• 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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73. Prydain: Desecrated

Vinyl immediately started kicking her back hooves up and about until they found purchase against Taran.

“What are you doing!?” Taran freaked out slightly.

“Improvising. Just keep still, this is harder than it looks.” Vinyl growled out as she used his body to kick her legs up. It was going to hurt.

With a swift thrust she kicked her legs against the small heartless that had latched on to her horn. All she needed was one kick and it gave her enough room to let magic flow from her horn. Then the heartless dissipated from a beam of magic flying out of her horn.

“See. What did I tell you? Easy peasy.” Vinyl grunted from the effort. She had wanted to look a little cooler but being free was more important.

It took a bit more magic then she wanted to use as she untied her own ropes first. Before she could do anything else something hopped down from the rafters. Vinyl stifled her own scream before anyone else could hear her.

“Quiets pony. Quiets. I will get the master, yes. You gets the others.” Gurgi called out as he turned over to Taran.

“Right. Thanks.” Vinyl curtly nodded as she got Fflewddur and Eilonwy down from their bindings. The Horned King was far too busy reveling in the dead walking around that the five of them managed to find some cover to hide behind. Even the undead were busy walking towards the front door… ready to spread darkness over the land.

“Crap… where’s the others when you need them. How are you supposed to stop that…?” Vinyl grumbled not noticing the sad look starting to appear in Gurgi’s eyes.

Vinyl couldn’t attack it alone… and with several non-combatants as well. She was lucky that the undead were ignoring them even now. She needed to wait until the others came before she could charge in. It sucked to be waiting but she needed to keep them safe otherwise they too would join an undead legion.


“We’re punching through. I’ll be the spear and you all follow my lead.”

“Right.” A chorus of agreements rang out behind me.

We had landed a short while away from the castle bridge. Undead had already been pouring out. We had a plan in place for the moment but the undead caused that plan to sink. I had to also take into account the fact that the heartless were sulking far above the skies ready to dive down. It was madness but the kind of madness I actually found exhilarating.

“Ready? Fire magic on spam and keep them from bunching up. No hooves just keyblades.”

“Let’s go.” Octavia answered as everypony nodded. Grim determination plastered their expressions which was a bit uncanny to see. Ponies rarely did grim and so far I had only seen that a few times.

I charged forward as several spears appeared out of nowhere. All that time and I now had Xaldin’s weapons in tow. Forgetting any trepidation I remembered how they worked and decided to use them to my advantage.

Powered by wind currents and surprisingly telekinesis the spears moved independently from my hooves knocking the undead off to the side where one of the others would quickly auto focus fire spells on said target. It was slow going because even with seven spears attacking I needed to remain relatively still while they attacked.

Of course, intrigue was oozing out of each of the girls but they remained focused on the task at hand. Spitfire was a bit more cocky about looking at one of the spears that I reluctantly allowed her to hold on to it. That left me with only six weapons attacking.

The undead roared in an unnatural bellow that seemed to shake our very souls. Those that got close were impaled with complete prejudice. Soon after cinders were all that was left for their funeral pyres. Even then the tide of undead kept creeping along followed by an acrid green mist billowing along the ground. I did hear some dry heaving behind me forcing me to use a cure spell to keep it from getting any worse.

“Thanks… “ Fresh Coat muttered as she kept up pace once the spell did its work.


What do you mean they are being incinerated!” Horned King roared as he smacked Creeper nearly five feet back.

“Sire those pony creatures have started to storm the castle! We can’t stop them from making their way here!” Creeper cried out ducking low to keep from being strangled.

“You look ta be in a perdictment. I’ll help ya out boss.” Pete called out as he summoned several Bone Lancers into the fray. The undead ignored the heartless.

“See to it.” Horned King growled out as he started to siphon magic off the Cauldron allowing some of his bones to turn blacker than the infinite voids of space. His eyes kept a darkened look with two pinpricks dots of red left from the over billowing cloud of magic rippling through the sockets.


Vinyl wasn’t freaking out. She had seen worse back on Atlantis and even in Nibel. Though this she could feel. Any being with magic could feel it. The skeleton below was overflowing with magic which was wildly lashing out all because of the Cauldron.

“Vinyl… I don’t think there’s much we can do about that.” Eilonwy pointed out as she was shivering. Vinyl remembered she could also feel and manipulate magic.

“I hate to concur but at this point all I see is doom.” Fflewddur groaned as his hand ran down his face. Taran didn’t say anything and Gurgi had remained quiet.

“Look… we just need the others here and everything should be alright. Trust us… we got something planned.” Vinyl assures the others. She wishes her glasses weren’t broken because her eyes were betraying how frightened she was at this point.


We smashed through a long hallway as more undead were crawling around like animals. They twisted their bodies in unnatural positions just to make it closer to us. The spears did their job but the tighter corners made it harder to stop them from slamming into a wall.

I was forcing to keep four on my person while the other three flew out to attack. I was lucky that Spitfire’s curiosity was sated after everything was said and done. I still hadn’t figured out how the wind effect of the spears activated leaving me with physical weapons. It got to the point where I couldn’t use my magic for anything other than healing with how much the smell affected everypony.

Only Redheart was fine with the smell due to her work within the medical field. Albeit she still found it disgusting. She had just been the most tolerant. Fresh Coat on the other side was dry heaving every other room.

We made it to one of the dining halls where we had seen Hen Wen be used to show where the Cauldron had been. The undead were in steep decline within the room since most of them went the long way, probably for any stragglers that had remained within.

Several Bone Lancers popped into being raising their lances to battle. Spitfire and Sunshower stepped forth.

“Here. We’ll take care of this.” Spitfire announced as she got into her usual cocky stance.

“Yeah. We need to hurry before anything stupid happens.” Sunshower chuckled. My jaw clenched shut and I wanted to voice dissent. I instead sighed and nodded.

Octavia, Redheart and Fresh Coat followed after me. They left a respective wave and we rushed ahead towards the next couple rooms.

“We seem to get the easy job now.” Sunshower groaned. “I mean, even I don’t think I could have handled that smell anymore.”

“Yeah… but we’re doing this for a different reason. Since you have a full keyblade, any heartless would be drawn to you. The way I see it, we keep them busy with our badassness and that jerk gets what’s coming to him.” Spitfire explained as she pulled her keyblade out.

“Yeah yeah… I feel like we’re getting too used to danger now.” Sunshower sighed out as she pulled Cloud Nine.

“And you say that like it’s a bad thing.” Spitfire chuckled as she launched towards the closest cluster of heartless with Sunshower taking a defensive position in the air firing off volleys of magic.

Sunshower sighed and kept her mouth shut. She needed to focus on keeping Spitfire alive. There would be time to call her out on her daredevil tendencies later.


We rushed through the next hall taking care to keep the undead at further range. Due to our diminished numbers the need for more focused fire attacks meant a longer wait between encounters. We regenerated magic but the smell of burning flesh was becoming slightly unbearable. I was used to it due to my detective background. I had that instinct beaten out of me from those three cases in particular.

The others were not so lucky. Octavia neared the brunt of it because of her need to lead by example. She had thrown up in the second hallway before I could get a cure spell cast. Fresh Coat was in the same boat but she had managed to keep it down better due to keeping her distance with magic.

Redheart remained peerless in this regard. Even so, she didn’t relish other ponies getting sick around her and was turning green at the more mundane sickness the other two were feeling. I really needed to find a better way to get them used to this sort of trouble but there wasn’t any decent way to handle any of these problems.

“We’re almost near where we have to go. Just hang in there a little longer girls.” I assured the three.

I could finally smell the darkness through all the other carnage that seeped into the corridors. It was heavier than usual… and growing. I didn’t notice at first due to all the rotting corpses traipsing around like they owned the place, but at this range it was undeniably foul.

A sickly green glow illuminated the next doorway. The door had been cracked off its hinges. I took a deep breathe through my mouth as to avert the smell before I rushed in. I couldn’t tell what lay beyond the threshold.


We burst through the entrance to the sight of a larger skeletal man standing near the Cauldron. Immediately we could tell that it was the Horned King but something was different… wrong even.

Where once stood a man too feeble to actually move without stumbling around was a more empowered looking monster. The bones of his body glowed a sickly green and seemed almost three times larger than what they were. His horns were far more pronounced and sharpened to deadly levels. Several spinal spikes ripped through his cloak which now was barely held together due to his skeletal nature not allowing the material to rip so easily. His eyes were still blacked than the deepest night but when his eyes turned to us; there in the center of that void were two blood red pinpricks. Those soon overwhelmed his eyes and small amounts of blood leaked out of them, as if he had just burst a blood vessel. The darkness also started to leak out of the upper portions of his eyes.

So… a pack of barnyard animals is what is to blame for this taking so long. One rejected flying rat and a bunch of breeding posts. Worthless wretches… for standing in my way all that awaits, is death!” Horned King viciously ordered as several heartless came to his aid.

Severa Bone Lancers had popped in but covered in several more plates of bone armor. The Horned King lifted his hands as fire formed on his palms.

“Scatter!”

Octavia ran off towards the left while Redheart and Fresh Coat ran to the right. I decided to fly straight up and pulled out Nightmare Cascade. There was only one target on my mind and the instigator we needed to deal with. I met the blasts of the Horned King head first swinging my boss through the fire.


Octavia has opted to find Vinyl immediately. It was the plan she had come up with the moment that she had found out that she had been taken. It didn’t take long as she heard that same irritating nickname she always had used against her.

“Hey! Tavi! Up here! Hey! Move your flank already, I ain’t getting any younger!” Vinyl screamed out as she waved wildly towards the now irritated earth pony.

“Yes, of course. This was the plan.” Octavia snarkily muttered to herself now completely derided from her quest to save her best friend.

The two met and even through the frustration she had managed to give the unicorn a hug. Vinyl reluctantly returned it. Not due to any preconceptions on the concept of cool like some ponies would say but because there was a large heartless charged up towards the two.

“Okay, okay… enough hugging. We got heartless to deal with.” Vinyl pushed her to the side as the two pulled out their keyblades.

“Hey! I was worried about you.” Octavia countered before hopping back dodging the lance breaking through the stone of the stairway.

“I noticed. Let’s get through this and then we can be all touchy feely about it.” Vinyl answered in kind using an aero spell to shield the two.

Taran watched the battle in rapt attention unaware of where Gurgi’s eyes fell. Eilonwy kept hold of him though her eyes scanned the room as ponies fought monsters and Gray attacked the Horned King.


I flapped my wings to reorient myself back so the ground was the ground. The fire that he had conjured had knocked me back a fair distance. Not only was he beefier than he looked now, it wasn’t all for show either. Whatever magic or darkness he used to strengthen himself had done wonders in making him a legitimate threat.

I raced across the ceiling, a peculiarity of my species to cling to ceilings apparently, as fireballs slammed against it leaving scorch marks where I had just galloped over. I dove down to the floor kicking up debris with a strike from my keyblade.

The impact of fire against stone caused a premature explosion and I rolled off to the side. The blast was not enough of a distraction. As Horned King compensated for my movements increasing the size of the fire. I had my armor on still, like everypony else, but it still singed me. I could feel the heat bake itself into my bones.

I pushed forward striking the magic fire with the full force of my keyblade… only for the fire to explode each time washing me in flames that seemed to lick my body. I quickly stopped getting behind a pillar as he stepped closer towards my position. A quick cure spell made the ache and what felt like boiling skin ease.

This plan wasn’t working. I quickly switched to the shield and covered it in a thick layer of blue ice, the hardest ice ever. At most the permafrost would give me a short amount of time to bridge that gap, I hoped.

After a short volley he seemed to stop and move positions, most likely bored when I stopped doing anything. I rushed out only to be met with a stream of flames. They were made of darkness itself from what I could tell.

My shield was raised high and I forced my way forward. The sudden shift in temperature caused a small implosion the moment the flames hit the ice but what would have resulted in a fine mist spreading across the battlefield left something else. The darkness was eating away at the ice keeping it from truly melting. It was slow enough that I was still able to push through.

His arms seemed to buckle slightly, the strain of keeping his magic up for so long affecting his judgement. He stopped his spell just as the shield was reaching the end of its lifespan and I jumped up to the platform with him, keyblade in wing.

A fool to the bitter end. I have killed countless knights who attempted to stop me. What makes you any different?” Horned King scoffed as a large staff appeared in his bony hand. It resembled a large shepherd’s crook but the head was an ornate runic symbol I had never seen before.”And now… now you will die here.

Several beams of darkness flew out from the staff forcing me back even further until my back hit the ceiling. I was forced to keep up several reflect spells just to keep the flames from smothering me. I didn’t even get the chance to banter back as the Horned King took me far more seriously and purposely than any other threat I had faced.

The animals I faced had followed their instinct and even Rourke had been turned animalistic in his bid to turn things to crystal and smash them. This was something far different. He kept the beams either focused on me or on any route I could use to escape and with impunity fired them as fast as he possibly could.


Octavia and Fresh Coat has knocked the Bone Lancers that had come towards them quickly. While more heavily armored they didn’t change their tactics nor their speed. Fresh held them down and Octavia slammed her keyblade through their heads. The Horned King seemed to not know how to fully command the heartless fully or even how to use them as soldiers. They were just here to padded out his time and keep him safe from multiple keyblade wielders.

Vinyl remained with the other people keeping them safe at a higher elevation. Octavia and Fresh Coat were disruptive enough that they didn’t seem to notice that small group. Vinyl groaned at the sight since she couldn’t exactly go all out at the moment. She had to be responsible. It was a new feeling entirely and she wanted to make certain she lived up to that expectation.

That started to buckle when the Horned King cornered Gray. So smugly he stood there raining magic upon him that she could only glare.

“Fresh… switch with me!” Vinyl called out causing Fresh to blanch slightly.

“Now!?” Fresh answered slightly surprised.

“Yes now! Please!” Vinyl cried out as the reflect spells started to break too fast.

“Go for it!” Fresh answered as she took up guardianship of the others.


‘Crap… running out of magic. This’ll hurt…’ My keyblade started rumbling in my hoof. The constant barrage left me in poor condition to do more than that.

What that witch saw in you wielders is laughable! Nothing more than animals being led to slaughter. At least the pig would have sense to turn away but you are lower than them!” Horned King laughed almost heartily as he increased the power of his staff and the number of beams he was firing.


“Hurry up Tavi!” Vinyl screamed as she rushed ahead using her magic to merely toss the Bone Lancers aside.

“I’m hurrying!” Octavia shouted using her own earth pony strength and the enhancement from her own training to bulldoze over several of the heartless in her path.

Vinyl jumped onto the platform the Black Cauldron was on. The Horned King was too busy laughing at Gray to notice the lone unicorn on the platform with him. Octavia was forced to knock away more Bone Lancers leaving her to plan this alone.

She gritted her teeth, thinking back to all the trouble he caused for her in particular. She had been forced into changing how she acted leaving her heart slightly lighter. Taking care of others outside of her felt better than she thought it would have. Having been through bullshit friendships outside of Octavia had left her reluctant to do much talking let alone making friends. In some ways she was thankful a jerk like the Horned King existed because it proved to her that even for all the times she acted aloof and without fully caring of another’s situation she was still better than most. Not by much but enough that it made a noticeable difference.

Without rhyme nor reason she pulled out her keyblade and rushed forward. Unbeknownst to her, her blade started shining a deep light blue color twisting in shape. What was a simple key shape made the blade a ivory white while the hoof guard turned into an ornate bridged eighth note. The teeth of the key had turned into several musical notes sharp and flat together.

She still didn’t notice that her keyblade had come into fruition. She didn’t even notice that she now knew the name of it was Bass Drop. She did notice that keyblade A was now hitting bad guy B. It also made said bad guy drop his staff thingy letting Gray go.

The elation didn’t last long as Horned King recovered quickly enough making a mad dash for said unicorn intent on throttling the life out of her. Unlike his body before, he had the presence to actually look physically intimidating.


I finally got off the ceiling. There was a small imprint of where my body had been pushed hard enough to warp the stone above me. How that was even possible was beyond my comprehension. I still hadn’t figured out the physics of Equestria. Learning the rules of another world was something I didn’t want to entertain.

As Horned King went after Vinyl, whom I assumed was the one who stopped him, I switched to the axe and tossed it towards him. The large weapon flew in a sharp arc which he noticed at the last minute. Bringing his arms up he caught the blade only allowing the momentum to carry him backwards instead of suffering the blow.

I flew down landing next to Vinyl while Octavia joined us after dealing with another wave of Bone Lancers.

“Good work. Let’s keep him from doing that again.”

“Right-o Nebby.” Vinyl practically neighed an affirmative forgoing all logic and grasping the two of us in a hug.

“Vinyl! Wait till later!” Octavia shouted as she pushed us apart.

It was well timed as a lance nearly skewered where my head was not a second ago. Octavia continued her fight which Vinyl joined in shortly. The two dances around the battlefield while I marched on towards the King.


The Cauldron spewed forth more undead. The fact was not lost on Taran or the rest. It continued to twist the very laws of nature all for the sick satisfaction of forcing this taboo upon the world. Fresh Coat had been busy using her magic to keep any stray heartless from coming closer with Eilonwy providing light support during the entire debacle.

“We need to do something.” Taran states to Fflewddur and Gurgi. “We can’t just stand around allowing others to fight our battles for us.”

“Be that as it may, we haven’t the means to fight anything right now. Your sword would have been the perfect offense against the undead.” Fflewddur answered making the young boy wince.

He was right. Taran was beside himself at this point. His actions hadn’t portrayed the visage of a knight at all. He had been childish to think that he could be one. Even Vinyl seemed a bit perturbed with him but she managed to be less dismissive of his dream. His brain wracked with indecision made the two not notice that Gurgi hadn’t said anything.

“Gurgi… where are - Gurgi?” Taran stood shocked as he saw Gurgi standing over the precipice that led to the Cauldron. “What are you doing?”

“Sorry Master… but Gurgi’s been thinking and sinking and smashing and crashing his brain. Wes all know what someone needs to do.” Gurgi answered a frown across his countenance. He looked over the edge. “The witches saids it… one must willingly go to stop it.”

“Gurgi… Gurgi no! Stop!” Taran stepped forth like a man possessed. He felt faint… not to the point of fainting but figuring out what Gurgi meant to do.

“Gurgi was useless… but now… now Gurgi will be useful to master.” Gurgi stated and with a sad smile he fell over the edge. Taran and Fflewddur rushes for him only now noticed by Fresh and Eilonwy during a quiet moment in combat.

“What!? No!” Fresh cried out as she tried to latch her telekinesis around Gurgi. Even though she had gripped him, the force already acted on him would be enough to get him into the Cauldron. She couldn’t stop his momentum and Vinyl wasn’t around to help her with her own telekinesis.

Eilonwy covered her mouth in shock as Gurgi entered the Cauldron. It immediately cut off Fresh Coat’s magical field and the Cauldron exploded in a pillar of green flames which destroyed the ceiling.


My keyblade danced around impacting against the Horned King’s own arms. He had weathered each blow as if nothing had happened. Infuriated at how much he enhanced his body I switched to the spears and used them for different angles of attack. While weaker, they were excellent at hitting smaller points on his body. That barely made a difference since he kept walking towards me forcing me to keep a spear in my wing to block his own strikes.

As we clashed, the room suddenly exploded in a rush of green light. It envelopes the room before everything died out. The undead around the room and the heartless that had been summoned were being sucked into the Cauldron.

No! No! You fools! What have you done!” Horned King screamed as he felt his own body start to shudder.

The magic he absorbed rushed out of his body leaving behind the same skeletal appearance he held before he had absorbed whatever the Cauldron possessed. Before I could strike him again the Cauldron released an explosive wave of energy from the opening sending me and him flying off.

I landed unceremoniously near Octavia and Vinyl as one of the Bone Lancers were sucked into the Cauldron. They helped me back up even though I now covered them in soot from the explosion. The Horned King was nowhere to be seen.

Fresh Coat trotted up to us tears streaming down her face. Taran and Eilonwy looked completely distraught while Fflewddur remained a near stoic except for the developing frown that threatened to take over.

“What’s wrong?” I called out. Very few things could make her cry. In fact there were few things that could make any of them cry.

“Fresh… where’s that little dog guy… Gurgi?” Vinyl asked her tone serious as she looked around.

“... he stopped the Cauldron didn’t he?” I answered what everyone was thinking.

There was no answer. Just silent nods and quiet lamentation throughout the hall. Before I could comfort anyone the Cauldron went into overdrive and started sucking us in as well. I grabbed Octavia and pushed her towards the humans. She got the message and placed her armor back on. With a bit of effort she pushed Eilonwy and pulled Fflewddur allowing him to cling to the plates on her armor. Fresh Coat followed suit helping with Fflewddur since he was a bit more frail than the others.

That left me to assist with Vinyl and Taran. I pulled Vinyl close and pushed Taran forward. We had made it a few feet when Vinyl stopped moving.

“Vinyl? Vinyl!” I called out as the Horned King grabbed her back leg dragging her towards the Cauldron.

You helped take this from me. I’ll take something of yours before this day is done.” Horned King stated in a cold fury and even tone.

I summoned my keyblade ready to throw it at him when Taran jumped forward. The Horned King was back to his regular form but he was still a lich like being. Vinyl tried to grip at the floor for any loose piece of brick for a hoofhold.

“You won’t have anyone!” Taran called out as he grabbed Vinyl and viciously stomped his foot into him.

Augh!” Horned King called out as he stumbled back. The vortex was working stronger and he reached the center of the destruction. “No! No! NOoooooo!”

Horned King gripped the edge of the Cauldron and flames erupted from his body. His flesh was torn strip by strip and his bones started burning into ash while he was still conscious. He kept muttering on how things went wrong… or that was the vortex ripping his bones in such a way they made a whistling sound from how fast he was torn apart. I opted not to figure it out.

Grabbing Vinyl and Taran I forced us to move back the way we came. My hooves were tired. Far more than they should be. Part of me wondered if it was due to being shot with all those magical beams of death earlier. It probably was but there wasn’t time to dwell on it. The fortress or castle had seen better days and the Cauldron looked to be trying to take everything with it.

The walls cracked and boil into molten sludge around the Cauldron and the random piles of debris circled the vortex around the opening. The last moments of the Horned King was of his jaw being ripped off into the Cauldron before we headed down the corridor.

“What took you so long!? This place is shaking like a sale for Apple Cider at home!” Sunshower yelped as Spitfire pulled her back.

“No time for crying, we need to leave.” Spitfire breathes heavily and her wings didn’t seem to be in the best shape.

I cast cure once more but stamina wasn’t replenished through it.

“I have an idea! Follow me!” Eilonwy shouted as she rushed off for another staircase.

We followed close after seeing as most of our flyers couldn’t fly at the moment. The act of moving my wings caused me to wince from the pain. I didn’t notice it at all during the fight. Adrenaline truly was the epitome of all painkillers.

We rushed further into the castle until we reached a large sluice gate that emptied out into the lake that the fortress was built around. I pulled out my new spears and with some careful maneuvers and finagling pried off the grate that blocked us from freedom.

One of the larger posts fell down and I ushered everyone onto it. As soon as everyone was seated I got in the back and used the spears to push us forward.

Several walls came collapsing after us as we cleared the tunnel. The darkness was enveloping but the light at the end of the tunnel became our guiding post. It was red but that was still preferable to death.

We shot out of the tunnel into the vast lake as the sun started to set over the mountains. The red hue vastly enhanced the area. We looked behind us as the castle went up in flames and destruction and the heartless that had been guarding it fled back to the darkness from whence they came.

I paddled us towards the shore and Redheart had started looking over our wounds. There were lots of bruises but with liberal use of the cure spells we were at the very least no longer wounded. Fatigue threatened us all but we couldn’t fall asleep just yet. We still needed to find the keyhole.

As we recuperated to the best of our abilities I noticed the Cauldron slowly floating over to us.

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