Dash stared down, her cheeks a flush red as she watched in embarrassment at her friends actions.
Said actions were in fact, being done by none other than Pinkie Pie, and those actions… unfortunately included crawling around on the dirty ground with her ear pressed up against it. To all the world she seemed less like a weilder of one of the most mystical and powerful weapons in creation, and more like a dog sniffing for their next treat.
“Pinkie I-”
“SHHHHHHHHHH” she hissed, finally standing up, however, just as she finished the 3rd second of her hiss, her body suddenly began to shiver. Every hair on her poofy head stood straight, all pointing at a singular direction.
Honestly, if Dash hadn't grown up around this goofball’s weirdness, she’d be much more worried about what she was looking at. But that didn’t mean she ever got used to seeing it in action.
“Found him!!!” Pinkie sang! “I told you my Pinkie sense would tell you where he is.”
Dash simply let her face fall into her hands. “You didn’t say how embarrassing it would be to watch you,” she mumbled into her palms. “I’m so glad we’re alone.”
“Come on, Dashie!!!”
Slowly, Dash took to the air and began flying in the directions Pinkie bounced off in.
Pinkie, skipping gleefully below her, suddenly convulsed once more, the severity of it sending her to the ground. Ignoring her own body, she immediately looked upwards and yelled.
“Dashie dodge!” she screamed.
Having more than once been saved by the Pinkie sense, Dash didn't think twice before veering to the right, narrowly avoiding a divebomb from a heartless.
Another wyvern heartless, just like the previous one descended from the sky and crashed into the ground, barely missing its target.
Instead, it landed almost directly next to Pinkie who, by the time it reached her, readied her Keyblade as a striker would ready her bat.
“Batter UP!” she said, just as she whipped around her arms and SLAMMING her weapon right into the monster. If it could breathe it would have certainly had the wind knocked out of it as it went flying right back into the air. Like a soft snowball hurled by a child, it burst into a flurry of dark specs.
Meanwhile, as Pinkie evaporated her target, Dash, with her eye in the sky, saw a much bigger picture while she was dodging. Only a few meters away, just over the next hill and close to a large cave entrance, she could make out the sightings of a fight. Flames and wind blew around in storms with every strike. And multiple heartless, both of the wyvern kind, normal kind, and lizard kind, all swarming and trying to attack the fighter.
“Found you!” she muttered, before speeding over to him.
Jinkei, meanwhile, breathed a deep sigh after taking down a smaller skittering heartless. “Ya know, it'd be WAY easier for me if you’d just let me take down your boss. I know he’s back there!” he said, yelling that final part into the cave in front of him.
Just as he said that, a heartless lizard dove at him from the side. His keyblade flickered with licks of fire, ready to set it ablaze. However, before he could release his attack, the lizard found itself on the wrong end of Dash’s boot.
Jinkei’s eyes widened at the sight of Dash landing in front of him, sparks of electricity flowing around her figure as she stood back up. With a flick of her head, her rainbow hair, held back into a ponytail flew back behind her head.
“I… uh… hi?” he said, blushing slightly.
“Hi there!!” Pinkie said, appearing behind him.
Jinkei jumped back, Keyblade pointed directly at the pink girl. “Who are you??”
Pinkie looked at him, then at Dash who simply rolled her eyes. Shrugging she pulled out her Keyblade and waved it in front of him.
This caused his eyes to widen. “Wait, I remember you,” he said, looking at Dash, “You were next to the shade I beat.”
“Um, you mean the one that I almost beat before you showed up!” Dash said, grinning proudly.
“Yeah,” scoffed Jin. “Then why was it about to tackle you when I came by?”
“Ladies, ladies!” Pinkie said, interjecting between them. “You’re both dragon slayers.”
Jin rolled his eyes and looked around, the heartless that were swarming around them had vanished at the appearance of two more keyblade users.
“So…” Jin began, looking at the two girls in front of him, a slight tint to his cheeks. Each time he tried to look their way, he would automatically avert his eyes. “Do all of you girls have keyblades or something?”
“Eyyup!” Dash said, putting a fist to her chest proudly. “We’re going through our mark of mastery exam!”
Jin simply stared at her blankly. “What’s that?” he asked simply. Having grown up in this world, with no concept of a master, such a thing as a masters exam, completely flew over his head.
Dash deflated slightly, her shoulders slumping and face falling. Pinkie giggled.
“Whatever, that's not the point,” Dash said pointedly. Pointing at Jin, she continued. “I have some questions… about Spike.”
Jinkei’s eyes widened, his pupils shrinking in tandem as a small gas escaped his lips.
“Yeah!” Pinkie added. “Trial told us what happened, but we don't think Spike did those things! He’s our friend!”
Jin looked between the girls, finally able to lock eyes with both for more than a second. Sighing, he gestured behind him to the hill that Dash had previously flown over.
“Come with me, it’s not safe to talk here.”
In no time, the three of them managed to scale the rather large hill to find a makeshift camp ground. There was a tent, a fireplace, several spots that were somehow free of the same soot and dust that covered the rest of the world they resided on.
Jin led them to the camp spot, a place which, Dash noticed, had a full view of the cave they stood by earlier.
“Normally this is where you would have found me,” he began, following her gaze to the cave. “But recently the damn heartless that have gathered in that cave have been getting cocky. They usually try to come out at night.”
“You can’t take ‘em all out?” Dash asked, raising a brow. While she hadn't seen him fighting extensively, she could tell that even without training, that he was fairly strong both physically and magically.
Jin smirked. “I’m pretty strong, but not strong enough to take all of the bugs in that hole, not on their terf. Not to mention, what's deep in that cave is way stronger than the dragon you saw me take out when I got here. Best i can do is keep it from running loose.”
“Ohhhhhhhhh!” Pinkie oh’d. “That’s why you’re out here?”
“No,” Jin said, snickering. He leaned back on the large rock that he led the group to sit on. “It’s just a hobby, I was kicked out of the village for helping Spike escape.”
Dash leaned forward, however before she could say anything, Jin continued.
“Hold your horses, weirdo. I’ll tell you what happened, but if you’re expecting good news… don’t.”
Dash narrowed her eyes and sat back in her seat. Pinkie, meanwhile, had pulled out some popcorn and made herself comfortable on her rock, eager to hear this retelling.
Staring up into the ash filled sky, a world that had not seen direct sunlight in years around him, Jin let out a small sigh and began his story.
~~~
“And I can’t believe she thinks that I,” Twilight ranted, gesturing to herself. “DON’T care about my own brother. Can you believe her!”
Twilight, almost out of pure anger, sliced a small bug heartless in two before shooting out several fire spells at nearby stragglers.
“I mean, that’s literally why we’re out here! Right, AJ?!”
“Uhuh, yup!” said AJ, absentmindedly slammed her Keyblade into the ground, summoning several boulders from the ground and completely destroying several lizard heartless.
With an audible slap, Twilight’s palm met her head. “And then she goes and leaves! She KNOWS that someone, maybe Spike, maybe not, is after us! And she does the MOST ILLOGICAL THING!” She turned towards Rarity, who had been standing on the sidelines, a single keyblade hovering in front of her.
“Yes, of course darling, very illogical,” she mumbled, not really listening. Her gaze, locked onto the summoned weapon, she let out a small hum. With a snap, the keyblade exploded into a shower of sterling silver slivers before vanishing. With another snap, another keyblade appeared.
Her gaze promptly fell upon a heartless that decided it would like to approach her, and like any well cautioned woman would do, she sent the keyblade directly at it. However, as she did before, with a snap of her fingers, the keyblade exploded into shards completely ripping apart the small enemy before her.
On the side, Talos’ broadsword tore through several heartless, his laughs echoing throughout the area.
Meanwhile, Areth leapt at a single wyvern heartless and swiped at it with its claws. With a single spin, the creature avoided his strike, and counterattacked with a swipe of its claws.
Lucky for him, the claws merely raked across his scales and armor. With a growl, Areth attacked with renewed vigor.
AJ looked around, having noticed that the amount of heartless had drastically decreased. “Alright, I think this area is clear. Let’s keep it movin’” she called.
Rarity looked over at Twilight. “Are you done, sweetie? Got it all out of your system?”
Twilight, stabbed her weapon into the ground and brought a hand to her chest. Slowly, she closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, bringing her hand away from her body each time she exhaled.
After a few seconds, she opened her eyes and looked over at Rarity with a small smile. “I am. Sorry about that.”
Rarity shook her head. “Absolutely not, darling. This is simply another one of Master Luna’s teachings. You can’t let such dark thoughts linger in your mind. Do let them out when you need to.”
AJ moseyed over to Twilight and threw her arm around the shorter girl. “Yeah girl, Ah’m glad ya got it out of your system. Ain’t healthy.”
“Useless!” they heard Talos call.
The girls immediately turned towards the direction of his voice, only to find him, stomping past the trio and calling out behind him.
“You can barely even destroy one of these disgusting creatures!” he said, vile disdain dripping from his tone.
AJ’s eyebrow twitched and she moved to grab Talos’ arm. “Alright then, chief. What’s yer deal? Why are you so hard on ‘em?”
Talos immediately pulled his arm away. “Hard? He shouldn’t even be here. Look at him!” he said, pointing to Areth who stood panting on one knee, the mere wisps of a recently defeated heartless fading around him.
“Winded and weakened from just the slightest confrontation.” Talos sneered, turning to look at AJ. “He is no longer fit, this is no insult, it is the truth,” he spat, looking directly into AJ’s eyes. “When he suffered his injury as a child, he crippled his fighting ability. And it is by the grace of his FORMER lineage, and connection to our chief and his son, that he may still grace the battlefield.”
“But if he wants to prove himself, why not let him?” asked Twilight, who walked up to the conversation.
Talos finally looked back towards Areth to find the dragon in question already staring in his direction. Eyes locked, Talos continued. “Clinging on to a glory you never had by begging it from another? He is no warrior, he is a handicap!” he yelled, turning away once more.
“Twilight!” Rarity called suddenly.
Twilight, AJ, and the two dragons turned from their argument towards Rarity who had taken it upon herself to check ahead. Frantically, she waved them over to her.
Upon reaching where she stood, the group realized that their path ended in a cliff. Said cliff overlooked a rather large crater and inside sat several dozen heartless surrounding a massive dragon heartless.
“It's a… nest?” Twilight muttered, unsure. Inside the crater were heartless of several different kinds. Some were the standard bug shape, others were lizards or wolves, and some were smaller versions of the same dragon. The dragon itself resembled a stronger, darker version of the one they had encountered when they had first arrived. Twilight could see the dark waves emanating off of its body, a sure sign that it was powerful.
“We need to regroup with Pinkie and Dash,” began Twilight. I don't know if we can handle this much on our own with the dragon.”
However, just as she finished her statement. Talos and Areth rushed forth, ignorant to the screams of the girls behind them.