//------------------------------//
// Decisions 
// Story: Guardians of Magic 
// by Shire Folk 
//------------------------------//


Guardians of Magic


Chapter 15: Decisions

Princess Celestia stared at the crater in front of her, Princess Luna, Captain Shining Armor, and four other members of the Royal Guards. This was undoubtedly caused by powerful magic, as if the giant red blast earlier in the day hadn’t been a big enough shout of, “Hey! Look at me! Powerful magic spell causing immense destruction going on right here!” While there had been a number of exaggerations on the size of the blast, now that she was up close Princess Celestia could see that the crater itself was closer to being a mere kilotrot in diameter, far less than the wild speculations that it was half of Canterlot’s size. Although, there were several lengths of trees at the edge of the blast that had been knocked over, and the debris from many dozens of splintered trees was strewn about the inside.
“Now then,” Celestia said with a calm voice. “How are we going to spin this one?”
“Training exercise?” Shining Armor asked. All Princess Celestia had to do was look at him. “Right, that’ll never work. Nopony in the guard has this kind of power except for me.”
Luna wore an amused expression on her face while she looked at the crater and the surrounding area. Water was already steadily entering from a glacier-fed stream that the crater had cut through. Birds that had taken flight were beginning to return to the area, even if many of their homes were now completely eviscerated by the blast.
“Why Tia, is it not obvious?” Princess Luna commented. “Was there not a petition a few weeks ago for a new water feature for campers in these woods? Look. Now the Whitetail boasts a brand new lake.”
“That is all well and good, Luna,” Celestia said. “However, we still need to discover the nature of the spell that caused this and who cast it. Anypony with magic this destructive needs to be under our watch.”
“Is Twilight Sparkle not capable of…” Luna paused as she yawned loudly for nigh on ten seconds, “casting such potent magic?”
Shining Armor glanced at Princess Celestia, who nodded.
“Yes, Twilight is perfectly capable of casting magic that could be as destructive as this; however, I ensured that spells of this grand destructive nature were out of her reach while she studied in Canterlot. I cannot imagine her being the pony that would cause such wanton destruction.”
“That’s good,” Luna said, “because the residual magic in the air does not carry her signature. It’s unfamiliar to me, but it seems to have some sort of divine quality to it.” Celestia looked at her younger sister in surprise, but before she could ask the former Bearer of Magic what she meant one of the guards spoke up.
“Your Highness, somepony is moving inside of the crater.”
All eyes turned towards where the guardspony was pointing her hoof.
“A witness?” Shining Armor wondered, narrowing his eyes.
“Or the culprit,” Princess Celestia added.
“Be on your guard, all of you,” ordered Princess Luna. Slowly, with Shining Armor in the lead closely followed by the two princesses and flanked by the other four guards, they descended into the crater.
It took a scant few minutes for them to reach the pony stumbling about in a generally northward direction. Her coat looked like it might have been white, but it was covered in soot and some patches of fur had been burned away to reveal bright red skin. Her mane and tail were a dirty mass of platinum-blonde mixed with the same black soot that stained her coat, and her cutie mark appeared to be an artist’s palette half-covered by the soot. She didn’t appear to notice their approach.
“Excuse me, miss,” Shining Armor declared when they were within six trots of her. “I was hoping that you might be able to answer some questions for us.”
The pony stopped and sighed. They could all see the motions of her neck and shoulders to understand that her sigh was one of annoyance. “I’d love to stop and answer some questions, but I don’t have time right now. There’s a certain person I need to deliver a beating to because of his hero complex and I have no idea how far ahead of me he is now or if he’s even conscious yet.”
“I think that this is a tale worth hearing,” Celestia spoke up. The pony stood still before slowly turning around and bowing before the Princess.
“Hello again, Princess Celestia,” she said. “I suppose if the highest authority in the land comes asking questions, I’d best answer.”
“That you should, my little pony,” Princess Celestia said with light humour. “It is nice that you have chosen to cooperate with us, but I am sorry to say that I cannot remember meeting you. Could you give us your name, please?”
“Of course,” she replied while returning to stand at her full height in order to look at her questioners. “It was only for a short time that you met me, but my name is Naminé.”
“Naminé?” one of the guards muttered. “That’s an odd name.”
Princess Celestia nodded her head and bowed it slightly to Naminé. “Ah, yes, now I remember. You are the Nobody of Kairi, correct? You share her heart and dwell within her?”
“Close enough, Your Highness,” Naminé said.
“Now then,” Princess Luna spoke up. “Perhaps you would like to tell us how all of this,” she waved her hoof at the crater they were all standing in, “came about?”
“Truthfully, no, I wouldn’t like to tell you, but that wouldn’t be very good manners,” Naminé answered. Her voice was already beginning to return to the frustrated tone it first held when she had initially spoken. “My Somebody is a moron and her boyfriend has a hero complex, that’s what happened.”
“May we speak with Kairi?” Princess Celestia asked.
“No. She’s taking an extended nap at the moment,” Naminé answered bluntly. “So because she’s conked herself out, I’ve assumed control and am trying to meet up with the others on their way to the founders’ cave.” She looked down at her cannons and shook her head. “It’s probably going to take me a while to find them, though. They might have already sealed the keyhole by the time I arrive. I’m almost as exhausted as Kairi is.”
Princess Celestia nodded her head. “Captain Shining Armor.”
“Your Highness?”
“Fetch a blanket and the package I brought with me. I feel as though Naminé here could have a comfortable rest while we interrogate her over tea.”
“Might we have the abridged version while we wait for him?” Luna asked as Shining Armor and one of the other guards left them. Naminé nodded her head.
“Long story short, some Heartless decided to attack us. Sora, in his infinite heroism, took a hit to protect Rainbow Dash and crashed into a tree, knocking himself out. Kairi then went berserk and used the Dragon Slave.”
“Dragon Slave?” Luna asked.
“It’s a spell she found in a spellbook in a Chaser Librum, a library or archive used by the Chasers, an old order of Keyblade Wielders,” Naminé clarified when seeing the princesses look at her blankly, “on the world of Milanus that we went to at Master Yen Sid’s urging, looking for information on the Keepers of the Art. It’s said to be one of the most powerful spells of a certain world whose name escapes me at the moment, and should only be used by responsible mages in situations of dire need.”
Naminé looked around the crater. “We weren’t in dire need, and she had been itching to try it out ever since reading about it. Just a strong fire spell would have been enough, but noooo, she has to go and use a spell that can blow the top off of a mountain just to wipe out two Heartless all because her boyfriend played the hero like always and got himself hurt. She would have killed us too if I hadn’t taken control right after she’d launched the spell and put the strongest protect spell that I could make around us. She even killed our beret.” Naminé made a pouting face.
“And Twilight and the others?” Princess Celestia asked.
“Riku got them running the moment Kairi started the incantation and Twilight teleported them out of range,” Naminé answered. “After that they started booking it north, not wanting to get caught anywhere near this place.” She sighed. “As it was, Kairi and I were at ground zero, and after casting the protect spell that saved our life, I was a bit too weak to try and go after them right away, so you’ve caught me.”
“That we have,” Princess Luna said with a faint smile. “However, a piece still puzzles me.”
“Shoot.”
“You said that Kairi cast the spell that caused this destruction that shall give the Whitetail Woods a new lake, and that you cast the protection spell that spared you from its power, yet, how? She is a pegasus pony and you are an earth pony.”
Naminé yawned. “It’s probably because of the blessing Poseidon gave all of us.”
Princess Luna was silent for a moment. “Poseidon…”
“Yeah, Poseidon, the god of the seas, oceans, and horses. Patron deity of sailors, fishers, mariners...and horses. He came into our room in the castle the other night as an osprey and blessed Sora and Roxas, Riku, and Rei right away while they were sleeping. He then tried to go, but Athena disguised as a little owl showed up and tried to get him to bless Kairi and me too, since we worship her and not him. They started squabbling and Poseidon was about to attack her when the big guy, Zeus, flew in as a golden eagle and got him to stand down and bless us too. Then they left, and then you showed up.” Naminé nodded her head at Princess Celestia.
Both Princesses’ jaws dropped so far that if they weren’t hinged into their skulls, they probably would have fallen into the dirt. The four young beings that had appeared in their world right on the heels of the Heartless had been blessed by their patron deities underneath their very noses!?
“Well then,” Luna said, blinking in surprise and attempting to regain her regal dignity, “I suppose that explains it, then.”
“How did you—?” Celestia asked.
“Kairi was dead tired after her date in the sculpture gardens with Sora,” Naminé answered, “I’d already napped while she was awake so I wasn’t all that tired. So I stayed awake and aware while she slept in case anything interesting happened. Something did.”
It was then that Shining Armor and the other guard returned with the blanket and package. Celestia levitated a tea set from the box and turned to address Naminé once more. “Now then, before we send you off to rejoin your companions, how do you like your tea?”
“One cream and two sugars, please,” Naminé answered, a grateful smile coming to her face.

-G-M-

The second night on their trek towards where Twilight believed the keyhole to be fell upon the group in the rocky foothills near the base of the Unicorn mountain range. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom found them a suitable camping site in a sizable clearing beside a cliff face.
Applejack sighed and slowly lowered herself to the ground. Sora's unconscious body became surrounded by a nimbus of light purple light as Trixie levitated him off of Applejack's back. "All right y'all, let's get the camp set up lickety split. We don't want to be doing it after it's gotten even darker on us."
"It's a good thing Sora's out cold," Riku said, looking at their group, "I can only imagine how he is going to react to seeing another kid in our party."
"Really?" Fluttershy asked. "I never got that impression from him."
"It's not that Sora doesn't like kids," Riku explained, watching as Sweetie Belle and Rei left to gather firewood with a brown-furred colt named Button Mash, "it's just that he's trying to be a lot more responsible and is overdoing it a touch."
“Well,” Trixie stated plainly, “all of this responsibility of his is certainly doing him a load of good.” She gave Sora’s sleeping form a questionable look before sighing and shaking her head.
Twilight sighed as well. "Alright, we've put this off for long enough already." She turned her head to look at Lyra, the teal unicorn wearing a silver variant of the Royal Guard armour. "Lyra, I'd like to know why you're here, what you are doing wearing the armour of the Royal Guards, and why Button Mash and this guy were doing with you." Twilight nudged her head to where Pete was slumped on the ground, completely exhausted from their trek.
Lyra looked right at Twilight before rolling her head innocently. “Oh, that’s easy Twilight. This is a path I take every week to visit my grandmother. She lives here in the Whitetail Woods in a cottage with her cranky old buck with a heart of gold husband.”
Twilight blinked. “I didn’t know you had deer blood in your family.”
"Besides my mother, my whole family has been earth ponies. I think the deer blood's what gave me my horn."
"Okay..." Applejack said skeptically, "an' how does that explain the armour that yer wearin'?"
"Oh this isn't armour. It's an experimental flight suit for unicorns undertaking wing creation spells. I'm testing it for chaffing risks."
"Uh-huh," replied Applejack in a deadpan tone. "Well that's a lie." She turned to Twilight. "You want me to handle this one, Twi?"
"Are you sure, Applejack?" Twilight asked, looking between her friend and Lyra in confusion.
"You aren't seriously buying this bull are you?" Riku asked her with a furrowed brow. "Sora's gullible enough, but I figured you were smarter than that."
The ponies cocked their heads at him. "What bull?"
Riku facehoofed, slowly sliding it down to his muzzle. "Never mind," he moaned through gritted teeth.
Applejack started to shoo them all away and called for Apple Bloom to get her a table and two chairs. In a twinkling the filly had managed to put together a single-legged ovular table and two straight backed chairs using only a mallet, Rainbow Dash, and a dust cloud conveniently provided by Pinkie Pie.
"Care to revise that there story of yours, Lyra?" asked Applejack.
"Alright, you caught me," she answered. "Two ponies dressed in a tiger costume actually sent me after you to bring you to their coffee shop in Whinnyappolis so you could try and later endorse Tiger Brand Coffee."
"That there's a lie," Applejack told her forthright, tapping the Element of Honesty around her neck to remind Lyra who she was dealing with.
"I recently joined a band. We're trying to discover our image so I'm out here for inspiration."
"An' the sword?"
"This isn't a sword. It's a stick and two pieces of steel."
“The armour?”
“To scare off meddling kids and their dogs.”
"Lies. Try again."
As Applejack and Lyra continued their conversation, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Riku went to where Pete was lying on the ground, breathing labouriously. "Alright, Pete," Riku began, giving him a quick stomp on the ribs, "talk. You have ten seconds."
"Riku!" Twilight scolded. "You can't treat him like that."
"She's right!" Pete added. "You can't-" His words failed him and eyes dwindled to pinpricks when Riku raised his right front hoof and summoned Way to the Dawn into it.
"I am not in the mood for games," Riku growled. "Talk. You have five seconds."
"An' why should I?" Pete blustered.
Riku grinned malevolently at him. "Did you see that crater Kairi left? When she catches up to us, imagine what she'll do to the one who summoned those Heartless that hurt Sora."
"But that wasn't me," Pete quickly told him.
"Do you think Kairi will care while her Sora is lying there like a rock?" Riku asked.
Pete was silent for two seconds, the exact amount of time it took his tiny brain to restart after his own imagination had shut it down.
"Alright I'll talk," Pete said. "Whaddya want me to tell?"
"Let's start with the basics, shall we?" Twilight asked, now that he seemed willing to cooperate. "What are you doing in Equestria in the first place?"
"Well...uh..." Pete averted his eyes and looked down, "I was looking for Maleficent," he eventually answered.
"Looking for Maleficent?" Riku repeated. "Isn't she still holed up in Xemnas' castle in The World That Never Was?"
"Well, we had been there," Pete said, "but about a week ago I came back and the whole place was turned upside down, not a Heartless in sight and no sign of Maleficent. The castle was a wreck; even her thorns were wastin' away."
"Sounds like somepony kicked your enemy's flank," Rainbow told Riku smugly.
"That doesn't sound good," Riku muttered. The others looked at him strangely.
"The enemy of Trixie's enemy is Trixie's friend," said the unicorn. "Does that saying not apply here?"
"Rather the enemy you know than the enemy you don't," Riku replied.
"Aw, don't be such a party pooper, Riku," Pinkie told him. "That old meanie-pants witch you guys told us about is gone. You should be going, 'HOORAYYY!!'" Riku watched stoically as Pinkie zipped around their campsite with legs resembling hummingbird's wings, shouting and celebrating at the top of her lungs, before cartwheeling off a log and flying through the air to land in the exact position she started from on her hind legs in a perfect 10.0 landing with spontaneous fireworks sparking up behind her. "Like that."
"Where did those fireworks come from?" Riku asked.
"It's Pinkie Pie," Twilight whispered, "don't ask."
"Riku," Fluttershy meekly piped up, "why are you so sure it was a bad guy? Couldn't good ponies have made her go away?"
"It doesn't work like that, Fluttershy," Riku told her. "We don't get random groups of good adventurers finding out about other worlds and how to go between them going around defeating evil. That falls to us Keyblade Wielders, and, as far as we know, there are only eight of us so far: me, Sora, Kairi, Mickey, Rei, Zelda, Twilight, and Trixie; and Mickey and Zelda are on our ship and the rest of us are all here."
"What about Roxas?" Dash asked.
"Roxas doesn't count," Riku snorted derisively. He turned his attention back to Pete. "Next question, why were you following us?"
"Heh, wouldn't you like to know?" Pete snapped back. Riku twirled his Keyblade around in his hoof. "L-look," Pete immediately began anew, "you guys go around everywhere an' run into everyone Maleficent works with, and I was thinking that, you know, that if I followed you guys around a bit, that I would run into her."
Riku sighed. "Well, given our track record, you aren't wrong about that. Did you send those Heartless after us in the forest?"
"What do you take me for, a moron?" Pete asked with an undue amount of hostiliy. "I may have done some crazy stuff in the past, but that was only against one of you Keyblade punks, the Goof and that duck. There's four of you punks here right now, even if one of yous is just a little small fry. No way am I going up against those odds even with Heartless."
"That's actually pretty smart of him," remarked Trixie. "I thought you gave us the impression that he was brainless."
"Hey, now that's going a little far," Pete complained.
"When Sora's calling someone else not smart enough to tie his own shoes, that's saying something," Riku answered, "and he said that about you."
"Shoes?" Fluttershy asked Twilight.
"Must be a human thing," she replied. "Horseshoes certainly can't be tied."
Riku banished his Keyblade and turned away, heading towards where the foals were setting up the firepit. "Uh..." Pete dared, sounding like he was stepping on eggshells and trying not to break them, "so, what are you going to do with me?"
Riku didn't even turn his head back. "Remember, Pete, there are six Keyblade Wielders here; and five of them surrounding you. As far as you're concerned, you're free to walk away or stay with us, but if you stab us in the back..." Riku turned around and beared his horn, which started to glow with black and blue flames, "it will be your last. Are we clear?"
Pete nodded like a bobble-head on a dingy in a typhoon. "Oh, crystal. You won't be getting any trouble outta me, so long as we find Maleficent." Riku raised his head and rolled his eyes.
Twilight came up to him. "Riku, are you sure about this?" she whispered.
Riku glanced backwards. "No, but it's what Sora would do," he answered in a low tone. "So long as Pete plays nice and doesn't hurt his sister or friends, Pete's free to tag-along until his sudden but inevitable betrayal. However, we're probably going to meet up with Mickey and the others before then, and then it'll be the King who decides his fate." He turned his head back towards the firepit as Sweetie Belle and Button Mash deposited another pile of sticks into it.
"How did you even get here, Button?" Twilight asked.
"I ran," said the colt. "Sweetie Belle didn't login yesterday, so I was worried."
Sweetie Belle tried to hide her blush.
"Yeah, but how did you find us?" Riku asked.
Button puffed his chest out proudly. "I can find Sweetie Belle in the middle of a deep, dark labyrinth surrounded by deadly skeletons and fiery lava. Finding her in a giant unfamiliar forest is a cinch."
Neither of them noticed Scootaloo sporting a mischievous grin as she snuck up behind them. She took in a deep breath, and began to hiss.
Sweetie Belle's ears went flat against her head and she dashed away towards the cliff wall. "Ahhh!! Creeper! Rage quit! Rage quit!" Button Mash seemed frozen in place while Scootaloo cracked up and started rolling on the ground, laughing her little head off until her lungs begged and pleaded for air. Rainbow Dash laughed and flew up to Scootaloo, praising her and making Scootaloo’s cheeks turn a nice rosy colour beneath her orange fur.
“Alright, settle down,” Apple Bloom told Sweetie Belle as she and Rei led her back to the firepit. “Can we get the fire lit?” she asked. “It’s startin’ to get pretty dark out here.”
“Don’t worry, leave it all to the Great and Powerful Trixie,” declared said unicorn, her horn lighting up. Multicoloured sparks burst into being in the middle of the pile of tinder next to a small log that the young ones had put into their firepit, and bright orange and yellow flames lit their faces as the driest wood caught.
Applejack’s voice drifted over to them. “Lyra, yah got no cartography whatsits with yah, so y’all aren’t remapping the Whitetail Woods just because you say you missed two dang trees.”
“Fair point,” Lyra conceded with an easy smile, leaning back and putting her forehooves behind her head.
“You sure have a lot of these crazy answers stocked up,” Applejack told her, leaning forward on a leg.
“Mmhm. All part of my job.”
“And what job is that, exactly?”
“Okay, I’m really a reporter, here to get the inside scoop on Canterlot’s ‘Blazing Horn’ and Princess Celestia’s illicit relationship.”
Applejack laughed at that one. “Say, would y’all care for a cider? Sweet Apple Acres’ finest and aged for five years.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” Lyra answered, returning to a slightly less casual sitting position on her stool while Applejack fixed them up with the cider. Lyra enveloped her mug in her magic’s glow and bumped it with Applejack’s. She smacked her lips after draining half of it in one go. “Ahhh…that hit the spot right there. It’s been a long and tiring day.”
“Hoo-ee!” crowed Applejack. “Been a while since I had a sip of this. So,” she put her mug down again while Lyra took another swig of her cider ration. “No lies now, what are you really doing here?”
Lyra’s mug flew away from her mouth and hovered beside her head. She leaned back again, her helmet tipping down over her eyelids. “I’m out here, on a grand adventure...to be the very best; like nopony ever was.”
Riku felt like smashing his head into the cliff. “OH COME ON!”
“Give it a rest, Applejack,” Twilight instructed with a little bit of light humour, “the Royal Guard train their undercover operatives well to resist interrogation.”
Lyra nodded smugly a couple of times while sipping her cider before she stopped. Her eyes went wide as she realized what she'd just done and she spat out the cider in her mouth all over Applejack’s muzzle. “WHAT!?” she shouted.
"You've had your fun, Lyra," Twilight said with a proud little smirk, "now tell me what's really going on."
"But you were-" Lyra began in disbelief while Applejack cleaned herself off.
"Pulling your leg," Twilight answered, still keeping that smile of hers. Riku felt his respect for the bookish student of Celestia grow quite a bit. Never get into a battle of wits with Twilight Sparkle.
"Oh you're good," Lyra told her, leaning back again and preparing to finish off her cider. "Who taught you? I bet it was your brother. It was the Captain, wasn't it?"
"Nope. My books."
Lyra finished the drink and placed her mug back down on the table with a hard clink. She gave Twilight an even glare. "I hate you. Do you know how many classes and practicals I had to go through during my training?"
"So you are an undercover guard?" Rainbow Dash queried.
"Lieutenant Lyra Heartstrings, at your service," Lyra proclaimed with a nod of her head.
"Ugh, I cannot believe this," Rainbow complained. "We've been living with an undercover guard in our town this entire time, and nopony knew about it!"
"Bon Bon did," Lyra said dismissively, peering into her glass to see if she could get any more drops of cider out of it, "so did Derpy."
"Well, Bon Bon is your wife," Fluttershy reasoned, "but how did the mailmare know?"
"She delivers the mail and all of the official military-looking packages, so she figured it out," Lyra answered with a shrug. "Hey Applejack, could you top me up?"
"I have just one question for you, Lyra," Twilight said, her smile staying strong, "my brother or Princess Celestia?"
"Your brother," Lyra replied.
"Figures," Twilight snorted.
"You are taking this remarkably better than I expected," admitted Lyra. "I mean, I've been tailing you since you were sixteen. I was expecting you to completely flip and snub me for the rest of my life."
"I'm not completely blind to who I am, Lyra," Twilight admitted. "I'm Princess Celestia's personal student, little sister to the Captain of the Castle Guard, and soon to be sister-in-law to Princess Cadance. I'm a big political target, trying to live peacefully in small town Ponyville as a librarian while continuing my studies." She sighed, and slowly lowered her head. Archmage Wand appeared in a flash of light, held up by her magic's power. "And now I can add Keyblade Wielder and Guardian of Magic to that list. Uhh..." Her Keyblade vanished and Twilight slowly raised her head again.
"Captain Shining Armor and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza's upcoming nuptials is classified information until the invitations go out," Lyra quickly countered. She stopped. "Wait, family of the groom. Duh, of course you would know." Twilight shook her head in exasperation while members of the group laughed.
"There, there, Twilight," Fluttershy said comfortingly. "Everything's going to be okay. Come on, let's have some dinner and get some rest; it's been an eventful day today."

-G-M-

The fire crackled merrily as most of them slept. Only Twilight and Rainbow remained awake to keep watch in the night. They stayed close with their backs to the fire while the others were all between it and the ridge.
Twilight's ears swiveled as she picked up on the sounds of the night critters scurrying around in the underbrush. The forest in front of then danced in the wind and flickering firelight. After all of the excitement and intrigue earlier, Twilight felt it nice to have a moment of quiet peace to reflect on things.
Rainbow broke into her quiet reflection on the world and her place in it with an uncommonly nervous question. "Hey, Twilight, can I talk to you about something?"
"Hm? Oh, sure Rainbow. What is it?"
Twilight heard Rainbow Dash sigh, and turned her head so she could look at the shadowed face of the pegasus. She was fiddling with her hooves. "About, about when you leave to go with them to save the galaxy and stuff... I'm coming with you."
Twilight suspected that Rainbow Dash had been planning on going with her all along, but it was different hearing her declare it without her usual well of confidence. "Rainbow I-"
"I know that it's going to be dangerous," Rainbow Dash quickly interrupted Twilight, "and I know that you can take care of yourself and I'm not just doing this because of Loyalty." Rainbow Dash turned and looked Twilight square in the eyes. There was a fierce determination in them that Twilight only saw when Rainbow Dash talked about the Wonderbolts. "I'm also doing it because of him."
Twilight cocked her head slightly. "Him?" Rainbow Dash gestured towards the sleeping form of Sora. They couldn't see the mark of the burn on his side in the firelight, but they knew it was there.
"Twilight, this isn't like when we went into the Everfree Forest to find the Elements of Harmony and stop Nightmare Moon. We didn't all have to come help them find the keyhole, but we did, and they let us come along for the ride; and now, and now..."
"Rainbow," Twilight started in shock, "are you crying?"
"He got hurt because of me, Twilight!" Rainbow replied, though she didn't deny the tears leaking from her eyes. "It was my fault. He almost died because I got in the way."
"Rainbow Dash, I'm sure he doesn't blame you for this," Twilight said softly.
"I know, and that's what hurts even more!" Rainbow cried. "We barely knew each other, but on our first adventure nopony got hurt. Even with the cliff and the manticore, nopony got hurt, but Twilight, he took that shot for me. I owe him my life, and he'll probably tell me to think nothing of it.
"I need to go," Rainbow declared. "I have a debt to pay, and I need to make sure you come back to the rest of us safe."
"B-but Rainbow Dash," Twilight stammered, "you could get really hurt. Just look at what happened to Sora, and he's a Keyblade Master. You aren't one of these Guardians of Magic, you don't even have a Keyblade! It's not your problem!"
"I don't care!" Rainbow retorted. "Don't you dare tell me that protecting my friend isn't my problem! Do you think that just because some stupid magic sword chose you you're suddenly more awesome than me!? You don't even know how to use it so don't go bringing it up!"
"Rainbow..." Twilight murmured, "I just don't want anypony to get hurt because of me."
"If you're worried about anybody getting hurt, worry about Sora," a voice in the night spoke, "because I'm about to kick his ass!"
A white earth pony raced into the light of their fire, went right past them and straight up to Sora. She reared up on her hind legs, forehooves flashing dangerously. "Wake up you lazy bum!"
Her hooves crashed into the ground right where his head had been a moment before. Sora was up in the air, wincing in pain and eyes wide from adrenaline. "Whoa! What the hell, Naminé!? You could have killed me!"
"You should have thought of that before you almost offed yourself earlier today!" Naminé leapt into the air and caught him. Sora fumbled, struck the back of the cliff, and the pair of them tumbled to the ground. When the dust cleared, she had him pinned to the ground.
"Don't you dare die on her," Naminé warned, tears staining her coat and falling onto Sora's. "Don't you dare do something stupidly heroic again that's going to make her insanely proud of you but leave her without you, and me without Roxas, or else I'm going to go to Hades, drag you back from the Underworld, and send you back down there myself!"
"Naminé..."
Her head fell down onto his. "Don't die on her, Sora. We need you. They'll make her Queen. She needs her King."
"Wow..." Rainbow muttered uncomfortably. "This got real sappy, really fast."
"He almost died, Rainbow," Twilight whispered, "what did you expect?" Rainbow opened her mouth to object, but Twilight stopped her with a well-placed reminder about the conversation they had just been having.
"Me and my big mouth," Rainbow griped, folding her forelegs in front of her chest. Naminé removed herself from being on top of Sora and said something about going to sleep, and he slowly rolled over to look at where Twilight and Rainbow Dash were sitting.
"Are you okay, Dash?" Sora asked.
"I'm fine," Rainbow said quickly, "but forget about me. Are you alright? You took that bolt right in the chest!"
"I've had worse," Sora said with a grimmace as he got onto his hooves. He rubbed his head. "Man. Feels like I crashed headfirst into a tree. So, Twilight, give me a debrief. What's happened since I konked out?"
"Whaddya mean, 'you've had worse'?" Rainbow Dash squawked before Twilight could even begin telling her tale. "That blast practically blew up a tree! The fact that you took it and are still in one piece is nothing short of a miracle!"
"I have to agree with Rainbow Dash, Sora," Twilight added with sincere concern. "You should really see a doctor. I can't even imagine taking a hit like that and a fall like yours and still be standing."
There were a lot more words that she wanted to say to him beyond that, like how insanely stupid he was being moving around instead of lying down with an injury like that, or how thankful she was that he'd saved Rainbow Dash and come out alive. The words just wouldn't come, though, and Sora simply winced and shrugged it off.
"I've had worse," Sora repeated.
"Like Tartarus you have!" Rainbow retorted. Sora immediately reared onto his hind legs and started flapping his wings to steady his body. He pressed his forehooves to his chest and pushed aside some of the fur over a particular spot near the centre.
"Look here," he told Rainbow Dash, his voice still completely calm and non-argumentative. Glancing at each other, Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle both leaned in to get a closer look at the patch of skin.
There was a thin white line there, slightly shorter than the length of Twilight's hoof.
"So it's a scar," Rainbow snorted. "What about it? I've gotten plenty of scars from crashes while I was coming up with new tricks."
Twilight hushed Rainbow Dash. "Rainbow, that's the scar he got when he stabbed himself to free Kairi's heart. Remember when he showed us before? It's the proof that he gave everything to save her." She looked at Sora again, like she was seeing him for the first time. "He has had worse than this."
Twilight then proceeded to tell Sora everything that had happened after he had lost consciousness. Although he wasn't completely pleased with what he heard, he appeared to stomach it.
"Alright," Sora said when Twilight was done. "So Kairi went and blew up the woods, and we gained an undercover royal guard, another foal, and Pete into the party."
"That's about right," Twilight said with a nod of her head.
"Perfect," Sora drawled sarcastically. "I'm going to bed."
Twilight and Rainbow let him go without argument. It took a while for either of them to be sure that he was asleep. Once they were, however, Rainbow Dash tossed another piece of wood on the fire and poked at it with their poking stick before saying quietly, "I'm still coming with you, no matter what you say."
Twilight gave her friend a sideways glance, and just as quietly answered, "Thank you."

-G-M-