Dive To The Heart
After she selected the Avatar, Twilight found herself in free-fall in a black void. She was also in human form and upside-down. This gave her a pretty good view of the pillar of stained-glass beneath her. She wasn't too concerned about the landing. With her high Resilience and Vit, damage from the impact would be little to none.
When she got within twenty feet of the pillar, she abruptly began to slow down by quite a bit. She landed on the pillar with almost no force, as if gravity had been counteracted. This place felt like it was a dream and yet not, so she was going to take what she saw and felt here with a grain of salt.
The pillar depicted herself in her current form asleep, surrounded by a black space filled with ones and zeroes. On the rim of the circular pillar, there were circles filled with friends and family members. Her friends and family from her Basic/Advanced version of Equestria, some of those she'd fought beside in the Paladin Avatar universe, the Knights of the Round Table, including Arthur, Merlin, and Guinevere, as well as those she'd fought in the Crossover Battles.
As if sensing that she'd finished examining the pillar, an almost unearthly voice began to speak. 'So much to do... So little time... Take your time... don't be afraid .'
Three stone platforms with ornate carvings rose out of the pillar at the cardinal directions of north east and west. A trio of strange, dog-sized black creatures appeared behind each of the platform.
Since each platform was at the edge of the pillar, these black creatures were standing on absolutely nothing. She did her best to take this in stride.
A sword appeared on the leftmost pillar, a simple broadsword with an odd green symbol on the hand guard, Two small circles attached to a larger one. It made her think of a mouse for some reason.
A shield appeared on the pillar directly in front of her. It was dark red and had a black version of the symbol on it. The rightmost pillar remained empty.
'Hm, the power sleeping within you has already been given partial form. Complete it, and it will grant you strength. In order to do so, you must give up one of these. The sword represents the power of the warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction. The shield represents the power of the guardian. Kindness to aid friends. A shield to repel all, good or evil. Choose well.' the voice explained.
She thought it over carefully. She was certain this was very important. On one hand, she didn't like the sound of 'terrible destruction' but the sword was a better fit for her fighting style, and herself if she was being honest.
She had done plenty of saving, but not a lot of protecting. Swords weren't suited for protecting anything either. Oh, they could save, but only by removing the source of the problem. That decided, she walked over to the shield and picked it up.
'Are you sure you wish to give up the power of the guardian?' the voice asked.
With some reluctance, she nodded. The shield was consumed by shadows and the stone pillars cracked and sank back into the main pillar. A staff that had a figure head of the strange symbol, blue this time, appeared in her left hand, and the sword in her right.
The black creatures began to move towards her. Since her subspace pocket was being blocked, she couldn't use her trusted holy blades. Ah well, knowing her luck her attacks would phase right through these things if she'd tried that. Her magic wasn't being blocked, but it felt strange, so that was out until she could figure out what was up with it.
'There will be times when you must fight, but keep your light burning strong.' the voice said before things dissolved into a general melee. These might prove insurmountable to a normal person, but her Combat Skill alone, not to mention Blade-wielding, let her win with little trouble. The creatures were soon reduced to dark energy, before disappearing altogether.
They'd still been more of a challenge than they should have been. Things that only granted 1 Exp shouldn't be giving her any trouble in groups smaller than 100.
Before she could ponder further, three strange creatures appeared in a mixture of light and darkness. They were roughly her height, light gray full-body suits, and had neon highlights on said suits. Their limbs were branch-like, and they proved impossibly flexible as they approached. She could only assume that they did not possess skeletons, though that raised the question of how they supported themselves.
When they got within a few feet of her, their bodysuits' mouths unzipped, revealing sharp teeth. Unlike their shorter counterparts, these did not attack mindlessly. They tried to dodge her attacks and co-ordinate with each other. Once they'd dissolved into sparks of blue light upon their defeat, granting 6 Exp each, and an item that restored 40% of her HP with use called a Potion, she started to think all of this over.
That had been harder than it should have been, even disregarding the boost from her soul, that should have been boringly easy, but they were actually able to slow her down in such small numbers. The game chose that moment to speak up.
'You've been afflicted by the Status effect Suppressed Darkness. You are subconsciously suppressing your inner darkness and the effort of this is blocking your full abilities. 75% reduction to all Stats. HP, MP, and Sub-Stats not affected. Can be removed temporarily in Anti-Form, and permanently by learning to control your inner darkness.'
She stared. 75%?!? She was practically back to square one! Once she calmed down a little, she realized that the game had actually told her how to remove the status effect. It had told her how to cause the status effect after the fact, but never how to remove them.
This time, the mysterious voice addressed her. 'Your Darkness is strong, and draining much of your strength to resist it. You may regain your former strength and more if you learn to control it. Be warned, however, those shadows are known as Heartless, and those white creatures have named themselves Nobodies. That is the fate of those who fall prey to Darkness. Anger, Hatred, Fear, Despair, Bitterness, Jealousy, Greed, Power Lust, Pride, Insanity, Loneliness... any and all negative emotions lead to Darkness. If you don't keep it under control, it will control you. ...Although pure light can be just as bad.'
A door appeared in the center of the platform. It was a plain wooden one, but had an air of great importance. 'Beyond this door more Heartless and Nobodies await, as well as a final challenge. You will not be able to turn back once you go through this door. Are you certain you wish to continue?' the voice asked.
She nodded, and the door opened on it's own. She was momentarily blinded by light, and when it faded, she found herself on a new platform. There was no door behind her, so she had to move forward. She examined the pillar for a moment. It depicted a boy in a red hoodie and shorts, with brown hair that was spiky to the point of being gravity-defying, and a pair of huge yellow shoes. There were four circles around his head. A boy with silver hair, a girl with red hair, and two more that appeared to be a dog with a green hat and a duck with a blue hat.
She also had a look at what the Bestiary had to say about the two new types of enemies.
'Shadow. One of the most basic Heartless, though not the weakest. Shadows live up to their name, emerging from the ground to attack with a simple but fierce claw strike. Although the Shadow is relatively easy to defeat when alone, its habit of attacking in swarms can make it too much to handle. Though they are invincible while flattened on the ground, they cannot attack you either, and are vulnerable in the moment they become fully three-dimensional.
'Dusk. The most common form of Nobody. Dusks are fairly weak and require little strategy, but can be a bit troublesome in large groups especially when paired with the Creeper Nobody. They are easily confused by their target making a sudden sharp turn. Like all Nobodies, they are momentarily stunned if their attacks are blocked.'
She closed the Bestiary, nodding. She took a step forward, and was surrounded by an equal number of shadows and Dusks. They had a replacement each time she took one down, until she'd defeated 10 of each. The Shadows proved little more than annoyances, but all these Dusks were keeping her from doing any significant damage to any of their number.
Eventually, she slashed one with an attack from her staff and sword at the same time, making an x-shaped slash mark. It disintegrated into sparks of blue light, and the situation only deteriorated from there for the Nobodies. After that, a series of platforms made of stained-glass appeared to let her reach the next pillar, which was somewhat higher.
There had actually been three pillars the whole time, but she'd had no way of reaching them as she had no chance of jumping that high with her Str. cut by so much, and her magic being blocked meant no teleportation. This was no longer the case.
She moved to the next pillar. It depicted a baker's dozen figures in black coats with the hoods drawn, black gloves, and black boots. There were Dusks in the background. This time, 20 Dusks and 10 Shadows showed up. With more experience with her opponents fighting style, she had slightly less difficulty here than with the previous fight.
When she'd finished with this pillar, she moved on to the next one. This one depicted a barren wasteland with key-shaped swords stuck into the ground. There were pillars of earth reaching into the sky, and a giant blue heart-shaped moon shining down on it all. On the far edge of the pillar, there was another door like the one that had gotten her here. This time there were only ten Dusks, and 30 Shadows.
After she took care of them, she moved over to the door. When she opened it , she was once again blinded by light, and on a pillar that was half a bright yellow that gave a warm impression, and half an inky black that seemed to be trying to consume the light.
The voice piped up. 'You may fear the Darkness, but do not run from it.' Her own shadow pulled itself into the 3-dimensional world. It's eyes were identical to the Shadows' and it possessed a shadowy black version of both her staff and sword. It rushed her so fast her eyes could barely follow it, and smashed into her guard, almost breaking through. It was definitely stronger and faster than her. 'The closer you get o the light, the greater your shadow becomes. But don't forget-' he voice cut off as her shadow rushed her again. She was barely able to block or dodge, let alone counter.
She had 8 Potions at this point, so she might be able to win a battle of attrition. She began to make sacrificial moves. It seemed to be working. Her opponent had 1000 HP at the start of their confrontation, but Twilight soon halved that, and only needed 2 Potions. However, as soon as it's HP dipped below 500, a dark aura flared up around it, and it's speed and strength doubled.
She could barely keep up, and started to take damage like crazy. She was barely able to beat the last 100 HP out of it without using her last Potion, getting a measly 100 Exp for her trouble. Unfortunately, as soon as it's HP hit zero, it dissolved into dark ooze that began sucking her downward, and she couldn't get back any lost ground. 'But don't be afraid.' the voice sounded shaky, as if disturbed by what was happening. 'Your heart is the mightiest weapon of all. And don't forget...' she had sunk up to her chin at this point, and her struggles were barely slowing the muck down. '... light and darkness are two sides of the same coin. You can't have one without the other.' Darkness swallowed her.
***
She sat bolt upright as she awoke. After quickly making sure she still possessed all her body parts and that they were in working order, she looked around the room she was in. It was orange. No, that wasn't quite right. It was the color of the sky in the summer during sunset. She grinned at that little irony. The bed she was currently in was the only furniture in the room, and even it was Spartan despite it's surprising comfort.
She turned to the sound of the door opening, as a rather tall man with a blue pointed hat with stars and crescent moons on it, a grey beard, and blue robes that practically screamed 'wizard' came in.
"Ah, I see you are awake." he said, his seemingly default severe expression turning into a smile. "Allow me to introduce myself. I do not expect it to mean anything to you, but my name is Yen Sid." the man said.
Twilight knew only what the Avatar's description had told her about Yen Sid, which was to say, next to nothing. "I'm Twilight Sparkle. Could you tell me where I am? The last thing I remember clearly before waking up here was an odd dream." Twilight said. She was certain that dream had been very important, but she wasn't sure how. The Avatar's description had mentioned Yen Sid being her teacher, so she could probably trust him.
"You are inside my tower. I had to make this room as the tower is not exactly used to accommodating guests for any lengthy period of time. The last was my former apprentice Mickey, and that was more than a decade ago." Yen Sid explained.
Twilight thought this over for a moment. Well, if he'd made the room, then that implied a great deal of magic involved as this room certainly didn't look new and Yen Sid was pretty much the archetype of wizards. That, or he was stupidly good at altering how space worked. Maybe some of both.
"If you do not mind, may I ask if you heard a strange voice you could not place or saw living shadows in your dream?" Yen Sid asked.
Twilight blinked. How did he know that? "Yes, there were gray things called Nobodies too. I had to fight my own shadow right at the end."
Yen Sid straightened at that. "I would appreciate it if you went into detail. It may be important." he said.
Twilight had no reason to mistrust him, so she described the odd dream as best she could. Minus the contributions from The Game of course. Yen Sid asked for more details on occasion, but didn't interrupt beyond that.
"From the sound of it, you experienced a Dive to the Heart, or Deep Dive. It's a manifestation of the heart that appears when something of importance to your heart specifically occurs. I do not speak of the physical heart, though there is a connection. Rather, I refer to the metaphysical heart which holds your memories and is the source of your emotions. From the sound of it, you experienced a trial that the Keyblade puts it's potential wielders through in order to determine their worth."
"Keyblade?" she asked.
"An ancient and powerful weapon that can be used to lock or unlock almost any lock. As you can imagine, this implies a great deal of responsibility on it's own. However, it is also one of the only weapons that can permanently harm the Heartless and Nobodies, both of whom cause much chaos and bedlam. Only those bearing a Keyblade and their allies can fight effectively against either of them.
We are the only ones with the means to safeguard the many worlds, and so, we have little choice but to do so. It would appear you are the newest addition to our ranks." Yen Sid explained.
"Let me guess. I have no say in the matter. It'll stick with me whether I like it or not." Twilight deadpanned. As if taking offense, a key-shaped sword appeared in her right hand in a mixture of points of light and a cloud of darkness. It had her element for teeth, connected between two of the spikes to a dark blue shaft that led to a square guard formed out of what looked like sheets of paper folded over each other. The handle was a normal white cylinder. The keychain was the stone orb that the element of magic had been when she first encountered it. It was about four and a half feet long. The name Hidden Star popped into her head.
She held it in front of her. "Am I paranoid or was it just spiteful?" Twilight asked.
Yen Sid stroked his beard for a moment. "Keyblades have demonstrated that they each possess a will and they are closely tied to the hearts of their bearers. It is not impossible that they can also feel emotion." he said.
"Ah." she addressed her new weapon. "Sorry about that." If she was stuck with this thing, she might as well be polite. She turned back to Yen Sid. "You seem to know a lot about the Keyblade. Would you be willing to teach me? I'd like to be able to summon Hidden Star when I want to, and not whenever it feels like showing up. Plus, I'm going to have to help out with the Heartless and Nobodies at some point." Twilight said.
"I see. Well, you need to concentrate on your heart in order to summon it, and to dismiss it. Though it will disappear on it's own if you lose consciousness."
'Chapter Progress: 0 quests completed. 0 stars found. 1480 Exp to next level.
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Doub;le ~yay~!
Triple YAY!
Damn, that was shorter than I wanted... But still...
YAY NEW CHAPTER!!!
~Crystalline Electrostatic~
Haven't read it yet but...
screwattack.com/sites/default/files/blog_header_photos/241031/blog_header_12845572.png
wooo-hooo!
>.>
Am I the only one who wants to see Pokemon Twilight?
fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/323/0/7/sonic_exe_by_xxember4yaxx-d5lhwle.jpg
It wouldn't surprise me if Yen Sid, like Celestia, Luna, and Discord, knows about The Game Twilight is within.
5275416 No you are not. Would she be an actual pokemon as in (Mystery Dungeon), or would she be an actual trainer?
"Damnit Blue, get out of my way."
"Ha, you must be crazy if you think you can beat me with your weak pokemon, Purple! I'll destroy you!"
"...Whatever. Lets just get this over with, allright?"
*Whups his butt within a minute*
5124445 Cause Jesus Auto-revives every three turns.
When I see update, I'm all like "le gasp!" And begins reading
*like a zombie* kingdom hearts....
btw I have an Idea that you might like if you do not already have it planed.
Alright!
Glad to see an update, and a KH one, no less.
I'm counting on you to not disgrace the story, or elements of it, at least not badly.
Good luck!
~TOOWC
Why didnt this appere within my unread chaptes folder when it came out? This is a great chapter btw.
Wow, this chapter is much better than a lot of the previous ones. Good job, I'm interested in seeing where this goes.
Am I the only to read Yen Sid in his voice? (or as Morgan Freeman)
5275760
Nah, I heard it too.
Makes sense, when you think about it.
5275522
e.e Nooo. It's Green. Blue was the crafty girl. /weeaboo moment
5276076
I thought yellow was the girl...she had a pikachu, too...
Nice update, but a little on the short side.
So this is a kingdom hearts story. Cool.
Back to square one trope? Nice. Hope you'll play it out good.
However I did not see Twi hit a dead end or slow her progress significantly to make a `rebirth into stronger being` move. Maybe you should have disabled lower difficulty and move it up a notch.... or .... or .... it's what you are planning to do? More challanges and greater rewards?
You know I really love the fact that you are actually going deeper into one of the worlds next to the baseline. This way we actually get to read how it all happens and not just a recollection at the end. I can't wait to read more of it.
I know it probably won't, but I could see this story turning into multiple stories as soon as you said a Kingdom Hearts arc was coming...
5275522
I'd think she'd have to be the Pokemon. Unless the author has a clever way of doing it, most of her hard-earned stats would be completely useless if she could only throw Pokemon out.
Hey, still updating! Good to see.
Despite the rough beginning, I really have enjoyed this story and the concept it was born from. Keep at it! 
Soon
5276102 Green is a girl, Red is ash from the tv series, Blue is Garry, And Yellow was a special bit done as ash with his pikachu that wouldn't stay inside the pokeball.
5276574 I was thinking an Abra, but do you guys think Ralts would be a better idea because of it's Gallade evolution?
5275522 I just had a thought. She accompanies Ash as a Pokemon of his that he encounters shortly after meeting Misty and that first encounter with Team Rocket.
5275551 I see what you did there. Actually, since he's pretty much God incarnate, he could bend reality to his will if he really wanted too. This means it is nigh impossible to beat him. He could make himself invincible and negate all of Twilight's resistance to damage, making a finger-flick from him a one-hit kill.
5276944
Ralts would be good, but I was leaning towards her being an Espeon since it's a quadruped, the same coat color, and if you're having her join up that early, you could even have her start as an Eevee and then have her evolve soon afterwards if you want to.
Did you ever thought about steampunk Twi :D please give this idea a chance
5277315 Point taken.
5277521 Though there's always the Pokemon Ranger route. There's a lot of physical activity involved there.
5277521
Damn, now I'm trying to imagine the differences that there could be between Normal-Espeon and Twilight-Espeon and I can't get to sleep because of it.
yes
yes
5276962 He's God with most of his powers locked in order that he might learn compassion for mortals. Having him fight in the arena would have to be a trick battle. He just stands there while you beat on him, and if he dies, you lose.
I'm not sure how you'd win. Maybe you couldn't.
5276753
Green is Gary, Blue is a girl who was also known as the Pokemon Breeder due to her ability to help them evolve, Red was known as the Fighter. Yellow is a little girl everyone thought was a boy and has some sort of empathic power to communicate with pokemon due to being from Viridian somehow.
The American release has Gary as Blue because we didn't get Pokemon Green. The original Pokemon Green became our Pokemon Blue and the original Pokemon Blue never made it over here. Thankfully he's still listed as Green everywhere else.
5277315
Remember, We Do have Shiny/Abnormally Colored Pokemon.
Espeon is nice, but considering Twilight's now excellent ability with Physical weaponry and Magic, I would be more tempted to turn her into a Mixed Attacker.
Good Mixed Attackers of Note: Lucario(would be my personal Pref), Arceus, Entei, Tyranitar, Infernape.
Gallade is a No go though. Gallade's main requirement is that a lvl 20 MALE Kirila is exposed to a Awakening Stone.
5277881 I thought you meant the manga which had green as a chick that would rip you off as soon as she smiled at you with red still being Ash and blue as Gary, and if you want to argue over the manga doing that I still have after 15 or so years
5276962 That would mean making himself an immortal object. Which is a cheap shot that they used in Sword Art Online to make the main villain survive through to the end of the first season.
5278365
I'd agree with you there if Eevee didn't turn into Espeon with a high friendship level while the sun is out. Anyway, Espeon can learn some decent physical attacks and it isn't hard to imagine that a TwiEspeon would be able to learn more than a normal one.
Shirou emiya
I think if you're going to do Pokemon, the best way to do it would be in the style of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon because she has full control over what she does and where she goes. Also, theres missions with rewards and experience and dungeons and no quarrels over the ethics of trainer/Pokemon relationships (which I feel is just absolutely murdered at this point with how practically every MLP/Pokemon crossover them) and has and a teammate that may or may not be a liability which, if done correctly, I think it could be hilarious...
But you know, keep doing good things
[obligatory MOAR!!!]
This was a beautiful chapter. I could practically hear the Dive to the Heart Music. Also, nice touch with the Suppressed Darkness Ailment.
Simply gorgeous! I have to ask - is she going to get valor/magic/ultimate forms too?
5277798 Have a debate over tea instead?
5279128
As Long as she gets the Epic Trump card move, ill be happy. XD
5284372 Actually, I was thinking about giving her a bunch of psychic moves, Shadow Ball and Shadow Claw, from the Darkness, and a variant of Swords Dance where she uses her powers to make the swords full-fledged constructs instead of an attack boost. She'd also have Aura Sphere and she could fake having invented a new variant of Double Team to let her use her clones. Substitution is already a Pokémon move too, though Ditto's Transform isn't an illusion, unlike the one from Naruto, which I believe is supposed to be, but Naruto dumps an absurd amount of chakra into everything right at the beginning. The monkey boss summon can presumably do the same because he's a boss summon.