Pipsquak and his friends are tasked with defending the Realm of Light and healing the wound in Sora's heart. Dark forces such as Organization XII, and the unexpected return of Maleficent and Nightmare Moon, will make their mission a daunting one.
After the battle of Castle Oblivion, Sora has chosen to regain his old memories and has been put to sleep until he is whole once again. With his absence, dark forces are able to do as they please with their only true opposition missing in action. The strength of the Heartless continues to grow rapidly by each day with different puppet masters pulling the strings. In the process of returning Sora's memories, his own heart is threatened by a darkness that will consume him if nothing is done to stop it. Pipsqueak and his companions must hold off the ever growing threat that not only grows in the Realm of Light, but the darkness that is festering is Sora's heart as well. Will they be able to accomplish the daunting mission given to them? Or will they all be consumed by the darkness as well?
Something was wrong... this was all wrong. Naminé knew this for a fact. No matter how hard she tried, it seemed like some kind of looming darkness was getting in her way. She couldn't explain it or understand why, but as frustrated as she was she did her best not to show it. Naminé had to press on... for Sora. This was his only hope of stringing his memories back together, but at this rate it was going to take forever if she couldn't deal with this... nuisance. She had stopped drawing for a while now. Sitting back in her chair, she could only stare at what she drew, or rather, what was somehow drawn onto the picture without her knowledge. This was the twelfth time this week this has happened. What was scarier was that her pictures not only somehow draw themselves anytime she looked away for even a moment, it was always the same picture. Here it was again, the picture that's been haunting her work day in and day out. A kiddish drawing of Sora surrounded by Heartless, but Donald or Goofy was nowhere in sight, nor did Sora have his Keyblade to defend himself. The entire white sheet of the paper was colored over with a black pencil that filled the entire background. Why? Why was it always this picture? It's almost like a premonition of Sora's fate...
Her stainless room was getting a slight draft from the open window that was starting to give her the chills. The last thing she needed right now was more distractions. Naminé was going to close the window herself, but the draft in the room was suddenly gone. The window was closed, but there could only be one possibility as to how that happened.
"I'm back."
Naminé closed her eyes and sighed with a bit of relief, thankfully it wasn't DiZ that came to greet her this time. "Hello, Riku." Dressed in a black coat just like the nobodies of the Organization and a black blind fold over his eyes, Riku was by her side. "Hopefully you've been making some progress?"
Riku shrugged at her question. "I'm doing what I can. How are things on your end?"
Whatever comfort Naminé felt from the moment was gone now, she wished she had better news for him, but now was not the time to start lying and filling Riku with false hopes. If they were going to restore Sora's memories, they had to act now. "I... we have a problem. It's Sora's heart..."
Riku's fist balled up just at the thought of what she was about to lay on him, he could only hope they didn't mess something up that affected his best friend. "Naminé.... what is it?"
She hardly knew how to explain it to him, she barely knew what was going on herself. Naminé only had a hunch, but hunches are not whats going to help Sora. She needed to get to the bottom of this, but she couldn't do it by herself, and Riku was already busy as it is. "...I'm not entirely sure. First it was the memory leaks... but now... I'm not sure what I'm dealing with. Before this I was already having trouble piecing together Sora's memories, that's where I needed your help. But this... I fear Sora's heart might be at risk now. There are memories in his heart that aren't suppose to be there. Some type of darkness is making it difficult for me to put things back to the way they were."
Riku stepped away from her for a moment. He had to keep his composure. As much as he wanted to express his worry for Sora, he knew loosing his cool was not going to fix things. "...Then what do I do? How do make I this darkness go away?"
As much as Naminé wanted to give him the straight answer, he probably wouldn't be able to accept it. But in times like these there wasn't much of a choice now. "I'm not sure how much time we have, but we have to deal with this soon. But Riku... I don't think you're the one who can do this."
Was this some sort of joke? If it was then it wasn't funny at all. At first, Riku kept his mouth shut, mainly to hide the fact he was grinding his teeth at this point. Staying calm was getting much harder all of a sudden, but he was going to keep it in check for however long he could still do so. "...Why?"
Naminé flipped to the next page in her drawing book, she was so far behind at this point that she didn't have enough time to sit and chat with Riku. She picked up her pencil again and got back to work. "I need you out there, Riku. We both want to help Sora, but we can't do several things at once. We need help..."
He didn't want to admit it, but Naminé was right. Between dealing with his own darkness and helping Sora with his "leaked memories", he didn't have enough time to deal with another problem. But where was Riku going to find help at a time like this? He rubbed his chin trying to figure out who was capable enough to deal with a problem like this. "...The King." That probably the only person he knew right now that would be able to help them out in a time like this. "No, wait..." Riku face palmed at even suggesting the idea. After he and Mickey parted ways, he didn't know where he went off to exactly. If Naminé said time was short then there was no time to go on a goose chase for Mickey. Sora needed help now.
"If not King Mickey, then who? Do you know anyone else?" Naminé hasn't taken her eyes off the picture she was working on, least if the picture was to get ruined again.
Admittedly, Riku has been avoiding the idea of one more person that could possibly help Sora. As much as he wanted to ask him he was still evasive to the idea. "He" might only make things much worse for Sora with the way "he" is now, but what other choice did he have? It was now or never. "...I'll be back soon." Riku opened a Corridor of Darkness behind him to where he believed his "help" was at the moment. There was no time to waste, he stepped in to the portal.
"Don't be a stranger, Riku." Naminé giggled. If only she knew...
Four Years Prior
Princess Luna shot up out of her bed, tumbling to the floor while bringing her blanket down with her, struggling to get out of the tangled sheets. The bed sheets came off like untying a rope with a knot. She panted while looking around the room to see she was really back in the real world this time. For the one being in this world who was suppose to be the know it all when it came to dreams, it annoyed her to no end to know that she couldn't understand her more recent dreams. She was reminded that she was on the floor when a knock came to her door. "Luna? Are you alright in there?"
She didn't make a good attempt at covering up her little mishap. Luna got herself off the ground and levitated the sheets on to the bed, making her bed nice and neat. "Yes sister, I am well..." It was then that Luna realized what time it was. It couldn't possibly be this late already was it? Even she would forget how much time flies when you're dreaming.
Celestia took this as an invitation to come in and opened the door to let herself in. She peeked inside to see if her little sister was dong okay. The only thing she walked in on was Luna fixing up her sheets. "I was coming to wake you up before I heard something fall in here, are you sure everything is alright?"
No. Everything was not alright. For the past few weeks she kept having the same dream over and over again. Though for her sake it wasn't truly a nightmare. Every night her dreams would play the same events again and again, but most of time they all happened in different order. Most of her dream usually consisted of pleasantries that warmed her heart to core, but sometimes she had a familiar feeling about her dreams. It was almost like these dreams were more like memories instead of just things conjured in her mind. The other parts of her dream... the nightmare parts, seemed to be what got to her the most. While she could vaguely remember the good parts of her dreams, most of the nightmares were a bit more clear in her mind. There were three specific beings that always came back to haunt her. One was Nightmare Moon, another was King Sombra.... but the third... she couldn't place her hoof on it. It was always at the tip of her tongue. The third pony in her nightmares seemed to always be the worst part of her dreams. Sombra and Nightmare were something else, but this third pony disturbed her like no other.
The strangest part about it all was that this third pony was the fondest part of her happy dreams as well. Who was this pony? Did Celestia know who it was? It was best not to ask her sister any of this, at least not now. She had a duty to perform and perform it she will. "I told you, I'm quite alright." Once she finished fixing her sheets, Luna trotted past her sister, almost as if she didn't acknowledge her presence.
"Was it a nightmare?", Celestia persisted. She always knew Luna was the type to hide her pain, and sometimes her hiding that pain would be her downfall.... quite literally. All the more reason for Celestia to see if she could try get to the bottom of this.
Luna stopped at the door and sighed. She didn't want to do this right now. Her mind and her heart just wasn't in it. However, it was probably for the best if she got this off her chest. Things usually went better when she actually admitted when there was something wrong with her, something the ponies from Ponyville can vouch for. "Celly... can we talk about this once the night is over? I think there's something you should know."
Finally, there was progress after all. Celestia smiled and nodded. "Of course Lulu... as soon as the night is over, I'll come and see you." Now that Luna was finally starting to open up her more it seemed like things might be smooth sailing from here on out, or at least Celestia hope it would stay that way. Luna definitely didn't need more problems coming back to haunt her... or Celestia for that matter.
Luna returned the affirmative nod and left the room. It was time for the world to be put to slumber and watch over the dreams of her subjects. When she reached the highest balcony of the castle she saw that Celestia's work was already finished. The sun was already set and now it was time to get her shift started. Her horned emitted her signature glow as she put her talents to use. The moon would slowly rise as the sun's horizon shine was dimmed, casting its light away.
Before she began the second part of her job she felt like doing a bit of sight seeing. She looked into the telescope in front of her and adjusted her sights on Ponyville. Luna wanted to visit there again sometime. They were some of the nicest ponies she had ever met. She'll have to also remember to say hello to her number one fan. Pipsqueak was just the sweetest kid to her, he's one of the ponies that she kept a special place in her heart for, just like she did for Twilight and her friends. It was always amusing to visit Pipsquak's dreams. Whether he was the captain of an infamous pirate crew, or.... he was drowning and had to go into his dream and give him CPR.... his dreams were always ones she looked forward to.
The princess shifted her gaze right down to castle town itself. For as high and mighty Canterlot may present itself as, it was no stranger to midnight dangers. Luna always enjoyed it when she could get away from this place whenever she could, but it was still her duty to remain vigilant of the capital of Equestria. Right as she was about to shift her gaze again, out of the corner of her vision she spotted smoke. This wasn't smoke that one would see coming out of a chimney. This was the type of smoke you'd see when something was being burned down, and it was relatively close.
Luna got a fix on where the smoke was coming from, apparently a building had caught on fire somehow, but wait... "That's no ordinary building.... that's the guard tower!" Another look around the area would show her that a bunch of guards were laying all over the ground, most of them were beat pretty badly. How could she have miss all of this? There was no sounds of fighting or even a scream. Did it happen all happen that quickly? The alarm wasn't raised? "What is this madness?! Are we under attack?" As if the situation wasn't already tense enough, Luna visibly flinched when she heard the piercing of a sword being shoved into the ground behind her. When she whipped around to see who was there she her heart started to race. No pony was there, only a weapon stuck into the ground.
"No... that blade... no it couldn't be. Why here? Who did it come from?" Something told her this wasn't a good sign at all. The Keyblade would explain how that fire was started and all the beaten guards... but who did it belong to? Whoever its owner is, they didn't seem like they came for a social call.
"Luna! Run!" Celestia voice echoed out from the stairway of the steps leading up to the balcony. Almost as soon as she yelled out, Celestia came up galloping up to the balcony with the Keyblade being the only thing in between them.
"Sister! What is the meaning of all of this!? What's happening?!"
"There isn't any time left to explain! You have to leave! Get as far away as you—" Celestia wasn't given a chance to finish her warning. A black magical aura appeared around her neck, gripped her throat and lifting her into the air. Celestia reached for her neck and used whatever magic she had to combat the magic suffocating her.
"I don't think she's going anywhere." Coming up from behind the choking princess came a pony dressed in a black coat with a hood over his head to shroud his identity. The only way to identify him was by his silver tail and the edges of his silver mane sticking out. The oddest thing about him was that he was an earth pony. Who was using magic on Luna's sister then? It couldn't have been him could it?
"You! Release my sister!" Luna prepared her magic in her horn, she didn't know who this fiend was or why he decided to attack her home, but this has gone on long enough. She was fully ready to fight, yet as soon as she was going to attack she let down her magic. Her angry expression turned to fear. "Wait... this isn't possible. You... you're the pony from my dreams..." Yes, it was clear as day. He fit the description perfectly. The Keyblade, his cloths... just like the third pony from her dreams. "Who are you?!"
The pony dropped his grip on Celestia and let her hit the ground. She coughed and sputtered trying to get any air in her lungs. Calling out to Luna was almost impossible. "Well, at least you've been keeping me in your heart after all this time." The stallion let down his hood letting Luna soak in just who he really was. It was him, no doubt about it. The same exact pony from the nightmares and dreams, save for his amber eyes. His eyes weren't like this in any of her repeated dreams. His name however was still a blank.
Class was still in session, and for most of the kids in class today's session was absolutely dreadful. Learning division and multiplication was definitely something different for addition and subtraction. Some of the more gifted children were picking up on it pretty easily. The others... well, it was easy to single them out, considering they were the ones that were asleep. The colt that sat near the back to the far left was the kid known Pipsqueak. Granted he wasn't the type to fall in sleep in class, but supposedly today was a special case for him. His face was planet right into his desk, snoring away as if he was in his own bed
Unlike two of his other friends, Snips and Snails, unofficially dubbed "The Dummy Duo", who sat next right to Pipsqueak, they were almost always asleep in class. They only found the time to wake up if they wanted to shoot spit wads at Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, or if Ms Cherilee noticed if they were asleep and woke them up. Just like their best friend next to them, their snooze crusade was going off without a hitch. Snips came up with the brilliant plan to draw their faces onto masks. With their heads faced down on the desk the masks covered their heads to make it appear they were still staring directly at the board. Cherilee wasn't born yesterday however. She could always tell the faces of her darling student from crude kids drawings, but she felt she'll let them get away with it this time, only because it was a clever trick for ponies of their age.
In front of Pipsqueak was one of the class stars, Dinky Hooves. She held her head in a hoof while toying around with a pencil with her magic. She already knew most of the material anyway and finished all her work before the others, so no one could blame her for being a bit bored. Not to mention the fact that she was a bit frustrated that Cherilee wasn't going to pass out tonight's homework until the end of class. "Why can't we just get this homework already... knowing Snips and Snails, I'm gonna have to do their homework for them... again..." Dinky couldn't really complain all that much, the homework was never that hard anyway. At least she was thankful that Pipsqueak could sleep in class and still get his work done.
On the left to Dinky was her annoying admirer, Rumble. She had nothing against Rumble, but the fact that he always had some dumb one liners ready to say to her like they were going to work got on her nerves at times, but over time she got use to it. When he wasn't googly eyeing Dinky in class he was sometimes playing with his Royal Guard action figures during recess. There wasn't a soul in the entire school who didn't know that Rumble looked up to them and wanted to be a part of the guard when he grew up. That was probably one of the reasons why Dinky hasn't slapped him yet, at least he had a good heart.
Finally behind Rumble was another class star, but more known as the class geek, Twist. Ever since she stopped hanging out with Apple Bloom, Twist has moved on to some new friends, specially the ponies that were sitting around her. While she wasn't primary in circle of friends like Rumble, she did like to have Dinky and Rumble as study partners when the class broke up into groups of three. While she was a bit socially awkward for more obvious reasons than others, she was an easy pony to get along with. Surprisingly she knew how to defuse situations as well, considering she might be the only living being in the entire universe who ever stopped a fight between Snips and Snails over who admired Trixie more. A feat not even the princesses were capable of.
As the school day was drawing to a close, Snips and Snails' internal clocks woke up them up sensing that school was almost over. They didn't make a single attempt to cover up the fact they were sleeping when they openly yawned and stretched their limbs for everyone to see. Dinky turned in her seat and gave them a dull look. "Wow you two, this must be a new world record. Never thought I'd see you guys stay awake a whole class period." Of course she was being sarcastic, but she knew sarcasm was one of their weakest suites
Snips and Snails both tilted their heads in confusion before realizing their plan must have worked! "Huh? Oh uh, yeah! We were awake! Snails and I wanted to learn so much today, so we went to bed extra early last night! Right Snails?"
Unbeknownst to Snails, he still had drool hanging from the edge of his mouth. "Uh, yeah! Extra early!"
A single face hoof wasn't enough for Dinky to express how dumb their little plan was, but it was to be expected of them. "Right, whatever. Snails totally didn't tell me about your adventure last night during recess..."
Snips' immediate reaction was to smack Snails in the back of the head like he always does when Snails got them caught. "Snails! What part of 'Don't tell Dinky' did you not get!? Do you want our parents to find out!?"
The poor orange pony hung his head low as he accept the scolding he rightfully deserved. "Sorry Snips... I just felt bad for not inviting her you know?"
If there was any she knew that was almost as honest as Applejack, it was probably Snails. He may be a bit slow, but his heart was always in the right place. Dinky placed a hood around his back and gave him a light hug. "Well then, Snails, I can forgive you at least." Dinky was always easy on him no matter what he did, and considering how everyone else treated him, he was always thankful for Dinky having mercy on him. "But as for you..." She shifted her friendly face at Snails to a cold stare towards Snips. "If you think I'm doing your homework tonight, then you better hope Twist is more charitable than I am."
Before Dinky could even blink, Snips was on his knees with his hooves together, begging to his very best ability. "No no no no no no no pleeeeeeassssee! It wasn't my idea I swear! It was Pipsqueak's!"
She had to raise a brow to that claim. Considering that she was one Pipsqueak's best friends and his First Mate, Dinky hardly bought his story. "Yea, nice try, Snips."
"No! I'm serious! Here look!" Knowing that his homework was on the line, there was no time for him to waste. Snips quickly rummaged through his school bag to find some sort of evidence for his claim before Dinky made up her mind for good. "AH HA!" Once he found what he was looking for he pulled out a torn piece of paper and slammed it on his desk. "Read em' and weep! I'm innocent I tell ya! Innocent!"
The little filly leaned over towards his desk to see if this was really any sort of proof against Pipsqueak. She read whatever was written on the note out loud.
Snips, Snails. Tonight we're sneaking out to get "you know what". Make sure you don't tell Dinky in school.
Dinky really wanted to believe Snips forged this note in the minute he was rushing it out of his bag, but she could tell this was Pipsqueak's writing. Before she even had a chance to respond to Snips, the note was swiped. To the the surprise of the other three, Pipsqueak was the one who swiped the paper, but his head was still down on the desk. At least now they knew he was awake, or conscious at he very least. "Pipsqueak? You alright?", Dinky asked him. Instead of an verbal response he slammed the note onto Dinky's desk. His leg went limp at his side. Instead of questioning what just happened, they all looked back down at the note, but this time it was the back of the note with more writing.
Tell her after school so no one might ease drop on us.
None of them knew how to respond to the rest of the note at first. Snips seemed like he was taking it the worst out of all them. Sweat was visibly running down his entire head like a waterfall. Every other second he was swallowing his saliva out of pure fear. His eyes began to swell up with tears as he slammed his head into his desk. "Why... my homework.... MY HOMEWORK!", the blue unicorn wailed. A piece of paper was placed in front of Snips as he balled his eyes out. He gazed at the paper given to him and looked back up at Dinky. "Wh.... What's this?"
"Tonight's homework.", she said smoothly with a smirk. Just as the school bell rang to let release all the students, Snips went right back to sobbing.
With class finally over, all the colts and fillies happily made their way out to the front of school where most of them waited to get picked up. Snips, Snails, and Dinky meet in front of the playground with Snips still teary eyed. With nothing else to use, he blew his nose into his homework assignment to clear his nose. Now his homework was reduced to a wet and snooty mess.
Snails took a careful side step away from his friend. "Ew..."
Dinky shook his head at Snips. "I doubt you were gonna do it anyway. Hey, where's Pip at?"
With another blow into the paper, Snip used the last clean parts of it to blow his snort away before tossing it aside. "I didn't see him leave with us. Is he still asleep?"
They didn't have to wait long for their answer as Ms. Cherilee guided Pipsqueak out of the school. She turned and gave him a worried look. "Pipsqueak, are you sure you're alright? It's not like you to sleep and class, and to be honest... you look like you've missed more than just a good night's sleep."
Cherilee couldn't have been anymore right about him. With Pipsqueak's messy bedhead mane combined with his sunken bloodshot eyes with bags under them, he looked more ill than just exhausted. He could barely stand on his own four hooves as he shook his head at his teacher. "No Ms. Cherilee.... I'm... I'm..."
She waited for Pipsqueak to finish what he had to say, but his eyes closed and began to nod off. "Pipsqueak?"
The colt nearly jumped at the sound of her voice. His eyes were now wide open, their movement becoming sporadic. He looked all around him trying to figure out where he was exactly. "WHO?! WHAT?! WHERE!? WHY!?"
Before he turned into a bigger mess than he already was, Cherilee gently grabbed him by his shoulders. "Pipsqueak! Look it's me! Your teacher!" She gave him a single shake to bring him back to reality.
Pipsqueak stopped moving altogether, his entire body stiffened up. He held his head and rubbed his eyes from all the sunlight pouring in. "S-Sorry about class today. I just picked a bad night to stay up is all."
For some reason, Cherilee didn't accept that story from him, at least not entirely, but it was clear he lacked sleep and that was definitely the truth. "You should try going to bed a bit earlier from now on. You have all weekend to catch up on sleep so I hope you get plenty of rest for Monday." She really hoped sleep deprivation was the real case, this wouldn't be the first time she had a student come to school like this for more... personal reasons.
It seemed like Pipsqueak was at least starting to look more awake now, causing Cherilee to finally let go of him. All she could really offer him was a hopeful smile. "Yes ma'am... sorry to make you worry. See you on... on um.."
"Monday."
"Right. Monday." She gave him a final nod of confidence before heading back inside of the school. Now with everything school related over with, Pipsqueak headed over to the playground where the rest of his friends were. All of them turned to greet him before their friendly smiles shifted to frowns of worry and slight shock. Most of them didn't even know what to say at that point. It was almost like they were staring at a new pony. "Hey mates..."
The unicorns passed each other expecting looks, waiting for each other to speak up. Luckily for them, Pipsqueak's vision was too fuzzy at the moment to notice them giving each other subtle head shakes as if saying "No way! You do it!". Eventually it came down to Dinky to pop the question despite her rejections. "Um, Pip? Are you feeling okay?"
For a second, Pipsqueak almost missed what she said to him, but after playing it back in his head a couple of times he finally responded with, "I've had better days."
"More like better nights, you look like you haven't caught a wink of sleep. What happened to you?"
It wasn't like he could pretend that he wasn't tired in front of them, but at least he could give them a legitimate reason for his condition. Pipsqueak reached into his school bag and pulled out an ancient looking map in front of all of them. "This is what happened to me."
At the first glance of the map, Snips and Snails zipped right to the earth pony's side, googling at the map. Pipsqueak had to push them both away a bit, least their drool got on the map. "You figured out the map yet, Pip!?" Snails asked in a over excited manner.
Dinky was left in the dark about all of it. "Map? What map?"
Before anymore slobber could get on the map, Pipsqueak brought over the map to her and gave her a view. "This is what me and the guys found last night. It's some kind of magic map."
She couldn't really understand what she was looking at despite being told what it was. The map was completely blank, save for a title at the top written in old Equestrian as "Map of Desires" and a random X on the map, but no trail leading to it. No terrain, no directions, nothing. "Where did you three get a magic map from?"
"Princess Twilight's castle!" The Dummy Duo proudly answered.
"YOU STOLE FROM PRINCESS TWI—"
All three colts had a hoof right over Dinky's mouth in a millisecond before she could blow their cover. "And you wonder why we have to write notes saying not to tell you anything in school..." Snips chided her.
When they were sure she wouldn't yell to the high top of Canterlot they all let go of her. Dinky had to take several deep breaths while rubbing both her temples before she could even begin listen to them rationalize whatever they were about to say. "Okay... before I tell you how you need to return the map IMMEDIATELY, I know you want me to hear you out..."
Pipsqueak patted her on the back and flashed her a tired but genuine smile. He always appreciated that she was understanding, especially when hanging out friends like Snips and Snails. "Thanks, Dinky. We'll have you come around to this, promise." She rolled her eyes to the idea, but she was always willing to give Pipsqueak the benefit of the doubt. "So a long story short, we found out that Princess Twilight had an old treasure map in her castle."
Snips cut in without any warning to add on. "And not just any old treasure map! This could be the mother load of treasure maps!"
"Um... what Snips said. Its not just any special map. We think this might be an enchanted map. We were kinda bummed out that it was blank at first, but now watch this." Pipsqueak cleared his throat before he continued. "I don't think I can go on much longer. Oh where oh where is Sugar Cube Corner?"
The map reacted to Pipsqueak's request, shining a golden glow from every fiber of the paper. Before their eyes a drawing of all of Ponyville was being drawn to every signal last detail. In a matter of seconds a picture perfect map of Ponyville took up the empty space on the map. On the map was a glowing dotted trail that started at the school all the way to Sugar Cube Corner. Next to the dotted trail were four glowing dots. Brown, Gray, Blue, and Orange respectively.
"Whoa... pretty...", was all that Snails could conjure up at seeing such a spectacle.
Dinky took hold of the map with her magic, basking in the awesomeness of this map held, but at the same time she could help but swallow what this map actually was. "Pip... I don't think we should have this map."
With no chance to keep her hold on the map, Snips snatched it away with his own magic before Dinky could do something stupid to get them all in trouble. "Have you lost your mind, Dinky? Are you trying to have all of us sent to jail!? I thought you were one of us!?"
The map was then yanked from Snips' magical hold back to Dinky. She was not having it, and she'll die before Snips had the last say in this. "I am one of you! I've always been loyal! But this is going too far! We hardly know what this map is capable of! I say we give the map back to the princess..."
The tug of war match continued with Snips' taking the map back from Dinky again. "Aha! See?! She wants us to go down with the ship!"
Enough was enough, and Pipsqueak certainly had enough with this crud, he was way too tired for this. The map was finally back in his possession when he forcefully grabbed it away from Snips. "Both of you, stop! We won't get anywhere like this."
"I concur, and that's why I already had the solution to your problem dealt with." The group was paid an unexpected visit from none other than Twist herself. "I see that you guys are having a bit of an argument.... again. Don't worry though, I'm here to make it all better!"
Pipsqueak face hooded at Twist's untimely arrival, this could all end very well, or very badly, and right now he didn't need things to end badly. "Twist... what do you want this time? We already did you a favor."
"A favor? What favor?" Dinky wasn't the type to like staying in the dark about certain things. Something told her this had something to with the map.
And her guess would be right. "In exchange for telling them where the map was and how to get it, they..." Twist had to stop herself in mid sentence to look away and giggle to herself. When looking back at them, she had her eyes set on Snails. There was no way for her to hide the rosy blush that was plastered on her face. "'They owed me a favor, one that's about to be paid in full. Hehe..."
From out of nowhere, Snails had a paper bag over his head to hide how embarrassed he was. Snips was there by his side to give his best friend a supportive pat on the back. "Its okay buddy, we're here for you."
"Wait a minute. So it was you who started all this?", Dinky accused her.
"Now now, Dinky. I knew you might not have been okay with this, so I came up with a plan. Before they snuck their way into the castle, I got a fake map for them to switch for the real one! Nopony will ever know the difference for a very long time, or at least I hope. But by the time they figure out its a fake, it'll be too late."
As much as Dinky wanted to refute it, she knew she was out voted. Going behind their backs just to get them in trouble technically was the right thing to do, but she just told Snips how loyal she was to the group. The last time she checked they were suppose to be pirates, not ninjas who hide in the shadows and steal. But if Pipsqueak had faith in Twist that her fake map would work, then there wasn't much she could do or say for now but to go along with it. "Alright, fine. We'll do it your way, but if we get caught then we're all going down together. That means you too, Twist."
"See? I knew you'd see things our way." Pipsqueak gave Dinky a nudge on the shoulder. "Alright mates, we can figure out the map later, but right now I need to catch some sleep. Badly." He was forced to let out a long, drawn out yawn to emphasis his point. "We can meet up later after I get nap."
"Then my work here is done. I'll see you all around." Before actually leaving the group, she sauntered by the nervous Snails and brushed up beside him. Her faced leaned in near his ears to whisper softly to him. "Three thirty, Sugar Cube Corner. Don't be late." Snails pull down harder on his paper bag, almost tearing it open. At this point he was visibly shaking all over his body. Never before has he feared for his life like he does now. As she turned to walk away she halted to give him a final reminder. "Oh, and don't forget to bring your allowance. All of it. You're gonna need it." Now with her taunting out her system, Twist happily skipped away humming a tune to herself.
The front of Snails' bag started to get wet, mostly like from him beginning to cry. Snips was still by his side to give him some sort of comfort. "I'm gonna take Snails home now so he can calm down a bit. He..." Snips gulped down some saliva before he tried finish his sentence in front of Snails. "...has a date to get ready for." The bag over Snails' face was useless now. His head tore right through it as he let out a painful wail and a flood of tears soaking the ground. Snips guided him away from the playground the best he could while trying to hold Snails up from collapsing to the ground in a crying mess. He was barely in earshot before the last thing Dinky and Pipsqueak heard from Snails was, "PLEASE SNIPS! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! I DON'T WANT COOTIES!"
Pipsqueak placed the map back in his bag before hold a hoof over his heart and closed his eyes to pay respects to his fallen pirate brother. "Rest in peace Snails. Your sacrifice won't be in vain. I swear it upon my honor as captain."
Dinky crossed her forelegs and shook her head in disapproval. "...Some captain you turned out to be. I can't believe you sold out Snails. What kind of friend are you?"
"Twist wasn't going to tell us anything about the map unless we gave her what she wanted. It's not like we forced Snails to do it, he knew how important the map was to us, so he took one for the team. Now if you excuse me, I have a bed that's calling for me."
Pipsqueak turned to finally head home after all this madness, but Dinky wasn't done with him quite yet. "Pipsqueak wait. We need to talk."
Hundreds of war sirens and emergency alarms all just went off at once inside of the colt's head. She called him by his full name, meaning she wanted to talk about something serious with him. Not only that, in Pipsqueak's dealings with mares and fillies, he quickly learned that whenever they uttered "We need to talk.", that was the signal to cut and gallop for your life. As much as he'd like to do that right now, especially with how tired he was, this was his best friend he was dealing with, so it wasn't like he had much of a choice. "Dinky, listen. I know that you still don't—"
"This isn't about the map."
Now he was having second thoughts about all this. If this wasn't about the map, then what could she want? He missed the chance to ask her as she turned away and headed for the swing set. Dinky took a swing for herself and patted a swing next to her to invite Pipsqueak over. So it was going to be "one of those" talks. He accepted her invitation and took the swing next to her.
Neither of them said a word to each for a few minutes now, enjoying the subtle quietness of the town between the frequenting ponies and the light sounds of nature like bird tweeting and the rustles of the tree. Feeling that their quiet time lasted long enough, Dinky finally spoke up. "Pip, is something the matter?"
He titled his head at the strange question and responded with his own. "Whatcha mean, Dinky? I'm still really tired, but that's about it."
"I don't think so. You look like you loss more than just some sleep. I've seen plenty of tired ponies who lost sleep. We've stayed up all night plenty of times before and lost sleep. Staying up all night can make you lose sleep. But this." Her pointed at him, motioning up and down his body to prove a point. "This isn't the look of 'I've lost sleep'. That's the look of 'I'm pretty stressed out.'. Trust me, I've seen a lot the grown ups look like you do now. My mom, my dad, Ms. Cheerlie, you name it. But the point is, if something's bothering you, you know you can always tell me, right?"
It looked like Pipsqueak's number was up. He looked away from Dinky and chuckled to himself. He should have known better than to think he could pull one over her. How was she this observant of him? Maybe she's just smarter than what anypony gives her credit for, or maybe she just really cares for her best friend and can just tell these things. A mare's intuition maybe? "Alright, you caught me..."
Dinky leaned in her swing a bit towards Pipsqueak's. "So what's up then?"
Pipsqueak rubbed his half closed eyes and gave another yawn before he could answer. "It's... nightmares. Or at least I think they're nightmares."
"What do you mean?"
"It's kinda hard to explain. I've been having the same dream for the past few weeks now. Every time it's just me in a empty pitch black room. I'm always alone, nopony around me. It's always cold. Eventually there's this... 'thing' that always shows up. I don't even know what it is. It stands on two legs and always wears a black coat. He's a guy... or at least I think he is. The dream plays out the same way all the time. All he does is walk up to me and says 'You are one of us. Your time is almost here.'. Right after he says that I keep waking up, and no matter how hard I try or what I do, I can't go back to sleep. Usually if I'm having a bad dream it doesn't last for very long, but now it's just that one dream I keep having."
Well this was certainly not something Dinky wasn't prepared for. She was hoping it would be something more tangible, like family problems or some sort of fear he couldn't get over. But a reacquiring dream? From the sounds of it this wasn't just a simple nightmare either... "Well um... have you tried anything to get to sleep? Like warm milk?"
"Tried it."
"Counting sheep?"
"Doesn't work."
"Medicine?"
"It tastes nasty, but it didn't work."
"Lullaby?"
"Have you heard my mom sing?"
"Oh right... that was a stupid question. Um... closing your eyes?"
Pipsqueak raised an eyebrow at her questionably. Did she really follow up a dumb question with another dumb question. "Look, I know you want to help Dinky, but I'll just have to get some shut eye the best I can."
Dinky wanted to help him through this anyway she could, but at this point it seemed like this was something beyond her supportive skills. But maybe that was it though, maybe she wasn't the right pony for the job. "If it's really this bad, then... have you ever tried sending a letter to Princess Luna? I'm not sure if she takes request, but if this is bad as you say it is then surely she'll help you right?"
The squeaky sounds of one of the swings was immediately silenced, Pipsqueak's swing. At that point he couldn't even look at Dinky anymore. Not out of anger, but something else deep inside of him. Just to even hear Luna's name made his heart sink, but he knew it wasn't Dinky's fault for bringing her up. It was dumb of him to even tell her at all. He hopped off the swing and hung his head low. "...She never answered."
Pipsqueak wouldn't look back at his friend, trotting away from the playground with the sad look of hopelessness. Dinky almost reached out to stop him, but she knew apologizing won't stop him. Whatever she said about the princess must have gotten to him pretty badly. What's done is done now. Dinky could only hope Pipsqueak could get some rest now and hopefully forgive her later.
Later that night...
Finally! The day was over with, Spike's long list of errands for the day was completed. If Twilight was good at one thing, it was keeping him busy all day long. Now with everything thing, there was only one thing left to do. Sleep! Surprisingly, Twilight alright beat him to the bedroom. Then again, she did have a very long day like Spike did, and it wouldn't be the first time she was dead tired after attending her royal duties. It only made Spike smile in knowing how much help he was to her. Where would she be without her number one assistant after all? "Hehe, I really am that great huh?", the little dragon boasted to himself.
Spike fluffed up his favorite pillow, grabbed his blanket, and dove right into his bed. He was raring and ready to get some sleep, except there was one little bit of noise keeping him up. The train. The dragon pulled the blanket over his head and groaned, waiting for the dumb train whistle to shut up. "Can't believe the train is even coming through town this late at night. Just go away already."
Almost as if the train had heard Spike's command, he could hear the train pulling out of the station blowing its whistle a few times before the sound of the train was out of earshot completely. "About time..." Now with the noise out the question, Spike could finally get some shut eye. He firmly laid his head on the pillow and nuzzled it, closing his eyes and slowly let the drift of sleep take him. That was until a new melding noise disturbed him once me. "Grrr... who could be up this late at night..." At first he ignored the continued knocking, but his conscious started to kick him in the butt. What if someone really needed help? For all he knew it could be Rarity at the door panicking. There was no way he could turn a friend away, especially Rarity. "Fine, you win..."
As much as he hated it, it took him everything he had to get up out of bed and head down to the door. "This better be good." His grumbling and cursed all the way to the door. Spike reached for the handle and opened the door to finally see who could be bothering him at this time. When he looked out the door his speech was soundless when tried to form words. At first, Spike thought he was already dreaming in bed. "Just my luck. Not even five minutes in and I'm already having nightmares..." Just to be extra sure this was a bad dream he closed the door and counted to ten. On the count of ten he opened the door again to see if he was right. "Alright whoever you are, what do you... you... YOU! Oh come on! You again!? What do you want now!?"
