“A cyan feathered face, crowned with rainbow plumage, obscured the purple duck’s face. ‘Twilight Quackle-Senpai…’ it moaned. ‘Rainbow Duck…’ was the mage’s reply. Beaks came closer and closer, and lightly touched…” Nid muttered to himself (though it was muffled and illiterate) as he bent over a desk, quill in mouth. “A wing reached down to her lower regions and...!”
“NID!!!” Twilight's voice yelled through the Gummi Ship. The door to Nid's room slid open and Twilight stomped. At first she looked annoyed, but her expression quickly became one of confusion. “Why is your desk on fire?”
“Nothing!” Indeed, the stallion’s desk had been reduced to a miniature bonfire in a matter of seconds as Nid grinned nervously. The sprinklers activated, putting out the fire and leaving Nid drenched.
“Ok..? Well, what I want to know why is the food storage filled only with ice cream!?” Twilight levitated several containers of Sea Salt Ice Cream in front of Nid. He snatched one from her magic, popped off the top and stuck his head in.
“I don't see a problem here,” Nid said, licking the ice cream off his mouth as he came up for air.
“Me neither!” Rainbow floated in with Spike on her back, both eating from tubs of ice cream.
“As much as you like ice cream, we can’t just eat ice cream for the whole adventure! We need to get proper food,” said Twilight as she levitated Spike’s tub of ice cream away. He cried many tears.
“Arggg, fine. We’ll stop by a store. To the bridge!” Nid bolted to the cockpit of the Highwind. The Equestrians came after him at a slower place and sat down in the seats, Spike sitting on a smaller chair added on next to Twilight’s chair on the left. “Okay, nearest Galactic Refuel Station, go!”
Twilight and Rainbow barely managed to get their seat belts on as Nid threw a lever forward, sending the Highwind into warpdrive. Spike flew over his seat and hit the closed cockpit door, his lips flapping from the intense speed. Just as quick as the boost came, the ship stopped and Spike crashed into the window.
"Owww..."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Okay, so do any of you have munny?” Nid asked. They Gummi Ship was parked next to a refueling station, filling the Highwind’s energy tanks with power. The Station had a simple layout; an area of the rocky meteor was built smoothed out for for ships to refuel and repair next to a colorful brick building. The trio of Nid, Twilight and Rainbow (Spike staying on the Highwind) entered the building through a pair of sliding doors.
The inside was well lit and pleasantly colored with music playing from speakers overhead. The building space was taken up by aisles and aisles of assorted merchandise, from snacks to books to machine parts and everything in between.
“Um…” Twilight and Rainbow looked at each other sheepishly as Nid shook his head back and forth. “Do bits work?”
“Welcome to Moogle Galactic Refuel Station #56780, for all your interstellar needs, kupo!” A moogle waved to them from the three checkout lines by the door.
“Yo,” Nid waved back, “And no. Munny is used in almost every world, save a couple of ones like ‘Questria that are sealed off from the rest of the multiverse, save a few back doors. I've got some munny from killing Heartless though. Don’t know why creatures of darkness carry around munny, but it’s useful, whatever the reason,” The stallion pulled two little bags out of a pocket on the emerald-green button-up shirt he wore and gave them to the two mares. “And break!”
“Sooo, I’ll just leave the important stuff to you Twi and go check out… stuff. See ya!” Rainbow dashed off into the store, Nid going off in the opposite direction.
“Hey! Don’t just..! Whatever.” Twilight shook her head as she let out a deep sigh. She lifted the coin purse and set it inside a magic pocket on her pants, and made her way to the food aisles. The unicorn came to a section for fruit and, picking up a basket, began filling it with the produce.
“Hmmm, bananas, pears, apples… That should be goo- Eep!” Twilight squeaked as she turned from the fruit display and bumped into someone. She fell to the floor, her fruit spilling on the ground. “Ohh, sorry.” the lavender mare chuckled nervously.
“... Clumsy… I wonder why it choose you..?” said the quiet voice of a stallion.
“Hey! That's not very- nice!?” Twilight flew backwards with a flap of her wings from the hooded stallion. Twilight summoned her Keyblade and brandished it at the mysterious Organization member, who merely brushed strands of greenish-yellow mane out of his eyes, unseen underneath the shade of his hood.
“Perhaps… I should give you a test… Yes… My mission… I doubt you will be able to stop me, but no doubt you'll try. So come… Play with me…” The Nopony opened a Corridor of Darkness behind him and stepped through it before Twilight had the time to attack.
“What did he mean by ‘his mission’?” Twilight wondered as she dispelled her weapon. Suddenly, an explosion rocked the Station as Twilight tried to collect her fallen fruit.
“TWIIIIIILLLIIIGGGhhhtttt..!” Nid ran past the aisle Twilight was standing in, Rainbow in tow close behind. The two backtracked and ran up to the startled unicorn. “Explosions are always bad signs!”
“When are they ever good signs?” Twilight retorted.
“Whatever, we should check it out! That's how we found Nid, remember? So if we follow exploding things, we’ll be on the right track!” Rainbow said, before she grabbed Nid by his scruff and took off in a dash, Twilight following closely. They burst through the Station doors to the sight of several Heartless attacking the patrons of the store. Soldiers danced around while Red Nocturnes and Rhapsodies fired magic around. But the main cause of alarm was the giant Heartless behind them.
The large Heartless' body consisted of yellow and green spheres, with bright blue clocks set in it at random spots all across. One such clock was set right in the center of his face, just under two flowing yellow eyes like a nose. Twitching slightly, two oversized clock hands stuck out of it like some kind of bizarre mustache.
The giant clock hands on the Time Twister’s face spun at a super fast speed, causing the clock nose to glow blindingly before it released a blast of golden energy out, obliterating a large portion of the Station behind the heroes.
Nid reached into his shirt and pulled out from it his naginata as Twilight summoned her Keyblade. Rainbow already had her boots on, but with a thought the spikes that adorned them popped out from their dormant state. The Time Twister and the minion Heartless turned at the appearance of the Keyblade, giving the assorted creatures that were in the station time to flee to the Gummi Ships.
“Let’s do this!” Twilight shouted, as the trio prepared to leap into the fight against the Heartless. But laser blasts rained down on them, destroying the weaker Heartless and causing the Time Twister to stumble. The Highwind flew over them, chased by small Heartless ships shaped like dragonflies that shot their own lasers at it. Twilight could just make out Spike at the helm, dodging the Heartless’ lasers with some difficulty. But Twilight and companies attentions were taken from the commencing aerial battle by the groan of the Time Twister Heartless as it groaned.
The large Heartless unexpectedly dissolved into a wave of smoke and flew backwards to the Ship Bay. The only ship remaining there was an odd blue box, where two ponies; a brown Earth Pony with a darker brown mane wearing a green tie, and a grey pegasus mare with a blond mane; were entering the box. The Heartless blew past them into the box, pulling the two ponies into it with them.
“We have to go after it! We've got to help those ponies!” Twilight yelled, flying forward into the boxes still-open doors. Nid and Rainbow ran in after her not a second too soon, as the box’s door closed behind them and darkness surrounded it like a cocoon.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Okay Spike, you can do this! Keep calm, keep calm, keep- Ahhh!” Spike was sitting in Nid's chair directly at the Gummi Ship's control console, the seat raised as high as it could for Spike to see through the window. The drake yelled as he swerved the Highwind in a sharp turn at the sudden appearance of more Heartless Ships right in his path. His quick turn only took him face to face with a group of more the Heartless ready to attack.
Somehow, Spike managed to corkscrew the Highwind right through the Dragonfly Heartless Ships and disorientate them. With a quick pull of the brake, the young drake spun the Gummi Ship around to face the stunned Heartless’ backs and fired off the laser cannons, blowing the ships to kingdom come.
“Hooray! I… Oh.” Spike’s celebration was cut short by swarms of Heartless Ships surrounding him. The Highwind’s sensors went crazy with beeps as the ship's radar was covered in red. Spike rocketed off, trying to avoid the enemy attacks. While he did his best, the Highwind took uncountable hits, causing the ship to toss and turn. The only good thing was that the Dragonfly Heartless Ships were weak, but they were wearing down the Gummi Ship little by little.
“Ah, I don’t know what to... Do?” Spike’s mind calmed as he saw a big crystal button underneath a plastic cover on the colorful console.
"And this is the brakes, and that's the headlights and that's the horn-" Nid rattled on as he gave Spike a rundown of the Highwind's controls.
"Hey, what's this one do?" Spike pointed to the big crystal button.
"That? That's the Soul Drive; something the boss helped me install. He's real big on the 'power of the heart' and has a bunch of stuff that magnifies the power of someone's heart. Like my naginata, Golden Dawn," Nid explained, "It takes the light in my heart and amplifies it into a power used to fight the Heartless. That button works under the same principle, but it channels the light in your heart throughout the whole ship. It’s untested, and in theory really taxing on the user cause of the amount of space it has to channel your heart across. So I don't really want it to be used unless absolutely necessary. Kapeesh?"
"Got it!" Spike gave the white stallion a thumbs up. "Oh what’s this switch do!"
"That's for the heated seats and the one next to it is...
"I guess I don't really have a choice, do I?" Spike snapped out of his flashback and stared at the Soul Drive for a moment before making his decision. "Screw it!" His scaly fingers flipped open the cover and with a moment’s hesitation, Spike slammed his hand down on the button.
"Soul Drive, engage!" The button glowed green and purple, the light spreading all across the Highwind in seconds. The light grew unbearably bright, vaporizing some of the closer Dragonflies. The light cut out with one last bright flash, revealing a transformed Highwind. The originally red and orange ship was now mostly bright purple with green accenting it. The ship was sharper and smoother, while the nose cone had changed into a dragon head. A tail trailed behind in with a large laser blaster mounted on the end. Finally, emerald green fire engulfed the whole ship, with smaller purple fire coming from the engines.
Spike grinned inside the Highwind, pulling down a pair of goggles he found under the console. "Mess with fire, you get burned. Mess with a dragon... You get roasted!!" He grasped the new steering wheel that had grown out of the console and pressed two little buttons on it. The wing mounted cannons, the tail mounted one, and the dragon head nosecone all charged up with purple energy and let loose solid beams of raw power through the horde of Heartless. The drake spun the wheel and the Highwind mimicked the motion, turning into a spinning wheel of death as the blasts ripped through its enemies.
Spike's spin came to a stop, leaving half of the Heartless Ships remaining. He revved the Highwind's engines in challenge as the Heartless began to charge at him with reckless abandon. Grinning, he let loose an echoing roar that somehow defied physics and sounded in the empty void of space ("That's my drake!" Pinkie cried with a hoof-pump.) and launched forward to meet the oncoming horde.