36. Lost Empire: Plaza
Ancient City Atlantis - Main Plaza
The woman I now knew as Kida led most of our group across the wooden bridge though Rourke had the bright idea of leaving behind a small contingent of soldiers to secure a departure zone for when we actually had to leave. It seems something he kept would take us back up to surface when the time came. For the most part all of us trotted at an easy pace taking in all the sights of the waterlogged city. Octavia and Fresh Coat seemed to be perking their ears a lot taking in the cultural sights for their own personal muses. Vinyl and Spitfire were a bit more nonchalant of their excitement though the fact we could see through each other’s illusion their tails were wagging in excitement. I wanted to make a joke about it but it was better that I save it for ammo later.
Sunshower and Redheart were the quietest of us all making sure to stick close to me for some reason. From what I could tell we were starting to get worried looks from soldiers… meaning Rourke was going to do something soon. Sunshower especially looked worried since our plans depended on certain circumstances. Redheart kept a steely gaze on certain members of the group especially Milo who was gushing entirely about this archeological find and the importance of history in the making.
“Sir… This changes everything.” A female voice whispered out forcing me to readjust my ears to listen in on things.
“This changes nothing.” The gruff voice of Rourke hissed back.
Well… that was unsettling enough to worry about. Surprisingly all of the mares heard as well making it even worse. Everypony looked ready to charge against Rourke until I stomped my hoof down. I shook my head and quickly led them away from the commander before they did anything. Regardless of what I wanted to do and what they felt they should do we needed to play it close to the vest.
“Look… I know you girls want to do something but timing is everything in this case. If we strike first before he does anything all those mercenaries will turn on us. We’re strong but guns reach pegasus speeds and hurt very badly. We need to figure out who is on whose side before we commit to something.”
“We all know Gray but he is a corrupted monster in waiting. I’ve known unicorns in Canterlot who were jerks that still wouldn’t act like that even on their worst day.” Octavia stated though I knew she didn’t want to think about those ponies anymore than the next pony did.
“Can’t leave jerks to do whatever they want, ya know.” Vinyl added in.
“I know but we need to plan for what he decides to do. We’re only one small group and we don’t have the means to deal with everything. So we do the best thing we can and keep things from going off the deep end.”
Everypony seemed to contemplate things as Milo was led by Kida towards the palace in the center of town. Rourke and Helga followed after him. Another guard actually forced our group to follow along as well while the other mercs remained on station repairing and maintaining the equipment they held without too much interference from the local population. It was surprising how many people were actually still alive and all of them spoke languages we could never hope to understand or mix it with another.
“I wish I could understand what they were saying…” Sunshower muttered close to my ear when she said it.
“Milo would know. It is his job to understand languages.”
“Gray… Will this plan work?” Sunshower stopped me from speaking further. The look on her face told me all I needed to know. She was worried about this plan in its entirety.
“Yes. It will work but we need to make sure we do it right. Remember it’s going to be touch and go when we spring the plan up.”
Before she could continue we were ushered into the main palace before the king… who looked nearly dead. The whites of his eyes meant he was also blind but he knew we were there all the same. He stared down Rourke, Milo and Helga intensely. When his eyes found us… they softened slightly as he motioned his guards to put us off to the side.
“You are not welcome here.” The King spoke to the merc captain.
“Please your highness we are merely explorers who have come in search of this fabled service in the name of science and discovery.” Rourke smoothly stated.
“I know what you have come for and you will not find it here.” The king slammed his staff on the ground shutting them up. “You will leave now.”
“Sir… I really think we should listen to them.” Milo nudged Rourke seeming a bit worried how this would go.
“Hold on son.” Rourke motioned to Milo. “Please your highness at the very least allow us a day to rest and recuperate from our long trek. We suffered more than a few casualties during our trek and we need to prepare to leave.” Rourke pleaded out.
“Fine… But then you leave.” The king stated with a tone of finality. The mercs all left though I was worried about what he wanted from us.
“Guards… Leave us. I wish to speak with this group alone.” The King motioned to the guards who reluctantly left the room. Kida made to leave but the king stopped her from moving.
“Father?” Kida questioned her father and slowly took a seat as well.
“Come closer keyblade wielders.” The king motioned for us to move closer.
Everypony kind of freaked out at that point shuffling behind me as I trotted forward. It wasn’t that bad was it? I brought Sunshower and Octavia front and center so they could stand next to me.
“You girls need to relax. It’s fine.”
“It is surprising that pony like creatures that can speak the tongue of man are also wielders of a keyblade.” The king stated.
“Ok now you can panic…” I muttered to the girls before turning my attention back to the King. “That isn’t a problem now, is it? I mean we do need to keep some things secret.”
I turned off my illusion bracelet which caused Kida to jump back in surprise. The king merely chuckled and said nothing about it.
“When you get as old as I have you learn that the world is full of mystery that you could never fathom in the long run. Kida, calm yourself. These guests are actually necessary… though I do have reservations that you came with that group of… people.” The king scoffed at the word while Kida sat down rubbing her eyes still.
“Some of them aren’t bad. Is there something more important that you need then sir? I know you didn’t want this conference just to catch up on old times.”
“Yes… A keyblade wielder is necessary for this. For the past forty thousand years I have been King of Atlantis. I led it to its darkest and through the darkest moments of its history. For years now there have been sightings of creatures skulking around in the darkness yet they have been kept away by our light.” The king waved Kida on who managed to light her crystal around her neck.
“Forty thousand…” Octavia muttered under her breath. I would have calmed her but I think the others were also staring in disbelief. The only beings they knew that lived that long were the princesses.
“Have they gotten worse then?”
“Yes. At this point there are things hiding within each of the main plazas of the city crouching in the darkness and waiting to strike. It was fortuitous that we had someone with a keyblade who may do something about it. On my name as King Kashekim Nedakh I implore you to destroy the darkness that inhabits these places and then leave like the rest.” Kashekim explained.
“But you’ll be all alone…” Sunshower brought up bringing the king’s attention to her.
“Yes. Yes we will.” The king sullenly stated as he motioned us to leave.
I placed the illusion back on and trotted out of the palace while everypony reluctantly followed after me. It was something I don’t think that most ponies would actually understand at all. Some beings… no matter what intentions are thought of… would rather choose to be alone. The doors closed behind us as some guards came in to make sure everything was fine. I shook my head both out of frustration and figuring out how exactly we would handle these plazas. I also needed to check on the mercenaries before anything else would happen.
“Well Mr. Thatch, you are out guy. Good luck on this.” Rourke patted him on the back while we trotted out of the building. The other mercs left without much attention to the matter at hand.
“Milo?”
“Ah… uh… hi guys… girls. I mean what’s up.” Milo stammered out.
“We have a job from the king before we go. As it turns out there are heartless hiding in each of the plazas. Did you count out how many plazas there are?”
“Uh… no sorry I was actually looking over a lot of the marking that these building have since they seem to tell a story about what exactly happened to the city to make it sink below the waves.” Milo motioned to one of the pillars nearby that was covered in marking which I recognized as some of the writing in the Shepherd's Journal.
“And what have you found out exactly behind this history then?”
“Well if I’m reading this right then… It seems the city went to war with the rest of the world trying to push its supremacy over the other nations. Unfortunately under the King Kashekim, they decided to use the very Heart of Atlantis as a weapon. The Heart is supposedly sentient though and didn’t like being used for war. In retribution it sunk the city beneath the waves unable to ever be seen by the light of day ever again. At first most people thought it as legend, but I knew there must be some truth to it. Now look at this.” Milo waved his hand over the city.
“Interesting. Well would you like to accompany us to these plazas? I’m sure Kida would like to come along.”
Kida hopped down from her hiding spot. Thanks be to whoever they are for giving pony ears such high range of hearing. Milo seemed especially shocked throughout all this. For now I needed to see how well these two would get along in the long run. The girls smirked slightly since I knew they all heard her before hand.
“I see you have decent hearing then. Since you don’t know how the city is laid out perhaps I could lead you through it. But… Mr. Thatch will have to assist me later with something.” Kida demanded.
“Deal.”
“Wait, what?” Milo questioned.
“Wait, what?” The girls all asked.
“It’s fine. It will work out well enough.”
The girls all looked as though I was incredulously insane. Then Kida dragged Milo away towards the first plaza which made them all realize what was going on.
“Did… did you just get a girl interested in him?” Vinyl questioned me and I had to think about that before I answered.
“Nope. I merely agreed to something for someone else because they are probably too shy to make a move in the first place. So… Who wants me to carry them to the next plaza?”
Many hooves went up almost immediately.
Ancient City Atlantis - Starweaver Plaza
It took a while to trot to the first plaza. Spitfire strangely won the rock, paper, and scissors match and I was still utterly confused how they did it. It seems hooves were pointed a certain way to symbolize each one. Straightforward meant rock, hoof curved up meant scissors, and hoof curved down meant paper. That, in itself, was something I thought would be impossible to actually determine but I merely rolled with it.
Unlike the others Spitfire was not overly clingy. She rested on my back lazily and never really tried anything. Though I did feel her hoof roll around my back muscles every once in awhile. I didn’t make a fuss about it or stop it so she continued until we reached the plaza.
“This is the Starweaver Plaza. This was the place where the astronomers of the past would chart out the wonders of the skies including all the stars that shined throughout the ages. Of course… look at it now.” Kida announced to all of us as Spitfire slipped off my back.
The plaza was in disrepair with water flooding portions of the platform. A large star had been carved into the platform but the grooves in the floor were nearly worn down to disappear. Redheart looked over the edge into the water noting that is was deeper than it looked. When I got closer to the edge I smelt darkness coating the area which made me scrunch up my nose. When the girls noticed that they all summoned their keyblades and waited. I summoned mine shortly after but I couldn’t tell where the smell was coming from. As Kida was leading us to the next plaza a Ballast fell from on high with several shadows appearing as well near it.
“Looks like they were waiting for us…”
We all took stances while Kida pushed Milo back and wielded her collapsible spear. I still wondered where she hid it. The Ballast lifted its anchor towards us and the shadows charged after us. Several shadows dashed after us swarming all over both above ground and hidden as shadows on the ground.
Kida has joined the party.
“What the-”
I was cut off as the Ballast shot its anchor at me. The swarm of shadows dove over the girls while I was forced to charge after the Ballast. The shadows seemed more sturdy taking several hits before they faltered and fell to their blades. Kida charged her spear with magic and fired off several lightning bolts getting rid of several shadows. In my haste and surprise I accidentally cut off the chain. It quickly cycled through to the multi barreled cannon and fired off several darkness cannonballs.
Spitfire knocked several of the shadows into the Ballast knocking it off balance while Octavia rushed in knocking it into the air. I hopped up and knocked it into the water which for some reason made it drown and dissipate. Shaking my head the rest of the girls managed to get through the shadows easily enough. Regardless of how much stronger they were the shadows were still merely shadows. All the ladies managed to clean up the leftover shadows leaving nothing to chance. Even with blitz tactics the heartless were overwhelmed by sheer power.
“It seems like this plaza is clear. How many plazas were there?”
“Including the main one in front of the palace there are four plazas. The other two are the Sovereign Plaza and the Queen’s Plaza. The Sovereign Plaza was made to hold ceremonies where leadership would pass from ruler to ruler. The Queen’s Plaza was a recent one made for my mother…” Kida explained though trailed off before she finished.
Sunshower patted her on the back while Milo had the sense not to say anything about it. I merely nodded and signaled her to lead the way towards the next one. We still had plenty of places to check out before the day ended and while the heartless presence was low… they were still threats to everyone.
“What have you found so far men?” Rourke called out to his men across the lake of lava.
“Nothing sir… though we are still missing men. Most of them are worried about these creatures trying to take them out. I know you don’t want us outdone by those other mercs that were hired but maybe we should get there help-” The guard was cut off as Rourke placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Calm down soldier. We’re fine and we can deal with this. I’m sure you all have this under control. Now sitrep on the men.” Rourke calmly asserted.
“We’re down to twenty five of us not including the specialists who went with you into the city. Sir… we are going to die down here.” The guard explained.
“You’ll be fine. I guarantee that you’ll be fine. Now what about the search for the prize.” Rourke pushed on with his own agenda causing the guard to sigh in exasperation.
“Nothing sir. All throughout the city nothing and the other guys have noted that the princess is walking with the other merc group with Milo in tow. We’re following at a far distance until those two have had a chance to go off alone.” The guard saluted which Rourke responded with a salute of his own.
As the guard left Rourke found a secluded spot far from the peering eyes of the others to look at the Snapagator. It’s eerie smile was contorted with rage as another group of heartless it created fell to the keyblade. Another five men were taken and more heartless were created. Rourke rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration. He was losing men too fast and needed to hurry this up.
“Enough! No more hearts until we get info on the heart of this world.” Rourke ordered the Snapagator.
Reluctantly, it stopped and glared at him. It perched back on his shoulder and went dormant allowing the last of his soldiers to not lose their hearts quite yet.
Ancient City Atlantis - Sovereign Plaza
The next plaza was in better shape and directly behind the palace overlooking the sheer drop off into the lake of lava below. For the most part the darkness was lighter in this area from what I could smell. Still there was something to be said for how much Milo and Kida were speaking to each other. The others made note not to get too close but I could tell by their raised ears that they were listening intently.
“Get ready…” I muttered causing everyone to get prepared. Milo took a few step back. While he could probably learn magic, at this point he was here to keep Kida happy. This was much more different than what I remember from the movie.
Several flying heartless warped in through the darkness as a cavalcade of Red Nocturnes and Blue Rhapsodies flew in dancing around us. The flung ice crystals nearly froze Spitfire’s wings while Redheart used a magnet spell to keep them concentrated. Strangely this group was much easier to deal with because of the barrage of magic hitting them. Kida also showed promise as she channeled light spells through her spear striking down multiple heartless that were flying out of reach. Within moments the fighting was done and the smell of darkness faded from the area.
“That was… easier than I thought it would be.”
“Did anyp- anyone notice that there were less heartless coming out this time. There were mostly just random flunkies instead of the bigger ones. Maybe we finally are making a difference in how many are in the area.” Vinyl cheered slightly.
While it would be great if that were the case… the problem is that heartless would still exist even if the heart is sealed mostly because darkness still exists within the hearts of the people of the world. I quietly thought about what was happening. It didn’t make sense and I hadn’t counted how many soldiers were still left after all these problems occurred.
“I really don’t think we should be putting stock in that right now Vi.” Spitfire quickly mentioned.
“What do you mean?” Vinyl groaned.
“I think what she means is that we’re probably getting them out of the area for the moment but they could come back since they exist in darkness. From one of Yen Sid’s books it spoke about how where there is light there is always darkness.” Octavia lectured.
“So there is no way at all to destroy them all?” Kida spoke up bringing all our attention to her.
“Not really. You’d have to wipe out all hearts… I’m sure you could understand why that is bad.”
Everyone clutched at their chest realizing the implications of what I said. It wasn’t something I even liked bringing up. There were enough problems in my head and I didn’t need the death of innocent people even mentioned in my general vicinity. Regardless, we made our way towards the next plaza because the job needed to be finished.
Ancient City Atlantis - Queen’s Plaza
As soon as we reached the outskirts of the plaza I could tell something was wrong. The darkness was more concentrated and centralized to the very center of the platform. The Queen’s plaza was covered in a thin layer of water from partially sinking. The sloshing of water while we were forced to wade through it made Spitfire and Sunshower nervous. Pegasi don’t seem to like being anywhere near heavy water areas. It’s true that feathers are near useless when they get wet… It made me glad to have membrane like wings instead.
“This is the last plaza that my father says that the darkness has invaded. If you don’t mind I will borrow Milo now.” Kida grabbed Milo by the arm and we all acquiesced to her request.
“Stay safe you two. Don’t go looking for the heartless.”
Kida has left the party.
Kida waved at us and trekked off back towards the Starweaver Plaza. That left us dealing with this plaza. I could smell the darkness pouring out at this point. Octavia and Sunshower stood at either side of me and ventured forth first. As we entered the platform a shield of light rose up sealing us off from the other mares who banged ineffectively against the shield with their training blades.
“Well… this is going to turn out poorly now. Octavia… Sunshower… get ready to have a fun time.”
“I don’t like this much fun in one day…” Octavia mumbled as she pulled out her blade.
“At least we’re inside the shield now…” Sunshower looked on the bright side.
“That doesn’t fill me with confidence.” Octavia deadpanned.
A large portal of darkness appeared dropping in something almost unreal. A much larger Ballast like creature appeared and slammed down on the plaza. On the right arm was a large battle axe while a drill adorned the left arm. I really wished I had time to look inside the Lexicon to figure out what it was but before I could even entertain the idea it readied the axe forcing all of us to choose a side to dodge to. Octavia and I jumped left while Sunshower undid her disguise and fly straight up to the right. Before the other mares could help, a group of Air Soldiers popped out of the darkness and charged after them distracting them from the fight.
“It’s really big!” Sunshower shouted out.
“Tell me something I don’t know!”
“I’m double jointed!” Sunshower cried out.
I really wanted to facehoof at that point but she got me there. I did ask for something I didn’t know but I couldn’t exactly ask what she meant. The heartless readied the drill attempting to slam it into me but due to crossing its arms it couldn’t quite reach and forced it to fall over.
“Oh thank god it’s stupid as all hell.”
After it fell a small hatch opened behind it releasing a small ball of darkness with bright yellow eyes that seemed to look extremely scared of us. I charged in smacking it around with my keyblade while Sunshower placed an Aero spell on me causing even more damage to it. Octavia took the chance to fire off Quake spells. Before I could slam the shadow creature down onto the ground it popped back into the large armor and disappeared.
The shadow I realized was a Possessor. This heartless was definitely not a Thresholder or a Dark Thorn. The large Ballast like armor rose back onto its legs and charged up its drill again. I saw the triangle button appear in my head again as Octavia and Sunshower galloped out of the way. In all my infinite wisdom I followed through with that instinct and let the triangle button take control over my actions.
I rose my blade just as the drill hit me. The sparks charged over metal as I had to constantly press the triangle button in my head just to fight against the drill. Within a few seconds the drill turned dull and snapped off from the smoking motors in the arm slamming into its face while the drill dissipated into darkness. The armor fell over again but it didn’t release the Possessor again.
“What the buck!?” Octavia cried out.
“What?”
“How the buck did you do that!?” Sunshower shouted as the heartless started to get back on its feet.
“Maybe later… yeah?”
Both nodded as the large axe flew down trying to slice through us. Octavia and I ducked underneath while Sunshower flew straight up. After the heartless rose back up a large gatling cannon burst out of stump. I felt my ears actually fold over as the gun pointed down at us. I immediately grabbed Octavia and zoomed off with Sunshower as the rapid fire of dark bullets flew around us.
Sunshower took the opportunity to use a gravity spell knocking the gun down as I tossed Octavia at the the heartless’ head which she gladly knocked into with her blade knocking it to the ground once again. I quickly zoomed down and picked her back up just as the Possessor got knocked out once again. Sunshower immediately used a magnet spell and kept it from moving as we slashed into it. As it was zooming back to get in the body Sunshower sliced it in half causing it to dissipate into darkness followed by the armor oozing away. The shield lowered as the platform lost the smell of darkness over it.
“Ok… I really want to take a break from fighting giant monsters…”
“Did you see me Sunshower? I positively knocked that creature flat on its flank… so exhilarating…” Octavia breathed out as she looked to be having a conniption.
“I’m glad I managed to get it before it disappeared back into that armor. This has been the third creature we’ve dealt with that towered over us. I’m really getting a bit scared something might happen…” Sunshower fretted as the others came over to us.
“Now the important thing is healing up and getting ready to head back to the palace to tell the King. Redheart can you heal us up?” Octavia looked to Redheart who obliged making sure all of us were under a cure spell.
We took a little time to roll out our joints as Vinyl and Spitfire immediately tackled me asking how I exactly blocked a drill and shattered it to pieces just by blocking. I didn’t know how to explain it but I answered the best of my abilities.
“I’m just lucky I guess…?”
I didn’t exactly know how to broach the subject of seeing a metaphorical triangle button in my head that allowed me to perform reaction commands whenever an opportunity presented itself. Both of them looked a bit disappointed but there was some mischief in their eyes that told me they wanted to see what else I could get lucky with. I coughed lightly and led the way back to the palace. Milo and Kida were nowhere in sight.
“You do swim, do you not?” Kida calmly asked as she got closer to the water’s edge.
“Oh I can swim pretty girl… pretty pretty good pretty good it’s good swim good pretty good. I swim pretty good.” Milo stammered out.
Rourke’s men brought in the guns and laid them out for everyone to grab. The other group was still working on figuring out where Gray and his group were but the wild heartless proved much too dangerous to look for anyone. Regardless they prepared the men for the next couple of hours… They would be rich before the week ended… so long as they survived getting out of Atlantis.
Ballast Behemoth
A large armor of a Ballast used by a Possessor heartless. It’s massive ax is large enough to eclipse any wielder and the drill is able to shatter through lesser steel. Should the drill be lost a large Gatling cannon will take the place. Knocking it to the ground sometimes forces the Possessor out of the body.
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If the main OCs in this story were voiced, what would they sound like?
8378280
Johnny Yong Bosch during his more flirty moments. And Joshua Seth during his more contemplative moments. Basically Vash the Stampede and Knives in one person without the moral dilemma of that plagued both of them during their series.
8378289
You are so cool. I love those people.
8379340
Its not that big a thing lol. Thanks though.
8379698
No problem pal.