//------------------------------// // 63. Routes // Story: Locksmith // by QuartzScale //------------------------------// I quietly pulled Dr. Stable out of the forest laying him against one of the trees closest to the city. If I was lucky somepony would find him before too long. I didn't want to be around whenever somepony did see him because then they would be asking questions. Questions I didn't have the answer to. Besides… I had my own questions to deal with. ‘Okay… so the Nightmare spirit thing is still around. It's weak but that doesn't mean much if it can possess others. Then I finally have a drive form… what did it mean by Spirit of Envy unlocked though.’  My mind raced as I looked over my options. I didn’t have any other reason than to go head off for Yen Sid’s Tower and ask about these things. I dove back into the shadows and sat around for a while longer. I almost could hear a piercing scream as somepony yelled out Dr. Stable’s name. At that point the town was in a panic as he was dragged off for the hospital. Nopony was certain what was going on at this point and I merely laid low. Pinkie Pie hadn’t even tried to throw me a party that day so that was a plus for the most part. Redheart and Sunshower were the only ones to come back that night. We really didn’t get into much that particular night after I told them what Dr. Stable tried to do and what happened to possess him. “So Nightmare Moon is still alive!?” Sunshower squeaked out till I pulled her close for a hug. It was the only thing I could think of to keep her from panicking. “No Sun, he said that the Nightmare spirit is still around. Nightmare Moon doesn’t exist anymore.” Redheart clarified patting her on the back to calm her. “Yeah… and I have no clue where it is right now. It could be anywhere at this point and I would need to find it before I can finally get rid of it.” “Well… everypony should be back here tomorrow. Are we going to head out once again?” Sunshower shifted in my arms a bit. “Yeah. We might as well get things done with while we’re out there. Though we’re gonna stop at Yen Sid’s. I have questions for him.” “Well… let’s get some rest. I’m lucky I have tomorrow off.” Redheart chuckled as she headed off for bed. “Yup yup.” Sunshower quipped as I remained on the couch and pulled out the Lexicon. They both looked at me and I stared back clearly not ready for sleep. “Gray? Aren’t you going to sleep?” Redheart glared at me making certain I understood that I was not to stay up so late once again. “In an hour. I need to look over somethings before tomorrow. When everypony gets back we’ll head out at once.” I hoped my smile would suffice for an excuse and to an extent it did. She gave me that look to tell me she was serious. Sunshower giggled as I was chided while they both went upstairs to their respective rooms. I had some important things to look through. It was three hours later when I realized that there had been nothing written in the Lexicon about drive forms. The Lexicon kept everything I thought of archived and easy to bring up whenever I needed it. We had gone over drive forms but there was no explanation why I had any. From what I could tell Sora had them based on his friendships but mine were based on the enemies of the series. Nightmare Moon was apparently the Spirit of Envy and the first drive form I would get. That brought up several questions on whether I had an Anti Form and if I had more than six forms. Since they were based on sins apparently… which disturbed me slightly. Too many more questions and I would eventually lose it. I ambled back upstairs and fell into my bed… which I realized was occupied when something, or should I say somepony, grabbed on to me. On my left Redheart glared into my soul. On my right Sunshower giggled at the face I was receiving. Redheart wrapped her hooves around my neck giving me a very tight squeeze… and choking me very tightly. Sunshower did the same to my torso. “What did I say?” Redheart hissed out. “Sleep?” I wheezed back eye fluttering between light and darkness. “Why didn’t you?” Sunshower chirped up giggling slightly. “Lost track of time…” Redheart managed to stop and forced my to lay on my back. My punishment was to be their throw pillow for the rest of the night and so on. Not the worst punishment until they both started to squeeze my fore hooves. All circulation was lost well into the morning hours when they finally woke up and I was still asleep. I didn’t get to enjoy sleep as Redheart woke me up leaving me exhausted… I supposed I deserved that. “Legs… are… jelly…” I muttered as I stumbled around till I got downstairs. “Hmph… good. Next time don’t think that you know what is best for you. I told you before. We care about you and you rarely take care of yourself. You need sleep even if it is at random times. Please Gray. You need to take care of yourself.” Redheart softly stated running a hoof against my jaw. “Especially since that Nightmare thing is out there.” Sunshower interjected as well. “We got to work. I’m pretty sure that everypony will be back tonight and we can leave by then.” Redheart added as she walked towards the door and picked her hat off the small coffee table by the stairs. “I’m glad I have a short assignment today in Ponyville.” Sunshower chuckled as she flew off leaving me to try and retain feeling in my front legs. I sat back on the couch with a large yawn… and laid back. I didn’t want to sleep but… even I couldn’t fight the ravages of exhaustion for that long. Octavia, Vinyl and Fresh Coat all got off the train after taking one of the earliest back. Thankfully work was handled quickly and Brass would send the extra tickets to her home. All they needed to do was ask Spitfire about getting more tickets. “Really? The Gala? Ech… sounds like a drag.” Vinyl groaned as she remembered the last time she was taken to the gala. “Vinyl… its to bond with everypony so we can handle any situation. We need to appear classy even while we kick flank.” Octavia explained with a small scowl on her face. “Tavi just want gray to smack her flank a couple times instead.” Fresh whispered under her breath next to Vinyl who started to giggle. Octavia turned red but quickly rounded on the two. “Shush you. I want to not hear anything about flanks anymore.” Octavia chided as she tried desperately to stop her blush. “Fine fine…” Fresh waved off only to continue talking. “I think I’ll be moving into Gray’s home permanently.” “Woah… really!?” Vinyl nearly shouted only for Fresh to zip her lip before she got too loud. The glare she gave off made Fresh nervous. “Sorry. It’s more because my job has me go where I’m needed so living in Ponyville isn’t much of a problem since the place gets broken so much from what I’ve heard that having a painting pony around would give me more business.” Fresh Coat adjusted her green cap a bit to let her mane breath. “Would be good since even I’m not sure how much this town could take with all of Rainbow Dash’s crashes. And I mean that in the most endearing way.” Octavia clarified at the last second. “You’re just saying that because she broke the roof over two months ago and made certain to pay for it herself.” Vinyl quickly pointed out. “Yes, well… one at least can say that she is loyal to a fault in paying her debts.” Octavia mentioned before going silent. They stopped at Vinyl and Octavia’s shared home dropping off their suitcases and making some food before they headed out. Gray was an okay host but he didn’t always go shopping when he needed to. “I’ll probably handle the shopping for him when I move in… ya know, if he doesn’t mind. This plan seemed, I don’t know… better in my head.” Fresh drooped down letting her ears splay down. “Hey! We’re like family already. We’ve seen and done a lot that transcends what most families do.” Vinyl slammed her hoof against the table. “While I don’t agree with Vinyl’s wording, she is right.” Octavia muttered. “Hey! My wording is fine.” Vinyl shot back. “Yes because it couldn’t be misconstrued as sexual…” Octavia scoffed back. “Well… there were those things…” Fresh started to say before both Octavia and Vinyl stopped her. “We don’t talk about them!” The two mares screamed as they hastily covered Fresh Coat’s mouth. Both were a very deep scarlet color which painted their faces entirely. They knew what they did and what was done but they didn’t need to be reminded of it all the time. “It’s not that bad… It was kind of surprising really. I didn’t even know my horn could feel those kinds of things.” Fresh managed to squeeze out of their hooves. The conversation derailed into trying to stop Fresh from reminding them all the acts that were caused and that one thing Gray did with his wing that managed to hit a spot that nothing else had ever hit. Spitfire finally changed out of her uniform. The day was done and the recruits were set for drills the next couple of days. The academy was busy preparing for a few shows over in Canterlot and the Best Flyer’s Competition coming in a few days. Blaze would be filling in for her that particular day. Thankfully they had similar enough mane styles that only the most ardent of fans would realize and if Spitfire styled her mane herself and added the highlight, well, nopony could tell the difference. Soarin had tried to talk to her before she left. It… went slow and painfully for both parts. It didn’t help when he had still tried to say that he still wanted to be with her. Then the mare that came between them showed up looking for him. It was a cluster and things kept falling south. Fleetfoot and Misty Fly had stopped it from getting worse. Spitfire just flew off after that through the setting sun. She needed to think… to get away and get all this emotional baggage out. Hopefully they would get to leave on an adventure soon enough. She didn’t want to be around Equestria for the time being. “It’ll all pass. It’ll all pass.” Spitfire repeated over and over trying to ease her burdened mind. As she came to a stop at the back door of Gray’s home she looked around carefully before bringing out her keyblade. She didn’t need to break the secret to anypony just yet. With the night upon them as soon as she entered the door she was lucky enough to miss a sleeping Rainbow Dash floating around on a cloud. It was a bit weird but a pegasus did what a pegasus did. “Gray! Are you home!?” Spitfire called out to the empty house where she noticed a sleeping thestral on the couch. “Oh… you finally fell asleep…” Spitfire sat down on the ground near the couch looking at his sleeping face. ‘Well… he is my stallion and I knew what I was getting into with this herd thing… yet I’m still angry at Soarin.’ Spitfire tried to figure out what she wanted to say. It was… difficult to really get out. “So… my day was great. Taught the cadets some new moves and managed to break a few records. Same old same old of course. Though… my ex came back to work finally. It was… tense to say the least. I couldn’t keep my temper though… lost it a couple times. We finally managed to find a good way to work where I didn’t have to talk to him much. I don’t think its working. He… he tried to make amends… fix things back to how they were. Then that floozy he was seeing showed up. I… I just need to get away from her for a while.” Spitfire confessed tears falling from her cheeks. Gray was softly breathing clearly looking still asleep. She almost started to trot away when she felt a wing pull her back onto the couch on top of the sleeping pony. His wings wrapped around her keeping her stuck in place. “You know I don’t sleep that soundly. We’ll go tonight when everypony gets here. Octavia, Fresh and Vinyl went shopping for food supplies. Redheart and Sunshower were finishing up work. Apparently Dr. Stable was found in less than stellar condition yesterday. He talked about being possessed. Imagine that, huh?” Gray answered back jovially running a hoof along her back taking care not to mess with her wings. “Okay… I… I’m not used to all this cuddly crap though.” Spitfire sniffled as she managed to crane her head up to his eyes. “I know. I’m doing this because I enjoy having ya around. I know that somepony hurt you before and you’d never have dreamed of being in a herd. I never even considered it.” Gray answered. “You didn’t?” Spitfire quirked an eyebrow managing to cut off her tears from the confusion. “No. Honestly I didn’t think I would go along with any of this but… after spending time with you I could see why I would. Each of you complete me in ways I didn’t have before… that I lost before. You are my immediate family. My immediate concerns. Honestly, my everything at this point. Just don’t tell the others though. They might think I’m going too soft.” Gray chuckled at his little thought. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep this to myself. So… what made you want to share with me then?” Spitfire reached her hoof up to wrap around his neck. “You’ve been honest with me about your regrets. I should be honest to you with my heart. To all of you honestly but… well baby steps.” Gray lost the jovial tone and nervousness took over. “You know… I was worried that this would be another Soarin thing. Knowing you had other mares with you. But since we have been together you’ve actually been extremely considerate for all of us. In more than just intimacy. I compare you and our adventures to the Wonderbolts and my adventures. It’s hard to look at it objectively. I’ve done so much more joining you and without needing to worry so much about coordinating with everypony. We are autonomous in everything we do and you don’t need any of us to bark orders to get things done.” Spitfire seemed to move her muzzle closer… the anger she felt slowly being pushed away. “I’ve done nothing but let each of you grow individually. I merely provided the means and I get the feeling I know where this is going…” Gray muttered as he summoned the book and left a note on the table. Then he rolled off the couch into the shadows taking Spitfire away into the basement… where the room was sound proofed. Everypony finally made it back around ten that night. Almost everypony was relaxed and ready to leave… except Spitfire who was asleep on my back. Her leg twitched slightly and every mare knew what happened by the smell in the air. “Um… Nebby… she needs a shower. You both do.” Vinyl chided though she could understand why I didn’t. “I would have but she fell asleep. Vinyl, Fresh, can you take her to get clean? Your magic would be most useful. I’ll take a shower afterwards.” I just gave a weak smile as the two mares reluctantly agreed. Spitfire was picked up in their combined telekinetic grip as they traveled upstairs. I sat down on the ground while the others started to drill in questions about what happened in Manehattan. I answered to the best of my abilities about the Dark Hide and how I had to save the Princess. “So… A Princess will be joining us eventually?” Octavia lowered an eyebrow clearly confused. “Kind of. She’ll be an apprentice. I’m not adding anypony to this herd. I’m leaving that up to you girls and how open you feel about it. I’m happy already knowing who cares for me.” “While I’m glad to hear that what are we going to do about a protege? None of us are masters exactly… not even you are.” Redheart broke the conversation pointing out the problem. “I know. I’m hoping that before the Gala I would be considered a master. It’s wishful thinking but it will need to be done eventually. I know you all can’t be by my side Twenty-four/seven. So if I can train proteges as well we can make something of a deterrent against the heartless. We know that they either form from the ambient darkness or somepony breaks the barrier slightly to smuggle them in. We need to be prepared no matter what. But I want you all to have your own lives as well. So this is the best compromise I’ve been able to think up in a long while.” “I guess. Still sounds risky if we’re still not ready to explain anything to the main princess of the land. Eventually Princess Celestia will find a way to find out who the Shadow Knight is. Still find it funny you let Princess Mi Amore decide your name.” Sunshower giggled out thinking how cute the name sounded. It was very edgy… too edgy in fact. “Yeah… It was probably the first thing she thought of. It’s fine though. It gets the point across and manages to keep any would be ponies from figuring out who I am right away. From what you girls told me everypony things that an alicorn is the knight.” Spitfire quickly rushed downstairs fully awake as she realized who was washing her. “I’m awake! I’m awake, damn it!” “Used the loofa too much…” Vinyl chuckled as she and Fresh followed after her both dripping wet… most likely from when Spitfire woke up. “I’ll go take that shower then. We’ll head out afterwards. Can you explain everything Octavia?” “Of course. I got everything under control.” Octavia confidently stated. While I showered and cleaned off anything that may have stuck onto me, Octavia explained all about the heartless that appeared, my choice to train the princess as a protege, and the title they gave me. “So… do we get titles when we appear in public?” Vinyl immediately asked. “Probably? We could pick something for ourselves before we do so when we do appear we can be ready.” Octavia pondered out. “Flare Knight.” Spitfire answered immediately. “Beat Knight.” Vinyl placed out there. “Heal Knight.” Redheart chuckled. “Cloud Knight.” Sunshower cheered. “Brush Knight.” Fresh Coat smiled. “You know… we should pick something that doesn’t immediately point to our cutie marks…” Octavia rubbed her temples in her hooves. The obvious naming pattern getting to her. “Let’s wait a while before we fully commit to it. Who knows… we might think of something better.” There were murmurings of agreement which stopped the moment I entered the room. Everypony seemed to have come to a decision before I could get back to hear it. “Ready to go?” “Yes!” Everypony chimed in as we gathered our saddlebags and the provisions and immediately whisked away into the night towards the train station. It was around one in the morning when we got there. Everypony seemed a bit tired but when I mentioned that we would be stopping at Yen Sid’s before we left to our next adventure it made everypony relieved. One warp later and we landed back at Mysterious Tower. Once again we traveled up the stairs and got back into the main room with the wizard himself, who to my expectations was going over some more tomes. “Ah… It seems I’ve gotten some visitors today. Welcome back ladies, and stallion. To what do I owe the pleasure?” Yen Sid waved his hand summoning several seats for all of us. They were accommodating to pony anatomy. “Just stopped by to say hi.” Octavia answered… though I subtly nodded my head back and forth. “I see. It is very late though. I’m certain that you will need some rest before we can truly bask in each others company. Please retire for the night and relax. You are amongst friends here.” Yen Sid explained as one of the magic brooms he had came to life and offered us a direction to our shared room. Everypony agreed if only because I noticed him wiggling his fingers and muttering a spell. Most likely to get everypony tired. He knew I needed to talk with him alone. I followed after everypony and as soon as each of them hit their bed they fell asleep. Redheart was the last and made absolutely certain that I fell asleep as well. I didn’t and wandered out into the hall back to speak with Yen Sid. “So… what has happened that has made you worried?” Yen Sid immediately spoke out. “I managed to unlock the ability to use drive forms.” “The Good Fairies did allow your armor to do so… I take it something unexpected happened?” Yen Sid pondered as he stroked his long beard. “It was a form of one of my enemies from Equestria.” “Hm… I can only speculate… but it seems that due to being a being of darkness you take on the aspects of your enemies instead of your allies. A boon to you I should say. The other concept for the drive forms would have had you take on the power of one of your partners and use their energy to fight. This method will most likely rely on your own power. Strange… you will have to keep track of what this new power does.” Yen Sid explained seeming interested in what I could find out. “Understood. There was one more thing as well…” “Ah. You’re here then Gray.” A dapper old voice called out as I saw another wizard appear from the front door. “Merlin. Good to see you.” “Likewise my boy. It seems you missed a spot on your world.” He placed a small blue fragment on the table… just like the one that exploded from Rourke’s body. “Is that what I think it is?” “Yes. The same thing that brought the heartless to Ponyville managed to be used once again in this attack. It’s been there for a few days. I’m uncertain how long but you managed to make it in time. I’ve seen others and I’ve disabled them as well. I’ll be doing so periodically to keep your world safe. It seems our enemies don’t have much patience with us, now do they?” Merlin laughed… not uproariously but mutedly, before fixing his glasses with his wand. “Of course not. That would be too easy. And I still don’t know who they are. The only for certain thing is that they are ponies.” “We must remain vigilant. We shall be watching as many things as possible to figure out what is going on. The fact that the light is being used to do harm is dangerous already. Heartless aren’t increasing but even at the rate you’ve been fighting they haven’t diminished either. The status quo is being enforced.” Yen Sid muttered the last part. “I guess all I can do is react… I should probably try to sleep before I get punished by Redheart again.” “Before you do… how goes progress of your master’s test?” Yen Sid questioned as he looked me over. “Good. Sunshower and Redheart managed to earn their full keyblades. I might head back to check on the worlds we went to another day. Just in case something is up.” “Splendid. Have a wonderful night Gray.” I left shortly afterwards falling asleep and ready for the next day. “This is very concerning. These pieces are energized with pure light. It’s being used to corrode the shield around Equestria. The only reason Gray and the others have been able to go through is because of Kingdom Key D allowing him access to the back door.” Merlin groused over the small crystal he stole from the battle between Gray and the Dark Hide. “Calm yourself Merlin. We must keep cool heads in these times. Right now we can only figure out how to keep the damages from going out of control. Thank you for checking on them.” Yen Sid bowed his head slightly. “Think nothing of it old boy. They have proven to be serious in the field of magic. How could I deny them my help like that?” Merlin wholeheartedly waved off the compliment. “I shall begin my search for those that would do harm to the world.” Yen Sid stated. “I shall help you. Of course.” Merlin added as if it was obvious. “Of Course, old friend.” Yen Sid answered as the two began combing over the known universe to try and find the villain’s hideout.