//------------------------------// // Hollow: Part 1 // Story: Keys of Harmony // by BioQuillFiction //------------------------------// Over the last two days or so I haven’t been myself. I’ve been putting on a mask for my family, and I know they suspect it. The day of my teaching job finally arrived and I was sitting in my new office, looking over the list of students I have for first period and the whole time I couldn’t get Zeke out of my head. I just felt like crap about it as I sighed, looking over my outfit as a Combat/P.E instructor. It really was just a mini skirt as I didn't have anything to hide with a gray tank top and my own jacket as I didn't have time (or the care) to buy a different one. I groaned before resting my head on the desk, watching the time tick closer and closer to my first class. The memory of me explaining things to the crowed when Zeke left… that look in his eye, and when I came back, apparently Starlight’s shop was robbed, or so everyone says. She’s been missing since then and nothing was taken. I can only assume she was the other target of Kexez here on Equestria. I’ve always been a determined one… the defiant one… but I’ve never felt so… so hopeless, even when I was getting my ass handed to me 24/7. I sighed as I started to pack up the papers that I will need for the start of class. The bell rang and I got up, heading outside to the field where my students were waiting. It was a fairly small one. Seven. Three colts, four fillies. One of the colts was human, likely from Daybreak, the rest were ponies, though, one of the fillies had a Dragons tail rather than a pony one. Mix maybe? Oh well, time for the mask. “Hello, I’ll be your new Combat and P.E teacher! My name is Eclipsa _______… odd I mean Eclipsa Sparkle, but please, call me either Eclipsa or Mrs. Eclipsa. Now before we get started I need to take roll.” I said with a soft, kind smile and as happy as I could get my eyes to be. “Esmeralda Cal?” “Here.” Esmeralda was a pink, earth pony, grass green mane and was actually wearing clothes… like, shoes and pants and a hoodie. “Carl Phillips.” “Here.” The human kid spoke. “Hero… Hero?” “Here.” Spoke a white coat, purple maned colt… huh, looks like a young genderswapped Rarity. “Green Vase.” “Here.” Spoke the other and last colt. He was purple, dark blue mane and was a unicorn. “... Eclipsa?” “Heh, here.” Spoke the filly with a dragons tail… huh, bizzare. Her coat was green, but her tail’s scales were all black, and her mane was a light blue. “Okay, Evergreen Nights?” “Here.” Spoke the filly all dressed in clothes. “And lastly, Candy Corn.” “Here.” Said the last filly, bright orange coat with a white mane. “Alright then.” I said, double checking that none were missing before closing the journal. “So, You all signed up and got papers from your parents saying you can't take my class, and none of you have keyblades, correct?” I asked, setting the papers down in mid air and snapping, teleporting them to my desk. “Duh.” Evergreen said. I couldnt help but giggle honestly. “I was just making sure everyone was in the right class Evergreen.” I said to the filly before addressing the others. “Before we get into the meat of our class, I think a small game to learn more about one another in called for.” I said, thinking of a physical game that could tell me where they are in terms of fitness while still allowing me to get to know them better. Utilizing my Goddess powers and Assistant, I manifested a small training course. A barrel break section, laps section, and a rock climb. While simple the magic in the course will tell me where each student is at in terms of strength, endurance and problem solving. The last may sound out of place but the rock wall is more of a puzzle rather than an actual climb. “The way this will work is simple. Before the first obstacle, you will introduce yourself and your favorite hobby. At the second, you will tell us something that you find to be cool, or cute, basically anything you enjoy that isn't a hobby. And before the rock wall, you will tell us why you wanted to join this class, what your goal is, and why you wish to fight even when others have a very unfair advantage.” I said, the soft smile never leaving my face. “I will go through each one first, showing you it is possible and going through the same requirements. Any questions?” No responses. “Okay then, lets get started.” I said with a smile, taking off my jacket and putting it to the side as I slithered over to the barrel break. “As I told you all earlier, my name is Eclipsa Sparkle, and my favorite hobby is singing.” I said before getting a big old grin. …. Yes there was another reason for the barrel break. I needed to release some tension and stress safely. Like a viper, pun intended, I quickly struck in, bunching one barrel and sending it flying into a group, causing them all to shatter as my tail wiped one that I had missed. With practiced ease I slipped through the course and had destroyed them all in a time that Blitz would have enjoyed. Ten seconds flat. With a snap I repaired them all and put then back in place. “Don’t worry about your time, before the end of the school year this will be laughably easy. Just focus on destroying all the barrels.” “So, who goes first?” Carl asked. “Well, I’ll let you go, after all you spoke up.” I said with a impish grin. “Oh, Um… Okay.” He said, walking up to the barrels. “Um… My name is Carl and favorite hobby is playing the flute.” He said. Looking this kid over, he was thin, like crazy thin, glasses and short yet somehow messy brown hair. Hope this won’t be too hard for him. Heh… then again, you never know with people like him… sometimes they are the most powerful. Looks are deceiving after all. He took off his glasses and pocketed them. He then… began growing… and growing… and growing… He went from a short skinny kid to a ten foot tall body builder! He then swung a punch at the barrels, the first one shattering on impact, the others shattering from the WIND created by the punch, and several trees were uprooted or sliced clean through behind them as it ran over towards Canterlot Mountain… we felt that impact. We all stared at Carl, who, in an anticlimactic poof, returned to his tiny self. “Was that good?” “Good? My my Carl, I’m afraid that was Excellent.” I said with a smile. “Though we will need to work together later to control that strength, and not let it control you.” I said “Heh… sorry. It’s an ability I got from my dad, and it only works if I believe in myself or something like that.” “Well then, We’ll need to just keep that Hope and Belief top top, now don’t we?” I smiled before ushering him to the other side and snapping, repairing all the damages and replacing all the barrels. “Wait, your dad has the same power?” Eclipsa the student asked. “Heh, yeah.” Carl replied. “OHMYGOSH!” She yelped, racing back to her saddle bags and taking out… are those Daybreak Empire… collectors cards… sure, why not. “Uhh, no, no… AH! Here.” She said, placing down a card with an overly muscular man in golden armor, no helmet, and weilding a rather odd one handed Axe. “You’re Dad’s Escanore! Daybreak’s special forces and one of the few non-Keyblade wielders in the army!” “Heh… yeah, that’s dad…” Carl said. “Now now Eclipsa, while that is definitely interesting and dare I say, Epic in it’s own right, Please hold your Questions until we get to free sparing or after class. Don’t want you two to be talking all day now do we?” I chuckled. “Any volunteers to go next?” “I’ll go.” Evergreen said, walking up the the barrels. “I’m Evergreen. I like punching stuff.” She took off her shoes, and bucked the barrel, the barrel suddenly exploding in what I could tell was pure magic. The shrapnel from that explosion penetrated the other barrels. Evergreen… Oh! I remember her. Her file said she had a mana deformation. She creates enough to be considered a unicorn, but she’s an earth pony, so she can expel that excess mana through a well placed buck, creating a magical explosion. Sadly if I remember correctly her file also stated the lack of mana to the rest of her body makes her skin easily sunburned and it’s like a third degree burn after just five minutes. Quite the double edged sword with her. At least when she creates her explosions… Cheerilee gave me all the interesting students, didn’t she? “Well done Evergreen! Though if you do need it, I do have some sunscreen on standby.” I informed her with a kind nod That earned some giggles from the other students. Evergreen blushed, and looked rather pissed. “Sh-shut up!” She said, walking over to the area for those who finished. “I agree with Evergreen students. You will learn that quite a few amazing powers come with a cost. Even my own come with it. Every power has a price, that just happens to be Evergreen’s.” I said with a slight frown, the first the students had ever seen on me before it went back to a soft smile. “Now then, who’s next?” I said, once again repairing the barrels. “Me!” Eclipsa said… heh, sharing a name with a student is weird. “My name is Eclipsa and my hobby is collecting Daybreak Army Collectors Cards!” She walked up to the barrels, and… positioned herself in a way that her tail gave off a large shadow… that shadow then rose up, attached to her tail, and she smacked the barrel into the others, breaking them all. The shadow tail returned to being a shadow. “Yay!” She cheered. Yup, Cheer gave me all the strange ones she probably didn't know what to do with. “Well done Eclipsa, very impressive use of natural shadow magic, I’ve personally never seen it used like that. Well done.” I said with a smile. “Hehe. Thanks!” She said, bouncing along as Esmeralda walked up. “Hi. I’m Esmeralda and I like pumpkins.” She said. She then tipped the barrel over, making it roll over to the other barrels where they all just… broke apart. Just… fell apart as if they lost the ability to hold themselves together….. Okay then. “Wow, I certainly didn't expect them to just fall apart like that Esmeralda.” I commented as I started to repair them again and she trotted over past me. Next came Green Vase. “Hi, I’m Green vase, and I like to make paper.” Making paper? He bucked the barrel… and it turned to paper… “Dang it…” Oh...so that’s why. I smiled and nodded. “Very surprising Green. We’ll be use to use that while we train.” I said, repairing it as internally my brain was still trying to wrap around all the oddities my students have. Hero walked up next. “My name is Hero, and I like swords.” Suddenly all the barrels were turned into pin cushions. “Your son makes good swords.” “Cutting Wind?... I thought I told him no more sharpening wooden swords until he is sixteen.” I muttered to myself. “This is just his Overstock.” I sighed. “I won’t take it away, but as far as the teachers and your parents are aware, I had no idea you had one, deal?” I said with a playful chuckle. “Okay.” Lastly was Candy. “My name’s Candy, and I like eating.” She then bite the barrel… even the metal was bit clean through as she ate, chewed and swallowed her bit of splinters and metal... This time I couldn't stop my jaw dropping. “Okay then just… wow, alright. On to the next test.” I said, writing down all of their abilities I know while moving on to the track. Onto the laps, thankfully that went normal… they all sucked. I mean, they all got tired or fell over themselves not even halfway through... “Okay, stamina… what stamina?” I wrote down, far enough away for them not to hear. “Alright, take a small breather then we will go for the rock wall.” I told them after the finally completed one lap. Finally onto the rock wall, those that could made use of their abilities, and others were smart and walked around the rock wall. Goal is to get to the other side. Never did explain how. “Well done children, now for the final part. Tell us all, why you are here, why you want to be a part of this class.” I said, taking a seat in the grass. They all looked at one another then to me. “Cause we were kicked out of normal PE.” They all said at once. I had a blank look before a honest smile broke over my face and I started to laugh. “Oh you lot do belong in my class. The same happened to me back when I was only eight.” “So, what now?” Green Vase asked. “Now, we find out what style of fighting I will be teaching each of you.” I said with a smile. “No one has the exact same style, so be sure to remember that you can and are free to make adjustments to anything I teach you, but we must find out what weapons, magic, or if any at all speak to you children.” I said before tapping into my godly power very lightly. “Now, to do this, everyone get someplace comfortable and close your eyes. This is going to be using some imagination to find out.” As one me was teaching at the school, the other was still training with Cript, who was having me run through this endless, day and night cycle-less desert. “What exactly is it you want me to do Sensei.” I said, using the honorific in a non-sarcastic way. “Without any of your normal abilities, you’re body has to be worked on from the ground up. You’ll need to learn to take on enemies with all kinds of adventaged on you, your first primary enemy is often your battleground. If it’s something you’re unfamiliar with or it’s changeable, you need to learn to make up for it.” I nodded, determined to see this though. “Alright. Just point me in a direction and I’ll strive from there.” “You’re in it. Sand is common and walking in it is a pain as it, battling in it is even harder. You’ll have to learn to move as fast on the sand as you would on solid ground, that’s why you’re running on it. This will also increase your reflexes and stamina.” “I take it you don’t want me to have the advantage of my snake body then?” I said, remembering that snakes have a easier time in sand. “Yes. Not every fight you’ll be in your normal form, you might and often will have to shift between the forms you have, human, pony, and now naga.” I nodded before shifting back into my human form. Of course as my main body was still female, this one was as well, giving me medium-long, messy, dirty brown hair and my classic red eyes with my skin now having a slight tan to it. And a DD cup, but that is less important than training. I was dressed in a gray v neck t shirt and simple black jeans. “Alright.” “Good. Here.” Cript said, tossing me a short sword. “For what will come next, no Keyblades. Got it?” “Yes Sensei.” If your wondering, yes I am saying it so to try and help control myself from being a smartass and focusing on the task at hand. “Alright. Look ahead.” Cript said. Ahead of us I could make out… buildings? “That’s a set of ruins, this place is a planet the underwent apocalyptic events. The monsters responsible are still around. You’ll be fighting them, got it?’ I nodded, Unsheathing the sword to inspect it before strapping it to my side. “Got it. I won't fail… too much is riding on this.” As we arrived I noticed these houses looked… aged. So aged. “The monsters here were called Delks. Think of them like Leaches the size of bears that move like spiders.” “Well shit.” I said with no joking as I took a good look around for any hiding spots for something that big besides the sand dunes. “After they ate all the people and animals they evolved, switching to plant life, then they took to the seas. Ate everything there then began drinking it. Now they scavenge anything, ate this world to a lifeless husk.” “Seems stupid. Why eat out all of your food supply and leave the planet completely barren, and essentially starving your own species?” “It's what they were built for.” Cript said, pointing at the blue dot on his hand… Nexus… “any world they don't see as having an excess of valuable materials they send these monsters to take out. Not even because they fight back, because they want other worlds to know what happens when they think your worthless.” I took a breath, calming myself from flying off the rails and maintaining the discipline thats been, literally, beaten into me. “they will be taken down. He is sure, he is confident, and because of that he is sloppy. Add that I don't think Fate has told him of me, and I will open the gates for you to take him by storm.” “And even if I do kill Vincent, do you think it's all gonna crumble?” “No. You can’t end something like this… something this big that has been at play for Eons just by cutting off the head of the snake. That is just step one to keeping it from getting worse.” “You would think that.” “So am I wrong?” I asked, going through one of the ruins. “Eclipsa. Nexus has trillions of Reflections across multiple realms at their disposal. Not all of them just for resources. They raise, breed and grow their own cities, people, generations of life forms thinking Nexus is their leader, that this is all they know and everything else is crap. Father's, wives, children. When I rework all creation into one infant world they will all be connected and when they learn their leader, their 'god’ Vincent is dead, you can only imagine the actions they will take. Nexus made certain that even without Vincent their organization can and will live on. Forever likely.” I stopped dead in my tracks. “Cript, Father, Sensei, There is one truth I have learned, in no small part thanks to you. Everything ends. Even Vincent’s “little” Organization. I know that one day even my Legacy will end, that every last trace of everything I had ever done will fade and become a memory long forgotten. The same will happen with Nexus. If me, a small little nothing with a weak heart, who Nexus probably deemed a failure from birth if he had ever known about me, could grow to become a actual threat, then His organization shall fall. That isn't a promise or wishful thinking. Simply a fact.” “Hm. I won’t argue, but I will say this. Everything clings to life, for as long as possible. Nexus has about well mastered the art.” Cript said as suddenly from the sands emerged a bear sized tick with Daddy Long Legs legs, all kinds of eyes and a mouth not even it’s mother could love. “And there’s one. Weak spots are the eyes, underbelly and it’s ninth tongue.” …… “Okay seriously what the fu-” I said before being body slammed so quickly I didn't even see it into a building across the ruined town. “That’s going to leave a mark.” I said with a groan as I pulled myself out of the crater, one of my arms clearly broken as well as a few ribs but, I have a job to do. I unsheathed my blade and started off with the monster, all emotion, even pain, fading from my eyes. I rushed the thing, sliding under it as I gave a slice at it’s under belly. It roared, turning around and trying to swipe me. I raised the blade in time, though I still heard bones breaking from the force as I grit my teeth to keep myself from crying out. I used the momentum from the hit to swing the blade and cut off that leg in a single slice, controlling my breathing to keep my now broken body working. The thing began to tilt. So, it can’t properly balance itself when missing a leg? Grinning, I took that as my advantage, rushing under it and jabbing the Short Sword under its head, and out an eyeball or two. The beast roared, then collapsed. Seeing too many times where the beast played dead, I went to the underbelly and sliced it down, spilling its guts for good measure. “That hurt more than expected. “I said, knowing I am only awake due to will and a little adrenaline. “Good job.” Cript said, walking over. He tossed me a Hi-Potion and I drank it, my minor wounds healing completely and major ones mostly fixed, now reduced to fractures. “Now then, onto some minor facts.” “Hm?” “You may or may not know this but you can do certain attacks without Keyblades or even envent some for when you don’t have them or aren’t using them.” “That so?” “Yes. Strike Raid, basically all of the spells and Raid attacks can be used either with a different weapon or without one. This will give you an edge against stronger enemies your weapons might not be able to do much damage alone.” “Huh. That will help... “ I thought, raising my sword. “Cure.” I said, the spell activating as the magic healed me. Now I felt great. “Okay, so what next?” “First off, do you know why I brought you here?” “Training in harsh environments with dangerous enemies.” “COrrect. These monsters aren’t the only ones here.” “What else could be here?” “Nexus.” My expression hardened. “So… what will that part involve?” Cript took a deep breath, seeming to collect himself before speaking. “Killing.” “I’ll... “ “Yes. Taking life is no easy task. Even if you’ve mastered it, taking such an act likely is the mark of a monster. You’ll have to remember, it will be them, or you. Your family, or them. No matter how evil they are… no one in this world is born to evil, they either choose it, or are altered.” “... Alright. When will this be?” “In a week. Start counting the hours.”