There comes a point in every new parent's life where they must punish their kids… this was mine… and god I didn’t wanna do it. “You three ran off from the safe area, ran into one of CORE’S men, and are in so much trouble!” I yelled, my heart hurt to see their sad faces.
“We didn’t think-” Rumble tried to speak.
“Clearly not! I know the heart keeps this world safe from things like that, and now that I know that’s not fully true, I’m glad to know know rather than later, but you three could have been killed!”
“We still managed to beat him.” Scootaloo added.
“At the cost of Rumble breaking a rib!” I inhaled… the term ‘grounded’ in my family was being buried alive then digging your way out by hand… or with a spoon like I always carried with me. “Just… just go to your rooms… I’ll deliver your punishments later…”
They left with their heads hung low… and so did I. Damn it… parenting sucks. I walked into the bedroom, where all the girls were, and just dropped onto the bed. I felt someone rub my back. “So, what’s the verdict?” I heard Care ask.
“Undecided… I’ll deliver it later…” I replied, my voice muffled by my face planted onto the mattress.
“I hate punishing them too, but it needs to be done.”
“They only did it cause Rumble thought they had to prove they could be as good as me… I didn’t even do much…”
“You saved what’s left of this world, are leading efforts to rebuild it, and saved Toriel’s people from their imprisonment, and are helping them co-exist with the other inhabitants after that war most of the humans there don’t even remember… you call that nothing?” Luna asks.
“I just helped.”
“You always say that, but you help in ways no one else could have thought possible. You’re a hero Zeke.” Fluttershy says.
“I hate having an ego…”
“That aside, what will be their punishment? They ment well, but one was badly hurt. I think I hate this as much as Zeke does.” Twilight said.
“They still need to be punished.” Celestia said.
“Rumble is hurt though, isn’t that lesson enough for him?” Rainbow asked.
I shifted, now laying on my side. “It was his idea to do that… Maybe we can have them clean the house… the WHOLE house.”
“That would take them a month or more.” Chrysalis said. “Though it does seem fair. Should that be it?”
“I’ll take away their armors.” Twilight said. “The whole point of those things was to protect them when things start getting heated, not to go find a fight and forget all about them.”
“I guess that works… so how about when they have cleaned the whole house, they can get them back?”
“I suppose that’s fair.” Care said. “Though, I’m taking Button’s games away as well, until they’re done.”
“I guess Rumble and Scoot’s should have something of theirs taken away as well.” Rainbow said. “How about TV?”
“Sure.” I said, sadly…
“What did your parents do to punish you?” Rune asked.
“Buried me alive, and I had to dig back up.”
There was silence. “Alright, that’s out without question.” Care said, breaking the silence.
Button, Rumble, and Scootaloo’s punishment was delivered, and they seemed a bit relieved. Guess they expected worse. Dinner was like usual, even through those three were being punished they made a game out of cleaning the house. Whoever finished for the day first wins bragging rights for the rest of the day. I was glad they weren't upset.
Tomorrow came and I was in my office again, going through whatever was piled onto my desk last night, which wasn’t much. There was a knock at the door and Leon entered. “Sir?” He asked, taking a seat.
“Something happen?”
“Some strange new Heartless were spotted in Traverse Town. They were dealt with, but we managed to take photos of them first.” He handed me the photos, and what I saw made little sense.
“These aren't Heartless…” I say, looking over the images again.
“What are they?”
“Unversed. Creatures of negative energy given physical form.” How? Vanitas was destroyed, and returned to Ventus?
“Are they dangerous?”
“They upset the balance like Heartless do, but when destroyed, they return to the source of their creation. That can only be done if Someone had their light and dark of their heart separated via Keyblade. And only people with hearts of darkness can pull that off.”
“So our best bet to stop these things is to find whoever this… half a person is, and destroy them?”
“Yeah, reuniting the heart works too, but we’d have to know where his light half is.”
“So shall we treat the Unversed like we do the Heartless.”
“That would be best. They aren't as varied as Heartless, but they often attack in mass swarms.”
“I’ll tell the soldiers to keep their guard up, last thing we need is mass panic.”
Three… Two… One.
There was a loud, stomping noise from outside, and some screaming. Leon and I ran outside. When we got outside, there was a large Unversed attacking and knocking people aside… Iron Prisoner II… I never beat that thing in the game. “Leon, try and take care of that thing, the puppeteer must be somewhere.”
I ran through the city, large amounts of smaller Unversed were running around, but in a city of combat ready Keyblade wielders, it wasn’t much of an attack. I found… the exact description of the man the kids fought, standing in front of the castle. “Well, took your time.” He said.
“You…”
Oh...
Shit...
“Yeah, I don’t think-” I grabbed him by his head, and threw him… through two whole buildings. “What the?!” He yelled as he got out from the rubble.
I somehow made one giant leap over to him, I was too pissed to care. “You… broke… one of my sons ribs…” I summoned X and DIscord, and activated my armor.
I’ve never seen Zeke this mad before.
I didn’t even think he could get so mad.
“Look, they star-”
I swung with both X and Discord, he blacked, but dropped to the ground, where I stomped his head into the ground. “You.” I stomped again. “Don’t.” I stomped again. “Ever.” I stomped harder. “Harm.” I stomped again. “My.” I stomped, hearing a crack as I did. “Family!” I kicked him to the side, his face was bleeding… black… just like Chara before…
He got up, clearly hurt, and was wiping the ‘blood’ away. “The hell with this.” Before I could react, a DTD opened behind me, and he tackled me into it. When we came out, it looked like we were in… Ponyville, like Huxley’s, but the people were anthro… Devin’s world? … no, this feels different. When I stopped looking around, I followed saw him running away.
“Like hell!” I chased after him. He stopped to try and open the door to what looked like Rarity’s boutique from the show. I sparta kicked him through the door, knocking it down and rushing in and held him by his throat up against the wall. “Come near my family again and I will send you to oblivion!”
I threw him into another room, to which he looked at someone in what looked like the kitchen as I was walking there. “All yours.” He told the person in there, I entered.
I looked at the kitchen table… where yellow Core was… “... Yellow? Wait…” This was a trap! ”...crap…” I looked on the other side of the table and saw… memory Huxley? “... Well this is deja vu.”