Locksmith

by QuartzScale

72.Prydain: Crisis

All around me was dark muddy water of a horrifying swamp which the heartless kept me deeply entrenched within. I didn't know if I was upside down anymore since the armor kept me from noticing it in the first place. It was hard to see the large snake head trying to chomp my head off.

The large scorpion heartless with the crab claws and snake headed tail kept me clutch tightly in its grip. I was lucky that the armor was magically created to recycle air otherwise this would have been an impossible task. Actually I would have been dead within a few minutes stuck at the bottom of the bog and no one would have ever found my body as it slowly dissolved from the horrible conditions of the swamp.

‘That was incredibly dark… even for me.’

My thoughts were fleeting as the claws came down upon my armor leaving me slightly unprepared as I was flung partially away until the snake tail grabbed one of my wings dragging me back into its range. I raised my hoof and fired several blizzard spells around us encasing us both in darkened ice. The heartless broke through its encasing leaving us within a large chamber of ice deep beneath the swamp.

“Finally some room… now let's go then.”

My taunts were lost on the heartless for the most part. It recognized that I had called it out but aside from that it did the same exact thing and charged straight for me. Whipping out Nightmare Cascade I rushed forward on my hooves using the weight of my armor to make hoofholds in the frosted mud. The frost had made the ground slippery leaving the two of us desperately trying to keep our footing.

My blade shot out catching the snake head at the last moment as it snapped its jaw closer and closer to me. The beast attached to the wild tail pushed forward using its pincers to pull itself towards me. It was smarter than most heartless, using its size to its advantage to try and push me into a corner. With how small our arena was it was actually working.

I couldn't fly anywhere. I couldn't make it charge into me with it cracking the ice and letting the water flood us. It had even kept to low sweeps making certain that the ice above it wasn't broken. This heartless was smarter than the rest had been.

The pounding of my chest seemed to get more intense when my back stopped going back. I had hit the wall of ice behind me and the heartless had pulled its pincers out of the ground. They hung menacingly around my torso. It reared back both pincers as I slid downward from the force of the snake head snapping at me. I only had one chance.

Letting myself slide further down, I pulled back my back legs and kicked it beneath the mandible sending it upward. I was surprised that I even had the lower body strength to do so as the pincers went barely above my head. I kept kicking my legs up against the heartless as it fell back down keeping it from getting a solid bead on me.

Holding my hoof out I fired off a magnet spell on the snakehead keeping it in place. That sudden stop forced it to be yanked back. I used that opportunity to stab Nightmare Cascade into one of the pincers before dragging it up the arm.

The loud chittering of pain from the heartless made my ears fold in on themselves within the armor. When I pulled the blade out the arm dissipated leaving me jumping back as it flailed its other pincer in my direction. I barely made it out of range as the snakehead snapped where I had been moments ago.

I had hurt it and it was angry. Without warning it rushed into the ice letting the water outside to rush into the opening. I raised my keyblade and shot several more blizzard spells. The small arena I had was now even smaller than before. I could hear the movement of water outside the icy shell before a large impact shook it. A large pincer pierced the shell and another stream of water poured into the opening.

I didn't even waste time on using another set of blizzard spells. It would just break through and let more of the swamp back in to reclaim its space. The scorpion heartless rushed back in charging with the water and keeping the snakehead hidden beneath the scummy water. I readied my own run, switching over to the shield weapon letting frost coat the front of it.

I wouldn't be able to stop the water flowing in but that could be used to my advantage. As the scorpion heartless charged forward through one of the streams of water rushing towards me. I swung my shield through the rushing water where the shards of ice that were flung from the shield grew in size and impaled the heartless in several places on its carapace. The sudden impact stopped the heartless in its tracks as the ice attempted to freeze it in place.

It stopped and attempted to use its claw to tear the large icicles out of its body. I took that chance racing forward and summoning the tomahawk slamming it into several of the icicles causing the wounds to open up even further. The damage was too much for its body to handle as the darkened mist flowed from the wounds. It dissolved back into darkness leaving me behind in a hollow ice shell deep below the swampy water all above me.

I looked around the slowly filling cavity of ice as the swamp water finally reached my calves… all four of them. It was times like these that I had forgotten that I was in a pony body. I banished my keyblade back and truly assessed the situation. As far as I knew, my armor protected me from drowning and I could potentially swim up. I was also in a swamp where the muck in the water would sink me faster than I could swim up especially in heavy armor. There weren't any light sources either. I could only see because my eyes were specially made to see in the dark.

“Right then… Spark!”

A large blast of light illuminated the section. I took my chance and dove into the shadows. Hopefully I would reach the others before too long had passed.

---

Thirty minutes earlier…

Vinyl immediately stepped up with her keyblade drawn as a horde of heartless swarmed the group. Fflewddur and Gurgi were the only non combatants of the group though with Taran not having his sword anymore made that number grow.

“I'll take the ones on the left.” Vinyl confidently stated as she shook her keyblade within her magical grip.

“Vinyl, there are less on the left…” Octavia sighed out as she gripped her keyblade in her teeth.

“Yeah… I'm meeting my odds that's for sure.” Vinyl haughtily answered back making Octavia groan from the very blunt answer she was given.

Several of the Bone Lancer heartless dove towards the pair forcing Vinyl to lift up a reflect spell. The sudden jolt knocked the attackers back to the ground letting the pair take on their respective targets. Vinyl, true to her word, took on the heartless on the left.

Spitfire and Sunshower kept to the air knocking the Wyvern heartless from their divebomb routines. The two carefully placed shots with their only magical talents of flames and ice. Even then aerial combat remained hectic and either were forced to play the healer role whenever they were caught unaware.

“Is this always gonna be a thing?” Sunshower called out as her keyblade tore through another Wyvern heartless wing.

“What thing!?” Spitfire yelled back.

“Aerial battles! I mean seriously, this is ridiculous!” Sunshower flapped up landing on the back of one of the heartless and kicked downward. She wasn't too strong but with the disruption of the muscles around its wings the Wyvern slowly spun out of control to its eventual destruction.

“This is great! I've never felt so alive!” Spitfire cried back and a vicious grin rolled across her muzzle. Everything about the moment screamed into her soul. It was enjoyable, exhilarating, and exciting. All of those were words that were used to describe what she went through as a Wonderbolt.

This moment didn't even compare to what she had done for most of her adult life. At most it was a pale imitation of what the Wonderbolts once meant. Fighting for the safety of Equestria was what it was founded on… now though. Now, it was little more than stunt flying and putting on shows for stuck up nobles. There was very little else to it… and the prestige she once felt for it had diminished with every mission she took that had her wielding her keyblade.

Sunshower, however, was the opposite. The danger and excitement was… excruciatingly difficult to handle. Everyday when out and about was met with constant danger mostly highlighted with the fight with Kuro. Nibel had awoken her warrior spirit… but now it was difficult to turn off anymore. Everywhere she looked she could only see combat, combat and more combat.

“Well at least you're enjoying it.” Sunshower muttered under her breath.

Redheart glanced up as the heartless were tossed about through the tide of battle. Using Angelic Grace, she steamrolled through the mass of shadow and soldier heartless while Fresh Coat cleared up the stragglers. Even then they kept close to the human party letting Eilonwy use her own magic to distract and stupefy the heartless that got too close. This let them funnel the heartless into their killzone.

“When will it end… ugh… this is so annoying.” Redheart grumbled as she sliced through another shadow heartless.

“It's not so bad is it? We're winning aren't we?” Fresh Coat muttered as she cast another thunder spell wiping out some of the stragglers that got too close.

“Well… yeah, but it feels so… easy. Too easy. They knocked Gray away dragging him to Celestia knows where and even though they are going all out, we're winning.” Redheart mused as she blocked another soldier from swinging its Ruby red claws. “That rings suspicious to me. They aren't fighting to win… they're fighting to distract.”

“Oh…? Oh… oh I see. Maybe we should-” Fresh Coat got cut off as two large avian raptor beasts flew down from the sky with a tiny imp upon its back.

“Hurry you nitwits! Grab it before things go wrong!” Creeper ordered as one of the gwythaint grabbed the Cauldron carrying it off into the sky. Before any of the mares could react two of the human berserker guards raced forward grabbing Eilonwy and Fflewddur.

The distraction was enough and allowed the gwythaint to grab the Cauldron whisking it away into the sky while Fresh Coat and Redheart stopped the charging berserkers. Vinyl eventually got a telekinetic shield around the party. With Creeper getting away with the Cauldron, Spitfire and Sunshower attempted to smash the gwythaint out of the sky.

Several wyvern heartless swung in striking the pair out of their chase. The sheer chaos created from the attack was nothing more than pandemonium given physical form. Creeper’s laugh echoed out amongst the billowing screams of the berserkers and the roars of the heartless. Before anything else could be said several more of the scorpion heartless that had dragged Gray into the water materialized into being racing towards the group making certain to keep everyone distracted.

“Damn it all! Keep them back!” Vinyl yelled out using her unicorn magic to shift the heartless off course.

“This is crazy! Eep!” Redheart squeaked as one of the snake heads snapped close to her flank.

“Don't get distracted!” Fresh Coat shouted out as she stepped forward smashing the snake head back.

Reeling from the sudden shock, the heartless attempted to restore its stance. It was a difficult maneuver for the heartless as Vinyl and Redheart peppered its hide with several spells slung from the tips of their keyblades. As the Scorpion like heartless was pushed back several Darkballs materialized into view trying their best to stop the spells from reaching their target. The massive flurry of darkness spreading from the Darkballs being destroyed left visibility poor for everyone involved.

“We need to get back!” Vinyl yelled out grabbing Redheart as the darkness enveloped the area.

“Girls!” Fresh Coat gasped out until the two flopped down before her. “Oh… you’re okay.”

“I truly feel the love.” Redheart muttered as she picked herself off the ground and dusted her hat off.

Before the three could do anything the cries of their friends got their attention as Eilonwy and Fflewddur were picked up by two of the human berserker soldiers. As Vinyl turned to strike at them another of the soldiers immediately blazed through grabbing her from behind. A small heartless creature crawled off of his back affixing itself to her horn as the three rushed off with their prey.

With the Darkballs zooming around Redheart and Fresh Coat were unable to see the three get whisked away by the Horned King’s human troops. Taran, on the other hand, noticed and ran after the group.

---

I quickly jumped from shadow to shadow trying my best to get through the muck back to the others. It had been slightly more unsettling than I had thought it had been. The Scorpion heartless had dragged me through several miles of muck all in the small attempt to keep me away from the main prize they were after, The Black Cauldron. Truthfully, it was an annoying venture with how many problems that the heartless brought to this world in particular. With the Horned King being the main factor in how bad this place got I could only compare him to the other figures I remembered from the other games in the series from my memories.

It had been strange that after all this time I still remembered the life I once had. It was a sobering thought in my mind washing its way through my memories. The first swamplands I had dove out of was too far from the group though I could see the clattering of lightning and flames bellowing out from the distance leaving clouds of dissipating darkness flowing through the atmosphere. I was oddly calm even throughout the entire debacle, as if I felt that the others could watch out for themselves competently enough. I was certain though that there was going to be one snag in the plan regardless since that is what usually happens when you become too trusting or… maybe complacent was the better word. I dove into the next shadow appearing even closer to the battlefield.

The first heartless scorpion creature didn’t even realize when I brought the shield down upon the snake tail until it froze solid. Switching to the tomahawk left it a shattered mess a moment later. Octavia was the first to greet me with a lovely smile before she flipped over my back and bucked a wyvern heartless from tackling me. A toss from the tomahawk quickly ended that threat.

“Where have you been?” Octavia called out over the roar of magical explosions peppering the area.

“Swimming… Water was dirty though.” I muttered under my breath. There wasn’t time for sarcasm but I was slightly more tired than I thought from being forced underwater for so long.

“What was that?” Octavia perked her ears up and got closer.

“It took me longer than I thought to deal with that heartless than I thought.” I quickly answered changing my tone completely.

“Yeah… that’s what I thought you said.” Octavia quietly chided me which I could only smile nervously at. “Oh… don’t worry. I won’t punish you… at least not yet.”

I mentally sighed. Her eyes said it was punishment but her smile said that it was much more than that. With the heartless around she quickly cut it off and galloped off to the next fight. I did the same pulling out my keyblade trading technique over power. With that I rushed out into the fray once again… a little slower but still capable of fighting on.

The battle was a muddlesome mired trek through constant swampland and I decided it was time to end this. Pulling out the large axe I slammed it on the ground sending a wave of earth through the heartless spearing them as they attempted to attack us. The flying heartless were taken out swiftly by the combined might of Spitfire, Sunshower and Octavia. Strangely Redheart and Fresh Coat were busy looking around for something while Vinyl was nowhere to be seen. My heart started to sink lower when I noticed that none of the humans were around either. Gurgi was hiding beneath a bunch of plants he had gathered to act as makeshift cover. It didn’t do much to actually hide the goof but it didn’t make things harder at the very least.

The adrenaline slowly pumping down and letting us all assess the situation made things more difficult when we actually started to look around. I had finally noticed that the Black Cauldron was gone. Fflewddur and Eilonwy were both gone… as was Taran and Vinyl. When I looked under the brush for Gurgi I found no one there.

“What!? Where are the rest of our group!”

The suddenness of my outburst got everypony’s attention and in turn caused everypony to rush around looking for our missing members. It was met with sheer uncertainty and several measures of anger as well. The five of them all came back to me with similar looks of disappointment and anger. All of them had turned up the same thing with similar answers.

“Do you think something happened to them?” Octavia muttered under her breath and looked around slightly worried. The heartless didn’t return either. That never meant anything good at all since one of our own were gone at the moment.

“Doesn’t matter. We know where the monsters are. We need to go get them now.” Spitfire growled out clearly worked up and bristling at the very notion that one of us were taken.

“Right. Let’s head out now.”

I immediately grabbed Octavia and Red Heart in my hooves while Spitfire and Sunshower helped Fresh Coat up. We immediately took off through the skies soaring through the swamplands back in the direction of the castle. My jaw clenched and tightened from the sheer anger that was coursing through my mind.

The six of us worked our way across the darkened skies making certain to use the cloud cover as barriers from any wandering eyes. I felt something building up within me that I couldn’t fully understand.

Dread? Perhaps… though I felt that once before and this didn’t feel like it. Fear? My hooves weren't shaking and neither was my core. Anger? It was in the back of my mind seething and simmering but that would cause problems if unleashed. Whatever I felt I couldn't truly describe it. Still we soared on for that castle where our friends had been taken.

---

Vinyl sat back up as she was unceremoniously dropped on the floor alongside Eilonwy and Fflewddur. Unfortunately they had also been dropped in front of the Horned King himself. Standing there, eyes glowing red from the sockets, he quietly pointed to one of the rafters. A second later the Black Cauldron was dropped into the room by the flying draconic creatures she had seen.

The three were tied up well and hung from the rafters as the lid was lifted off the Cauldron. Inside was nothing… there was no bottom to see leaving an infinite darkness that radiated its intent. It was hungry. Vinyl couldn't smell the darkness since that was Nebby’s schtick. She instead felt that overwhelming dread prickling up her spine sending cascading waves of fear throughout her core.

“Sir! We found another one!” One of the human berserkers called out.

Vinyl paled as Taran was brought forth slightly bruised but still in one piece. The Horned King waved him off and pointed to the others where he was hung as well. If she didn't know any better she was being hung like an offering. For what she couldn't tell.

“Taran, are you okay?” Vinyl whispered out while the other two looked on in worry.

“Yeah… only thing hurt is my pride.” Taran answered to a slight scowl from Vinyl. “And my face… that stings too.”

“I'll bet. You at least told Gray what was going on right?” Vinyl shook off the anger only to feel it building up again when he wouldn't look her in the eyes.

“No…” Taran sighed.

“Right then.” Vinyl bitterly held her tongue. It wasn't out of kindness though. It was out of wanting to let Gray be the one to chastise him. She couldn't exactly speak of doing something dangerous without telling anyone since she did that sort of thing on a near daily basis. “New plan then. We wait a bit till I figure something out. We either escape, get rescued or die. Easy peasy.”

“Those seem like horrible choices madam.” Fflewddur called out in a low hiss.

“I can't use magic right now. This stupid thing on my horn won't let me.” Vinyl growled out back.

“Enough!” The Horned King called out staring up at the four. “It is time. Time to show this world was true power means!”

With nary a word and a wave of his hand a large wheelbarrow was brought out of the basement. On it laid the desecrated corpse of a long dead warrior. He gingerly picked up the pile of bones and deposited it into the inner depths of the Cauldron.

At that moment the magic within took over and a sickly green light shot into the sky above the castle. Vinyl felt the unnatural energy suffocate her figuratively. It was wrong, wrong, wrong on so many levels. No amount of wubs could ever calm it down.

The green mist eked out of the cauldron as several corpses climbed out of the depths of the Cauldron. Each more grotesque than the last leaving little to the imagination of what exactly the Cauldron actually did.

The human berserkers and soldiers all cheered… up until the first couple were piled in corpses and slaughtered. Their blood spilled the corpses of the human soldiers got up all the same marching alongside their new brethren. The humans who had been loyal immediately rushed off. They knew their place finally at the very end. Vinyl wanted to puke but held together… if only because it would have stained her chest and she'd rather not have to explain that to anypony. As if to only confirm what the Horned King was thinking she let fury be her guide.

“Kill!” He called out as the Dead all stumbled off towards their next would be victims.

---

I could see the light in the distance. I could feel the darkness in the air. My companions said nothing but faced the darkness with grim determination.

“Let's go then.” I grumbled out as we took off through the sky for the castle heights.

Author's Note:

Finally. This chapter. This chapter has been the reason I lost my will to write. God damn it's finally done.

Comments

[prism heart]

Oh, update! It's been a while. Hopefully there will be less writer's block in the future.

[Who cares]

Next chapter, Nebula unleashes the darkness!