//------------------------------// // 54. Forest of Nibel: Confront // Story: Locksmith // by QuartzScale //------------------------------// We flew in back to camp about an hour before the sun reached what I was certain was a two o’clock position. Spitfire was calmer at this point and luckily hadn’t been teasing me during our flight back. Ori had clung to my back after we left the top of Sorrow’s Pass since we needed to get back quickly with the Sunstone in tow. As we landed everypony was still inside the small impromptu shelter. “Everypony! We’re back!” Spitfire called out to the sound of thundering hooves as the other five immediately rushed out to meet with us. “You ok? You seem a bit jumpy.” “Gray there’s been a problem. Kuro stopped attacking. She just immediately stopped trying to find us and stopped flying around.” Octavia warned. “It’s my turn but I’m a bit worried about these turns of event.” Redheart mentioned as she sealed up her saddlebags. “It’s a bit unsettling but we’ll be fine. We just keep our wits about us and we can get through it. Though… I think since this is the last one we need to be prepared. Octavia, I’m gonna need the rest of you to get ready to move in case anything does happen.” “Yes, of course. All of us have… managed through what we’ve heard and are ready to keep moving.” Octavia assured me. “We’re gonna talk about it when we’re safer. Let’s save this world first then we’ll be good.” “If you say so Gray. We'll make our way near the Mount Horu to make certain to keep close in case something happens.” Octavia announced to the others. “Right then. Redheart we'll be going ahead then to get your own training ready.” “Okay!” Redheart cheerfully cried out before jumping on my back causing me to falter onto the ground flat on my belly. “Aww… you were supposed to keep going…” “Okay… still tired then. Give me a second and we'll head out.” Redheart got off my back and came up to my face looking deeply into my eyes. She looked very stern as she stared into my tired looking eyes. It was almost exactly as it was during my time as an officer. The late night stakeouts had taken their toll on my sleep schedule. Even here on another planet I would only get a modicum of sleep while I watched the area for any heartless or Kuro coming out of nowhere to attack us. She looked very concerned about my eyes. I tried to convey pleading behind my gaze that I was fine. Her gaze was made of sterner stuff. “You need a nap before we go. Even a short one will be fine.” Redheart demanded in a quiet tone. It started to get obvious that I started to feel weight behind me as Vinyl and Sunshower flanked my left and right sides bearing down on me. Octavia and Fresh Coat joined afterwards squeezing me in between the four. Spitfire joined aftwards flapping above my head and Ori jumped on Redheart’s back to look at me as well. I sighed in exasperation. “I'll take the nap.” My grumbling was drowned out by the cheers of very happy mares and before I could voice any concerns Spitfire picked me up and dragged me into our little makeshift tent forcing me into the makeshift bed. Reluctantly I closed my eyes and felt somepony instantly cling to me. Redheart had wiggled her way into my hooves. Then there was another thump and another. My chin rested atop of Redheart’s head as I felt several hooves wrap around parts of me. “I take it everypony actually needed hugs then?” There were sheepish agreements and one gruff muttering from our Wonderbolts captain. Ori was even in the pile giving me a thumbs up as well then curling near the top of my head. I was actually really tired. Fatigue had been building up since we landed and I was finally being forced to go with it. A nap wouldn't hurt… it just wouldn't always help with how I slept like. “When I wake up we're heading out.” “Sure sure Nebby. Just get some sleep.” Vinyl called out to the chuckles of the others and my own groan. I closed my eyes and everyone cuddled closer. Throughout that all one particular thought was going through my head. ‘It's hot…’ It took me three hours to get back up. Everypony was still tired and it occurred to me why. They still had dried tear tracks from finding out what happened to Kuro's children. Spitfire, from what I could tell, was the exception. She merely looked annoyed instead. There wasn't much I could do to actually appease them all but keep close. The balancing act of their worldview was certainly earth shattering and it was probably better that I sympathize with them. Living on Earth made for certain world views slowly changing to a gray versus grey morality scale. There were no such thing as a villain. Everyone was the hero of their own story and everyone was responsible for their actions. I had lived it when I became a cop. I experienced it when my mentor was shot in the head with his own gun by our superior. I wanted to gut it the moment my niece had been poisoned by my neighbor but she escaped into death. I found myself squeezing Redheart a bit too much which broke me from my stupor as she squeezed back holding tightly onto me. “I've been patient enough…” Redheart mumbled in a sleepy drawl as she snuggled her head into me. One by one, as I stirred awake, everypony got up and shook themselves off. Redheart also managed to get unclung from my body and replaced her saddlebags back on her back. I did the same and instantly scooped her up on my back. I was wide awake at this point and surprisingly feeling much better than I had hours ago. The sun was also still pretty high in the sky meaning we had plenty of time to handle our tasks. “Octavia can you get things ready here. We're gonna head out and deal with this last Element.” “Yes, of course Gray.” Octavia came close while the others were trying to rouse Spitfire and Vinyl from their rest. “Be careful out there. Kuro was especially loud the moment you finally fell asleep. She didn't come me here but it was touch and go for a bit.” “Got it.” “We'll be back soon Octavia. As a trained nurse I'll make sure we're staying healthy the entire way. Besides it's finally my turn.” Redheart cheerfully answered though her eyes did hold worry. With a quick nod I flapped my wings and flew off just as both Ori and Redheart jumped on my back. It was time to head off for Mount Horu. It had taken us a few minutes to find the right path and the constant stream of powerwilds had been a little off putting. It wasn't out of hating them though. It had become routine and unless bladewilds were added to the mix it would end with the heartless being routed in a few minutes. Luckily, the area seemed to be getting hotter every couple of seconds. That was when we came to the real problem of Mount Horu. “It's all lava…!” Redheart cried out realizing that the swirling red liquid below us was very much active. “I guess this is why it's so dangerous. We have magic to regulate ourselves around lava right?” “Well yeah… it's been a constant ideal that our personal magic allows us not to feel the effects of intense heat of lava to not melt us within a few feet of it. We've seen the effect on chickens before, at least in medical texts. Everypony has that field but pegasus can handle the brunt of it better due to their internal wind magic. This allows us to deal with dragons on their own playing field… or at least that’s what most books tell us.” Redheart informed me in more detail. “So… we’ll be fine overall?” Ori immediately started to glow enveloping us in his aura as well. The Light dug its way around the two of us as the heat stopped affecting us. I blinked a bit wondering if my life was controlled by convenience but at the same time we were protected so I told my mind to shut up and continue on into the depths of the volcano… “Gray… this seems really dangerous…” Redheart grimaced as I pulled her onto my back. “Yeah… such is the life of a keyblade wielder. Did you not want to go?” “No… I want to go. I’m just scared… plus I’ve waited long enough for my chance to see how far I’ve come. I will always be a nurse but I’m certain that I’ve gotten stronger throughout my time being with you and everything we’ve done together.” Redheart proudly beamed as she seemed to recall everything we’ve been through and the heartless we fought. “I don’t doubt that. You watch my back, I’ll watch yours.” She smiled a bit more as I flew us near the opening of the volcano. Sein floated up and seemed to convulse for some reason. Neither of us wanted to speak to him at first. I didn’t because I didn’t always have something to say. Redheart was impassively staring at the light but the loss of life still seemed to be wearing down on her heart by the lack of warmth in her eyes. “This may be the end of the line… this world is dying and Kuro is still nowhere to be seen. We must be cautious within these tombs due to all the magma that had more than likely made its home here.” We both nodded and Ori even gave a small thumbs up. With a quiet sigh we all entered the opening of the volcano and found ourselves in a large chamber of multiple passages. Below us was a large lake of magma bubbling over the entire expanse. There were times I truly wished that there were easier ways to get through a world but… I had tried my wings within the first few seconds and found that the air current within made it extremely difficult to do more than glide around. I would have to rely on updrafts to carry me up and alone left me hurtling too fast through the air to enable control. With Redheart on my back though I was able to have enough weight to illicit control over my flight. Before we could fully figure out what to do several Red Nocturnes and Fiery Globes seemed to swarm all around us. There continued assault of fire spells forced me to carry Redheart on my back and employ the tried and true method of having whomever on my back act like a magic turret. It got more difficult as more fire enemies suddenly appeared as we looked for anything to shift the tides of magma around us. One looked like the Crescendo enemy yet it breathed out fire regularly. I think they were called Flare Notes if the words in the Lexicon were anything to go by. The other resembled a Creeper Plant but the Lexicon called them Fire Plants… it was a very apt name for them. A little on the nose if it could be pointed out. All throughout the fights we were being herded in certain directions. They would bunch up whenever we climbed up to higher levels in the caldera. I finally had to force it as I summoned the shield up. “Hold on.” Redheart gripped tightly as the shield immediately summoned several sharp shards of ice against the face. I flew straight up piercing through several of the heartless hordes in our way when we reached the first upper paths I flung the shield back letting the ice shards fling off for any stragglers. Ori had used his feather to catch the updrafts and grab the heartless in his latent telekinesis. Using that momentum he managed to smack the heartless into each other. That caused more problems since they all used fire which healed them whenever they were struck by the random projectiles. Funnily enough, Ori’s fireballs didn’t heal the fire element enemies. They acted like pure light and managed to tear through the heartless easily enough.  With the enemies avoided at the very least we made it into the first cavern. There were several lasers being fired off intermittently and several pools of magma lying about made it very… nerve wracking. “Any ideas Red?” “Over there… There are loose rocks up there. Maybe if we hit them hard enough we could block the flow of lava for a while.” Redheart pointed over to a distance rock past all the lava. “How do we get over there…” Before I could fully think about it a fireball smacked me in the chest burning a portion of my body. Redheart immediately cast a cure spell as I focused on the opening. Several Red Nocturnes and Fiery Globes had immediately caught up and were firing a torrent on fire at either of us. Ori had decided enough was enough as he jumped over into the lava and used the feather to catch the updrafts leading to the precariously hanging boulder. Seeing what Ori was attempting I immediately took my stance and whipped the shield out again firing off ice shards towards the heartless. I kept it to the bare minimum while Redheart fired off several thunder spells to catch as many as she could in the area. The reason I had opted to use the shield at the bare minimum was due in small part to the dangers that that kind of temperature shift could have on the natural caldera. A sudden shift would cause the rock walls to break and release a deluge of magma which could start a chain reaction and the eventual eruption of Mount Horu. Luckily, Ori made it to the rock wall and with a steady charged light he exploded causing the rock to block one of the lava flows. With careful precision he managed to return to us safely. “We’re gonna have to find more rooms like that aren’t we?” Redheart grumbled slightly as I nodded sighing in exasperation as the heartless kept up their barrage. I immediately fired off several blizzard spells to disperse the heartless a bit. Redheart jumped to my back as did Ori signaling me to take off. I burst out of there like a bat out of hell. Then I mentally chastised myself for thinking up that stupid visual pun since I was a bat winged pony. Redheart gripped tightly keeping her keyblade clenched between her teeth as she fired off several blizzard spells alongside the light fireballs that Ori shot out. It had been touch and go for several minutes as we entered different passages looking for the lava flows that we needed to plug up for some reason. Honestly, I was going off video game logic in some small part of my inner child. It wasn't extensive but I could figure out that sealing the flow of lava off was instrumental in progress. Redheart had proven herself keen at spotting the hanging boulders we needed to drop picking them out from the intense radiating heat that permeated the entirety of the volcano. Regardless of the magic that flowed through our bodies and the light that shielded us given by Ori it was still swelteringly hot. I cast a few blizzard spells above us from time to time whenever we managed to get rid of the heartless chasing us. Those were short breaks we got and the need to don our armor kept growing. “Gray I think this is the sixth one!” Redheart cried out over the constant barrage of fire that the heartless kept shooting at us. They were extremely tenacious at this point. “Hopefully that's the last one… the keyhole must be getting close by now.” Ori finally came back after deftly dodging the rising lava that somehow functioned in the room. He gave another thumbs up which Redheart managed to pick up on easily enough at this point for a job well done. There had been so many problems of racing along heated surfaces and several lasers that seemed to pepper the area. I was getting so damn tired of lasers at this point and I still hadn't even unlocked every single weapon I had. Before I could gripe any longer about the heat once again the entire volcano started to rumble. Being out in the main chamber where the door was was an anxiety nightmare since I couldn't outfly a volcano eruption. Redheart gripped me tightly thinking it the end only to look surprised when the lake of magma that was below us started to recede. A strange band of light began to cover the surfaces where the magma touched and solidified it to better fit in with the caldera. I was glad for magic at this point and at the same time completely confused at how this happened. “So we have to go down… “ Redheart gulped as she looked over the edge. Ori did much the same and copied her though I suspected that he knew what it meant. “Yeah. Wait… where are the heartless?” At those words the three of us had looked around for any enemy. Strangely enough after the eruption started the heartless all left back for the realm of darkness, I guessed. There were no more Red Nocturnes or Fire Plants shooting fire balls at us. The Flare Notes and Fiery Globes weren't racing to give us hugs and third degree burns anymore. Though had we not had cure spells I'm certain that we would have had them. The heartless were gone… “Well… looks like they are waiting for us.” “Yeah… it's kind of obvious. They are like wild animals that don't feel fear. Think they are down there?” Redheart patted her arms one at a time before taking on a determined look. I nodded and got ready to glide down with Redheart and Ori secure on my back. The updrafts had lessened to the point I could flap my wings enough not to send me off course. There was still some wobble to my flight since Ori was constantly switching sides, something he picked up throughout the entire adventure whenever he flew on my back. He knew to always keep strict vigilance for flying heartless. As we flew lower we finally came upon another passage which seemed to hold another precariously hanging boulder. Ori flew off for it with the feather leaving the two of us behind to wait. The heartless still hadn't intervened. “Gray?” Redheart whispered into my ear. “Yeah?” “I'm glad I waited for my chance.” Redheart answered confusing me greatly. “Really? What brought this on?” “Noticing the others. They seemed accomplished after coming back from their training session, even happier in some cases. Vinyl is still cursing Kuro though for nearly knocking you unconscious when you fell from the waterfall.” Redheart chuckled at the thought. “Yeah… that one was fun. Though I do feel sorry for her in a sense.” “Yeah… is there nothing that we can do to help her? Merlin maybe?” Redheart inquired and the pleading look got me thinking. “Unfortunately, for however strong Yen Sid and Merlin are, I'm certain that they can't raise the dead. I've asked already. You can't bring back the dead… at least, not the way you want them as. It came up once and there were too many repercussions. Wasn't even a morality question either.” “So there is no cure all for everything, huh?” Redheart muttered though it wasn't a saddened tone. “You don't sound all torn up.” “I know… it's just… I always had a feeling that there wasn't some end-all cure-all that some ponies think exist out there. Magic is still used heavily and outside of the princesses there are no immortal ponies. This just cements that notion that there isn't a way to stop the end. It makes a lot of the times that I had to deliver bad news almost seem… justified, I guess, would be the best word.” Redheart nearly choked up and I could feel her tears splash on my neck… before evaporating from the heat. “You've done a lot as a nurse, haven't you? I always hated that part of my job. When I was the youngest associate they made me deliver bad news once or twice. I… well I never really thought of it that way.” “Yeah… it never leaves your mind, does it?” Redheart questioned as she wiped her eyes carefully. “No. It never really does.” Ori came back just as the rock hit ground and block the flow of lava. Redheart composed herself but Ori still picked up on her feelings lightly patting her on the shoulder. Redheart nodded in understanding and my own worries were calmed enough not to overreact. There were points I felt I was trying too hard and that needed to stop. Redheart and the others were grown mates and could handle things on their own. I needed to take a page out of my father’s handbook and just keep a gentle but firm grip on things. No need to be overbearing or overprotective about them. I needed to trust that they could handle whatever happened in their world now. With a heavy heart I kept quiet and waited till the next set of rumbling settled once again. Both my passengers looked around for whatever happened but it didn't seem obvious. We left the passage back to the main chamber only to notice a portion of the floor give way and drained of magma. The light once again managed to cool off the walls enough for us to trot along the ground. Slowly we made our way through the winding passage in the ground. It had been a long journey and this was the final element we needed to restore. The heartless had for the most part disappeared since we lowered the lava… that filled me with more worry because of how out of character that seemed for the heartless. The only ones that ever remained passive were the White Mushrooms and Rare Truffles. I slowly trotted down the passage that had been unblocked leaving us within the crater of the volcano where the large Element of Warmth was resting. The heartless were still nowhere to be found. Redheart was slightly worried as she summoned her armor on with me following suit. Ori remained slinking between our legs keeping his stance close to the ground. I couldn’t blame him in the least at this point. Our goal was right in front of us and there wasn’t anything else stopping us. Octavia had led everypony to the area they needed to be at before Gray, Redheart and Ori had reached the element. The constant rumbling wasn’t something that they wanted to deal with on a daily basis. Each of the ponies had made it onto one of the plateaus that faced a place only known as Swallow’s Nest. For some reason Gumo had been climbing up that particular cliff face with an orb of light. There were a few curious looks but the group decided against it keeping on task as they set up a small camp. Kuro was flying close to the lip of the volcano battering heartless with her talons steamrolling through them with her body. The ones who got too close were flung by the wind pressure and incinerated by the lava. That was when the fire elemental heartless burst out to strike at Kuro. With a burst of her wings she sent the flames away from her and over the mountain leaving it a burning landscape. The heartless were healed… up until Kuro used her talons to shred them to pieces. With a burst of lightning every mare released a maelstrom of lightning bolts raining down on the heartless that were still left. Kuro stared at them before flying off for the rim of the volcano. Octavia frowned but nodded at what happened.and ushered everypony off elsewhere. It was time to get ready for any consequences that would come from Mount Horu. Before they could leave… Gumo came walking out of the forest with a very large ape like creature following behind him. “Sunshower, Spitfire, Can you go see if they need any help?” Octavia murmured off towards the others. With a quick nod the two flew off for the nest ready to help out should they be needed. Ori stood before the element and with a quick burst of light started pumping in the light to reawaken it. I remained at his side watching out at the sky in case any flying heartless popped out. Redheart kept an eye on the tunnel below us. Still no heartless popped out at all. It was unsettling and I really wanted to make certain that this wasn’t a trap. The element immediately work up… just as Kuro flew into the picture slamming her talons on the Element of Warmth. She glared balefully down at the three of us. She would not let us win.