//------------------------------// // The Complete Truth Part 2 // Story: Pipers Tale // by Saro0fdemonz //------------------------------// The pegasus lay on his side, looking up at the Alicorn goddess. "Oh Piper..." "Just leave me alone..." he rolled onto his side, a chunk of the ice shard still stuck in his body. "You cannot be comfortable like that..." She flinched as he sat up "JUST WHAT THE BUCK AM I?!" he screamed at her. "Is what they said true?! Is that all I am?! Just some immortal weapon to do your bidding?!" he shouted at her, tears in his eyes. "No Piper, it isn't true." Harmony leaned forward, kissing the tears away, the heat of her body causing the ice to melt and his wound to close. She pulled him into a gentle hug "You are hope Piper. Hope for my daughters, hope for Equestria, and hope for me." "Wh..what?" he asked, looking up at her. "Piper, I cannot touch the world without destroying it." He pushed out of her grasp. "You're just using me...You can't do this yourself so you pinned it on me is that it?" he asked softly. "Piper...no that's not what I meant..." "BUT THAT'S WHAT YOU JUST BUCKING SAID ISN'T IT?!" "Its true that I need you to do what must be done Piper. But I would never use you." "I don't want to be lied to. I just want one thing. When this is done, when I've finished running all your sun-cursed errands, you have to send me home." "Piper please..." she reached out a hoof and he brushed it away, turning his back to her. "That's all I want. I'll do whatever you need, just send me home." she hung her head. "Very well Piper. I promise you, when all is said and done, I will send you home." "You...you said all those horrible things to Mother?" Celestia asked, her voice shaking. "I did." Piper said simply. "I was angry, but not at her, not at first. I was angry at myself and she was the only pony I could talk to so openly. She outright told me she was just using me and I snapped." "How could you have been so cruel to her?" "Because that's what I am Tia. I'm cruel, I'm a monster, a weapon." "You're Heartless." a voice spoke up. The ponies gathered turned around to spot a face only Celestia recognized. "Sora. We were not expecting you for a week." "Took a shortcut." he said, pointing his keyblade at Piper. The pegasus reached for his hoofblade, forgetting Amethyst still held it. "Whoa there partner, nopony points anythin at my cousin without a good reason" Sunburst said, pushing in front of Piper. "Sunburst, this is my fight. He's too powerful for you." "Piper don't be an idiot." "Sunburst, stand down." Celestia ordered. "B...But Princess..." Celestia gave the mare a flat stare. Sunburst stammered an argument and moved away. "Amethyst, my sword." the kirin handed Piper the blade. Piper took a slow breath as he placed his hoof in the clasp of the blade. "You're the one aren't you. The Keyblade Master, Sora." Piper asked quietly. Sora was surprised for a moment, a serious look replacing his surprise almost instantly. "Yea, that's me." "Then you know exactly what I am. You should know I'm not here to hurt anypony. That Keyblade of yours should say everything shouldn't it?" "That heart of yours is full of Darkness. It won't be a heart for much longer and you'll have to steal another. I won't allow it" Sora said, pointing his keyblade at Piper's chest. "I didn't steal it, it was given to me. its Her heart..." Piper covered his chest with his hoof. "And that darkness was put there by me. To protect it from myself. Its a shield." "You're guarding that heart. So you really are Heartless." "CAN SOMEPONY TELL ME WHATS GOING ON?!" Hayseed yelled. "I...I think this pony is saying that Piper...is one of those monsters our parents fought." Nova explained, hardly believing herself. "That's nonsense!" Penny Apple yelled. "Its true." Piper spoke up. the friends gasped, staring at Piper. "It happened when Amethyst cast the spell." Piper kept his blade against Sora's keyblade, watching its wielder with wary eyes. "I gave myself up to the darkness that was consuming grandma Dash. And it stole my heart. Harmony dragged me from it at the last second. An hour in her realm and I would have been fine, but you all would have fought Discord by then." "An without ya we never woulda beat him...its our fault ain't it Piper?" Sunburst asked, holding back her tears. "No. She gave me a choice and I made my decision. If I had stayed a moment longer than she allowed I would have become just another heartless" "You're still a Heartless." "Do you plan to kill me?" "If I have to." "Sora that's enough." a mare nudged Sora aside and smiled at Piper. "I apologize for my Husband. The years have sucked the fun out of him." "Hey! I can still be fun!" he argued, his keyblade vanishing. "Of course you can." she said, rolling her eyes. "You must be Kairi." Piper spoke up, sheathing his hoofblade. "So you're the Piper we've heard about? Seems like you've been through a lot. You know Sora was a heartless once. One of those tiny ones." "Oh come on, not this story again..." Sora said with a sigh. "Wait, so just like that you go from tryin to kill Piper to making random conversation?" Amethyst asked. "I never meant to kill him. I was trying to see if he would change. The Darkness can be unpredictable at times. Its fooled me before. I just had to be sure." "But what I'm curious about is how you know who we are." Kairi said as she took a seat. Her light brown coat shone against the mid-day sun pouring in from the many windows as did her smile. Sora eventually sat beside her. "No hard feelings?" "Don't have any." Piper joked. "Ok, this is makin my head hurt. Piper, ya'll really meant it when ya said ya were a monster?" Penny asked. "In more ways than one Penny. I just didn't want to say how many yet." An uncomfortable silence filled the air as Piper and Harmony lay there, distanced from one another. It would be a long while before he awoke again. The Spear in his real body would see to that. Until it melted or somepony found him, he was trapped here with the only pony he could say anything to. And he had chosen to say all the wrong things. He laid his head over his hooves and shivered. Even though it was gone he could still feel the ice in his physical body as well as the weight of Monoclos' body on his. At this rate his body would be overlooked and he would be stuck here with Harmony forever. He glanced over at the forlorn alicorn and sighed. "Harmony...I'm sorry." he spoke up. She glanced over at him in surprise. "I just...feel so angry and empty..." he hung his head, barely noticing as she lay down beside him, her wing slowly stretching over him. "Piper...There is something I must tell you. Do you remember when I explained you had a choice to make?" "Kinda hard to forget it. Its what got me into this mess. I get it, 'this is all my own fault'." "That's not it Piper." Harmony waved her hoof, a black figure appearing in front of them. The figure was small with bulbous yellow orbs for eyes. It fidgeted and twitched, every so often scratching at the air as if something was keeping it from them. "This is a creature known as a heartless. This is it in its weakest form, simply a shadow. Piper, the darkness that attacked your grandmother, it was this." Piper leapt to his hooves, knocking away Harmony's wing as he flared his own and bared his teeth at the heartless. "Calm yourself, this is merely a reflection of that darkness Piper. It cannot harm us. But it is important that you know what it is and how it is created. These beings feed off living hearts, created from the darkness in everyone's heart and bound to it. Those with power and the darkest of hearts can command them." "Like Discord." "Yes...like Discord...These creatures need hearts, they feed on them and use them to fill that which they lack. Hearts of their own." she waved her hoof, the heartless twitching and becoming transparent, a swirling hole of darkness where its heart should have been. "These are the things my parents fought aren't they? Aren't they all locked away somewhere in Canterlot?" He asked as he slowly sat back down. "Most of them are, it would be impossible to entirely seal away the Heartless. There will always be darkness hidden away within every heart. There are those rare hearts that are pure and full of light. I believe you know one." Harmony waved her hoof, an image of Ditzy appearing in front of them. "Never have I seen a mare whose heart is so pure." Harmony said, almost in awe. The image of Ditzy faded and was replaced by the Heartless once more. "But why are you telling me this?" "Because Piper...a heartless is created when a heart is swallowed by darkness. If not for your sacrifice, Rainbow Dash would have become a Heartless. but you took her place." "So...you're saying...that I'm..." Piper slowly began to put the pieces together, his hoof slowly drifting to his chest. He feared what would happen as his hoof rested there. Nothing. "I'm...j...just one of those monsters?" he asked as he stared at the Heartless in front of him. "No Piper, you are different. Far different from these. There are other types, more powerful Heartless and creatures called Nobodies." Another wave of her hoof and a tall grey figure appeared, shaking and fidgeting even more so than the Heartless. "For every Heartless created there is also a Nobody. Nobodies do not exist, they simply are and have no hearts, no feelings. But there are rare cases, such as Sora and Kairi." the figures appeared before him. He looked at them in confusion. "What the heck are they?" "They are called Humans. That one" she pointed to Sora. "Is named Sora." the figure shifted into an Alicorn, a large smile on his face and a massive key floating beside him. "He fought alongside your parents against the Heartless. The girl is named Kairi, she is, for lack of better terms to explain to you, his marefriend." "The Keyblade is a weapon forged from the Power of Light and bonds of friendship to battle the Heartless." "Like the Elements right?" Piper asked. Harmony nodded and smiled. "You learn quickly. Yes, just like the Elements. Its strength relies on its wielders power of heart and friendship. It is the only weapon guaranteed to be able to completely destroy the Heartless." "Is he my enemy now that I'm...well..." "No Piper, but he may mistake you for one, be wary of him and be careful. I do not know if the Keyblade will have any affect on you but it has done the impossible in the past. Do you remember the one Riku used in your training?" Piper blinked, a window appearing and replaying the memory before him. Riku put a hoof to his chin, his keyblade appearing beside him and stabbing into the ground. "While you can't use a magical blade, you can still learn to use a hoofblade and whatever is available to you. In any situation almost anything can be a weapon to protect those you care for." Riku pushed the keyblade over to him, the blade shrinking a little as the pegasus grabbed it in his teeth. Riku smiled. "Now attack me with it." The Piper from the past blinked in surprise, looking up at the Alicorn. "uh...what?" he jumped backwards as a spike of ice drove up from the ground where he had been standing moments ago. "I remember that...So that's what that thing was. A keyblade." "You mothers both have one. And at a time they were an Alicorn, having combined their hearts with that of Applebloom who also possess' a keyblade." Piper blinked. "Ok, and?" "Piper, it is not normal for a pegasus to have so much magic. Perhaps a little but that would only be related to something to do with clouds or lightning, things a pegasus is born to do. Never has a pegasus had the ability to control ice or fire." "I can't use fire, that's sunburst." he argued. "Let me finish Piper." Harmony said as calmly as she could. She took a slow breath as Piper relaxed. "Piper what I am trying to explain to you is that locked away within you is a power greater than the Keyblade itself. You exist within both realms of reality, the light and the dark and still hold your original body. Such a thing has only been accomplished before by Keyblade masters of great power. But even they would not touch the darkness, before you argue, you were forced into the darkness when you gave yourself for Rainbow Dash, do not be angry with yourself. My point Piper is that yes, I used you, because you are the only one who I can use and it sickens me to say so. You are a heartless with a heart in spirit and in time, your Keyblade will come to you. When that time arrives, that is the time I will need you the most Piper. Please understand...I cannot touch your realm of existence without causing it to crumble on itself. I am not even aware how much damage merely retrieving you caused and it is still something that worries me." Piper scooted towards her, rubbing his cheek against hers and surprising the Alicorn. "I understand. Basically I'm your tool to fix everything that's wrong. I already understood that much, but now I have an idea why. I'm still not happy about it, but I'll do my best. I already said I would and I plan to keep my word. Any way you can wake me up?" he asked. "Well, I could, it would be extremely uncomfortable though." "Alright. "Ok let me rephrase that. It would be excruciatingly painful. You have a massive shard of ice in your chest Piper and its stuck against your insides and causing frostbite." "Well then I should hurry and wake up then shouldn't I?" he said with a forced grin. Harmony sighed and touched her hoof to his forehead. Piper awoke with a low groan, his entire body felt cold and then out of nowhere the pain kicked in, that and the weight of a dead gryphon king on top of him. He forced himself to focus, the ice turning into water and falling to the ground. He panted heavily as he lay there with a hole where his chest had been, his blood frozen on the outer edges of the wound. He weakly pushed Monoclos off of him and rolled onto his side. He was in a ditch somewhere, probably not too far away from the Gryphon camp. He sat up, slipping as his hoof bumped against something. He blinked and stared with wide eyes at the corpse of Cherry Blossom. "Cherry..." he had no words to say. What could he say? 'I'm sorry' would just be a slap to the face. "P...Pi...per..." He stared as Cherry's mouth moved. "Cherry? You're alive! Just hold on Cherry." "No...Piper..." she reached up a hoof, smiling at him weakly. "I...I..saw her...the pretty princess...she's calling me...I heard her say your name...your real name...I'm glad...i got to hear it...I'm gonna miss you..big brother..." her hoof dropped to the ground, Piper quickly catching it in his. "NO! Cherry don't leave! Cherry..." Piper pulled the filly close, crying into her coat. A warm glow surrounded the young pegasus and then she was gone. Piper stared at his empty hooves, gasping and clutching his chest as the wound closed. He laid on his side, panting heavily when a strange sensation filled him. His hoof against his chest, felt a gentle, albeit weak, thump. THUMP THUMP...THUMP THUMP... "A heart?" Piper struggled to keep his eyes open, staying awake long enough to see a pegasus scout spot him and hear a muffled "OVER HERE!" "A power greater than the Keyblade..." "There's only one such power." Riku said as he reentered the Throne room, followed closely by Nyx and four young ponies. "Riku, its good to see you again." "Daddy!" Namine giggled and hugged Sora tightly, Roxas doing the same with kairi. "You must be Kairi. I've heard so much about you from Riku." Nyx said with a soft smile "And you must be Nyx, I've heard a lot about you too. Its nice to meet someone who can set Riku straight." Kairi said with a laugh. "All of that can wait until later. Sora." Riku turned to his lifelong friend and they both nodded, turning to Piper. "There's only one thing more powerful than the Keyblade and that's what the Keyblade was meant to protect." "Or control, it depends on the wielder." Sora added. "Well what is it?" Amethyst asked, having had enough back and forth and wanting a simple answer. "Kingdom hearts."