//------------------------------// // 38. Lost Empire: Savior // Story: Locksmith // by QuartzScale //------------------------------// “Why is it always snapping jaws!? It’s always snapping jaws! First it was the snake and then the second one added fire to the mix. It's always the snapping jaws!” I complained as the large alligator heartless kept pushing its jaw into my face. Throughout all this time Spitfire and Sunshower were attempting to get closer. The alligator heartless had gripped onto me though the stubby claws it had did absolutely nothing but tickle me. It was mortifying since everytime a chuckle escaped my muzzle the snapping jaws would get closer. When Spitfire attempted to strike from above it rolled in place bringing me to bear at Spitfire’s attack. “Gray stop playing with the giant literally heartless monster! I can't get a decent shot if you keep fooling around!” Spitfire screamed out. “It's not on purpose!” I struggled to say. Sunshower flew up a bit firing off several blizzard spells at the tail. Spitfire smirked slightly as she went for another strike. As they planned the heartless went to roll again only to twist uncomfortably in place. Snapping back as the one on top, the alligator heartless was struck by Spitfire. Her blade sliced through its back causing its jaw to open wider than I previously thought possible. That did nothing to stop the nightmares I was certain to be having of snapping jaws. “Open wide you overgrown lizard!” Sunshower immediately planted her hooves down releasing a barrage of blizzards into the heartless’ mouth freezing it shut. I managed to pull some leverage from the struggle as I started to kick it in the stomach. While the heartless are anatomically different from all actual living organisms they do in fact have pain receptors. At first I thought it was all wrong but all things need to feel pain otherwise they would suicidally charge into danger without worry or care. Cutting off my inquisitive thought, I placed more emphasis on my kicks changing where I placed them as its grip faltered enough to let go of me. “Finally! No more snapping jaws!” I cheered at the top of my lungs before being slammed away by an overbearing tail. “Hey! No one gets to tumble him around but me! And maybe Sunshower and the others… you know what I mean” Spitfire yelled out, blanched slightly from losing her train of thought, then retiring back to her main point slightly a bit more red. “Please don't bring me into your idea of a fantasy.” Sunshower begged as she kept her eyes trained on the heartless. “What!? It would be fun.” Spitfire defended all the while the two were getting distracted. “Ladies, you're both pretty. Argue later it's still around and taunts are wasted on it.” I chided slightly. As the two regained their composure the heartless faced me and suddenly a large cloud of ice came flying towards me. Angling my keyblade, I used a reflect spell knocking the frozen shrapnel out of the sky. It charged forward spinning in mid air as it corkscrewed straight for me. I nearly made the rookie mistake of backing up and shifted my weight to roll to the side. “You know I have to admit this is one of the most interesting things I've ever seen. What do you think Helga?” Rourke called out from the central platform, head rested against his hand as he wielded a machine gun in the other. “They're pegasi… right then.” Helga deadpanned though her eyes betrayed her obvious interest. “Think of how much we could make should we sell them. Million easily for the pegasi and maybe three mil for the bat version. A true rarity for any wild game collector.” Rourke smirked in glee while watching us struggle against the heartless. As he raised his machine gun a beam of lightning shot it out of his hand. From the crazed look in his eye he saw Vinny mock salute him before Helga rounded on him with her Luger. Ten minutes earlier… The girls had been buckling along on the ride with the giant fish robot thing as Vinyl so aptly put it. Octavia sighed when everypony else also called it that. “So do we got a plan then Tavi? I mean we are charging head first into uncharted territory.” Vinyl looked towards their fearless leader who seemed to flinch when all eyes rested on her. “Right… yes I got a plan. It's um… we come in low and keep any flying heartless off their footing to make sure that the fish ships don't get damaged. If we can we join up with Gray to take care of that jerk face.” Octavia stuttered out at first but finished strong as the timber of her voice got stronger. “Sounds good to me.” Fresh Coat shrugged smiling slightly as she aimed her training blade out over the edge. “I guess I'll help watch that side as well then.” Redheart motioned her own keyblade over the edge. Some magic was pooling in the tip. Octavia and Vinyl nodded to each other as they got to the other edge of the fish ship. As far as the pilot was concerned he now was forced into a vanguard position to break through the front line with the other gung ho personalities he was working off of. “We're talking about this Alpha thing later Vinyl.” Octavia whispered to her friend who suddenly blanched and backed up slightly. “What do you mean?” Vinyl nonchalantly waved her hoof off but the sweat dripping down her cheeks gave her away. “You know what I mean.” Octavia sneered out darkly. Gulping, Vinyl stepped back to Octavia's side as the collection of fish ships burst into the caldera cavern. In the center, surrounded by several Ballasts, Air Soldiers, Red Nocturnes, and Blue Rhapsodies was a giant balloon. A large alligator heartless started growing from it as darkness flowed towards the balloon. A large platform appeared around the balloon as the alligator tackled a familiar looking pony. “Gray!” Fresh Coat screamed out nearly causing the ship to tip back and forth. “Calm down!” Octavia cried out while Redheart pulled Fresh Coat away from the edge. While Gray struggled with the heartless Vinny and Milo made a breakthrough past the heartless blockade. As they flew around distracting Rourke and Helga, both Sweet and Audrey made a beeline for the cage that was holding Kida. Audrey began the difficult process of cutting through chains with a bonesaw. “I thought you said this could cut through a femur in twenty three seconds!” Audrey snarled at Dr. Sweet. “More cutting, less talking.” Sweet replied. “Looks like someone is working overtime.” Rourke snarked as he pointed his finger downwards for Helga to see. She quickly ran over to several of the hydrogen canisters releasing a few over the ships that were hovering near the cage. Audrey was forced from her ship clinging to the chains holding the cage as she kept sawing away at them. “Okay girl time to go then.” Sweet grabbed Audrey off the chain flying off just as another canister nearly fell upon them. As the two were forced off Vinny and Milo took their chance. While Vinny did what he did best Milo psyched himself up. With nary a thought for his own safety he set the ship forward jumping at the last minute. The ship punctured one of the balloons and Milo barely clung to the main balloon. The balloon was going down. I nearly stumbled as the entire platform shook with me suffering the effects only. Since our illusion somehow shattered and Rourke was now looking to sell us I had to think fast. The heartless hit me again with its tail while Spitfire and Sunshower fired a barrage of spells at it. “We need to lighten the load!” Rourke hollered most likely to Helga who I couldn't see because of the heartless focusing its attention entirely on me. Before I could overhear more of their conversation could continue the heartless attempted to snap me up in its jaws… again. The spells being flung out barely phased the monster from stopping its prodigious charge flinging through the hail of blizzard spells, the bolts of thunder spells, and the bursts of fire spells. “You said we were partners. You promised me a percentage!” Helga screamed as she kicked Rourke again. She went for one more kick only to be grabbed at the last minute. I smacked the creature down changing my weapon back to the tomahawk. The fissure created from the power sent the heartless bouncing across the platform as Rourke lifted Helga above his head and threw her over the side of the platform. “Spitfire!” “On it!” She yelled as she zoomed down through the propeller blades without blinking an eye. I could only hope that she got there in time before Helga died. It happened in the movie in question and this was never going to go one to one in most cases. Sunshower came down to my level knocking the creature back some more before coming back to my side and casting a cure spell. “You know that we’re not exactly in the best position around here right?” Sunshower glowered over towards Rourke who had smacked Milo with his fist. “Yeah… Let’s hurry up before Milo gets taken down.” The two of us galloped over to Milo taking care to stay grounded. While flying was useful the flailing of the balloon was becoming a problem to navigate around. The platform was slowly losing altitude. As we reached the pair Milo and Rourke were knocked down towards the cage Kida was being kept in. “You know Mr. Thatch… I’m a reasonable man but you and your friends have finally perturbed me. Congratulations. You won the solid gold kewpie doll.” Rourke muttered while his eyes showed nothing but an unhinged beast hunting down and sadistically playing with it’s prey. Rourke slammed an axe at Milo while Sunshower and I could only watch. There was no footing for us to land on and our wings would get stuck in the rigging that was around the area. The sound of broken glass broke us out of our worry as Rourke lifted Milo by the scruff of his shirt, if you could call it that, up to eye level. As Rourke reared back the axe Milo used a piece of glass covered in a strange glowing blue liquid to slice his arm leaving a small gash as Milo fell to the cage. Rourke dropped the axe and in his rage made to grab for Milo when his arm started to turn darker. The skin around the cut mottled and festered before turning to stone. The stone made quick work growing over his arm enveloping it in blue stone. The affliction turned worse working down his body covering its entirety within seconds until it slowed around his neck. While Milo started to climb up Rourke reached out to him before the energy fully covered his head cutting off his breath and turning him into a statue. Several cracks glowed along his body signifying every moment that he moved and when it was over the dead face of Commander Lyle T. Rourke stood staring up at us forever stuck in perpetual fear of an unimaginable horror. “Oh thank god.” Milo breathed out. “Good job Milo hurry up and get back up here.” “Gray, that heartless is getting back up already. We need to get ready for him.” Sunshower harshly hissed out seeming nervous for some reason with the twitching of her ears. Even my own ears were twitching like crazy at this point. Spitfire shot down towards the falling woman swerving through the cloud of heartless patrolling the skies. Her Wonderbolt training instantly took control as she brought out her keyblade and used a corkscrew maneuver to drill through anything in her way. As Spitfire came closer to Helga she flared out her wings slightly allowing her to get beneath Helga and grab her. Spitfire almost gasped in surprise when she noticed that the woman seemed to be lighter than she possibly should be. “Well how about that… Being a keyblade wielder actually makes you stronger.” Spitfire mused slightly while she carried Helga over to one of the dirt formations. “You gonna be any problem?” Helga folded her arms across her chest glaring daggers up at the balloon. Spitfire’s eyes follow and with her freakily good eyesight she notices that Milo is tussling with Rourke… and losing badly. “Not to you that’s for sure.” Helga’s glare hyper focused on the balloon. “So enemy of my enemy then?” Spitfire motioned her hoof slightly toward Helga who looked at it for a moment. “Fine… I did like that other pegasus that you were with.” Helga rolled her eyes and gave Spitfire a very curt shake. “Spitfire… are you ok?” A voice called out from above her. Craning her neck she noticed the other four ponies she had left behind already upon them. “Hey there ladies… Mind giving us a ride?” Spitfire smiled and for some reason there was also a squeak which surprised Helga when she heard it. “Sure… Mind filling us in on what happened while we go help Gray?” Octavia intoned almost reaching an ordering tone. Spitfire groaned slightly but the two got onto the ship though the pilot seemed a bit uncertain of things… until Vinyl patted him on the back to get him to continue flying through the barrage of heartless. Before anypony could explain further a large barrier appeared around the balloon blocking the airspace above and the rigging below. Gray, Sunshower, and Milo were trapped on the platform with the balloon slowly descending to the volcano below. At the same time… As we felt the danger Milo took one last look at Rourke. As he was about to make it back up onto the platform a crystallized hand grabbed the chain right below him. Milo was forced to look at the still moving body of Rourke climbing up to grab him. “Milo grab on!” I allowed the keyblade tip out to him. As he grabbed it I yanked him up stopping Rourke from actually touching him. The portion of the chain he has touch slightly crystallized encasing a portion in stone. Milo immediately backed up running out to the edge of the platform while Sunshower followed right after him. I slowly stepped back as Rourke made his way up onto the platform. He didn’t speak at all though a strange gurgling sound came out of his mouth. He had no eyes… and only light came out of the holes. As I reached Sunshower and Milo I noticed that the heartless had gotten back on his feet. “So… Sunshower… think you can handle the heartless while I keep Rourke away from us?” “Are you serious?” Sunshower gasped as she saw the heartless stumbling around seeming much worse for wear than it had started out as. I had to remember that the tomahawk did the most damage to anything and should be used only on larger enemies. Without a Green Requiem they also couldn’t heal either. Sunshower cringed but with Rourke also in the picture she needed to make sure Milo wasn’t accidentally eaten or worse. “Maybe… wait what’s that?” Sunshower perked up as she heard a buzzing sound. Out from nowhere an Air Soldier managed to circumvent the shield that was surrounding our battlefield and for some strange reason it took its place next to Rourke. Something terrible must have happened to Rourke after he was turned into a walking crystal stone man because as soon as the heartless was in reach he grabbed it by the neck squeezing tightly with a single fist. Within seconds the same magical residue that had been on the glass that Milo used surged from Rourke’s body and entered the heartless transforming him to crystal or stone. It didn’t get back up and it wasn’t from lack of trying either. Rourke smashed the Air Soldier statue against the ground shattering it to smithereens. “I think I’ll take the heartless on.” Sunshower gulped and pulled out her blade flying off against him. “Right then… Milo I need you to keep moving. I think he might be pissed off at you most of all.” “Can do. I can do that. Obviously I can do it. Um… go get’em um… weird bat horse thing that I’m pretty sure is Gray.” Milo stuttered out. “Uh… pony and I guess you’ve noticed that we’re not exactly human then?” “Until now. I’ll just keep quiet about it. Uh… Rourke’s coming.” Milo pointed out. Rourke growled out as he charged against me. I pressed the crystal on my pauldron and the armor I wore so long ago instantly came into being as I pulled out Nightmare Cascade. This was going to be difficult. The heartless lunged for Sunshower, maw gaping wide open, wild look in its eyes as it attacked. Sunshower immediately dove beneath the creature striking at the tail as it tried to slam down on her. The tail bounced away as the beast rolled over, face first, onto its back. Sunshower wasted no time flapping her wings to get back into the air before diving down with the tip of her training blade in front of her. “Take this!” Sunshower screamed at the top of her lungs as the blade planted itself deep into the heartless’ belly. With a quick slice the blade part cut through the darkness. For a moment it looked as though Sunshower had defeated the monster. She felt triumphant, powerful, and then she felt nothing. The tail had lunged out from below smacking her off to the side far from the beast. Slightly dazed she was given at least the chance to regain her footing as the heartless struggled to get to its feet. Sensing that it was not going to be overpowering the small pony it was fighting, it did the only sensible thing it could possibly do. The heartless soon started to fade from sight but it was not from being defeated. Sunshower looked around. It was gone and off in the distance Gray and Rourke were still fighting. Gray kept dodging striking only when Rourke made big swings. Before she could go help him out anyways she could possibly think of doing she noticed something off. A weird shimmering effect was right in front of her eyes as if she had been in the desert for hours looking at mirages in the distance. It was too close to be that though. “Oh no…” Sunshower’s eyes turned to prinpricks as she realized now why she was still feeling that dread. The creature could turn invisible. Gray had always said he could smell darkness just overflowing from Rourke… which meant it was always there clinging onto him, watching. It was watching them all the entire time. Shaking her head she instantly used an aero spell. While she couldn’t see it she could at the very least defend against it. Sunshower flew back against the ground as she heard a very loud hiss come from her right. Her entire left side was sore at this point. The Aero spell had done its job as the shimmering brought the heartless back to sight, but only for a moment. It soon faded back from sight leaving Sunshower still confused about where it was. “I don’t know what I’m doing… damn it all.” Sunshower moped slightly as the sting in her side kept hurting. Unsure of what she could do Sunshower readied a Spark spell. As she lifted her blade something slid across the platform knocking her off her feet. The spell shot off into the sky leaving the area blinded in light. “What the-” Sunshower started before hitting the platform. When the light spell went off, she could see a shimmering spot nearby and a large shadow on the platform somehow. The platform was strangely blue which confused Sunshower a bit more the more thought she put into it. Shaking herself back up Sunshower readied another Spark spell firing it straight up. She immediately flew up to evade another tail swipe and saw where the shadow and shimmering rested. “Gotcha!” Sunshower cried out. Diving straight down she released a flurry of combos knocking the heartless around. The damage it had suffered from the tomahawk had taken its toll making it too sluggish to keep moving around. Sunshower raised her blade one final time slicing off the heartless’ tongue. The darkness flowed from the tongue as the creature dissipated into the aether. “I-I did it…” Sunshower muttered out realizing she actually managed to win. As she took it all in she remembered the real problem turning her eyes over to Gray. What she saw shocked her in spot. At the same time… Rourke slammed his fist against my blade forcing me back. As the Rourke crystal monster kept trying to smash my face in I managed to make him completely forget about Milo entirely. I wondered if that was actually a good thing as Rourke managed to get a hand on my foreleg as I was swinging the blade. The crystal encroached on my arm forcing me to switch back to the tomahawk and use my free leg to strike at Rourke sending the crystal monster as far away from me. Rourke laid flat on the ground stunned while I looked over my leg. The armor kept the crystal at bay as a small ring of magic looked to be trying to purge the crystal from climbing any further up. “Well… that’s gonna be unfortunate…” I immediately took off into the air switching back to the keyblade as I dove down at Rourke’s prone form. As the blade came close the monster rolled out of the way escaping the impalement before jumping back to his feet. Wasting no time Rourke stood back on his feet a snarling mess of cracks and crystal. Within seconds he charged at me knocking me onto my back as I struggled to keep him from grabbing my neck which his arms were flailing around. It didn’t stop the crystal effect very well as I was forced to use my back legs to push him off. The crystal started forming on my legs as I pushed Rourke away once again. My steps were uneven as the crystal formed around my back hooves. Not wasting anytime I flew back up into the air and struck down Rourke a couple times. Rourke shuddered under the assault as he formed more crystals out of his arm and shot them out at me. Rolling out of the way, I noticed that once the crystal hit something it exploded and made portions of the platform crystalize. I felt a bit of sweat drip beneath the helmet of my armor. “Are you serious!?” I summoned out the daggers instead and tossed them through the crystals that Rourke fired shattering them mid flight. Luckily when the shards fell to the ground they didn’t envelope the ground fading to dust before they hit the ground. The monster formerly known as Rourke jumped into the air as soon as the final crystal shard was fired, his arm twisting into some kind of blade. The only look on his face was the unmitigated horror he was feeling from the deformation of his arm but he didn’t scream. I don’t think he was capable of screaming anymore as the blade came closer to me. I pulled out the tomahawk and planted me hooves firm. At the tip came close I swung out meeting him halfway. His weight coupled with the speed at which he was falling against the strength boost from the tomahawk and how large the weapon was compared to me caused us clash against one another. My legs started to buckle as he started to get closer. It wasn’t even a matter of strength at this point. The crystals that had stuck onto me had started to glow slightly. I didn’t feel it at first but that was probably the point. We were even only because the crystals were helping him. They were draining my strength and the only reason I managed to keep him from impaling me was due to using the tomahawk. I pushed him off of me flinging him back as I heard the unmistakable sound of darkness dissipating. Before I could twist my eyes over Rourke had managed to correct himself twisting his arms back into hands. I felt a sudden pressure as one of those hands managed to get around my neck and the crystal started to grow over my body. Gray was in deep trouble. Sunshower was trembling in spite of the added danger. This monster had managed to match Gray evenly enough in a fight even though he was much stronger than all of them combined, at least in her eyes he was. Tears started to form as she saw Gray’s lifeless body flung to the ground, the sadness of her herd mates, and the monster looming over them turning them to crystal and shattering them. It was too much. ‘What do I do? What do I do?’ Sunshower panicked, hyperventilating throughout the entire assault. Out of nowhere she felt her heart beat furiously as she pulled out her keyblade. It hummed in her hoof as she gripped the hilt tighter somehow. What was once a generic training blade soon became more, as the hilt shifted into a large storm cloud with the grip decorated with stylized lightning bolts. The shaft of the blade warped in changing to a similar look like Gray’s first keyblade only sky blue in color. The tip of the keyblade was a regular cloud with the teeth becoming three raindrops falling from it with the outside drops falling less than the central drop. “Cloud Nine… “ Sunshower muttered as she looked over it slightly. Shaking her head, she instantly shot off straight for Rourke. She didn’t have any armor but she didn’t need it. All she needed to do was knock that jerk off of Gray. I once thought my death would come at the hands of that corrupt Police Chief I once worked under. He made it no secret that I was someone he would hate because of my ‘narrow sense of justice’ in his own words as he called it. Instead I my armor was being converted into a crystallized coffin in which I would suffocate because of an over ambitious Commander who bit off more than he could chew. The world is a funny place honestly. The crystal had worked over the rest of my neck encircling it as Rourke gripped tighter. He didn’t gloat, nor did he speak the entire time we had fought. The moment that he had warped his hand into a blade told me exactly how he actually felt. The pain was probably unbearable as he was twisted from the inside out into a crystal monster. He was kind of beyond saving at this point. “Get away from him!” Sunshower screamed out as she used a baseball swing knocking Rourke off of Gray towards the edge of the platform. Milo rushed over picking Gray up slightly as he tried to get him back to the central ring. The platform had started to shrink due to the loss of the heartless. Sunshower noticed casting several blizzard spells at Rourke stopping him in place as she flew backwards. As the platform finally faded Rourke fell from the platform falling into the still rotating propeller. The sound of shredded crystal and an inhuman scream followed while the small shards cut through the chains holding up Kida’s cage. The balloon was still falling down and I was still stuck in my armor from the crystallization. It was luck that I’m still breathing as I felt Sunshower start to hack away at me. I didn’t really understand why she was doing it… until I remembered that the crystal had been choking me. As soon as the part around my neck was knocked off I felt my breath return gasping in deeply of that sweet sweet air. “What happened?” “You almost died… Are you ok?” Sunshower sniffed slightly. “Yeah… Did you just get your keyblade? Proud of ya Sunshower. Let’s get out of here already.” I got up stumbling slightly but a cure spell from Sunshower managed to stop the lightheadedness I was feeling. We quickly picked up Milo and flew down to the cage that held Kida. It was sturdier than I thought since it was still intact. Before we could go celebrate several dark cannonballs fired on the balloon. “Oh damn... “ Milo pushed the cage out of the way with Sunshower and I helping him move it out of the way. The cannonballs hit their mark causing a lot of sparks to flit into existence. The hydrogen burst into flames causing the balloons to explode and come hurtling down to the ground. Several plasma styled bolts went off around us as the heartless were phased out of physical plane. Several of the ships came down including the one holding the rest of the herd. Mole got off his ship alongside Vinny and Audrey. “The volcano… She awakes!” Mole cried out as several cracks appeared on the caldera and steam started to break through them. I pushed Sunshower up onto the ship with the others while Milo and Audrey got a chain together to put around the cage. Vinny was holding a lit stick of dynamite. “I just want to say I had nothing to do with this.” Vinny explained noticing that he lit the dynamite. He quickly snuffed it out as Milo and Audrey got the chain around Kida’s cage as I flew up to the ship with the rest of the girls. Octavia instantly hugged me tightly before we started to fly off back to the city. When all eyes focused on Sunshower’s keyblade everypony were in awe. The ring that the chain was clinging onto snapped completely causing all of us to look on as Milo went back down to get the chain around the cage. “Milo, hurry up!” Audrey cried out. “Just go!” Milo screamed back as the cracks started to get deeper. He jumped onto the cage as the ships all flew back to the city. I had to keep Sunshower and Spitfire from flying off to help because the thermals created from the lava flows would have wrecked their ability to fly straight and more than likely plunge them into the lava. We were the first ship to break back through the tunnels and fly back into the city. As we hit the main plaza the ship holding the cage was lowered onto the ground in the plaza. Milo landed soon after with all the survivors from the expedition crowded around with the group. Helga stood off to the side trying to make herself appear much smaller than she was. Several large magma rocks flew overhead as a guard ran over with a spear giving it to Milo. “The fissure… it is about to eject… its pyroclastic fury!” Mole screams out as he watches the lava start to flow from the tunnel into the basin below the city. “Milo, Mole says the wall’s going to blow!” Sweet translated for him getting Milo to work fast on getting the cage open. Milo pried the lid off of the cage causing the entire metal casing to burst apart a short distance and float around Kida’s body. She was the same color as the crystal that Rourke had turned to. Her body lifted into the sky and a large pulse of light burst out from her. The entire city began shaking. Several giants rose from the water walking towards the edge of the city standing at key points around the circumference.With a loud clap a field of energy formed from their hands creating an ever expanding shield. Within seconds the shield overlapped with one another as the lava started filling in the basin. A wave washed over the city highlighted over the entire shield and everything went red. “Holy buck…” Vinyl breathed out. “Not the time Vinyl.” Fresh Coat muttered. “It is pretty amazing… I don’t think we’ll ever see something so amazing on Equestria, at least not so easily.” Octavia thought aloud receiving some stilted mutterings from Spitfire and Vinyl. “Wonderbolts for life.” Spitfire answered resolutely pumping her hoof up in a mild salute. “Well nothing breaks her spirit, eh?” Redheart snarked slightly. “Are our illusions still working?” Everypony instantly checked their bracelets making certain that their disguises were back on as another pulse of energy flew from the heart. The lava supercooled before our very eyes before more energy poured out cracking the caldera away from the shield. As everything that had covered the city sizzled away the shield went down and the waters flowed back into the basin recooling the lava once again and leaving the city still standing through the entire debacle. “Finally… A good end to a long adventure.” “Weren’t we supposed to find a keyhole?” Sunshower brought up. Before we could continue our discussion, Kida slowly floated down from the heart back in flesh and blood. Slowly she opened her arms embracing Milo as she held out a necklace. We all looked out into the city, at the people we saved, at the ones who survived, and thought long and hard about what else we needed to do. We helped save a world in a sense. As I pondered things more in depth someone screamed. “Kida, your necklace!” Milo pointed out as the necklace started glowing a bright light. “What is happening!?” Kida shocked, let go of it. The necklace floated up back to the heart almost above us. The entire world shifted into another plane of reality as everything turned orange. A large crown appeared below our entire group and I made to summon my keyblade… then stopped. “Sunshower. Summon your keyblade.” “What?” Sunshower reluctantly did so subconsciously. “You are sealing the world off from the heartless.” “WHAT?” Sunshower gasped as did the other mares. “Just point your keyblade up to the necklace and it should be fine.” Hesitating slightly, Sunshower raised her keyblade towards the sky. A small light appeared on the tip and the necklace transformed into a keyhole. Everypony could see the world’s heart from within beating in tandem with every time it twinkled. The beam of light shot from her keyblade and the lock was sealed making the keyhole disappear. The world came back into view as the necklace floated back down into Kida’s hand. The world was safe now. “I really want to sleep for a while…” Several Atlanteans all cheered as the entire populace started a celebration. Unfortunately for my group, exhaustion had taken its toll and Kida graciously led us towards the palace. There were things she needed to prepare for and we were to be given some time to rest. The rest of the mercs partied with the Atlanteans while Helga disappeared off to another area. Milo, Vinny, Sweet, and Cookie followed after her. Kida kept quiet as we entered the palace. The sight of her father didn’t send her to tears but the sadness she felt I could tell was permeated throughout the entire room. One of the guards led us to a single bedroom which forced us to share. Just like at Whitmore’s Mansion I was put in the center and had everypony curled around me. I was too tired to voice concern though I probably wouldn’t for any discernable reason. Everypony immediately fell asleep and I soon followed afterwards. “Hm… I suppose somepony couldn’t keep themselves from becoming a monster.” A figure out in the active volcano mused as the flames licked at the shield that surrounded them. The figure was vaguely pony shaped and seemed to be wearing a long flowing cloak. They worked their way through the lava stopping whenever they found a shard of the crystal monster that had nearly killed a key wielder. They smirked slightly as the filled up the bag with more and more shards. Most had been lost in the explosion, rendered into dust from it but enough survived to be useful. “I suppose it was only a matter of time before ponies earned their own keyblade but I didn’t think it would take this long. Celestia and Luna must have messed up somewhere along the line. They always were the kind of ponies who prioritized friendship over duty. Still with the knowledge I gained over the years I suppose I should give them the benefit of the doubt.” The figure muttered as they flicked their horn around scanning the area. The figure clicked his tongue in frustration. There were no more shards to be found. The shield rose out of the lava and with another pulse of their horn the entire magma chamber froze over, cooling instantly allowing the figure to lower said shield. With a flick of their hood, his beard flowed freely and his hat came into view jingling in delight. “Soon… all the mysteries of the heart will be known to me. Or my name isn’t Starswirl the Bearded.”