• Published 19th Apr 2017
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Locksmith - QuartzScale



The world is coming to an end and there is no way to stop it. Might as well accept any deals to keep on living. Still not feeling well enough about this but maybe holding the key to fate can change that.

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46. Forest of Nibel: Destruction

Author's Note:

New world: Ori and the Blind Forest - The forest if called Nibel hence the title of this arc.

Did you know this game has a sequel coming up? Guess what this world gets? Later though... much much later.

As the book came to it’s halfway point I made certain to keep track of my surroundings. Even in the darkness of the moments of twilight I noticed that the house was still quiet. When everypony woke again we would head out for the next world. If I remembered correctly Redheart had paid special attention for some reason to this world. I turned off the iPod gift Merlin gave me and slowly trekked back into the basement. While I knew I would eventually let Vinyl and Octavia look through the music library it had, I needed them to stay focused on the journey ahead.

I looked over the entirety of my basement and placed the device and the charger inside one of the drawers before realizing something I didn’t notice. The bookstand in the corner was larger than I thought and there were several shelves below it. On those shelves were six pauldrons just like the one that allows me to use my armor. I was a little displeased at first when I noticed that each of them had their respective owners cutie marks on them until I noticed that they were on the back of the jewel used to contain the magic of the armor. After a few moments of sorting through them I found the respective note I was looking for.

Gray, We have finished the armors for the ladies under your care. If you desire to keep this as secret as possible we have placed their respective marks on the inside lining for ease of identification. Remember the armor is lightweight due to enchantments and spells so it should be easy for you to carry them if necessary. Unlike your model these will not drain of magic because of my time on Equestria. I managed to find a book on the inner working of magic of this world though the mare in charge immediately thought I was some pony called Starswirl the Bearded. When I said I wasn’t she was adamant I was until she realized I didn’t have the hat that made him who he was and finally relented on that point. Be careful of her… she is smarter than she looks though the naivete of not being able to accept that there are unexplainable phenomenons might be her achilles heel so to speak. Good Luck Gray, Signed Merlin.

So… Twilight is actively looking into our business then…? I seriously hope she hasn’t gotten Luna to look into this just yet. She might be able to sense the Diablos in the starry sky with her magical sense tuned into the stars and moon. ‘Do I even have any mental defenses against dream diving!?’

I completely cut off that line of thinking and looked over the pauldrons again. I suppose that next time there is a crisis in town I could have them help me out anonymously. It wouldn’t be problematic anymore unless we were separated. Damn… now that I think that fully it might just happen actually. I trot back upstairs and sit on the couch with the pauldrons on the small coffee table that one of the mares brought to spruce up the house somewhat. I slowly closed my eyes and waited until everypony was finally awake.


Spitfire wasn’t a morning pony. She did it because of her career as a Wonderbolt but if she could have an extra hour of sleeping instead of being a rolepony she would be much happier. On days off it was a bit worse because she really enjoyed sleeping. The events of the previous day and the time till she returned back to her role as a leader were quietly rearing its head once again. Groaning, she rolled out of bed and took care of the morning routine each of the girls had which meant the shower was the most crowded.

Octavia was the earliest riser managing to get up way before anypony while Vinyl was the laziest and slept in a lot later than usual. Spitfire was always somewhere in the middle due to being on vacation though As she trotted downstairs after finishing up she noticed that nopony else was up just yet. Gray was sleeping on the couch in the weirdest position almost directly sitting up though the shifting of his ear meant he was still listening.

It was one of the weirdest things to see. Throughout her career and several joint missions with the Night Guard that was willing to pull double shifts none of the ponies had ever managed to keep aware even when sleeping. At the same time it made Gray a bit more clumsy whenever he didn’t get enough sleep. Taking to the air, Spitfire flapped down the steps and managed to get to the kitchen. Luckily, thanks to Octavia and Sunshower, they had filled up the fridge fully. It was even one of the special models with the inscribed runes to keep things fresh for longer periods of time. She bit into the apple she chose and trotted over to the couch… where Gray was staring at her.


Spitfire jumped up in surprise when I looked at her. I didn’t think she actually noticed when I was waking up. The sound of clip clopping hooves against wood and the crunching of an apple managed to pull me over the edge. I was actually more thankful for it than I should have been. For some reason it felt as though someone was trying to reach into my dream being forced out before they could get in. There was sparkly star covered hair seemingly coming out of the aether into my room in my mind when I noticed the sounds in the waking world. Training for stake outs once again helped out more than I thought it would.

“So… gonna stay there or are ya gonna get up here with me already.”

Spitfire blushed and coughed a bit as she came up on the couch sitting next to me. I looked over the table and picked out the pauldron with her symbol on it. When I looked towards her with it in hoof she sat up regally and I thought her fur on her chest may fluff up. With some careful ministrations I placed the pauldron on her securing it in place. The gem in place was a topaz if I remember right. Yellow in color and matching her coat, it fit really well. She adjusted it with her wing for a bit as her eyes grew wide and sparkly from the item. She stood up and picked a spot nearby with little coaxing she managed to make her own armor come to her.

It was made of silver plated metal with yellow highlights the armor hid her face and cutie mark. After she de-summoned her armor she glomped onto me snuggling aggressively into the couch. Once again these mares are very awkward positions.

“This is great. I’ll be the greatest now and I can do almost anything possible.” Spitfire gleeful laughed and bounded around happily.

“Spitfire calm down already some of us are trying to sleep!” Fresh Coat called out as she stumbled down the steps alongside the others.

“Hey I wanna do that!” Sunshower cried out.

“Me first!” Vinyl screamed back.

Before I knew it several mares immediately jumped the two of us where all of us landed on the couch and flipped it over onto its back. We groaned as I felt a hoof in my side and a horn in my cheek. It was uncomfortable and eventually we managed to get untangled from each other. I flipped the couch back up and trotted over to the coffee table. When everypony saw the pauldron on Spitfire’s shoulder everypony started getting loud.

“All of you stand still and I’ll put on your pauldron then.”

Everypony grew quiet as I used my wingtips to grab the rest from the table. Each stood straight and proud though I found it mildly amusing that they were treating this with such gravitas when all I was doing was dressing them up. I stood next to Octavia and placed hers on taking my time with the clasp just because I could. I think she knew I was gonna be teasing everypony a bit since her smirk was showing. Vinyl made a little squee noise when I placed the pauldron on her. Fresh Coat needed a little squeeze to keep still because she was trembling in excitement. Redheart stood taller when I placed the clasp on her. Sunshower glomped on me kissing me on the spot. After that though everypony wanted a kiss which just went through a whole lot of problems in the long run for how long they wanted. It was a mess.

“Alright alright… Let’s see how you look in your armor.”

“How do we do that?” Vinyl piped up raising her hoof in the air and waving it around as if trying to get a teacher to answer her question.

“It’s an extension of your will. For unicorns you have to think of it like you’re using your magic. For pegasi it seems you need to consciously think about it the same as when you think about using your wings. Earth ponies is a bit easier since you just have to force your will power. Merlin left very vague instructions but said you would know what they meant.”

At first everypony stared blankly at me. A few were quirking an eye at me as if I was crazy. I wasn’t sure Merlin knew exactly what he meant or maybe he did but didn’t explain it well enough in his note.

“Listen everypony just think of a happy thought and the armor should be summoned on you.” Spitfire called out as she summoned her own armor.

Everypony frowned slightly but complied with the vague statement. Within seconds there were several flashes of light and the other five had their armor on. Each stood in shock I think if their posture told me anything since their faces were covered.

Octavia’s had another silver plated metal armor with purple highlights with the gem resembling sugilite, another vibrant purple color. Vinyl’s had dark blue highlights with a sapphire providing the magic for the armor. Redheart’s had light blue highlights with a spinel providing for the armor. Sunshower’s had green highlights and had an emerald as the center piece. Fresh Coat’s had orange highlights with a citrine gem powering it up.

“These are the standard make of the keyblade armor that masters eventually manifest over time. I’m speeding up the process but it’s necessary to keep you all safer when we get out there to more dangerous places. The armors will shift to fit your personal tastes over time.”

“How come you are the only one with dark armor?” Fresh Coat spoke up stopping me from continuing the small spiel I had.

“It’s using what my heart looks like. I don’t know if Yen Sid mentioned it but the keyblade and the armor all reflect the state of your heart. I’m a bit more on the darkness side but still in control of all my mental faculties and thought processes. All of you come from Equestria where light is the main draw of the world. So you all balance me out in a way, ‘cause without light there is no darkness and without darkness there is no light. They go hoof in hoof as coexisting forces. Neither is good and neither is evil. They just exist.”

“But the heartless are evil…?” Redheart motioned though stopped when she was thinking harder about that statement.

“Yes and no. The heartless only care about getting hearts to feed themselves. They act on instinct like every animal out in the wild. When they sense someone with darkness in them they immediately follow that someone because it fits with their instinct to search for more hearts. But they are predators and the moment that that someone shows weakness the heartless will take their heart. So while they are used for evil purposes they only act that way because they are acting on instinct. Searching for hearts to fill themselves again.”

“That seems so sad…” Fresh Coat muttered.

“Is there nothing we can do for them?” Sunshower spoke up.

“I don’t know. All we can do is release the heart they took so it can get back to their host. In some cases we could bring back anyone who had their heart taken if we also destroy their corresponding nobody.”

“Wait! We can bring ponies back to life!?” Vinyl screamed out as several ponies looked shocked as well.

“In a sense, yeah. The problem is finding the corresponding nobody. If they were really strong then they might cause their own problems because they are also searching for hearts to fill their own missing heart.”

“Yen Sid was mentioning this as well. What do we do about it?” Octavia stepped forward as if to take charge of the situation.

“For now… we can’t do anything until we’ve actually fought a Nobody. Then we can figure out who has lost their heart to a Heartless. Big thing is that we have to defeat both the Nobody and corresponding Heartless. Let’s head out to the next place for now since we still have time to get all of you ready before we face someone that dangerous.”

There were several nods as everypony put their armors away and we got ready to leave. The saddlebags were filled with supplies and we trotted out the door to the still drenched landscape and made for the save portal. We were warped onto the ship and each got in our respective seats as I took the steering wheel. I needed to eventually teach everypony how to drive the ship before long.


We warped back to the Lost Empire world and another path was located on the navigation computer which surprised everypony because they hadn’t seen or heard the computer the last time we flew towards a planet. Luckily everypony was ready for the warp and as I lurched the ship towards the next path the excitement was palpable.

Desolate Starfield

The ship slowly came into being as we looked out the viewport to the planet below us. It was covered completely in shadow and the mist surrounding the forest and mountains below. The darkness was swirling around while Heartless ships flew around trying to reach planetside. The chaotic airspace forced them back into space.

“It looks like we’re going to need to break through…” Octavia groused as she secured her safety belt once again which prompted the others to follow suit.

“Can’t we just sneak by…?” Redheart questioned when the alarms started blaring.

“I think they spotted us.” Vinyl flatly stated seeming completely aware that they would see us no matter what.

“Horseapples…” Redheart cursed.

As soon as I pushed forward on the yoke causing the ship to dive as several missiles flew past us into the aether. Several heartless ships began their pursuit both firing their weapons and surrounding us in suicidal charges. The remnants of random buildings materialized in the background made entirely out of gummi blocks which several more Gummi Heartless stood upon forming artillery lines. The machine guns couldn’t target them and the lasers didn’t have enough firepower to handle them outright. I really needed to find more gummi blocks to upgrade the ship eventually.

As I pulled up from another harrowing dive several new ships appeared behind us in pursuit forcing me to look as the rear view camera where they began to fire several more missiles at us. Spitfire was glaring at her seatbelt which made sense to me at the time. Being subjected to another’s whim in flight probably made pegasi go mad from the lack of control. Thankfully, she was smarter than that and didn’t immediately try to take control of the ship. I still hadn’t taught any of them to drive.

The laser swiveled around blasting the pursuing ships from their chase leaving us to deal with the artillery. The central walker opened a large compartment on its back before revealing a large laser cannon which it charged up. I was forced to roll causing a lot of screaming as we avoided several short barrages of both missiles and laser fire. Eventually the laser did its job taking out one of the walker’s legs which caused a chain reaction of explosions taking out several of the artillery pieces.

Taking the chance, I steered the ship back on course as we maneuvered around several of the stationary heartless ships destroying anything which seemed to be holding more troops to transport down to the planet. They weren’t completely defenseless though as several of those stationary ships had roving defense turrets which proved more competent managing to strike several holes in non essential portions of the ship. Luck played a big factor since every time I saw something come for the main cockpit I would turn the ship in a way that would limit damage.

After breaking off from the invasionary forces we finally managed to give them the slip and soar into geosynchronous orbit around the planet. I had to do maintenance of the ship once again before we hopped off for the new planet. There were several breaches on the more superfluous areas which, thanks to the magical properties of gummi blocks, were already self repairing.

Apparently, after gummi blocks started to become more prevalent for world to world travel outside of keyblades their magical properties were fully touched on. Gummi Blocks were a self repairing building material that would take shape and mold into those shapes depending on the magical abilities of the being working on them. There were certain technologic ways to shape them but only the most intuitive minds could figure out how to work on them. From there even through severe damage they would regenerate shape if given enough time or if deposits of gummi blocks were found out in space. There were specifics that needed to be found to affect repairs during battles but they were very useful for long term conflicts.

“Okay… we made it. Once we get down there remember to keep together. If we do get separated we will designate a place to go to that will be our base camp or we find one of those glowing save points and warp back to the ship to save time.”

“Roger.” Spitfire saluted.

“Understood.” Octavia motioned while she secured her saddlebags.

“Aye aye.” Sunshower chirped.

“Alright then.” Redheart nodded.

“Sounds good.” Fresh Coat mentioned.

“No prob Nebby.” Vinyl called out as she went towards the warp pad down to the planet.

Sighing at my new nickname in exasperation I followed after her alongside everypony else towards the warp pad. It was going to be one of those days.


It had gone so wrong… She wasn’t moving anymore. He had to get help. The small figure crawled along the ground keeping clear of the thorns as the sky darkened around him. What was once the loss of fruit had suddenly gotten to the death of all plant life. Then she stopped moving. He couldn’t wake her. He was still small and while he could jump well the sudden coldness he was feeling started to get worse.

He knew what had caused all this. He didn’t listen to the pulsing light. His true family calling him and it went unheeded. That expenditure of light probably weakened her to the point of a coma. He couldn’t leave the one who cared for him though. Perhaps that was his biggest mistake. The past couldn’t be dwelt upon at this point and he needed to make it back to his home.

The thorns caught him slightly tearing at his skin as silver blood dripped from his wounds. Gritting his teeth he forced his way through breaking branches and brambles which caught onto his fur. The glow he emitted slowly started to diminish. It was so painful but he needed to break through. With one mighty shove he broke through the thorn branches out into the desolate world that was his home. Nature had died with the loss of the light of Nibel. The waters ran foul with the poison of the world and the shadows grew restless.

“Well, well, well… Looks like a light spirit did survive now didn’t you.” A voice called out. Even through bleary eyes the young light spirit, in the cusp of death’s grasp, looked up at the figure before him.

In front of his failing eyesight was a unicorn strangely enough with a long flowing beard and sorcerer’s cap and cape adorning their body. The tone of his voice was masculine… but also oddly unsettling. Unfortunately unconsciousness dragged him down leaving him to the mercy of another.

“Now let’s see what I can harvest from you- Damn it… several key bearers are here. Seems it’s your lucky day rodent… You are lucky that I still need privacy… besides, you’re worthless to me in this state.” The voice spoke coldly before the horn on its head flashed brightly and he was gone.


Meanwhile…

Luna woke up from a strange dream as if looking from outside her own body when she was taken by the Nightmare. There in front of her stood a single thestral with a strange key weapon. He stood valiantly against her though the comment of called her a whorse was something she could have gone without. The it summoned those shadow creatures. She didn’t know what they were called but the evil they contained was palpable. He fought against him even taken advantage of the melee to beat her other senseless.

For several nights now Luna had had the same dream for the past week while she regained her powers. The memory… dream… whatever it was consumed her curiosity to levels she didn’t even know that she possessed. Regardless she needed to get ready for her first foray into Night Court given that she had finally gotten back into the swing of things.

Taking a few moments she wrote down what she could remember from her own dream. Had she had her full power it would have taken her seconds using her magic to recall the event in perfect clarity. Until she could though she was forced through the haze of vague recollection like everypony else.

“Princess Luna.” A voice came from outside her door.

“Yes guard? What is it thou need? I mean… what is wrong?” Luna chided her speech. The new dialects proving a bit harder to handle especially the lack of the Royal Canterlot Voice in all her speech.

“Princess Celestia is requesting your presence on a matter. It seemed very important with how Kibitz appeared right now.” The guard answered back.

“Very well. Thanks be to you.” Luna stated as she warped off for the throne room leaving the guard to ponder what else he could do now that his charge was no longer in her room.

Within a few moments Luna popped into the throne room. While her connection to the dream realm was still being recovered her magic still proved versatile enough to allow some short range teleports. When she entered the throne room the guards were all gone, even the token force that hid in the corners to enact ambushes were also absent from the room. Celestia sat on her throne pouring over a letter that had her fully engrossed. Luna daintily trotted up to the throne making certain that Celestia hadn’t noticed her. Surprisingly the letter was far too engrossing apparently.

“Tia?” Luna called out causing Celestia to jump.

“Lulu! Don’t sneak up on me like that!” Celestia yelped.

“Sister… I was in front of thou.” Luna deadpanned.

“Uh… right, yes. Sorry about that Lulu. Just… a little jumpy is all. The dragon situation was dealt with so the smoke covering Equestria will be cleaned soon enough.” Celestia stated though her wings were still shuffling in agitation.

“Tis good tidings then for the Elements. It seems that there is something else on thy mind that is distorting thy nerves sister. What be the problem?” Luna asked.

“It seems… well, it seems that there was another monster attack while the dragon was dealt with. Apparently, somepony wielding a weapon in the shape of a key defeated this monster by themselves and even channeled magic without a horn… at least from what everypony saw.” Celestia mentioned as her worry increased.

“A key you say… A golden key perhaps?” Luna hastily added as she rounded on Celestia in a pitched fervor.

“From what Twilight was informed of… yes. Nopony knew who this pony was and they remained hidden in armor that hid every part of his body. There were no marks to symbolize a cutie mark and their face remained within the knightly helmet they wore. They fought to protect the ponies of the town… I don’t know what to make of it. There is no mention of key like weapons in all our history and we don’t have many of Starswirl’s secret tomes which have been lost to history. This… this… this is unheard of.” Celestia started to hyperventilate from the stress of the unknown.

While most saw the two Celestial sisters as perfect the two knew they were far from it. Celestia was a worrywort that would panic the moment something happened that was so far out of her frame of reference that she would spasm into panic attacks. Luna, on the other hoof, was far more confrontational. She preferred taking her problems by the hoof and beating them into submission.

“It’s like my dream sister… that key warrior might be the same as my dream. Curse my limited power. If I was fully functional I could have found this pony already.” Luna stomped the ground in frustration leaving small cracks around where her hoofprint was.

“Calm yourself sister.” Celestia chuckled through her deep breaths.

“You are one to speak sister.” Luna shot back in muttered tones.

Both groaned but soon found their laughter once again. They could get through this together. Now… now they had to deal with the problem through Twilight. The lack of information made it very obvious that they needed her to be their eyes and ears for this developing situation.

“I suppose… We will have to keep track of this situation. When you regain your full power you will have an easier time finding out who this stallion is, won’t you Lulu?” Celestia softly stated.

“Of course Tia. I will find out who this pony is. Anypony who can survive Nightmare Moon deserves to be recognized for their actions.” Luna confidently stated.

“Not too overboard Luna. We need to figure out just who exactly this stallion is and what they had gotten themselves into. They know the entire situation that they are in and need to explain what they exactly brought to this world.” Celestia growled out… not at the pony but at the monster that was mentioned in the letter and the… picture that was sent with it courtesy of a Dinky Doo.

The silly filly had drawn a large snake with cymbals on it while this knight fought against it. It was the most adorable thing she had ever seen but the message behind it was clear. Something had come to Equestria and meant them harm.

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