//------------------------------// // 76. Paper Mushroom Kingdom: Hub // Story: Locksmith // by QuartzScale //------------------------------// Screaming… that was what I heard for the last couple of minutes as Cadance got it out of her system. She had a very good set of lungs though so that was something, I guessed at the time. When we landed she was still panicking and I looked over the two of us. Apparently we were wafer thin. A piece of paper was what we most resembled. It helped that I was layered due to my armor giving me some more bulk. I even was fully made back and front which was surprising. Judging by how Cadance’s eyes were black dots now made me think about my own eyes being the same as well. Eventually I got tired of the screaming and pushed her down on the ground holding her by her barrel until she calmed down. She squirmed a lot but soon the screaming stopped until it was followed by a long awkward pause. “Can I get up now?” Cadance shakily asked clearly not fully composed. “Are you going to calm down?” I countered as I stared into her now soulless black dots of eyes. “Gimme a few minutes… “ Cadance clarified as she started sobbing and wailing about losing her curves and never seeing Armor again. So on and so forth were her lamentations that I tuned her out. We were in a small forest somewhere. I would have to fly above the trees to see where we were but my wings felt a bit off. It was probably because they were paper as well but I couldn’t say for sure. “I’m calm… I’m calm. I’m cool like a cucumber.” Cadance was taking deep breaths clearly trying to wrap her mind around what was happening. “Are you?” I quietly growled making certain to keep my tone from coming across too harshly. It wasn’t easy though. “Y-Yes… I’m good.” Cadance finished nodding, whether to me or herself I wasn’t sure. I stepped off her barrel and let her stand. She was still shaky but the screaming had stopped at the very least. We were surrounded on all sides by forest but there was an obvious path at the very least. “So where are we…?” Cadance spoke up only to trail off as something appeared behind us. It was a small chestnut looking creature with feet. A Goomba in fact. It also looked to be wearing a small cap but something was wrong. It had yellow soulless eyes and shadows leaked out from its mouth. It immediately charged us head first as it hit my blade something changed. The entire world shifted so that the two of us were on a stage. A group of random creatures all appeared out in the audience filled with Goombas, Koopas, Bom-ombs, Boos, and many more I had only seen during my childhood. Cadance stood behind me in formation gawking at what was happening. The goomba or what I assumed to be a representation of one mimicked by the heartless stood across from us. We were players on a stage and it took a moment until I realized that I couldn’t move from my spot. Even flapping my wings made me hover in spot instead of fly off. Cadance noticed and tried to rush off, only to do the same thing as I did. I stepped back on the floor, a now wooden floor, and took stock of everything. It was obvious to me at least that we were subject to the rules of this world. Battles were turn-based affairs and superseded all rational thought. “What the buck!? What. The. Actual. Buck!? Why can’t I move!?” Cadance started to freak out since she couldn’t move. “This seems to be the rule of this world. Battles play out turn based and on a magical stage. I’m sure you can see that right? Let’s play along since it seems pretty easy all things considering.” “I don’t even know what’s going on!?” Cadance screeched back. “Adapt. That’s your lesson for our training. This is probably the most different thing in a world that has occurred to me yet. So for your first lesson we learn to adapt to the rules of a new world to not stand out. Very few beings know about the worlds beyond the stars and I’d rather keep it that way. Too many evil creatures out there have already tried to consume worlds for their own gain, and we don’t need more.” Cadance clammed up but was fidgeting in spot. She took deep breaths as I turned to my opponent. It was just a goomba… albeit a shadow goomba. A heartless imitating a goomba maybe but that still made it more dangerous than a regular goomba. A strange wheel appeared above my head showing me options. Attack, Special, Tactics, and a square that said Do Nothing appeared to float in my mind. “Why are there thought bubbles above your head!?” Cadance pointed out keeping her composure to the bare minimum. Her voice still peaked squeaking as she did so. “Options.” I answered calmly as I chose attack. I whipped out my keyblade and charged forward. One slash and a button prompt appeared letting me combo into a small flurry of moves. The Shadow Goomba burst into a plume of darkness. At that point we were compelled to pose to the audience as the stage went dark once again. We were back in the small clearing capable of moving once again. Cadance, for the most part, was breathing heavily and keeping her calm to the best of her abilities. I looked over the area once more and took stock of what had happened. A heartless had appeared in this book, at least to my knowledge, and attacked us instantly. That meant heartless were either a thing here or something else was happening. No heart token flew up from the plume of darkness and I doubted the pureblood heartless would go through the trouble of copying one of the weakest creatures in the Mario universe. “C’mon. We should investigate this place.” “Where are we going?” Cadance groaned out clearly not sure what was going on. “Closest sign of civilization as we can find. We just follow the path.” For the next few minutes we trotted along a yellow path that seemed to cut through the forest. Cadance had been quiet while we moved on the path. I wasn’t singing a few songs which caught her attention. “What kind of song is that?” Cadance asked finally breaking out of her trance. She had been too quiet which made me worry she was having a nervous breakdown. “Which one? I sang three. First one was called Stressed Out. Second was Wayward Son, and last was Big Iron.” “Yes.” Cadance snarked back clearly snapping a bit at how nonplussed I was at the situation. “One is about looking back on the good times of being a child before responsibilities came with a reality check. Second was about a father telling their son how things are tough but coming home would allow them a measure of rest from the weights of society. The last was just a fun song about a ranger hunting down an outlaw. It wasn’t the deepest but it makes me smile.” “I liked the first one.” Cadance admitted looking down. “Most ponies would. I don’t really think most ponies understand what it means to be an adult but I’ve met Pinkie Pie who exudes an exuberant amount of childlike wonder.” I answered only to cringe at the fact I admitted to knowing who Pinkie Pie was. “I’ve never met that pony… is she that child like?” Cadance asked as I saw the small twinkle in her eye. The small hook she stuck into that info immediately tried to drag it out. “From what I saw when I was fighting off heartless around that area, yeah she is.” I brushed off quickly. I had never seen her around any heartless attack but thankfully my face was covered by my helmet. Even if I cringed I could at least keep my tone straight. “I see. That sounds nice to have that sort of innocence.” Cadance admitted curtly looking disappointed. It allowed me some measure of relief that I didn’t give away something that obvious. “Regardless I suppose we should talk about what you really wanted to talk about, shouldn’t we?” I sighed as I prepared my lecturing mode. “Yes. You need to tell me about these creatures. Anything and everything.” Cadance perked up trotting right up to me trying to look intimidating. She wasn’t but I wasn’t going to say anything. “Yes. So how much do you think you know after everything that happened in Manehattan?” “Heartless hunt hearts, Worlds all have hearts that the heartless want, and if that heart is devoured by darkness then the world will cease to be.” Cadance summarized quickly keeping things simple and concise. “That is the bare bones of what happens… but since we have the time I’ll go into history lesson mode since this is important.” I nodded before stopping under the shade of one of the trees around the path. “I’m ready… how do I take notes though?” Cadance questioned as she sat down nearby ready to listen. “I’ll give you some notes later.” I waved off her concerns before thinking back to my starting point. Truthfully, there was a lot to go over and very little ways to say it in a concise enough story… history was a myriad of messes all in one place. Still it needed to be said since fools who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat them. “Long ago, there was Light. It formed the world and was known to all as Kingdom Hearts. Everything was good… until others started fighting over until the one known as the 𝝌blade. That’s pronounced key but it’s spelled C, H, I, before you think otherwise. The conflict was horrible and the 𝝌blade was split into thirteen hearts of darkness and seven hearts of light.” “It was made of light and darkness? How!?” Cadance interjected. “That particular keyblade is known for being a perfect mesh of a pure light heart and a pure dark heart working together. Though in the end the fanaticism of being with the light destroyed it. One being known only as the Master of Masters eventually decided enough was enough. He soon built up five different groups known as Unions. Vulpes, Anguis, Leopardos, Ursus and Unicornis are the groups that he created each headed by an apprentice hand picked by the Master of Masters.” “Unicornis!? Does that mean…?” Cadance started only for me to stop her. “No that doesn’t mean unicorns were in that union or that there were unicorns there. Let me finish. Now there was one other apprentice by the name of Luxu, who didn’t have his own Union. Over time the Master of Masters gave each of his apprentices a special item known as the Book of Prophecies. It foretold everything that would happen, including a war of keyblade against keyblade.” “War!? There was a war over keyblades!?” “Yes… it was foretold in the Book of Prophecies including the scathing remark of a traitor amongst the ranks of the unions. This information created a dissonance amongst the leaders of the unions and soon fighting broke out. It was brother against brother, sister against sister. Families once united to fight the darkness seeped into their own darkness as war broke out. Eventually when the ash settled only one leader was left. She was the leader of the Vulpes Union. Using what little power she had left she spread the light amongst the children of the next generation creating what were now known as the Dandelions.” “Dandelions? Why that… wait is it because they spread their seeds to the wind?” Cadance burst out before composing herself once again. “Yeah… a metaphor to allow all worlds to continue on with keyblade wielders to slowly show the way. Unfortunately… most of these keyblade wielders are long gone… at least for the moment. Something is happening but not even my mentor will tell me. Regardless, that is a brief summation of the history of keyblades. It’s not a comprehensive read but it’ll suffice for now.” I finished my lecture though I left out plenty of details. Cadance was still going over everything in her head. Though I couldn’t blame her for reeling from the revelation. The fact that Celestia and Luna didn’t know anything about keyblades made it either more unbelievable on my part or more damning of my story being a fabrication. “Why don’t Celestia and Luna know? They are some of the oldest beings around. Shouldn’t they know this?” Cadance questioned me trying to find a hole in my story. “They might have been too young to really know anything about this. For all you know they might know and are just not telling you. I doubt that because even they aren’t omnipotent. And before you ask, I’m not omnipotent either so I don’t know everything that has happened or could happen.” Cadance shut her mouth returning back to silence as I waited for her question. She didn’t say anything and as long as I waited nothing was said. I looked over to my eventual student but she was lost in thought completely lost to the world. “As I said there isn’t any evidence for them but I do know that there was a pony that managed to figure things out about the heartless. The problem is that the only idea I’ve had is the few reports from this Star Swirl.” “Star Swirl the Bearded was the greatest wizard throughout the creation of Equestria. He had been lost a long time ago after the unification of the pony races and the legitimization of the rule of the two sisters. The three founders pushed for it and their advisors also worked behind the scenes to make it come true.” Cadance explained finally managing to look me in the eye. “Unless you have some of their writings then I’m afraid the information about the heartless was lost with them. The real problem is that until now at this very moment, the heartless were nonexistent on this world. They’ll keep out of towns for now because positivity can make them falter. The moment hatred takes root the heartless will make their foothold. Manehattan was the first experience in that regard. Negativity makes them sprout faster from what I remember… but fat chance in making everyone happy.” “How could you say that? As a ruler we should always strive to make our citizens happy.” Cadance challenged my tone. “And what of the ones who hate spicy food while others love spicy food? Do you get rid of it or keep it? Honestly I’m thinking the most mundane rather than something serious.” “I… I don’t know.” Cadance admitted becoming quiet once again. “I’m not disparaging you, mind you. I’m just stating a truth I learned a long time ago. You can’t make everyone happy. You can only do your best.” We went quiet again and the walk became a brisk stroll through a forested path. Cadance hadn’t said anything during the trek. A large town came into sight filled to the brim with so many different beings walking around. From my memories I could recall every single race that appeared throughout the mario canon. Toads walked around conversing with one another. Goombas lined the small stalls alongside the Mousers and Koopa Troopas. Boos flew around looking at sundries while Paratroopas. This looked exactly as I thought the Mushroom Kingdom would be as every race in the entirety of the kingdom would come through the central hub that is Toad Town. Several dozens of races traveled around and for the lucky part neither of us looked out of place amongst the beings wandering the street. “Well Cadance… welcome to an entirely new world.” I gestured lightly at the hustle and bustle of the crowd. I also pulled the small tiara she wore on her head off putting it in my bag. “Hey!” Cadance argued but didn’t use her magic to try and get it back. “Remember… we’re trying to blend in. No princessing while we’re here.” “Oh right! Good idea. Warn me next time before you do that.” Cadance groused slightly but she seemed to accept the idea. “Let’s just walk around for now and figure out what’s going on around here. That shadow creature made me a bit worried.” “Right… lead on boss.” Cadance lifted a hoof onward and I immediately stepped forward.