The silence was the most disconcerting thing about it all. Not a single peep from any living thing for miles. And to think that this city used to house around 500,000 at one point. But now, not even ghosts whisper in the streets or down the alleys. The only sound was the constant whirring of Pinkie's servos as she fidgeted about, and the occasional thunk of metal hitting stone as RD restlessly waved her wings around. The rest of the group stayed silent, waiting for the signal that was supposed to have come ten minutes ago.
“This is so BORING. When are we going to get some action?” asked RD, who began walking along the edge of the rooftop on which everyone was waiting.
“Soon enough,” I said, but even I was getting sick of the waiting. I was starting to worry that maybe Shining Armor and Cadence had failed in their mission, but I shook the thought away. They have never failed before, and they wouldn't fail now. But still...
“Look!” shouted Twilight, and everyone looked up at the sky to see a pink flare sail into the sky from within an alley.
“Alright everypony, you know your jobs, let's go!” I held out my hand in front of me and summoned my Keyblade, a bluish-gray thing that had carvings of wolves down the length of the blade. Standing on the edge of the roof, I looked down and felt that familiar feeling one gets when looking down a great height. It's the need to jump, to feel the ground disappear from beneath your feet. And so I did
Looking to the sky as I fell, I saw RD and Fluttershy launch themselves off the roof after me, and they stretched out their wings and glided toward the direction where the flare came from. I turned my head toward the wall of the building and gripped my Keyblade tight with both hands and dug it into the wall, slowing my decent. As I neared the ground, I pulled the blade free and landed neatly on the ground next to Rarity and Applejack, who were looking around and making sure that they weren't going to be ambushed from around a corner.
“You two ready?” I asked, and they both nodded, still scanning the surroundings. I climbed onto AJ's back and we rode off in the opposite direction of where RD and Fluttershy had gone. But as soon as we had turned the first corner we ran into a group of about 15 Nobodies, who had most likely been drawn out by the flare. Without pausing, AJ launched a grenade into their midst, and the Nobodies were gone. We continued on, and headed toward the radio tower.
Meanwhile, RD and Fluttershy were engaged in an aerial battle with several Wyvern Heartless, keeping them from swooping down on Shining Armor and Cadence. As the two emerged from the alley, it became clear that their mission had gone awry. Cadence's right wing had snapped in half, and the tip was dragging on the ground behind her. Shining Armor was looking just as bad, his rear left leg a mangled mess.
Even though they had barely gotten out alive, they had completed their mission. They had found Luna's heart, after she had fallen after she was ambushed by five Twilight Thorns during the investigation of a signal sent out by an apparent survivor within the city. It was a possibility that the signal was a trap, but it was worth a shot. But after the signal persisted, we were certain that there was someone still out there, most likely hiding in the radio tower where the signal came from.
Luckily, the heart avoided being consumed by the Heartless by being kept in a special case that emits a special light that drives off the Heartless. After Shining Armor and Cadence had found the heart, however, they found out that it had been previously been discovered by the Nobodies, who waited nearby, knowing that it would be retrieved later. Caught unawares, the couple had to fight off the swarm of Nobodies to retrieve the heart and escape.
Now, as they limped back towards the building that we had used as a temporary base, Twilight had met them downstairs and looked them both up and down.
“Oh my gosh! What happened to the two of you?” she asked.
“We were ambushed. The Nobodies had used Luna's heart as bait,” Shining Armor panted, the motors and servos in his body making a whining sound as some of them scraped together. After a pause, his wounded leg fell away from his body, leaving a few wires sticking out from the socket. “Well, at least I have less to drag around,” he grinned sheepishly.
Twilight picked up the mangled limb and slung it over her back, then led them back into the building and onto the roof. Rainbow and Fluttershy were already there, a bit beaten up but not too worse for where.
“Did you see me out there? I totally pwned those Heartless. There's no way those oafs could out-fly me. I am the best flier in Equestria, after all,” Rainbow Dash boasted. But at the mention of their old home, all of the ponies looked down sadly, remembering everything that had been lost.
After a minute of silence, Twilight spoke up. “So, did you two find her?” Shining Armor nodded, and his chest plate swung open to reveal a cavity, inside which where two heart-shaped metal objects, both of which were glowing faintly. One of the hearts was fairly scratched up, but none of the scratches seemed to have pierced the shell. Twilight lightly touched her muzzle to the heart and it momentarily glowed brighter, then returned to normal. With a nod, Shining Armor closed the opening in his chest, concealing the hearts once again.
Pinkie Pie bounced over to them, almost looking like she was vibrating. “What's wrong Pinkie?” Twilight asked. Pinkie started to look around quickly, her tail twitching constantly. Every several seconds or so her entire body would shiver, causing the metal plates of her body to clink together.
“I don't know, but whatever it is, it's a doozy,” Pinkie said, and continued looking around. The rest of the group looked the the sky, then turned to the direction that my group had gone.
As we neared the radio tower, we noticed that there seemed to be Heartless everywhere, swarming toward the same place as us. They seemed to more concerned with getting there than attacking us, so we were able to sneak past them easily. Once inside, we found the building completely devoid of any Heartless or Nobodies. Wary of this, I kept my Keyblade at the ready, while Rarity and Applejack kept swiveling their guns towards every door and hallway we passed. We worked our way upstairs until we found the recording rooms, which seemed empty. But as we walked down one hallway, I saw a figure dart across from us into another room.
“Hello?” I called out, and saw a face peeked around a door frame.
“Who are you?” the person asked, and I could instantly tell that it was a girl. She stepped out from the doorway and pointed with what was unmistakably a Keyblade. It looked almost exactly like mine, although with a pink tinge to it, and it was almost twelve inches shorter.
Signaling for the ponies to lower their guns, I lowered my Keyblade and kept my eye on her own weapon. “We came here because we heard a transmission coming from here. We thought that someone was calling for help,” I explained.
“Well, I was. I've been stranded in this city for weeks. And now I want to leave. So are you here to rescue me?” she asked, and crossed her arms. Apparently she trusted us enough to put her weapon down, but she still kept it at hand.
“That was the plan, yes,” I replied. I wasn't liking this girl's attitude. She was too full of herself. But I wondered how she was able to keep the Heartless and Nobodies at bay, and for weeks as she claimed. I had years of practice sparring with my friends before the darkness overtook our world and I received the Keyblade, and not even I could hold back this many enemies for longer than a day.
“Are there any other people with you?” I asked. She shook her head and started tapping her foot.
“Can we go now?” she asked impatiently, and walked past us towards the direction we came from. As she passed, what I had thought was a leather jacket shuffled slightly, revealing itself to be a pair of black, bat-like wings.
“How rude,” Rarity said, and looked at me. “Well? Can we go? The dust in here's starting to ruin my finish,” and with that she walked off after the girl. Applejack chuckled and followed, leaving me to sigh and walk after them.
Out on the roof, Pinkie Pie suffered a soft of seizure and yelled out. “It's coming!” she exclaimed, and everypony looked up to the sky in time to see a burning Gummi ship fall out of the sky and clip the radio tower before crashing into a building a couple blocks from them.