//------------------------------// // 62. Darkness Rising // Story: Spider in Equestria // by DarkSpider //------------------------------// Dark stared out the window of the moving train, watching as it  started going up the mountain, heading towards the entrance to the capital. He ignored the beautiful scenery in front of him, his mind preoccupied with thoughts of Lightning’s story. "Another Displaced, and a fellow Spider at that," Venom commented, his mental avatar sitting besides Dark. "And by the sounds of it-" "It really is the Scarlet Spider from Ultimate Spider-Man," Dark finished. "Toxin actually showed me the memories you had of that show," Lightning said. "You seriously must have enjoyed it for her to have those memories." Dark shrugged. "It was a good show. At least in my opinion." "Excuse me, but can either of you explain this Scarlet Spider to me?" Twilight asked. "Because I'm rather lost." "Sorry Twi," Dark replied. "Simply put, the Scarlet Spider is a guy who had the same abilities as Spider-Man, save for a pair of stingers that can come out of his wrists and organic webs instead of artificial ones." "Don't you have organic webs?" "I became my OC. Spidey, outside of a trilogy of movies, doesn't have organic webs. He uses a special formula to make his, along with wearing a web-shooter at the same point my webs come out of."  Twilight hummed. "And what about these other two?" She asked Lightning. "You said one of them was familiar?" "Well Toxin said that. According to her, the guy got angry and changed. Compared it to something called Super Sonic and Hulk. Hasn't really said much on either so far." "Wait, Sonic? Didn't you say that's connected to Cece and the Emeralds?" The alicorn asked Dark. The Displaced nodded. "Yeah. Super Sonic was a form  he could take, usually for final bosses. But he needs all 7 Chaos Emeralds to do it and we have 2 of them." "And we didn't see any gems," Lightning confirmed. "Though he did have those rings that just flew off after we hit him." "I still can't believe those exist here…" "Care to elaborate?" Twilight asked. "They're a major thing with Sonic. Kinda the first object you think of when you think of him. Rings are used to get higher points as well as letting you live. In the games, Sonic dies simply by touching an enemy. The rings let him survive a hit, no matter how severe. Though you always lose all your rings when you take damage and have to try to collect them before they disappear. If those things really do exist in this universe, that can be very useful for us." "And the Hulk?" Dark winced. "A major Marvel hero. One of the strongest characters as far as I know. Even known as the strongest hero there is in Marvel. The short version is he's the transformation of a scientist named Bruce Banner. After an...incident, whenever Bruce got mad enough, for whatever reason, he'd turn into the Hulk who would destroy damn near anything in his path until he calmed down and reverted back to Banner. Though some cartoons have it that the 2 sides come to a sort of truce and Hulk stays in control so long as he proves he's not a monster." Dark sighed as he rested a hand on Bri's sleeping form on his lap. "The Hulk's strength is equivalent to his anger. The madder he is, the stronger he gets. So his strength is potentially limitless." Dark shook his head. "If this guy really is like either Super Sonic or the Hulk, I don't know any way to beat them. They're both incredibly powerful beings that can wipe the floor with damn near anyone who messes with them." The 2 mares stared at him with shocked expressions as they processed that info. "Well, that's definitely bad for us…" Lightning said. "Understatement," Venom commented. "As for the mare?" Dark asked before shrugging. "Complete blank on that. Doesn't sound like anyone we know about from Marvel, though not really saying much because I don't know everything." "So someone with your powers, another with the ability to transform into a strong and dangerous brute, and a pegasus mare who can fight alongside them," Twilight listed before sighing. "All that, combined with Eggman, Hydra, and the incoming Heartless… Why do all these things have to show up so soon from each other?" "Eggman? Heartless?" Lightning asked, confused. "Toxin, show Dust the memories you have on the doctor," Venom told his sister. Dust stood silent for a few moments as she grabbed at her head, not in pain but due to still getting uncomfortable when shown memories that weren't hers. "You okay Lightning Dust?" Twilight asked, unaware of what happened. "Yeah, I'm fine," the pegasus replied before shaking her head. "So some fat bastard who's good with tech and chases around a blue rat? What's he got to do with anything?" "Hedgehog," Dark corrected. "As for your question, we ran into a few of his "toys" a few days ago and almost died from it." "What?!" "Yeah." Dark pulled out the Chaos Emerald they got from the rock farm from his bag. "A Chaos Emerald!" Toxin exclaimed. "Wait, that's a Chaos Emerald?" Lightning asked, perplexed. "Yeah. Long story short, a gem of infinite power, seven in total," Dark explained. "They're from Sonic too and Eggman is always trying to get his hands on them. Less than a week ago, we learned that they exist in this world, and like we said, we got 2 of them, but came across some Eggman bots, known as Badniks, and almost died if it wasn't for…something I have no idea how to repeat." He put the Emerald back in his bag. "Unfortunately, there's still 5 Emeralds left out there and we have no idea how to find them. As for Heartless, we'll explain later." After that, everyone stood silent for a few minutes until they felt the train stop. Twilight looked out the window and saw the train station. "Looks like we're here." Dark nodded before putting his scarf over his face and waking Bri. As the Riolu slowly woke up, Dark whispered, "Come on Bri. Time to get up." After she let out a small yawn and rubbed her eyes, she looked at Dark and gave a happy yip before hugging him. The human chuckled as he picked her up and had her hang on to him on his back over his bag before moving an arm to Peter, the quiet dragon jumping onto it and climbing to Dark's shoulder. Dark then turned to the mares. "Well, I'm all ready. Let's go." Amy walked down the empty hallway, ignoring the small fox beside her. Her head was abuzz with so many distracting thoughts it made her head spin, while her stomach growled with a pain she wasn’t used to, she felt a cold sweat sticking her fur and to her skin. She just felt… empty inside. Emotionally. ‘I’m real…’ She told herself over and over again. ‘I’m me, nothing… nothing made me. I’m Amy Rose. Those weirdos must have done something to me! O-or something!’ “It's possible that you’re a product of a magic flower that pulls jokes on people.” Screwball’s words echoed in her head, making her frown. ‘Jokes… is that all I am to them? Just a product of a bad prank?’ “It's very likely that you aren’t real.” ‘She’s wrong.’ Amy thought to herself, shaking her head. ‘My memories… my experiences… my feelings... They feel real to me. Magic can’t fake that, magic can’t fake what I feel!’ Amy scowled, ignoring the stinging sensation she felt in her eyes. ‘She’s crazy… she’s just a loon! She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.’ Her eyes twitched only faintly registering the yipping right beside her. ‘I’m me, I have to be me! ... Because... if I’m not really me… If I’m really just a fake… then, won’t that cure…’ She gulped, her face becoming somewhat pale. ‘Won’t the cure kill me?’ Amy jumped, feeling startled by the loud yip the fox let out. Slowly, she turned towards the small fox right next to her. She looked at Amy with her ears lowered and a concerned expression on her face. Amy blinked, just registering the fox’s presence, seeing her expression, Amy shook her head, not being able to muster up the strength to give her a smile. “I’m fine, just thinking. You don’t have to worry.” Emily didn't seem convinced and let out a small whine, shaking her head. Seeing the troubled expression on her face, Emily decided to step in, stopping herself right in front of her. Emily smiled at the hedgehog, letting out a small yip to gain her attention. Seeing that she had the hedgehog’s attention, Emily bounced around in circles, trying to distract the pink hedgehog from her thoughts.  Seeing the cute display, Amy smiled softly. “What’s with you? You aren’t trying to tell me something are you?” She asked, crouching down to be more at eye level with the fox.  Before Emily could respond, the fox’s front paw slipped, causing the pokemon to roll onto her back and continue rolling around across the floor for a few seconds before finally stopping.  Amy gasped, quickly scooping up the fox. “Are you alright?” Emily shook her head, trying to clear the dizziness away before nodding. Amy sighed in relief, smiling down at the fox in her arms. “Well that's good.” She let out a small chuckle as a sudden thought came to mind. “You know, seeing you roll around like that reminded me of a friend I have back home.” Emily’s head tilted in curiosity. “Yeah, he’s always rolling around to get to places, and when he wasn’t rolling, he was usually running. “ She let out a longing sigh, her smile slowly fading. “Sonic never could sit still… and whenever there was something troubling him, he was always able to find a solution, even if it's something that no one else has thought up of before.” She frowned as a sudden thought began to intrude in her head.  ‘Sonic wouldn’t have given up. No, even if no one wanted to help him, he would’ve ran off and found his own solution.’ Amy frowned, the thought echoing across her head a few times. ‘What would he do now, in my position? Probably run headfirst and find a solution for both him and Cece… somehow.’ Closing her eyes, she sighed, her heart feeling uneasy. ‘It's easy to think of what Sonic would do… but even if I wanted to follow in his footsteps, I have no idea where to begin, how to start…’ She felt her throat tightened, trying to ignore the stinging sensation she felt in her eyes. ‘But if I do nothing… then there’s a good chance that I might…’ Amy swallowed, trying her best to not let her fear show. ‘I might disappear… for good. Without any of my friends around… without ever saying goodbye…’ Emily let out a whine, raising a paw and placing it on her shoulder. She watched as the pink hedgehog’s facade crack, her eyes becoming misty as she tried to hold back tears. “Feenn…” She whined, nuzzling her cheek. ‘I knew there was always a risk of me dying when I was with the Freedom Fighters, but that was different. I was fighting for a cause, I was fighting to free everyone from Eggman’s tyranny. This… isn’t like that, there’s no bad guy, no villain, just… this.’ She sighed, placing a hand on the fox’s head and absent mindedly petting her. ‘Everything was so much simpler back home, all you needed to do to solve your problems was find the Chaos Emeralds, and then boom! Problem solved!’ “Everything was so much simpler…” Amy said, voicing her thoughts out loud. Making the fox’s ears perk up. As she started off into the distance, several thoughts began to echo in her head. ‘Chaos… Emeralds…’ ‘Find his own way…’ ‘Find… my own way…’ ‘Find… the Chaos Emeralds…’ Blinking, she frowned, as she thought on the idea. ‘Find the emeralds… but for what? What can they do to help?’ She asked herself, unconsciously, she began to think back to all the times she’s seen the others use the emeralds. ‘Every time Sonic used it, it was to turn super, I doubt that will help.’ She huffed, continuing to walk as she carried the fox in her arms. As she walked, the idea bounced around in her head a few more times. ‘No… it wasn’t just to turn super… Shadow used it all the time, he used Chaos Control to teleport to places... Blaze too with her Sol Emeralds. When we were stuck in the Sol Dimension, she used her emeralds to send us back home.’ She blinked and came to an abrupt stop, her eyes slowly widening. ‘Chaos Control! I can use that to go back home! I can go back to my life, forget all this ever happened! I don’t need to die!’ ‘All I need is a Chaos Emerald.’ She frowned as she thought about where to find one, tapping her foot. ‘Those two from before each have an emerald, but I doubt they’ll give it to me if I ask. I need to find my own emerald, and to do that…’ Amy raised her head, glaring at the castle around her. ‘I need to leave. They’ll try to stop me if I leave, and they already have, or at least know how to make that cure. I need to leave now!’  Looking down at the fox in her arms, she hummed. Suddenly giving the fox a smile, she set the pokemon down. “Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know where I can find the restroom right? This castle is pretty big, and I can’t seem to find anything here.” Emily tilted her head before her expression brightened, happy that she was no longer being tormented by her thoughts. Letting out a happy bark, she turned around and started leading the hedgehog down one of the hallways. Half way through the hallway however, she suddenly jumped, being startled by the sound of glass breaking so suddenly. Quickly turning around, she let out a startled yip at the sight of the pink hedgehog jumping through a window, her large red hammer in hand. Seeing herself approach the ground, Amy raised her hammer above her head before swinging it down. Amy smacked the ground with her hammer, catapulting her forwards, a trail of pink hearts following behind her. As soon as the hedgehog landed onto the ground she put her hammer back into its place, and darted towards the direction of the forest, having spotted the dense woods while falling. Raising her hands to her mouth, she began pooling her energy, creating a transverse flute from her magic. Placing her lips on the magic flute she began playing a song, ignoring the halo forming above her head. ‘I need to find a source of chaos energy. The biggest source of chaotic energy nearest to me! I find that, and I’ll find the emerald.’ As if responding to her wishes, several images began forming in her head. Images of the Everfree Forest she was heading to, the path to take, the animals and dangers to avoid, and finally her destination, a sparkling lake emitting a soft golden light. ‘A lake? Maybe the emerald is inside of it.’ She smiled, allowing herself to feel hope. ‘Just you wait Sonic, I’m coming home!’ Walking through the busy streets of the marketplace, Dark let his mind wander for a bit as they passed by the many vendors and ponies passing by. Besides him, Lightning and Twilight were talking amongst themselves, the pegasus retelling the various adventures she had since becoming a hero. "-she told me that the names were familiar," Lightning finished before looking to Dark and Venom. "Hey guys, what about you? They mean anything to you?" Venom nodded. "Yup. A pair of mutants from the same universe Spider-Man is from. But that isn't exactly reassuring. A Displaced with fire breathing and magnet powers, as well as Toad and Blob? As if the fact there's another Conduit wasn't bad enough, sounds like mutants are a thing." "And Beetle just reminds me of an annoying boss from a video game," Dark added. "But from what I heard, your version is far more simple." "How?" Lightning asked. Dark adjusted his bag while Bri was inside it with her head sticking out, looking over his shoulder. "The one I know about has an armored suit that lets him fly and he has a bunch of tech. Yours was just some guy with discount wings." Lightning frowned. "Wow. Way to make it sound boring." "Oh please, it sounds like he was barely any harder than that treasure hunter I knocked out a few weeks ago." "Wait what?" "Don't worry about it," Venom said. "Anything else?" Lightning sighed and crossed her arms. "Not really. Only thing worth saying is a villain named Prowler being seen more lately." Dark immediately stopped. "Prowler?" "You recognize the name?" Twilight asked, curious. "Yeah…" Dark said before shaking his head and continued walking. "Unfortunately I don't know much beyond being another Spidey villain and focusing on tech rather than powers." He then took a glance at Lightning. "You know anything on the one in Manehattan?" The pegasus shook her head. "No. We never came across him. For whatever reason, T's hero sense hasn't gone off where he's spotted." Dark hummed. Immediately after, as if on cue, Dark and Lightning immediately stiffened as they suddenly felt their respective senses going off. Twilight frowned. "Is something wro-" she started before hearing a scream, followed quickly by Dark rushing to the source with Lightning Dust flying just behind him, and Twilight immediately took flight to follow the pair. Arriving at the market square, the trio spotted a number of destroyed stalls and panicking ponies running around, flying above them all were multiple red robed beings, all wearing twisted yellow hats on top of their heads. The red robed creatures were raining down fireballs at the ponies below them, one of the fireballs managing to hit a portly unicorn. The unicorn let out a sharp pained cry as he tumbled down. The noble gritted his teeth as he struggled to get up, raising his head, he spotted the shocked trio in front of him. “Pl-please! Save me! These creatures, they came out of nowhere! I-I can pay you!” He reached into his suit and pulled out a bag of bits and reached his arm out to give to them. “Please! I can give you a title if you want, just save me from these-!” The unicorn suddenly let out a pain yell, clutching his chest. Suddenly, a bright light started to emit from the nobleman, causing a bright red heart to float out of his body. The heart floated above the disappearing body for a second before being consumed by a black cloud. The cloud glowed in an eerie light briefly before leaving behind a short black humanoid. The humanoid knight's helmet rattled as it observed its new surroundings, flexing it's red claws, the creature stared at the trio in front of it. The Soldier shuffled its feet back and forth as it got used to its new body. A black crossed out heart symbol was on its chest. The group were stunned speechless as they saw what looked like a pony dying right before their eyes. Before the ponies could react however, they heard growling and Twilight suddenly had Dark's bag shoved into her arms as he immediately ran towards the Soldier and impaled it with Lycan Web before it could do anything to defend itself. He then picked it up by the arm and threw it towards a wall with enough force that it immediately dissolved as soon as it impacted. Dark then glanced towards his companions, his hood hiding his blood red irises. "Twilight, get the civilians and Bri to safety," he said, anger evident in his voice. He then dodged an incoming fireball before throwing his Keyblade at the Heartless that launched it. "Dust, are you able to fight without your partner showing herself?" He asked as he had Lycan Web materialize back in his hand. Lightning smirked before flaring her wings back up. "Yup." As if sensing the keyblade’s presence, all of the Heartless in the market square stopped and immediately began charging towards the trio. Several ant-like beings pulled themselves off the ground before joining their allies. Seeing the horde of Heartless coming towards them, Twilight quickly fired a small blast to scatter them. Satisfied with that, Twilight quickly spread out her wings and took off into the air, “Everypony listen up! I give you my word as a princess of Equestria, that you will be saved, but I need you all to follow me to safety!” The remaining ponies didn’t hesitate before they rushed towards the alicorn, Twilight briefly turned back towards Dark, looking concerned. “Be careful Dark.” Dark nodded, before quickly darting towards one of the dazed Shadows and slashing it with his weapon, causing it to poof away. Feeling his spider-sense warn him, Dark quickly jumped away from an incoming fireball, letting it hit the wall in front of him. Gripping Lycan Web tightly, he raised it above his head before chucking it at the Red Nocturne floating above him, the blade not only managed to stab the Heartless, but the force of the throw also caused it to continue arching back, impaling a lone Soldier behind the flying Heartless. Recalling his weapon, Dark quickly turned back and slashed at one of the Shadows leaping at him. He scowled when he saw a pair of Large Bodies lumbering towards him, their hands stretched out to grab him. Before the pair could reach him, Lightning suddenly jumped in, kicking the one on the right in the head. The dazed Heartless stumbled backwards before falling onto the ground, crushing a couple of Shadows standing behind it. Lightning smirked at the sight, before turning back to Dark. “Any idea how many more of these things there are?” Before Dark could answer her, the two were forced to split up as a pair of Red Nocturnes began firing at the spot they were standing in. The heroic duo jumped up towards the robed Heartless, with Lightning punching straight through the being while Dark simply stabbed it with his blade. As they landed back on the ground, Dark sighed, “Honestly not really sure right now. We just need to keep them busy until Twilight can get everyone to safety.” Just as he was about to rejoin the fight, Dark stopped, spotting something on the ground. Seeing a ton of yellow and blue orbs littered across the ground, Dark couldn’t help but stare in confusion. "What the heck…?" Dark rose a hand towards the nearest orbs and picked them up, unsure on what they were. He shook his head and immediately shoved them in his pocket. Before removing his hand from the pocket, he grabbed Mike's pokeball and let him out. "Frogadier," the Water type said immediately after being released. "Mike, I need you to help out with these Heartless. Think you can manage?" Mike nodded with a determined look in his eyes. The frog pokemon let out a small croak as he turned around, glaring at a few of the Red Nocturnes flying towards them. Taking a deep breath, Mike let out a Bubble attack at the tiny wizards, the airborne Heartless all spasmed from the attack before poofing away. Just as Mike was about to join Dark in his fight, the frog let out a startled croak, a small spiked ball landing just in front of his feet. Raising his head, he spotted multiple small black clouds leaving behind more Heartless. These Heartless all had small pudding-like bodies, their heads were the shape of a teardrop, with a small yellow ball floating above their heads. The small flying Heartless all had small beady yellow eyes staring down at everyone below them, on their backs were a pair of bat-like wings, and on their stomach was the crossed out heart symbol. The small fairy-like Heartless all raised their stubby little arms before spawning a large spiked ball on their hands. “Mmmm!” They whined, chucking the spiked balls down at the Frogadier. Mike scowled, doing his best to dodge the incoming attacks. Using his long tongue, he caught one of the spiked balls and chucked it back at the swarm of Heartless. The spike ball managed to cause quite a few of them to disappear. Seeing the remaining few drift away, Mike quickly formed a Water Pulse in his hands before firing it at the retreating fairy Heartless. “Mmm!” The fairies all whined as one before poofing away. Mike stared at the sky for a moment, waiting to see if any more airborne Heartless would appear. After a few seconds of waiting, he nodded and jumped back at Dark’s side, helping him take out the few remaining Heartless. “Everypony please enter in a calm and orderly fashion. The more you cooperate, the easier it’d be to get all of you to safety.” Twilight yelled, flapping her wings to stay above the school. Letting out a tired sigh, Twilight flew down onto the school’s roof, letting her wings droop to the side as she rested. “I didn’t think that there would be this many of them attacking, they seem almost endless.” She whispered to herself, keeping an eye out on the crowd for any Heartless trying to sneak in. A frown made its way onto her face, her chest tightening in worry. “I just hope Ponyville is okay…” Hearing a small whine coming from the bag she had, she saw Bri poke her head out of the bag’s large pocket. The Riolu stared up at Twilight with a concerned expression, besides her, Peter’s scaly head poked out as well. Twilight smiled at the pair hiding in the bag. “It must be getting pretty stuffy being in that bag the whole time.” She said, crouching down to open the zipper, allowing for the two to jump out, Peter crawling up Twilight's arm onto her shoulder. “Just stay close alright? Who knows where those creatures could come out of.” The two small creatures nodded, moving closer to Twilight’s side as they stared at the crowd below them. Behind the trio, a small flat shadow slowly skittered towards them, the shadow would stop every few moments before resuming. Stopping right behind the distracted Riolu, the flat creature pulled itself off the ground, its two yellow eyes blinking as it adjusted to the light. The Heartless slowly stepped towards the jackal, flexing its claws. Just as the Shadow leapt towards the pokemon, Bri’s ear twitched catching the sound of the Heartless leaping. The pokemon quickly turned around, her eyes widening at the sight of the Shadow’s claws almost reaching her. Twilight’s eyes widened when she spotted the Heartless, her wings flaring up in panic. “Bri!” She yelled, her horn lightning up as she turned around to grab her. Quickly raising her arms, Bri crossed them in front of her, trying her best to protect herself. Just as the Shadow’s claw was about to reach her, the Riolu was surrounded by a red aura, and once the claw made contact with her, the red aura glowed brightly and exploded outwards, flinging the Heartless off the roof. Bri gaped, lowering her arms slowly as she stared at where the Heartless had been just a few moments ago. “Rio..?” Twilight immediately bent down, placing her hands onto the pokemon’s shoulders. “Bri, are you alright? Are you hurt?” She asked, filled with concern. Bri just stared blankly at Twilight for a moment before looking down on her paws, wondering just what the red aura was. Realizing that her silence was making Twilight worried, she nodded, and let out a small bark. Twilight sighed, placing her hand on top of her head, petting her. “That's good. Come on, we should go inside, who knows when more of those things will arrive.” She said, picking up Bri with her arms, just as she was spreading her wings out, she spotted a few more flat Shadows skittering across the rooftop. The flat Heartless soon pulled themselves off the ground, all of them glancing at the trio and moving towards them. Twilight quickly pushed the small pokemon behind her, stepping in front of the Riolu to shield her from the Heartless. A small bead of sweat ran down the side of her face as she spotted a group of small black fairy Heartless flying towards them, between their arms were large spiked balls. Seeing the Shadows all jump towards them, Twilight quickly summoned a round shield, repelling the Heartless’ attacks. Unperturbed by the bubble, the creatures continued their attack, the swarm crowded around the bubble shield, each of them striking at the shield with all of their might as they tried to get closer to the trio hiding inside of it. Twilight gulped, eyeing the horde of black creatures. “Come on Dark… where are you?” She hissed, a bead of sweat going down from the side of her head as she struggled to keep the shield up. Twilight let out a pained yell, her head throbbing in pain as the shield began to crack. Falling down to one knee she glared up at the monsters. Her ears twitched as a sudden scream began to sound out from below, causing her eyes to widen. 'Dark… No.' She hissed, pouring more energy into the shield before shaking her head in frustration. 'I can’t keep relying on him. Ever since he came along, I’ve been leaving everything to him and Rainbow Dash, but these are my subjects.' She fixed a harsh glare at the Shadow in front of her. 'These are my ponies! And right now, they need me! I can’t afford to hide behind those two anymore, not when more threats are making themselves known everyday, and not when there are monsters like you killing my subjects!' Pouring her magic into the shield she expanded it, causing it to push back the Heartless crowding around them. Feeling a sudden weight on her right hand, she acted on instinct, and dropped the shield, darting towards the nearest Shadow and separating the being from its lower torso. Upon noticing the being poof away with a heart-shaped object escaping it before disappearing, Twilight raised an eyebrow in confusion. Feeling the weight in her hand, she looked down and gaped at what she saw. In her hand was a strangely shaped weapon, with crystal-like branches surrounding a small gear on the guard that looped down on the bottom of the handle. The "blade", despite being as blunt as a club, was entirely made out of the same crystal from the guard, with the end of it possessing a gear with her cutie mark on it, and a small chain at the bottom, ending in a charm shaped like her mark. Before she could spend any more time admiring the blade, she was pulled out of her thoughts when she noticed movement above her. Looking to her side, she spotted a Soldier crouching down to leap at her. As soon as the Soldier leapt towards her, she cut the creature down, glaring at the other Heartless beginning to crowd around her. “Peter, Bri! Get back inside the bag!” She called out to them. Seeing the Riolu hesitate, she gave her a smile. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll make sure these monsters don’t get past anypony.” Nodding reluctantly, the small baby pokemon quickly hid inside the bag on Twilight’s side along with Peter. Satisfied that they were safe, she brought her new weapon down and put both hands on the hilt, refusing to take her eyes away from the growing number of Heartless appearing in front of her. Dark leapt towards the black Chao-like heartless, cutting through it with a single strike. The dark fairy couldn’t even let out a single whine before it poofed away, a small heart floating away from the destroyed body. Landing back on the ground, Dark sighed, looking around the now empty plaza. “I think that was the last of them.” He said, his shoulders dropping. "Surprised there were so many," Venom commented, his avatar just behind Dark. "That was a massive headache…" Dark muttered as Lightning Dust and Mike caught up to him. "That all of them?" Lightning asked. "I think so." "Okay. So mind telling what in Tartarus those things were?" "Heartless," Venom answered. "Creatures of darkness that prey on the "hearts" of others. Not the literal kind but something else. Tito never did learn the details." "We were told about them a few nights ago. I didn't expect attacks to be this bad." "Kinda wish you would've explained that earlier…" Lightning sighed. "Our apologies," Venom said. "We didn't expect to fight them so soon." A moment later, Dark and Lightning stiffened again as the hero sense went off and they took off to where it led, with Mike in hot pursuit. Dark cursed as he darted towards the source of the trouble. Looking up at the sky, he spotted more heartless floating in the air, the group of them were slowly drifting towards the same direction. Growling, he quickly leapt towards the roof, hoping to spot wherever the danger was, webbing up the flying heartless as he made his way to the roof. As soon as he got on top the roof, his hero sense went off again, causing him to look to his left, spotting a white unicorn with a pink mane running from a Large Body. Quickly jumping down from the small building, Dark leapt towards the big heartless, stabbing its small head with the Lycan Web. The Large Body stumbled backwards before poofing away, leaving him alone with the unicorn mare he rescued. Dark immediately dismissed Lycan Web and dusted his hands. "You okay?" He asked the unicorn. Fleur let out a relieved sigh, nodding her head. “I am now thanks to you.” Looking down, she uncrossed her arms, revealing a small blue fairy-like creature wearing a red bow tie. “It's safe now Cheese, those monsters are gone.” The small Chao looked up cautiously, revealing its large blue eyes, a small yellow orb bounced around above it's head. Seeing no heartless around, the Chao flapped its small pink wings and raised its arms up in the air. “Chao-Chao!” The orb above it's head briefly turned into an explanation mark. Dark couldn't stop himself from doing a double take at the sight of the familiar creature and blurting out, "A Chao?!" before covering his mouth. Venom sighed. "First Sonata and now this…" Fleur blinked in surprise. “You know what he is?” The Chao besides her floated closer, tilting his head in curiosity. Dark cleared his throat. "Yeah. I'm familiar with Chao. But what is Cheese doing here…" he muttered before shaking his head. He then looked at Fleur. "Mind if I asked where you found him?" “We found him together with a small rabbit girl.” She answered, raising an eyebrow. “She should be with my husband right now at the castle.” "Rabbit girl?" Lightning Dust asked. "Wait a minute…" Dark said. Before he can say anything however, the pair stiffened again as their hero sense went off. "Okay, that is starting to get annoying," he said as they looked to the castle. "So we have to clear out the castle?" Lightning Dust asked. "Can't the guard handle it?" Dark sighs. "Unfortunately the guard isn't much better in a crisis than a normal civilian. I wouldn't be surprised if they're getting their asses kicked if there are Heartless there." "So just head there and beat up more Heartless?" Lightning asked, smacking the palm of her hand with her fist. "Pretty much. Though I personally wish we could get there faster than my running." Dark sighed, feeling the situation weighing down on him. Raising his arm, he scratched the back of his head. “No use on complaining now, we should go.” Just before he could leave, Cheese flew up to him, stopping the displaced. “Chao-chao!” He cried out, the floating orb turning into an explanation point. Before Dark can question the Chao, he quickly flew down to his arm, pushing the cloak back and pointing at the golden bracelet on his arm. “Chao! Chao Chao!” Cheese cried out, waving its small stubby arms. "What do you want?" Dark asked, completely confused. Venom narrowed his eyes at the Chao before looking at Dark. "Tito, give it to him." 'What?' "Well come on. Besides Amy, he might know what to do with it better than any of us." Dark hesitated for a moment before shrugging and placing a hand on the ring. It then expanded and he pulled it out of his wrist before tossing it to the small creature. “Chao!” Catching the gold ring, Cheese closed his eyes, concentrating on the ring in front of it. Opening his eyes, he turned away from the group and tossed it in front of him. As soon as the ring touched the ground, it expanded in size, growing until it eventually became taller than the assembled group around it. Inside the hole of the ring an image of Canterlot Castle was shown, multiple black dots were crawling around the walls of the castle. The chao smiled, turning around to them and pointing at the portal. “Chao-chao!” Everyone blinked in shock when they saw what happened. "So that thing is basically a Hoopa ring?" Dark asked. Venom shrugged. "Looks like it. Though you sure it's safe?" "One way to find out," Lightning said before immediately flying through the portal. Dark rolled his eyes. "I almost forgot she rivals Rainbow when it comes to recklessness…" he then turned to Mike. "You go on ahead, I'll be right there." The Frogadier nodded before jumping through the portal. Dark then looked at Fleur. "Go find Princess Twilight. She headed to a school. Tell her we went to the castle to deal with those things." He then jumped through the portal himself. As soon as Dark jumped through the warp ring shrunk down until it disappeared, leaving Fleur alone. She stared at where the ring had been floating before sighing, “Let’s go Cheese, before any more of those monsters arrive.” She turned around, stopping herself when she didn’t hear anything. “Cheese?” The unicorn looked around, looking for the chao. “Cheese, where are you?!” She shouted, looking back at where the portal used to be. “Oh no.”