//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: Assurance and Fatherly Kindness // Story: Kingdom Heart next generation: Friendship is Omniversal // by Starry Eyed //------------------------------// The ponies really weren’t sure what to make of it. Matsu had cooked five thousand golden rice mochi rolls in the last forty-five minutes. Even as impressive as that sounds, it was magnified by the fact that each one had to be handmade, one-by-one. Plus, it was a magical dish. The temperature, cooking time, force and angle at which the rich was beaten into dough, and moisture level all had to be absolutely perfect in every way, or the magic would be lost and the whole roll would be spoiled and poisonous. What’s more, each grain of rice was magical, and each was different, like snowflakes. Depending on the way the grains looked, they had to be exposed to different levels of heat, force and angle of beating, and moisture. If just one grain of gold rice was ‘mistreated’, the whole roll would be spoiled, and if the roll wasn’t big enough, it wouldn’t work anyway. Even the Pegasus ponies that made snowflakes every year would have needed years of training in the technique, and even then they would have had to make the rolls one-grain-at-a-time, each taking as much as an hour. Matsu had the ponies bring him baskets filled with uncooked rice, which they set to his left. In front of him was a huge pot filled with boiling water. Matsu would scoop up a basket worth of the rice, stir and beat it in the pot by hand, stretch it as far as his arms, and put the product into the empty baskets of the right. Once there, they were cut into individual servings by Matsu’s magic. Twilight’s brain was screaming, “IT! IS! IMPOSSIBLE!” She knew that Matsu was using magic, sure; but even with magic, to be able to have such precision and technique was just...well, it was just impossible! The only thing the ponies were contributing was bringing the baskets of rice around to Matsu. Matsu had just made the last of the rice into rolls, “Well ponies, that’s the last of the stock. Anyone who eats one of those rolls will have any toxins in their body decompose into something harmless, or if they’re lucky, into vitamins. Plus, each roll will keep working, preventing you from becoming poisoned again for thirty minutes.” Applejack wasn’t going to waste any time, “Well then we gotta get this stuff down to Ponyville, pronto!” She took the first tray of rolls in her teeth and sprinted for the door. The others were about to follow suit, but a cooking skewer flew across the room and speared the ground in front of Applejack. The skewer was steaming gently. She didn’t dare move. Matsu’s hand was outstretched, as if he had thrown the skewer; but there were no obvious kitchen appliances lying around to throw. Rarity had noticed earlier that the only kitchen items in view were pots and pans and silverware. Applejack would have bucked Discord or Sombra under the same circumstances, but making berserk Matsu miffed was like making the Hulk furious. Applejack’s fearful shaking had returned, “Is uh, something wrong, Sugarcube?” Berserk Matsu had promised his boss that he would try not to eat anyone. ‘Try’ being the key word here. Telling berserk Matsu to ‘not hunt whatever moved’, was like telling Rainbow Dash ‘give up flying, stop being awesome, and betray your friends’. Do I need to say more? Matsu snapped his fingers and the Skewer vanished. “You know, I haven’t got to eat any meat the whole time I’ve been here.” Matsu reached out his hand like he was grasping for something that wasn’t there. Suddenly he was holding a new cooking skewer, gently steaming like the last one. Twilight ran in between the berserker and her friend. She turned to see if Applejack was alright but noticed that there were holes in the floor where the first skewer had hit. Not singed places; holes. That meant that Matsu was conjuring solid weapons, not firing energy blasts. The skewer hadn’t been steaming, that had been magic leaking out of it. Twilight looked up to check on Applejack and then turned to give Matsu a piece of her mind. She lost that confidence when she saw that he was only one inch away. “I wonder what unicorn tastes like.” Somepony put her hoof on Matsu’s shoulder, “You’ll have to find out what Pegasus tastes like first.” Matsu turned to be met by Fluttershy’s stare. For some reason she was the least afraid of Matsu. “Now see here Matsu, these are my friends! So you’re going to have to be friends with them too.” Matsu bared his fangs at the little pegasus, “I’ll eat anyone I want. Give me one reason I should be friends with these ponies.” “Because you’re friends with me, Matsu. So you have to be friendly to my friends!” Matsu roared at her. A Manticore would have run away and had nightmares that night. Fluttershy just hovered there with her arms crossed and her stare active. Matsu spoke in a growl, “You think you can tame me? I am the king of all predators. I am the top of the Omniversal food chain. I eat everything and nothing eats me, and you think I’m going to let you all off the hook because you say so?” Fluttershy shook her head, “No, not because I said so; and not because you promised the Boss you wouldn’t. Do it because the real Matsu says don’t do it!” Matsu smiled sinisterly, “I am the real Matsu. That other guy is the split personality. Ask the crew. I’m not lying.” Fluttershy put her hooves on Matsu’s shoulders, “I believe you, but I don’t care. Even if that other Matsu isn’t the original, he’s still a good person. He’s my friend and I’ll protect him from anyone. Even you!” Matsu became wide eyed; he remembered the first time the Kind Matsu appeared. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Matsu had just destroyed an entire village. Everyone had gotten word he was coming and had all evacuated before he arrived. Matsu had no real memories, not because he had amnesia, just because this was his entire past. For as long as he could remember, he had always been a monster. This was his entire life in microcosm. Some had tried to kill him, others to reform him. Both had failed. Suddenly a young boy about his age approached him. Matsu had never met anyone this composed before, but that didn’t matter. Matsu lunged at his prey like a hungry lion. The boy caught him and flipped him over his shoulder before pinning him to the ground. The boy starred into Matsu’s eyes with palpable concern, “Is this what you want? Does this make you happy?” Matsu exerted all his power at once, forcing the boy off of him. Matsu couldn’t speak as properly back then, “You try tame too? Waste time, waste you. Eat you.” The boy took off his satchel, “I will feed you if you’re hungry little one.” Matsu crept up on his prey, “Food better if hunt. Not just for food. For fight, for hunt, for kill. Am predator. Must hunt, must fight, then eat, fight for eat, appetite from battle only.” The boy threw his satchel against a nearby ruin, “Then fight me and build up an appetite. Then we’ll eat the food I brought you, together. It was a good battle, but Matsu wasn’t as strong back then. The boy won easily. Matsu had finally been defeated by something; he was no longer the top of the food chain. He knew what happened in a battle like this: the winner ate the loser. But that’s not what he did. The boy fed Matsu, but Matsu didn’t want to accept it. The boy spoke, “You can’t have your way. You live by power and now you think you can talk back to the winner? The Winner makes the rules. Play by your own code.” Matsu didn’t like it, but he took the food anyway. The boy asked again, “Now tell me, does this make you happy? Is this what you want?” Matsu howled at him, “Is what am! Is what do! You no tame me!” The boy just kept eating as he spoke, “I don’t want to tame you and I don’t want you to become something else. I just want to know if you like what you are. Is this what you really want out of life? Just answer that question and I’ll leave you alone.” Matsu wasn’t as strong back then, less so in his childhood. He had to crouch like a lion and watch his prey. Most predators prey on the weak and the small. Matsu had watched normal children, normal families, but for some reason it spoiled his appetite to watch them. They had…something. Matsu answered, “No predator ever happy. At war with nature. But is what am.” The boy shook his head in disagreement, “Even if that’s so, WHAT you are doesn’t determine WHO you are. What would you like to become?” Matsu roared, “Is what am! Cannot change that!” The boy was always calm, “Why? Are you saying that your own nature is the one opponent you can’t beat? What good does it do you to be able to beat any opponent if you can’t even beat yourself?” Matsu was uneducated, but not naturally stupid, “Can’t beat self. Self is strong as self. And no can kill self and win. So not win, no can beat self.” The boy stood and offered Matsu a hand, “If you can’t beat your nature alone, then draw strength from your friends. My name is Kai. I’ll be your friend.” Matsu starred at Kai, “For why?” Kai looked at the ruins, “I’ve heard about you. You’ve never eaten anyone who didn’t attack you first. For someone as wild as you, that must be very hard. You just need someone to help you. If I were you, I would want someone to help me. So when I see you, I want to help you. That’s my reason.” Matsu for the first time in his whole life looked ashamed, “I…want…be…good. Have kind. But am predator.” Kai helped Matsu stand, “It’s not about where you’re from, it’s about where you’re going.” Matsu bowed to Kai, “You is Alpha now. Is top of pack.” Kai forced Matsu to stand, “I hate that. I’ll never accept that. You are my friend.” Matsu repeated, he needed to hear that word again, “Friend?” Kai put his arm around Matsu and started walking, “So long as you want me to, I’ll protect you from everything, especially yourself. By the way, we’re going to have to name you little guy. But I’m no good at that. Let me take you to meet my friends…” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Matsu was back to his kind form again. The first thing he did was hug Fluttershy. Matsu spoke softly, “Thank you Fluttershy. You’re the only one other than the boss to ever remind me of what I really am. We can talk later. We have a village to feed. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Matsu and the ponies had just stepped back onto the deck of the ship. They had arrived just in time to meet the other arrivals. Chrysalis had finally arrived with the sphere that Cloud had given her, and Soran had brought Sol and Dea back to the ship to eat the antidote that Matsu had finished. Soran was relieved to see that Matsu was back to his usual self, “Matsu, thank goodness. We’ve only got ten minutes until that poison does us all in. Princess Luna, you and the Element bearers are crucial to this world’s order. You should eat first.” The sound of Luna’s name had not only drawn her own attention, but Chrysalis’s as well. Chrysalis remembered that Cloud had told her to talk to Luna first, lest she regret it later. But what exactly did that mean? Why did people who knew the future always have to be so darn cryptic? Chrysalis decided that, just to be totally safe, she would always address Luna first from now on, should the choice be there. She also decided that she was going to interrogate time travelers from now on and make them say what they mean! Chrysalis started, “Princess Luna. I have a magic sphere in my possession that I think can help us beat the Enforcers, once and for all.” Luna of course wanted to know more about this, “What makes you think that?” Chrysalis didn’t actually know what the crystal sphere did, “I um…I don’t know.” Luna was rightfully confused, “Then what makes you think it will help?” Chrysalis had promised not to tell anyone about Cloud, “Someone told me it would, but I really don’t know much about that…being.” Chrysalis had started to say ‘person’ but that might imply that it had been a human. She then started to say ‘pony’ but that wasn’t right. So she settled for ‘being’ at the last second. Luna was getting frustrated, “Ok fine, but what does it do?” Chrysalis realized this wasn’t going well, “I don’t know.” Luna was frustrated, “What do you know?” Chrysalis perked up some, “That Soran can use it to beat the Enforcers with minimal property damage.” Luna was confused again, “Then why didn’t you just give it to Soran in the first place?” Well obviously Chrysalis couldn’t say it was because she now had a mortal fear of addressing anyone but Luna first, “Um…whoops.” Luna frowned and telekinetically floated antidote rolls to everyone on the ship, “Well, go give it to Soran and stop wasting our time.” Chrysalis awkwardly walked over to Soran, “This is…Oh forget it. You heard all that, I don’t know what it does, just take it.” Stupid, stupid, stupid Cloud! Chrysalis knew she had made herself look like a complete idiot, right in front of everyone. This was all Cloud’s fault. If she had just said what she meant none of this would be happening. Why do prophesies and foresights always say ‘look within when the crest of old shines beyond the higher way’ instead of just ‘go left at the fork in the road’? If Cloud had just given her some actual directions to follow rather than just saying to ‘give the sphere to Soran, talk to Luna first (or you’ll regret it later), and to ignore rumors that the crew was dead’. When, why, how? Soran ordered her, “Tell me about the person who gave you this, Chrysalis.” Chrysalis told Soran exactly what she had been told, “I promised that I wouldn’t tell.” All the humans thought for a second, exchanged a glance, and all spoke together, “Ok, fair enough.” Twilight was just about to eat her antidote roll, “WHAT!? You’re just going to let it go at that?” All the humans ate their rolls and nodded in agreement. They were just that sort of people. Twilight angrily bit into her antidote roll. “Oh sweet Celestia! Delicious! Get! In! My! Mouth!” The others all ate at least as happily as Twilight did. Matsu ate his while frowning like it tasted terrible. Matsu swallowed, “Needs magical salt, but I was fresh out. But after all, this is for medicine, not taste. Once this whole thing is over I’ll make you some real food.” The ponies (and Spike) just nodded happily. This moment of bliss couldn’t be interrupted by anything. CRACK! Except maybe the barrier keeping the ship and town safe cracking. The Enforcers were a persistent bunch and they had just cracked the barrier wide open! The humans couldn’t really have stopped it at this point. They were really tired after killing tens-of-thousands of Enforcers in the last hour. Soran gripped the crystal sphere Chrysalis had given him and it activated on its own. Soran’s ‘Flight Sphere expanded to 100%, but he felt relatively no strain on his body. Soran was at 100% power and 100% ‘Flight Sphere’. But there was more, “Princess Luna, this is just a theory of mine, but would you try ‘raising’ that Enforcer ship like it was the moon?” Soran asked. Luna tried it. The ship shot into the sky like a bullet, flung into space. Sol whistled, “Impressive! The sphere makes anything in Soran’s Flight sphere ‘a heavenly body’ as far as the Alicorns magic is concerned.” All smiled. Now they had an ace up their sleeve. Soran took to the air, “Sol, Dea, you two cover me and I’ll enclose ships in my Flight Sphere. Luna will send ‘em into orbit. Meanwhile, Matsu and the ponies will land the ship in the village and start feeding the ponies.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As soon as they landed, the ponies noticed the faint earthquakes. Matsu turned towards the ponies, “Don’t worry. That’s probably just the old man fighting the Ambassador. Fluttershy gasped, “But, if they make an earthquake!” Fluttershy flew up and began looking into the Everfree forest. The whole forest was falling apart, semi-literally. The earthquake was knocking trees over and caving in the landscape. The forest was going to become a wasteland if this continued. Sure, they might have been able to make it livable again in a few years, but the animals wouldn’t be able to return to it until then. Fluttershy was devastated. She had to land. Fluttershy cried. Matsu’s full attention was drawn to her, “Wait. Don’t cry.” Fluttershy was sobbing too bitterly. Matsu couldn’t stand it, “All my little critter friends. Where will they live? They have no home. All their little…” Fluttershy just sobbed. Matsu was getting desperate, “Don’t worry. Once Kai becomes Keeper he can put everything back. You’ll never even know the difference.” Matsu knew what he was saying was true, but it didn’t sound confident with a weeping Pegasus in front of him. “Ok”, was all Fluttershy could manage. Matsu’s hair spiked up like he was berserk, but his eyes didn’t turn. Trembling with rage he looked to the sky, “You abominations. I’m so mad. I’m so mad I can’t even go berserk. This is different from my normal anger. You’re breaking my friend’s heart. This is wrath!” Sol sensed what was going on, “Back to the ship.” Soran and Dea looked at him like he was crazy. They had just started their raid. Sol shot them a worried look, “Matsu is going into Wrath mode.” The other two’s eyes got as wide as dinner plates, “Back to the ship,” they all said. Soran could fly at the speed of sound, so it was mere moments before they stood on the ship next to Matsu. Matsu looked at Soran and spoke softly, “Soran, how many warheads do we have?” Something about him talking so quietly was more terrifying than if he were screaming. It meant he was too mad to scream. Soran stuttered, “We...we have…a full stock. Four hundred warheads…just like we had back in…” Matsu walked to the edge of the ship. Shining Armor noticed that the Enforcers had stopped advancing suddenly. Were they afraid of Matsu? Nah, that couldn’t be it. Wild as he was, he was just a cook. Right? Matsu was looking up at the hundreds of ships above him, “Soran. Have Gummi fire 10 Warheads.” Soran knew what Matsu was thinking, “Matsu I don’t think that’s…” “Do It.” The Gummi fired up on Soran’s whim. Matsu chanted as quiet as a whisper, “Tool make: Potenza Mestolo” Matsu conjured up a giant steaming soup ladle. The Gummi fired ten warheads, all of which Matsu caught in the ladle. They exploded, but the blast never left the Ladle. “Energy cannot escape this ladle of mine unless I want it to”, Matsu informed the ponies, “And now it has the power of ten nuclear warheads.” Matsu didn’t need Soran’s flight magic. He just jumped, and was rocketing into the heavens. Matsu spun the Ladle like it was a sling and flung energy blasts from it like it was a sling too. Matsu never bothered going after individual Enforcers. He just nuked entire fleets of them. Whereas the others took out Enforcers by the dozens, Matsu took them out by the thousands at a time. Sol kept the others focused, “Soran, flatten your Flight Sphere into a disk so that when those ships fall, Luna will be able to send them to space.” Everyone just nodded. Matsu was awesome and terrifying. Matsu spoke, but no one could hear him except the Enforcers he was incinerated, “Listen to me you freaks.” Matsu had destroyed 30 ships. “You can mock me. I try to put petty things like that behind me now.” Matsu had destroyed 50 ships. “I probably deserve it anyway; I know I’m not a great person.” Matsu had destroyed 70 ships. “But you don’t oppose my boss. He and Musica don’t exactly get along, but they’re friends, and real friends fight sometimes. I don’t mind that. I’m a lot more trouble for the boss than Musica is anyway.” Matsu had destroyed 100 ships. “I don’t follow the boss because he opposes the Enforcers. The original me couldn’t care less if the Omniverse is destroyed. I follow the boss because he believed in me. I was evil when he found me, but he saw good in me. Kai called me friend. Forget scrolls, I could write a whole book on Harmony. Kai showed me what friendship is all about.” Matsu had destroyed 120 ships. “It’s easy to be friends with friendly people. Being friends with people like me requires something special.” Matsu had destroyed 140 ships. “I believe in Kai, because he believed in me when he had no reason to. The others believed in me because Kai did. It’s not their fault, but it’s just not the same.” Matsu had destroyed 160 ships. “Kai was the only one who knew everything about me and still had total faith in me; until Fluttershy decided to believe in me too.” Matsu had destroyed 180 ships. “I know better than anyone else that true friends are the best treasure in the whole omniverse. I’m not perfect, but I’ll do anything for my friends. I’ll protect them from anything, just like they protected me. You made Fluttershy cry. You. Made. My. Friend. Cry.” Matsu had destroyed 200 ships. “You! Do! Not! Make! Fluttershy! Cry!” Matsu threw the ladle at the Mother ship. It burrowed into the core of the ship before detonating two nuclear warheads worth of destructive force. Matsu had just destroyed 200,000 Enforcers, give or take, and the Mother ship. The ones that luckily got away were taken care of on the way back. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~` All of Ponyville had the same reaction - totally speechless. The only pony left that wasn’t awestruck was Princess Luna. And to be fair, she was busy sending any ships that Matsu shot down into orbit with her magic. “Hurry up Luna! I can’t hold this many ships for long!” Soran was doing his best to ‘juggle’ the fallen ships so that none of them fell on Ponyville, but only Luna could send them into space. “I’m trying! It’s really hard to ‘raise’ this many things all in such a short time.” “You raise the moon! Don’t tell me a few hundred ships gives you trouble!” “As it turns out, it does give me trouble! Deal with it!” Dea and Sol meanwhile were walking around Ponyville with relaxed expressions, handing out antidote rolls. Musica had come out of the healing chambers healthy enough to get around well, and was running a stand that handed out the antidote. The humans had seen this all too many times before: Matsu, fleets being destroyed, poison raining from the sky, miracle food, fate of the universe in the balance. Or as the humans called it - a weekday. The black rain was still falling, but with the power of the Sphere added to Soran’s power, it acted like an umbrella, diverting the rain. Sol spoke directly into everyone’s minds, “Attention Everyone. Don’t be scared. We’re getting things under control. Looks like things are pretty much wrapped up here. I now this is scary for you, but this is our regular work schedule. Matsu made enough antidote rolls for all of you, and we’ll definitely have leftovers. So relax, all we need to do is wait for Kai.” Sol then spoke only into his crews minds, “Enforcers are never this easy to stop. There must be more on the way. Now that even Matsu is used up, we’re defenseless. All we can do is wait for the boss.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Santo was out of time. Literally. Santo had used up too much of his Time-Space manipulation. It had taken all he had to beat the Swordbearer, and beating the Ambassador was just impossible at this point. They had already destroyed the ceiling and were now standing under the sky. Most of Everfree was destroyed and the underground chambers of the castle were all either caved in or had the ceiling incinerated by the two titans. Only one domed chamber had been built to survive, and it was now buried in the cave-in. Santo was now completely on the defensive. It was no longer about stalling or looking for the Keyhole, this was now solely a battle to stay alive. “Your rebellion against us is at an end, fool. Time for you to die.” Santo couldn’t say anything. All he could do was put up a guard and draw out the inevitable. The Ambassador raised its sword, arm over its head readying for the finale. But something gripped its wrist. It was gentle, but firm enough that the Ambassador couldn’t move at all. The Ambassador turned to see Kai. Kai’s body was ablaze with white fire, his eyes shining like coals of fire, but orange. Although the fire was white, its outline shown with all the colors of the rainbow. The fire also had a second layer, which wrapped around him like a cloak, with a mantle of white fire billowing against his back like a cape. The cape said 留守居 on it (Keeper). Next to him stood a white Alicorn filly with a pink mane. She spoke in a stern tone, “As I said to you before, abomination, I’ve had it with your kind! I told you I wouldn’t let you get to the Keyhole. I may not be able to beat you, But I recently hired a Knight that I think can do the job. Kai, take out all the Enforcers.” Kai spoke in a voice as soothing as a babbling brook, but as powerful as lightning, “As you command, Princess.” The Ambassador knew that the whole Enforcer fleet wouldn’t last a moment against a Keeper, “This changes nothing. You may be a Princess and her Keeper, but Senza is the Emperor of the Omniverse and will soon be Keeper of everything. You only delay utopia eternal.” Kai didn’t move. He merely willed that the Ambassador turn to dust. It looked less like a battle and more like Kai had just stood there and watched the Ambassador blow away in the wind. Instantly Kai, Celestia, and Santo all stood in Ponyville. Kai clapped his hands once. All the Enforcer ships melted into dust and vanished without a trace. Needless to say, that had got everyone’s attention. Musica was never speechless, “About bloody time, you darn doctor. What took you so long?” The other humans all dropped whatever they were doing and sat down to relax. The fight was as good as over. Kai reported to his superior, “It is done Princess. Your orders?” Celestia flew up so that everypony could hear her, which was useless considering Musica amplified her voice and spread it out across town anyway. “Is everypony alright? We can put anything back the way it was, so anypony with a problem please speak up now.” Fluttershy walked up to them, “PRINCESS!” Fluttershy was terrified that her voice was that loud. She turned to see Musica, who was amplifying her quite voice so that everyone could hear. She motioned for him to turn it down some, “Um princess, could you let Kai put the forest back. The little critters need somewhere to stay. That is, if it’s not too much trouble.” How Fluttershy managed to make Musica’s amplification sound quite was a mystery never solved. Celestia nodded, “Kai, please put Equestria back the way it was before you arrived here. Every particle you disturbed; put it all back.” Kai looked like he was praying, and was concentrating on it with all his might. The fire on him expanded like a bubble and covered all of Ponyville. It didn’t stop there though, it kept going. It washed over Everfree and on to Appleloosa, past the frozen north well beyond the Crystal Empire. It washed the whole planet and kept going, even covering the moon! Kai put back everything, every rock, every blade of grass, every building and construct, even the footprints they had made while walking. Kai restored all the plants and healed all the animals that had been involved or disrupted by these events. Once it was finished, the fire simply went out. Only Kai was still engulfed in it. “It is done.” Twilight murmured, “Amazing.” Sol shook his head, “True, but that’s a Keeper’s power.” Rarity wasn’t as happy, “If his power is so great, then why is all this yucky black stuff still here. It’s really making the place dirty darling.” The humans were shocked to see that the poison rain was still there. Sol couldn’t calculate the reason, “That’s impossible. It should be gone. Nothing can resist a Keeper’s power.” “Except the powers of another Keeper of course.” Luna and the humans trembled. Luna spoke, “That voice, that voice I will hear in my nightmares. Senza.”