//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: End of All Things 
// Story: Birth of the Data-Knights 
// by Arguyus 
//------------------------------//

(Disclaimer: I do not own any copyrighted material you will encounter in this or any other story.) 

AN: Now is when things get interesting. I know It has been some time since I last updated, but my life is getting busy with me starting the job hunt.


Chapter 5: End of All Things


It was a beautiful day in Equestria, a day like many others, and the inhabitants of the land were intent on enjoying it as they would any other. One more recent inhabitant stood on one of the castle balconies looking at the large black vessel that rested in what once were the training grounds. He was filled with pride as he looked on at the masterpiece he had helped design, the ark of this world. 

The ship's main body is rectangular in shape with hidden weapon compartment spread across the hull, the type of weapon in each compartment varied from twin barreled ship-to-ship cannon turrets to quad gatling anti-fighters turrets. Two magi-accelerator engines that are as long as the main body were mounted on the sides, theoretically these oversized engines would make this ship faster than any ship ever built on Eques. A wide bridge sat on the front of the ship filled with all manner of detection equipment, and two quad heavy cannons mounted on the sides of it. Filled with golems specially built for almost every task from maintenance to cooking it could be piloted by a skeleton crew of four. 

"I thought you weren’t a morning person, Stephen." A voice said pulling the human out of his thoughts. 

"I said I'm not 'normally' a morning person, and today doesn't count as normal Twilight." The young keyblader replied, tuning his head to look at the mare he was speaking to. 

Twilight giggled lightly, "I guess so, what with the christening of that ship of yours."

He smiled, "Yah, and you should have seen the parade of animals Fluttershy guided into there."

"She is certainly getting into her job, but I suppose that's to be expected seeing as her job is head animal caretaker." The mare commented as she rested her forelimbs on the railing. 

Stephen felt something was off about her posture and tone, "Is something wrong Twi?" 

She was silent for a bit before she sighed, "Its just, well... I don't want to leave, but I know I have to being a Element and all. All the same, I wish this wasn't happening. Every time I see that ship I know that my days here are coming to an end." 

"I know how you feel, Twi," Steve began, "My family has moved so much that I have felt that way more than I have felt at home, but one day your people will find a new world to call home. It will never be the same as here, but as long as you remember this place it will never truly die. So enjoy today for, as a wise turtle once said, 'yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift... that is why it is called the present.'" 

The lavender mare giggled at that for a bit before looking back at the human, "That's a good one, I'll have to remember that one." 

The two stood there in silence for some time, just watching the sky. All was peaceful. 

Until the alarm bells began to ring, quickly followed by the shout of "Heartless in the city" thundering through the city. The two look at each other in surprise before the unicorn teleported both them to the castle gate, only for them to see a horrifying sight. The city streets were swarming with Heartless of all shapes and sizes from the humble Shadow to the mighty Behemoth. 

"Hey, I could use A hand here Steve!" The voice of David called out.

Looking to where his friend was standing, Stephen saw that David was trying to fight of seven Armored Knight Heartless, but they look slightly different. Instead of a well polished blade their swords were slightly rusty, and their armor had more noticeable seams and rivets. This difference only made Stephen pause for a bit before calling his Keyblade and charged in to help his friend striking one of the Heartless in the back. 

The Heartless stumbled slightly with only a minor dent in it's form, so he stabbed at it's face. That attack had an effect on the thing as it stumbled back with it's free hand covering it's face. While effective, it somehow got the attention of the other Heartless as thirty five more Armored Knights and ten Large Bodies trudged towards them. 

"So much for helping, now we're both over our heads!" Stephen yelled as he both ducked under the swing of a Large Body and used his shield to block the strike of an Armored Knight. 

Twilight sent out a blast of magic that managed to injure the arm of a Large Body and blacken the armor of two Armored Knights, "My family is out there, we need to get to them!" 

"We can barely holding our ground nevermind push forward!" David told her as he landed a lucky killing blow on a Large Body, only for three more to join the fight. 

The older of the two boys struck at the exposed legs on one of the Armored Knights, his attack hit one of it's legs and cripled it. The younger managed to kill one of the Armored Knights with a hard swing to the head. Twilight continued firing bolts of magic that had little effect on most of the dark monsters. 

All of the sudden, the ground began to shake. The swarm of Heartless parted, but it was not good news. Ten Behemoths were lumbering straight towards them and the castle gates. Both Stephen and David knew what they had to do now. 

Stephen grabbed ahold of Twilight as he and David began to run, "Behemoths! Fall back!" 

"Hey! Put me down! We need to keep fighting!" The mare exclaimed as she struggled to free herself. 

"We're outnumbered and outclassed Twilight, we have no choice but to retreat!" The human that was holding her replied as he and David ran through the quickly closing gates. 

The sight that greeted them in the castle grounds was not good, Neoshadows, Invisibles, and Darksides traded blows with the guards who were heavily outnumbered. One unlucky earth pony guard was sent flying into the wall and hit it with a sickening crack. The princesses used their magic to take out large swaths of the monsters, but for every one they dispersed four more joined the fight. 

Celestia looked around and saw the three of them, upon doing so she ran to them, "How do things look out there?" 

"Not good, they've taken the city and ten Behemoths are going for the gate." David told her, smashing his Keyblade into a Neoshadow that got to close to him as he did so.

The princess was silent for a little bit before she summoned a big book with a gold, jem infused lock on it, "Twilight, take this. It will open when the magic inside senses that you are ready to use this book. Stephen, David, get her to safety, try and save the other Elements if you can but don't put her at risk." 

Twilight looked at her in shock, David was the first to get his voice back, "Are you sure Celestia?" 

"Yes, I'm sure my friend, go and be safe." The solar princess replied before going back into battle. 

The three of them ran towards the training grounds to get to the ship, striking down any Heartless that got in their way.


<|-0-|>


Luna dispersed another Neoshadow with a fast stab of her silvery sword, she knew now what the boys had meant when they said that the Heartless had heavy numerical advantage. Even though she could take out large numbers of them there were always more, and she knew that she could not keep this up forever. The fact that none of them truly died from her attacks didn't help, it was made even worse by the fact that it only took ten minutes before they pulled themselves back together.

A wide beam of golden magic punched through the deformed head a Darkside that she hadn't noticed getting close to her, dispersing it. She knew where the attack came from, only Celestia had magic that color. A gold broadsword smashing through the great sword of an Invisible heralded the entry of the solar alicorn.

"How goes the fight outside of the castle walls, sister?" Luna asked as she sent another blast of magic into the writhing sea of shadowy monsters. 

Celestia cut through three more Neoshadows before replying, "Far worse than within, the Heartless decided to attack early it seems." 

'So this is how our world ends I guess.' Luna thought before she asked another question, "What of Twilight's destiny?" 

"I sent the book with her, I put a lock on it so it could only be opened once she is ready for it. I had been hoping that contingency wouldn't need to be used, but it seems my hope was for naught." The elder sister answered as she kept fighting. 

"Then may our mother guide them, for we no longer can."


<|-0-|>


The door to the training grounds burst open in a hail of splinters as a Neoshadow was sent flying through it by David's keyblade. The unlucky Heartless was soon followed by the two keybladers and unicorn. Twilight looked at the now broken door with a disgruntled look on her face. 

"Was that really necessary, David?" She questioned as the three of them ran for the ship. 

The younger keyblader just looked back and smiled at her, "No, but it was cooler that way." 

She rolled her eyes and muttered something about the destructive tendencies of males. They quickly boarded the ship with Stephen closing it behind them. The room they were in now was large, two stories tall and almost as wide as the main body of the ship.  

A soft sound broke the silence of the room, "Umm... Twilight, what is going on out there? All of the noise is making the animals uncomfortable." 

They all looked towards the sound and saw that it was Fluttershy, Stephen came to the conclusion that she had stayed in the ship to keep an eye on the animals. 

"It's the Heartless, the princess said we have to leave." The unicorn told her friend in a somber tone of voice. 

The reaction of the gold furred pegasus was what one would expect, she gasped and put a hoof over her mouth while muttering, "Oh no, this can't be happening."

David walled up to her and put his hand on her shoulder, "Fluttershy, you need to stay strong, we need your help right now." 

The mare took a few deep breaths to calm herself, "O-okay, I-I can try." 

"Alright, to the bridge everyone." Stephen announced before running to get to the aforementioned location.


<|-0-|>


The door to the bridge slid open with a slight pneumatic hiss, just as it was designed to. The only four sapient beings on board the ship quickly entered the room. Most of the crew stations were touch screen desks will the only exceptions being the helm and optional manned gunner pods. 

The elder human took command of the situation, "David, you take weapons; Twilight, you take defensive; Fluttershy, you take life support and habitation; I'll take the helm!" 

Twilight looked over at the boy as he practically vaulted over the pilot's chair, "Are you sure you can fly this thing, Stephen?" 

"I designed the control scheme Twi, I would be more surprised if I can't." He replied as he started the activation sequence.

A low rumbling from the depths of the ship let all aboard know that the core was spinning up to speed. Power levels were slow to rise for the first few seconds, but it began to pickup as the core arms got more speed. It was quite the surprise when a number of Darksides began to surround the ship. 

"Don't worry guys, I got this!" David called out as he activated the Anti-fighter turrets and opened fire on the large monsters of darkness. 

There was almost enough power for liftoff, but the impromptu pilot knew a few more systems needed to be brought online, "Fluttershy, bring the AGUs and the CRs online, we don't want to end up on the ceiling or suffocating to death!" 

She nodded as she did what she was asked, the slight increase in downward pressure and the light flow of air told all of them that the systems were now online. The power rise was slowed by the draw from the weapons, artificial gravity, and air recyclers. This slowdown would be costly in the end. 

"Hang on, here we go!" Stephen announced, pulling the throttle back to the full power position. 

The whole ship rumbled as the lift thrusters and engines ignited, allowing it to slowly lift off of the ground. It was slower than it was supposed to be, the reason for this was that it was at the minimum safe power level. This slowdown would make things even more costly. 

Twilight did take notice, "We're rising to slowly, we need to go faster!" 

Stephen grunted as he pulled harder on the control yoke, "I'm giving it all the power we can spare, this is why it's advised to wait till you have full power before takeoff!"

It took them a few seconds to get into the air, but what they didn't know was that it was already to late. 

"Okay, we're in the air, let's get to Ponyville!" Twilight shouted. 

David, however, noticed something horrifying, "Twi, it's to late for that." 

Just like what happened to their world, the sky was falling apart like old plaster and a writhing wave of darkness closing in from the horizon. At the speed it was going they would barely have enough time to get out to space. It was, indeed, to late.

Stephen pointed the ship strait up, "David's right, sorry Twi, but time isn't on our side." 

Like a rocket, it began its ascent slow and gained speed as it went. It was only at one third speed when Ponyville was consumed by the darkness, taking four of the six Elements of Harmony with it. The faster they went the closer the darkness got. It was beginning to look like they wouldn't make it. 

"David, Twilight, divert as much power as you can to the engines, we're not going to make it otherwise!" Stephen yelled.

The two noded and manipulated the controls on their stations to do so, Twilight having a vacant expression on her face as she did so. They were now at full speed, and the darkness was only getting closer. Far below them, Canterlot began to began to be devoured by the void.

Even though the Heartless disappeared when the wave of darkness got to close the level of panic in the city only grew, the imminent destruction of the city made a bad situation even worse. Shining Armor and Cadence fought back to back, but they soon saw it was all for nothing and spent their last few moments wishing they had more time. Darkness was the last thing Spike saw as he wished he had attempted to tell Rarity how he felt about her.

The void drew ever closer, now Celestia and Luna got some peace before their end, watching everything they had worked so hard to build disappear with sadness. While both expected that they would have to witness the end of their world they had hoped it wouldn't happen this soon. They accepted their fate as the darkness washed over them.

"We're almost there, just a bit more!" Stephen exclaimed as they reached the edge of space.

The darkness got closer, and closer, and closer. Until...

They were out.

With one last brilliant flash, Equis died.

Silence ruled the bridge, no one spoke as they let the adrenalin flush out of their systems. They survived, but they were the only ones. This truth began to sink in as they sat in silence. Twilight and Fluttershy started to shed tears as they thought about their friends and family that were now gone, Stephen and David felt ashamed that they were unable to do more to help.

Twilight was the first to break the silence with a shaky voice, "Wh-what do we do now?"

Stephen thought about it for a few long seconds before he found a reply, "Simple, we make sure that this never happens to anyone ever again."

The two mares thought about it for a while before they nodded.

"But first, I think we should christen the ship, in memory of the lost." David suggested.


<|-0-|>


Stephen floated outside of the ship in a specially made space suit holding a bottle of champagne. He looked at the name of the ship that was originally meant to be a promise to always remember their original home, but was now a memorial to all those that are now lost to the Heartless. That name was the "Equestrian Daydream."

He smashed the bottle into the metal hull, watching as the liquid floated around if zero gravity. He saluted to the lost souls, imagining the somber tones of bagpipes in the background. It wasn't long before he decided it was time to get back inside, but something caught his eye as he turned around. Two little specks of color that didn't match the swirling gases around the ship.

He reached out to grab them and found that they were closer than he had thought. As he looked at the two objects he smiled slightly as he realized what they were. The keyblader closed his hand around them as he made his way back inside.

The other three inhabitants of the ship waited for him to get through the airlock, David was the first to speak when his friend got back in, "So, it is done."

"Yes, but look at what I found out there." The other said as he showed them what he had in his hand.

Two crystalline spheres, one was a golden color with Celestia's cutie mark on it and the other was deep ocean blue with Luna's cutie mark on it.

The younger of the two boys looked at them in surprise, "Summoning orbs."

Fluttershy looked at us in confusion, "Umm... what exactly are summoning orbs, if you don't mind explaining that is."

"Simple, if the heart of someone is strong enough then they won't simply fall into the darkness when their world does, instead, they become these. Guessing by the symbols, these are Celestia and Luna. Now all we need to do is find some magic users that know how to activate them." Stephen explained.

Twilight just looked at the crystal spheres for a bit before smiling, "So, they are still with us?"

"In a way, yes. But summoning requires magic, with the mere presence of the summon having a high upkeep cost on the casters mana supply. So, at best, they can only be around for a few minutes, unless you chug an unhealthy number of ethers that is." He told her, continuing his explanation. 

This caused the mare to frown once more before she sighed, "Alright, I guess we should get going now." 

She then turned and walked away, leaving the two humans and one pegasus to look at each other in concern for their friend. It wasn't long before they slowly made their way back to the bridge. Soon, the Daydream set out into the unknown of deep space, and an adventure unlike the universe had ever seen began.


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