• 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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50. Forest of Nibel: Geyser

Author's Note:

Oh shit!! Things are happening lol.

It had taken a while to rest up while Octavia got over her fear episode. I had also noticed that the camp had been pretty safe overall, safe enough for a save point to manifest nearby, unused by the looks of it. I juggled with the idea of taking Octavia back up to the ship to rest for the moment. It was the safest place even if amongst the rest of us. She looked exhausted both physically and mentally. I tilted my head back and forth, lost in thought on the best course of action since I was both their master, in terms of keyblade wielding, and their mate.

“Octavia, I’m taking you back on the ship for now. Once you’ve rested and aren’t looking like you’re about to pass out from stress I’ll come back to get you.”

“What!? No I’m fine.” She stood up. “See, perfectly fine.” Then faltered on her legs still weak from facing a fear I had no idea she even had. It was probably something she experienced once and never let happen again.

When she looked into my eyes I could tell she was hoping that I didn’t see that she had faltered. I did. She looked like she wanted to fight against my complaints but I had made it clear through my actions that I cared about their safety too much to be stopped just because of a harsh glare. The others didn’t say anything but I could tell from a minute glance that they were both reluctant but in agreement.

I pulled Octavia on my back and immediately went on the save point warping back to the ship.


The ship remained in geosynchronous orbit around the planet. Luckily none of the heartless ships were around since we had scattered their forces on approach. I was back in the cabin with my exhausted alpha draped upon my back as I trotted over to our rest cabin. It wasn’t a big place but Merlin did something to change that immensely as I explored the rest of the ship more thoroughly.

In one of the halls I found a door with Octavia’s cutie mark emblazoned on the door. She looked surprised as I opened it to a very plain room that didn’t seem to have much decoration. There was a bed and a small writing desk. There were small amenities on the desk that seemed to be from Octavia’s own stock since her bags were in the corner. I placed her in bed and was about to head back when she stopped me.

“Gray?” Octavia called out.

“Yeah?”

“Sorry I never told you about my fear… It just seemed to be something that wouldn’t come up.” Octavia admitted.

“It’s fine. We’ve known each other what? Two Equestrian weeks and almost more than a month with where we’ve been. It’ll take us a lot longer to know everything and I’ll admit that I don’t want to know everything too quickly.”

“I don’t understand. Wouldn’t it be better to know each other thoroughly enough that we could figure out what each other wants by mere glance?” Octavia wondered aloud.

“Not really. Relationships should have mysteries and secrets because something new is always learned from each other. If we all get to know each other so well that that happens it should be after at the very least fifteen years.”

“That’s weird…” Octavia groaned as she curled into her bed.

“Yeah. That’s me in a nutshell I suppose. I enjoy being weird as you can tell?”

A little wink in her direction and her blush and dismissive look since I was being silly was a final thing as she grabbed me in for a very deep kiss before I could leave. I still didn’t know what was with all these mares and their obsession with curling and wrapping their tongue with mine. I wasn’t turned on at all. My blushing was from the stress, of course. With that she probably fell asleep, though I couldn’t tell, and I went back to our campsite.


As I came back everypony had packed up everything so we could continue on with our adventure. Ori held up the Water Vein for everypony to see. There were a few appropriate ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ that went over well as I picked up Fresh Coat and Redheart to fly back to the tree. Spitfire still took Vinyl who looked to be itching for a fight while Sunshower and Ori did a few tricks while we flew back to the base of the Ginso Tree.

“Here we are… So. Who’s coming with me into the tree aside from Ori?”

“Me, of course.” Vinyl immediately answered before Spitfire or Fresh Coat could.

There were a few grumbles of wanting to go next but it was first come, first serve at this point. I still needed each of them to get some one on one training as well while we save this world. This was the first stop on that task where eventually they would need to be the hero of their own story in a way.

“Ok then. Let’s head in. Ori, if you please. Open the door.”

Ori nodded as the Water Vein floated from his paws and into the door that the Ginso Tree seemed to have. I pondered the ramifications of a door on the tree and nearly slapped myself since I had already been inside a tree with a door. On the other hoof that tree was heavily saturated in magic and seemed to have the tree grown with it. It was the second biggest tree I had ever seen certainly while the first was a sequoia tree that had completely obliterated a truck and the trailer attached to it when it fell.

The two of us entered the tree followed by Ori who seemed a bit on edge. As soon as we cleared the threshold the door closed shut sealing us from the rest of the group.


“So… you think that was supposed to happen?” Spitfire placed a hoof against the door. The steady hum of magic from the Water Vein that was now embedded in the center sent vibrations of magic through her hoof.

“It does hold one of the hearts of this world probably. Maybe the light from the tree is the actual heart of the world in a sense?” Redheart brought up.

“That seems a little easy. I mean it feels like Sein is the light of Nibel only shattered to a small piece.” Fresh Coat mumbled.

“Yeah too easy. It was probably an accident. Who knows what really happened up here on this planet. Is it weird that we’re getting used to saying things about other planets?” Sunshower piped up.

Nopony had an answer for that as a new save point appeared at the bottom of the tree allowing the four of them to go back onto the ship to check on Octavia.


“So… this is what the tree looks like. There are a lot of spikes on the walls…”

“So would you say we’re in a prickly situation?” Vinyl elbowed me lightly as she made her puns.

“Yeah… You’re gonna make a lot of puns aren’t you?”

“Maybe. I need some practice to deal with Pinkie later. If she gets going she’ll try to drag me into another pun off even though I don’t really speak to many ponies outside of my DJ persona.” Vinyl stated though she tapped her hooves together really quickly.

“Something wrong?”

“It’s not anything too big… just more of that anxiety I’ve been feeling. Ya know with all those words you said about keeping me around. It’s not feeling real…”

I immediately pulled her on my back while Ori started to climb on the hanging vines and small blocks of plant matter that weren’t covered in spikes. I waited a bit to climb until Vinyl had snuggled into my back.

“I assure you I’m pretty real. Also I’ll probably keep trying to break through to you that I would rather keep you no matter what. That really brings up a big question though.”

“What’s that?” Vinyl mumbled into my back.

“What brought this on? You’ve been really straightforward with me on how you feel which I’ll tell you is something I’ve never really experienced. Heck, actually being loved is something new to me since my time back on my world.”

“I don’t really know. It was just one of those moments. Since I didn’t have my music to push out the thoughts I just kind of started thinking too much. I can’t exactly have music out here when we’re doing pretty dangerous work… and I didn’t want you to think I was ignoring you.” Vinyl spat out as she buried her face into my neck.

I’ve noticed that the more overt the mare is, the more likely she has some emotional baggage I probably would never be able to fully alleviate. I couldn’t stop my brother. I couldn’t stop my father but I wouldn’t let myself be stopped from keeping her safe. I immediately tossed Vinyl up from my back into the air. As she flew up I flapped up catching her in my embrace and frenched her right then and there.

While I will never say it out loud I did learn just how to kiss better from Octavia’s spirited performance. Honestly I think Vinyl needed to be romanced more often with how bad her other dates have been. I would need to do something like that before the next time we go out on a mission. I have to do it for all of them though I should also figure out what else that they like before I do so. Even improvisation has its limits for my mind.

“Um… not that I don’t mind,” Vinyl rubbed my forehoof. “But what was that for?”

“Nothing really. I just decided I was gonna steal a kiss from the DJ with the vibrant red eyes because I can.”

“Pshaw… don’t get all mushy on me you dork.” Vinyl muttered out as she wriggled out of my hooves and back onto my back taking care not to stop my wings. “Thanks Nebby. You know how to make a mare feel wanted. At least sometimes.”

“Yeah. I’m trying to get better day by day.”

Ori merely flashed me a thumbs up though I think the deadpan stare I gave him made him stop staring. Vinyl was blushing throughout realizing Ori was watching but… she didn’t hide her eyes with her glasses like she would usually do placing them in my saddlebags for safe keeping. With that I flew us straight up after Ori taking care to dodge the weird plants that fired out energy seeds at us. At this point I had seen a lot now though I wouldn’t have considered me world weary.

Ori jumped over the seeds without too much problem showing off his new double jump some more though Vinyl scoffed at the attempt.

“Ha! Just wait… as soon as I can even I could jump in the air again.” Vinyl boasted.

“That would be interesting.”

“I so can do it. I’m sure of it.” Vinyl adamantly answered.

“And I’m sure you can do so.”

“Stupid agreeable Nebby… making me feel happy.” Vinyl mumbled and growled slightly though the rotation of her hoof.

“Are you sure you’re not the romantic type Vinyl? You sure are convincing me otherwise.”

She mumbled another obscenity in my ear as we finally landed on a safe place for each of us to gather our bearings.

“I could do that but it would have to wait till we get back home Vinyl.”

Once again she nearly stumbled over my brazen nature coming back out. She didn’t scowl but she knew I was not easy to make blush intentionally. Ori wondered what I was speaking of and tapped my hoof to explain. I shook my head and he pouted slightly but rolled his eyes in acceptance.
The next section of the tree had strange openings in the side of the trunks with a glowing blue light pouring out of the openings. Ori burst through the opening appearing over on the other side of the tree which was just confusing.

“Sweet. Teleportation without wasting my magic. Let’s go through it.” Vinyl jumped on my back and immediately prodded me to go through.

Flapping through the portal we ended up into another small area where even more portals were placed. I groaned slightly while Ori joined us on Vinyl’s back. We flew through the next portal and the next and the next until we wound up back in the same spot. I put both of them back on the safe spots of the ground as I flew through the portals until I finally found a path to go through.

“Christ… This place is weird. You two ready to go?”

“Uh… Gray. Look there.” Vinyl pointed a hoof behind me which I followed.

Surrounding us were an assortment of flying heartless. They all looked like sparrows wielding boxing gloves. I think they were Aerial Knockers if I was remembering my time playing as Sora in the Pride Lands. That train of thought was derailed as they instantly swarmed the three of us attempting to go for the knockout punch.

I took to the air while Vinyl surrounded herself with an aero spell. Ori jumped off of the heartless using his double jumping skills to annoy and confuse the heartless into attacking each other. They didn’t break out into fights amongst each other though as much help as it would provide but it did allow Vinyl to fire off a few different spells against them turning them back into the dark mist and releasing their captive hearts.

I swam through the sky bucking them into the portal to disorient them slightly. I was certain I would eventually match the Apple Family on their skill but I still had a long way to go. Each of us took a bit of damage regardless of how well prepared we were unfortunately. One of them got lucky and knocked me through a portal into some of the bramble spikes. I was left covered in burrs and feeling slightly woozy. Crap… were the spikes poisonous as well...

“Gray are you alright in there?” Vinyl called out. “They’ve been taken care of though we got a bit hurt from them.”

“Yeah...yeah… never better… hurk…”

I threw up immediately into the burr patch. I was so glad that the poison affected me after I kissed Vinyl otherwise it would have just been extremely awkward and I would have felt like a complete jackass… though I would have to remember that that couldn’t be used as an insult on Equestria because they were also another of Equestria’s sapient citizens.

“Looks like you went through a bender with Berry Punch. Are you ok?” Vinyl cautiously approached me while Ori jumped on my back patting it to ease the tension.

“Poisoned…”

I muttered as best I could while Vinyl kept casting cure spells on me whenever her magic refilled. Eventually the magic did help as I worked through the poison. Shaking my head through the dizzy spell it took a bit longer before we kept moving on up through the tree. I had to stop several times just in an attempt not to lose whatever was left in my stomach. Poison shouldn’t work this way but it was better than dying instantly.

“I think I got something that I could cast to stop the hangover like feeling you are having. Just give me a sec to cast it Nebby.” Vinyl stated as her horn lit up and the glow surrounded my throat.

It was an awkward feeling to have magic at work on my throat. Since Yen Sid and the others had fixed the problems with my internal magic circulatory system I was still reluctant to allow magic to affect me in any way. Still… I knew I had to at the very least try it no matter how tense I felt my entire body spasm from being touched by magic. As the glow settled I flew around a bit to test how my stomach felt. There were no knots of tension, feelings of nausea or any other symptom I was feeling from the dizzy spell.

“Huh… I don’t feel like puking anymore. Thanks Vinyl. How long will this spell last?”

“Ugh…” Vinyl rubbed her horn in slight discomfort. “Well, probably for the rest of today at the very least. When we get out of here we should get Redheart to give you a real look over before we continue on with helping out this planet.”

Ori chirped a bit hopping around to emphasize some kind of point I didn’t really know about. Instead of trying to figure out a pantomime I followed him through several portals with Vinyl clung to my back. I still didn’t feel my best but I pushed through the discomfort. When we flew through a couple more of the portals we came across a large copse amongst the boughs of the tree where another tree was growing out of the bark.

“Hey… isn’t that one of those light trees Ori is looking for?” Vinyl aptly pointed out in a slightly obvious manner. I wasn’t in any mood to point out the obvious so I merely grunted and nodded.

Vinyl bopped me on the head and I knew she knew what I was thinking. Ori seemed to chuckle at our antics before rushing for the tree and absorbing the light. As he did an Aerial Knocker immediately tried to attack him sending a hurtling boxing glove for his face. Ori hopped up slightly and time seemed to stop around us… or at the very least slowed down as the light surrounding Ori grabbed the Aerial Knocker and through him into the ground before being finished off by a flurry of light.

“Well… that was convenient.”

“I’ll say. Dude swooped in out of nowhere. So… these trees are making him stronger then?” Vinyl pondered out loud.

“Looks like it. It seems like that ability will be useful for him in the long run, huh?”

“Little guy can knock things back at others without even trying. Another awesome power… wonder if I could get my horn to do that…?” Vinyl seemed to get lost in thought though she held on tight as we continued our trek up through the tree.

For some reason, the inner workings of the tree started to get covered in extensive, almost intricately made, webbing. Whenever I used a small twig or piece of bark to touch said webbing it turned to water and soaked into the bark. Vinyl was far too lost reciting magic formulas I didn’t understand as we kept flying upwards. Eventually Ori started to bristle with energy and seemed almost maniacally focused on one point in the tree.

We ended up on a large platform grown into the center hollow of the tree where a large core remained suspended by several, almost petrified, vines. Energy pulsed off the core though it was really weak and seemed to falter everytime it tried to flare up and send more of an output out.

“This is it. The core of the Element of Waters. This is one of the components that keep the entirety of the Forest of Nibel alive and stable. Without it active, as you have both seen, the waters are stagnant and poisonous to the touch. They constrict life and are killing the forest as surely as the darkness is. Ori must pour the light energy he has gathered into the core to give it a jumpstart. While he is doing so I’m certain that the heartless will make their appearance.”

“Yeah. I knew this arena seemed too well placed. Vinyl you got the right side, I’ll get the left?”

“You got it Nebby. Just take it easy… that hangover spell isn’t perfect and you’ll probably still feel a bit woozy from it.” Vinyl stated as she cautiously took her position on the right side of the platform.

“Just like everytime I went out on a high stakes case.”

My mutterings aside I shook my head to get it into the game as it were. Ori took position almost directly under the core while I readied my dagger weapons tossing a few around Ori to act as a last defense. I had two left on me from the original eight I carried. Vinyl pulled out her keyblade casting an aero spell on the two of us and took a new stance I had never seen her take.

‘She was probably working on it while I going through the Moon Grotto with Octavia.’ I deduced as best I could without asking her explicitly.

Before those thoughts could be thought any further several shadows popped out of the darkness and rushed through towards us. A few fire spells and magnet spells and they fell pretty quickly. When they fell the core glowed brighter and Ori pulsed in rhythm with the core. Shadows were not very decent for shock troops… but they were distracting…

“Nebby, up above!” Vinyl cried out as several Aerial Knockers were following a much more eccentric looking heartless similar to the Aerial Knockers.

‘Was this a Final Mix enemy?’

I flew straight up using my daggers to parry and stab whatever heartless appeared in range as Vinyl took a defensive position firing off thunder spells which seemed to home in on the weaker heartless. The golden, I remember the name slightly, Aerial Champ actually remained the most competent out of all the other heartless keeping out of range of my sword swings. Vinyl eventually ran out of magic temporarily and relied on her telekinesis to drag any of the Aerial Knockers down to her level to smack around until they dissipated.

After a few more seconds a magnet spell appeared in front of me stopping the dance I was involved with against the Champ. I took the opportunity to knock the champ into next week as he dissipated into dark mist like the rest of the heartless. As I landed the core instantly shot forth with an intense wave of light which seemed to cover the tree.

I still felt a small ache in my stomach but it was negligible enough to ignore. Vinyl trotted over to Ori who was still weak from the sudden release of energy he did and seemed to be giving us a half hearted thumbs up to show that he was fine overall. I felt good and Vinyl seemed to chuckle as well. We were feeling happy about our accomplishment.

The entire tree started to rumble as water immediately burst through several places on the bark and the water rose throughout the entire tree. Panicking, Vinyl jumped onto my back while Ori led the way up jumping with renewed vigor to the opening above the core. I followed just as the water engulfed the platform we were standing at only a couple minutes ago.

Ori used his new ability to use several of the hanging glow stones to get higher as I flew after him. Before I could fully grasp how dangerous the situation we were in was I heard a loud chittering come from below us as a large spider stood on top of the raging water allowing it to stand on the surface even as it churned below its legs. On its back was the emblem of the heartless as it shot out silk from its mouth that seemed more like water instead.

“You’ve gotta be bucking kidding me!” Vinyl cried out. “I hate spiders!”

“Now you tell me…”

I had to nearly stop when Vinyl started to choke me from fear. First, it had been crushing and now it was spiders. I barely dodged the shot of water silk as Vinyl got the hint and clung her hooves into my shoulders as tightly as she could. Coughing, I kept flying up… I was doing that a lot more than I thought I would need to in this place as the spider used the still raging waters to climb the walls to get closer to us.

“Vinyl! Magic, now!”

Vinyl managed to get the hint and used her keyblade, supported in her magic, to fire off several fire spells as the spider heartless forcing it to climb erratically around. It immediately started to gather up its spit while I kept weaving through the terrain trying to find the best paths to keep up with the water. As Vinyl exhausted her magic supply for the fifth time this battle it fired off a large glob of silk at us.

Ori fell from above grabbing the glob of silk in his strange energy field and sent it straight back at the spider knocking it off the wall and deep into the raging waters. Vinyl caught Ori in her telekinetic field as we climbed higher into the tree. Instead of celebrating we heard a loud hissing as the heartless burst out of the water and broke several more holes in the tree flooding it even faster.

“Looks like we pissed it off. Vinyl throw Ori back up above us and we’ll act like bait.”

“Get ready for launch little dude.” Vinyl commanded as Ori gave off an adorable salute as she flung him up into one of the hanging glow stones which he used to keep climbing above us.

The spider didn’t see Ori immediately so it focused directly on the two of us as its target. Climbing back up it jumped around the edges using its longer legs to grip the tree and send water up the spikes on its leg to create intricate web traps I had to fly through… ‘what!’

“That’s the same look Tavi gets when I prove to her that I can in fact get the bass way above eleven…” Vinyl mentioned as she carefully, without looking too closely at the wriggling creepy spider that was going to suck out her marrow into an emaciated husk the moment it got close enough to grab her, fired her spells back at it.

It proved to be a better dodger and started actively firing off webbing to intercept the spells causing them to fizzle mid impact. I had to move around a lot more as well knocking the spells off their immediate course. Ironically because of their wonky course the spider heartless jumped into the spell more often than not causing it to start gathering more silk in its mouth.

Another shot fired from its mouth giving Ori another chance to grab it and fling it back knocking the spider back into the water. Vinyl caught Ori again but was clearly struggling to keep him held. The shaft we were in was also nearly empty of glow stones and the opening was in sight. The spider immediately jumped out of the water and started to chase after us relentlessly in the last stretch.

“Vinyl! Landing Strategy!”

“I hate landing strategies!” Vinyl cried out as Ori clung to her mane looking worried about the uttering of a landing strategy.

As soon as we cleared the opening I tossed both of them over to the flattest areas I could see and readied my tomahawk. The spider immediately lunged at me out of frustration I the tomahawk swung down on its jaw. With a sickening crack the spider heartless zoomed straight through the water creating a large clearing of where it zoomed by breaking several of the water logged branches within the tree before a large crystalline heart flew up through the now re-flooded areas. I zipped through the air to the two who had seemed to roll back up on their feet and hooves respectively.

“Now that’s what an extermination should be like. Woo! I so need some wubs right now!” Vinyl cheered as she performed a little dance… which she noticed I was watching as was Ori.

“Interesting moves Vinyl. Much crazier than the moves you did at the club.”

She had not danced as sensuously as she did then thought this wasn’t trying to entice me as she wanted to that night. She was dancing like a child in a candy store who just found the golden ticket prancing in place and tittering, I suppose, if she was still a filly.

“Either of you say anything I’ll kill you…” She muttered as the three of us took a few breaths from the sudden excitement we found ourselves in.

Before we could get ready to leave there was a sudden hooting screeching somewhere around us.The three of us looked around for any sign of the perpetrator but we didn’t see anything amongst the craggy rocks that seemed to cover the top of the Ginso Tree, most likely because of the geyser that seemed to be within the tree.

As we slowly relaxed one of those very large boulders started to spread out. They were wings… spreading farther than the ones I saw on the Storm Rider back in Equestria as the head turned one hundred eighty degrees around showing us the face of the large owl Vinyl had heard with the others earlier. She had pushed it out of her mind until she noticed the burning coming from its stare. Literally the owl’s eyes were on fire, a ghostly ethereal fire that seemed to radiate pure hatred as it locked onto Ori who was on my back.

“Vinyl… back away slowly towards the cliff…”

Vinyl didn’t answer but I heard the soft clip clop of her hooves against stone backing up as I carefully peered behind me. I didn’t take my eyes completely off the owl as it slowly turned to face us.

“Kuro… the curse god of the owls… a creature of the darkness...”

Before I could question Sein or say anything else it lunged for Ori forcing me to jump off with Ori and Vinyl as it quickly took to the air. The three of us were separated during freefall as I saw Kuro out in the distance diving to intercept us. Panicking I shot a fire spell at Ori who used his new move to catch it and use the momentum to shoot out towards me. He barely caught onto my tail as I caught Vinyl in my front hooves and kept diving straight down.

Kuro immediately closed the distance talons ready to rend us to shreds as I summoned the tomahawk once more and tossed it at Kuro’s extended talons. The three of us were tossed off course as Kuro parried the thrown tomahawk forcing us into one of the waterfalls created from the erupting geyser bursting through the tree and creating several new holes in it. We were lost to the waters while Kuro flew back up into the sky seemingly satisfied that we had been dealt with.


“Over here!” Redheart called out as she came across the three still breathing bodies of Ori, Vinyl, and Gray. They were all unconscious and breathing peacefully as Gumo stood nearby silently holding vigil and seemingly guarding the three.

“Thanks Gumo, was it?” Octavia asked as she checked on the three before her.

Gumo politely nodded before bowing his head and bounding off for parts unknown. Spitfire and Sunshower were busy prowling the area since all the greenery had returned and most of the flowers now seemed to be, at the very least, edible. Fresh Coat had kept several of the smaller heartless from attack their small campsite also harvesting some of the other flowers. Thankfully Redheart had some training in identifying edible plants and most of the flora surrounding them was almost identical to Equestrian grown fare.

“What happened up there?” Redheart muttered as she was satisfied with their vitals enough.

“Kuro is angry… she knows what we are doing and will now be taking an active role in stopping us.”

Everypony slightly jumped at Sein’s sudden explanation but quickly pushed back into critical thinking mood.

“Who is Kuro exactly?” Octavia demanded from the small light creature.

“Kuro is the mother of the owls, creatures of darkness and comparable to a yakujin, a curse goddess. She is supposed to keep the forest safe at night but something has gone completely wrong.”

“I see. We’ll have to figure out why. For now let’s get these three back to the camp near the Spirit Tree. It’s the only safe spot we can rely on if these heartless keep trying to deal with us.” Octavia sighed as she picked up Vinyl on her back while the newly returned Spitfire and Sunshower picked up Gray and took him. Fresh Coat held onto Ori allowing her and Redheart to carve a path back to camp.

Geyser Spider

Large arachnid heartless that makes its home deep in water surfacing to drag those with hearts beneath the waves to feed. Capable of producing a strange silk made partially to resemble regular water. When angered it can create complex patterns by forcing the webbing through its legs to trap opponents. Most of the limbs are armored with serrated chitin but the face is barely protected. Has four eyes instead of the regular eight and is mostly covered in shades of blue.

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