//------------------------------// // The World That Will Not Be // Story: Equestrian Hearts // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// 2. The World That WIll Not Be Scootaloo groaned quietly as consciousness slowly returned to her. At first, all she could tell was that she was on a hard, flat surface. She opened her eyes slowly. She saw she was on some sort of white surface, completely featureless. A male voice spoke behind her. "Never seen something like this before." She felt something sharp poke her between her wings. She reacted. "Buck off!" she shouted, shooting her hind legs up and back like pistons. There was a gasping grunt behind her, and she turned to see a strange figure collapsed on the ground, clutching at his nether regions. His body shape appeared similar to primates, and his garb and stance indicated he was bipedal. He had blue eyes, pale skin, and his hair was platinum colored. He also seemed to be in a great deal of pain.Clattering to the ground beside him was a sword that seemed to be shaped like a large bat wing. He sat up, glaring at Scootaloo. "Why'd you kick me?" he demanded angrily. Scootaloo glared at him. "Why'd you poke me in the back with a sword?" The creature glared at her for a time, then sighed. "Admittedly not the best of first impressions..." He gets to his feet, leaning on the sword. "I'm Riku. What's your name?" She shook herself as she settled herself on her hooves. "Scootaloo." Riku blinked. "Unusual name." She smirked. "From where I'm standing, you're the one with the strange name." Riku nodded. "Fair enough. Now, what are you doing here?" Scootaloo shrugged, resettling her wings. "How should I know? One moment I'm at a party, some crazy party crasher babbles about darkness, a door opens and BOOM! Next thing I know, you're poking me in the back with a sword." "You said a door opened?" Riku said, his eyes focusing. "Tell me more about that." Scootaloo tilted her head. "What's that got to do with anything? It was just a door." "Maybe, maybe not." RIku leaned against a wall that took shape out of empty air. "Describe the door as best you can, and how it opened." Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "Fine. The door looked perfectly ordinary..." Scootaloo thought for a bit. "Which is kinda odd, now that I think about it, considering that it was kinda invisible and was only on one side of a wall. Not to mention it didn't look like any of the other doors in Ponyville. You know, it may have looked perfectly ordinary, but it also looked really out of place." Riku nodded knowingly, pushing off from the wall. "That actually explains more than you would think. That was the door to your world's heart." Scootaloo blinked. "Then what the hay was it doing in the library?" Riku shrugged. "Generally the doors are located somewhere either well protected or easily overlooked. That way it's harder to find unless you have something related to the doors." Scootaloo nodded. "So a library in the middle of nowhere and under the nose of the Element of Magic gets you both." Riku nodded. "Exactly." He seemed to be confused about something she said, but continued on. "So, what happened before the door opened?" "Well, there was this party-" "In a library?" "It was Pinkie Pie's idea. My school was heading there anyway to see this new find that Twilight Sparkle had uncovered, so Pinkie decided to hold my homecoming party there." "Homecoming party?" Scootaloo sighed. "Rainbow Dash officially adopted me as her little sister the night before. With the paperwork finalized, I officially had a home and family again." When Riku said nothing, she continued. "Anyway, Twilight showed me the thing she'd found, and this this figure in a dark cloak shows up and talks about a door to darkness. He tries to take it, and Twilight tried to zap him with her magic, but he turned it against her. Then-" "Stop!" Riku said suddenly. "Get behind me." Scootaloo blinked at him. "Why?" "So I can protect you from them," he says, pointing over her shoulder. She turns in time to see pools of darkness appear, releasing swarms of shadowy creatures. "Zombies!" she screamed. "Heartless, actually," Riku said calmly, readying his blade. "But the freaky voice in my dream said they were zombies, and not to let them eat my brain!" "... explain that later. But for right now, if you don't have a weapon, then stay behind me." Scootaloo flared her wings. "Weapon or not, I'm not gonna hide!" She clenched her teeth to tense herself up... ...and in a flash of light the keyblade appeared. "Wah!" she screamed, letting it go and causing it to vanish. RIku turned to her. "What was that?" "It was the thing Twilight found! Where did it come from?" Riku turned towards the Heartless. "Well, whatever you did to summon it, do it again. I won't be able to protect you from this many!" Scootaloo glowered at him. "I don't need protection!" she snapped, clenching her teeth. The keyblade appeared again, chain dangling. "Huh, how'd I do that?" As Riku dispatched the forerunners of the Shadows, he turned towards her. "That... that's a Keyblade!" Scootaloo flattened her eyes. "Wow, and I thought Twilight was just being unoriginal when she called it that. You're telling me that's it's actual name?" One of the Shadows leapt at her. "Wah!" She spun rapidly, swinging the blade through the Shadow, making it disperse and release a strange, glowing pink sphere. "...huh?" "The Keyblade is a weapon designed for killing Heartless," Riku said quickly, defending against another wave. "If it comes at your summons, then you are it's master and it will always come at your call." Scootaloo's eyes widened, and she grinned. "You mean even if I do this?" Spinning rapidly, she hurled the Keyblade forward with all her might. It spun rapidly through the air, carving a path through the swarm of Heartless. When she clenched her teeth again, it reappeared in her mouth, vanishing from where it had flown to. "That was totally wicked!" she screamed in joy. "Less looking cool, more getting the job done," Riku said, going on the offensive now that he saw Scootaloo could handle the Keyblade well. "RIght!" Scootaloo braced herself before lunging into the fray. After a time, the pools of shadow faded and the Heartless stopped coming. With the last one destroyed, Scootaloo turned to RIku, grinning. "That was so totally awesome! Did you see the way I flipped into a spinning slice on that one group? Or the way I impaled that one and used it to knock a bunch of others back? Or the way I turned a cartwheel into a wheel of death? Or-" "Sorry," Riku said, grinning. "But I was too busy fighting to watch you. Guess I missed it." Scootaloo blinked for a time. "Oh. ... so what were those things?" "Heartless. Shadows, to be specific. The weakest kind of Heartless." "Okay." Scootaloo sat down. "And what are Heartless?" "... basically, when someone's heart is consumed by darkness, a Heartless is born, with only the desire to hunt down other hearts and drag them into darkness. Some Heartless are more powerful than others, and there are a few exceptions to the rule, but you probably don't need to worry about them unless they come up. Also, you'll need to watch out for Nobodies." "... Nobodies?" "When a heart is consumed by darkness, sometimes the empty shell left behind begins to move under its own will. Nobodies seek hearts to take the place of the one they lost, but it doesn't work." "What if a Nobody finds it's original Heart? Can they come back to themselves?" "... it doesn't work that way, Scootaloo. If you come across a Heartless or a Nobody, all you can do is destroy them to protect others. As the wielder of a Keyblade, that's your job." "Oh." Scootaloo felt herself on the verge of an unpleasant realization, so she decided to change the subject. "So where are we? And how do we get out of here?" "This is the World That Will Not Be. It's... sort of a waypoint between Light and Darkness. It's always trying to exist, but never quite manages it. Bits of other worlds sometimes find their way here, as well as bits of matter from between dimensions, like Gummi Blocks." "Gummi Blocks?" RIku stroked his chin. "I don't really know what they are either, but if you find enough you can build a Gummi Ship to travel between worlds with." He shrugged his shoulders. "We don't need to worry about that, though. I have an easier way to travel." He held out his hand. A pool of shadow suddenly appeared, and a circular portal of swirling darkness rose out of it. Scootaloo scooted away from it. "W-what is that?" "A dark corridor," Riku said calmly. "When I first started journeying between worlds, I took the dark path. It nearly destroyed me, but my friends refused to give up on me, and they managed to save me. I still have the ability to travel this way, but it doesn't affect me the way it used to." He took a step into the portal. "Come on." Scootaloo walked nervously towards the dark corridor... but as soon as she took a step into the pool of shadow, she began to cough violently. Then she began to gag, her body shook, and blood began to leak through her nose. Riku immediately pushed her out of the pool and closed the portal. "Are you alright?" Scootaloo's shakes slowed and her coughing slowly eased. "H... how can you stand that?" she demanded in shock. "It doesn't effect me that way. I didn't realize it would effect you like that." Riku shook his head. "Guess getting out of here won't be as easy as I thought." Scootaloo continued to cough. "No... kidding..." She felt the world begin to fade around her as she collapsed into unconciousness.