“...sh”
“Da..”
“Da- it- ...er”
“-can’t”
“G- p- RAINBOW!”
Dash moaned and fidgeted weakly. “Sh… shut up. Don’t call me that.” Opening an eye, she looked around tiredly before rolling over and falling back asleep.
AJ leaned up and wore a self satisfied smirk. “Ain't nothin wrong with her that ah can see.”
“Are you sure?” asked Twilight, nervously glancing between the two girls.
“Yeah she looks knocked out,” Pinkie giggled. “I know that I look that way when I eat too many desserts and pass out from overeating!”
Rarity took over and sat a hand on Pinkie’s shoulder. “Diane, I will tell you later about how incredibly bad that is for you. Although, for now we need to discover the reason as to why our rainbow haired friend is currently ‘knocked out’, as it were.
Dash mumbled something once more.
AJ just snorted. “A’hm tellin ya she’s fine. Now, you say that you two were in a strange room when you showed up, but from our perspective you two appeared from thin air. Care to explain?”
Twilight nodded. “Well, I remember fighting Lady in the library--”
“Did you kill her?” asked Dante, leaning up against a nearby pillar.
Twilight sent a glare toward Dante but continued nevertheless, “Then I met up with Dash and we ran to find you guys…. The rest is almost a blank spot in my memory. A room. A shadow? Bits and pieces but not much else. Next thing I know is that I’m up here on the roof with you guys.”
Pinkie appeared next to her. “Wei~rd… But don’t forget the big swirling beam of light over there.” True to her word there was indeed a large column of demonic looking crimson light. Ironically, it seemed to be directed upwards toward a large magic circle that covered half the city.
Twilight took the time to look around the rest of the area as well. Twelve fallen angel statues were spread in a complete circle at the edge of the rooftop. All of them floated ominously at separate distances from the ground.
“Darling, are you sure that you weren't just exhausted from running this far immediately after a fight?”
“I don’t think so…. Well nevertheless, something happened that I don’t remember. Although, I feel like it was important.”
Dante walked over and leaned down to examine Dash. “Man, which one of you hasn't been knocked out yet?”
Pinkie jumped up and down vigorously. “Oh. OHH! Twilight hasn't!” she said, sticking her finger against Twilight’s nose.
“Heh, give it time.” Dante stood up and looked toward the foreboding light. “Alright, we need to go. Jester probably already has my old man’s sword and we’re down a fighter.”
“That’s not a problem, I’ll just carry Dashie like this and protect her.” Pinkie effortlessly tossed Dash onto her back and hopped toward the light.
“Wait, Pinkie! Hold on--” called Twilight.
It was too late, Pinkie had already jumped into the light with Dash slumped on her back. She was giggling and waving down at the others the entire way up.
AJ walked up and placed a comforting arm over her friend’s shoulder. “S’alright filly. S’alright.”
Twilight mumbled through both both palms covering her face. “There's probably an ultra powerful psychotic demon with Dante’s legendary family heirloom on the other side… and she just jumps!”
“Well no time to lose then!” AJ practically shoved Twilight into the light. Twilight flailed for a bit after losing her balance, causing her to float upwards feet first, completely upside down. AJ chuckled before jumping in herself with Rarity right behind her.
Dante watched the girls ascend and gave a small smile. “Well then. Time to wrap up this party.” He then stepped into the light and floated upwards himself. “Gotta admit, it’s been a crazy ride with these babes.”
~~~
Opening her eyes, Shia slowly lifted her head from her pillow and stretched. Looking around, she found that everything around her still consisted of the same plain white color. She sighed upon realization that everything that happened recently wasn't a dream in the slightest.
She looked down and found Angel still standing at his post, guarding her as she slept. She reached over and pulled the loyal bunny into a loving hug.
“Oh, Angel. I told you before; you don’t have to stand guard. That man isn't going to come back and hurt us.”
Angel turned to her with a shocked expression and spoke to her in his usual way, with a combination of nose wiggles and telepathy. <How can you be so sure, he kidnapped you and now he’s even gone after the others!>
“That may be true… but I still don’t believe that he’s capable of--”
Angel made a series of angry gestures. <Did you not see how he just up and burnt that guy to a crisp!>
Shia flinched badly. Of course she did. It was the very last thing she remembered before she came to this place. Angel saw how badly she was shivering, probably recalling the memory right now, and gave her a few pokes. When she snapped out of it her gave her a small smile. <Hey, don’t worry about it right now. We need get out of here. Are you feeling better yet?>
Shia tilted her head in confusion. “Oh, I’m feeling much better, but I still can’t feel my keyblade or my powers. How are we going to escape?”
Angel pointed behind him and wiggled. <Using that!>
Shia followed his paw and noticed that the wall that the Black Robed Man smashed with his keyblade. With a large chunk of it broken out the wall appeared brittle and easy to break through.
“B-b-but,” she stammered, looking back and forth, “wouldn't it be safer just to stay here?”
Angel looked at her incredulously. <Well what if he comes back and does decide to hurt on us? Or worse!>
“Worse?” she repeated fearfully.
<What if he tries to seduce you?> he wiggled ominously.
Shia’s face turned beat red and she stammered hopelessly.
<What if he brought you here just to use you for your body. I mean… he did call you a toy after all.>
Unable to take anymore, Shia ignored the rooms nulling effect, grabbed Angel, and hopped out of bed. Still a deep shade of red she extended two of her fingers to their maximum length and swiftly jabbed the wall in several specific places. The wall crumbled to the ground without so much as a crash. While she ran out of the room, Angel looked back as the wall with a dumbfounded expression.
<How in the holy carrot did you do that?!>
Shia couldn't help but spew her answer out in one long sentence as fled down the hallway. “MasterLunataughtmeamartialartcalledthegentlefistformyownprotectionnowlet’sjustgetfarawayfromherePLEAAAASSEE!”
~~~
After calming down, Shia slowly made her way down the strange building’s hallways with Angel on her shoulder. Now that she wasn't freaking out, Shia once again felt the nulling effects of the place draining her strength. While it wasn't enough to stop her completely, it was enough to slow her down and prevent her from flying.
Angel looked around with a criticising glare. <Geez what’s with this place. Literally everything is white! The walls, the paint, the plants, even the freaking dust! It’s driving me crazy!>
“Personally, I think that it’s a little scary.”
<I know right. I mean this place is making me hate my own fur!>
Shia held Angel out in front of her. “N-no, don’t say that! Your fur is beautiful!” she said, nuzzling the furry critter. “Also, that’s not what I meant. What I meant was… where is everyone?”
<True. We’ve been walking for at least twenty minutes. Even with how slow you walk we still should have had to fight or hide somewhere by now. This place is weird.>
Shia nodded. So far, they've simply made their way down one long monotonous hallway. Every so often they would go through large open doorways or up stairs. After a few more minutes of walking, the duo stopped in front of another large door that, of course, was also pure white in color. However, this one felt different to her, as if something dangerous were behind it. Off to the side was a strange orb of some sort. It sat on a pedestal and dark colored energy swirled around inside.
<What… the hell is that?>
Shia gasped, offended. “Angel Bunny! Language!” Curious, she carefully walked over to it and peered into. She flinched when several images appeared in her mind.
<Holy Carrot! What’s happening?!> Angel’s connection with Shia allowed him to see it as well.
“I-I don’t know.… But they look like… the floors of a castle. It looks like we’re on… floor number 13. It’s weird though, next to it says Pleasant Isles...” Shia stared at that title, something about it rang a bell in her head. She continued to try and remember before she shrugged it off and continued, “but all of the spaces next to the other floors say ‘empty’.”
Angel pointed down below. <Wait no, look. Down here it at Floor number one. It reads: The… blank blank Burning. And up close to the top says> Angel struggled to read it through the mental haze. <looks like a bunch of letters, I can’t read it.>
“Oh my,” she gasped, “No wonder you can’t read it. It’s missing letters from the words.”
<I’m confused. Several floors are missing names entirely, but the ones who aren't all have missing words or letters. What kind of idiot designed this poor excuse for a map?>
“Well the one we’re on now has the full title. I wonder what it means.” Shia looked toward the pearly white doors and walked up to them. Strangely enough they were already cracked open slightly. “Do you think we should go inside?”
Angel deadpanned. <We’re trying to escape…. Why would we go up the place. Look, now we know which way to go. So let’s just turn around, and thank our bushy tails that we haven't been caught yet.>
Shia looked slightly disappointed for a second. “Oh… okay then.”
“You sleazy rats! Get your pranking butts back over here so I can kick it!”
Shia stopped dead in her tracks. She knew that voice anywhere. Angel looked around in confusion and scratched his fluffy head. <What the hay was tha-->
Shia instantly bolted back toward the door and pushed it open. A bright white light enveloped both of them completely.
Eventually, the light faded and Shia managed to open her eyes once more. Said eyes immediately shrank when she realized what was in front of her. No longer was there any monotonic shade of white. But brilliant blue skies, and an even bigger blue ocean. All around them were trees of all shapes and sizes. Shia was at a lost for words. Her hand covered her mouth and her eyes teared up slightly.
Angel looked on in confusion. <What? I admit that it’s a refreshing view. But even you shouldn't cry at this. Have some backbone for carrots sake!>
Shia slowly shook her head, a single tear rolled down her cheek. “N… no. I remember now.”
<Remember what?>
“Pleasant Isles is the beach that we kept coming to as children. Even after we met Rarity and stopped traveling, we came here every chance we got.” Shia looked down, her smile both nostalgic and sad. “Some of my most favorite memories of of us playing here together,” she mumbled.
Angel looked out in the distance. <Wait, who’s that?>
Shia looked up. Sure enough, out in the distance were four figures. She could hear faint angry yelling and laughing. Two of the figures seemed to be flying alongside the third one, and all three seemed to be running from the fourth. Although she couldn't make out who they were, Shia could still smiled as she remembered watching her friends run away just like that after a furious prank section on AJ.
<So this place looks just like your childhood hang out, huh?>
Shia twirled happily. “Oh yes! Other than the forest this was my most favorite place to be with my friends!”
<Alright… so why is it here? Werent we just in a white building 30 seconds ago?>
Shia stopped twirling in happy circles. “Oh that’s right! I thought I heard Jackie’s voice somewhere.”
<Oh is that what that was. I heard it too. I can still hear it actually.>
“Really? How?”
<Trust the rabbit ears, girl.>
“Oh… alright. Which way?”
<The kid over there is still yelling it at the ones she’s chasing. I head Spike’s name as well but also some I don’t recognize. Also cursing… lots of southern cursing. Definitely AJ alright. Looks a little bit like her too.>
“I’m sorry Angel but that’s not possible. Jackie isn't a child anymore.”
Angel glared at her fiercely. <Girl what did I just say about my ears!>
Shia flinched. “To trust them?” she said shamefully.
<That’s right! And right now I’m telling you, younger or not, that is AJ over there running down the two avians and the boy with green hair.>
“Wait? Green hair? Does he have light purple skin?!”
“Yeah, I know right. It’s friggin weird--agh!”
Shia grabbed Angel in a frantic grip and moved him to her face. “Can you see who he’s with?”
Angel struggled in her hold. <Sure. But why?>
Shia surprisingly put the pieces together fairly quickly. “Angel there’s a girl who sounds just like Jackie here and a boy that looks just like Spike! I don’t know what’s happening yet but before we go look I need to know what the avians look like. Please it’s important,” she begged with teary eyes.
Unable to say no to her face, Angel turned around and looked out to them. <Well, they're almost out of eyesight but I can at least describe her hair colors since they still stand out.>
“That’s fine. Please hurry!”
<One has yellow curly hair… almost like that pink weirdo. She also has, ugh, white wings. Theeeeeeee other one has plain blue hair and pink wings. Now they’re gone. Happy?>
Rather than being happy Shia was confused. Terribly confused. After a few seconds of internal debate Shia found that in this room the building’s effects did not affect her when she instinctively summoned her wings to take flight. Although, her mind was only on one thing at the moment.
“I need to go see for myself!” she declared. At fluttering speeds the normally shy girl raced off to meet up with the unfamiliar familiar kids. Angel stubbornly clung onto her shirt while she flew.
“Woah! Hold on there!”
Shia stopped dead for the second time when a mysterious women appeared from thin air in front of her. She had long moss green hair and wore the same coat that the other man did, only with the hood down.
Crysalis regarded the girl with both amusement and curiosity. “I go out for 5 minutes to take care of something and the captive escapes? What is this world coming too?” she sighed theatrically.
“Umm, hi. Excuse me but could you please move… I need to check something behind you.” Shia tried to politely move around the dark skinned women, but to no avail.
Chrysalis’ mood turned sour. “Yeah, yeah see that’s the thing. You aren't supposed to be here. And you sure as hell ain't supposed to be wandering around.”
As if on instinct Shia summoned Nature’s Guide and immediately beat a speedy retreat back the way she came. Unfortunately, the speed worked against her when she flew right into Chrysalis’ waiting fist. The force to her gut caused Shia to fling her head forward and Angel to be flung off onto the sand below.
Shia quickly recovered and lept back, her hand already healing her injury. However, before she could do anything else a gloved fist came from below and decked her in the chin, another gripped her neck before she could fly further up.
Spitting out blood, Shia looked down and looked into Chrysalis’ eyes. Her evil, soulless eyes. She spoke in a low dark voice. “You had a nice little room that was all to yourself thanks to Spike. But now, you’ll be treated like a true prisoner should!” Viciously, she threw Shia down to the ground below. The force for the throw created a crater in the sand that knocked her unconscious.
Chrysalis floated down and pulled her up by her long pink hair. Angel could only stare in horror at the sight as, in a flash of green flame, both of them disappeared.