be furious about that.

## Description in the Saga

### Background

Aspen develops a very close bond with his little brother who looks up to him. They also used to camp with their cousin Larch, the jinchūriki of the Eight-Tails. While on camp, he told Aspen that Hawthorn would need something to fill the void that would be created if he was chosen as the beast's next jinchūriki.

Some time later, Aspen's cousin Larch lost control of the beast and it went on a rampage. Aspen was made part of a special team tasked with subduing the rampaging Eight-Tails. After Aspen and his father, King Alder, arrived to deal with the matter, Aspen was instructed to restrain the beast as his father prepared to use the sealing spell. As the team attempted to bind the Eight-Tails, the beast impaled Blackthorn’s father with its horn, leading to Aspen to cut it off. With enough preparation, Alder sealed the beast away temporarily. After Hawthorn became the beast's jinchuriki, Aspen, remembering what his cousin had said to him, tried his best to fill that apparent void.

When Aspen's father died during a dispute with an unknown kingdom, he inherited the title of king. Afterwards, out of fear of losing him, he ordered Hawthorn to complete his training in the Tailed Beast Ball at the borders and restricted him to the confines of the kingdom. At some point, he forbade Hawthorn from fully transforming into his tailed beast due to its extreme power.

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

In "The Three Great Fairies Preparatory Acadamy", he goes with his son, Bramble, to the Three Great Fairies Preperatory Academy to enroll him. He meets Golden Paladin, Star Knight, Twilight Sparkle and Blue Sword.

In “The Dark Song of Adagio Dazzle”, King Aspen goes to watch the tryouts for the flying derby main team along with his wife, Queen Fyr.

In “Star Knight’s Next Step”, he received news of Hawthorn's capture by Ulysses. Enraged that his own brother had been lost, Aspen, after being calmed down by Fyr, decides to take Twilight’s former advice and calls for a meeting with all the kingdoms of the Enchanted with Jinchuriki to discuss the threat the Lord of Chaos is being at that moment, sending also messages to the main kingdoms of the Pony World.

In “The Summit of Regents Begins”, King Aspen, accompanied by Blackthorn and another guard, goes there, where he reunites with the other regents.

In “Discuss Between Regents”, Aspen participates in the summit, where his real reason for having summoned the summit are revealed as being to show the other regents the good relationship that the kingdoms of the Pony World have. 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, Aspen immediately grabbed Petal Sprout by the neck and demanded information on Ulysses’ location, and later broke his neck when he took too long to respond. He then left with Blackthorn and his guard to track Ulysses down. Upon finding them, A attacks Ulysses, engaging in a battle with him. Ulysses had difficulty breaking through Aspen's light aura, with his light blade only managing to cause a minor wound to Aspen. Aspen went on the offensive, but he too had difficulty damaging Ulysses due to the latter's Warrior of Dark Light. Ulysses tried to hit him with a Pain Inducing Spell, but Aspen was too fast. Aspen then coated his Aspen with dark laser to deter additional physical attacks. In his growing rage, Aspen ignored this and attacked through the laser to smash through the defence and hit Ulysses. Although his horn was caught, he continued the assault, only to be stopped by Strongpaw. After Ulysses caused a cave-in to cover his escape, Aspen smashed 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 him energy. Eventually, he is able to dispose of them. When they arrived, they were met by the General of Chaos.

In “Declaration of War”, Aspen 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, where his revelation that they still don’t have Eight Tails reveals that Hawthorn eluded capture. After this, an alliance was suggested again, this time with Celestia proposing Aspen as the leader of the alliance. The regents agreed to this before returning to their respective kingdoms to prepare for war.

In “Octopus VS Kelpie”, before going back to the capital, Aspen and his bodyguards tracked down Hawthorn. They found him in the middle of a fight with Kelp, a kelpie. Aspen and Hawthorn teamed up to decapitate Kelp with a double horn attack. Later, Aspen angrily scolded Hawthorn for pretending to be captured on their way back to the capital.

In “The Key of the Seal”, when Aspen, his brother and bodyguards return to the capital, they are greeted by Fyr and Bramble at the castle. Bramble comments how his father looks cool wih one horn. Aspen then asks Blackthorn to prepare everything and tells Fyr about the war.

In “The Regents’ Decision”, he presides a meeting with his council to discuss about the war and then he hosts a meeting with the other regents for the same reason. After the meeting with the other heads of the Alliance, Twilight asked to speak with Aspen privately and requested that Hawthorn teach Star to achieve the control over the Nine-Tails in the event that the two of them would have to be deployed, a request Aspen approves, which is also why he chose the place where they will sent them.

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

In “The Strange Disease”, Aspen 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", when the Alliance's units advance to war, Aspen watches them at the headquarters.

In "The Secret of the Reincarnation Curse", after learning about the clones traveling underground, Aspen orders to get them out with earth-natured spells.

In "The Brilliant Strategist", Aspen listens White Light provide a great deal of input on how to organise the army and engage the enemy, forcing Aspen to acknowledge the his calibre. Despite being the leader of the Alliance, Aspen was uncomfortable not being on the front lines; when news reached headquarters of his father's reincarnation, Aspen wished to go and confront him, but opted to send Hard Stone instead after learning that Platinum was also amongst the reincarnated.

In "The Gold and Silver Brothers", Aspen explained to the ones at headquarters about Gavin and Garth and made preparations to deal with them should they begin using their Nine-Tails energy. He had Celestia and Ingrid send the Sealing Urn to Arcing and called in reinforcements from other units to help out the First Unit. His plans paid off and the brothers were sealed.

In "Spike's Resolution", Aspen allows Spike to act as he knows best regarding the Dragon King's challenge.

In "Star Knight Marches to the War", Aspen doesn't becomes very happy when he gets to know that Star escaped.

In "Convencing King Aspen", upon intercepting Hawthorn, Aspen tried to impress upon them the importance of keeping them out of the villains' grasp. Star tried to flee using his Nine-Tails Energy Mode, but Aspen was able to keep up with him and block his escape. Feeling that he wouldn't be able to sway Star, A tried to harm and imprison him to prevent his capture. Hawthorn blocked his attack and informs his brother that he would have to be willing to harm both of them. Aspen claimed to have no problem with this, but Hawthorn unbelieving, bumped hooves with him to remind him of all they had been through together. When Aspen still wouldn't listen to words, Hawthorn attacked and defeated him, proving his strength. Despite his defeat, Aspen still refused the pleas of Hawthorn and Celestia, prompting Celestia to decide to battle Aspen as well. Hawthorn however tried once more to reason with his brother, telling him that the tailed beasts weren't the only thing that made them strong but also the ones who cared about them. Hawthorn told Aspen that Naruto had a lot of them. Aspen then asked him about it and Star told him about his parents, sisters and the Generals and that they made him strong. After hearing this, Aspen fully charged his lightning armour and attacked, however, Star was able to completely evade the attack. With this as proof of Star's power, Aspen allowed Star to enter the battlefield.

In "Star Enters the Battle", after returning to headquarters, he was briefed about the clones army. As Celestia diagnosed the situation, Aspen asked her if there were any hints on how to defeat them and she tells that only Star can help them in that situation.

In "A Meeting Between Old Enemies", Aspen asks Celestia how she planned to prevent the enemy from making more reincarnated beings with the ones who died during the war.

In "Ebony VS Cypress", Aspen becomes worry for knowing that Cypress is out there, telling about his poison nature.

In "The Other Jinchuriki", he convinces Star to let Hawthorn deal with the battle against Larch, as he is the only one that can stop him.

In "Reinforcements Arrive", he hears reports of the arrival of Star's clones to the battlefields.

In "The Regents Assemble", after hearing about Tirek's appearence, Celestia, Ingrid and Aspen teleports to the site of Tirek's battle with the Fourth Unit. After being joined by Mystic Heart and covering Celestia while she healed Strongpaw and Hard Stone, Aspen, Mystic Heart and Ingrid faced Tirek head-on. Punching Tirek into Mystic Heart's lava after he evaded it, Aspen crashed into Tirek's Warrior of Dark Light using his attack of light nature. This failed to have any effect, and Aspen realised that he would have to up the speed of his attacks in order to break through the Warrior of Dark Light's defence. As Tirek retaliated, they were protected by a combination of Strongpaw's sand and Hard Stone's giant rock golem. Combining their skills, Hard Stone first made Aspen lighter so as to increase his speed and then as he attacked Tirek increased the weight behind his attack, breaking through the Warrior of Dark Light and punching Tirek. Before Star's clone disperses Aspen and the other regents left him with one final message: "win".

In "A Will of Stone and a Will of Iron", as the battle between the regents and Tirek waged on, Aspen stood atop Hard Stone's golem which beared down on Tirek. The golem was however destroyed by Tirek and Aspen took to the skies with Hard Stone to avoid the pollen being released by Tirek's attack. The regents were however ambushed by a twofold attack from Tirek, fell prey to the pollen, and were knocked unconscious. After Hard Stone destroyed the forest, Aspen and the others regained consciousness. With Hard Stone still allowing Aspen greater manoeuvrability, Aspen assisted Celestia and Ingrid in a fold attack on Tirek which sent the latter plummeting into the ground. Aspen then calls out to Strongpaw who seemingly bound and sealed Tirek. Aspen later watched in shock as Celestia is partial hit and Tirek revealed that they had sealed a wood clone. Aspwn was later shocked even further to see Celestia launch a surprise attack on an unsuspecting Tirek and then spured Hard Stone on as the latter launched a surprise attack of his own. As Tirek later sent his wood clones to confront each of the regents, Aspen looked on in shock as Tirek asked them whether or not they'd prefer his clones use Warrior of Dark Light.

In "The Fall of the Centaur", fending off an attack from one of the clones, Aspen reprimands Celestia for her reckless fighting, Aspen loses concentration long enough for the clone to grab him and put him under an illusion much to Aspen's dismay. Saved by the quick-thinking of Hard Stone and freed from the illusion, Aspen is spurred on to fight more still as the other regents rally to each other's side. Waiting for the opportune moment to strike the real Tirek after Hard Stone annihilates the clones, Aspen infuses Mystic Heart's Water Dragon with lightning to create a numbing effect on Tirek, slowing his responsiveness. Before their assault is able to completely seal Tirek, however, their opponent manifests his complete Warrior of Dark Light. As Tirek's Warrior of Dark Light stabilises, Aspen along with the other regents stare in shock at the giant construct before being knocked down by a single swing from its sword. Despite this, the regents stand and face Tirek once again. As the Mystic Heart remarked that situation looked grim for the regents, Aspen unceremoniously told her to shut up as he wasn't going to give up just yet. As Tirek's attack failed to land due to his Warrior of Dark Light de-materialising, Purple Smoke and Melody subdue and capture him.

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", he later relocated to where B was and, rallying the troops around him and his brother, Aspen exclaimed that they better get ready to wreak havoc.

In "The Beginning of the End", the battlefield is soon assaulted by a clone and a fighting staute. Cloaked in his light nature, Aspen was one of the few still able to fight.

In "The Eternal Nightmare Curse", he is put under the effect of the Eternal Nightmare Curse.

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

### *The Elements of Virtue*

In "The Element of Bravery, Part II - Entering Into the Core of the Mountain", Gunter comes to King Aspen to ask him for help to locate the Mountain Dragons. Despite not knowing much about them, he has the idea of having Gunter asking King Hard Stone about it after knowing about his arrival. When Bramble shows a desire to help his friend, King Aspen forbids him from doing because he is not experienced for that. After King Hard Stone tells them about a way to find the Mountain Dragons, Aspen put Hawthorn responsible to help Gunter. Later, he talks with Hard Stone about how the dragons have ways to neutralize nature magic and then about Bramble after Aspen is notified about how his son is not nowhere in the castle.

## Appearances

The Prince of the Cursed Kingdom

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.