A Heart Eclipsed

by Show Stopper

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

3rd-pony POV

Confound this new castle! How does anypony navigate this maze? The further through Canterlot Castle Sora ran, the more frustrated he became. The layout was completely different from the Castle of the Royal Siblings, and he had only the occasional scream and a vague sense of darkness coming from deeper inside the castle to guide him.

"Sora! Wait up!"

The fact that he had to slow himself down so as not to loose the ponies that followed him just served to irk him further. Solaris and Luna could always keep up with him just fine, but everypony else struggled to keep the same pace.

"Remind me why they're tagging along?" asked Sora as he and the two alicorns stopped to wait once again for the Element bearers.

"They wield the Elements of Harmony," replied Luna, "the most powerful magical artifacts in Equestria. They may be of use."

"Not if this is what I think it is," muttered Sora. He turned to Solaris, who was staring with worry in the direction that they had been slowly making their way towards. "What's down that way, anyway?"

Solaris shook his head. "Not much. The kitchens, a few private libraries, and," he winced as another scream rang out, "the wing reserved for the nobility."

Sora swallowed nervously, turning to Luna with concern. "Good nobles? Representatives of the common pony's will? A standard to look up to?"

Luna's response was interrupted by a low hiss. The three of them turned to look down the corridor just as the Element bearers caught up.

"Wha- what is that?" asked Twilight, pointing a shaking hoof down the hallway. A creature stood there, similar in shape to Sora, but much thinner and lankier. Its skin was of the darkest black, and its eyes shone yellow as it stared at them all, crouched low to the ground.

"Neoshadow," muttered Sora, summoning Oblivion. "Thankfully, there's only one."

Suddenly, several portals of darkness opened up around the neoshadow. Out of them jumped five, ten, twenty more. A veritable wall of darkness now stood before them, hungry yellow eyes gleaming out of here and there.

"You were saying?" asked Solaris, charging his horn as he lowered his head.

"Sora," said Luna, crafting twin short-swords with her magic, "you asked about the nature of the nobility. With the exception of a select few," she spat to the side, "this is it."

Another scream rang out and Sora tightened his grip on Oblivion. "Sounds like those select few need our help."

"Wait!" shouted Twilight, panic building in her voice. "What are you talking about? What are these 'neoshadows'? What happened to the nobles? What's going on?"

"No. It can't be." The soft, scared whisper caused everyone to turn to Elusive. He pointed a shaking hoof at the mass of neoshadows, eyes wide and focused on a single point. "One of them," he shuddered, "one of them is wearing a tie." Sure enough, one of the neoshadows sported a blue bow-tie around its neck.

"Are you serious, Elusive?" shouted Rainbow. "There's a swarm of monsters over there about to charge, and you're looking at their fashion accessories?"

"No, he's right to notice it," said Solaris, a touch of sadness breaking through his battle mask. "Twilight, you should recognize it too. After all, he did make your time here in Canterlot rather difficult."

Confused, Twilight took another look at the bow-tie, gears turning in her head as she tried to place it. She soon remembered who usually wore that tie, and her blood turned to ice in her veins. "B-Blueblood?"

As if it had been a signal, the tie-wearing neoshadow hissed and charged, the other twenty following close behind.

"Don't worry," said Sora, twirling Oblivion confidently. "I'll handle them." He charged forward, ready to do combat with the darkness that charged him...

...and fell to the ground as something hit him in the face.

Everything froze in observance of this moment of awkwardness. Even the neoshadows stopped, confused at this turn of events. Solaris recovered first and shot a beam of sunlight from his horn at the mass of stunned shadow.

"Sora!" called Luna, rushing to his side. "Are you alright?"

"Did someone get the cutie mark on that pegasus?" Sora groaned. He sat up, looking around for whatever had smacked him in the face. He found it lying on the ground nearby, a small pink and yellow sea shell, one that Sora hadn't seen in thousands of years. "What the hay," he muttered, picking up the Thalassa shell. As he did, a voice echoed in his head.

Whoever finds this shell, if you ever find yourself assaulted by the light or the dark, call upon me, the one who walks the path between, and I will show your enemies the power of nothing.

"...seriously, what the hay?" He looked up just in time to see a neoshadow get torn to ribbons by Luna's blades. "Right. Fight first, question voices in my head later." He jumped to his feet, quickly joining the fray. Within minutes, the neoshadows were destroyed, leaving only wisps of darkness behind that slowly faded away.

"Ah, it's good to be fighting again," said Sora, cranking his arm in a circle. "I haven't had this much fun in more than a thousand years."

"Fun? FUN!" He turned to see Elusive standing nearby, holding up Blueblood's tie. "How can you call fighting these, these monsters fun? What did they do to Blueblood? How many others have they hurt or-" Elusive stopped short, unable to finish the thought.

Another scream, accompanied by the sound of galloping hooves, reminded all of them that the fight wasn't yet over. "Let's go," Sora said. "I'll explain on the way."

Sora POV

"They're called heartless," I said, slashing through another neoshadow as I ran.

"But I thought you called them neoshadows," said Berry, running just behind me, apparently unfazed by the fight.

"Neoshadows are a type of heartless, one of the more common ones." I threw Oblivion down the hall, slicing through five more. "Heartless are creatures of pure darkness. They're created when someone gives into the darkness in their heart and lets it take over them. Their heart is consumed, leaving only a heartless behind."

"They have but one goal," Luna chimed in, casually slicing through two more. "They seek to devour every heart, and plunge the world into darkness eternal."

"So, the ones that you killed back there," Elusive flinched as I threw out a fira spell, incinerating several neoshadows in one go, "the one's you're killing now, they're..."

"A vast majority of the nobility," Solaris finished, grabbing a heartless in his magic and hurling it into Luna's waiting blades. "Or what's left of them. Blueblood and the others are already dead. All that remain are shadows."

I wish they were just Shadows, I thought, stopping to combat three heartless that had dropped from the ceiling. Those little guys are much easier to handle.

My thoughts were interrupted by an aristocratic voice from around the corner. "Back, foul creatures! Back I say!"

"Fancy Pants!" Solaris shouted. "He's still all right!"

"We'd better make sure he stays that way," I said. "Stopga!" Every heartless in sight froze, allowing the royal siblings and I to get passing blows on them as we sprinted down the hall. Turning the corner, we were all taken aback by what we saw.

Five ponies cowered near the end of the hallway, and a dozen neoshadows filled the space directly before us. Standing between them, horn glowing, was a white coated unicorn, his mane and tail a light shade of blue. He wore a cracked monocle over one eye and a suit that was ripped and torn in various places. What was amazing, though, was what he held in his magic. A long rod of golden metal shimmered, pointed straight at the heartless. Attached to the end facing him was an ovular hilt guard, two waves spiraling around the edge and a crown capping the end. Out of the side of the rod facing the heartless flowed a series of blue plates, shaped like cresting waves.

"Is that a keyblade?" Applejack asked in shock.

"Oh, hello there," said the unicorn, smiling even as he kept his eyes trained on the mob of heartless. "Come to help out, have you? Shouldn't take too long. I figure I've got these buggers just about I said back!" He deftly swiped his keyblade through one of the neoshadows, who had tried to pounce on him in this moment of distraction. "Just about on the run, don't you think?" he finished jovially.

"Let's make this go a little faster, then," I said, pointing Oblivion straight up. "Magnega!" A swirling vortex appeared over my head, sucking all of the neoshadows up into it. One jump and three swipes of my blade later, and all that was left was a quickly dissipating haze of darkness.

The unicorn, Fancy Pants, blinked in shock before lowering his own keyblade. "Well, that's certainly one way to do it." He turned around, smiling gently at the ponies that still cowered behind him. "It's all right. The threat has passed."

"For now, anyway," I said, dismissing Oblivion as I looked over his keyblade. "So, where'd you get this?"

Fancy Pants looked over his blade as well, studying every detail. "I'm not completely certain," he admitted with a shrug. "When everypony started turning into those shadow monsters, I gathered those few who seemed unaffected and ran. When I saw that they were catching up to us, I turned about, drawing my blade." He gestured to the empty sheathe belted to his side. "I realize that it was only a ceremonial thing, of little use in actual combat, but I figured that I would at least be able to hold them off for long enough for everypony else to escape. Much to my surprise, my first swing at one of those creatures resulted in a great flash of light, and I was left holding Calming Sea."

"Holding what?" asked Twilight.

"His keyblade," I explained. "Every keyblade has a name, and a keyblade wielder seems to know their blade's name instinctively."

"So that's what this is!" exclaimed Fancy Pants happily. "I must say, it looks quite a bit different from yours."

"Yeah, Oblivion's a real powerhouse. May I?" I asked, reaching towards his blade. He hoofed it over and I gave it a few practice swings. "Hm. Good balance. Not too heavy or too light. Probably works best using a series of quick blows, rather than just force. And I'm getting that tingly feeling that comes from thunder spells." I held it back out and he took it in his magic. "I'll teach you more about it in a bit. For now, we should probably-"

A loud BOOM echoed throughout the castle, shaking it and sending several of us to the floor. "What the hay was that!" shouted Applejack.

"Nothing good, I'll bet," said Luna, hoisting me to my feet. We rushed down the hall the way we came, two more tremors shaking the castle before we finally found a window. We all looked out, and I felt my heart sink.

Darksides. Three of them. Along with at least five behemoths. The behemoths rampaged through Canterlot, sending ponies galloping and flying in every direction while the darksides picked up entire houses and hurled them at the castle. Thankfully, their aim was terrible, but it was a small blessing. Three so far had managed to strike the castle, and I was willing to bet that it was magic alone that kept the damage from being more severe.

Fancy Pants swallowed nervously beside me. "Well, something tells me that these are a little out of my depth."

I nodded, reaching into my pocket and pulling out the Thalassa shell. I looked at it, remembering the voice that I'd heard in my head when I'd first picked it up. Holding it up to my face, I focused on it, praying that I knew what I was doing.

"I don't know if you can hear this," I said, wincing as another house struck the castle, "but if you can, and if you have some way to get here, I could really use some help right now."

Alex 3rd-Person POV

Things had been going well for Alex since his displacement. He had a nice home, friends and someone to relate to in the form of Xemnas...who was currently kicking his ass.

"You need to pay attention," Xemnas scolded, getting into a stance, adjusting his keyblade grip.

"And you need a new haircut," Alex snapped, picking himself off the ground, glaring up at the taller nobody, "It would help if you stopped going all boss mode on me."

"How can you learn if I don't challenge you?" He shot back, raising his eyebrow.

Alex opened his mouth to respond when portal opened behind him. "Uh..."

"I believe you have just been summoned," Xemnas said, dispelling his keyblade.

"Should I be worried?" Alex asked, looking at the portal with a frown.

"No, you can choose to ignore it but, the person who summoned you may need help."

"You uh...coming?" Alex asked, moving closer to the portal, peering in.

"Not this time but if you need me, just call." Xemnas said softly before pushing Alex into the portal.

"You dick!" Alex shouted as the portal shut behind him.

Comments

[Hoppa_21]

Interesting. Guess I will have to wait for more.

You go, Alex!

[Regreme]

Who's Alex?*confused*

[Hunterhd1]

6453752 probably another displaced

[Regreme]

6454733 lol I figured that much. But from what fic?

[Show Stopper]

6454733 Correct. More details in the next chapter, which will be out before the end of the week.

[golden dawn]

?? If u defeat the heartless dasint Sore get money or item's from them even new summens??

[Show Stopper]

6455210 Sora: "ing game mechanics."

[Hoppa_21]

6454784

The end of the week? You are one fast writer, Author. Or/And good at organisation to make it that quick!

I'm already thrilled to see how it continues and I hope the circumstances of his imprisonment will be revealed soon! Oh, and I hope you will provide a link to the crossover story!