//------------------------------// // CH6.2: ...and Taking Off // Story: Kingdom Hearts F.I.M: Rise of The Elements // by Spirit Shift //------------------------------// AJ smirked as she remembered what she considered to be one of her favorite memories, her and RDs drinking challenge when they were 13. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~         “Hey Jack, have you ever heard of the milk challenge?”         “Yah mean the one where yah drink a gallon o’milk and hold it over your head?”         “Yeah, that one, you wanna race?”         AJ smirked. “Yah think yah can win?”         “Heck yeah I can, i’m awesome! Here lets go!” Dash said as she ran to the fridge and grabbed two gallons of milk. “Don’t throw up”         “Allrighty then”         “321GO!” Dash sped as she began to gulp down the milk. Aj also began to drink, the milk tasted good and reminded her of her time on the farm with her father. After a second or two, AJ began to slow down so that she wouldn't vomit. Releasing the jug she realized that she was already more than half way through. Looking over she realized that dash had stopped drinking. her jug at about the same volume. What attracted her attention, however, was the fact that Dash had begun to sway back and forth, hiccupping every few seconds. Her gaze vacant and out of focus.         “Uhh Rainbow, you alright?”         *Huhh awahh *hic*?” Dash said finally focusing on the girl in front of her.         She didn't complain about her name, somethin’s wrong here “Doont call me raeignboww, you stupid apple…...pie” she slurred. Nevermind, there it is. But somethin’s still very wrong, the way she said that was weird. “Dash I think we should go see Luna, somethin’ musta been in that milk” “OH HER! That arrogant….bluehair…*hic*....pinning me on my butt like a kid…..I don’t like her she’s too strong!” AJ couldn't let this opportunity for a jib pass. “Spike was stronger than you, and you like him.” AJ smirked. Dash blushed and swayed to the point where she fell out of her chair. After a second or two she hovered drunkenly into the air, wobbling like a bird with lopsided wings. “No I didnt! I rreeeespeecteed him, *hic* he was cool and he was a dragon…..and he defended me from those bullies…..THAT I COULD HAVE TAKEN MYSELF!” She almost screamed. She lazily flopped her stomach onto the table burped in AJ face, much to her chargin. “I miss him *hic*” “I know yah do dash, we all do” “No! I missss himmm, what we used to do, the way that we used to sit on the roof and talk all night, I miss that.” “I wondered what that noise was at night,” AJ eyes widened in surprise then narrowed in anger. “it was you two. YOU WERE THE ONES THAT KEPT PRANKING ME AT NIGHT!” AJ jumped to tackle her friend, who, even while drunk, had awesome reflexes and jumped lopsidedly into the air. Causing the table to clatter onto the ground. “Heheehee, it wasn't just us, Pinkie and even Twilight helped a few times.” she slurred. “EVERYONE CALLED ME A BEDWETTER FOR MONTHS BECAUSE OF YOU!!” AJ screamed and began to throw random items at the flying pest. Most of which were dodged as Dash lazily flopped around the air, laughing and hiccuping all the while. “You guys painted pears all over my room. I HATE PEARS!!” “*Hic* That one was Twiiillliiiiight” she sing-songed. “What is going on here! I heard crashes....” AJ stopped tossing plates and Dash fell from the sky as Luna entered the kitchen. As she fell on her butt Dash began to giggle in the most drunken way possible. Luna’s eyes became pinpricks in her recognition of the symptoms of drunkenness. Oh dear lord please tell me that they didn't find my stash, I know I should have moved it when I brought them here!! “Master Luna! Somethin’s wrong with Rainbow- “heheheheeee don’t call me dashhh you….pear*hic*” “She’s actin all kinds of weird…..” “H….how did this happen,” Luna asked nervously. “We were drinking milk and she just started actin like this” AJ pointed toward the spilt milk where the table flipped. Luna almost flew as she quickly ran over to the fallen milk cartons and began to sniff and taste it. Sighing in relief she got back to her feet. Thank the makers it’s just milk…. wait... what?” “So...she got drunk off milk….. how is that even possible.” Luna exclaimed. “Is that what this is? She’s drunk?” "HIC-hey…….you” Luna looked down to see the child weakly poking her legs. “Youuuu -HIC- suck.” And then she passed out. And they laughed.          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~         AJ giggled lightly as she remembered the months of payback that followed.         Shia scratched Angel behind his ear, to his immense enjoyment, as she smiled fondly at the time they first met.                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~         “Shy you got your keyblade!!”         "my god thats so coool” Dash mumbled         “I reckon that it suits yah” “KEYBLADE PARTY!!” “Nicely done darling” “Congratulations, Shia Flutter” You are the first in your class you gain your blade” Shy blushed and smiled at the constant praise directed at her. Even though it was subdued, she had been immensely excited about this. Her mood caused the surrounding flowers to grow rapidly, to the others amazement. “So what can it do!!??” Pinkie exclaimed in bursting excitement. “It looks like it can control flora.” Twilight surmised. “Shia, in order to use the powers of your keyblade you must channel your energy through it, will it to activate.” Shy nodded, and closed her eyes in concentration. Her keyblade began to glow more and more bright. “Ummm, Shia-” Luna tried but before she could finish the world began to shake. Feeling out the direction AJ turned toward the adjacent forest. First a few bunnies, then some deer, then a myriad of other animals including wolves, dogs, horses, and elephants, all began to trample from the forest. Luna briefly wondered where most of the animals came from before snapping out of it and only now hearing the panicking screams of the 14 year olds behind her. Oh right they don’t have keyblades yet. Summoning her's, she erected a barrier wide enough to protect the group, causing some of the closer animals to crash into it, leading the others to stampede harmlessly around it. It took almost 5 minutes before it ended. Well, I hope they don’t destroy the town…...I get most of my anime from there. Making sure that all the animals had passed, Luna released the shield. Hearing a soft sniffle she turned back to see Shy sniffling. “My powers almost got every one hurt,” she said as she wiped her eyes. “Shia, your powers are strong, to call upon the loyalty of both flora and fauna. It isn't your fault you are raw and untrained, but that is why you are here. With experience you can use these skills to protect your friends….instead of hurt them. Shy cleared her tears and nodded resolutely. Lifting her head slightly she noticed a small white lump some distance in front of her. With speeds that impressed Dash she flew over to the white lump and knelt down to inspect it. “Oh noo” She beheld the small baby bunny that was barely alive. Its body had been riddled with cuts scratches and shy swore that she saw a bone jutting out. It dawned on her that it must have been caught in the stampede. Picking it up she began to cry softly.         Luna and the others walked over to her, ready to offer words of comfort before their open mouths dropped to the ground it amazement. Both Shy and the bunny had begun to glow a brilliant green. Everyone's noses instantly filled with the scent of mint, and bells could be heard.         “Th...that's cura….how can she learn such a high level healing spell so quickly.” Luna muttered to herself.         By the time the glow dimmed and everyone could open their eyes again, that saw a bouncing baby bunny snuggling up against Shy, no injuries or broken bones to be found.         “.....that's so cool”         The bunny glared at her.         For a few days they looked for the bunny’s family but coming up with nothing, Shy decided that she would take care of him herself, and they've been inseparable since. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~         Twilight looked down at her very first spell book and reminisced about her first few days on this new world. Days that spanned into weeks. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~         “So master Luna, what is a keyblade anyway?” a young 10 year old Twilight asks in curiosity.         Luna looked over to her new student and mentally slapped herself for not expecting this question. Damn I knew I should have taken Tia's offer for a refresher course…...what’s the keyblade's history again……….something about a war, a dog, a mouse, and a duck…….. Damn! Better wing it for now. Composing herself Luna dawned the face that she had seen her sister wear when she was teaching. “The history of the keyblade is long and vast, We could not explain it on one setting. Instead, how about we go to the archives, all of the answers lie there.”         Twilight's pupils took up the majority of her face in excitement. Her smile followed suit as she nodded hard enough to cause her become extremely dizzy. Luna chuckled lightly as she led the way.         Twilight almost fainted at the sight of the huge library. Almost.         Luna mentally thanked her sister for leaving this place here, she was never an avid reader of things that weren't in Japanese. Even so, she played it cool, she was still new to this teaching thing.         “In this room lies the answer to every question you may have.” Without another warning Twilight bolted into a room and quite literally, dived into a pile of books like they weren't hardback copies. She began to run around and set books into a pile, several piles actually.         “What are you doing?”         Twilight looked back with sparkling eyes and a wide smile. “I'm organizing!!”         Luna looked momentarily shocked before she shook her head and walked away. ~~~         “Master Luna!”         “Aghh” Luna almost fell off her bed in her attempt to hide what she had been reading. “Dash we thought we told you to knock when you enter my room!”         “Sorry but it’s been almost 3 weeks and we can’t find Twilight.”         “Twilight’s missing?”         “Yah, can’t find her anywhere!”         “Hmmm continue your search, we may have an idea as to where she is.” ~~~         “The second war between the 7 lights and 13 darknesses came to a head when lead wielder Master So-”         “Twilight Sparkle!”         Twilight faulted in her reading as she turned her red blurry eyes toward are bluish shape that she barely recognized as her master. “Oh Hi Master, how are you.”         “I am not the subject of this intervention. Twilight, how long have you been in here”         “Ummmmm I don’t know…..”         “Twilight I understand your passion for learning, but as in everything else you must do it in moderation.”         “But I have to know! Knowing about the keyblade is the only way to get the keybladeandgettingthekeybladeistheonlywayIcansaveSpike!!”         Luna smiled warmly as she knelt down to come face to face with her student. “Twilight Sparkle, knowledge isn't everything. Just knowing about the keyblade won't make it easier to obtain, you have to earn it, then train with it until it’s a part of you. Only then can you possibly save him from whatever force took him.”         Twilight's face fell at this, so Luna decided to take a different approach. She looked over to a particular book that sat on the table, she recognized that as the book that Twilight had been clutching so tightly when she found her and her friends. “That book…..it looks old. Please, if you would, could you tell me what it is?” She said kindly, genuinely curious.         Twilight reached the book that sat next to her current pile of reading material, speaking lightly, it had seen better days. “This is the last thing that I have of my parents, all the spells that they taught me or wanted me to learn. Eventually I filled some blank pages in with diary entries…….it was their idea actually.”         “Can I see it?”         Twilight hesitated, it was her one and only possession, but Master Luna had taken her in…….she gave up the book.         Luna gingerly gripped the book in her hand and inspected it from all sides. It was indeed old, at least 10 years. Even so it was well cared for, barely any pages were ripped or torn. The cover looks like it had been burned slightly as well as some of the pages, there seemed to be a very weak preservation spell lingering in the pages. Luna's interest grew as she realized that the spell must have been cast unconsciously by the girl next to her. She really did love this book.         Luna raised a hand to the cover and a green glow began to emanate from it. Twilight began to panic, what was she doing to it, was she going to destroy it? She wouldn't do that right? Right???         “Restore!”         Twilight stopped in her mental tracks as the words left Luna's mouth. The glowing ceased and Luna handed it back to Twilight. She gazed at the book in awe, it looked as good as new but the contents remained the same.         Without warning she lept up and hugged Luna tightly.         “I want you too keep adding to this book, everything you learn from now until Spike is found. Alright.”         She did. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~         Ever since, Twilight constantly wrote in that same book, every story that happened, and every experience. Luna did something to it that made it so that the pages never ran out, so Twilight could keep writing. This way, when they find him, he won't feel bad for being left out of their lives for so many years.         “Ready for launch?”         Each of the girls looked at one another and, simultaneously cheered. “Lets go!”         “Affirmative. Pinkie?”         “Yeah?” replied to the familiar voiced interface.         “Please don’t crash the ship...” And then they took off into the void between worlds.