Archmage Wand
There is only one important piece of news…KINGDOM HEARTS 3!!!
Also, it feels so good to be writing ponies after a scene I wrote for a friend of mine.
-G-M-
Guardians of Magic
Chapter 14: Archmage Wand
Stars twinkled in the night sky above the Whitetail Woods, palely shining down upon the land in company with the moon. Twilight Sparkle noticed that it was somewhat difficult to discern them at times due to the light from the crackling fire in front of her, but with just a nudge of her head or a hoof raised just so to block out the fire’s light, the entire sky’s jeweled mantle was visible. Though she was the personal student of the Princess of the Sun, Twilight had always found peacefully tranquility in the night hours. Perhaps it was due to the amount of time she spent up reading or studying after her mentor lowered the sun, but there was undeniably just as much love in her heart for the night as there was for the day.
Smiling, she glanced off into the darkness in both directions, and, after being confident that she didn’t see anything, returned her attention to the book in front of her hooves. Unfortunately, she was only able to get through another page and a half before a very loud and bored sigh broke her concentration.
“I’m booored,” moaned Scootaloo. The filly rolled over onto her back and sighed again at the night sky. “Why am I awake?” Twilight frowned at the orange filly.
“You’re awake because you’re on watch duty with Sora and myself,” she answered matter-of-factly.
“But this is boring,” Scootaloo countered. “Watch duty? Come on! What do we even need to set a watch for?”
“In case we’re attacked or something unexpected comes close,” Sora told her. He was sitting on a log close to the fire with a bottle to his right and a cloth underneath one hoof, and was using the cloth with a moderate amount of success to wipe up and down the obsidian blade of his Keyblade. “So think about it the next time you decide to tag-along when others are going on an adventure.”
Scootaloo groaned and held a hoof over her eyes in dramatic fashion for a second before gesturing wildly with it. “Can’t I at least be on watch with Rainbow Dash?”
“That would qualify as a reward, not a punishment,” Twilight told her simply.
“Being bored like this is punishment enough!” Scootaloo retorted.
Twilight smiled a little. “I could always give you a pop quiz on—”
Scootaloo returned to her hooves, a panicked look in her eyes. “No! I’ll be good! I won’t complain anymore. Just no quizzes!”
Twilight giggled to herself and returned to her book. “Alright, if you insist.” She looked over at Sora. “You know, I would have thought that you’d want to take watch duty with your marefriend instead of letting her and Riku take the next shift.”
Sora began attempting to wipe the key portion of his weapon with the cloth. “Kairi and I aren’t allowed to be on watch at the same time anymore,” he explained. He paused and looked at his empty left forehoof for a moment. A pained expression came onto his face, and Twilight could almost swear she saw his hoof twitching. He muttered something under his breath which Twilight was unable to hear, and then took a deep breath before resuming his work on his Keyblade.
A few minutes passed in silence, broken only by the sounds of the fire or the wind rustling through the trees, before Scootaloo broke it again. “So, why are you doing that?”
“It helps keep the blade clean; free of dirt, rust, and debris,” Sora answered easily. “Plus she likes it when I do this.”
Twilight blinked a few times and looked up from her book. She shared a look with Scootaloo, both ponies’ expressions mirroring each other with the words ‘did I just hear him right?’ on their faces, before she looked at the pegasus. “I’m sorry; come again.”
“It keeps the blade clean and she likes it,” Sora repeated nonchalantly, continuing to rub with the cloth.
“She?” Scootaloo said with barely restrained mirth. She looked at Twilight again and rotated a hoof around her head.
“Yes, she,” Sora answered. He lifted the hilt up and eyed the black metal’s reflection in the firelight critically.
Twilight closed her book and looked at Sora with disapproval. “Alright, Sora, I’ve put up with enough of your eccentrics to make even Pinkie Pie happy, but I really need to put my hoof down on this one. That’s just a sword. Sure, it might be a little magical, but it’s still just a sword.”
Sora paused for a moment and raised his eyebrows, meeting the unicorn’s gaze before returning to wiping the grip with the cloth. “Is it?”
Twilight nodded her head definitely. “Yes, it is. I haven’t seen anything beyond a few magical abilities that would make me think otherwise. I believe that you’re suffering from an attachment complex and imparting pony qualities on an otherwise inanimate object.”
“And now you’ve offended her,” Sora tisked, shaking his head. He clicked his tongue a few times. “Really Twilight Sparkle, you have no tact. You really have no tact when you remember that you’re capable of wielding one of these.”
“All I have on that account is the word of your friends and sister,” Twilight replied. “I’ve seen nothing that would imply otherwise.”
“Princess Celestia believes us,” Sora countered.
Twilight’s heart thumped. His words had stopped her rebuttal completely. “We—well…”
Sora chuckled a little and Twilight flushed, but held her tongue lest she let out any other sounds that showed that she had hoofidily lost that argument. “Twilight,” Sora reasoned patiently, “I’ve been wielding a Keyblade for over two years now. Don’t you think that I would know at least a few of its particularities and secrets after that time as opposed to someone who hadn’t even heard of one until this week?”
“…I guess that you’re right,” she relented.
Scootaloo laughed. “Ha. You guess?”
Twilight Sparkle grimaced and snorted at the filly in good-natured annoyance before turning back to Sora. What he said did make some sense, when all of it was put together. “So, what sorts of things can you tell me then?”
“What would you like to know?” asked Sora. He stopped in his work and laid the Keyblade flat across his hind legs while sitting on the log.
“For a start, why did you refer to it as ‘she’?”
“Ah,” Sora said, “now that is a very good question with a simple answer. I just get the feeling that she’s a she.”
Twilight lit up her horn. “Do you want me to start experimenting on your wings again?”
“Ha ha, point taken. I’ll start making sense now.” The glow around Twilight’s horn abated. “You remember that I said that Keyblades choose their Wielders? That would mean that they’re somewhat intelligent, wouldn’t it?”
“I guess that makes sense,” Scootaloo answered, nodding after she saw that Twilight had nodded her head.
Sora nodded too. “So since they’re intelligent, it also stands to reason that they can communicate too. Now, while a Keyblade can’t actually speak in words, it is able to form an empathic bond with its chosen wielder.”
“Uhh…” Scootaloo said blankly. “An emnasic…what?”
“An empathic bond, Scootaloo,” Twilight told her. “It means that they’re bound together at an emotional level and can sense each other’s emotions.”
Scootaloo rubbed her head with her hooves. “Ugh…I come out here to try for a cutie mark in tracking and I’m still getting dictionary lectures.” Twilight and Sora just shook their heads at her plight.
“Really? An empathic bond?” Twilight asked. “How does that even work?”
“A Keyblade only chooses a Wielder with a strong heart, and it helps to draw out the power of its Wielder’s heart. Everything about the Keyblade deals with the heart, so it becoming that closely connected to the heart of its Wielder is only natural,” explained Sora. He smiled down at the Keyblade on his knees. “And it takes time to develop, too. When you first summon yours, you won’t suddenly feel this other presence or get a spike of emotion running through you that you’re sure wasn’t your own feelings but still felt at the same time. It’s only been in the last two months or so that Keila here and I have been opening our hearts and feelings to one another, and she also helps a little as a reminder of my conscience when things get rough.”
“Keila?”
Sora smiled warmly at the weapon before looking up at Twilight again. “Well I said that I get the feeling that it’s a she, didn’t I? She seems to like that name, considering that she’s the Kingdom Key. She’s not really fond of the look she takes as the Oblivion, though, but both of us do like the feeling of strength we get when she’s in that form. Oathkeeper’s her favourite, after her original form, but Kairi’s got that keychain so it’s out of the picture, and we both find Fenrir and Sleeping Lion a bit bigger and longer than we’d like to be, but Follow the Wind, Hero’s Crest, and Photon Debugger are close second, third, and fourths behind Oathkeeper.”
“Okay…I’m going to pretend that I understood what you just said and move on to my next question then.” Twilight paused for a moment, picking out the words in her mind before deciding that, as Trixie was sleeping, no offence would be taken by a blunt tone. “How come Trixie can summon a Keyblade and I can’t?”
“I’ll answer your question with a question,” Sora replied smugly. “Have you ever been in a life-or-death situation in which you or your friends are in terrible danger and your magic or strength just isn’t enough to cut it and you find yourself either a) needing a light to find your way out of the darkness, or b) asking wildly of the world for power?”
“Actually, yes,” Twilight answered. “And then my friends came up the stairs, I monologued about friendship and how each of them embodied the spirits of the Elements of Harmony, they all formed into their necklaces and the Element of Magic appeared and became this tiara. We then used them and blasted Nightmare Moon with the Rainbow of Light and returned her to her good self as Princess Luna.”
“…huh,” Sora said after a moment. “Then I guess we’re going to need a moment in which the Elements of Harmony won’t be your failsafe because, like your tiara there, Keyblades tend to be overly dramatic when they appear.” He directed this last utterance at his Keyblade. “Huh? Aren’t you?” Sora began to wipe vigorously with the cloth. “Aren’t you guys overly dramatic when you make your appearances?”
Scootaloo looked up at Twilight while a log in the fire split and sent a large plume of sparks into the night sky. “Twilight, can I take watch with Rainbow Dash, please? He’s crazy!”
-G-M-
Nothing untoward happened during the night, on either their watch or the following one. Their breakfast was light—though they still ensured that Trixie got enough to eat per Doctor Checkup’s prior instructions—as they now had to make sure that the food which they had packed for their group lasted while feeding two more fillies than planned, and Applejack was the one who quickly got their party underway again without extraneous delays (such as Twilight’s want for more sleep). Kairi made a big deal of sniffing Sora’s fur before they left, saying that it was because he smelled like campfire smoke, and she kept her muzzle so close to his neck that Rainbow Dash gave her some snark and said that they should just get married already. That caused both to splutter with embarrassment, Rei to put in her two bits and say that they should so that Kairi could be her big sister for real, and Riku to suffer from a case of good chuckles for a while as they finally started off. Riku and Twilight took point again with Fluttershy close behind, Spike riding on her back. The fillies were bunched in line in the middle with Sora, Trixie, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash loosely surrounding them, and Pinkie Pie behind. Kairi quietly resumed her position shadowing the group, blushing as she took one last glance at her coltfriend before falling back.
The woods around the ponies as the continued their trek were much the same as they had been for the majority of the prior day, though they did take note that they was a slow but steady progression of additional rises and falls in the landscape. The ground started to become rockier as well, and left a wealth of old, gnarled, tree roots popping up out of the dirt, ready to trip up any of the unwary. Unwary they almost were, for after an hour after their second day’s trek began the young ones began to get somewhat bored, and there was only so long that you could play ‘I Spy With My Little Eye’ in a wood. Sooner or later everypony answers ‘rock’, ‘tree’, or ‘water’ before you’re even done talking.
“Haaa…bored,” complained Scootaloo. “How much longer until we get there?”
“Not until sometime tomorrow if we keep on schedule,” Twilight answered.
“That long?” asked Apple Bloom.
“Ya’ll followed us all day yesterday,” Applejack reminded her younger sister, “yah can stick with it until we’re all finished.”
“Right…”
“Come on, cheer up,” Sweetie Belle said with a smile. “The four of us are all here together, aren’t we? We’re on a real adventure to save the world!”
“Yeah, there is that,” Scootaloo said with a faint smile, “but it’s not going to be us that’ll be doing the saving, will it?”
“Not if we can help it,” Sora told her. “Leave the saving to the older ponies, but we expect you to stay safe. Rei, I don’t think I need to tell you this, but…”
“Don’t worry, Master,” Rei said with a serious tone. “Anything happens, and I’ll keep them safe.” He nodded.
“That’s my little sister,” he said. He kept up his quick trot alongside them. “Now then, if you’re bored…This is a ‘repeat after me’ song.”
Only silence met him.
“Oh come on!” deplored the pegasus. “Let’s try this again. This is a ‘repeat after me’ song!”
“This is a ‘repeat after me’ song,” chorused the four fillies.
“I’m going bear huntin’!”
“No! You mustn’t!” Fluttershy practically screamed, breaking formation and launching herself in front of Sora before he could even blink. “What did that harmless little bear ever do to you? Why on Equestria would you ever want to hurt it?”
“F—Fluttershy, it’s just a song…”
“Well it’s a terrible song!” she argued, staring at Sora. “Teach them a different song, right now!”
“Oh—okay…”
Riku couldn’t believe that the two-time saviour of the worlds, the kid who’d stared into an abyss of darkness and fought against foes whose looks were sometimes just really dang creepy, was backing down to the butter-toned, soft-spoken, timid pacifist angel pegasus.
Sora cleared his throat a few times and looked up at the sky. “Uh…Yo-ho, yo-ho, a pirate’s life,” he glanced at Fluttershy, who narrowed her eyes dangerously, “no. Not that one. Um… Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree, nah I can’t remember how that one goes.” Sora cleared his throat. “Hey, Riku, you got one?”
Riku smirked and looked up. He deepened his voice and sang in a low rumble to the heavens only the first few words of a song. “Found a peanut—”
“NO!” Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Sora, and Applejack all shouted in perfect unison.
“It’s a small world after all…” chimed Kairi from somewhere behind and above them.
“No, no! Anything but that,” Sora chastised her.
“I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts,” trilled Pinkie Pie.
“NO!”
A sweeter, young, voice sighed and suddenly picked up a tune with pointedly drawn-out care. “Johnnn Jaaacob Jingleheimer Schmidt; his name is my name too.” Sora whipped his head back to stare at his sibling, smiled, and joined in with a defeated shake of his head. How could any of the older ponies possibly argue to what one of the young ones wanted to sing?
“Whenever I go out, the ponies always shout,
There goes John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt!
Da da da da da da da!”
That kept them occupied for a good thirty minutes until the patience of two of the unicorns snapped. It was impossible to tell whether Twilight or Trixie had spoken out first as both of them shouted, “Pick a different song!” at the top of their lungs.
“This is the song that doesn’t end,” Sweetie Belle began at once with perfect pitch and volume, “Yes it goes on and on my friend. Some ponies started singing it; not knowing what it was, and they’ll continue singing it forever just because…
This is the song that doesn’t end,” joined in the other three fillies, and Pinkie and Sora, “Yes it goes on and on my friend…”
“Don’t kill your best friend. Don’t kill your best friend. Don’t kill your best friend,” Riku began to speak in a mantra while Twilight gritted her teeth and stared intently at the map.
Minutes later there came several roars from the forest, as well as the sounds of foliage being trampled underhoof. Birds cried out in distress as they took to the skies, fleeing their roosts for the relative safety of the world above the forest canopy.
“Wha—what was that?” Apple Bloom asked nervously as their group came to a complete stop.
“I’ll check it out!” Rainbow Dash announced.
“Rainbow, wait!” Twilight called, but she had already disappeared into the trees. Hooves dropped to the ground as Kairi reappeared and landed close to her coltfriend, and Twilight quickly took stock of the situation. “Riku?”
He sighed before looking at Sora and pointing a hoof at him accusingly. “I told you that your public singing would get us into trouble.”
“We’re not in public, Riku,” Sora retorted before calmly answering, “we’re in a forest.”
Riku’s eye twitched, and he looked about to angrily say something to the pegasus. Twilight stopped him with a raised hoof. “Now is not the time for this. What’s going on?”
“Twilight!” Rainbow Dash shouted, zooming back the group with a rainbow trail of light following behind her. “We’ve got a problem!”
“What?” Twilight asked.
“Heartless, right?” Kairi prompted. Rainbow Dash nodded her head, frowned, and turned around to look in the direction she’d just come from. Twilight noticed the sounds and flashes of light signifying the summoning of the ponies’ magical weapons, and couldn’t help but turn her head at the gasps of the young fillies while Sora and Kairi jumped into the sky to hover near Rainbow Dash.
“Rei, you have one too?” Sweetie Belle asked. She smiled, holding the Keyblade between her two forehooves and standing on her hind legs.
“What did you think my Cutie Mark was then?” Rei answered. Twilight watched as Trixie summoned Flare in a flash of light with a scrunched brow and levitated it in front of her. She looked nervous, but somewhat determined at the same time.
“Are you okay Trixie?” Twilight asked. Trixie glanced at Twilight Sparkle and turned her muzzle up.
“Ha!” she replied haughtily. “The Great and Powerful Trixie is grateful for your concern, Twilight Sparkle, but she has to wonder if you are prepared yourself.” Twilight glanced up at the Element of Magic on her head.
“Don’t look like we have time tah worry ‘bout that y’all,” Applejack said. “Here they come!” Through the trees they could see the Heartless approaching. Only four Heartless were coming, but all four of them were the large Draco Ursas that they had encountered in Castle Canterlot.
“Riku and I are going to bait them,” Sora said quickly. “The rest of you hang back and watch closely to see what they can do.”
“No, I’m going in now!” Rainbow Dash declared, zooming forward.
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight shouted.
"Don't worry, we'll get her!" Sora assured her, and he and Riku stormed after Rainbow Dash. Twilight looked around anxiously, but complied with what Sora had initially said. He was the one with the most experience, after all.
Rainbow Dash zipped above the claws of a Draco Ursa as it made a swipe at her, and bucked it hard just underneath the base of its horn. It recoiled slightly from the hit, and then glared at her and growled. Its horn began to glow with red light. The light crackled and sparked, focused around the tip of the Heartless' horn.
Rainbow Dash casually flew past the Draco Ursa before it fired the bolt of red lightning from its horn at her, and its aim was so terrible that it missed her anyway, hitting a tree twelve hooves to her left instead. Rainbow Dash laughed at the miss, but the laugh died in her throat when the tree that had been struck creaked dangerously. Half of the trunk a quarter of the way up was charcoal and crumbling beneath the weight above, and the wood around the piece that had been blasted was so heavily charred it might as well have been burnt as well.
"Okay," Rainbow muttered to herself, "don't get hit by that. Yikes." She looked down and saw Sora and Riku cautiously fighting two of the Heartless each. Sora was just keeping out of range of the Heartless' claws while striking rapidly at their sides with his Keyblade; and Riku was keeping himself locked in combat with the other two, ducking and striking at the Draco Ursas' claws with his own Keyblade.
Rainbow watched as Riku avoided a strike that potentially would have gored him through the chest had the horn made contact by sidestepping to his right, and then put his Keyblade deep into the Heartless' flank with a sharp jerk of his head. He backed away, leaving the sword inside, bared his head, and lunged. Golden light spewed from his horn as it plunged into the Heartless' side. The Draco Ursa roared in what Rainbow assumed to be pain, and heaved against Riku. The unicorn grunted and fell backwards onto his side, and the injured Heartless turned towards him and opened its mouth.
Rainbow Dash gasped and knew what she had to do. "I'm coming, Riku!" she shouted, and dove towards the Draco Ursa. She struck the Heartless just behind its horn with the full force of her forehooves and seventeen point two wingpower (the last time she and Twilight had recorded it) aided by the strength of her dive. It's face ploughed into the ground, and Rainbow felt something give beneath her hooves.
Red light entered the corner of her eyes, and Rainbow turned to see the other Draco Ursa pointing its glowing horn at her.
"Oh buck."
"Rainbow!"
"Dash!"
"Dashie!"
Brown hooves collided with her chest, pushing her out of the way just as the bolt seared the air and left a burning smell in its path. She fell onto her back and felt a rock digging into her rump and her eyes tracked the form of Sora spiralling into the ground and hitting it hard, a giant burn across his left side. Dirt and plants took to the air as he ploughed through the earth before coming to a sudden stop against the trunk of a tree.
"SORA!" Kairi and Rei both screamed, and the two females abandoned their posts and raced towards the downed pegasus. Rainbow Dash got to her hooves in time to see the Draco Ursa she'd flattened the skull of vanish in a cloud of darkness as Riku finished it off with a quick stab of his Keyblade.
Fire roared toward her, coming from the mouth of one of the remaining three Draco Ursas. Rainbow couldn't move as the heat preceding the fire hit her snout like an intense slap, and could only stare at the advancing flames through watering eyes.
Move! Come on wings! Move! Get me out of here!
A purple flash of light broke through the red-orange of the fire and a figure stood in front of her. The magenta light around the figure's horn was intense, and the advancing flames from the Heartless' breath attack parted and spread across the surface of a pink energy wall that the unicorn had cast.
"Perfect timing!" Riku said, nodding his head to Twilight as the three of them stood behind her barrier.
"Are you two alright?" Twilight asked.
"I-I think so," Rainbow Dash replied. "Twilight, how is..."
"Worry about Sora after we've dealt with these," Riku said. "He's made of tough stuff."
Applejack gave the Draco Ursa that had been attacking them with its fire breath a powerful buck to the side of its head with her hind legs, stunning it and making its head turn towards the barrel of a yellow cannon. A giant triple-layered white cake with blue frosting struck the Heartless' face and exploded, scattering cake and frosting all over the immediate area.
"Yeah!" Pinkie crowed. "The Mark VII Party Cannon Deluxe Cake Blasting Edition is a success!" She wiped a bit of the frosting out of her mane and tasted it. "Ooh, and yummy too," she giggled.
Spike dodged a swipe of the Draco Ursa's claws with a worried yelp, but then confidently belched a torrent of green flame at the Heartless' side while Trixie struck it on the opposite side with Flare levitated in her magic while she hung back close to the other three fillies. Riku and Rainbow Dash rushed in while Twilight hung back and hit its head with an arcane blast from her horn.
"Look out Rei!" Scootaloo yelled. "Those other two are coming your way!"
Kairi looked up from where she and Rei had been nudging and calling to an unresponsive Sora. The two remaining Draco Ursa Heartless were rampaging towards them and the downed Keyblade Master.
"No," growled Kairi. "I won't let you get him." She didn't notice that the tips of her wings were starting to smoke. "Do you hear me, Heartless? I won't let you steal his heart!"
"You hurt my brother you big stupid stupid stupid stupid bastard!" Rei shouted.
Twilight gasped in surprise just as the Draco Ursa they were fighting went down. Kairi's wings burst into flame and Rei's horn glowed like Celestia's Sun, though neither seemed to notice nor care. There were no signs of pain on Kairi's face either from the flames enveloping her wings.
How is she doing... Twilight wondered before the answer became perfectly clear, that strange magic enchanting their wings and horns!
"Rah!" Rei shouted, throwing her head down and bearing her horn at one of the two. A lance of golden light burst out of her horn and missed both Draco Ursas, though the one it came closest to hitting spun around and started fleeing when the lance speared right through the trunks of two trees before breaking upon a third's in a splash while the first two toppled to the ground. The Draco Ursa roared and charged towards the trio of Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo. They screamed, and two unicorns and a dragon quickly stood in its path. Trixie sent a stream of multicoloured fireworks from her horn at the Heartless while Spike belched fire and Twilight aimed an arcane blast at its eyes. The Heartless took everything in the face and roared in pain as its eyes were blinded. It swerved away from the three fillies and crashed into a tree.
Kairi spun around on her hooves, a sheet of flame from each wing flying off and striking the other Heartless coming towards her, Rei, and Sora. It stopped and cringed from the strength of her flames, and brought its own horn to bear.
"Look out!" Rainbow Dash shouted as its horn started to glow. Kairi snorted derisively and spun around again. Fire fanned from her wings and formed a shell in front of her. The Heartless' spell struck her flame shield and deflected high.
"You think you can get me with that?" Kairi roared as her flame shield dissipated. "I'll show you what a real destruction spell is like!" She flared her wings to her side, extinguishing the flames, before pointing each of them upwards and inwards until their tips were almost touching above her head.
Riku stared, and felt the blood draining from his cheeks. "I know that pose," he said.
"Darkness beyond twilight..." began Kairi.
"And I recognize those words!" Riku yelped. "Everypony run! Twilight, grab Sora and run!"
"...crimson beyond blood that flows..."
"Why?" Twilight asked as Riku galloped past Sora and Rei, with Rei following his lead. "Why are we running?" A red orb was beginning to form between Kairi's wingtips.
"Iff'n yer told to run, yah run!" Applejack shouted before Riku could answer. She had Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle on her back. "Come on y'all!"
"Lyra! Pete!" Riku shouted. "If you don't want to die follow us now!"
"...Buried in the stream of time is where your power grows..."
"I remember Kairi showing me the spellbook she found this spell in and saying how she wanted to try it out," Riku answered after Twilight had finally placed his best friend on her back and galloped after them, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flying above with Scootaloo held in Dash's forehooves. "And these Heartless just gave her that chance!"
"But pegasus ponies can't cast spells!" Twilight argued.
"Wanna bet?"
"...I pledge myself to conquer all the foes who stand..."
Twilight gave him a fearful look. Along with their party, birds and other forest creatures were racing away from the area as fast as they could. A deer fawn was chanting, "running running running running," to itself while its mother ran next to it, and there were distinctly more hoof beats now than when they had started out this morning. The red glow behind them was still shining even through the multitude of trees they had put between them and Kairi. Her haunting voice was still echoing to them.
"...before the mighty gift bestowed in my unworthy hands."
"You're right," agreed Twilight, "we should run!"
"Dragon Slave!"
-G-M-
Princess Celestia had been having a lovely cup of jasmine tea when Canterlot's walls started to shake and crimson light strong enough to overpower her sun's entered her window. Few things in the world were able to break her concentration on relaxing while on break between meetings with the ambassador to the Gryphon Kingdom and the Treasury Board, and even a giant explosion several miles wide in the Whitetail Woods was not counted among them.
Sighing, the Princess gently placed her cup back down on the saucer before setting them aside. "And I was having such a nice break too. Now I'll have to postpone the treasury meeting for the third time this week." She rose to her hooves from the couch she had been lying on, readjusted her regalia, and left the room.
She found Luna within her forge, banging away at a piece of metal on her anvil. Rarity was close, her mane in tangles but a smile on her face as she adjusted the cloth straps tying a suit of armour to a ponykin. Neither seemed to notice her presence. "Luna," Celestia called.
"Oh, Tia!" Luna exclaimed brightly. "Work has been going marvelously! Rainbow Dash's sword is one if the finer blades I have crafted and Rarity is just putting the finishing touches on Trixie Lulamoon's armour. Rarity has really been a wonderful help, and if I did not know that her special talent was in fashion design I would have sworn that she had come from a long line of armoursmiths."
"Luna," Celestia began.
"Come! Come!" Luna said, ignoring her older sister's words. "Come and inspect the sword I created for Loyalty's bearer! I used an alloy combining adamantium and obdurium with a coating of crushed sunbeams infused into its core..."
"Luna," Celestia interrupted. "There is a crater two-thirds the size of Canterlot in the Whitetail Woods."
"I swear this one wasn't my fault!" Luna answered immediately. "I've been down here the whole time! By the way, could you send down more of this substance called 'coffee'? It has really helped us of late."
-G-M-
"Do you really have to go?" Cadance asked.
"Yeah," Shining Armor answered. "With the Guard posted all over Equestria the Princesses need the most competent ponies in Canterlot with them to investigate this."
"And they chose you?" Cadance teased. Shining Armor smiled and rolled his eyes.
"As hard as it is to believe, I am Captain of the Palace Guard after all," he gently ribbed her with a chuckle. "Don't worry. It's probably nothing."
"Shining, the entire southwestern sky turned red. I don't think that it's nothing."
He leaned against her and wrapped a leg over her shoulders. "I'll be back soon."
Cadance leaned into the hug and wrapped her own legs around his neck. "Just be careful."
"Promise."
-G-M-
Riku groaned through the blackness of his vision. Several parts of his body were aching, but not to the extent that he felt they should have been. The fact that he was feeling anything at all counted as a miracle as far as he was concerned. "Alright," he called through the darkness, shaking his throbbing head and keeping a hoof over his eyes, "sound off. Anyone who's not dead speak up."
A chorus of groans answered him.
"What was that?" Scootaloo's voice moaned.
"Dragon Slave," Riku wearily replied. "A spell to use when absolutely everyone and everything in town needs to die."
"But there were only two Heartless left..." Fluttershy squeaked.
"I guess Kairi likes overkill," Rainbow Dash chuckled. Riku slowly opened his eyes and discovered the reason for why they weren't all pushing up daisies. Their entire group was surrounded by a shield of golden light right at the very edge of the crater. Only one pony was on her hooves, her horn sheathed in brightly glowing magenta. Her eyes were open wide as her magic levitated an object in front of her body.
In her magic’s glow was a Keyblade. The blade looked like two ribbons of violet and rose-pink wound around each other in a tight helix until they converged into a pointed tip nearly a metre long. Its teeth were in the shape of half of the large pink star that composed the majority of Twilight’s cutie mark. A crystal pink star, again in the shape of her cutie mark and the Element of Magic upon her head, joined the blade to the golden crossguard, lined with gold filigree. Riku noticed that the crossguard was very similar in design to the Kingdom Key’s, gold and in a rectangular block, but was lined with sixteen (on each face of the hilt) small blue ovular gems at even intervals. The grip was black; and the keychain dangling from the end was a wide-brimmed grey hat with all of the stars of her cutie mark splashed onto it.
“Ooh!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. “Twilight! You did it! You did it! You’ve got one too!”
Twilight Sparkle slowly turned around and gazed unblinkingly at Riku. Disbelief was in her eyes and their focus changed from him to the Keyblade, before slowly returning back to his face.
“This is the Archmage Wand Keyblade,” she said. “It even has the hat of the Grand Archmage on the keychain. This...this is my Keyblade, and it helped me to save us all from that spell of Kairi’s. I can’t doubt anything you, Sora, Kairi, Roxas, or Naminé have been telling me anymore. I am a Keeper of the Art; I am a Guardian of Magic.”
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3040683
Why the buck is this a cliff-hanger? This is from wikipedia:
Everypony is safe (at this moment) cause Kairi likes overkill, there is no difficult dillema and there is no shocking revelation cause we all knew that Twilight would be getting her Keyblade. The fore-shadowing at the beginning even sugested that Twilight would get her Keyblade in the next big battle. Is it a cliffhanger? No. Is it just something to make sure you want to continue the story...
"Dragon Slave," Riku wearily replied. "A spell to use when absolutely everyone and everything in town needs to die."
That is the best thing ever
...eh...
Hopefully the next one won't take 10 years.
A really long wait, but totally worth it!
So, we start with a nighttime conversation between Twilight, Sora, and Scootaloo about how the Keyblade is an Empathic Weapon.
After that, they're headed on their way the next day when boredom strikes. Sora tries a sing-along, but when he starts the bear hunt song, Fluttershy objects. After they try a bunch of other songs, they ultimately settle for John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt for a while, but then Twilight and Trixie both ask for a new song. Cue Sweetie Belle starting The Song That Never Ends.
They're having a pretty good time until they hear some roars, which they quickly realize are Heartless. Sora suggests that the others hang back while he and Riku see what the Heartless can do, but Rainbow Dash decides to be a Leeroy Jenkins.
Rainbow Dash realizes just how dangerous the Heartless are when one of them misses her with its beam attack, only for it to obliterate a tree instead. She then notices that Riku is in trouble in his fight against two Draco Ursas and helps him with one of them, only to leave herself wide open for the other one to blast her, and she's paralyzed with fear.
Then, Sora pulls a Taking the Bullet and gets hit by the beam instead. After that, Rainbow Dash, still paralyzed, is sure she's going to die when one of the other Draco Ursas decides to Kill It with Fire, but luckily Twilight is able to create a force field just in time.
Three Draco Ursa left after Applejack and Pinkie Pie take one down with a powerful buck from the farmer that puts its head right in front of the Mark VII Party Cannon Deluxe Cake Blasting Edition, but two of them are headed straight for Sora's unconscious body! Cue Kairi and Rei activating the special magic around their wings and horn, which leads to some Incendiary Exponent on those parts of their bodies just as Twilight, Riku, and Rainbow Dash take down their Draco Ursa!
Kairi then goes for the Let's Get Dangerous approach, and starts casting a spell. The instant Riku sees her pose and hears the words, he has a massive Oh Crap and tells the others to get out of there at once! Even you, Pete and Lyra!
We then cut to Princess Celestia, who feels somewhat annoyed that this happened while she was having a nice break. She then goes down to Princess Luna's forge, where Luna gives her a progress report, and when Celestia interrupts to tell Luna about what happened, Luna says it wasn't her fault this time, and would it be possible for more coffee to be sent down to the forge, and no, Princess Luna is not feeling hyper, not one bit!
We then get to see Shining Armor getting ready to check it out, and when Princess Cadance asks why he has to go, he says that with the Guard posted all over Equestria, the Princesses need the most competent ponies in Canterlot with them to investigate this. Naturally, she responds with the old, "And they chose you?" line.
Cut to our group, as Riku describes the spell Kairi just used, Dragon Slave, like something out of Warhammer. We then see that the only reason Kairi didn't kill her allies as well as her enemies with that spell was because Twilight had managed to unlock her own Keyblade, the Archmage Wand. With this, Twilight can no longer doubt that she is a Keeper of the Art and a Guardian of Magic.
Here, have all the badges!
fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/282/e/5/twilight_sparkle_approved_by_ambris-d4c255h.png
fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/345/f/a/the_great_and_powerful_trixie_approved_by_ambris-d4ivli5.png
fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/282/7/5/rainbow_dash_approved_by_ambris-d4bdn33.png
fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/277/e/a/pinkie_pie_approved_by_ambris-d4brtm4.png
fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/345/9/d/applejack_approved_by_ambris-d4ivlan.png
fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/345/0/9/fluttershy_approved_by_ambris-d4ivleb.png
fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/063/9/b/scootaloo_approved_by_ambris-d4rj4ad.png
fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/060/f/5/princess_celestia_approved_by_ambris-d4rftlj.png
fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/057/f/a/princess_luna_approved_by_ambris-d4r3ibw.png
Can't wait for the next chapter! As usual, you do some top quality work!
MMMOAR!
Please? 
Oh. . . Oh my. I have a feeling Lina Inverse is sneezing somewhere.
Either way, YES KINGDOM HEARTS III IS FINALLY ANNOUNCED, HAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!
The tech-demo looked pretty cool as well.
Glad to see this updated! As usual, I look forwards to more shinanigans with Keyblade Wielders. And perhaps Shikai and Bankai as well. . . Maybe.
I was not expecting that.
Whipping out the Dragon Slave. I'm torn, half of me wants to say that it was awesome, while the other half wants to call it cheese as hell.
And good grief... You realize by casting that Kari just TAUGHT Dragon Slave to Twilight right? Twilight can learn spells by just seeing them and wants to learn every spell she can. So Twilight got her key blade and the magical equivalent of a nuclear missile!
3040837
OH LORD THE POTHOLES! WHY DID YOU LEAVE SO MANY OUT FOR PEOPLE TO TRIP IN?! NOW THEY'LL BE TRAPPED IN TV TROPES FOR HOURS!!
Not my preferred Dragon Slave invocation, but not bad.
I thought Kari and Sora learned to wield their keyblades by hoof. How come Riku and Rei didn't get the message?
3041162 Well, Twilight's probably going to be very careful at first.
After all, she knows better then any other unicorn the dangers of letting your magic go out of control. Remember how she got her Cutie Mark?
3041161 At this rate, it's only a matter of time before she tries something like this!
... Godamn Kari was pissed. So... did Pete, Lyra and the other animals survive?
3041541 Only if she's feeling suicidal, and even then only in LoN-sama is actually close enough to respond.
Caboose reference FTW!
Your sentance structure is leaning on the long and awkward side. Nothing major, it just interrupts the flow. An egregious example:
That second 'and' should ideally be some form of punctuation—a period would be best, although I believe a ; could also work, but don't quote me on it. Or you could replace the first 'and' with a comma and replace 'felt' with 'feeling'. Maintains the flow and keeps it in the present tense.
It crops up a fair bit throughout the chapter. You may want to keep an eye on it.
Another sentence that needs work is:
Not only is the first half of this sentence long and awkward, I'm fairly sure 'break her concentration on relaxing' doesn't make any sense. At the very least, the sentence sounds awkward to my ears.
Otherwise, yay update!
3041312
Don't forget the dark magic that Celestia cast in front of Twilight during Part one of the Crystal Empire, she was able to reproduce it with out studying. Twilight has the magic prowess and the intelligence that she learns though observation. Dragon slave isn't really a complicated spell, powerful yes, dangerous yes, complex no. Heck the fact Dragon Slave has poses and a incantation means it's probably easier to learn than unicorn spells, you just need the magical energy to use it, Twilight's mp would be insanely high.
What were Pete and Lyra doing there?
...hmmm,
You wanted a really really big fire spell didn't you?
well, Thank you for the chapter, I await your next
When it absolutely, positively has to die, use DRAGON SLAVE!
3043261Pete is always causing trouble for Sora, and lyra found a human to study even if they aren't human currently. Does that answer your question?
Dragon Slave, eh? That wasn't overkill or anything.
Loving Twilight's keyblade, and caffeinified Luna was awesome. Glad to see Rarity is being so helpful, I love it when she turns her creative abilities towards armorsmithing.
3041821
Could also replace the second 'and' in the first quote with 'while' or 'as' preceded with a comma.
For the second quote, I would suggest breaking it into two sentences while hacking off the part that tells us what the meetings are about. As interesting as it is to know what is going on politically in Equestria, it doesn't seem to have any real significance to the plot and is not something we readers need to know.
3043261>>3044313
In the previous chapter, Kairi reported that Lyra and Pete were tailing the group, in addition to the remaining members of the Ponyville CMC. Also, Lyra was previously revealed to the readers to be an undercover bodyguard for Twilight.
3043530
Actually, incantations aren't foreign to Equestrian magic at all. Both Star Swirl's masterpiece and Twilight Sparkle's revision of it in the S3 finale were cast via incantation. I'd venture to say that the highest level spells in Equestria are incantations.
3044313
Sadly, no.
I meant what are they doing there? Like, why are Pete and Lyra with their group in the forest? Pete's not a good guy, and Lyra's not a keyblade wielder, right?
3045721
They aren't with the group, but they were following the group. It is also only natural to assume that after Kairi told Sora that Lyra was following them and Pete was also skulking around nearby that either Sora or Kairi told this to Riku in confidence so that they were all on the same page. Riku is still a good guy, and even though Pete's historically been one of the bad guys none of them (except Kairi at the moment because she's being all
"I WILL DESTROY YOU FOR HURTING SORA! RAR!"
) are willing to let him die in the crossfire when really he's a bumbling moronic henchman who's been more of an annoyance than actually straight-up evil.
3045721but that's my point and did you forget that Pete might have summoned those heartless, and lyra is just crazy enough to follow them.
3046798 "Crazy" nothing. It's her job to protect Twilight, as stated in a previous chapter.
3047428trust me it takes the right kind of crazy to do a job like that
Maxim 3: An ordnance technician at a dead run outranks everybody.
Question: just where did Kairi learn the Dragon Slave? Because I don't think it's ever been this powerful on its own. The only time it did this much damage was when supercharged by the Demon Blood Talismans. And that's in the anime, in the original light novels the unboosted Dragon Slave was only about as powerful as a few sticks of dynamite. Any explanation forthcoming as to why Kairi is suddenly surpassing the Explosion Queen, Lina Inverse herself?
3043530
I wouldn't underestimate Twilight's acumen when it comes to magic. Still, I doubt she got a good look at the Dragon Slave - she was running for her life most of the time - so I doubt she'd be able to reproduce it. Especially since unlike every other spell she's ever seen, this one was cast without a horn, by a pegasus no less.
Yay, update. And another yay Twi got her keyblade. And another yay for finished Dash weapon.
But I kind of expect now that Twi or somebody else will go and slap Kairi at least once for almost killing them all for going overkill on two heartless. I mean, rage cause her bf got hurt nice and okay, but almost ending up killing said bf and everybody else cause of said rage is a huge no-no. No, seriously, she needs a good bitch slap.
I also think RD will rethink her approach of danger and adventure after this encounter, getting somebody else hurt cause of her action and getting herself almost killed as well.
Twi and Trixie gonna learn some new keyblade moves. ^^
And Riku gonna be superhot for all pony ladies like always while Sora is out cold for the count. XD
WOHOO! UPDATE!
IT'S CRAZY!
*One read later...
Well that was cool. I see you're adding your own tidbits the keyblade, and your throwing in some more banter and interaction between the characters. However, I would be careful of writing for so many characters. You have about 15 major characters your focusing on in your adventure party alone. Not to mention Lyra and Pete, Celestia and Luna, Shining and Cadance;
Still loving Blacksmith Luna!
WHY IS THERE STILL NO FANART OF HER AS A BLACKSMITH?!
The design for Twilight's keyblade is good (although how she knew its name is another story).
The fight scene was pretty good, but (I think this might be because of how intense the combat is in the games) I thought it felt somewhat slow with the wielders be more defensive in their tactics, more hit-and-run-ish (if that makes sense). However, it's still a good fight.
Now for the issues I had with this chapter.
The spell was hardcore an seems like WAY too much power to be giving Kairi. I mean, your giving her a nuclear blast spell with a radius that spans at least a mile, even more powerful than the show it's from, and she uses it against two heartless? That's like casting Mega Flare on a few soldier heartless! You don't use that magic unless it's as a final blow or maybe if there was an army of heartless that were overwhelming them. It makes other scenes of that magnitude less impactful. It desensitizes the reader from other impressive scenes in the future and makes the character seems overpowered, and thus, less cared for since we know she can just obliterate everything.
My major problem with the chapter is that the way Twilight gets her keyblade is, in my opinion, forced; rushed, even. I know you foreshadowed it with the campfire watch-talk scene, but the fact that it had to appear because one of her teammates was pissed and went nuclear seems anticlimactic, and it's obviously there just so she can finally have the keyblade. I would imagine that it would be done when Twilight is about to be killed by a boss-level heartless or maybe one of the members of the evil-cameo posse, but from a friend going overkill? In fact, Twilight already has a force field spell, so why did the keyblade have to come in to help her make one?
In addition, you also made Twilight accepting the fact that she can use a keyblade a big deal at the end, but it wasn't built up too well (at least, in my eyes). She wasn't supersceptical like she has been on other things in the show, so there wasn't that satisfaction of her realizing she was wrong when she wasn't trying to prove herself right.
I still think you're writing's fantastic, but the ending of this chapter, to me, feels like a hiccup. Hope to read more in the future.
3041180 Let me show you something.
It is what you would get if you didn't use a single trope. It is called The Tropeless Tale.
Remember, Tropes Are Tools. If used responsibly, TV Tropes Will Enhance Your Life.
3053304
Let us also remember that TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life, Your Vocabulary, and consume all of your free time. Let it also be remembered that one 'tiny' trip to TV Tropes will inevitably be set upon by Murphy's Law, which will make it take even more time than you thought it would.
3053327 I'm afraid I have gloriously ,managed to Invert their ruination of my life and vocabulary. They have done nothing but enhance my vocabulary and introduce me to all sorts of things that I've never seen before.
Want to know how I do it? I simply make it a point to look at the clock regularly, and if I ever feel like i'm getting lost on a Wiki Walk, I simply close the window. Not minimize, but close. And it has allowed me to learn about amazing stories like Getting Back On Your Hooves, The Powers of Harmony, The Immortal Game, and The Empty Room, to name a few. And that's just some of the fanfics I've learned about through them!
So you might as well give up on making me give up on TV Tropes. Maybe I'm just too smart to fall for the same traps that you're so afraid of.
3053590
Now now. . . who ever said I was trying to make you give up? Knowing is half the battle, and those who do not know will find themselves in a battlefield they do not know. Therefore, warning signs for the uninitiated into TV Tropes ways.
iambrony.steeph.tp-radio.de/mlp/gif/128415__UNOPT__safe_rainbow-dash_fluttershy_animated_super-speedy-cider-squeezy-6000_abandon-thread.gif
3053604 Well, I'm Dangerously Genre Savvy when it comes to warning signs, so you don't need to worry about me. And if you and everyone else follow the Aesop I gave you about paying attention to the time and closing the window if you feel like you're getting lost, you'll find that TV Tropes Will Enhance Your Life, like they already did for me!
3053712 Yes, well you are the one-in-a-millionth person who is actually able to do that before the clock reads 2:30 am. The rest of us have longer attention spans and insatiable curiosity.
May the Grace of the Valar Protect You
Shire Folk
3054524 ...I don't have a short attention span, if that's what you're implying.
I'm just aware enough of the risks that if I feel like I'm in danger, I bail out.
3041312 I'm not that familiar with Slayers, but I think as long as a spell doesn't involve directly channeling a creature's power, like how Giga Slave and Ragna Blade require Lina to directly channel the power of the Lord of Nightmares, just about anyone can cast it.
As proof, this clip shows Sylphiel Nels Lahda, a priestess for Flare Dragon Ceifeed, who was the arch enemy of Ruby Eye Shabranigdu, casting Dragon Slave side by side with Lina, who has fought against and destroyed two of the people who carried fragments of Shabranigdu's power when the hatred for the world that those people had caused those pieces of Shabranigdu to turn those people into half-mazoku.
Plenty of fire, But no fire flies; at least it wasn't at night with some fool trying to heed nature's call
3062909 NO! It's not.
The fic takes place starting from where Equestria enters into a Kingdom Hearts story. There is no prior Kingdom Hearts story for you to read to get caught up because it isn't written anywhere. Imagine that you're playing Kingdom Hearts, except that you're playing as, say, Hayner, Pence, and Olette in Twilight Town, and then suddenly this kid called Sora pops up out of the blue and says, "Hey, you guys are capable of wielding this weapon that I'm holding here, so I need you to come along with me. By the way, here are these other wielders I've already found," and then you play the game as HPO instead of Sora, Donald, and Goofy, starting in the middle of what some would call a story already in progress.
May the Grace of the Valar Protect You
Shire Folk
Kingdom Hearts 1 is getting remixed due to the original game assets being lost so everything is getting redone becoming Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and its coming this September.
3041701 Well, remember that Lord of Nightmares is also the Sea of Chaos, which surrounds and exists outside the worlds of Slayers.
Somehow, I get the feeling she'd ALWAYS be in range of those who would wish to use her power.
As for the suicidal part, remember that when she possessed Lina Inverse, she decided to leave and return the girl to her human form after witnessing the perseverance Gourry Gabriev had in getting her back. Remember also that at the end of Kingdom Hearts 1, Sora was willing to stab his own heart to get Kairi back. In other words, provided Kairi learned from the mistake of improperly casting a spell that directly summoned the Lord of Nightmares and made sure to only use that spell if it was absolutely necessary in the future, and at the same time making sure to properly cast the spell, I think she could get away with it.
Besides, imagine how quickly she could use Giga Slave to clear the 1,000 Heartless challenge!
Wow, that was AWESOME!
What a climax of a battle!
The only issue I had was with myself. I keep having to tell myself over and over again that she doesn't have a Keyblade.
Until this happened.
Crud, now have to remind myself that she doesn't have Oathkeeper.
I think I have been working on my story to much.
3045893
Oh. He never said they were following them...so I didn't know what was going on.
Uhh... how did this slip under the radar? This sentence confounds me! Oh, and I'm one week late to read
Moral of the chapter: Never piss off women.
3087886 It slipped under the radar because I haven't gotten any real editing done in WAY too long. Including any of this story. Sorry about that BTW Shire
3197393 I still stand by what I say.
This also fits you quite well