Chapter 1: Dawn of Fire
It was yet another day in the Mask Makers’ City, where Okotans from all 6 tribes lived together in relative peace, with the occasional attack by Skull spiders or Skull Raiders. This day started out with yet another attack and one very grumpy mask maker.
“Grrrr! Why do these attacks always happen when I finally have had a good week that it gets spoiled by an attack?” Said Blaze, the most recent apprentice mask maker, after dispatching the last of the skull warriors using his keyblade to send it flying to the eastern sea of Okoto. And with that, he went around to check if anyone needed help but, things were in control so Blaze went to his home and workplace to continue his commissions from various folks from across the island. The sound of hammer strikes remained until the sun had fallen below the horizon. A basic fire mask was given to the young child whom it was made for and with that, the day’s work was complete and Blaze called it a night.
It was the dawn of the next day when the whole city shook as if it was trying to tear itself apart and this was no normal quake for it had the pattern of footsteps and was not stopping. Blaze, Ekimu and the six Protectors went down into the lower vaults of the forge and there they found the source of these quakes: Blaze’s Hypergate.
“What does this mean?” Said Nilkuu, the Protector of Stone, voicing the thoughts of all in the chamber. All eyes fell on Ekimu as he had always had some wisdom in these matters,
“I’m afraid that this is beyond even my understanding but I think my apprentice may be able to help,” said Ekimu gesturing towards the Hypernova Keyblade on Blaze’s back, which was pulsing with pure light. Blaze walked up to the device and placed a hand on it and as soon as he did, he saw a world of light and harmony then it shifted to a chimeric beast that was surrounded by a maelstrom of chaos and shadow. The vision then ended and Blaze staggered backwards panting, his eyes frenzied with the thing that had come to him.
“I saw a world, one where darkness had almost no hold, there was this...this chimeric entity that was tearing it all into chaos and shadow,” he said between breaths,
“ I need to gather a few things.” Blaze rushed to his quarters and gathered his mask making tools and resources as well as provisions and weapons for defense against any threat that would come his way. He stored all of this into his pack and thought again about the vision, how this world was in turmoil and discord. He returned to the vault and told his friends,
“I have to go. A world’s heart is under attack and I must go and help its people repel this darkness.” The Protectors and Ekimu all agreed that this threat was severe if it caused quakes via the Hypergate. They all said their goodbyes and Ekimu said, with some fear in his voice:
“I know not what this threat’s nature is but I sense a powerful force, almost like the elements, crying out for help...I hope you fare well in this world and that you return safely. I am proud to have had you as an apprentice; until next we meet.”
“Until next we meet,” said Blaze as he returned the sentiment.
Blaze moved to a tablet with nine equal squares; eight of them blank and one with the mark of The Forbidden Mask, this was the dialing mechanism of the Hypergate. Blaze traced a crescent moon on the top, a sun at the bottom, and in a clockwise pattern, traced the following: a teal balloon, a red thunder bolt, a violet diamond, a lavender six-point star, a pale rose butterfly and an orange fruit. The gate then dialed this sequence: Sun, Balloon, Bolt, Diamond, Mask, Star, Butterfly, Fruit and Moon. Once the top sigil (the mask) appeared, all nine chevrons simultaneously locked and the Keyhole revealed itself in the center of the gate’s opening. Hypernova then shot a light blast at the Keyhole, opening the way to this new world. With one final salute, Blaze stepped through the gate. He flew past innumerable worlds and dimensions, passing the one, true, Kingdom Hearts. But instead of just rebounding as usual, he landed upon a familiar sight, a Station of Awakening but what was odd about it was that the glass was absolutely blank and clear but was split into two parts: one side showed Okoto and himself as he was but the other was a mess of fire, chaos, and light with some kind of winged quadruped sleeping at the roots of a crystalline tree. Both sides had a door, both facing each other: one had Okoto’s Hypergate address with all the elemental symbols and the other had the address he just dialed but both center squares were blank.
After examining the area, Blaze concluded he was at a crossroads of worlds and that he had been given a final decision to either abandon his journey for some desire of safety or continue and risk whatever may arise. Blaze took a deep breath and walked to the center and he was jolted back by some kind of field. He got back up and saw the same red, winged creature on the other side and after moving around comically, he saw it was copying his motions like a mirror then a gentle, mother-like voice was heard, the only words he could make out were ‘Harmony’ and ‘Discord’ and whenever ‘Discord’ was spoken the energy field seemed to flicker, as if impacted. Blaze then thought,
“Well, this is odd but, I need to finish this. Oh well, here goes.” He then crossed the barrier and found himself directly in front of the door. He hesitated a moment but then, quickly proceeded to open the door and was hit by a blinding white light.
He blacked out and felt like he’d not only got hit with the usual queasy feeling from Hypergate travel but also felt ‘as if he swam in energized protodermis and walked through the fires of karzahni at the same time.’ His sight had returned only to find that he somehow landed in a hedge maze...that looked more like the Labyrinth of Control with how there seemed to be more like an abstract art piece combined with a maze. Finally registering the burning feeling he had only a few thoughts:
“HOOOOOOOOOTTTTTT!!!! FIND WATER AND PUT OUT MYSELF OUT ASAP!!!!!” The next thing he knew, he crashed into a giant lake filled with...chocolate milk? Which promptly turned into normal water. A very confused and relieved Blaze broke the surface and used a Blizzaga spell to freeze the water into a mirror and saw that same red Pegasus, the word had suddenly appeared in his head, with yellow hooves, a navy blue hoodie jacket, a mark on both flanks that looked like a fiery galaxy and a mane, tail and wings that were actually on fire! After a panic attack, he landed and found that he had been turned into that same pegasus he saw earlier and concluded that it was this world’s own magic that caused this.
Once he had figured out how to control his new form he began wandering the maze and as he was, he took to thinking,
“This is strange, the visions, this form and this world? I have so many questions and in order to find answers I need to get out of here.” After wandering for what felt like an eternity, he spotted the exit and saw six ponies: 2 earth, 2 pegasi and 2 unicorns. They were running towards the archway and Blaze then moved sensing a dark presence, reaching into his pack he pulled out a Kanohi Volitak Nuva, the Nuva mask of Stealth. He activated it and moved to the archway. The six ponies discussed amongst themselves something that Blaze couldn’t hear. The teal one with a rainbow mane and tail launched into the air and then her wings disappeared with a flash of white light and so did the 2 unicorns’ horns and the butter-yellow pegasus’ wings. Then with a flash of white light and the crack of thunder, it appeared: the chimeric beast with an assortment of parts: a pony head, feathered snake tail, cloven hoofed leg, dragon leg and things that Blaze couldn’t identify; the same thing from his vision, a spirit of chaos: Discord.
The creature laughed and then said,
“You should see the looks on your faces; priceless!” He chuckles gleefully, the lavender one yells angrily;
“Give us our wings and horns back!” Blaze checks and sees that his wings also vanished
“just when I got used to them, curse you karma!” he said in his head, certain he was still unnoticed. The Chaos Spirit responds,
“You’ll get them back in good time.” It then teleports with a flash of light
“, that must be his power tell; I’ll make note of that.” Blaze notes in his mind, to the orange pony in the farmer’s hat, whom gets startled by the sudden event.
“I simply took them to ensure there’s no cheating.” Discord resumes while jabbing his elbow at a very cross pony.
“You see, this is the first rule of our game: No flying and no magic!” He slinks to the former pegasi and then to the lavender pony whom Blaze concluded to be the team’s leader;
“I’ll stick close to that one, maybe if I talk with her, I can get some answers as to what in Mata Nui’s going on here!” Blaze thinks as he does just that and avoids the abomination monologuing.
It zips off and the teal one asks:
“the First rule?” The spirit stops, reclining on a nearby hedge wall:
“The second rule is: everypony has to play or the game is over and I win.” He says as he taps his ‘fingers’ together in an evil manner.
“Good Luck, everypony!” it shouts and then laughs evilly before teleporting to Karzahni knows where.
“Never fear, girls!” the lavender one says to the five other mares, “we have each other.” The teal pony says:
“Yeah! What Twilight said, there’s nothing we can’t overcome if we all stick together!” This pepped up the other ponies, impressing Blaze.
“So, they are this world’s Toa; they know well the Virtue of Unity." Blaze notes as he follows behind this ‘Twilight’ as she leads the group saying:
“Alright girls, let’s do this.” and they enter as one into the maze shouting “Together!”
But once they step into the maze the six mares get separated by hedge walls, and thus are alone. Blaze’s mask has been negated at the same time but the walls gave only a glimpse of the startled Keyblade Wielder to the five others and Twilight tells the currently panicking mares to remain calm and to head to the middle as fast as they can so they can regroup. With four affirmatives and one terrified scream, they all take off and Blaze follows after Twilight. Blaze then tries to use a Kakama to at least make it possible for him to keep up but it goes haywire and he crashes into Twilight.
“Ouch!” Twilight groans and sees an unfamiliar red pony with a pack and hoodie trying to yank his head out of the ground. She helps him out and she asks:
“Are you OK? Who are you and how did you end up in here?” Blaze says in a panic:
“Blaze!”
“Your full name,” Twilight says. Blaze racks his mind for an alias and says:
“Blaze...wing Inferno? Yeah, Blazewing Inferno, folks call me Blaze for short and you?’ She responds:
“I am Twilight Sparkle: Student of Princess Celestia of Equestria and Bearer of the Element of Magic.” She says with pride,
“you are not familiar, must be new and judging by your shivering, you must be from somewhere really warm.” Blaze responds:
“Well, when you feel like you’re walking through a lava flow for who knows how long and when you’re finally used to it; you lose it and feel like you’re now trying to survive a northern Blizzard! Oh, sorry.” Twilight’s jaw drops and she immediately screams:
“You’re a Fire Elemental?!!! OK, first: you are coming with me so you can meet my friends so we can find The Elements of Harmony, beat Discord and save the world.” With that, Blaze agrees on the condition that as soon as all this is over, he gets answers to his questions then they hear voices and run to their origin.
Blaze senses a dark force at work and follows Twilight, he then senses a disturbance, one that means that darkness has taken hold of a Toa’s heart, or Element Bearer in this case. They find an opening in the wall to their right and see a pony.
“Applejack,” Twilight says relieved and Blaze makes a note of it as it was the same ‘farm pony’ from before whom was the Bearer of The Element of Honesty, only her color seemed to have paled, much like a drained Toa.
“Thank goodness, we thought we heard voices over here!” The two walk up to the still mare. Twilight asks:
“Who were you talking to?” The pony answers, hesitantly:
“I was talking to uh, nopony! Nopony whatsoever!” Followed by a face that screams guilt as her eyes dilate and dart around as if she had something to hide.
“What?” both Twilight and Blaze say in unison.
“Nuthin’” says Applejack, her expression saying otherwise;
“Come on! Uh, we best be goin’.” As she trots off. Bewildered, Twilight asks:
“Did Applejack just…” but then confidently and chuckling:
“Come on, Twilight. Applejack wouldn’t lie!” Blaze senses another shift and thinks:
“I have a bad feeling about all this.” And then proceeds to follow after Twilight and Applejack (A.J.) farther into The Labyrinth of Chaos.