Magic of the Heart Chapter 5
Princess' Teacher
Twilight Sparkle decided now that she was alone the train was no longer needed. The faster way would be to fly there herself. She wasn’t perfect at it yet, but this way she didn’t have to wait for the train or wait for it to round the mountain. With a quick thought Twilight allowed the keyblade to appear in front of her and disappear. She almost lost it with her increased speed and wind yet when she made it disappear it was right back where she wanted it. Twilight could not help but smile slowly. This could be very fun to use. She never had a desire to become a fighter but she was curious on learning swordplay. Then again, what didn’t she wish to learn?
After a short time of playing with the new weapon in the air she decided to scan the world beneath her. There did appear to be some of these small shadow creatures now and again scattered, but luckily there were no ponies she could see. Twilight made the keyblade one more time getting a little prepared if she did see a pony in trouble. That’s when she noticed a change in the Heartless behavior. Almost the moment the key was in existence a few Shadows looked up at her. This made Twilight flinch a bit causing her to unbalance her flight path. She quickly righted herself starring back at their beady yellow eyes. “Starting to question if they gave me a weapon to fight these things, or a magnet.” Twilight gulped watching a few of the Shadows hop into the air slashing with their claws. They were way too far to strike her but that did not stop them from attempting. Twilight cringed realizing in a short time she’d need to fight them to save Ponyville. She hoped her friends were holding up alright without her. “I’ll be there soon girls…” she whispered to the open air. “Back off you…thing!” a voice broke the silence. Twilight looked off to a path leading toward Ponyville and saw a caravan that appeared to be transporting weapons and armor for royal guards. ‘They must have been coming to help defend us,’ Twilight thought to herself. But something just wasn’t right. Where was everypony? Only one guard appeared to be there and he looked like a young teen. Was he even a guard? It did not matter, shadows were surrounding him.
The young stallion gripped the sword tightly with the magical aura from his horn. His white fur standing a bit on end from fear. “I don’t know what you are but I swear I will strike you down if you step any closer!” He threatened. This had no effect on the shadows as they got closer and closer. He could not wait anymore, these were getting way too close. With a flick of his head the blue magic held sword slashed right through one of the Shadows making a clean cut. The only problem was it’s body reformed causing no harm to the creature. The stallion went slack jawed, stunned by how perfect the cut was, yet still doing no damage. His eye twitched feeling a bit in trouble. The shadow the male pony cut through took the moment to lunge, causing him to slash once more at it in desperation. A loud sound pierced the air as the sword went through the shadow once more. Something felt different the stallion realized. When he starred at the shadow he noticed the cut didn’t heal, instead the creature exploded into a black smoke disappearing from existence. His eyes lit right up and he smiled, getting into a attack stance once more, sword at the ready. “I don’t know what’s changed but I don’t care!” He could not help but charge head long at the shadows swinging his sword causing the same effect. The remaining shadows, though not very intelligent, knew they were beat and faded into the ground scurrying away. “Yeah you better run!” He laughed to himself turning back to the cart full of supplies with a big grin on his face. Standing there surprised him a little more then the Heartless that had just left. “Princess Twilight?” He muttered under his breath, more from surprise, less because he wanted to.
Twilight stood before the young guard, keyblade hanging to her side. “So that’s how that works. Seems the keyblade did it’s job.” Twilight trotted up to the guard smiling to him. “Good job taking out those heartless. Once the keyblade let you hit them you seemed to be quite skilled with that sword. How many years have you been a guard?” The stallion starred at Twilight confused by just about everything she had just said. Twilight raised her brow waiting for a response. After a moment she realized what she said must have been overwhelming, causing her to giggle lightly. “Oh excuse me. My name is…” She was cut off by the stallion nodding his head, “Princess Twilight Sparkle of Ponyville.” A full title? That caused Twilight to blush slightly, not used to anyone being so formal. “Oh, I guess you do know me. You can just call me Twilight if you like. We don’t need to be so formal. In fact what is your na-” “I’m also not a guard.” She was once again cut off, though this time she was surprised. “What do you mean? You have the armor on?” Twilight glanced over at the supply caravan noticing that there was armor they were transporting too, which easily could have meant…”You stole it!” Twilight gasped, getting the keyblade ready. The white furred male quickly sat back on his hind legs, waving his forelegs in protest, “No no! I didn’t steal it I swear!” He quickly removed the helmet, revealing the bright red and orange mane underneath. “I was just borrowing it when those monsters showed up. There were no guards here when I found it. I’m guessing they were scarred off or something!” The pony gave a nervous smile hoping that would prevent him being arrested, being hit by that oversized key, or both. Twilight gave him a glare, starring at the sword he had dropped when defending himself from the hoof pointing. It was odd, nothing like the usual swords a guard had. The caravan didn’t appear to have one like it either. “If that’s true, then what about that sword?” She motioned to the ground, causing him to sweat a little knowing that looked bad. “It’s mine!” He defended himself with. “I keep it on me whenever I can. I may not be a guard, but I’d like to be one someday.” Twilight glared at him skeptical of the whole situation. She sighed to herself about to admit she believed the stallion, that was until rattling armor could be heard. Twilight and the stallion looked toward the noise, seeing more heartless. These ones were however no shadows.
Before the two ponies were about five new heartless. The creature had a dark blue body, the strange heartless symbol appeared to be embedded onto it’s chest. On top of it’s head was adorned with some strange helmet with a curl on top. Inside the helmet’s mask the only thing that was visible was it’s bright yellow eyes, and a toothy maw with a disturbing grin on it. Their movements were sporadic, dancing about with claws sharper than a dragon’s waving in the air. “What are these? Some soldier monsters?” The male asked Twilight starring at their sporadic movements. Twilight blinked at them confused, staring at them as well. “I guess so. They still are heartless though.” Twilight got into position with the keyblade out. “More than likely not friendly.” The stallion gave Twilight a look of confusion. “Heartless? Is that what they are called? Explains their cutie mark, even if it’s in a strange spot.” He said peering at the chest containing said symbol. Twilight found herself starring at the symbol a moment longer, shaking her head. Twilight lifted the blade ready to finally strike the soldiers, until she was met in the face by one of the soldier’s giving her a swift kick. “Ah! Hey!” She cried out rubbing her cheek. The stallion jumped over Twilight using a quick vertical slash to the soldier’s head, destroying it quickly. He looked back at the princess with a serious face on. “What are you doing? Keep your weapon close to your body to protect yourself! Have you ever used a sword before?” Twilight gave him a sheepish grin shaking her head. “I was just given the keyblade by Celestia then ran out. I haven’t trained with this at all.” Twilight held a nervous blush rubbing the back of her head with her hoof. The stallion rolled his head quickly blocking a soldier’s claw slash coming for him, “Well help me take out these heartless and try to watch.” He couldn’t help but grin as he destroyed another soldier, “And for now, call me Teach.”
The two ponies were quickly attacked by the heartless soldiers, their speed becoming apparent at this point. About three soldiers ran to each side of the ponies causing them to get back to back. ‘Teach’ did not allow the soldiers to attack first charging in. As the heartless did not appear very competent they jumped in as well, with a spinning kick. The stallion quickly spun deflecting the kicks from each of the heartless causing them to stumble back. Without a second thought he jumped into the air flipping the sword straight down into a stab on one of the soldiers causing it to flinch in pain, just before disappearing into shadow smoke. Twilight observed a bit nodding her head. She turned her attention back to the heartless just as they jumped at her. Noticing that caused Twilight to recoil a bit in surprise, not being able to stick to the plan with the initial charge herself. “Step one to charge first! W…What do I do?!” She yelled out nervously blocking it last second by the oversized key, causing the heartless to stumble, but not fall. “Oh no I messed it up!” Twilight screamed out. Slashing and clang noises were heard behind her as the stallion fought off the remaining two heartless who were putting up a slight fight. “Don’t worry about what order you do everything in.” He yelled to the princess, “Just go with the flow. You can’t always do everything in a set list. Be…be spontaneous if you need to!” He tried to convince her. Twilight heard these words as if they were gibberish. No list? No set order? Spontaneous? These were not things she normally did. And yet…Pinkie Pie did. If only she was here right now. However she has been with Pinkie enough she could probably figure it out, right?
Princess Twilight nodded slowly, spreading her wings out to relax and taking a deep breath. “Be Pinkie…” She said quietly to herself, then rethought about it, “Well if Pinkie Pie was wielding a giant key sword to fight off dark creatures.” Just then the soldiers were coming for her again, this time slashing with their claws. Twi watched then, eyes expecting a moment they’d look open. And there it was. The solder’s claws synced up at one point for a short time. Twilight used this chance to turn her keyblade to the side catching all the claws. She then quickly lifted it up flipping the soldiers upward. With one last swipe she captured all three on the back sending them flying. Twilight smiled with a mental ‘I did it!’, which was short lived. She may have smashed them and sent them flying, but not far as they sprang back up. “Huh? But isn’t this thing supposed to be like their bane or something?” She looked at the keyblade a bit confused, starting to regret agreeing to fight these beasts. The stallion took the princess’ side examining it as well, but still ready to defend her if he needed. “Well if it’s the reason I can fight them, then it does have power. Maybe it’s only has strength based on your skill and will to use it? Wouldn’t put it past something so magical.” He did however have his brow raised still confused why this weapon was so special. Twilight thought about what he said. Could be true? She nodded her head once more. “I guess that could be. I should try every possibility that this can take. Same as any sp-” Twilight was quickly shoved out of the way but the male pony, who quickly slashed right through a soldier. A stupid grin crossed his face. “Whoa thanks!” Twilight said getting back to her hooves. “But you maybe enjoying this too much.” His grin was lost a bit as he rolled his eyes again. “Well I don’t normally train a princess. Besides, you’re kinda bad at this.” He admitted to her. Twilight shot him a disapproving look before looking at the last two soldiers
She wasn’t a fighter. What could she do? Her eyes went back to the floating key. She had her magic…and this weapon had it’s own. If she could concentrate, maybe the energy could become one. Twilight began to focus pointing the blade right at one of the soldiers, just as it began to charge her once more. The stallion noticed the pointing she was doing. “You won’t be able to get rid of them that way.” It was time for the stallion to take action and be the hero. As he galloped straight toward the soldier he heard a odd puffing noise from behind. A fireball shot past him, turning the heartless to smoke, but this time a pink crystal looking heart rose into the air, just to disappear into darkness as well. “Whoa, what the?” The stallion turned and saw Twilight gasping a bit with the end of the blade smoking. “That took some strange power from me. But it worked!” Twi’s own cocky grin returned, making the male’s jaw drop. “Was that like…dark magic or something?” “Well it seemed to be something the keyblade just knew how to do. I just concentrated and shot a fireball! That was so wonderful. I think even Rainbow Dash would be jealous of that magic!” Twilight mused on her success. Magic, the one thing she could do. The remaining soldier starred, mouth a bit agape. That was a bit stronger then the very feral creature expected. Twilight smiled lightly aiming the tip of the blade right for the soldier, causing it to jump in fear, disappearing into the darkness.
Twilight gave the stallion a cocky grin, making him roll his eyes, though a smile plastered on his face. “That was a good one princess. Of course the element of magic would resort to a spell.” The unicorn said poking at her side. “You’re just jealous I took your glory of being a guard is all.” “Well fine you got me. But none the less I’m not even in the academy yet so that’s down the line. Hey maybe if I’m lucky I can be your first royal guard? You may need it if those are your sword skills.” He mused once more to the mare. “He I could get better. And I do need to learn after all, I need to help…” Twilight gasped realizing she was wasting time. Ponyville and her friends were in trouble, and if the keyblade was truly the only way to fight them off then she needed to be there. “I must go!” She turned away, her wings spreading. “Stay safe ok? I need to save my friends! Also…return that stuff when everything is here, got it?” She gave him a dark glare until he nodded, causing her to smile. “Thank you, and goodbye!” Twilight lifted off the ground and began to fly away, before turning slightly in the air. “Oh hey I just realized something! I never got your name. I’d love to meet you again, possibly we could be friends!” Twilight yelled out not stopping her flight. The stallion waved back, his sword sheathed, “My name’s Zen! Goodbye Princess Twilight! Good luck!”