Kingdom Heart next generation: Friendship is Omniversal

by Starry Eyed

Chapter 11: Doubt and Faith

Kai and Santo rushed down the spiral stairwell going down to what they were sure would be the Keyhole of Equestria. They had already descended at least a few miles when they finally made it to the room filled with diamond pillars. Other than the stairs they had descended by, the only other way in or out of the room was a large open doorway straight ahead of them, at the back of this freakishly large chamber.

Despite being about 350 meters (about 1148 feet) away, it would have seemed close for two beings capable of running at the speeds that Kai and Santo could. But it now seemed infinitely far away, as a berserk Celestia was standing between them and the doorway. A white hot fireball rocketed out of her mane; making it abundantly clear that she meant to kill them.

She laughed sinisterly when it hit them, but stopped when she noticed they were unharmed.

Santo brushed his robes off, “Sorry Princess, but we can’t be harmed by fire. Do you have ANY idea how many people in the Omniverse have fire manipulation? It’s like one of the go-to powers, right up there with super strength and energy blasts. We make it a point to build up magical defenses against the things were most likely to run into.”

Santo’s cheek was then grazed by a blast of gold energy, and a drop of blood trickled down his face. Celestia smiled, “That may be. But no matter how much you prepare, you’re not invincible. Damage is just displacing the target’s body in some way. If I can’t burn you, I’ll blast you with my magic until nothing is left”, and with that she fired a barrage of gold energy blasts at them.

Kai and Santo ducked in cover behind one of the diamond pillars. It was a good thing the builders of this place had made it out of the toughest stuff in the world, because things were about the get messy.

Kai turned to Santo, “Go after the Ambassador, I’ll come after you when I’m done here.”

Santo objected, “That’s a terrible plan. You’re the only one with a Keyblade Kai! You need to go ahead and get the Heart of Equestria. I’ll stay.”

But Kai was already sure, “I’m level 50, and the Ambassador and his Swordbearer are both level 100, just like you. You don’t have to beat the Enforcers, just stall them until I get there.

But there’s and even better reason for me to stay: someone has to fight Celestia, and it may be a death match from the looks of it. If you stay, she could die, and Equestria will lose its ruler. But even if I have to kill her, I can bring her back with Rinne Tensei.”

Santo really hated this plan, but knew better than to question it. Once Kai got it in his head that he was going to protect something, all the Enforcers combined weren’t going to get him to give up on it.

And though not the most logical plan, it had a point. Only Kai could transcend life and death, but even he couldn’t fight an Ambassador.

Both Humans were forced to separate in retreat, as Celestia skidded around the corner firing blasts, “Fine Kai you win, but I’m going on record as having said this was a bad plan.” And with that Santo was headed for the Keyhole.

Celestia was in hot pursuit, but was blindsided by a Keyblade to the head from Kai. She fired a few blasts at him, all of which he deflected with the Keyblade.

Celestia looked like she wanted to scream with anger, but composed herself and laughed at this fool instead, “You fool. Your powers are nothing compared to mine. Or did you forget that my sister and I are both level 100?”

Kai starred down the wrathful Princess, “You can’t be any standardized level unless you’re standardized. You’re only magically equivalent to level 100.”

Celestia would have rolled her eyes if they weren’t perfectly white at the moment, “Your point?”

Kai answered, “My point is that it’s not the same. We’ve been to worlds where people had tremendous powers. Some of those people could destroy entire cities, and wielded an amount of magic almost on your level. But those same people could be killed by a bullet if they didn’t block properly!

Standardized magic prioritizes defense. Your level is measured by the weakest thing that could kill you. You have power like a level 100, but don’t have defenses to match.”

Celestia held her head high, looking down on Kai, “Then you should know that now that I am at 100%, my skin is leathered by my magic so that even a dragon’s bite wouldn’t hurt me.”

Kai screamed, “YEAH, leathered with magic! Know anyone that can cut magic? Like perhaps a crew full of humans that you entrusted to save your world! Unless you’re standardized, our Armament can cut you and any magic defenses you have, like cutting through paper!”

Celestia crouched into her battle stance once more, “So what you’re saying… is that the winner will be whoever hits first.”

Celestia sent out a wave of razor-sharp blasts, and Kai ducked in cover behind a pillar while deflecting what he could with his Keyblade.

Celestia circled the pillar, firing more blasts.

Kai ran as fast as he could, zigzagging through the pillars trying to lose his pursuer, but Celestia was too quick.

Kai was managing to block all the deadly shots, but many still grazed him. Still more of the shots he managed to deflect back at Celestia, hoping her own magic wouldn’t kill her. Celestia wasn’t hurt much by her own blasts, but they did leave burned places on her.

Kai would occasionally lose her, and heal his wounds. They were sharp, deep, sizzling hot, and were starting to become too numerous. And it was never more than a few seconds before Celestia would find him and start firing again.

Kai would already have been dead if there weren’t so many pillars to hide behind.

Celestia was getting tired of these infernal pillars blocking all her better shots.

Celestia’s mane fired up, and erupted fire in all directions. Soon most of the room was covered in fire. There were no flammable substances in this diamond chamber, but her magic kept the flames going anyway. Luckily Kai was fireproof.

But not explosion proof. Celestia made her fires explode, either damaging or destroying the pillars. Damaged pillars could be destroyed by Celestia’s blasts. Thankfully, destroying the pillars distracted Celestia, making it easier for Kai to move freely.

But that didn’t fix the problem. Kai worried, “Sorry Santo, this is taking longer than I thought. Hope you’re doing better than me.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Santo was doing much, much worse.

The Swordbearer Enforcer was slithering around him like a stingray, occasionally lunging its razor sharp body at Santo, or firing at him with energy blasts, or both.

Worse, the Ambassador was sparing with him. Whenever the Ambassador needed to dodge an attack, it would jump into the distance and let its puppet lunge. And whenever the Swordbearer fired at Santo and missed, the Ambassador was always standing where he could deflect the blast right back at Santo again. And both of them were as strong as Santo.

The Ambassador began its favorite tactic: psychological warfare, “You are a fool old man. All of us have the highest power level outside the Keepers. You should realize that you cannot beat us both, not even now that you have full power again.”

Santo replied, “You understand nothing Enforcer. Of all the worlds we’ve visited, 95% have less than a hundred people with a level higher than 30. Heck, 90% of the worlds we visited had no one above level 20, including their best warriors!

But I’ve seen enough worlds to say for certain; that level doesn’t mean that much. I’ve known heroes in those worlds, that weren’t more than level 1, yet they went up against impossible odds and triumphed! I’ve seen such people take on monsters dozens of levels higher than themselves and win!”

The Ambassador mechanically tried to correct, “Inaccurate. Those were not standardized levels. They won because they exploited a weakness, used a tool of greater power, and/or took advantage of dumb luck. It is not uncommon among the non-standardized to have destructive force superior to their own survivability.”

Santo smiled, “Say what you want. I say where there’s a will, there’s a way. If those brave young souls could pull off a miracle, you can bet I can.”

Santo lunged, “And I will!”

All of Everfree shook with the sheer force of the collision that followed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chrysalis now flew out of Ponyville away from the Everfree Forest. She didn’t really know what she was expecting to find.

She then came across a small clearing; and was terrified at what she found. The clearing hosted 43 Knight Class Enforcers! There had originally been 50, and 7 had been destroyed so far.

Each one had flown in on an Enforcer Dropship, each with a full crew.

Chrysalis could hear the Knights talking, “The Ambassador has confirmed that Santo will not be in Ponyville, and the black rain will preoccupied Matsu. There will be no problems; the other humans are no match for us.”

One Knight stepped out of ranks, “Let’s destroy them all.”

The Knight vanished, and Chrysalis could hear it talking behind her, “Starting with this one.”

SLASH!

Chrysalis’s first thought was “I’m dead”,

The second was how impossible and stupid the first one was.

She turned to see… nothing.

There was a dead Knight on the ground, and no sign of whatever had destroyed it.

Chrysalis turned back to see that the Enforcers appeared equally surprised. A wave of energy surged through the air, seemingly coming from everywhere. Yet neither Chrysalis nor the Enforcers could figure out where this power was coming from.

There was only one thing they were all certain of;

It was the most powerful magic any of them had ever been this close to.

Whoever was producing this energy must have used the Conquerors Haki, because with one pulse of incalculable power, all the Enforcers fell lifelessly to the ground.

Chrysalis, perhaps foolishly, flew into the clearing, and looked about frantically for… whatever or whoever was responsible.

She then heard a giggly girl’s voice behind her, “Chrysalis, long time no see.”

Chrysalis turned around to see a 19 year old girl (one year older than everyone in the crew except Santo and Soran, who were 40 and 20 respectively) wearing a black cloak.

The Girl reached her hands out of the cloak to hug Chrysalis, revealing that she wore a gold ring around the middle figure of her right hand. It was set with a smooth purple stone, and had gold wings folded against its sides. On her left hand she wore a large black watch, which Chrysalis could swear was pulsing gently.

Her eyes were blue and bright. Her hair was jet black, just past her neck in length, and she was smiling like a filly on Hearth’s Warming Eve.

Chrysalis didn’t recognize her personally, but knew who she was associated with, “You’re with the Mare’s Clan aren’t you.”

The girl stopped hugging Chrysalis, “You don’t know my name do you? I helped save your whole race from dying; and you don’t remember my name.”

“That’s not true!” lied Chrysalis.

The girl put on her best troll face, “What is it then?”

Chrysalis really didn’t know. The girl sighed, “You can call me Cloud until you remember my name. But listen, I’m on a tight schedule.”

Cloud reached into her cloak and pulled out a blue, shinning sphere, “I want you to give this to Soran. I know he can win without it, but this will allow him to handle things with minimal property damage. Don’t tell him about me though. If anyone asks, say that you promised a friend you wouldn’t tell. They’re the type of people that will leave it at that.”

Chrysalis was surprised, “You don’t want anyone to know you’re here do you? I’m the only one that even knows about the Mare’s Clan aren’t I?”

Cloud giggled, “In this world anyway. We make it a point not to let anyone know about us.”

Chrysalis was a bit mad at this, “Why? The way you handled those guys, you must be at level 100. Kai’s crew could really use your help right now!”

Cloud just shrugged, never becoming serious, “Well when time travelers start poking around, history goes nuts! So I tend not to change too much.”

Chrysalis gasped, “You’re from the future! Do we win?”

Cloud gave Chrysalis and disappointed stare, “What did I just say about changing the past? Besides, weren’t you listening to Kai and his friends? Kingdom Hearts prophesized that they would win. Isn’t that better than the word of someone from the future anyway?”

The crafty trickster that she was, Chrysalis smiled, “It is, but you strongly implied just now that you come from a time when Kai has beaten the Enforcers.”

Cloud realized that she had slipped up, “Oh drat.

Don’t tell anyone ok. Kingdom Hearts is never wrong, and it foretold that they would win, and that no innocent lives would be lost, from the beginning; so what I say is nothing compared to that.

Cloud’s watch began to beep, “Whoops! Almost out of time! Gotta go Chrysalis, and remember, talk to Luna first, you’ll regret it otherwise. And if you get word that Kai’s crew is dead, ignore it, it’s not true.”

Chrysalis was doing her best to take notes, “We’re going to hear that they’re dead soon?”

Cloud ran off into the forest, “Not yet, in the sequel!”

Chrysalis was really confused, “Sequel?”

Cloud yelled out, because she was now a good distance away, “I wrote down all the old crew’s adventures. This would be in book one. Book two is better though.”

And with that, Cloud was gone.

Chrysalis took the Sphere Cloud had left in the grip of her telekinesis, and literally flew back towards the Gummi ship at top speed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

The mane 6 had managed to get everypony to take shelter from the black rain. Only they themselves, Spitfire, Soarin’, Lightning Dust, Princess Luna, and Shining Armor remained in the black rain.

Dea dropped out of the sky, and fell among the afore mentioned ponies. “What are you doing out in this stuff? Didn’t you hear the announcement, this stuff is pure poison!”

Applejack tilled her hat, trying to keep the rain out of her face, “Well we just had ta make sure everypony else was in the dry first ya’know.”

Soarin’ spoke through his Wonderbolts uniform, which he had pulled up over his mouth to avoid breathing the poisoned air, “And besides, EVERYONE already has this stuff in them anyway. Sol informed us that all it takes is one drop, and that after that the others don’t matter much unless you inhale until you can’t breathe. Might as well stay out here with you.”

Dea started to object, but Soarin’ had a point.

“Fine, they’re your lives, do what you want with em. But if you’re going to choose to be stupid, you might as well go help Matsu out.”

After exchanging a look, the ponies nodded, and were on their way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Musica had just destroyed his 30,000th Soldier Class Enforcer of the day. ‘Mind Blowing Concert’ mixed with ‘Trumpeting Ballad of the Conqueror’ had allowed him to kill 30 aircraft carrier sized Dropships worth of Enforcers of every low rank just by giving them seizers. More than that, since he had used an attack that affects the mind, rather than the body, he had not damaged the Dropships themselves. This was very important, because the ships would have fallen, and Ponyville was right below them. The Enforcers would surely have nuked it if the Gummi ship didn’t have the barrier up.

Musica had become tired, much too tired to continue. And now, he was out of lightning clouds.

But there were still hundreds of Dropships left to go.

Dea jumped up onto the ship, released a wave of fireballs that incinerated a dozen Gladiators that were closing in, and went to check on Musica.

“Musica, you’ve done all anyone can do. Go rest in the healing chambers, we’ll get the rest of them.”

Musica wasn’t giving up that easy, “I’ve only gotten 30 ships worth, and there are hundreds more. You can’t beat them all you know. Your fire and swords, plus Sol’s psychics aren’t going to beat them. And Matsu is too busy making antidote.

The only way we can beat them is to have the Gummi nuke them, but that will destroy Ponyville.”

The Pegasus had carried the other ponies up to the ship in time to hear that.

Lightning asked, “Wait, you could just have nuked the fleet the whole time? The Enforcers really aren’t a danger to you guys at all are they? You’re just doing this to help us.”

Musica looked at his first pony fan, “Well duh. If we wanted to relax, we would have stayed in one of the worlds that Kai became Keeper of.”

Dea smiled warmly to the ponies, “It’s because you’re our friends. That’s all the reason we need.”

Nopony was sure what to say, but Pinkie just smiled back, so the others tried to do the same.

Soran and Sol flew back to the ship. Having just defeated their own 30th ship and crew.

Sol reported, “We’re doing pretty good, but I’m sure that we can’t keep this up much longer.”

Musica stumbled towards the door leading to the inside of the ship, “Fine I’ll rest. Soran; you’re the strongest of this group, take over.”

Some of the ponies had doubts about Soran being stronger than Musica, but were too polite to voice those opinions.

Thankfully, Pinkie Pie has no self-restraint, “EWW, you’re stronger than Musica, Mr. Soran? I thought all you could do was fly stuff around.”

Rainbow Dash was appalled, “Oh my Celestia, Pinkie Pie, you can’t just ask someone if all they can do is fly stuff around.”

Soran laughed. It was good that the ponies weren’t worrying to much, “Well, I am a support type magician after all. But flying is just a magic I learned to help my crew, and amplify my own fighting.”

Soran summoned several dozen swords, which Twilight had seen him carve the ship back into shape with. Soran had already proven that he could not only destroy things with his swords, but was also a master carpenter.

Soran asked Twilight a question, “Twilight, did you know that your stance plays a big role in swordsmanship?”

After all his years of being in the guard, Shining Armor had to be the one to answer, “That’s just obvious Soran.”

Soran flew his own body height off the ship, “Anyone that I allow to fly, is ‘standing’ on my flight magic. I always have perfect footing, because I create it. My swordsmanship isn’t the best in the Omniverse, but my stance and footing are.”

The Enforcers hadn’t been doing nothing this whole time. The next wave of them had assembled, and were rushing the ship by the thousands.

Suddenly they started popping like balloons as soon as they neared the ship.

Soran flew in their direction, cutting them to pieces with the sword that he was either holding in his hands or in his magic.

“But one thing you have to watch out for with flight magic is pressure. Changing altitude rapidly can give you altitude sickness, so I also have to have the power to control pressure, just to survive. I’m disrupting the pressure in the Enforcer’s bodies, causing them to expanded and burst.

Plus, I can expand the radius of my ‘Flight Sphere’. The 30 meter radius is my 1%, radius, so I can go up to 3000 meters (1.86411 mile spherical radius) at 100%.”

With that Soran shot his swords at the enemy. Each sword skewered one Enforcer before slicing to the side killing the nearest other Enforcer.

Shining Armor remembered falling out of Soran’s flight Sphere before, “You can expand your magic that far and you didn’t catch me earlier!”

Dea looked worried, “It’s not that he couldn’t have, but you didn’t get hurt, and he doesn’t like to expand the radius if he doesn’t have to. The percentage doesn’t just measure how long the radius is, it also measures what percentage of his strength, magic, and concentration he has to expend to keep it that wide.

At 1%, he can maintain it as easily as breathing, but by 50% he is only half his normal strength, magic, and mindset. Just 2% doubles the strain. 50% and the strain is terrible. By 80% some of the internal strength needed to make his organs function is being used to maintain it. If he were to go to 100%, he could move mountain ranges around, and make it rain upwards… but he would die.

Right now, he’s at 60% (1.118468 mile spherical radius), but that also means that his power is only at 40%. The Pawns, Scouts, and Soldiers are no match for him, and he can kill them like flees. But at this state of weakness, a Gladiator could easily kill him.

As quantity goes up, quality goes down. As radius goes up, might goes down. Soran is really at his best when he uses 1%.”
Soran was staying close enough to the ship that the other humans could fly up to help once they had caught their breath.

Sol was ready for the next round, “Come on Dea, Soran needs guards right now. I predict that well win by unexpected means.”

Dea scowled, “Why does your fortune telling have to be so cryptic?”

Sol was already flying, “because you never really know what’s going to happen next, at best you just know what to expect.”

Dea drew her sword and set it ablaze with magic, “Fine then, let’s get em.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was an earthquake in the Everfree Forest. The worst in the history of Equestria. All the animals had been evacuating since Fluttershy had warned them about the circumstances, long before the battle started. But these tremors were so intense that Ponyville was feeling it’s effects. They could even faintly be felt by those in Appleloosa. Whole sections of the forest were caving in to the underground caverns beneath the old ruins.

And that was all just side effects of the fight between Santo and the Ambassador.

Santo had managed to kill the Swordbearer, but was now nearing complete exhaustion, and the Ambassador was taking full advantage of this.

“Just die you miserable old fool!” screamed the Ambassador as it lunged to kill Santo.

Santo was nearly cut in two, but vanished without a trace. The Ambassador blocked an attack coming from the rear, and turned to face the clever old warrior.

“I’m not old, I sped up my ageing to sped up my power level growth.

And I did it with my magic: Time-Space manipulation.

You’re moving in Slow motion Enforcer. And that’s a problem when fighting someone whom distance means nothing to.”

Enforcers don’t worry about anything, they are much too overconfident.

“Big words from someone who can’t CONTROL Time-Space. You may be able to play with the fundamental forces of the omniverse, but you don’t command the power of Time or Space. If you did you would have won immediately. But it appears that moving between the dimensional fabric strains your body. All I have to do is drag this battle out.”

Santo wasn’t overly worried. Dragging the battle out was kinda his goal after all. But he knew he couldn’t keep it up much longer.

“Darn it Kai, you better be close to the Heart by now.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Boom!

Kai had just been shot through a wall.

The Structure, diamond or not, couldn’t take this kind of a beating. Celestia had started blowing up Pillars a long time ago, and with the earthquakes Santo and the Enforces were causing the whole place was falling apart.

Kai took note of his new surroundings.

He was in a large, circular room, about the size of a football stadium’s width, but circular. Where the ‘Stands’ would be in a football stadium, there were giant stairs leading down to the floor of the room.

The Ceiling was a perfect dome, and was enchanted to look like the sky above it, which was currently an Eclipse.

The ‘Keyhole’ in the moon, shown down from the enchanted ceiling, and fell perfectly into a giant keyhole in the center of this chamber’s floor.

Kai had been blasted into the room housing the Keyhole of the world!

Kai noticed however, that the floor had a large crack running through it, right through the middle of the Keyhole. This caused the Keyhole to ‘leak’ magic, and the air was saturated with it.

The sound of Celestia screaming in rage brought him back to his senses, and he just barely blocked a shot that would have incinerated his head.

Celestia lowered her head and rammed Kai, sending both of them down to the floor of the chamber, just a few feet from the Keyhole.

Kai would have been killed if he hadn’t dodged the horn and blocked with his keyblade.

Celestia was so mad that she hadn’t paid attention to where the now where.

“Celestia, look around you. This is the Keyhole to the Heart of your world” Kai spoke softly.

Celestia looked around, realizing the importance of their new location. Her distraction had given Kai time to stand up.

“Celestia, we can save Equestria right now. The Heart is right here.”

Kai held his Keyblade’s handle out so that Celestia could take it, “But I don’t want to take the heart from you by force. So please Celestia, come to your senses.”

Celestia blasted at Kai, but this time was different. Kai made no attempt to block, and the blast cut right through his heart with a loud popping sound, followed by steam gushing out of the wound.

Celestia gasped. What little sanity she had left was appalled that she would willingly inflict such a horrible wound on any sentient creature.

Kai coughed up some blood, but did not scream. Partly because he was trying not to, and partly because it hurt too much to scream.

“It’s…Alright…Princess. I can heal death itself as long as it’s recent…I’ll…survive this. But please…I have to…protect…my friends’…world…first.

Celestia was moved by Kai’s innocence and willpower, but not enough to revert. She pushed her horn into his forehead until she felt skull. Her magic flared up and she readied it for the final blow, “Don’t worry, this blast will destroy your head. The pain will end.”

Kai stared right into Celestia’s eyes. Kai’s eyes where filled with concern for his friends, faith in his assailant, understanding, forgiveness, willpower, and love. Celestia looked for any sign of fear, anger, hate, suffering, or any kind of doubt, but there was none to be found in Kai’s eyes.

Kai could have cut Celestia in two with his Keyblade, become Keeper, and Revived her before her soul was gone, but he couldn’t bring himself to hurt his friend. Celestia knew all this.

Celestia cried.

Her tears made her eyes go back to normal, but she was clearly not fully cured yet.

“I don’t want to be owned Kai.

I don’t want to lose control again.

I don’t want to be powerless like I was with Luna.

I don’t want you to be our Keeper.”

Kai put his hand on Celestia’s shoulder to comfort her, even though her fiery mane burned his hand terribly.

“You…don’t need to…worry about that. I’ll give it all…back…to you.”

Celestia was weeping bitterly, “I’ve seen humans before. The powers of a Keeper let me know about other worlds. They’re greedy and cruel, and they don’t keep their promises. How do I know you’ll keep your word? Why would you give Omnipotent power back to me?”

“I try…to do what’s right. You’re…good. The way…I see it…that makes you…my Friend.”

Celestia’s whole world seemed to stand still. But she knew that at that moment, Santo was fighting the most dangerous thing that ever walked the world, Kai’s crew was running out of power fighting unwinnable odds, Ponyville was being poisoned, The fate of Equestria hung in the balance,

And Kai was about to die.

So Celestia passed judgment, and decided the fate of her world.

Comments

[Starry Eyed]

Hello dearest readers
Well, I trust you all saw the latest episode, gotta love Discord
I don't know what I was excpecting, but that wasn't it
But I now have a timeline! This story happens after "Spike at your Service", but before "Keep calm and Flutter on"
I waited until I saw the episode to write this chapter, with hopes of including Discord. But Discord can't be a background character under any circumstances, and he would only complicate the story at this point. Discord would only make the story chaotic that's what he does to everything.
I admit I made you all wait for the next chapter a long time, just to not actually add anything but the show must go on. I'm not waiting for any more episodes after this, only Discord was a show stopper. I'm busy right now, but the last Chapters should be more frequently released. I will also be adding storyboard info to my blog (I reserve my blog for relevant story data), so head over and read it soon

P.S. there will be 2-3 more chapters, maybe 4, but doubtful. I belive all serious anime style stories like this should have at least one "after-party" chapter And it is in that chapter I will make honorable mentions