//------------------------------// // 33. Lost Empire: Highway // Story: Locksmith // by QuartzScale //------------------------------// Ancient Highway - Cistern Gallery It was dark. Very dark. Everypony was a bit on edge because of the lack of direction. Milo was still translating the Shepherd’s Journal and we waited on the water’s edge as the vehicles were prepared. The funeral rites for those who were lost were completed quickly enough as the six of us made it in front of the giant digger machine. It took me a few minutes to get everypony away from the machinery due to their curiosity overwhelming them. We trotted into the conjoined area and met with a grand cavern the cars managed to keep up until we reached the first open area. “This place is scary…” Sunshower mumbled as we all trotted around down the path. “It’s not too bad. At least we have room to fly should we need to. We should fly right?” Spitfire questioned and from my shaking head she just grumbled in silent resignation. “Trying not to bring too much attention to ourselves. That’s kind of the reason behind the whole world order thing. I think it should be fine to tell you the entire story.” “So what happened that made it wrong to talk about other worlds?” Octavia grunted as she readjusted her saddlebags. I remembered that we had filled our packs with food since the enchantments on them would keep the food fresh regardless of how far we were walking for. “A long time ago a king was traveling through the cosmos trying to find a way to restore his friend from a terrible fate. During their adventures he met a scientist who was studying gummi blocks, the material the ship is made of, and looking into the nature of the heart. As they conversed the king made multiple mentions of the nature of the heart and the existence of other worlds not maliciously of course but the intellectual decided to go to work. He gathered several assistants to look into the nature of darkness because he thought it would work out and grant him access to other worlds. When he felt his research had borne fruit he sacrificed his assistants to darkness as part of his research. Gone was the intellectual and in its place was a monster.” “I-i-is he still around?” Fresh Coat shivered. “Not that I know of. I am sure he was taken care of unless something else happened in between then and now. Equestria wouldn’t have to worry about it though. Its one of the most isolated worlds I’ve ever seen.” “So that’s why the world order rules are around then?” Spitfire questioned. “There is another reason but that is the most recent. The other problem had to do with the keyblade as the focal point. Did you girls know that the worlds used to be one and everything was connected?” “Wait… what? Even Equestria?” Vinyl hissed out as she tried to keep her voice down. “Yes. Every world even this one was connected in some way so everything fit together. But the Master of Masters, the first keyblade wielder, held something called the Book of Prophecies. He predicted that the worlds would be split and destroyed. One thing you should know about prophecies is that they are self fulfilling when you hear them. Unfortunately his students were too divided and wound up in war with each other because they heard the prophecy and didn’t talk about it before hoof. That led to very bad times and the entire world splitting into multiple worlds.” “Ah ha! I got it. We need to travel southeast to reach the main ancient highway!” Milo called out as everybody finally got into their vehicles and were ready to start a convoy to wherever this hidden city was. “Before we head out… should the worlds be put back together?” Sunshower cautiously asked. “Personally at this point that might be a bad idea because of how far every world has developed. There would be some… opportunists during that calamity even after we go take care of the darkness. Can’t account for how others will act still like I said if we find those we trust we can talk about it. I’m sure there are trustworthy beings out there.” Sunshower pursed her lips and pouted slightly since I gave a really vague answer. I’m sure several worlds can be safely be connected but the problem came from the constant shifting technological level of every single world. As I kept working through the constant worlds around the universe I couldn’t think of any that would be able to fully adjust to working together seeing as only keybladers could travel through the universe. At this point only the seven of us have keyblades in a sense. I had no idea whether or not Sora existed in this universe now or at all. Alternatively I could be before any other masters aside from Yen Sid still existed. Though maybe someday I would meet King Mickey. “Gray they’re still moving. Let’s keep track of any heartless in the area.” “Look at the size of this pillar. It must have taken thousand of years to carve.” Milo exclaimed as Vinny dragged him away from the pillar behind some cover. He pulled out a plunger pressing it as the pillar exploded created a land bridge. “I made a bridge. It only took me like… ten seconds. Eleven tops.” Vinny explains in his monotone voice. At the very least the explosion was controlled. Before the people could actually get ready to leave several portals of darkness appeared. Out of the darkness stepped out several heartless… all of them different than anything I had ever seen in any of the games. They were all strapped into large diving suits holding large anchors in their left hands. It was the diving helmet which threw me off entirely. It was a goofy caricature of an angry face with large yellow eyes. “And I thought it would be quiet. Let’s go earn our keep, ladies.” Everypony pulled out their blades as we charged while the other mercenaries that were around created a defensive position. The moment one of the diving heartless saw us they shot out their anchors which were attached by chains at us. I hopped over mine while the others alternated between dodging or reflecting it back with magic. The one I dodged decided not to waste the opportunity and immediately charged forward as the anchor had attached to the ground. I held my ground managing to block the full strike up until it brought me right up to the anchor and slammed me into the ground. Sunshower immediately used a magnet spell forcing many of the suits back including the one crushing me as everypony got to work on their respective targets. The few that weren’t took their time getting away from the magnetic force. Forcing myself back onto my hooves I charged the one that slammed me to the ground and managed to slice off the chain from the anchor. As the chain disappeared the diver heartless pulled in the chain and out of the opening popped in a large multi barrel cannon. That cannon was now pointed at me… “Now that’s just unfair…” The triangle button appeared in my mind as the cannonball made of pure darkness shot out. Using my keyblade I sliced at the ball knocking it back into the heartless… who knocked it back. I did it again as we went back and forth with our tennis match. Finally the triangle button switched to a new command I think said Spin Driver and activated it. With a careful flick of the blade I swirled the dark cannonball spun around me increasing its velocity before slamming through the heartless knocking it into the one that was fighting Fresh Coat. “Ok… Now it’s fair.” Octavia was a bit overwhelmed. These heartless were much different from the others she had seen. From what she was told they never looked like serious threats because as instinctual hunters they would play off their cute nature just to gather hearts faster. These new heartless were far more aggressive and more dangerous than the last ones she faced when they first landed. Unlike the others, Octavia preferred to tank blows then strike back with overwhelming force. Then Gray was slammed into the ground and he was far stronger than any of them and had actually blocked the attack. “Ok… let’s not do that. I’ll handle it a different way then.” Octavia groused because her way of fighting would be detrimental. The one she was fighting immediately was dragged away from her by the sudden magnet spell along with everypony else. Taking advantage she charged forward smacking into it’s face sending the top half of its head spinning before striking at the legs. The magnet spell did it’s job forcing the heartless to spin uncontrollably. Eventually Spitfire and Vinyl assisted more firing off plenty of spells into the group of enemies. Several of the heartless dissipated but not all of them. The one Gray had fought was now firing off cannonballs for some reason. The game of tennis they played was beyond ordinary up until the point where he managed to fling the cannonball back too fast for the heartless to actually respond in time destroying two of them in the process. It took a short while to take care of the large group of heartless. These were the first emblem heartless I’ve seen while out through the worlds and these ones were specifically chosen forms for this world in particular. I needed to check the Lexicon as several of the vehicles finally started moving again. Redheart had taken the short break to fully heal us up as we kept up as the front guard. “Hey Gray!” Vinyl called out after finally getting all healed up. “Yes Vinyl? Something wrong or question about something.” “Yeah small one about those heartless. What were they? Yen Sid showed us a lot of categorized heartless a while back but this one in particular wasn’t shown to us at all. What the buck’s with that?” Vinyl groused. “I’m curious too actually. But I can answer that as being a heartless that is native only to this world for the most part. Since we’re here we might be seeing heartless that reflect the nature of this world.” “Huh… Weird.” Vinyl muttered. I took that chance and summoned the Lexicon instead of my keyblade. When I opened to the heartless section I immediately saw the new heartless in all it’s glory. I was a bit confused that the book would know what these heartless were called… but that could be explained by how many worlds the Organization actually went through before they were stopped… or even started yet. Ballast Heartless found in the depths of the Lost Empire looking for those who submerge themselves in darkness. While wielding large anchors should they lose them they’ll pull out an auto cannon that fires off large projectiles of pure darkness. So that’s what they were called then. With everypony looking over my shoulders already it seemed I didn’t have to say what they were in the first place. I did wonder why they were named that though. A Ballast is supposed to give weight to large items that were deceptively light. At least I think that’s what they were… that language lesson still rattling around in my head still gives me a headache. “Well at least now we have a name to our enemy… Will we be facing any other new kind of enemies down here?” Fresh Coat brought up as she began to shiver. We had been walking for a while at this point and I noticed the sudden drop in temperature only to find myself walking through snow… My hooves felt weird… not frozen but cool. When I looked back at each mare I noticed that both Spitfire and Sunshower were perfectly fine with the temperature. The other ponies, on the other hand, weren’t. Octavia and Fresh Coat’s chattering teeth could be heard throughout the area. Vinyl looked more annoyed that cold but she couldn’t hide the shivering of her legs. Redheart was… Well she pulled out a scarf combo already and began passing out some for the other ponies who were cold. They finally stopped shivering which confused me even more that that was all that was needed to stop the cold for them. I wanted to scream to the heavens for someone to explain how ponies worked on a fundamental level which was something I had thought I had gotten over weeks ago… It was hard to tell at this point because of the training time we had which felt like three weeks. “Much better. We should keep going then Gray.” Redheart smiled as she trotted forward leaving me to walk in the center of the group. It was another thing I had been noticing. It was small and relatively harmless but whenever we were forced out to check for things I was kept at the center of our herd. The focal point if you will, and that left me a bit stifled. Every now and then I would notice out of the corner of my eye that one of them would be staring at me. It wasn’t in lust though which I was only marginally thankful for since it meant I could trust them not to be distracted. No, the looks they gave me were coated heavily with worry. I had the tendency to get hit during our fights so far. It was apparent even during training and something I think I consciously did as well. I would constantly jump in to keep each mare safe from attack which usually wasn’t necessary in the first place. I do know why I do it though and I need to mitigate it only to important moments because it is more of a nuisance than a boon. They were all strong and very independent and I didn’t need to play the role of a knight in shining armor. They already liked me enough and I didn’t need to impress them. I was sure of it… I think. ‘I wish I was better at these relationship things. Forget it for now you can work on it later… Though I need to talk to them privately later in case something goes wrong.’ Ancient Highway - Frozen Gully The entire area was covered in ice and snow. Thankfully the digger proved to be more formidable than the ice could ever be. Mole made sure to make us aware of this fact. “Ah, mon ami can truly get through the worse of the worse. Mademoiselle do you think so as well?” Mole wiggled his eyebrows at Redheart this time. This had been going on for a while at this point during our trek. I knew the girls were really beautiful and the illusion was being much better than it had to be. I found that several of the mercenaries had hit on each of them. Those guards were now easily identifiable by the crushed goggles each of them wore. Those that had gone strutting around Vinyl ended up waddling away with their pride and joy cradled in their hands. Spitfire was more dignified but much more vicious with her words. They still needed to cradle their pride and joy. Octavia and Fresh Coat spent the most time next to me which deterred everyone except for Mole. I was both annoyed yet strangely endeared by his tenacity. Sunshower was the one I was most worried about. She had remained the most focused standing most of the time in front of me watching for any threats. I had no idea why she was being so serious. “It’s a fine machine Mole. Now watch where we’re going please.” Redheart answered with the lightest hint of venom in her voice. I could barely hear it when she said it and it terrified me because she now could kick his flank from here back to the ships easily enough. ‘It’s ass not flank. Why are you thinking pony terms? You have a human mind damn it all.’ I shook my head and continued my trek through as we kept wandering through the area. Milo was still near frozen but he had managed to figure out the right routes so far. Aside from us speaking with him he never took his nose out of his book. Many of the ponies had mentioned that when they first saw her they thought of Twilight whenever Milo was working. It was slightly disheartening to me but I had to wait a bit longer. He was still working and so far nothing bad had happened to him quite yet. “Mademoiselle if you would please do me the honor of joining me on ze digger I would be honored.” Mole’s voice tried to be suave. “No thanks. I prefer to tro- walk around.” Redheart forced herself to give a smile while I thought I could hear her teeth grinding themselves to dust. “But-” Mole started. “Gray I think I see more heartless up ahead!” Redheart shouted out which forced the convoy to stop as we ran ahead to check it out. There weren’t any heartless but I knew Redheart needed a break. Before we could actually return to the group another portal of darkness appeared. I thought it would have been more Ballasts but it wasn’t. What came out was much worse. A large serpent slithered out of the darkness made entirely out of ice and there was a large heartless emblem emblazoned on it’s chest. It had four yellow eyes and small wings near it’s head which made it look weird. It had larger jaws with very cartoonish teeth which seemed to be part of the jaw rather than teeth. It had a completely serpentine body but there were strange indentations all around its body. “Looks like we’re not going to be liars at the very least right Red?” “Huh? Oh yeah… Yes. Right.” Redheart mumbled as she shyly reached up and cradled her cheeks. “Flirty time later. Fight time now.” Spitfire called out as she shot forward for the heartless. It immediately roared at the challenge and summoned several flying heartless composed of Air Soldiers and several small blue ones. I recognized them as Blue Rhapsodies. They were the blizzard focused magical heartless. Spitfire immediately started up firing off fireballs. I did briefly wonder if Merlin told them about the weaknesses of magic and which beats which. I charged forward as well with Octavia, Vinyl and Sunshower. Surprisingly these three were very willing to fight up close and personal. The giant ice serpent heartless ignored Spitfire’s attempts and sent Air Soldiers against her knocking her into melee with the smaller targets. Slithering around the area the serpent went after Fresh Coat and Redheart who remained behind. I tried to stab the keyblade into its tail only for me to be dragged around as several of the rhapsodies surrounded the girls and started to fire off ice projectiles at the group. Spitfire made a small mistake. She was a grown mare and new exactly how to take that she made a mistake. The heartless immediately was her main focus especially the giant ice serpent looking thing which was the highest threat. Instead it ignored her and left her to take care of the smaller Air Soldiers as she now knew. They were a problem as well since they kept cutting her off from flying over to the serpent heartless. “I don’t have bucking time for this.” Spitfire growled out. She knew intimidation tactics were slightly pointless at this point. Heartless were mindless creatures most of the time. The ones that weren’t didn’t show any fear or hesitation. They knew what they wanted and were set to get it before the end of the day. Several of the group began to attack her relentless only missing because she decided to stop fighting under the illusion and start fighting as a pony. A quick buck sent several Air Soldiers back as she took off in the air and pulled out her training blade slicing it through whatever got in her way. A careful arc through the air let her zoom around the Air Soldiers who, while coordinated, couldn’t keep up with her speed and wound up smashing into each other whenever things got difficult. Wasting no time she made sure to pepper the area in fire seeing as all the ice around her was asking for it. The heartless released their captive prizes and Spitfire did a small victory dance before noticing that the other heartless that shot ice were overwhelming her herd mates. She sped off for the group ready to bring in the heat. Sunshower wondered if it would have been better not to charge in so recklessly. While she enjoyed her mates… bravado in fighting, she wasn’t much for constant violence. It wasn’t that she was unable to fight but it was becoming very life threatening at this point. While she knew what she was getting into the moment Gray had cut off the head of a heartless that looked like a demon that ponies would tell their foals about to make sure they didn’t get in trouble; she didn’t know the scope of what she was facing. She sighed and quietly berated herself before firing off a blizzard spell which did nothing to the blue heartless all around her. “Oh you have got to be kidding me…” Sunshower growled out. “What is it?” Vinyl called out as she fired another Spark spell at the heartless. “They absorb ice.” Sunshower muttered. “Huh. Good to know then. So shoot off a fire spell?” Vinyl innocently asked. “I didn’t learn it. I only managed to get good at Blizzard, Aero, and Magnet. I was getting ready to learn more when we had to head out for this world.” Sunshower pouted as she hit one of the Rhapsodies that got too close. “Really? I only managed to get Quake, Cure, and Reflect.” Octavia spoke up as she threw another piece of earth at one of the rhapsodies crushing it into a puff of darkness and corresponding heart emblem. “Dang girls… I got most of the others. When we have time how ‘bout we teach each other. I never got Cure, Magnet, or Reflect. But I did get… FIRE!” Vinyl shouted as she shot several fireballs at the still floating around enemies. The Blue Rhapsodies focused their barrage on Vinyl at that point due to the huge show of firepower. Octavia took point reflecting whatever projectile came for them while Sunshower flew around summoning several magnet runes during her flight pulling the rhapsodies together. “INCOMING!” Spitfire’s cry reached the group as a charging ball of fire came in striking through the bulk of the Blue Rhapsodies joining the other four in a hail of fire. “Glad you could join us there. We needed a bit more firepower.” Octavia snarked slightly. “Sorry bout that. I was trying to hit the giant snake thing. It didn’t stay still for me though.” Spitfire mumbled out. The girls banded together and fought through the barrage of heartless while off in the distance the serpent fell back into their midst crushing several of the heartless. There were several shocked gasps at the sudden fall. On the serpent’s head were three very badly injured ponies. Gray was supported but a bruised Redheart and Fresh Coat was on his back unconscious. I hated being dragged around by the heartless. Keeping the keyblade planted in its tail proved to be harder than it looked since it immediately took off into the air closer to Fresh Coat and Redheart. Immediately I was feeling a lot of dread and I endeavored to stop that fear by charging across its tail while in my true form. Using my wings as counterbalances I ran up to its head and swiped at one of the wings forcing it to crash land scraping me off at the same time. “Stupid piece of shit!” I rolled along the ground feeling a few cuts and bruises form from the sudden landing. Redheart charged over to me casting a cure spell while Fresh Coat covered us with several fire spells. As I got up I grabbed the two and tossed them out of the way as the tail cracked down on us. I was flung several feet away forcing the two to focus on the beast. Redheart followed suit casting aero on the themselves while Fresh Coat took the front firing off fire spells. Several of them were perfectly aimed as well… until the heartless showed off that its body was for more than being compact. With blinding speed it slithered around the explosive spells and immediately opened its maw for Redheart. I threw my keyblade at it clocking it in the jaw and sending it spiraling away from the force as my keyblade returned to me. I cured myself and joined the other two while Redheart cast another aero spell on me. Feeling as prepared as I could I immediately flew up and fired a few spark spells at the heartless getting its attention again. While it worked its way back up to me Fresh Coat and Redheart took position several paces away from me. I didn’t actually know if they knew what to do but I had to trust they knew what they were doing. I set up another raid attack tossing my keyblade immediately at its head which it dodged lunging directly at me. I summoned my keyblade but it wasn’t in time as the jaw nearly wrapped around me. Fresh Coat immediately let off a barrage of fire spells while Redheart used a magnet spell pulling its jaw below me. As it was suddenly tossed off course I immediately planted my keyblade in its head before slicing out a portion of its head. The darkness just healed back up the wound but the force behind the strike forced the heartless back to the ground. Redheart took her chance striking at the right wing while Fresh Coat attacked the left disabling them from working against us. Before we could land a veritable killing blow the serpent immediately began rolling around knocking Fresh Coat out of the way while Redheart backed up enough to escape the repercussions. I immediately dove down to Fresh Coat grabbing her on my back as the serpent went back to attacking me. I immediately let it fly past me in a failed attempt to snap me in half. I brought Fresh Coat over to Redheart while the heartless recovered from the lunge. “Guard her Red. Cure her when you can I’ll be bait.” “But Gray… It keeps moving around so quickly!” Redheart shouted out which brought the attention of the serpent back to us. “No choice! Go!” Redheart managed to get Fresh Coat on her back and galloped off while I blocked another of the serpent’s biting attack. This went on for a couple of minutes as the serpent kept rounding around me. The tail was especially dangerous as it managed to smash me into the ground several times with me only surviving because Redheart kept casting Aero on me whenever it wore off. It was the only thing that actually kept me from being chomped in half. The serpent didn’t waste anytime focusing on speeding up on me just to slap me around faster. Suddenly the triangle button appeared in my head as it lunged towards me. I slid under its jaw and knocked it up before knocking it away with a baseball swing which somehow had enough force behind it to knock it into the group of heartless that the others were fighting. I picked up Fresh Coat placing her on my back as I gripped Redheart in my hooves and flew over to them. I could barely feel most of my body even with Redheart casting another cure spell. “Are you three ok?” Sunshower called out. “No but we need to take care of this thing!” Without wasting another second the girls piled on a barrage of spells and strikes while Redheart pulled Fresh Coat behind the others managing to get her back up after her unwitting unconsciousness. I slammed my keyblade into the creature’s face knocking it around until it finally dissipated into a cloud of darkness and a floating crystal heart emblem which flew off into the sky. Obtained the power of ice. Blizzard now available. Everypony put on their disguises before the crew could get to us. Sweet was at the forefront and immediately looked over us. Spitfire had multiple bruises as did Octavia whose fighting style was only described as brutal. Vinyl was magically exhausted and Fresh Coat was still dizzy from barely waking up again. Comparably Redheart and Sunshower were still the least injured only appearing to be slightly dirty from the fight. “Ok no need to panic. Mind joining me over here folks, I’ll be looking over you.” Sweet called out which everypony hesitated. I merely pushed them forward as I took point. Redheart joined without hesitation as all of us were looked over before we continued our journey. I was still in poor condition at this point. It was going to be a long trip. Rourke scowled at the view before him. The Snapagator had helped him pull that heartless but it had cost him a few of his own soldiers. Grousing over his own luck he focused back on the page of the journal he stole. The Heart of Atlantis and the riches it would bring him. While the weird creature he found in Iceland was very clear on wanting to eat them he was certain that he could control it. It would be impossible for it to actually manage to get out of his control. He was sure of it. “Mr. Thatch have you found the right path yet?” Rourke called out. “Yeah that way. Are they okay though?” Milo sounded concerned as Gray and his group was brought back highly exhausted from fighting that… monster. “They’ll be fine. They’re professionals of course. They can handle… anything thrown at them. Just get ready to move. The men are freezing.” Rourke dismissed the concern. “I’ve noticed that we’re missing a few. Did something happen?” Milo looked at the commander. He didn’t betray his demeanor by his answer. “Casualties from those who thought they could be heroes. I’ve been telling them not to focus on women since they’re obviously stronger than they are. Regardless I’d prefer to get my crew out of this danger already. Get ready Mr. Thatch.” Rourke ordered as he went to speak with Helga. Several figures were viewing the battle with the creatures in the snow from a distance. Their leader was transfixed by the snow serpent being destroyed by what she knew as a keyblade. Not only was there a keyblade in their mix but there were seven of them. She needed to get them to Atlantis. The monsters would keep coming but everytime that these blades were used the darkness would not return as strongly. Several of the warriors needed to be told not to get close because of what happened. Regardless she ordered them back to base as the convoy of strange vehicles kept moving while that one being at the front that fought the creatures was speaking to this red haired man who was reading from a book. The warriors immediately ran off into the shadows while the convoy kept moving on. Arc Serpent A large serpentine heartless that appeared beneath the caves that lead to Atlantis. Made of ice it makes several attempts to lunge and bite at whatever it perceives as a threat. By chance it can also fly in small bursts.