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Chapter I: From the Unknown Darkness Into the Heavenly Light (Edited)
All was darkness in a world that was made of nothing. There was no warmth of any kind and the lack of movement showed next to no life. The only living thing there was a floating figure that laid silently in the air. The figures’ back was to the bottom of the never ending darkness and it chest only moved intermittently, indicating that it was somewhat still alive.
Its thoughts were only that of a simple question. Why am I here? How long have I been floating in this darkness? Nothing ever happened here, he had no connection to anything and never experienced interactions with anyone.
All he could do was simply float in the nothingness that made up this prison of boredom.
A shining bright light appeared, blinding the figure as he tried to stare into it. The warmth felt so foreign to him as he mused, What is this feeling? It's so bright, but yet it feels so welcoming... a-and inviting!
He was pulled towards the light as something new replaced his vision. All he could see was the white light that overtook everything. Then all went dark again.
~~~
Everything was normal. The night was beautiful with the moon shining its spectacular silver light. It all was just another day for a group of ponies sitting on the hill.
"Oh, this is so exciting, a meteor shower like this hasn’t happened in such a long while!" The one who spoke up was a lavender pony, her violet eyes shined while a smile gleamed across her face. Her mane was a flowing violet with a touch of indigo blue, shining brightly as the silver light illuminated her body. What made her oddly different from the rest was that she had both the horn of a unicorn and the set of wings of a pegasus.
"Ah agree with Twi, these meteors are just so darn purty to look at!" An earth pony with sap green eyes said as she smiled at the blazing meteorites light reflected off the Earth’s atmosphere. Her mane was a straw yellow while her coat was a light bronze.
"Yeah, Twilight, these meteors are so splendiferous to look at!" The other earth pony, rejoiced in a very spontaneous and energetic voice with her glee filled light cerulean eyes. She had a dark pink mane, that complimented the lighter shade of pink fur.
"They look really lovely, but, um, aren't you all afraid that one might come down?" A pegasus with light pink mane and a light yellow coat worriedly murmured with a very nervous voice, her cyan eyes showing a shyness and worry that made her appear scared.
"Ah don't worry, Fluttershy, I'm pretty sure that we're not in any sort of danger, besides, we can get away fast enough if we do see one falling down." The other pegasus replied, her mane a rainbow of colors with a blue coat and eyes of hot pink. Showing the determination that this pony possessed.
"Oh, look at the colors those meteors show off, they would look so lovely on a dress." Added the unicorn in an elegant voice. Her coat was a light gray, her mane a dark purple color, and her eyes an azure blue that shone in the light.
It was nice, Twilight thought that spending time all together like this couldn't hurt every once in a while. She had been busy trying to learn about politics. Celestia wanted her to study for a national meeting with the griffon ambassador to Equestria. Knowing how difficult he could be, she would have to study up on both Equestrian and Griffon law.
An hour passed as the meteor shower continued until there were less and less showing up. "Welp, I better git back ta the farm, gotta get some sleep ‘fore I wake up tomorrow, gotta get some apple trees bucked."
"I also have to get some rest, a lady needs her beauty sleep, after all, I need to get some dresses finished for a shipment tomorrow for an important client, oh, by the way, Twilight, where's Spike?" Rarity asked.
"Oh, Spike? Well, he went to Canterlot to help Celestia deliver some messages and letters to some of the royalty." Twilight replied, smiling. She was proud of Spike for the new role he had gotten himself.
"Well, I, um, have to go feed some of the animals at the cottage, see you girls later." Fluttershy spoke softly.
"Oh, I get to bake a cake tomorrow for a guest that is coming, I'm gonna make sure it’s so scrumdiddlyumptious!" Pinkie Pie ecstatically chimed
"I have to get ready for my performance tomorrow." Rainbow Dash deadpanned.
"What do you mean, Rainbow Dash?" Rarity asked.
"I get to help the Wonderbolts do a performance tomorrow, its gonna be so awesome!" She said as she flew around before spinning out of control and hitting the ground. "I'm okay."
"You coming, Twi?" Asked Applejack
"I'm going to stay here for a little while longer, I want to make sure that I jot down every single one of these meteors."
With that they left, leaving Twilight to stay behind and observe the remaining meteors that were still coming down. She was surprised at how bright the meteors were getting, they usually didn't get this intense when streaking through the atmosphere.
"Wow, all of this is so cool, never before have I seen meteors like these burn so bright. Ooh, that one was amazing." She kept looking at the spectacle that was playing out before her. "Oh my, that one there is really shining bright, and another one, wow, look at that.” She was scanning the sky as more of the meteors streaked through, but one certain light trail caught her attention. Wait, what is that?"
Twilight was looking at something she never saw before. A figure with the same light trail as the meteors fell among the others and strayed away from its path out of the sky.
It kept falling until she realized that it was heading towards the Everfree Forest. She saw it go down, but there was no explosion, no sound. Whatever it was, she had to investigate it.
~~~
Everything was blurry as its vision went from light to dark while it tried to lift itself up with its hands, but fell back down. It was losing focus and falling ever closer towards unconsciousness and no matter what it tried to do, sleep was drifting closer. It fell to its side and saw something running towards it, but all it could do was wait. Then everything went dark once more.
~~~
Twilight came running to the area where she saw the object of interest crash, but could not believe what she found there instead. It was a figure covered in a black cloak, she was so astonished that she didn't realize how important an event like this was.
"Oh, my gosh, this… this is just amazing, whoever or whatever this is, I just can't-!" She then squealed with excitement and jumped around with so much glee she almost tripped herself.
Something that bothered her was how she was going to get it home. Hmm, maybe I could levitate him with me to the Library, but that would take longer. I hope this thing can handle teleportation.
A light raspberry aura enveloped her horn as she concentrated on where she would teleport them, then with a poof they disappeared, out of the forest and into the library. Twilight saw that the figure was fully there, making sure nothing was left behind.
Careful not to wake it up, she brought it down to the basement. There was a makeshift bed that she had set for another occasion, but right now it was the perfect thing to set this thing down on. She didn't have time to look at this creature, but now that she had paper to write down her observations, she spent the time to look a little closer.
"Okay, first obvious thing, this isn't a pony. It has two legs, two arms, and kind of looks like a minotaur, just without the fur."
Twilight then carefully pulled back the cloak at the arms and legs but what surprised her was that she had been right. There was no hair or fur on its appendages, but its feet weren't hooves either. They looked like, well, she couldn't think of what they looked like.
She then steadily worked towards what she thought was the face. She carefully removed the hood, afraid that it might cause it to stir. What she saw couldn't be from Equestria.
"What is this thing, its muzzle is just so… tiny." Truly, whatever it was, it had no similarities to any creature in Equestria. The eyes were smaller and its face wasn't extended like a pony’s. She had finally found hair but it was at the top of its head.
The colors were an intriguing mix of a forest green on the bangs which continued to endings of the tips of either side. The rest was just a light and dark brown mix that covered the rest of its scalp. She slowly and carefully opened the eyes and the color of the irises she saw were that of a forest green as well. But one thing she kept thinking about was what under the creature’s cloak.
Twilight carefully unzipped the coat and removed, it only to find that there was a second set of clothing. It was a short sleeved shirt with a few metal objects that looked like arrows hanging out the sides of it's shoulders and one on the right chest area. It also was a forest green color that had a brown mix to it, and under that was what looked like armor, but felt silky and had a white glow to it. The one thing that stood out was the heart shaped necklace that she lifted up to examine it. It felt like any regular jewelry, but it felt like it had a magic property to it.
"I never have seen such a weird type of clothing before, not to mention that strange magic that's emanating from its heart-shaped necklace, but why hasn't it moved yet?” Twilight then mumbled, “That’s strange, it should have responded when i moved its cloak, at least…” She went to check its heartbeat, and sure enough, there was a steady rhythm, but it was slow and faint. Either this creature was asleep or...
She decided to try something and came back with a small needle. Placing it over the visible skin of its arm, she stuck it in the creature, hoping it would move, but it didn’t respond, not even a flinch. When she removed it, a small amount of blood ran down its arm. She lifted a rag from one of the other tables in the room and wiped it away.
"Yeah, this thing's really in a bad coma, but how did that happen? It was moving when I found it, how did it end up like this?" Twilight just shrugged it off and gathered up her materials before heading back upstairs. She thought that telling any of her friends about this creature would surely create some fear and panic, so she decided to keep this a secret.
~~~
All was darkness once more, then sounds came into his mind. He began to see pictures and images. All of these things he thought were memories of his past, but instead they were images of different people. Then someone in his mind spoke.
A scattered dream that's like a far off memory. A far off memory that's like a scattered dream. I wanna line up the pieces-yours and mine. Then memories came flowing into mind even faster, everything about a boy that fought with some strange weapon, another who had become the master of that weapon along with a girl who was just learning about it. Other memories of different people came into his mind, all of them very strange. A new voice entered his mind this time.
You are alone, aren't you? But do not be afraid. He didn't know what to do about this mysterious voice. He looked around trying to find the source. Do not worry, I can give you purpose, you just need to reach for it. A name appeared unfamiliar to him then a X appeared and combined with the name, turning it into a new one.
Then he found the voice within him. "Xaniel. My name... is Xaniel."
~~~
A couple days had passed and still, he was the same. Twilight began to worry about this new creature. She hoped that it wouldn't slip away in its sleep, but it seemed that it would not wake up. She began to regularly check up on him as a precaution, making sure that he was still there and not, well, she didn't want to think about it.
Things were somewhat normal, she visited everypony to make sure not to worry them. Time passed by and soon it was late, she headed back home after talking to Rarity. Spike had finally come home and she asked how it went.
"Eh, it was kinda boring, all these ponies that were receiving those messages weren't all too friendly about what Princess Celestia asked them." They entered the house when Spike asked, "So, Twilight, how was your week?"
"Oh, you know, just same old same old."
"Well, that's what I thought, if you need me...” He gave a yawn. “I'll be in my bed, getting some much needed shuteye."
"Alright, Spike, I'll be there in a sec, I just need to check on something real quick."
"Whatever."
She walked downstairs to see if everything was fine and the creature had stayed the same, no change in anything. Twilight checked all of its vital signs to make sure it was still there, everything was still normal, but it seemed like his arms were getting thinner. She worried that if it didn't wake up, it would starve and… "No, I won't let it end that way, I'm gonna make sure that this thing survives!" She said with a defiant look on her face. She quickly ran back upstairs and into the kitchen. Grabbing a various amount of cooking items, she made a gooey substance that resembled something like a pudding that was smooth and thin. She went back downstairs and poured it down its throat.
After some time she saw something unbelievable, on the face of the mysterious creature, a smile appeared. It was almost heart warming, and it made her smile, like it was thankful for the care she had provided. She went back upstairs to her bed and thought about it. She felt like what she did was accomplishing something.
~~~
Everything was coming back to him, he began to remember everything, but not of who he was or any family that he could remember having before. Not even the pictures or images of the other strange people. The voice he heard before came back to him. It is time for you to wake up. On the morning of the next day, your eternal slumber shall be lifted. With that, the voice left and he was thrown back into the darkness.
~~~
Twilight woke up earlier than usual that morning, not by any noise, but a feeling that something was about to happen. She went downstairs to check up on the creature and saw that it was still in the same condition.
She was filled with hopeful thoughts that it would survive through this coma that it was in. She wanted to learn everything that this being knew, but she guessed that it would not happen. Twilight turned around, a look of disappointment and sadness on her face, realizing it would never wake up.
Then as if on a silent command, she heard a shifting noise and turned back. The creature had moved slightly. Its hands were twitching. Twilight began to have a spark of hope. More movement came from it as she realized it was getting up. She got closer, and watched on in awe as the creature began to come back to life.
~~~
All was dark still, then light began to pierce his eyes, it slightly stung his vision, but he adjusted to it. All he saw was the roof of some building he was in, then when he looked to his right, there it was. A colored pony staring at him with such questioning eyes, but he also appeared to be dumfounded.
"Uhh, hi there, how are you doing?" The pony asked.
That actually confused him, he would never had imagined a pony would ever have the ability to talk.
"Look, I know how this seems, but don't worry…you, uhh." She turned around, whatever was going on with her, she was really worried.
"Umm, are you okay?" The being inquired.
She quickly turned around. "Wait, you… you can understand me?" She asked, dumbfounded. Knowing that he would have to say something, he began to form a word before she interrupted. "Oh, sorry, I forgot to say my name, I am Twilight Sparkle, and you would be?" She asked, more nervous than she’d ever been in her entire life.
"My name?" He murmured, turning away to look at hands.
"Do you have a name"? Twilight inquired.
He looked back at the pony, then the memory of his name being given to him came back. "My name is…Xaniel."
Author's Note
Hey there everypony! Long time no see! Well, I have decided to redo some of the earlier chapters in a more grammatical way. Not much will change though, don't worry about that. I just need to improve the grammar, but in other words, I'll shall be deleting each chapter after I have redone them on GDocs with the help of TehSporkBandit.
So that's all these notes will contain, so until then, I'll see you all later!
Chapter II: The Day of Beginning
"Well Xaniel it is very nice to meet you, I have to say though, out of all the names I've heard before, yours takes the cake for being so...different." Twilight said, hoping she didn't offend him in any sort.
"I never would have heard a name like yours either, from my memory, names were certainly different from someone like you." He said, still very confused of what was going on here.
All Xaniel could do was just stare at this new kind of being, the first different life form that he had seen on another world happened to be a pony, but he couldn't complain, knowing it could've been worse. For all he, knew, his first life form could've been one that would try and eat him.
"I have to ask Twilight... where am I exactly?" He said with a questioning gaze.
"Oh, well, for starters you are under the library right now, I had to keep you here because... well, lets just say that if anypony saw something like you walking around, it wouldn't be good." She said.
"So how long have I been down here?" Xaniel said with a worried gaze.
"Oh for about three days now, I do have to say, you worried me there for a moment, you looked like you were never going wake up again." She said, in a nervous tone.
That's what made him question something.
"What do you mean when you said, that I looked like I wouldn't make it?" He said, even more worried than before.
"Well, how do I put this, you were in a really bad coma when I got you here, I seriously thought you weren't ever going come out of it." Twilight said.
What Xaniel didn't understand was how he got here, or why he was even brought to this place. Things just didn't seem right."Hey Twilight, I can guess your probably wondering what I am, but how about over breakfast, I really feel empty." He said smiling.
"Sure thing Xaniel, just be quiet alright, I don't need you waking Spike, what he would do if he saw you, I can imagine it wouldn't end well for him."She said in a hushed voice.
Xaniel simply nodded and followed her upstairs.
*
He sat down at the table while Twilight went into the kitchen to make something, giving Xaniel some time to gather his thoughts.('Well, things seem normal enough for a place like this, but how, why such a world like this?' )That question was all too wrapped up in his mind.
Twilight came back with a couple of plates that had fruit pancakes, she set the one with blueberry's down for him, while she had raspberry."So Xaniel, is this alright for you, I mean do you eat stuff like this?" She asked, being nervous as always.
"Yeah, this is alright, I ate stuff like this at home before, oh and thank you for making me this."He said.
They sat down and ate for a bit, before Twilight began asking questions."So uhh, Xaniel, I was just wondering but uhh, what does your species call yourselves?"
"Well, we are known as Humans, beings that can walk upright, and have the ability to grasp items or objects with ease, like how you see me now." He said as he picked up the fork with ease.
"Well that's very neat, oh and what do you eat, are you a herbivore or carnivore?" She asked with excitement as she jotted down notes.
"Actually, its both for us."
"Wait, so you eat plant life and animals, that's amazing, I mean seeing your teeth, I thought you were just a herbivore, okay what else, do you have a family?"
Xaniel brought his fork away from his mouth and thought about that question.
"I... well truth be told, I don't remember having any family." He sadly said.
"Oh I didn't mean-"
"No, its okay, I just never thought about it like that, from what I can remember, there was no one like that in my life." He said. Sadly it was true, all he remembers was darkness, except for the people he saw, but even there names where hidden away.
"I'm sorry about that, its just, I really want to know everything about you, your kind, what they do, all those kind of questions, just let me know if any of the questions I ask are a bit too personal for you." She reassuringly said.
"Alright, so who-"
"Gahh, what is that thing Twilight!"
She and Xaniel turned around and saw Spike standing there, terrified and scared.
*
"Seriously Twilight what is that thing, when were you gonna tell me about this... this monster!"
"SPIKE, would you calm down!" She said, annoyed at Spike for is outburst.
Xaniel feels put down after hearing him being called a monster, so he gets up and heads back downstairs.
"Xaniel wait, now look at what you did Spike, he was alright till you had to go shout like that!"
A new pony walks out of the Twilight's bedroom "Hey mom, whats going on, why is everypony yelling down here?" She was just a little filly, showing a ebony coat, Mane color that almost resembled Rarity's, and one thing that threw off her look was that she also was a Alicorn, but with slitted eyes.
"Oh don't worry sweety, just trying to get Spike to calm down here." She said annoyed with his reaction.
"Didn't you see it Nyx, it was right there, what are you hiding Twilight." He said, still nervous of coming down.
"Uhh, fine follow me, just don't talk." She said.
They followed her downstairs, except Spike shielding himself with Nyx, afraid that whatever this was, is gonna cause trouble. Everyone gets to the door of the basement, Twilight then adds,"Okay, so a couple of things I have to tell you two before we go through this door, one, be nice, two, be calm, and three, don't scream okay." She said in a firm voice.
Spike just shook his head while Nyx was still confused about what was going on. Twilight opened the door and led them inside. They walked down the stairs to find Xaniel, just sitting on his bed, looking up at the ceiling.
She saw that his face held an expression of sadness and nervousness, but he just kept looking up."Hey, Xaniel, sorry about that, its just somepony can't keep himself calm in a situation like this."She said, glaring at Spike.
"Woah, what is this thing Twilight, where did you find something like this." Nyx said very curious about the creature she was seeing.
Xaniel just kept staring up at the ceiling, not paying attention at all to what they were saying."Uhh, are you alright Xaniel?"Twilight asked worryingly
"Huh, oh, I guess, just being called a monster like that isn't what I would call a very good compliment." He said, sounding sad.
"Well, I'm sorry for the way things have gone this morning, Spike here is just a little hasty when it comes to seeing something new, so Spike apologize to Xaniel here."
"But I did-"
"Spike." She said glaring at him.
"Oh alright." He said.
Walking over to Xaniel he said,"Hey, um, I'm sorry for calling you a monster, I didn't really mean it, it's just that your so completely different from anything I've seen before." Spike said.
"It's alright, beside, I would've reacted the same way, if I was in your place, I mean, seeing a dragon, is kinda difficult to comprehend somewhat." Xaniel said smiling.
Spike then smiled too, feeling more comfortable around him."I just wanna say that, this is the coolest thing ever, I can't believe that you found this... um."
"Human." Twilight said, helping Nyx out.
"Yeah, what was your name again?" Nyx asked.
"My name is Xaniel, and from what I've heard so far, your Nyx, uhh, I just have to ask, why is a young filly here Twilight?" He asked.
"Oh, well, where should I start."
*
"Wow, that's... well I don't even know what to say." Xaniel just got done listening to Twilight's long story about where Nyx had come from, even he was surprised that she was just a being from something more sinister.
"Yeah, it was a very long process of having to deal with all that, but anyway, everything has calmed down and so far nothing else bad has happened, I plan to keep it that way as long as she behaves."
"But I have gotten better, right mom?" Nyx asked, putting a smile on her face.
"Of course sweety, now then was there anything else you would like to ask Xaniel?"
"Well, I just have to wonder, how will we go about introducing me to everyone else around here, I mean, I can't just go walking around out there, hoping no one would notice me." He said.
"Hmm, I could turn you into a pony, but having you adjust to everything would take quite a while, how about this, I'll introduce you to my friends one at a time, see how that works."
"That could work, but who would you start out with, I mean is there anyone more understanding other than your friends."
"Your right about that Xaniel, I'll send a letter to Princess Celestia, hopefully she'll be available to come here, in fact I should've contacted them earlier, but I don't think it's that bad."
*
"Sister, I have a message from Twilight Sparkle." Said the other pony who came walking into the room. She also like her sister, was an Alicorn, her coat was a Dark Sapphire Blue, her ethereal mane a mixture of Dark Blue colors.
"Thank you Luna, I was hoping she went to investigate whatever that energy surge was."
Whatever type of power she felt, it was very unfamiliar to her, it wasn't strong, but she never felt anything like it. She opened the letter and read what Twilight had to tell her.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I wrote you this letter for many good reasons, but I just need you to come down to see what I have found, a little warning though, what you will see, will shock you.
Your most Faithful Student Twilight Sparkle
"Sister, come with me, I think we'll find out what we felt earlier yesterday."
*
"Spike did you clean the upstairs?"
"Sure did Twilight."
"What about the basement Nyx, is it good?"
"Yep, its perfect Mom."
She had Xaniel wait downstairs, she thought that if he was just standing there, the Princesses would freak out ,so she thought of just bringing them downstairs.
"Ohh, I hope were ready." Twilight said. This was really nerve wracking for her, she didn't know what to expect when they got here.
*
"Wonderful Twilight, but I was wondering, why did you summon us to your Library?" Celestia asked.
"Well, about that, I just need you to promise me, that this remains a secret, no other pony needs to know about this for right now."
"What is with all of this secrecy Twilight?" Luna asked, a bit nervous at what Twilight was about to show them.
"Well, lets just head down into the basement, basically what you'll see is completely... well lets just go downstairs."
Twilight takes the princesses down to the lab, hoping that they wouldn't freak out seeing Xaniel."Okay, what I am about to show you is... well strange to say the least, be ready." Twilight say's, warning the Princesses.
She slowly pulls away the curtains, revealing the figure sitting down on the bed. Both Princesses gasp as they see the new creature that has been revealed to them.
*
"Well Celestia, Luna, what you see before you is... well, allow him to explain all of this."
Xaniel gets up from the bed, and nervously walks over to both Princesses."Ahem, umm, hi, My name is...umm, my name." It felt like Xaniel couldn't talk at all.
Both princesses looked to him then each other, then they began to giggle. Then Luna spoke up,"Sorry about that, me and my sister were just surprised to see you so, nervous in front of us. In fact it should be us who are nervous to you, we are sorry if we worried you so, please come upstairs with us, it might be more relaxing up there." She said, hoping to calm Xaniel.
He began to relax a little more as he followed them upstairs.
*
"Well, my name is Xaniel, it is an honor to meet royalty like yourselves, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna."
"The pleasure is ours Xaniel, but you don't have to be so formal. So do you mind telling us what you are.?"
"Well Celestia, I am a human, as you can guess, I am not from around here, like Twilight said to me earlier, but tell me, where exactly am I?"
Both princesses looked at each other,"So you don't know where you are, I thought Twilight would tell you." Said Celestia.
"Well, for one, Twilight told me that where I was, was in the towns Library, I don't have much more information other that that."
"Alright since this is your first time here, I shall let you know right now that you are in Equestria, and currently where your at now is a place called Ponyville."
Xaniel at least knew now where he was at, but still couldn't shake off the feeling of being the only human here."Am...am I really the only one here of my kind in this world?"
Luna and Celestia looked at Twilight again, seeing that she was nervous."You really haven't told him much have you Twilight." Asked Celestia.
"Well, to tell you the truth, I haven't really gotten around to that, I was so caught up in learning everything he knew that I kinda forgot to tell him about where he was at, ah heh heh."
"Celestia, about that power you mentioned."
"Oh, your right sister, well Xaniel it is good to meet you, but I do have to ask you about your power."
"My...power?"
Xaniel had no idea what she was asking about, he didn't remember any power that he could wield, then again, could he use anything like that.
"What do you mean, I mean, I don't remember ever having power before...wait, you can sense my strength?"
"Yes dear, me and Luna, not too long ago felt your energy at Twilight's house, we were somewhat worried because I have never felt anything like that before."
"Wait, are you saying my energy is, really strong?"He said. Xaniel had a very hard time taking all of this in, for one, knowing that you have a power that strong is really something unlike anything he ever felt.
"No its not that, your energy is very weak for you, I thought that your strength was strong, but it doesn't seem like that."
('Well that figures' ), he thought. Knowing that you were weaker than even them, but he began to feel their energy, and it felt strong, really strong. Even Twilight was about as strong as these two, which made him worry even more.
"No, what me and Luna felt Xaniel was a power that felt different from a Unicorn's, you have energy, I just don't think you know how to use it yet from the sound of it." She said.
Energy having different feelings from others, all of this was completely unknown to him, he somehow sensed all three princesses powers, all being very strong, then another caught his attention."Hey, um Twilight, do you feel Nyx's energy?"
"Of course I have, why do you ask?" Twilight said, very confused why he asked.
"Well, its just that, I feel like, I know that energy feeling from before, I don't know how I'm able to tell, but her power feels similar to someone I still don't know from my memories." He looked at Nyx again."Yeah, it definitely feels familiar."
"Who do I make you remember Xaniel?" Nyx asked, curious of who he was talking about.
"Well, from what I can tell, he is like me, a boy, about my age, I can't really see him though." As Xaniel pondered through his mind.
"Maybe if you focus harder?" Twilight inclined, as she got closer, hoping he could describe this other mysterious person.
"Hmm, uhh, well, everything's so dark, I can't seem to get a clear picture of anything." He tries thinking harder."Ah, no, nothing."
"Do not worry, in time your memory will come back to you, as of for what me and Celestia should do, I think that as of now, you shall remain here at the library with Twilight, its not that we don't trust you, its just having a creature like you roaming around freely would likely panic many of the Citizens here in Ponyville." Luna said, hoping not to offend him.
"Yeah, I can agree on that, besides, Twilight's been really nice so far, I mean, I can tell all of you don't trust me all too well, but no matter what, I won't argue." He said, smiling as if nothing bad was wrong."I mean, I would probably feel the same way if any of you showed up."
Everyone smiled, realizing that Xaniel was far better than they thought he would be."It's very nice to know that our first ever contact with something, new is going smoothly."Celestia said, very happy with how things were going, turning to Luna,"We should head back, its time we got back to our duties, from now on Twilight, if anything ever comes up, we'll be there to help in anyway we can." She said, smiling to her former student. With that, both princesses walk back out and teleport back to Canterlot.
"Well that went far better than I hoped for, again thank you for sharing with us Xaniel, I know how hard it is to answer some of these questions, but you've helped us out extremely well, now if we could-" She stopped talking as she heard knocking on her door.
"Twilight, are you in there dear, its me Rarity, Fluttershy we saw the Princesses come out and teleport from a couple of houses away, is everything alright?"
Twilight quickly began to panic, everything was gonna get ugly here in a minute.
Author's Note
Welp, thats chapter II for yah, Celestia and Luna know now about Xaniel, but will Rarity and Fluttershy find out, will Twilight figure out what to do, Is Pinkie gonna ever get out of my-wait Pinkie don't touch that.Pinkie don't-
Edited by Mekapix
P.S. I know how this looks, being that Nyx is here and all, but I did say Alternate Universe, also I give credit to the very awesome creator of Nyx, Pen Stroke, he is very awesome. Oh and Nyx will have a certain meaning to be in this story, if you got the hint with the person Xaniel was trying to remember.
Chapter III: Quite the Surprise
"Thank you again so much for the help Fluttershy, you were an excellent helper with my last design, still trying to figure out how you ever obtained that strange knowledge of sewing, but nonetheless, I think you and me deserve one of our weekly spa visits, don't you think?" Rarity said, walking along the sidewalk with Fluttershy.
Fluttershy came over at the request of Rarity, reasons why was that she was having a little trouble with figuring out what stitch should've gone with her star light dress. Fluttershy was happy to oblige and came over in the morning, she blushed at Rarity's compliment.
"Oh it was nothing, I'm happy to help a friend in need." She said, smiling as they continued along their path.
As they got closer to the spa, Rarity looked over to her side and saw Princess Celestia and Princess Luna exiting the library, waving goodbye to Twilight and teleporting back to Canterlot. "Wait, did you see that Fluttershy?" Pointing to where the princesses stood a couple of seconds ago. "Why on earth are Luna and Celestia visiting Twilight at this time of the day?" But to a point it was even weirder than usual, they didn't just pop right in unless it was important.
Rarity and Fluttershy then walked towards the library, with Fluttershy thinking this wasn't such a good idea. "Um, Rarity, don't you think that we shouldn't just barge in, its kinda rude." She said, clearly against disturbing Twilight.
"Well of course I know dear, its just that whatever the Princesses came here for, it just seems a bit odd." She said, nearing the door with every step.
Rarity knocked on the door, not getting a response, she yelled. "Twilight are you in there dear?, it's me, Rarity and Fluttershy, we saw the Princesses teleport from a couple houses back, is everything alright in there?" She asked. There was still no response from inside.
"Um, do you think this is a good idea Rarity?" Fluttershy asked nervously, obviously not sure whether they should be doing this or not.
"Oh nonsense Fluttershy, this is Twilight were talking about here, if she's in any trouble, we should be there to help her."
The door opened, revealing Twilight, looking normal as usual. "Hey girls, what are you doing here?" She said nervously, looking back up the stairs.
"We just saw the princesses come out of the Library, we just wanted to know what's going on, right Fluttershy?"
"Oh, um yeah."
They walked in before Twilight could shut the door, and looked around, seeing whether or not there was nothing to worry about. So far everything was fine, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
"So, if you're done looking around, you can go ahead and leave now." Twilight said, quickly trying to lead them to the door.
"Now, what is going on Twilight? you're really worked up about something and we're not leaving till we find out." Rarity said.
"There's nothing wrong here. It's just me, Nyx and Spike that's all, so if you could just-"
"Wait, I thought we were gonna tell them about the human that lives here?" Nyx said, not aware of what was going on.
Twilight quickly rushed towards her, covering her mouth with her hoof before she gave anything else away. "Ah don't listen to her, she's just having one of those moments like every little filly does." She said unconvincingly.
"Now of course we would leave you alone if this were any other case Twilight, but we know something's up. What did she say about a umm, what did Nyx call it, a 'human' ?" She said,rather very curious about what this thing was.
Now Twilight was distressed, her eyes moving back and forth between Fluttershy and Rarity,"Oh a human, well it's just uh...uh, a GAME, of course, its all the rage right now for little fillies and colts." She said nervously. "Me and Nyx were just playing it, and she was just saying what a blast it was."
Both ponies stared at each other and then back to Twilight, not knowing whether Twilight was joking or hiding something. "Well yes Twilight, we would be inclined to believe you dear but I'm sure whatever it is your talking about is much more important than a silly game called 'human' , now tell us, what exactly did Luna and Celestia show up for?" She said.
Twilight was losing ground and fast, she couldn't think anymore, all rational thought was out the window, she knew that she had to fess up. She sighed then. "Oh, I give up, yes there was a reason why Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were here, you see, I had to show them...well how to I say this, umm." Twilight, unable to even speak a single word, then uttered,"Well, allow me to go get him and show you."
Both Fluttershy and Rarity gasped. "Oh Twilight dear, you must tell me all the juicy gossip, is this secret pony you have hiding away your special somepony, ohh I can't wait to see him, this is completely wonderful news darling." Rarity said, in awe and excitement for her alicorn friend.
"Oh, Twilight this is wonderful news, if it's alright with you that we know who he is." Fluttershy asked, also in bewilderment that Twilight got a special somepony.
"Yeah, its just wonderful, if you two could stay down here and wait for me to bring him out, just promise me you two won't freak out." Twilight asked pleadingly.
"Of course darling, we shall await you to bring your special somepony down here." She said in her usual elegant voice.
"Oh, he sure is special alright." She murmured to herself. All she could think about how this would go, that everything would soon be a complete disaster.
*
Xaniel was rushed upstairs to Twilight's Room, everything was nice and orderly looking. He thought she must be some sort of very well organized pony, well a little too organized. He saw the window and was curious for he never saw what Ponyville truly looked like.
He walked towards the window, when he got there, he saw quite a beautiful town, looking well constructed. Ponies were walking around, just doing their daily life to life routines. All of this was amazing, but not just that, he saw a huge castle looking thing that was hanging to the side of a mountain, that and the scenery was quite colorful and had a peaceful feel to it.
He was so busy looking out the window that he didn't hear Twilight walking up behind him."There you are Xaniel. Listen about those two downstairs, they have a pretty good idea that I'm hiding something so I guess that me hiding you around the Library is not gonna work." She said, very worried by these developments that were taking place.
"So I guess I have to show myself again huh?" He said.
She looked back at him. "Yeah, basically, I don't mean to go show you around like some sort of trophy that I won, but please, I know I'm just gonna have to tell the others but, I just want to know if your okay with it?" She said nervously.
True, Xaniel wasn't very fond of meeting new people, he wasn't much of a show off, or group type person. He could handle one or maybe even three people, but now it seemed like there would be more than that. "Well, yeah it's alright, I mean, it wouldn't be very nice of me if I didn't help out someone in need." He said, smiling at her.
She perked up and smiled back, in her mind, she understood the need for a bit of quiet and felt that Xaniel was someone who loved to be alone, but seeing his willingness to help her made her feel that much better. "Alright, lets go do this, but just be careful with these two, they aren't the most brave when it comes to new things, especially the pegasus ." Knowing Fluttershy, she might have a heart attack or just instant happiness seeing a new creature such as a human. So Xaniel and Twilight walk towards the stairs preparing themselves for the worst.
*
Rarity and Fluttershy waited patiently for Twilight to bring back what they thought was her special somepony, not knowing the shock they were about to receive. "Ahh, Twilight, you're back, so I guess that he's right behind you then?"
Twilight walked down the steps, pointed at something to wait there and walked to her friends. Nervously she said "Okay you two, listen up, please don't freak out." Both Fluttershy and Rarity stared at each other in confusion,so Twilight then proceeded to call down the special guest. "Hey Xaniel, come down here, just slowly."
What Rarity and Fluttershy were expecting was a handsome young stallion to come walking down those stairs, instead they were greeted with a stunned silence. They saw this new creature, standing on its hind legs, with it arms at its sides, its clothing was completely alien to them and no hair seem to show on any of its appendages except for the top of its head, and that hair went all the way down to the middle of its back.
"Oh... my." Fluttershy said,in a very quiet whisper. Both her and Rarity were completely shocked in awe at this new very different creature.
Even Xaniel was completely quiet, not knowing how to introduce himself. He then went for the simple way of doing it, by saying "Umm, hi there." Everything was just utter silence, not even the faint noise of everyone's breathing could be heard.
"Twilight, I am having a very hard time trying to not flee in terror here, but uhh, what is this thing?" Rarity said, very shaken by what she was looking at.
"Well, Rarity, what you are looking at before you is a human, his race is bipedal and, lets just say very different from us." She said, hoping she sounded reassuring. "Don't worry though, so far today, he has done nothing bad at all, so I think he's fine." She said grinning nervously.
So far no one made any sort of movement of any kind, then Fluttershy walked up to Xaniel, seeming afraid, but then touched his hand with her hoof. He flinched a little, but reassured himself that nothing bad would happen and let her hoof meet his hand.
Tensions in the room died down, as Twilight had a gleeful look on her face that was filled with such excitement. "This is just the greatest day ever, first contact with a new alien race and now we have physical contact, this is just so amazing I could-" With that she jumped around happily, being considerably noisy but not enough for anyone outside to pay much attention. Even Rarity calmed down from her first moments of feeling terror.
Twilight saw for the first time and noticed how tall he was, his height was exactly the same as Celestia, save for the fact that he didn't look quite strong as she had thought to believe. Xaniel then kneeled down on one knee, hoping to make everyone feel more comfortable, which sure gave Fluttershy the incentive to rest her head against his chest.
Xaniel was even more taken back by this ponies willingness to be this close to him, but then he felt this feeling radiating off of her. It was a kindness he never felt before, coming off in so many waves that it was almost overwhelming, yet it made him feel so much better.
Twilight was really jumping around now, everything was going so smoothly. "Fluttershy, I know you have amazing abilities with animals, but I didn't even know you could do something like this!"
Fluttershy just looked at Xaniel, her eyes really melting his heart. "Um, my name is Fluttershy, and you are?" She said with such a gentle voice.
"My name is Xaniel, it is a pleasure to meet you Fluttershy."
She steps away, walking back towards Twilight and Rarity.
"You know, I've known you as a pony who's really good with animals, but this really takes the cake. How did you just walk up to him like that?" Twilight said, staring questioningly and happy at her friend.
"Oh, well it wasn't that big of a deal, I just thought of him as someone that looked kind enough, which seems I was right about my guess." She said. All of this was completely exciting, even Rarity began to take a more calmer mood towards Xaniel, when she went to inspect his clothes.
"Oh, my these clothes absolutely look fabulous, the color matches well with everything, even that white silky cloth you have under there really makes you stand out. I wish we had these sort of designs, they look simply divine dear." She said, walking around him as she inspected the gorgeous piece of clothing he had on him.
*
Some time passed by and he got to know Fluttershy and Rarity more from theirs and Twilight's descriptions, but there was still one tiny question that he had. "Hey, umm, Twilight, I forgot to ask, but what is with those images on your flanks, if you don't mind me asking." He said, hoping that this question didn't offended them.
"Oh, our Cutie Marks. Well these are what our special talents our, mine is magic." She said pointing to the star shaped image on her flank. "Fluttershy's is being able to communicate with animals." Another depiction, showing three butterflies. "And Rarity's is dress making, they don't usually show until we reach our special talent." Rarity's had three images of diamonds showing on her flank.
So, they were indicators of what each pony could do, so then that must've meant that seeing Nyx's was protection, Celestia's was the sun, and Luna's was the Moon. That was pretty unique, being able to know what your good at, Xaniel knew that he didn't have any sort of indicator that showed him what he was gifted at.
"So now that we have introduced you to two of my best friends, how should we introduce him to the rest?" She said, hoping to have Rarity or Fluttershy give some sort of advice.
"Well, Pinkie Pie will be easy to deal with, given that she accepts about everypony or creature she meets, although Rainbow Dash and Applejack will be quite more difficult to handle." Rarity said.
Everypony pondered on in their thoughts, thinking of ways to introduce Xaniel to the other three. Then Twilight said "How about we ask them out to dinner and introduce him there? Hopefully a nice calm dinner will relax them before they meet him." She said.
"That sounds like a good idea." Fluttershy said, smiling.
"I also will partake in this suggestion, after all, it might be the only way to let them see him without being too frightened." Rarity said.
"Well, its settled then, we shall all go to dinner tonight, we'll hide Xaniel outside and bring him into our private room, hopefully not freaking out Rainbow and AJ and letting our group get to know him better." She said, her plan was set into motion.
Soon Twilight went out to ask Pinkie if they could have Sugarcube Corner to themselves for the night, Pinkie agreed, but not asking why was Twilight doing this. She then had Fluttershy go ask Rainbow Dash to come over. Her and Rarity went to the barn to ask the same of Applejack, both agreed, but still not questioning them why.
*
So the night came and all the girls are at the table, enjoying themselves, talking about their daily lives. "So Twi, again why did yah call us over to this little get together here?" Applejack asked, staring around the place.
"Alright girls, so I've told Rarity and Fluttershy already, but I still have to tell you two, please just be rational about this." She said pleadingly. Twilight then nodded to Fluttershy to bring Xaniel in and she walked back out to get him. They waited for a moment before Fluttershy came back, telling somepony to wait there for a moment.
"So let me guess, you did this to show us your special somepony, right." Rainbow Said, with a sly grin on her face.
"No, Rainbow Dash, this is not my special somepony, but this is someone who is pretty special, everyone I would like you to meet Xaniel." She said as she pointed to where he stood at the entrance.
He walked in, everything was quiet, but the shock on both Applejack's and Rainbow Dash's face were seen very easily, Pinkie Pie however wasn't fazed at all. "Ooooh, look at this, why didn't you guys tell me you had someone new around here silly fillies, oh I know your a minotaur, no a pony in disguise, oh I know you're a-" She tried to continue before Twilight put a hoof to her mouth, interrupting Pinkie's progress on her little guessing game.
"Twilight, what in tarnation is this critter?" She said, all Applejack could think about was where did this creature come from, and why.
Rainbow Dash broke her silence by saying "This thing is so weird looking." She didn't even know what to comprehend of this mysterious being. "Twilight, are you sure this things safe for us to around?" She said.
"I assure you everypony, that Xaniel here is safe, I found him after all of you left the night during the meteor shower, I saw him... I don't know how to say but falling from the sky." Everyone gasped, what a wonder it was to hear, that a creature like this just suddenly dropped from the sky and into their hooves.
"Xaniel why don't you introduce yourself to the others here?" She said pointing the other three sitting on the other side of the table.
"Hi, my name is Xaniel and you three would be?" He asked, nervously reaching his hand out for a handshake.
"Name's Applejack."
"I'm Pinkie Pie and it's so good to see a new face!"
"My name's Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in all of Ponyville."
The moment he heard her say that, a thought jumped into his head. ('Well this one certainly has a big ego on her' ). Giggling at the thought, he said "It's a pleasure to meet you all."
*
As the conversation was going on inside, a figure was standing out at a distance from the building. It sensed the small power from this new being and wanted to see what he looked like. Knowing now what being this was, it was satisfied of getting to see this new Nobody. A dark portal opened up behind it, the being walked through it, then disappeared along with the portal.
*
"So care to tell us why you're here Xaniel?" Rainbow Dash said, eyeing him suspiciously.
"Well, truth be told, I don't know why I'm even here, I just woke up here and that's about as much as I know." He was just as confused as her.
"Oh tell them what you are Xaniel, make things a little clearer." Twilight said, encouraging him to reveal everything about him.
"Well, I'm a human as I've said to her, my ability to walk upright and grasp objects are a natural cause, and I'm also a omnivore." He said hoping that was all he should reveal.
"So you're an omnivore eh, wait what is an omnivore?" She asked, never hearing that word before.
Fluttershy jumped in the conversation to help explain what that term meant. "Oh, an omnivore is a creature with a certain diet, where they can eat both plant life and animals."
"So you eat animals huh, was this your plan all along, to get us to trust you and then you eat us!" Rainbow Dash said, flying right up to him. All Xaniel could do was just slink back into his chair.
"Whoa there Nelly, just be calm Rainbow, he ain't doing no harm." She said pulling her back down into her seat. "But ah do agree with Rainbow. Ah'm just as nervous as her but that don't mean ah have to be afraid either."
"So what your just going to trust this thing now AJ." Rainbow Dash said, glaring at Applejack.
"Hold on their Sally, just because ah'm not afraid of this critter, don't mean I have to trust it just like that."
Tensions were building, so Twilight tried to calm everyone down, saying. "Alright everypony, just calm down. Xaniel here is no threat, so far from what I experienced with him." She said hoping to drown the fears of Applejack and Rainbow Dash. "He's very nice, if not a little shy, but I don't see him being anything evil."
Both Applejack and Rainbow nodded, agreeing for now. Everyone continued the dinner in peace, all tensions gradually fading away.
After the dinner, Applejack began to ask a few more questions, like how strong he was and if there were any reason for those arrow looking objects on his clothes. "Well, as if for my strength, I'm unsure of that and for these." He gestured toward the odd objects."I have no clue to what it is, or even my heart shaped necklace."
Everyone felt something when they looked at it, as if it had a very warm energy emanate from it. "Ah, do appreciate all of this Twilight, but its time we all got to our homes now, g'night y'all." Soon the others followed suite and left Sugarcube corner.
Twilight, exhausted from the day, said goodnight to Xaniel and headed upstairs to her bedroom. He did the same and headed downstairs. Getting into his bed, he found sleep came to him easily and drifted off to the dream world. But a memory started to take form. It was the same boy he had tried to remember earlier that day, pictures came more clearly now.
Xaniel saw the history of this strange boy, from darkness to regaining the light. His journey was hard but in the end, he had gained mastery over the weapon he kept seeing him and two others carry. A name popped up and his voice found the strength to say what appeared before him. "Riku." He had a feeling he did know who he was, the familiarity, started to feel like a friendship that he had with him. "Was I ever friends with him?"
*
The figure entered the new world, one that was felt with such darkness, it felt unbearable. But to this mysterious person, it felt like home. He had a report to give and would be glad to do so. In his thoughts, nothing but planning was going into this.('This new nobody, how is it possible that one like us has arrived so long after the Original Thirteen?' ) No matter how this new being formed, it was still like the rest, save for the fact that something warm came off his chest.
That's what intrigued this person the most, that feeling was that a... no, it couldn't have been. The figure shrugged off the idea and continued walking to the floating castle, that ruled the sky of this dark world.
Author's Note
Hey there everypony, this is your favorite Pony Pinkie Pie here with a super fantastic job right now. But why am I here now, speaking to you all, well lets just say that I accidentally turned off something in Epsilon's brain here. Anyway, good to see that your liking his story, I know if I ever created a story, it would be so specatularly awesome that your minds would be blown away right now. Anyway, its nice to see you all and have a very good day.
Edited by the Awesome Mekapix.
Chapter IV: Returning Memories
The next couple of days passed by without incident, Xaniel had been learning more and more about the daily life of everyone here. He realized that Twilight was a Princess after she read aloud a letter from Princess Celestia. He had no idea that he was staying with such royalty.
Applejack was a farmer, which he could tell right away hearing her accent, she worked very hard and is downright honest to the fullest extent. Rainbow Dash was pretty cocky and had a big ego but her loyalty was the best trait that she had. Pinkie Pie was very different, but she made him laugh whenever she came over to visit and Rarity was very prissy, but also very generous.
Then he remembered his cloak ('Hope Rarity is taking care of my cloak' ). She had asked him the day after their dinner at Sugarcube Corner if she could spruce up his cloak, he was shy about Rarity taking away his cloak, but decided it might be better to let her do what she wanted with it. For some very odd reason, he felt lost without that cloak, like it was a soft warm blanket that a kid would always carry around with him.
Back to his thoughts on everyone, his mind went to Twilight, for she was quite the organizer, which she was a bit overzealous at times but he didn't mind, her skill with Magic however as she had shown over the last couple of days was very impressive.
('No its not that, your energy is very weak for you' ). Why was his power so weak, could he even use energy?
Those thoughts were quickly pushed away when he thought about Fluttershy. Her shyness, was much worse than his, but she was always so brave around him, plus her kindness was what really made her stand out, just the way she approached her friends and even him when they first met was just unreal for him.
All that kindness was almost overwhelming if he remembered, but it wasn't bad either. All of these ponies were just so uniquely different but so alike at the same time, maybe this world was paradise in disguise.
But then other thoughts interrupted his thinking process. After remembering the boy Riku, the next night he lay in bed, another image became clearer as well, the girl that he saw, her image brightened and the name Kairi came out of nowhere. So he had two of the three figured out, its just that the last one never came to him the night after remembering her. "Why do I remember these people, were they my friends once?" He asked himself that question out loud for a while now.
How and why did he know any of these people, he never even met them before, but they all felt like friends. Whoever they were he was determined to find out, but for the time being, he was contempt to just relax with his new found friends. Speaking of which, he had offered to help Twilight test out some new spells she learned over the course of the last two days. Although he wasn't sure if being a guinea pig was right, he still wanted to help in anyway possible.
He got up and headed upstairs to see if anyone was up yet. Surprisingly no one was awake yet, even Twilight wasn't up which she usually was at this time of hour. So he took the liberty to try something out. He thought of cooking something for breakfast, so he went into the kitchen and looked around for ingredients. His memory kicked in again and this time, he saw something he wasn't expecting, a cooking memory.
Out of all the memories he was trying to find, memories of someone cooking filled his thoughts, then recipes floated into his head. So, he sifted through these recipes inside his head and came along something that sounded good. "Well, Blueberry Muffins do sound good, whatever these memories are, they're gonna come in handy." With that, he worked away to create the delicacies that he was craving, also hoping that everyone else would like them.
*
Twilight was just waking up, she saw the sun out, blinding her window. Everything looked beautiful, but another thing caught her attention. The smell of something delicious downstairs really confused her, then she saw Spike and Nyx still asleep. So then only one other person came to her thought. "Is Xaniel really cooking?" She thought that was silly, how could he know how to cook.
She went downstairs just to make sure, and like she guessed, Xaniel was there, lifting a tray of what smelt like Blueberry Muffins out. "Xaniel, you know how to cook?" She asked, wondering how he was able to even cook.
He stared back at her, a grin forming on his face. "Well yeah, I thought that since you've been taking care of me since I got here, I thought, why not repay the favor, after all I did feel a little guilty having you do all this stuff for me."
She blushed, a little surprised he would do something like this. "I do have to say, those really smell good and thank you Xaniel, you know you didn't have to do this." She said, walking over to one of the drawers to pull out some plates out.
"Well just because I'm a guest in your house doesn't excuse the fact of me being able to help you." He said, smiling back to her.
Twilight got the table set up and went upstairs to wake up Spike and Nyx, Xaniel was walking over to the table when he stopped, and raised a hand up to his head, a pain, not intense but hurting him enough to bring him standing down on one knee went through his head. Memories of these creatures came through his brain, one that was small, had bulgy yellow eyes and had two antennae on top of its head, the other, more sinister looking, was a white figure was very thin and looked plastic. He had no idea what these things were, but they frightened him.
He came out of his memory, sweating from terror that had consumed him, he got up and shook it off. He sat down in the chair as Twilight was coming down with Nyx and Spike following. Soon everyone was settled down and they began eating. It was quiet for a few moments before Twilight said. "Oh, these muffins are delicious Xaniel, I can say that you are quite the cook." She looked at Nyx and Spike. "Tell Xaniel thank you for baking these tasty muffins."
"Thank you Xaniel." Both of them said in unison. While Xaniel went back to eating, another pain in his head started up, not as bad as the first, but still causing him a bit of pain. ('Just ignore it Xaniel you don't need worry them right now, just take some deep breaths and you'll be fine' ). Then another image flashed in his eyes, a room, completely white with thirteen seats, being the only objects in the room.
They were all quite tall, they had cloaked figures that sat upon them,having the same color as he had for his coat, but he felt a negative energy coming from every single person in this room, except for one. The figure just sat there, having the lowest chair in this room. He couldn't tell who this was. He heard whispers coming from nowhere and they got louder, saying the name of this person over and over again."Roxas."
That's all he ever heard from these whispers, when he got a feeling of the mysterious persons power, he felt the same energy from the other boy he had a hard time remembering. It felt as if they were almost the same being. Then the pain intensified. He grabbed his head even tighter as he kept seeing images of battle, and a horrible feeling of loss coming from this 'Roxas' . "Roxas!" Xaniel yelled as the whispers got louder. Another name was emanating from the voices but he couldn't hear it. Then the image was lost and everything turned to darkness.
All was black once again, then a faint voice saying his name broke the darkness around him.
*
"X...Xaniel?" She said in a tiny voice. She was almost on the verge of crying before she felt movement under her forelegs. He was moving again, his eyes were blinking slowly, then he tried to get up but she stopped him, from getting up. "Xaniel, are you alright?" She asked, trying to keep her composure. He got up slowly until he was just sitting upright, his right hand supporting him.
Twilight then hugged him, he was surprised by such affection like this. She pulled back, even surprising herself by such an action like this. She blushed, then asked him that question she had been trying to ask him for the last five minutes. "Xaniel, are you okay, how do you feel?"
He tried gathering words but couldn't, then he faintly replied. "I'm okay, but what happened, why am I on the floor?"
"You mean you don't remember grabbing your head and screaming in pain?"
He shook his head. "No, but I remember these images in my head, the world... that world." He stopped talking, afraid to go on, but Twilight was too concerned right now and urged him to keep going. "Xaniel, please go on, I need to know what you saw, what was this place you were just trying to mention?" She said, in a more nicer tone, hoping to help him calm down.
"I, this world... it just felt so dark and so cold." He paused then continued. "This castle was floating in the air, it was huge, but I found myself in one of the rooms and saw thirteen people sitting in each chair." He was having a hard time remembering, or at least a hard time trying not to feel pain. "These people, their energy felt so negative, only one felt similar to someone I dreamed about, then I saw flashes of battle through his eyes, then a very deep overwhelming sadness that felt so horrifying, and so much pain, I... I can't go on." He said laying back on the ground, trying to regain any air possible.
*
"Yeah, I'm fine now, I'm just trying to think about what happened."
"Xaniel, did you see any of us in these images, who was the person you were talking about?" Twilight asked him in a calm voice.
"Well, none of you showed up, which is good, but the other person, his name came through whispers, they kept saying Roxas over and over again." He stopped, his breathing coming out in heavy gasps. "I felt this pain and sadness that kept getting worse and worse, but whoever he was, that pain was for someone else, and I don't know who he or she was."
Twilight was thinking carefully about what he said, a castle that floated in the middle of the air, and thirteen other people, that was just bizarre.
"Did you unlock any other memories?" She asked pushing the question a little further.
"Only two other people came to mind, one was named Riku and the other Kairi, but they weren't evil at all, they had good in them, one was Light and the other had a feeling of both dark and Light." He looked over to Nyx. "Riku was the boy that felt familiar to you Nyx, he was who I was trying to remember."
Nyx gazed at Xaniel, she wanted to know what he looked like. "Umm, Xaniel, could you describe what and who this Riku looked like?"
"Well, Riku has long hair like me, but its a little shorter and is fully colored white, he's a little taller than me and has clothes like me, but he looks different compared to me." He said, thinking that he would have to describe Kairi too. "The other one, Kairi, she's also the other one I remember, she has dark red hair, and is a bit shorter than me."
"So, is there anything else that we should know?" Twilight asked, hoping not to push him too far.
"There were these creatures, that came to me in my memories before you came back down, one was small, very dark in color, had bulgy yellow eyes and two antennae sticking out its head." The other creature was much more frightening. "The other one was tall, it was all white and was very slender like, but that's all I got from that memory."
Twilight was processing everything that was being said, so far this sounded like an ominous warning, but who were these people he mentioned. "Okay, although there isn't enough info to go on, I'll write everything down here." She looked over to Xaniel. "You don't have to help me with my magic today Xaniel, from what's happened, you'll need your rest for today after what you just went through." She said.
Walking up to him. "Okay...I know you wanted to help, but right now, you'll need your rest, I don't want to see you go through that again." She said smiling.
"Yeah, your right Twilight, just please make sure to let me know if you need help with anything." He said, walking down to the basement.
He got downstairs and crawled into his bed, he was pondering through his thoughts trying to figure out if there was any rational explanation for this. ('Why, just why were those memories so sad and violent, what happened to you Roxas?' ) Those thoughts stuck with into his sleep.
*
But what did he forget, were there any important memories that he needed, or any that he needed to remember from the dangers that they could be facing? But more importantly she was scared of what happened to him, the pain that he went through, that scene was still fresh in her mind and it was horrible to remember.
She walked over to her drawer and put away the journal, then reaching for a letter, she wrote down every second that went on during Xaniel's initial spasm. She would have to tell the princess right away, but she hoped she was doing the right thing.
She finished it and sent it over, hoping the Princess would respond quickly, while waiting she went down to the basement to check up on Xaniel hoping he recovered after the incident. She made it down and saw that he was still sleeping, she hadn't seen it before but he looked real peaceful while sleeping, that same smile that she had seen him show off. It looked like there wasn't a care for the world in his dreams.
But one thing was off still, that necklace that he wore every single day, why was it so important? She lifted it up with her magic and went to study it, nothing was out of the ordinary, it looked like just any sort of necklace but one thing threw her off. Why did it have this weird feel to it? Nothing ever truly felt anything like this before. A warmth emanated from it, like a loving warmth, she put it on and nothing really happened, but the warmth from this necklace kept getting stronger and unexpectedly a tear ran down her eye, she lifted her hoof to it and wiped it away. Seeing this she, never expected anything like this to happen, but even stranger, her heart felt like it was responding to it. "But how... how is this even possible?"
Twilight knew that the heart guided people, but she never knew that they could respond to something like this, was this...was this his heart? She took it off and put it back onto Xaniel, feeling a little odd about what just happened. She walked back upstairs trying to comprehend what just happened.
*
He went to reach for it but didn't get it as it disappeared from sight, then he was back, he saw the same old ceiling that he saw every time he woke up. But that warm feeling that he felt in his dream was still there, coming from his necklace. What was the reason for this necklace anyway, why was it here? Whatever reason he shrugged it off and went upstairs.
He came into the main room, to see that Twilight was sitting on the couch, contemplating about something. She looked over to see that he awakened and gestured with her hoof for him to come over. He walked over there and sat down next to her.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" She said, asking quietly.
"I feel better, nothing hurts right now." He replied back. Xaniel looked around to see that Nyx and Spike weren't around anywhere. "Uhh, where are Spike and Nyx at?"
"I sent them out to get a few things, so its just you and me, besides I needed to ask you a few questions."
"Okay, so what did you need to ask?"
"Well, first off, I want to know why you don't have memories of anything, how are you just gaining memories that aren't even about you?"
"I...I don't know, these memories, they just appear, I don't have any control over this." He looked away. "They just...I don't know."
Twilight wasn't trying to be mean, but she knew that she needed answers to all of these questions. "Well, what about that necklace you have on, why is it there?" She took careful consideration of how to say this. "Is... is it your heart?"
When she put it on, something happened, something that could not be explained. Whatever her heart responded to, it had to be another heart.
"My...heart?" He said looking at his necklace.
"Did you ever know if that was your heart?" She said.
This conversation was on thin wires, Xaniel was really confused and scared while Twilight was becoming bolder with questions. She didn't realize that Xaniel was freaking out inside his mind. ('What's she talking about, my heart has always been inside of me, nowhere else' ).
"Xaniel, are you alright, was that a bad question?" She asked.
That last question really made him think. Did he have a heart, or was his heart outside his body. This was all too confusing."Xaniel, was that a bad question to be asking?"
He then looked over to her and simply asked her. "Twilight, would it be possible for someone to live without a heart?"
She pondered at that question, of course it would be impossible for any creature to live without the heart. It was just another organ that worked to pump blood through the veins in each organisms body. But the last time she heard his heart, there was barely any noise coming from it. But when she put that necklace on, she felt otherwise.
"I'm sure that you need a heart to live, but when I put your necklace on, I felt something communicate with my heart, but how, can hearts talk?"
"Wait, you put on my necklace?" He said looking at her,
"Umm, yeah, you see...when you were asleep, I got curious about what was the reason you had that necklace on, so I put it on and felt a warm feeling against my chest, all I felt was sadness from that feeling, but truth be told I even had a tear come down my eye but I couldn't understand why."
Then he realized what that light was that interrupted his thoughts. "That light that I saw, it felt sad, but then if you put it on." He started to think about this more carefully. "Then that light was you, it was your heart I saw."
"Wait you saw my heart?"
"Well, I wouldn't say your actual heart, but the light that would emanate from it."
"But you said my heart gave off the feeling of sadness, what do you mean?"
"Well, your heart was just floating there, but a feeling of sadness came off of it, I think your heart was sad because of my past and mine was sad because it felt your feelings."
"But you don't even know about your past, maybe if you think harder?"
He tried to think of anything, but all he had were the same memories as before.
"Nothing still, but something tells me that maybe I shouldn't try to look for it."
"What do you mean by that?"
He looked at her again, then he lifted up his necklace, whatever it was it felt like it was coming from the heart shaped necklace.
"I don't know, but whatever it is, it doesn't feel right."
*
Xaniel was in his memories again, but it wasn't like last time. These memories were strange, all that appeared was another person in a cloak but with a different color. The figure walked away as he tried to reach out with his hand. It disappeared, but he found himself in a room. It had a purple lighting that barely lit the room and blue lines that ran all over the place. Then other figures began to appear, all wearing the same cloaks but each having a different color. There were about Seventeen in all, but each had a different appearance. Most of them were human he could tell, but then there were others who took on an animal shape.
One had a complete white cloak with a star at the chest, but the figure sitting there was a cat. The next a dog of some kind, he had a red and blue cloak mix that had a ethereal sword on its chest, but the more he looked, the more he recognized a wolf like appearance. The next one took on a shape of a bird. Owl like in appearance, but its cloak had a silver and gray color. Then two shapes he would have never guessed. Two ponies stood there, the first one was far away from the other. One had a dark Blue cloak, and the other had a light blue cloak. Yet a human stood by one of the ponies and had the same colored cloak as the light blue one. How was that possible and better yet, what did it mean?
Then he saw the mysterious person he had first seen. It was standing in line with the rest, this one adorned a azure blue cloak, but at a closer inspection, he realized that this was a girl. A whisper came and said something, but he didn't quite catch the word it said. Then he noticed something at her left side. A weapon of some sorts, it looked like a sword that was still in it's sheathe, but it had a weird marking on it. "A key?" he said, as it was the only guess that he could make, but he saw three points that came out the bottom of the end of the swords sheathe.
The whisper came again, but much louder and clearer. "Vera." He looked behind him and saw no one there. He turned around and saw that the girl was gone, but the others remained in place. He looked everywhere but couldn't see where she had gone. Then he felt a hit to the back of his head, and everything went dark.
*
Those people in that dream, they all wore cloaks like him, but he didn't feel any negative energy from any of them, just some had light, some dark, and a few who had a mix of both.
Something told him that these people weren't evil at all, but fighting for something. "Well, whoever they are, I hope I don't meet them."
True, his curiosity was at a all time high, but he sensed their power, and it fluctuated differently between each of them. The one at the far right that adorned a dark red cloak, as he remembered had a very strong power, much stronger than even the Princesses.
Xaniel thought about telling Twilight, but would it do any good? He felt that power and thought that he didn't need to worry her anymore. But half of him said that he should tell them, get them ready in case they might come to cause trouble.He decided that he should tell her, but how would it go?
He went upstairs pondering on how he should try to tell her, only to find that the main room was empty. "Hey Twilight are you there?" No response. "Nyx...Spike?" Still no response. He roamed around the place looking for any sign that they were there.
"Seriously, where is everyone?"
*
"Yes princess, from what I've been able to concur is that Xaniel has been having these weird memories all the time now, he doesn't even get a moments rest without flipping out and screaming in pain."
Celestia was taking all of this rather quite well. Hearing what Twilight was telling her was a bit nerve wracking, but years of experience have kept her calm and cool under a number of circumstances. "Well I think that it is good that you have been keeping a eye out for him, but right now we don't need to worry about anything."
"But, Celestia, what about the things he's seen?" Twilight asked. She didn't know how the princess could be so calm. "What about-"
"Twilight, don't worry yourself over these things right now, I know how all of this sounds, but let us handle these things, you just keep an eye on him, if anything else comes up, please be sure to tell me about it."
Twilight tried to form a sentence but then thought otherwise and just simply bowed, then walked out the doors.
Celestia went to her room, thinking about what Twilight has said, everything was fine with Xaniel until today, something just didn't seem right. Whatever was coming, it wasn't good.
*
He walked up to the door and opened it.Fluttershy was hoping it was Twilight but saw Xaniel instead. "Oh, hey Xaniel, do you know where Twilight is?"
"Can't say I have, I was gonna tell her something but she disappeared on me too."
He wondered, what was Fluttershy here for? "Um, why, do you need help with anything?"
"Oh, well um, yeah you see I was having a little trouble with helping clean out some of the homes for my little bunny friends, and since everyone else had something to do, I thought I'd ask her."
"Well, since she's not here, would you mind if I helped you out?"
She looked at him and then stirred her hoof in the ground. "Oh, I don't know, you really shouldn't be outside, even at night, what if somepony had seen you, they would freak out and then we'd be in trouble."
"Well, you have a point, but still I mean, I can't leave a friend just for a dumb reason and don't worry, I'll take Twilight's wrath if she ever found out."
She still looked unsure but after some thought. "Well, if you insist, but I have to ask, how good are you with animals?"
"How good am I with animals, well if you mention the fact that I love animals and know how to handle some, then I can say that I am pretty qualified for this task." He said, with a sly grin.
"Oh, really you love animals, oh this is gonna be so much fun." She grabbed him by the arm and took off with him flying in the wind.
A half hour later after Fluttershy had finally quit pulling Xaniel around, they reached their destination. A part of a forest where Xaniel had no idea of what was in there. "Um, Fluttershy... where are we exactly?"
She looked back at him. "Oh, we're in the Everfree Forest, its creepy in some ways but its where the bunnies underground homes are at." She said, turning her head back forward. They walked along until Fluttershy spoke again. "You see, I always help my animal friends that need me, but being in this place alone scares me, but having a friend around really helps me out."
They reached the rabbit holes and she told him that they had to clean out the rabbit's homes so that they stayed nice and clean. He got the basic stuff and so their job began. Everything went smoothly, no hiccups along the way. Even the bunnies came out to see what was going on. One went right up to Xaniel, allowing him to pet the little guy. Fluttershy saw this and really smiled. She knew she was good at handling animals, but seeing him petting one of the bunnies really made her heart feel good.
She turned over to her right side, and saw something that scared her half to death. "Um, Xaniel th-th-th theres a...a." She doesn't finish before Xaniel turned around and saw three creatures growling at them. They looked like wolves but they were made up of materials like leafs, sticks and other stuff.
Fluttershy backed up to him, hiding right behind him, he had it in his head,('What can I do?' )
Author's Note
Welp, there's Chapter IV for yah, things are taking off to a different turn. Will Fluttershy and Xaniel survive this encounter, what will Twilight do when she finds out. Will... Pinkie I swear if you go anywhere near that part of my head, so help me.
Edited by Mekapix
P.S. I do realize now that I should've asked this earlier. But um, in case anyone had any ideas for my story, don't be afraid to ask.
Twilight was just arriving at her house, she knew that Spike and Nyx would still be awhile, but she was glad to at least have Xaniel there for company. "Hello, Xaniel, are you there?...hello?" She said, opening the door. No response. She went downstairs to check up on him, but he wasn't there either. Something wasn't right, she checked upstairs and still no Xaniel.
Twilight was ready to flip out, there was no sign of Xaniel. Plus worst of all, she realized that he could've gone outside.
"Hey Twilight, are you in there? I'm back and done with Xaniel's ensemble."
She quickly ran to Rarity. "Rarity have you seen Xaniel? He's not in the library and I've search this whole place but I haven't seen no trace that he left... oh what am I going to do?"
Rarity put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder saying. "Now dear, lets not get too frightened here. Although it is bad that he has left the premise, we can't just panic and run around screaming to the top of our lungs here." Rarity said, hoping to sound calm.
"I know but what should we do? I mean if any other pony finds him there gonna freak and contact the guard, then they'll take him away and I won't get to learn anymore from him and-" Rarity put a hoof to Twilight's mouth.
"Yes dear I know, but right now the best thing to do is to start searching, but quietly so we don't call any attention to ourselves." Rarity added with a whisper.
Twilight nodded and ran out the door, leaving Rarity to put down Xaniel's newly refurbished cloak on a hanger and ran out the door. They searched around the Library and a few blocks into town. Twilight flew up above the library and looked farther from the tree when she heard a scream, coming from the EverFree Forest. It was faint but she knew who's scream that was.
"Rarity I heard Fluttershy, come on! It sounds like she's in trouble!" They both hurried towards the origin of Fluttershy's scream. Hoping that she was all right.
*
Xaniel had Fluttershy behind him, shivering in fear, with him trying to figure out what to do. "Hey Fluttershy, I got a plan, when I give the signal I'm gonna throw some rocks at those wolves there and have them follow me. Then once you see me gone with the wolves chasing me, take off."
"But what about you?" She said, worryingly.
"Don't worry I'll be fine, its not like I can't handle a few dogs." He wasn't so sure about that himself. Seeing that these weren't any ordinary wolves. But he had to do something.
They got ever so closer, but before they got within ten feet, Xaniel ran for some rocks and threw them at the timberwolves. "Hey, you why don't you come get me you stupid wolves?!" He ran off after the rocks made contact.
The three wolves, being hit by the rocks turned their attention to the alienish creature that they saw running away. It stood taller then them but they weren't deterred and soon took chase after the fleeing creature. Giving Fluttershy the chance to run the other way.
Xaniel had to admit to himself that this wasn't such a good plan, after seeing the ground that these wolves were gaining. He had to think fast. He then saw a branch looming in front of him. He reached for it and held it in place before letting it go and slamming into one of the timberwolves, disintegrating it to pieces. But the other two kept coming, closer and closer.
Xaniel tripped on a root and fell down a hill, quickly regaining his balance and taking off again before the two Timberwolves had time to catch up. But one disintegrated as it tripped on a rock and smashed into the ground below it.
The only one remaining growled in anger as it saw each one of its brothers go down, running faster to catch this nuisance of a meal. Xaniel couldn't see any other object to use so he kept running. 'I hope this thing gives up here soon, or else I'm done for' .
*
Twilight and Rarity had reached only a few feet into the forest before they came upon Fluttershy running towards them, crying in fear.
"Fluttershy what's wrong? Are you alright? Did you see Xaniel while you were out?" Twilight asked, reaching down and putting her hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder.
Fluttershy lifted her head, but when she spoke it was very panicky and tired. "X-Xaniel's in there s-somewhere still, being c-chased by timberwolves."
Twilight and Rarity casted nervous glances to each other. Then Twilight asked the other question. " What do you mean he was with you? Why isn't he here anymore?"
" Xaniel thought i-it was alright if he c-could help me, s-since you were gone. Then t-the timberwolves showed up. It was h-his plan to split up, he lured t-them away, but I-I don't know if he's okay or n-not." Fluttershy said, putting her head to the ground, crying.
"Okay Rarity, let's split up, you head that way I'll-"She paused as she saw Xaniel at the edge of a rock wall below them, backing up to the wall, with the timberwolf a few feet away from him. "Xaniel, hold up we'll help you, just hold on for a moment."
He looked back up and said. "Don't worry, I'm alright, I can handle this."
"But that timberwolf is right there don't be dumb just hold on for a second."
She tried levitating him, but nothing came. "What's going on? I can't use my magic, oh this is bad really bad." Whatever was causing this made everything worse.
All three ponies looked over the edge in terror, about to see Xaniel get torn to pieces.
*
Xaniel was trying to think of a way out but there was nowhere to go. 'Huh, figures, you get one idea in your head Xaniel and boom, here you are trapped by a timberwolf.' He may have been no fighter, but he sure wasn't gonna go down quiet.
The timber Wolf leaped at him, trying to bite at anything it could. Xaniel was prepared and ducked just in time, before it got him. He grabbed it by the foreleg and threw the timberwolf only a few feet back, but not without a scratch. Just before he threw it, one of its claws scored a hit to his left side. He gasped in pain as he reached for his left side.
The timberwolf grinned, happy it was able to wound its prey. Xaniel suddenly felt something in his right hand.
A weapon of some sorts materialized, not knowing what it was, he grabbed hold of it to inspect it closely. It was a staff like weapon, that had two blades sticking out at the end. It's color mainly held a dark purple for the entirety of the weapon, but had four small glowing silver lines coming out from the middle and onto the sides of the staff. The blades edges had a icy blue color showing off the sheen and reflective surface.
Twilight and the other two gasped on in awe as this weapon just appeared from thin air, and into the waiting hands of Xaniel. The timberwolf was nervous about this new weapon that just came out of nowhere, but was undeterred from its main goal. It launched itself at Xaniel again, hoping to end this fight quickly.
Xaniel wasn't prepared for it's leap and put his hand out in front of him. Light flashed before his eyes and all was darkness. A memory appeared along with the images of this weapon being used by another person. Then a voice entered his mind.
"Organization Member Number XV, Xaniel, The Forgotten Being"
Then everything came back to him. His hand as if it had a mind of it's own caught the timberwolf at the throat and held it there. Quick flashes entered his mind, showing a new person he saw using this weapon. Then something in his mind clicked and he felt something come together. He threw the wolf away again, only this time farther than before. He went into a stance having his hand out forward and his newly founded weapon behind him.
Something felt different, he knew what he was doing with this weapon but how so? None of that mattered now as the timberwolf came back for more. This time Xaniel was truly prepared. The beast tried the leap one more time, but hit the rock wall as Xaniel rolled out of the way. He came up and hit the wolf with a flurry of strikes, hitting it's sides mostly with the blades of his weapon.
The wolf faltered only for a brief second, as it tried to swipe him with its claws. Xaniel leaped back and hit it upside the head with one of the ends, following up with a quick slash to the forelegs and to its chest.
The wolf was all cut up now, marks showing everywhere along its wooden structure. Before it could get away, Xaniel took it by the throat and threw it up in the air. He then jumped up after it and landed a number of strikes before it burst into fragments. He fell back to the Earth with the weapon sticking out to one side, his left arm staying close to his side.
He stood up and cast his weapon away. But didn't get far before falling to the ground and passing out.
*
"Twilight, did you just see that?" Rarity said, pointing with her hoof to over where Xaniel stood. Shocked by the performance he had just shown. All three ponies were staring in awe at Xaniel's fight with the timberwolf. They had never seen anything fight like that before and it scared them.
"I don't know Rarity, from what we all saw, Xaniel seems more than helpless." They watch him walk away but, he grabbed a hold of his side and then collapsed onto the ground.
"Oh no!" Fluttershy said as she flew down to tend to him. Twilight was finally able to cast a teleport spell that sent her and Rarity down to help. They got to the unconscious body of Xaniel and flipped him over only to see that his right hand was covering his left side. They moved it and saw the problem. A scratch that hit deep, his hand covered in blood and the wound still leaking with the horrible red liquid.
"Oh, this is bad, quick Fluttershy, find something to bind that wound, Rarity you go help her." Twilight said, pointing into the tree's around them. Both ponies hastily ran to the trees, trying to find something that would work. Twilight meanwhile stayed behind, putting her hooves against the wound, hoping the pressure would at least stop the flow of blood coming out.
Twilight has seen blood before, she had been hurt in the process of Nyx's creation, she knew it came out of all creatures, but seeing it now and feeling it against her hooves didn't make her feel any better. In fact it frightened her, seeing this stuff come out of Xaniel, she didn't know that even a new creature like him had blood as well.
Fluttershy and Rarity came back with some vines wrapped around them. "Okay good. Fluttershy I want you to start wrapping those around the wound." Fluttershy obeyed quickly and began tying the vines around the cut.
"Rarity, I need you to go back and get some medical supplies, this cut is very bad so we need to make sure infection doesn't get in." Rarity then took off into the direction of the town, leaving the other two to help Xaniel. "Okay Fluttershy, I need your help with carrying him, if you can get to his front and carry him on your back, I'll get the other half on mine."
They wasted no time in securing him safely onto their backs and began to walk towards the Library. Twilight knew that she could levitate him, but considering his size to the rest of her friends, he was quite heavy and it drained her of energy quickly. It took them some time but they reached the door and closed it. Rarity had a bag with the medical supplies and set it down alongside Xaniel on the floor as they began their work.
"Okay girls, we need to do this quick but gently, who knows how much blood he's lost." Both nodded and they began their delicate work on Xaniel. Fluttershy gently untied the vines wrapped around the wound, as doing so the slow trickle of blood came back, but not as fiercely as before. Twilight took out a liquid container, seeming to contain something that resembled alcohol.
"This should hopefully stop any infection that's trying to get inside him." She poured it on the cut, only getting minor flinching from Xaniel.
Rarity then weaved the bandage around the cut softly, soon after three rotations the cut has been hidden under the bandage. Everything was fine now, Xaniel was returned, no one saw him and they mended his wound.
"Phew, that was just too close, thank you two for helping me out."
"It was our pleasure darling, but I must say, we should be going, it's been a rough night and we all need to rest, plus a bath would do nice in getting rid of all this...stuff." Rarity said, pointing to the red stains that she and the others had on there coats. She took off, with Fluttershy following behind saying her goodbyes to Twilight.
Twilight then levitated Xaniel into the air and took him to his bed downstairs. She laid him down and checked on the wound again. The bandage has a dark red color to it, but it wasn't bad, for it only soaked through two of the layers.
She then saw that his body type was very different theirs. His stomach and chest were a sort of light tan in color. Same thing was there's no hair anywhere on the side she looked at. Twilight double checked the wound and left the room, very exhausted from the night of panic. She would have a few questions for him when he woke up. But in the meantime, she would have to rinse off all of this blood.
*
The figure, walked into a room, it was completely white, with thirteen chairs, each having an emblem that decorated the top of each one, all forming a circle around him. There were three others, sitting on some of the chairs in the room. The figure on the highest chair greeted the figure walking into the room.
"Ah, so you have returned, what did you find on your little expedition?" He was a old man, his clothing had colors of red, black and white. He was bald but had a goatee on his chin.
"The presence that we felt is weak, but it seems that he has retained his weapon. Other than that, he is of no concern to us." Replied the figure down below.
"Still, so long as he stay's the course, we won't have to worry about him." Said one of the three. He had light blue hair that ran down to the top of his back, a scar that showed above his nose and in between his eyes. "So long as we get Kingdom Hearts' power, there's nothing else to worry about."
"As if, we lost Sora after Axel came in ruining everything,now we have a new Nobody on the loose. So old Coot, what should we do about this new Nobody?" Asked the other, his hair black with a few gray streaks that went into a ponytail. His Right eye covered from an injury long ago, with a scar that showed up under his left eye. "I mean, it's not like he's a cut above of the usual Dusks."
"All in good time, but we don't need to worry about the others let them play their game, it doesn't matter so long as they continue towards the right path." Then he looked towards the one at the bottom.
"However, this new Nobody is quite interesting, he could make a perfect new vessel for me, but I wouldn't rather do it to someone like him, he's not worth the effort with the power he has. I say that since he is of no use to us, we shall dispose of him." He announces to the three. "Make sure the job gets done, it should be easy enough."
Then all three except for the one at the top were enveloped into darkness, disappearing from the room. Leaving the old man who contemplated about his real goal. "Soon everything will fall into place, leaving the power of that world to fade away into the darkness."
*
Xaniel found himself in his room again, a feeling of confusion swept over him. 'How did I get back?' A sudden pain to his left side told him everything else. It hurt, he admitted that, but wondering how it got there, really stumped him.
"So your awake I see." A voice made him turn to his right side. Twilight was standing only a few feet away from him. She walked towards him then saying another thing. He tried to say something but she raised her hoof to stop him. "Don't say a word, I got a few questions in mind for you, first of all why did you just run off like that, you know you could've been spotted by somepony else, imagine the disaster that would've ensued."
She didn't let him respond before asking another question. "Also why did you go with Fluttershy, she could handle her work, I don't want to be mean about this but you were seriously hurt yesterday, what if that Timberwolf did more than just scratch you huh?" Her barrage still continued. "But another thing? What was that weapon that you summoned, and then all those little tricks that you pulled off, where did all of that come from?"
Xaniel finally got a word in edgwise. "Okay, didn't expect that but first off, I thought it would have been better to help Fluttershy out, considering that she looked like she needed help. I couldn't just say no."
"Well what if somepony saw you, what would you do then?"
"I don't know but I would at least try to do something and second of all. I don't know where that weapon came from, a memory just appeared giving me the know how of what I would need to do with this weapon that appeared."
As if on command, the Staff like Katar weapon appeared in his hands, he looked at it again seeing something he didn't notice before. There were markings, that resembled his arrow like symbols that he wore. What could this possibly mean. He looked over to Twilight. She was eyeing the weapon very closely. "You know, if you wanted to see my weapon, all you have to do is ask." Xaniel said, extending it out to her.
She looked at him and blushed. "Oh, yeah your right."
She levitated the staff out of his possession and took it to the table. She set it down and took a few instruments, first she experimented with a with a tool that resembled a hook like object. Twilight then began scraping away at the metal of the staff. Whatever it was, it didn't resemble any metal that she knew of and there were no scratch marks, indicating that it was a very strong metal.
"Wow, this thing is really resilient, nothing seems to scratch it." She took a look at the blades of each side, grabbing the nearest thing to her, a piece of cloth, she put it against the blade and it ripped with ease. "That's really sharp, no wonder you beat that timberwolf so easily."
Then the four glowing silver lines attracted her attention, she grazed her hoof along the lines until she got to the center. She pushed a button down by accident and the staff separated, leaving two swords before her. "Ahh, what did I do?"
Another memory burst into Xaniel's mind, he saw the same person again from before, but he pressed the button where the four silver lines met at the center and the same thing happened that he saw just now. He rose out of the bed and walked over to Twilight, but slowly, still hurting from the pain. "I'm sorry Xaniel I didn't mean to-"
"No, its alright, it's supposed to do that." He said pointing to the buttons now located at the hilt of both weapons. "This weapon, from my memories was built to form different kinds of tools or forms."
"Wow, that's really complex for a simple looking weapon like this." Twilight said, amazed at the technological advancement of the humans.
Xaniel grabbed the weapon again and clicked the buttons on the bottom of each hilt. They both extended another blade out where the button used to be. He gave them a few experimental swings and notices two more buttons on the top and bottom of the handles. He pressed them and two more blades came out, forming a plus sign weapon, he swung them around, noticing that they moved faster.
"How many times can your weapon change to something else?"
He looked at her and then the weapon. "I don't really know." This was the first time he was ever able to summon a weapon let alone figure out how to use it. He didn't see any other buttons appear so he fused the two separate parts back together and dispelled the weapon.
"Well this is another report that should be good for the princesses, a weapon that can be changed into any shape, although I don't know how we'll be able to recreate this type of technology, but that point and time will come sooner or later."
She looked at him and said. "Sorry about getting mad like that, its just trying to keep you a secret is really tough without some minor problems creating bad situations like this."
He smiled and said. "I know, being a new creature in such a strange world is not easy either, plus I'm sorry about running off like that, if it makes you feel any better, I'll wait for you to get back before I do something like that again."
She smiled back, then headed upstairs, leaving Xaniel to his thoughts. 'You know, everything that's happened so far may not be quite what I imagined for being in a alien world but I wouldn't have it any other way.'
*
Three dark portals formed in the middle of the Everfree Forest. Then the three Organization members came out, looking at there surroundings. Everything was peaceful feeling, which didn't bode well for them. But soon this world would fall to the darkness like the rest of them. All three of them had the same goal in mind, finding the new nobody and destroying him, permanently.
Author's Note
So there you have it, Chapter V has been completed, although it's a little shorter than IV, the others hopefully should be longer. Anyway, what will happen to Xaniel, shall he be destroyed, or can he defeat these three. I'm Epsilon and I'll be seeing yah around.
Edited by Mekapix
P.S. I know there's some blood in this part, but if any of you have ever read the Warrior Cats Series, you would know that for there docile nature, blood can be spilled. So there will be a few parts with blood, but that's all. I'm not making it graphic either, so don't worry.
Just a quick note...this chapter will be done without my editor. He's behind on some of stuff so I'm going to help him out by posting this chapter and giving him a week to catch up on stuff at the Uni work. That's all I really had to say so enjoy the story.
~~~
A day after the battle with the timberwolf, Xaniel had recovered slightly. His wound was feeling better but it still nagged at him from time to time if he did something wrong.
Fluttershy showed up and went to see how he was doing. She blamed herself for getting Xaniel into this predicament. Not to mention getting him hurt in the process. But he and Twilight talked to her about it, saying that it was an honest mistake and that she shouldn't feel so bad about it.
Besides, Xaniel took the blame for it too. Twilight knew that Fluttershy would take this badly but having the support of her and Xaniel, she got over it quickly.
Xaniel woke up that morning. Feeling great after resting up. He was reminded of his annoying wound but it didn't bug him too much now. He got up and headed upstairs. As he entered the room, Twilight was reading a letter. Her eyes full of concern.
"Hey Twilight. What yah reading?" He said pointing to the note.
"Oh its just news. Princess Celestia asked if I could come straighten a few things out." She looked back at the letter. "Apparently some of the Griffon officials are getting a little too tense with ponies coming too close to their border."
Xaniel remembered what Griffons were but never would he imagine that there was actual live ones. Twilight continued on without giving him a chance to ask. "So Celestia has asked me to come help her with a national convention here so we can straighten things out with them."
He was about to ask if he could come along, but Twilight must've read his mind. "And no, your not coming along. We don't need to risk exposing you to the griffons. Otherwise they'll think were up to something."
Xaniel thought about the question more carefully before he asked. With a sly grin he reformulated it. "Oh okay, but how about I just walk with you guys till we reach the end of the Everfree Forest?"
Twilight thought about it carefully, then Xaniel continued. "I know it's important to keep me a secret and believe me, I don't like being out in public either. But it gets so boring in this library. Plus I can't read your language that you write in so that defeats the purpose of reading any books."
"Alright Xaniel. You can come along. But just until we reach that point." She said, giving him a playful glare. He smiled in return.
A couple hours passed and Twilight gathered up the other six. They would help keep a lookout in case of any trouble that might occur.
"Oh this is gonna be great. We get to see some Griffons, help Twilight out and even see Phillydelphia. But most importantly and the exact reason it's important for such a super top secret mission, is that we get to have free deserts!" Pinkie Pie said, bouncing up and down while walking along with the others.
A letter had promised them all that there would be a dining area full of food that was prepared for the meetings. Plus free deserts were prepared as well.
"Yes Pinkie, its good that everyone here gets to help Twilight out. That bit with the deserts part doesn't really seem too important, but nevertheless, it will be wonderful to see Phillydelphia." Rarity said, walking alongside Twilight.
Yes it was important that this meeting went well, but Xaniel wasn't so sure how he should be traveling. Twilight found a spell that would allow him to go out in public, but it wasn't the most pleasant of ways. "Okay...I can agree with this whole hiding idea, but seriously turning me into a cat. Why couldn't I be a dog or even a bird?"
"Well Xaniel, you did want to travel with us so this is the only way I could think of. Besides no one will notice or suspect a cat, so long as he keeps quiet then everything should be fine."
He face palmed, wishing he stayed back at the Library. It wasn't long before they reached the train station and got a ride to Canterlot. On the way Twilight remembered that Princess Cadence and her brother Shining Armor were coming along as well. The only problem was how to tell them about Xaniel.
They were the only ones who weren't told about his appearance in Equestria, so their reactions may not be full of surprise or glee. But hopefully they would warm up to him. Xaniel's personality was friendly, in many way's he was kind, easy to talk to, but the only downside would be trying to introduce him, knowing that he was shy.
They got to Canterlot and with a few more minutes that passed by, they made it to the castle. The guards opened the door and the first ponies that see them were exactly the two she was thinking about. They saw the group and walked towards them. Twilight walked up to Cadence and did their little greeting. "Sunshine, Sunshine, Lady Bugs awake. Clap your hooves and do a little shake." Both said in unison, giggling afterwards.
Shining Armor came over after waiting for Cadence and Twilight. "Hey there Twily, good to see that your helping us with this meeting. I like knowing that your helping us make everything better." She blushed at his praise answering back. "Oh it's nothing. Besides this wouldn't be even possible if it weren't for Princess Celestia. "She said smiling back.
Then Cadence and Shining looked at the cat that was hiding in her bag. "Oh hey, I didn't know you got a cat." Cadence said,
Xaniel froze and looked back. Gulping in some air. "Oh him, he's new. I saw him and thought I should help him out. You see I-"
She didn't get another word in before Xaniel jumped out of the bag. A light illuminating around him. Before long the light died around him and he had turned back into his original self. The spell that Twilight had casted upon him seemed to have wore out quicker than expected.
He sat on the floor, staring around wildly. Then he noticed Cadence and Shining staring at him. He sighed. "Aww, nuts."
*
Twilight looked to her. "Well, you see, uhh, he's a...oh how should I say this. He's a new creature that I found."
Shining then spoke up. "Twilight when were you gonna tell us that you have a alien creature roaming around Equestria? This thing could be dangerous for all we know."
She replied back. Annoyed with his reaction. "Well excuse me for trying to keep him a secret. Oh and he's not dangerous, he practically saved Fluttershy's life when they came face to face with timberwolves. Sure he has a weapon that's really advanced but it's nothing more than a simple staff."
"Wait what weapon? Does he have it on him right now?" Shining asked.
Xaniel then stood up. "Well not exactly. You see it's not in my possession right now, but if you want I could get it?"
With out another word. Xaniel held out his hand and the weapon appeared. He grabbed it and put it to his side. Both Shining and Cadence were amazed at what they saw.
"You just...summoned that without even needing a horn?" Cadence said. Shocked by Xaniel's abilities. As far as everyone knew, Xaniel had a form of magic that no one else knew about. Those who didn't witness the fight and seeing Xaniel summon the weapon for the first time was quite a shock to everyone.
Shining asked. "How did you do that? I mean without any type of place where you can expel magic. It's almost impossible to do."
Xaniel then looked back down to his weapon. "I actually have no idea. I just learned how to materialize this weapon yesterday."
Everyone stared in surprise. How and when could a being like this be able to do something that a regular unicorn would have such a hard time with.
"Well that's half of it. Would you like to see how we Humans fight?" He said. Smiling at the same time.
Everyone looked to each other. No one was so sure they wanted to witness his fighting ability, but their curiosity got the better of them so they all nodded.
Cadence escorted him to the courtyard, where many of the guards watched as this new creature walked into the middle of the square opening. Even Princesses Luna and Celestia stood out their balcony. Taking interest into what was unfolding down below.
Xaniel wasn't so comfortable with everyone watching him all at once, but since he had his weapon out and promised everyone here a show. He might as well show them what he could do.
"I do have to ask that everyone here get back or out of the courtyard. What I'm about to do is highly dangerous." He announced loud enough for everyone to hear.
No one mistook his warning and got out of the courtyard. Everyone positioned themselves up along the walkway's of the walls.
With everyone out of harms way, he began his little dance. His first few moves were swinging the staff around, in a slow but beautiful way. They were some basic moves but enough to get the crowd of guards and his friends interested. Then as if on a silent command, he swung the staff around faster. The whooshing noise became louder, filling the whole courtyard.
He pressed the first button and the staff came apart, showing the two swords that he and Twilight saw the first time. They were launched into the air and he jumped after them. Catching the two blades in mid air. They were surprised to see him jump so high considering his size. Then when he landed, Xaniel swung the swords around. Creating that whirring noise that became louder than before.
His style changed and new tricks started to show. But what was even more stunning was that there was a icy blue like light that moved with the blade. It bended and showed where the blade used to be.
All of this skill was all but too familiar to the three that saw him fight the timberwolf. His skill with this weapon was just astounding. No pony they knew could match the skill that Xaniel was showing off and even some of the guards were scared by the skill that Xaniel had. "Twilight, are you sure he's safe to be around? Seeing all this is amazing, but what if he were to turn that against us?" Shining Armor asked.
Twilight looked at him with a annoyed glance. "Oh sure he's just going to turn evil like that. You don't have to worry Shining Armor, he's fine."
Xaniel heard what was going on up there but didn't mind. He knew that being a new creature had it's downsides. But he still kept going. Princess Celestia was completely shocked by the power and skill Xaniel had, but his power felt like it was growing. Not too fast but he was gaining energy from performing with his alienish weapon.
Then Xaniel jumped up into the air, only to show off his next trick that he learned yesterday. He pushed a button near the blade on each sword and then threw them down, having a chain attached to both swords that hit the ground. Creating holes in each impact zone that the swords hit.
Xaniel pulled himself forward using the chains from the swords, yanking out the blades from the ground. He landed it and continued his whirlwind of swings, but being careful this time for he doesn't want to hit himself with these weapons. Everyone was amazed. From the staff to the two swords and now these chain like weapons.
Xaniel retracted the chains back into the two swords. He pressed two more buttons that turned it into the plus sign weapon. The whirring noise was louder than ever, attracting even a few guards away from the courtyard. "Sister? I knew he was an alien to us before and that we didn't understand his abilities. But this is just amazing. No pony has ever seen something fight like this before." Luna said. Her eyes wide with astonishment.
That's what Celestia was worried about. Over the centuries, pony kind had barely fought any wars with another country. She had seen quite a few different styles of fighting in her time and even some unicorn magic had impressed her. But Xaniel was on a whole new level that defied everything they knew.
Xaniel then did his last trick, spinning around in the air. He jumped and twirled his body, but his wound didn't like what he was doing and the nerves inside acted up. Hurting him in the process. He gasped in pain, dispelling the two weapons and falling back to the ground on his back.
Everyone gasped in horror, seeing Xaniel go from being happy to moaning in pain. The Mane Six were there first before anyone else, helping Xaniel back up. "Ahh, that hurts so much."
"Wait, did we miss anything important?" Shining Armor said. Very confused why Xaniel was on the ground in pain.
Twilight forgot to mention the whole thing with the rest of the group, or even report about the incident with Princess Celestia. 'I've been forgetting a lot of things lately. Hope it doesn't become a habit.'
"Well...I forgot to tell you all that a couple of nights ago, Xaniel had gone up against some timberwolves and got himself hurt in the process of trying to protect Fluttershy, ah heh heh." She said. Nervously glancing around at the others.
She then told the rest of the story of how they brought him back to the Library and patched him up. The weapon as they saw worried some of them, knowing now how deadly it was in the hands of Xaniel.
"So Xaniel's a human who just fell out of the sky, but he helped you out?" Shining Armor asked.
"Basically in a nut shell." Twilight concluded. Everyone had a more sensible idea of how Xaniel came to this world. But even knowing now of how he came here. It didn't answer anything. Just raise more questions.
"Wait? So let me git this straight. You came down from the sky, yet yah don't have any memory of how yah got here in the first place?" Applejack asked.
Xaniel nodded his head. "I don't have any memory of my past, nor it seems to be a memory of anything for that matter."
"Then how do you suddenly start getting memories that aren't your own?" Celestia asked.
"I don't know. All of this is just as confusing for me as it is for everyone else. I don't even know why all of this is happening either and for what reason. But I assure you that none of it is that dangerous. So far I've only remembered people that I feel like were my friends once."
"What do you mean by 'once' ?" Rainbow asked.
"That's just what I mean. I don't know if I was somewhere else before I came here and I don't know what happened to me that got me sent here. It's just all so...concerning."
Twilight then walked over to him. Don't worry Xaniel, well help you with all of this."
Celestia then walked to the middle of the group. "Now I do believe it is time we headed out here everypony. We are all needed at the meeting." Celestia said. With that they walked from the courtyard and headed on out to the place where the national meeting would start.
*
The three members were heading off, looking for the new member and hoping to end this quickly. "Uhh this world is just so boring and it's just way too peaceful. It really makes me want to barf." The first figure said.
"Don't worry about this world. Just find the nobody and exterminate him." The third figure said.
With that they continued on walking through the Everfree...looking for Xaniel. Ready to end him and his existence.
*
"So Xaniel...are you really the only of your kind here?" Celestia asked.
"As far as I know...yeah. But I don't really like talking about it." He said. Looking at the ground.
Everyone turned to him, seeing that was a very bad question to be asking him. He looked back up and saw the worry in their expressions. "No...don't worry about it. I don't mind some of these questions." Xaniel said.
"So what's the human race like?" Shining asked.
"Well I'd say about the same as you, but were not so peaceful like you guys."
"What do you mean by that?" Luna asked. Everyone wondered what made the human race so different from them.
"It's just that...we humans don't tend to get along very well with each other sometimes. We just argue over the simplest things."
"Oh don't worry about that darling, the same goes for us as well. You see? We don't seem so different from your race at all actually." Rarity said.
Xaniel smiled at her suggestion, he knew saw a few examples of the human race from time to time here. Maybe things weren't really so different after all. Or maybe he was just kidding himself by thinking that.
They continued on in silence before reaching the end. "Well Xaniel, we should hopefully see you by tomorrow night. Just please try to be careful?" Twilight said.
He nodded and watched them go. They finally reached the other side of the hill before he turned around and walked away. Then out of the corner of his eye, he saw something move. It was too quick so he couldn't really make out what moved. He walked towards where it was last and followed a trail he found.
He walked deeper into the Everfree Forest, hoping to discover what he saw. He accidentally tripped on a stump, falling over and rolling into a open field. Then he heard a voice. "Woopsie daisy, it seems like someone had a little trip."
He quickly got up to see another being. It was human. He had a patch over his eye had two gun like weapons, one in each hand. The voice he heard sounded very sarcastic. "It took a while to find you but here we are. Hope you don't mind our hospitality. We really are surprised to find another being like yourself wandering around in a pathetic world like this."
Xaniel just kept staring, his thoughts were filled with questions. 'Who is he? I know this is the first human I've really met, but this guy is a big jerk.' "Who are you?!"
The man stared back. A sly grin forming on his face. "I'd be incline to tell you. But first how about you tell me who you are?"
Xaniel gathered up his thoughts quickly. "Xaniel. The names Xaniel."
The figure laughed. "So it's true then. You really are a Organization Thirteen Member. Well the names Xigbar, nice to meet yah. Too bad it won't be for long." Xigbar readied his weapons. Twirling the gun in his left hand and pointing it to the ground and putting the other on his shoulder.
Xaniel doing the same by twirling the staff around and putting it on his right side. "Too bad were doing this. The old coot did have plans for you, but it seems your just not that strong enough for the job."
Whatever Xaniel was feeling, it wasn't good. Xaniel ran at Xigbar and tried to hit him but he teleported away. Xaniel then tried to run at him again, but Xigbar did the same thing. Only this time he fired upon Xaniel after reappearing.
He kept his distance and relentlessly kept firing upon Xaniel before having to reload. Xaniel didn't know how to keep up with him. Every time he got even within a foot from him. Xigbar just teleported away.
But then he remembered his chains. He clicked the buttons and they extended out the two chains that came out of both swords.
He swung them around and around before swinging one of the blades at Xigbar while he was reloading.
The blade scored hits across his chest sending him stumbling backwards. Xaniel then swung the other one. Wrapping the other chain around him. Bringing Xigbar flying towards him.
He twirled his right chain and struck at him but he teleported away before the blade made impact on him. Sending it flying into a tree. "Whoa. Almost had me there Xaniel, but I'm not gonna make it that easy."
He charged up his two weapons. A blue glow emanating from them. "Take This!" He fired his weapons and a giant blue arrow with black markings shot straight out. Heading right towards Xaniel.
He pulled his chain out from the tree and rolled to to the side but it reflected like it hit something and bounced towards Xaniel, hitting his right side.
It came around again and hit Xaniel on his bad side. It really hurt which angered him. Turning his chains back to the two swords, he struck it away from him. Sending it back at Xigbar who wasn't expecting it.
It hit him square in the chest making Xigbar stumble backwards. He looked back at Xaniel with a sly grin on his face. "Clever little Sneak."
Xaniel pushed the button that went back to his chains again but was hit from the side by something else. He turned around and saw another being wearing the same cloak as Xigbar. This one had blue hair and a scar above his nose and in between his eyes.
The weapon he carried looked sinister and he couldn't tell what it was. "That's enough fooling around Xigbar. We came here to finish him off, not toy with him."
Xigbar looked over with a sarcastic hurt smile. "Ahh. Come on Saix? Can't I just have fun with the little guy? Besides he's not really all that tough."
Saix then looked over to Xaniel. "You may be a Nobody, but you still don't deserve to walk amongst the living." He swung around his claymore and held it in position. Having it face away from Xaniel.
He then looked to his right and noticed that Xigbar was getting ready to fight again. He now had two people to fight, but couldn't decide which was the more dangerous. Saix then charged him and swung his claymore at him. Xaniel thought it might be easier to handle him.
So he took his weapon and pulled back the chains, forming the swords. He blocked Saix's attack, but realized the power he had with this weapon was just too much.
Saix pushed Xaniel back with great force sending him tumbling across the ground. Before he could get up, Xigbar fired a rapid burst at him. Hitting his chest and knocking him on his butt.
Saix ran at him again, only this time slamming the ground with his weapon that created a wave of energy.
Xaniel jumped out of the way in time and gave Saix a quick whirlwind of slashes that knocked him forward. But not far enough before Saix threw his weapon at him, yelling. "Move aside!" It struck Xaniel square in the chest and again got sent far back.
Then he was hit from behind and sent face first into the ground. He slowly got up and saw a third person standing there. He couldn't see his face for it was hidden behind his hood. "Xaniel. How do you hope to accomplish anything, when you can barely fight back? Just surrender and we will promise you an eternal and peaceful sleep."
Xaniel, then had a memory flash before him. A new memory that showed him some sort of new trick. Xaniel got up and a power resonated from within himself.
Showing a forest green aura, he held his weapon out and it began to resonate the same glow. His forest green eyes also glowing from the sudden burst of power.
Xaniel then charged the figure. The mysterious person was ready, but Xaniel disappeared and reappeared above him only a few inches away from the figure and delivered a very fast combo of strikes, instantly switching from his swords to his cross weapons that hit the figure everywhere on the chest and sent him flying back.
The figure got up and summoned laser like weapons from his hands. Xaniel then teleported again, but the figure caught him with a defensive block as Xaniel reappeared and swung his other hand around. Connecting with Xaniel's leg and flipping him around.
Then the figure said. "Guard!" and a blue wall appeared that sent Xaniel flying back, tumbling over the ground again.
Xaniel felt like he'd been through a train wreck. All his energy exhausted away. The figure held his hand out, and a blue ball of energy appeared.
Xaniel didn't realize what he was about to do...before it was too late. The ball left the hand and blew up right in front of Xaniel before he could get out of the way. Sending him flying away for a couple hundred feet.
*
She felt Xaniel's energy but it was weak compared to these other three and it felt weird. She walked up to them, staring out in that direction. "What do you thinks going over there? It feels like Xaniel's power is fading." Twilight asked as she came alongside Celestia.
Celestia looked to her former student. "I don't know. But from the feeling of that energy. It's bad over there."
Then without warning, they see a bright light that shines over them. It was very bright, seeming to extend out into the sky a couple hundred feet. As soon as everyone turned towards it. It faded away.
"Um...what was that?" Fluttershy said. Shaking in fear.
The energy that the four Princesses felt was unimaginable, but they all felt that Xaniel was in that mess somewhere and his strength was fading quickly. "Come everypony. Whatever caused that light has something to do with Xaniel." Celestia said.
The group ran back to the Everfree Forest. While they ran, everyone was talking about what that was and if Xaniel was okay. "I hope Xaniel's okay over there." Fluttershy said.
"Whoever's hurting him will have to deal with me personally." Rarity said.
"I knew Xaniel wasn't good, I just knew it." Rainbow Dash said.
"That's not Xaniel Rainbow Dash. That light was caused by something much stronger then him and don't accuse him just because he's over there. He could be hurt for all we know." Twilight said. Glaring at Rainbow Dash.
"Calm down everypony. Let's just find out what's going on and see what's happened to Xaniel first before we start throwing accusations around." Celestia said, hoping to calm the others.
They were nearing the Everfree Forest. Hoping to find Xaniel safe and sound.
*
How he knew? He could feel a very warm liquid coming slowly down his side. His bandage was still there but it was wrecked and torn. Not stopping all the blood from escaping this time.
The three Organization members walked up to the still body. Seeing whether or not Xaniel was still alive. Xaniel tried to get up, but his muscles resisted him. Forcing him back down.
Xigbar was laughing at Xaniel. "Wow Xaniel, I didn't realize how much of a fighter you were. But you almost made the cut...heck if you were stronger than this, we actually would've let you live." He smiled in a sly grin. "I have to say. That little burst of energy you had there. Quite strong and very impressive, but you just couldn't keep it could yah?"
Saix interrupted. "Enough. Let's just finish him now. He's already done for." Saix said.
Xaniel kept trying to get up. But each time he fell back down. Xigbar came up and pointed the Arrowgun into his face.
"Well Xaniel. Sorry it has to end like this. But look on the bright side? You won't have to deal with any kind of pain anymore. Plus you'll only feel this for a second." The weapon glowed a pale blue light. Charging up it's power.
Xigbar was just about to release the trigger, but a bolt of magic that had a violet glow came out of nowhere and hit him square in the chest, knocking him back. Shooting the charged shot into the air. A few more bolts of magic came from within the trees and hit Saix and the other figure, sending them back to where Xigbar was standing.
The group appeared out of the trees. Surrounding Xaniel in a defensive formation. "Alright whoever you three are. You put one more finger on him and your going to regret ever coming here!" Twilight yelled.
The three just stood there staring at these ponies. Then Xigbar broke out laughing. "Oh my, you all are really scary, please don't hurt us. As if." He said mockingly. "I can believe that the Calvary came but I didn't expect it to be actual ponies." He started laughing even more.
Celestia then yelled. "What business do you have in Equestria?"
Luna then added. "Why are you hurting Xaniel?"
The three look at each other then one in the center answered. "We have reason to believe that he is a Nobody. A being that is just an empty shell of it's former self. But the time of their arrivals is over. So he is of no use to us."
"Then why did yah assault him like that? He done no harm to you." Applejack said.
Then Xigbar answered. "It's simple. A Nobody like him doesn't need to exist. True he isn't very strong, but our boss thought that Xaniel is better left dead than alive."
The group of Ponies gasped in horror. They all glared at the three. Xigbar then fired his weapons at them. Only to have Shining Armor put a shield around them. Once Xigbar began to reload, the ponies charged, leaving only Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity and Cadence behind. They tended to Xaniel, hoping to at least keep him awake.
A memory surged through him again and this was a memory of a spell. He put his hand out and a shield appeared around everypony who ran to fight the three. "What did you just do?" Cadence asked.
"I put a protection spell around them. That way they won't get hurt."
Xaniel looked on at the rest fighting against the three Organization members. Rainbow Dash came in with her leg sticking out as she rammed Saix. Sending him flying across the ground.
Before he could attack RD, he was shot from behind by Luna. He turned around and charged at her. Throwing his weapon towards her. She flew out of the way and fired more beams of energy from her horn. After her assault, Saix looked up to the moon. "Moon shine down." Saix gained a pinkish red aura around him.
"You may gather power from the moon, but I am the one that lowers and raises the moon each day. "As Luna said that, a dark blue aura appeared around her. Xaniel never realized how immense Luna's power was.
Luna charged a beam of energy that grew a bright blue and immediately fired it upon Saix. Who dashed out of the and threw his weapon at her again. She disappeared out of the way once more and that battle continued on.
While that struggle was going on, Xigbar was busy teleporting around. Firing away at Celestia and Applejack. They couldn't get anywhere near him to land a strike before he disappeared. The shields were working but that didn't stop any pain they received.
Celestia then fired off a strong magic beam that caught Xigbar as he reloaded his weapons, hitting him in the arm. "I have to say, for a bunch of ponies, you put up quite a fight." He brought both weapons back to his stance. "Too bad this struggle of yours won't last forever." He said with a sly grin.
"You underestimate our strength." Celestia said. With that a golden yellow aura rose from her body, she fired a bright yellow beam of energy that sent Xigbar flying back. He teleported himself from crashing into the ground.
"Ooooh. This just got a little more interesting." Xigbar said. Xaniel was stunned by the way these princesses fought. Their power rose up farther then before.
As they continued, Twilight and Shining Armor were having a hard time against the mysterious one. They never saw a being like this use weapons that came out of it's hands.
He teleported behind Shining Armor and struck him at the legs with his right laser, making him fly off the ground. Then he kicked Shining in the stomach sending him skidding across the ground.
Enraged by seeing her brother taken to the ground, Twilight flew up and fired continuous beams of magic that hit the figure everywhere. "How dare you hurt my brother like that!" Twilight yelled, a violet aura rising from her body.
Never before had she ever experienced power like this before. She then teleported behind the figure and shot a high powered beam of energy that sent him flying towards a tree. Which the figure teleported himself out of danger. He then looked towards her. "The power you all hold is strong, but it won't do you much good for longer.
Xaniel just watched in awe as he realized that they were fighting for him. But feeling the power they had after fighting them, he knew that something bad would happen.
The fighting rage on for a while longer. But it wasn't long before the group of ponies were tired out. They all gathered in a group, staring at the three Organization Members. "Gee, they look all worn out." He said to his fellow members. "I can't believe I'm saying this but I think I may have actually broken a sweat...what should we do with them?"
The one in the middle answered. "They aren't important. Xaniel is our only objective that deserves our full attention." The figure then raised his hand towards Xaniel. A ball of energy formed growing ever so in size.
The ponies tried to intervene but were pushed back by Saix who struck the ground beneath them sending a wave of energy that knocked everyone into the air and back into the forest.
The other four were knocked back by Xigbar who fired four rapid bursts from the arrowguns.
Xaniel laid in the open now, giving the figure a clear shot. He then released the ball of energy, heading straight towards Xaniel. He raised his hand to try and block it, only knowing that this wouldn't work.
The energy ball exploded a few feet away from him. Confused, he looked up and saw a new person standing there. Only then did he realize who this is.
*
It had a heart shaped marking that was below the guard. It was dark red in the middle, with some light pale pink around the outside. It was a dark blue sheathe with violet glowing markings that were visible rotating around it. All spaced apart a few inches each. She still wore her azure blue coat, even outside his dream world.
She stood up straight, then yelled towards the one in the center. "I'm surprised that you even pick on your own kind. I thought you cared about other Nobodies?" She said. Her voice sounding of hate and anger.
The figure replied. "This one is special in a way that our leader has declared him a target that will only get in the way of our true plans. He must be destroyed."
No matter what happened. That figure always sounded so calm, even in the heat of battle. The girl readied herself. Putting her sheathe to her left side and her right hand falling down to her right side. The other three readied in their response to her.
She then disappeared instantly. Leaving everyone guessing where she would appear next. Saix and Xigbar got sent flying through the woods unexpectedly. Leaving the lone figure to look behind him.
There was no one there. He looked around, trying to find out where she went. Suddenly he got knocked into the ground. Leaving a impact zone where he was hit. He got back up, looking around again. She appeared from above. Only the was the figure ready for her this time.
He ducked after she tried to hit him with the sheathe, releasing his laser blades and hitting her repeatedly in the stomach before sending her crashing into a tree. She got back up quickly and brought out her blade from it's sheath. Only now did Xaniel get to see what the blade truly looked like.
Her blade was dark purple, having a sky blue glowing line in the middle running from the tip of the blade and back down to the guard. The guards shape was round making it look like a katana. The guard was silver in color, the handle ebony black. But what made it look weird were the three points at the end of the blade that extended downwards for a few inches.
The figure stares at the weapon, he then spoke to her. "Is that a...Keyblade?"
She replied. "Yes. It was given to me by my father. He was a good man...but was torn down by Heartless." Pausing only for a brief moment before going on.
"Now. I hunt down any being that fights for the darkness." She then charged the figure.
He responded by shooting lasers at her, only to have her teleport around them. She got in close and hit him with a downward slash and then upwards. Hitting his chest, then delivering a flurry of strikes that hit everywhere on his chest and stomach.
He staggered back, leaving himself open again. She then sheathed her weapon. The steel that still showed began glowing a bright blue color. She pulled it out and sent a energy slash right at him, knocking him back twenty feet.
She ran at him again but was quickly cut off by Saix. Who hit her hard with his claymore. Striking her stomach and knocking her far away.
She tried to get up but Xigbar then shot her in the back multiple times. "That was pretty impressive there girlie. But don't think you've won just yet."
Xaniel then realized that he'd have to help her...but with so little energy left, he didn't know if he could even manage any of it. But a reserve of energy awakened from within. He glowed again with a forest green aura and a memory appeared before him. Revealing a hidden power he never knew he could use.
Xaniel teleported above Xigbar. Slashing him at his sides with the two swords. He then made a X with them and again disappeared, only under Xigbar this time and sent him flying away into the sky. Disappearing from sight.
Saix tried for a frontal assault on Xaniel, but got intercepted by the mysterious girl who had an aura forming around her now.
She glowed a dark purple aura with streaks of sky blue, silver and ebony black.
She then brought out her katana like weapon and slashed him across the chest and she quickly pulled her keyblade back into it's sheathe. Teleporting behind him, she rushed past him. She twirled her weapon around before putting it back into it's sheathe. A streak of blue energy followed the path and sent him through the woods.
Then the other mysterious person appeared right behind Xaniel and knocked him to the ground with a energy ball. The girl tried to counter but got knocked away with a swift kick to the chest.
Twilight and the rest finally got back up. But to their dismay, they saw that Xaniel was on the ground again. While the girl got back up on her feet and charged towards the other figure.
She watched as Xaniel got back up slowly but fell down to the ground. She checked his energy but was horrified by what source of energy he was using.
She ran towards him, but was stopped by a shield that had suddenly appeared. Blocking their way back to help the other two. "Oh no, this is bad. Really really bad!" Twilight said.
"What do yah mean Twi? Why's this wall thing here?" asked Applejack.
"I don't know. But that's not the worst of our problems. Xaniel is hurt really bad."
"What do you mean by that Twilight?" Rarity asked.
"I went to sense how he's doing with a magic spell that checks energy feelings, but it's not good." She pointed to him. "He's using up a part of himself that's wasting him away from the inside."
"Wait, your not saying that he's using-"
"Yes Celestia. Xaniel has reached for his life force. If he continues any longer he'll...he'll." She stopped. Everyone had taken a guess for what would happen to him.
He would not survive and he would fade away into nothing if he kept this up. But to see the determination of these humans was astounding.
Xaniel got back up. His legs felt very unsteady under his weight. A memory kicked in and he saw that same guy from before use some sort of energy. Then he looked towards the other two. The figure had the girl in his hand and was holding her by the neck. He raised his laser sword, ready to strike her.
Xaniel raised his hand towards the figure. A green ball of energy appeared from his hand and it charged up. The green aura came back and he realized that this was all he had left in him.
He charged it more and didn't know how strong this was until he released it. Xaniel flew back into the shield and it bounced him back to the ground.
It came at the figure. He sensed it but was to late to react. As he turned, it hit him in the chest and sent him flying. He disappeared into a black portal, vanishing from sight. The girl released made her way to Xaniel. He was on the ground, gasping for breath and clutching the wound that bled from his side.
She lowered her right hand to his. In which he raised his hand to hers and grabbed hold of it. "Are you alright?" The girl asked.
Xaniel looked up at her. "What do you think?"
She giggled at his response only for a brief moment. "My name's Xaniel." He said to her.
"Name's Vera. It's good to meet you."
*
The girl replied. "Yes, were fine." She looked over to the others. "We need to get him somewhere safe. He's losing a lot of blood."
"Don't worry, we'll bring him to Canterlot. He'll be treated by our medical staff there." Luna said.
"But what about the meeting? Shouldn't we go see to that?" Shining Armor asked.
"Right now, it's more important to help Xaniel here. If we don't he surely won't make it without our help." Celestia said. Looking over to the almost unconscious Xaniel.
He couldn't move anything and he felt like nothing was there. Just simply his breathing chest.
With that, the group headed towards Canterlot. Quickly trying to get the help they so desperately needed.
Author's Note
Well guys, it seems Xaniel's head has a price. Can they protect him from three of the deadliest Organization members? Will Xaniel get through this? Will I ever stop doing these author notes? I think NOT!
P.S. If your wondering about that whole little scene with Xaniel prancing about with his staff and showing off...I just felt like putting that part in there.
Chapter VII: The Hurtful Truth
It was morning as the rays of the sun lit the the world below it. Twilight was looking out the balcony from Celestia's room. She was worried for Xaniel was still asleep, recovering from the reopened injury that he suffered from the fight with the three strangers. Not to mention that he received quite a few other injuries along with it.
She looked back, hearing hoofsteps behind her, only to see that Celestia entered the room, walking towards her. "What are doing here Twilight? Shouldn't you be with your friends?" Celestia asked, smiling at her.
Twilight looked back to the Princess. "Oh, just staring out into the city." She gestured with her hoof. "I'm just thinking about what happened last night. We almost lost Xaniel twice now, it just seems that no matter what we do, he always ends up getting hurt." Her eyes saddened.
Celestia lifted Twilight's chin up with her hoof. "Do not worry Twilight, everything will get better, you just need to let things take time and in turn, everything will come out alright in the end."
"But what about those other three humans? What if they come back?" She looked back out at the city. "What if we can't stop them from finishing what they started? What if-"
"Twilight, that will never happen. He's safe with us as long as we are there for him."
Twilight perked up a bit, smiling at Celestia's words of encouragement. She looked back out into the city, then walked back into the castle, with Celestia following behind.
As they were walking along, Celestia pointed to the room to their right. "I forgot to mention to you Twilight, that you and your friends will discuss what's happened so far with me, Luna, Cadence and your brother." Twilight looked into the room seeing that everypony was already there, waiting for her and Celestia.
They walked into the room, Twilight finding a seat next to Applejack, whilst Celestia took the main chair. "Now that everypony is here, I would like to get this meeting underway." She announced, gesturing to everypony. "As you know, over the last few day's we've had quite the unusual turn of events taking place here in Equestria."
"What makes me wonder sister is why are these other humans here for Xaniel? Is he a criminal where he comes from? Or has something happened that he has been accused of?" Luna asked, pondering her thoughts about the subject.
"That worries me too Luna, but now we ask your opinions on these subjects." She pointed to the group before her. "You all have had contact with Xaniel longer, did he ever exhibit unusual behaviors before?"
They looked at each other. Xaniel never showed any negative attitude towards anypony since he got here, not even getting angry in the slightest. "Ah don't mean to be negative against you Princess, but all Xaniel's ever done is be quite kind to everypony round here." Applejack said.
"I agree with Applejack your Majesty, he's the kindest dear I know next to Fluttershy. Why he hasn't even harmed a single creature, well except for those timberwolves but nonetheless, he's nothing but a sweetheart." Rarity added.
"Um, I agree with them, he's helped me a lot since he got here, even going against Twilight's rules once just to help me out. Personally I think he's just the most helpful human we've met so far." Fluttershy pointed out, blushing from what she said.
"You see Luna and Celestia, eveypony here agrees that he's always been helpful to us, even if it was something he didn't truly like. I consider him now as a very good friend." Twilight declared, smiling at the thoughts of Xaniel’s kindness.
Celestia and Luna looked to each other, then back to the group. "Now is there anything else that any of you might add?"
Rainbow Dash put her hoof up. "What I want to know is why those three were after him, it just seems too coincidental that a few day's after Xaniel arrives, more humans just show up." She said, pointing to the room where he was in."If you ask me, he's-"
"Not another word Rainbow, we don't need to hear more accusations. He's done nothing but help everypony here. So why do you keep suspecting he's come here to just hurt everypony?" Twilight protested, glaring at Rainbow Dash.
"It's just the way that those other three humans talked about him. What ever reason they had for wanting him gone, it sure doesn't sound good." Rainbow replied, flying up and turning her back on Twilight.
"Now everypony let's calm down.” Celestia said, standing up in the chair. “ We don't need to fight amongst ourselves now." She urged. "Whatever those people have against Xaniel, I'm sure it's a unjust reason."
"But what about that new human that appeared?” Luna pointed out. “She was helping Xaniel, is she considered any threat?" Luna asked. The girl that they saw help Xaniel hadn't said much. She didn't say anything really at all. "Surely if she helped us out, that show's she not with them." Luna added.
It's true that even though she wore the same coat as the others did, it was a different color. It had a blue azure color to it. "That weapon that she carried too. It's completely different, it's like a sword but how she uses it?" Twilight stated, nervously remembering the power it held.
Everypony saw how she wielded that weapon, it was unlike anything they had ever seen before. From one moment she had to be close to strike them, to the next she could be far away as possible while still being able to hit her targets.
"I say that even though she came out of nowhere, she still helped us beat back those ruffians that were hurting Xaniel." Rarity noted.
Everypony agreed on that, then Celestia said. "Now about those three, we shall order extra guards on patrol, hopefully this should keep everything in order and hopefully alert us to their presence."
With that the meeting was adjourned, leaving everyone to go their separate ways.
~~~
Celestia and Luna went to the room where they had Xaniel kept, his recovery was slow even for him. It had been awhile since they last saw the other humans, but Xaniel was still unconscious and his wounds were still bad. When they got there, the girl was sitting in a chair, staring out the window next to her. Celestia and Luna walked over to her. Celestia then said, "Hello there, umm... what was your name?" smiling at the girl.
She looked towards the two, then spoke. "My name is Vera, it is an honor to meet royalty like yourselves Princesses." She said. Standing up, she then bowed down to the two.
"Why thank you Vera, tell me what brings you here?" Celestia asked.
"Well, I was simply following the direction of an energy source that I felt. It was full of light so I knew that I had to reach it." She stated. "What I didn't realize was that this whole world was the light I was looking for. So I got here and found you guys fighting members of the Organization."
Both Celestia and Luna looked at each other, confusion was shown across their faces. "Umm, Vera who would be these Organization members you speak of?" Celestia asked.
"So, you don't know anything about the Organization? I kinda figured that, since it seems they never been here before and that you guys have never seen them either." Vera noted.
"Well, technically, our first contact with the outside world has only been Xaniel, and he's only just arrived a week ago." Celestia stated.
"Alright, I’ll tell you all later, but since you two are here," Vera added, raising her hand up to her head. "I thought maybe since you two are Princesses, it would be much more polite let you see my face."
She grabbed a hold of her hoodie, and then took it off slowly, both Celestia and Luna finally saw what she looked like under the hood. They gasped, seeing the female of a different race was definitely something.
Her face was beautiful, her skin was pale, her eyes a diamond blue, and her hair reaching down to her shoulders. The color of her hair was a mix of dark blue and violet. She had dark blue eye shadow, showing the beauty of her beauteous eyes.
She smiled nervously at the two, who were in awe by a beauty that this girl had. "I also forgot, I won't be needing this either." She unzipped her coat, showing off her clothes she had beneath.
She had clothing that extended only to the top of her belly revealing most of her pale skin. It was sleeveless, leaving her arms open to the sunlight that reflected off her skin, making it shine in a way. Her clothing was mostly a light blue, whereas the metal pockets on her sides were a pale yellow.
Her shorts reached down to her knees. They were mostly a pale yellow with some parts a light blue. Her shoes looked like metallic battle armor, but they had a violet and light blue coloring. She had earrings that resembled hearts; they were a glossy dark red and black color. Her necklace was a mix of dark green for the center piece which was a key looking object, the chains were a dark yellow.
The princesses kept staring, now realizing the beauty that this species held within the female race. "Vera, if we ever realized how pretty your kind was, we would say that you show it off." Celestia commented. Both princesses didn't know what to say.
Vera blushed from Celestia's words, moving her leg back and forth. Then Luna and Celestia finally got out of their haze. "We're sorry about that Vera, it's just seeing a female human for the first time is very umm, Luna what's the word I'm trying to find?"
"Umm, breathtaking?"
"Yes breathtaking. We're very sorry about staring at you like that." Celestia reassured, hoping they didn't make Vera nervous.
"It's alright, seeing you all for the first time was quite a sight too, but hearing you guys tell me I'm beautiful was what I was gonna say to you guys."
It was Luna and Celestia's turn to blush at Vera's comment. "Alright enough with all the blushing, let us take you to see the others. Won't they think you're quite the sight when they see you." Celestia added, giggling about what was going.
Vera giggled at Celestia comment, with that they walked off to meet the others.
~~~
It was dark. This place felt familiar, and somehow, Xaniel knew where he was. It just seemed so odd to him. Something wasn't right. The eighteen figures appeared again, they all stared at Xaniel. Before he could ask them anything, they disappeared into the darkness.
He tried to follow them, but suddenly fell through the darkness. He landed slowly on a glass tower, which appeared to him to have his body on it. It floated in the air, with pictures where people should have been. Both sides had markings, one side was of the same symbol on his shoulders and staff, and then another appeared to be that of a hooded figure with no face and a white outlining of the hoodie.
He looked around trying to figure out why he was here. Then a bright light appeared behind him. Xaniel quickly turned around, his eyes blinded by the light.
He held his hands up to his eyes, the light grew dimmer and dimmer, until he finally saw the figure that stood there. It was someone new, yet he felt like he should’ve known who he was.
"Hello there Xaniel...it's about time I finally met my other half."
Xaniel was stunned by what this other person said. He quickly realized what this person meant. This new being almost looked like Xaniel, but his hair was much shorter, only reaching to the shoulders. His hair was dark brown in color, his eyes were the same. He wore much different clothing than Xaniel, everything was black, save for the fact that he had red on some parts of his clothing.
"I can tell you're stunned, don't worry I haven't come to do anything rash. Besides, we do share a body" He said gesturing to Xaniel.
"What do you mean our body? This is mine, it's always been mine." Xaniel proclaimed, irritation began to rise within him, and this new person was causing it. But why? He never did get mad at anyone else like this before.
"Ah there's that anger I've not missed seeing. Well in any case it's time I've told you who you truly are." He walked over to the middle of the glass tower.
"You see Xaniel...you were never meant to exist at all."
Xaniel was horrified by what he said. "What do you mean I wasn't supposed to exist?"
"Well for starters, you see that emblem on your shoulders." The stranger addressed, pointing to his shoulders. Xaniel turned towards them, looking at them again. "Your weapon has the same emblem too, because that's the sign of the Nobodies. You're just the empty shell of my former self...well. At least not in a manner of speaking."
Xaniel then summoned his weapon. He looked at the arrow before and saw them as the same, but now he had a clearer picture of what this guy meant. "What do you mean I'm supposed to be the shell of you?" He looked over towards the stranger, trying to hide his anger at him.
This was really different. He didn’t remember this anger before, but where was it coming from?
"Well, originally, you were supposed to be my different half, your emotions are nothing but a design by me, so technically, your emotions aren’t real."
Xaniel looked on in anger. "My emotions are not fake!"
"Well true, but reason why is because your not supposed to be like this. You were actually supposed to be my opposite. Instead of kindness and a loving nature, you were supposed to be full of hatred and anger."
Xaniel was backing away from him. "W...what do you mean, t-that can't be true, it just can't be." Fear was welling in Xaniel.
"Now don't be alarmed, they haven't been activated yet because I was able to block them out with my light. But be aware that they are there."
"Who are you by the way?" Xaniel asked.
"I was wondering when you were going to ask that question. Well...my name is Enial, it is a pleasure to meet you Xaniel."
He raised his hand towards Xaniel for a handshake. Xaniel obliged, shaking his hand with his former self. "I have come to warn you though Xaniel, that even for a nobody. You're very special." He went on. "You see, your abilities are truly astounding, I won't mention them though, don't want to risk setting your true self off."
Xaniel just stared at him. "The point I'm trying to make is that in other words to describe your special power is that basically, your a weapon."
Xaniel didn't want to hear that he was just some weapon, especially from his other half. "NO, I could never be a weapon, I don't even like hurting people!"
Enial continued on. "Now also, that situation you were in yesterday wasn't a very good one. You were this close from activating your true self." Gesturing with his fingers of how close. "I'm afraid that if you let your inner being out, it won't end well."
Xaniel then asked. "What do you mean by unlocking my true inner being?"
"Well you see, I've been able to lock your true self in the darkest depths, how I was able to do that was...well allow me to tell you how 'we' got here in the first place."
Xaniel then sat down, waiting for Enial to tell his story. "Now let's see here, ahh yes." Enial readied himself. "How my heart came to help you, was that I was attacked and killed by a heartless. But I wasn't going to leave my body, so my strong will guided my heart out of the clutches of the heartless and I formed the necklace you have on your chest there." Enial said, pointing to the item.
"Then after I was set back into my body, I met my other half, or 'you' in this case. You were weak at the time, so I locked you away into the darkest part of our heart. Then I took what I could work with from your being and created you to take 'his' place."
Xaniel just stared. He was nothing but a creation. But a more important question came up.
"I have to ask Enial, why do I have memories of these other people? How do I even know them?" Xaniel asked.
Enial turned towards him. "Well, I it seems that even after they helped me, they still reside within me. I almost completely forgot about them. They are people from the past." Enial walked towards him and continued. "They are Kairi and Riku I assume, well how I met them chained them to me forever."
Enial paused for a moment. "The reason why you have been remembering them was that where I was before was a place called Hollow Bastion. I had just arrived there after having my home was destroyed by the heartless, so in other words this was my new home now. It had been a few months afterwards that I heard that three hero's would be arriving soon. I wanted to give them something for their travels but I couldn't figure out what." Enial stopped before changing the subject.
"This is something completely off topic, but I was also apart of a group that was hosted to the world I was originally from. We called ourselves the Order of Light."
Xaniel was surprised at hearing the name of these people. "Who are the Order of Light?"
"The Order of Light were an ancient organization, million's of years old. They were devoted to protecting the light that was spread throughout the worlds. But not just the light, we also protected the darkness as well. It was quite a long time before we heard that the source of where our organization stood was destroyed. That information wasn't received for a very long time in, fact it reached us after nine hundred and eighty years had passed, by the time we got it, we were already under siege, I had just turned twenty one by the time we received this news."
Xaniel looked down to the ground. "I'm sorry about your world."
"Don't worry, I've gotten over it. After we got the news, our world was on the verge of succumbing to the darkness. I was the only one who made it out from the order there. Everything and everyone I knew was gone." Enial sadly mentioned, looking down to the ground in sadness.
Enial sighed. "But other than that, I'll get back to your question. You see I was walking back to my house when I was jumped by the Heartless, they converged on me, but as you know, I had a hold of that weapon for a long time, so it was pretty easy until a giant heartless attacked. I was swept aside, for I wasn’t prepared for how strong it was.”
He stopped for a moment, painfully remembering that moment, he then continued on, “I almost died, if it weren't for the timely appearance of the trio. They took care of that monster in only a few minutes. They helped me up and we talked for a while, soon we became best friends after I told them about where I originally hailed from."
"So Riku and Kairi really were my best friends? Then what about the third one?" Xaniel asked.
Enial turned around. "The boy you're talking about is Sora, he's been the one who was talked about most, for his very heroic deeds of saving countless worlds from the Heartless."
A small pain went through Xaniel's head as the name came to him. The third boy finally became clearer. He remembered all of the events that took place when Enial was still alive. "But what about this other one that I've been seeing? The one called Roxas?"
"Oh him, lets just say that he's someone that is related to Sora in a way like you and me are and how we're connected. I have also felt Roxas too and if your wondering why you’ve been feeling a pain in your head, he’s the one who’s causing it.”
“But, why?”
“Well, he has also sensed our presence and has been sending me threats, and has also found a way to hurt you. Unlike Sora, Roxas is a bit more easy to anger, and in fact, I feel he poses much more of a threat then Sora. I met him in fact after I somehow ended up in Sora's dreams. I fought Roxas and I almost died because of him. So don't go anywhere near him you understand?" Xaniel nodded and looked to him and then back to his necklace.
Xaniel lifted it up seeing a more great importance to keep this necklace safe. "So now that you know about me and where I shall stay during your time. I need to do something, but it won't be good."
Xaniel didn't know what he was talking about. Enial disappeared into the darkness. The next thing Xaniel saw shocked him beyond belief. Images of a destroyed town ran through his mind. He saw dead ponies around him. The town was on fire, as he walked around trying to figure out what was going on.
Then what Xaniel saw next horrified him. He saw his friends, the six ponies, the princesses, all of them dead.
He rushed over to Twilight's body, picking her up and shaking her. "Come on Twilight wake up...please wake up." His voice getting desperate and sad. He tried to stop himself from crying but the tears came anyway.
Then voices came, whispers at first but then became clearer and much louder.
You are nothing but a weapon.
"You'll bring nothing but destruction and despair where you walk."
Murderer.
Anger and hatred are all you know.
Xaniel grabbed his head, the pain from these voices were too much. "No I'm not a murderer, please stop saying these lies!"
They continued relentlessly, getting louder.
You lie to yourself. Look what you did to your friends!
Your power is uncontrollable.
You are a monster.
Xaniel was crying for mercy. "Please just stop!"
Enial came back, but was fainter. "I'm so sorry Xaniel. I didn't want it to happen this way." Enial's voice was full of sadness and regret.
The last words drove Xaniel to the edge. You will hurt everyone you care for.
Xaniel yelled out in pain. He was crying uncontrollably now. Then a black figure appeared before him. He could see that it was wearing some sort of armor. It was carrying a weird weapon that looked like a key.
Before Xaniel could react, it disappeared right in front of him. He was then hit in the chest, the weapon piercing through him. He grabbed the weapon, then looked up to see that it was the figure that stood before him. It said. "No ones going to save you now."
Xaniel woke up in fright, a cold sweat had overtaken him. He couldn't believe what just happened. It was so vivid, yet he remembered everything from that dream. Then he cried uncontrollably, trying to forget the painful dream that had appeared in his mind.
~~~
Twilight and the gang were hanging out in the courtyard, talking about the events that had taken place, and also if Xaniel was alright. "I do hope he recovers from this, seeing him all scratched up like that really worried me, not to mention his fabulous clothes were completely ripped apart by those ruffians." Rarity mentioned, irritation rose up in her as she remembered those three humans tossing Xaniel around like he was nothing.
"I know, it's the second time that we've almost lost him, I hope he makes it through this." Twilight added, worry was in her voice, no one knew if he would truly recover from this.
"He's been such the great helper with my animals, I don't know how we would all feel if he were to pass away." Fluttershy said worryingly.
Everypony stood in silence for a couple of minutes, then they saw Celestia and Luna walk into the courtyard, Luna told someone to stay behind one of the pillars, then they proceeded towards the group. "Hello everypony, how are we doing?" Celestia asked.
"Well Princess, everypony here's really worried about Xaniel, are you sure he's going to make it?" Twilight asked.
"Do not worry Twilight, me and Luna went to check up on him not too long ago. He'll definitely make a full recovery."
"But what about the other human? What's she been doing all of this time?" Rainbow Dash asked. Her voice full of suspicion.
Luna answered her this time. "The other human, has been watching out for Xaniel. She made sure that nothing happened to him. Speaking of which would you like to see her?" Luna noted.
Everypony looked at each other, then Twilight answered. "Sure, where is she?"
Luna then looked over to the column and nodded to someone. What Twilight and the others were expecting was to see the girl in her coat, but they were shocked when she came out with just her regular clothes.
Everyone's mouth dropped to the ground, seeing what Vera looked like without that cloak on. She looked very beautiful, Vera was smiling nervously, hoping that everypony was alright with seeing her like this.
Then Rarity screamed out. "OH MY GOSH! You are absolutely the most beautiful thing I've ever had the chance to lay my eyes on!"
She ran up to Vera. "Your clothes, I don't know how you humans manage to have such spectacular clothing, this outfit just suits you so well. I mean it shows you off in such a beautiful way." Rarity exclaimed, walking around Vera, absolutely having a ball looking at her.
Vera was really embarrassed, but in a good way because of Rarity's comments about how she looked. Rarity finally realized she was making Vera nervous and said. "Oh...I'm terribly sorry um."
"Vera, the names Vera."
"Yes, I'm terribly sorry Vera. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. It's just you look so amazing." Rarity continued. "Our first chance to see the female race of the human species and you turned out to be better than I expected."
"It's alright I'm just never used to that kind of praise before." Vera confessed, smiling at Rarity.
"But here, let me take you to my friends over there." Rarity implied, leading Vera over to her friends.
They walked over to the group of ponies, then Rarity said. "Vera I would like you to meet Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and of course Princess Twilight Sparkle."
"Rarity you don't have to be so formal with me, Twilight is just fine Vera." Twilight said.
"It's nice to meet you all, the names Vera."
"Oh my gosh, now I have two super duper parties to make for Xaniel and Vera. This is going to be so amazing."
Vera just stared at Pinkie Pie for a moment who appeared in her face out of nowhere. "Uhh." Vera mumbled, with some concern in her voice.
Twilight then said. "Don't worry that's just the way Pinkie Pie is. You get used to it after being around her for a while."
"I'm just glad to have met you all. I was expecting something different when I came to this world, but I didn't expect to meet such friendly beings." Vera noted.
The ponies of the group either blushed from Vera's friendly comment or just looked in a different direction. "Hey let's make this party commence tomorrow. Besides it wouldn't be a party without my second guest." Pinkie Pie declared.
Everypony looked to her. "Uhh Pinkie, he won't be able to walk tomorrow yet, besides we should let him rest." Twilight replied.
Pinkie pouted about this. "Oh, it just doesn't feel right if I don't include all of my guests that I'm celebrating for, do you think he'll mind?"
"I don't know, he might not, considering his condition." Vera mentioned.
"Okie dokie lokie, I'll get everything set for the party tomorrow, I'll even check with Xaniel tomorrow just to make sure." Pinkie said. Bouncing away from the group.
~~~
Xaniel was finally able to walk around a bit after a couple day's. The group came in yesterday and checked in on him. Everypony was at least glad to see that he was okay. Pinkie Pie also came in to invite him to the party yesterday, but he declined, saying he needed more rest. But truly, why he didn't want to go was to hide away from everyone else because of that horrifying nightmare he had.
He wanted nothing but to hide away from the world, knowing now that he was a weapon. He wanted to stay away from anypony that would try to make contact with him.
Xaniel had thought carefully about this. If he were to fight again, he was afraid that he would accidentally release his true self. So he stayed inside his temporary room inside the castle for now, still recovering from his wounds. They were getting better but they still had been bothering him, not as bad as before though.
"I know that I'm doing this to protect everyone from me, but how long before my true self breaks free?" He said to himself. Then he thought of something else. "Am I really sure this is the right way to go about it?"
~~~
"I can't believe that we were beaten by a weak nobody, colorful ponies and a new Keyblade wielder that we never knew about." Xigbar complained, a tone of anger in his voice.
"Do not worry Xigbar, they may have won the fight, but they haven't truly won battle." The figure replied.
Saix turned around. "Xemnas I wonder how you can stay so calm during a situation like this. They now have a Keyblade wielder, which will be more difficult to handle then Xaniel could ever be."
"Do not worry Saix, we'll get our target, we just need to be patient and wait for the right opportunity to strike." Xemnas implied.
They all looked towards each other knowing that they would find Xaniel again and end.
~~~
Pinkie Pie was on her way to Xaniel's room, in her right hoof was some cake that she saved for him. She still wondered why he had declined her invitation to his own welcome to Ponyville and Equestria party, that was what really concerned her for she wanted everypony to be happy.
She got to his door and knocked twice. "Who's there?" Xaniel asked.
Pinkie Pie answered. "It's me Pinkie Pie here with some cake for you Xaniel. I thought that you deserved some for your help with everypony, plus it's your cake from yours and Vera's party."
The door opened and she saw Xaniel, he looked normal as usual. "Hey there Xaniel, how are you doing today?"
"I'm alright, thank you for bringing me some cake Pinkie Pie." He said.
Then Pinkie Pie noticed a very strange thing. She saw a tear come out of his left eye, not to mention the fact that his smile lowered and he looked down to the ground. This concerned her very much. "Umm, Xaniel are you alright?"
He took his hand and touched the tear, he quickly wiped it away and said. "Oh yeah I'm fine, it's just that I kinda felt bad for missing out on your party that was to welcome me to this place."
She just stared at him for a moment then said. "Okie Dokie Lokie, I'll see you around Xaniel." Pinkie Pie said, walking away from the door. He closed the it and then Pinkie Pie began to think about what she saw. "Why was Xaniel crying like that? I mean no ponies ever really that sad about missing one of my parties."
The more she thought the more something didn't seem right. "Something felt off on him too, his smile is usually brighter than that."
She thought some more then decided. "I really need to tell everypony else about this." She then ran off towards her friends, hoping that what she said about him would convince them that something was wrong with him.
~~~
Celestia had gathered everyone in the main room again, to have Vera discuss everything she knew. "Alright let us begin our sec-"
"Twilight I have to tell you guys something." Pinkie Pie addressed.
"Not now Pinkie Pie, after the meeting we'll listen to what you have to say."
Pinkie Pie was a little frustrated but obeyed Twilight and sat down next to Rainbow Dash.
"Anyway, like I was saying, let us get this meeting underway." Celestia announced. "Vera would you like to tell us about those three other humans?"
"Yeah and why did they come here and attack everyone?" Rainbow Dash added.
"Well Vera, tell us what you know about those three?" Luna asked
Vera stood up and cleared her throat. "Those three that everyone here fought were members of the old Organization Thirteen."
"Organization Thirteen?" Shining Armor questioned. They had never heard of such a group before.
"They were a group of high level Nobodies that had one goal in mind, to take the power of Kingdom Hearts."
"Nobodies What the heck are they?" Twilight implored."
“Kingdom Hearts?" Cadence also questioned. These were terms and places they had never heard about before.
"Nobodies are a empty shell of their former selves after having their hearts taken away by heartless. But they can think and plan, which is basically who those three we're except that they were the leaders of the Nobodies." Vera continued. " And Kingdom Hearts is a place where all the hearts go after the Heartless are destroyed by the Keyblade." She summoned her Keyblade.
"This is the weapon they fear, so do the nobodies."
"What's so special about the Keyblade?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"This weapon is the only thing that can rid the Heartless and Nobodies permanently. Any weapon can destroy them, but only the Keyblade can release the hearts from the darkness."
"So who were those three Organization Thirteen members?" Luna asked.
"Well, the one with the terrifying weapon was Organization Member number Seven, Saix, The Luna Diviner."
She said the other two names as well. "Organization member number two, Xigbar was the one with the eyepatch on his right eye, he's known as the Freeshooter and the leader who was hidden under his cloak was Xemnas, The Superior of the In-Between."
"Wait are you saying that me and Shining Armor were fighting the leader of this group?" Twilight asked.
"Yes Twilight, I would imagine that you two had a hard time against him." Vera acknowledged.
Then Celestia asked. "I still do not understand why they want Xaniel gone? What did he ever do to deserve such a fate?"
"Well from the look of it, they find Xaniel a nuisance to their plans and want him dead. Other than that, they have no other objective." Vera simply stated.
"Poor Xaniel, he doesn't deserve any of this." Fluttershy sadly said.
Then Pinkie's hoof rose up. "Yes Pinkie what were you going to say?" Twilight asked.
"Well, it's kind of strange, you see I went to give some cake to Xaniel from the party yesterday, but after I gave him the cake a tear ran down the side of his face." Pinkie continued. "But I don't know anypony that's ever sad enough to cry if they ever missed my party and the more I thought about it, the more like it seemed that he was crying about something else."
Everyone looked at each other. Hearing that Xaniel was crying unnerved everyone. All they ever saw Xaniel do was smile a lot, but no one ever saw him cry before.
"Do you think we should check up on him sister?" Luna asked.
"Yes, but I'll have Fluttershy, Rarity and Twilight bring him down. They'll know how to talk to him." Celestia stated. "Twilight, you, Rarity and Fluttershy go upstairs and bring Xaniel down here."
Twilight nodded and called Rarity and Fluttershy, they walked upstairs towards Xaniel's room hoping that he was alright.
"Sister, what do you thinks wrong with Xaniel?" Luna asked.
"I don't know Luna. I just don't know."
~~~
Xaniel was lying in his bed, he didn't know what else to do with his thoughts, as he remembered that horrifying dream. All he was ever trying to do was comprehend everything that was going on.
He heard a knock on the door and recognized the voice instantly. "Xaniel, are you in there? It's me. Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy, could you let us in please." Twilight called, her voice full of concern.
"Yeah you guy's can come in."
The door opened and the three ponies walked in. Xaniel was just lying on his bed, staring out the window. "Hey Xaniel, would it be alright if you were to come downstairs for a little bit? We need to talk to you."
Xaniel began to worry. What did they mean by wanting to talk to him? "Uhh yeah sure." He got up and followed them down to the lobby room. In his mind he was trying to guess why they wanted to talk him. Did they find out about his motives for hiding or did someone suspect something? Either way he wasn't prepared for this.
They got down to the room, where the rest were waiting for him. He saw Vera for the first time without her coat and to him she looked very beautiful. He stared at her for a while, noticing that she blushed, he looked away instantly and did the same. The three ponies sat back down in their chairs while Xaniel stood up.
"Xaniel, I would like to ask you something, if it's alright with you?" Celestia asked, concern was in her voice.
"Sure, go ahead." Xaniel said.
"Pinkie Pie told us that when she went to see you, she felt a weird feeling when she went to visit you. From what we can tell, you were worried about something. So are scared or hiding whatever your not telling us about?"
"If you tell us, we will help in the best way we can." Luna implied.
Xaniel tried to find his voice, but the memories of that horrifying incident inside his mind came back. When he looked at them, all he saw were dead bodies lying there. His eyes started to well up with tears. Everypony saw him struggling to answer. Before they knew it, he dropped to the ground on his knees, his hands to his eyes. He was crying.
Everypony knew something was wrong now. Celestia, more concerned than ever asked. "Xaniel, what's the matter?" Frightened and scared for what he was going through.
Xaniel's voice was ragged and hoarse. He had a hard time forming words, but he did his best to try and talk."I... I had a horrifying d-dream, y...you were all there." He continued to the best of his ability. "I heard all of these w-whispers, they told me that I...I was some form of w...weapon, that I was a m...monster, that I would hurt everyone around m...me."
No one thought that Xaniel ever had trouble coping with problems, apparently they were wrong. " I met m-my true self, his n-name was Enial, he told m-me that I'm not s-supposed to be like this, my true personality w-was hidden underneath far d-deeper in my self."
His voice was becoming more shaky." My e-emotions were all f-fake he said, but the w-worst part was what I saw. He s-showed me you all, you were all l-lying on the g-ground, all of you were d-dead."
Everypony gasped at what Xaniel said. "What do you mean dead, who killed us?" Luna asked.
"It w...was me."
Everyone was horrified by what he said. "I...It wasn't me though, it was my other half, my true being, I...I...I."
Xaniel fell to his side, crying harder and having a hard time trying to breath. His tears came down freely as the uncontrollable crying came back. Everypony ran to his side, Celestia kneeled down beside him, so did Luna, Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, Cadence, Applejack and Pinkie Pie. They were all trying to calm him down.
"Xaniel, don't worry about such a dream. If you're not truly like that then you don't have to worry about it, just please calm down." Celestia stated, her voice calm as ever. Patting his head with her hoof.
"Xaniel, your dreams are never meant to be real. I know what it's like to fear myself and I may not be as kind my sister. But do not let this dream worry you, do not let the fear consume you." Luna implied, hoping she didn't sound nervous.
"Xaniel, we may have only met for a small period of time. But that doesn't mean I can't help you overcome this. Please just don't cry." Cadence reassured, her voice full of love and reason.
"Xaniel, it is true that you did scare me with that little performance of yours against the timberwolves when we went into the forest. But that doesn't make me feel any less about you." Fluttershy reminded, hoping her kind voice and nature help reassure him.
"Xaniel, you really are an amazing human, but don't think let these meanies get to you." Pinkie Pie added, her voice full of cheer.
"Xaniel, I do believe that you don't need to worry about such trivial things. But I don't like to see anyone upset over something. Just please calm down." Rarity stated, hoping he wouldn't completely freak out.
"Xaniel, yah sure was the best help I ever knew when you helped us around the farm. I am absolutely speaking the honest truth when I mean that." Applejack reckoned, hoping her words of honesty helped him calm down.
"Xaniel, you were the first human I ever met and I was the first pony you ever met. You've been nothing but kind and generous since you got here, helping all of my friends out with their problems. Don't let some other half of yourself tell you that you're a danger to everypony here. Just please calm down, you don't need to cry, just please don't cry." Twilight said, her voice was full of kindness and was calming, but was also shaky for she felt scared for him; she too was also petting his hair softly. Hoping the caressing strokes helped calm him down.
Xaniel’s crying begn to slow down, his crying became less and less. Then his eyes finally fell shut, locking him back into sleep.
~~~
"Shh, he's sleeping." Celestia whispered. She picked him up, putting him on her back and walked up to his room. "I'll bring him back to his room. Everypony else stay here."
She walked out of sight before everypony else began to talk. "Poor Xaniel, he didn't need to go through such a horrible ordeal." Rarity stated. Her voice full of sadness.
"Did you see how much pain he was in. What he saw really scared him half to death. I don't ever wanna see him like that again. It just makes me so sad." As if Twilight really meant those words, a tear ran down her eye.
"I think he was just faking the whole thing!" Rainbow Dash announced.
"WHAT!" Twilight yelled.
"I mean just the way everything is. He see's us dead in his dreams and then he puts on this show of crying, doesn't that make you think that's what he's planning?"
Twilight shot a beam of magic at Rainbow Dash, only having Rainbow dodge it. "HEY, what the hay was that for?!"
"YOU think that he's just faking everything don't you. He practically bawled his eyes out right in front of us. He's going through so much pain and yet you can't get it through your thick skull that Xaniel is trying get through this whole ordeal without people like you putting him down. WHO do you think YOU ARE for accusing him of such things!?" Twilight yelled at Rainbow Dash, glaring at her dangerously. Her horn lit with a violet aura.
"Alright you two let's calm down now. “Cadence advised, stepping in between the two angry ponies. “We don't need to start a fight when there's more to worry about right now." She announced.
"Cadence is right. We need to all think about Xaniel right now. He's gotten worse now that he's had this new found memory show up out of nowhere." Luna mentioned.
"Well I'm with Rainbow on this one."
"WHAT?! Not you too Shining Armor?" Twilight pleaded.
"Xaniel is just another alien, that's all. " Shining reminded everypony. He continued on. "If we keep him here, we'll endanger everypony else, and I don't need three other humans trying to destroy everything and everypony just to get to him."
Twilight just stared at her brother, she then turned around saying. "I can't believe that two ponies, my best friend and my BBBFF are so bullheaded." She then walked away from everyone.
"Good job Shining." Cadence told him.
"WHAT? What did I do?"
"Can't yah two hear yourselves. Twilight really cares bout Xaniel. He's been nothing but kind and generous to everypony round here and especially to her. But yah two can't seem to git taht through your thick skulls." Applejack remarked.
"Xaniel's an alien like Shining Armor said. He can't be trusted at all. Why can't you guys see how dangerous he is?" Rainbow Dash pleaded, flying up into the air.
"Xaniel is not a alien Rainbow Dash. He's kind, he's nice and he's also very helpful." Rarity mentioned.
"Yeah um, he saved me from the timberwolves when we went to clean out some of my animal friends homes." Fluttershy added.
Arguments ensued until everypony was thrown into it, there looked to be no real winner with where it was all going.
~~~
Celestia had entered Xaniel's temporary room. She laid him down onto his bed slowly. She then walked back a few steps before looking at him. True, Xaniel having such a horrifying dream about them...well going away wasn't too pleasant to hear, but she casted the thought aside for now. He looked peaceful she thought, how he smiled in his sleep. But a warning had emanated from his dreams. She didn't know how to imagine such a thing.
She exited his room only to hear that everypony was arguing downstairs. She walked down to see that Twilight was gone, but everypony else was arguing with one another about what she could only hear from everyone was Xaniel. "ENOUGH!" Celestia yelled, this was one of the few times she had to resort to her royal voice.
"Ahem, why is everypony down here arguing?"
"It's because everypony else believes that Xaniel is a good guy, but we barely know anything about the him." Rainbow implied.
"Would yah tell these two that Xaniel is not a bad guy. He's been nothin but kind ever since he got here." Applejack remarked in his defense.
Before the room could be filled with the noise of arguing again. Celestia intervened saying, "Xaniel is in need of dire assistance and all you ponies can think of is arguing at this very moment. He's been through so much pain in such a short amount of time. He needs our help."
Everyone looked to the ground. Ashamed that they were fighting amongst each other.
"Right now we need to think about how we should keep Xaniel safe. He's capable yes but if we let him fight those three Organization Members, he'll surely unlock his true self through all that fighting. So Shining Armor I want you to start posting more guards on watch duty during the night shifts. They may not hold them off for long but it will at least give us some warning that they are coming."
Shining bowed to her order and hurried off towards the barracks. "Everypony else? We need to be ready in case the guard can't hold them off, so long as we have Vera with us, we have a fighting chance." Celestia announced, nodding to Vera, who in turn nodded back.
Everypony nodded as well, while Rainbow had a look of defeat on her face. Celestia had hoped that those three wouldn't come back, but to her knowledge and what the true intent of the three Organization members. She knew that their mission was to destroy Xaniel and they would persist until that was accomplished. She had to be prepared in case they returned.
~~~
Xaniel had woken up, he heard what only could be explained as really loud shouting. He slowly got out of bed and went to the railing outside his room. He saw that Celestia was talking to everypony about him, it seemed that they were going to fight for him, it was nice he thought, but he was worried about them, for he felt that they would only get themselves hurt. Xaniel decided he had heard enough and went back into his room.
~~~
Celestia saw Xaniel out of the corner of her eye. So she nodded to Luna to go up and see him. She was walking down the hallway when she saw Twilight coming back. She walked up to Twilight and said. "How are you feeling? I heard what happened."
Twilight stared to the ground, then she looked back up. "It's just not fair for Xaniel to be going through all of these ordeals, they just make him feel miserable." She responded, her voice had a sad tone to it. "Then when you add the fact that two ponies who I shall not name are also not giving Xaniel the help he deserves when he need's it the most, watch him suffer and still call him a fake for what, crying!" She yelled, her voice having a tone of anger in it this time.
Celestia lowered herself down. "Do not worry about them Twilight. I know it is hard to work with others that do not see things like you, but right now Xaniel needs all the help he can get, even if they don't truly believe that he's good." Twilight looked up at Celestia, smiling at her words. "Now I sent Luna to check up on Xaniel, for I saw him walk away from the railing back into his room, he looked happy for a moment but I think he overheard our plans. I know for sure that he’ll listen to you two."
Twilight didn't waste anytime as she ran up to Xaniel's room. Hoping to find that he was okay.
~~~
Xaniel sat back down on the bed, he felt like what happened minutes ago was a dream, but it wasn't. He heard his door creak and saw Luna looking in the room. "Um, excuse me Xaniel, is it alright if I come in?"
"Yeah, go ahead."
Luna walked in and sat on the chair in front of him. "How are you feeling after the...you know?" Luna asked, hoping not to set him off into that mode again.
"Well...fine, I guess." Xaniel murmured, he still sounded sad.
"Listen Xaniel, you don't need to worry about that dream you had. Dreams may look and
feel real. but they never come true. They just show you the things that you fear most."
"But what would the thing I fear from this dream?"
"From the sound of it Xaniel, the thing that you fear most is you."
Xaniel looked over to Luna and sighed. "Well that wasn't very obvious, I know that, it's just I'm really afraid of what I did in my dream. I'm afraid that it might come true." Xaniel replied, he turned his head the other way, a single tear came out of his eye, but he didn't bother to wipe it away.
Twilight then entered the room. "Hey I heard that you'd be in here with Xaniel." She paused seeing Xaniel looking down to the ground with a tear coming out of his right eye. She ran up to him. "Xaniel, are you alright?"
She walked closer to him and reached her hoof towards his tear and wiped it away. "There's no more need to cry Xaniel, you don't need to worry anymore, were all alright."
What was unexpected of him was that he reached over to her and hugged her. She didn't expect this but she realized that what he was going through would've probably needed this. She hugged back. Xaniel let go and felt a little embarrassed for that action.
"Sorry about that Twilight I didn't mean to it's just-"
He didn't get far before Twilight hugged him this time. Luna was smiling at the exchange between these two. Twilight let go and was blushing this time. "I'm not sorry about that. You need this, besides I wouldn't want to see one of my friends in such pain as yourself."
They both stared at each other for some time before Luna interrupted. "Ahem I'm sorry but I would like to tell you something Xaniel. You see the reason I said I remember being in the same situation like you is because I had another side of me called Nightmare Moon."
Xaniel then asked. "Really? Wait that's why I thought yours and Nyx's energy feeling almost felt the same. I mean I already knew who Nightmare Moon was but Twilight never did tell me that she originally came from you." Xaniel stated.
Luna nodded. "Yes, Nightmare Moon originally came from me. She was my hate and anger that I had directed towards my sister Celestia." Luna continued. "It only started as jealousy, then it became what Nightmare Moon was. But after a thousand year imprisonment and a defeat at the hand of the Elements of Harmony, I was rid of that other side until Nyx came to be, but you see that anyone can change." Luna added, smiling.
Xaniel looked over to Luna and smiled back, he felt better, knowing that someone went through the same ordeal as he's going through made him feel that he could get through this. "Thank you both, for helping me see this differently." He looked at Luna then Twilight.
"But I do thank you the most Twilight for taking care of me while I was knocked out for those first few day's and then still even after I awoke."
Twilight blushed and smiled at his comment. She may have felt like this before but this being was completely different. Xaniel saw only the good in people and ponies. He never judged her or any of her friends for one moment. Even when hearing about some not so nice comment about him, didn't seem to care about it. He didn't complain when someone asked him to help them with something, even if he did go against a few rules to do so.
But more importantly, his heart felt like it shined throughout his body, making everyone around him happy. Twilight really liked him in a sense, never before had she felt like this to someone, even to a completely new alien that had entered their world. Twilight felt so happy about the way he felt towards everyone that she teared up a bit. Xaniel saw a tear come down her eye now. "Oh don't start crying after I did." Xaniel teased jokingly.
Twilight wiped the tear away. "Yeah, you're right, but seriously though, you just being here really has touched everypony else's hearts. I don't know how you do it, but you just do." Twilight implied.
With that, Twilight and Luna left Xaniel to be alone. He sat on his bed, staring out the window. Xaniel had a new feeling in his heart again. "I oh so do miss that feeling...and my smile." He said to himself. With that he fell asleep again, but the dream wasn't terrible this time. He dreamt of everyone again, but they all smiled at him. He smiled back, knowing now that everything would be difficult but that he would enjoy every moment he had with his very special friends.
Author's Note
Well there you have it. So far this is my longest worded chapter and pretty sad. Anyway I'll see yah around later. Oh and I'll be doing something at the end of this story, a little Q/A if anyone has one. I'll answer them but I don't want to spoil too much. Alright this is Epsilon and I'll see yah around. Oh and if you have suggestions for my story, I'll gladly accept, if their reasonable of course.
P.S. This chapter has also been done without my editor, so if it looks not like how I wrote it usually then sorry about that.
Chapter VIII: The Keyblade Heroes
Again This has been done without my editor, so I'm sorry if it kind of sucks. Hope you like it still though. Oh and you don't have to click the link button if you don't want to.
Xaniel woke up, the morning was very bright as it’s light shone throughout his room. He shielded his eyes for a brief moment before putting his hands down to his sides. Xaniel stayed under the covers for a while longer, looking out into the world from his window view. He couldn't help but notice how beautiful again this world was.
This world is so precious and innocent, if darkness were to take it, I don't even want to imagine what would happen to the other worlds out there if this one was lost.
Xaniel still couldn't shake off the feeling that everything that happened so far was his fault entirely. "First I arrive in this world, next I awake to find my newest and dearest friends.” He then added, in an irritated tone. ”Now three Organization Thirteen members are after me for a stupid reason of just needing my existence to go away." He stopped and noticed the ponies outside his window, they all moved along as if nothing bad was ever going to happen.
Xaniel sort of envied their lives, they had calm and relaxing days ahead of them while he was a weapon of darkness; waiting to be unleashed upon this world. He felt sad, but he knew crying wasn't going to resort anything out.
Xaniel got up, he winced at the pain in his left side. That wound hadn’t healed so well this time and it still bugged him as he moved to his door.
He noticed as he walked out, a guard, who looked to be a white pegasi, was standing next to his door. It was odd that a guard was to be posted next to his room. "Ah, you're awake, the Princess has instructed me to be at your side from now on Xaniel. If those three should ever come back, then I'll get you far away from them don't you worry." He stated proudly.
Xaniel was wondering. She's joking right, not even this guard would be able to stop those three from attacking me. Xaniel didn't argue though and just decided to go along with it. He walked downstairs and then stopped, trying to decide where he should go.
"Ahem, the dining hall is down that hallway on the left Xaniel."
"Thank you sir." Xaniel said. He continued along until he reached the door that the guard instructed him to follow. Xaniel found that the dining hall was quite massive, although he didn't see any of his friends there.
"Your friends were told by the princess to head back to Ponyville for now, don't worry you're safe."
Xaniel wasn't felt saddened but also annoyed because the guard was pointing out the obvious. Even if this guard was beginning to annoy him so he just decided to find himself a chair to sit down in. He slowly walked along the room, looking at the very large table in the center. As if on cue, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna came out of an opposite door, they saw Xaniel and waved him over to join them. He reached where they were seated and sat down two chairs away from them. Celestia then said, "Good morning there Xaniel, how are you feeling today?"
"I'm doing better this morning, thank you for asking?" Xaniel looked around for a moment. "Would you know by any chance know where the rest of my friends are Celestia?"
"Celestia and I had sent them away for now, they'll come back later today to see how you are doing." Luna answered this time.
Xaniel kinda felt alone without his friends for they were the first people he had met. Luna then handed him something. "This is a gift from Rarity. She said that she had finished something for you."
Xaniel unfolded it and realized that this was his cloak. "Wow, this is absolutely amazing." Xaniel praised as he looked at the cloak before him. The cloak no longer it's signature black was a shine of pale forest green with a mixture of some sky blue coloring. But something else was added, a new emblem had been sewn into the coat. It looked like a chain, that connected to six different shapes. In the center of the chains was a heart. "I have to ask but um what are all these?"
Celestia and Luna took a closer look, then Celestia answered. "Why Xaniel, those are the Elements of Harmony. They are what helps keep this world in balance. Your six friends are actually the elements in living form."
Xaniel looked at it again. The chains that will link us together forever. A voice popped up inside his head, then he realized who it was. It was the third boy he had seen, Sora, and who Enial explained to him about Sora being the one who had saved countless worlds.
Xaniel had the trio finally pieced together, Sora, Riku and Kairi. Xaniel felt happy that he had remembered the three. They were very good friends the three of them. Then memories of his past self came up. They showed him struggling against the Heartless before those three came in and helped him out. They chatted and conversed with one another before going their separate ways, just like Enial had said. They were his friends he realized there and then, they would always be with him.
~~~
Xaniel had finished his breakfast and was heading back to his room. He realized that even if the organization members were to find him again, that his friends would help him until the end, which made him smile. These ponies, seemed to believe that a good friend, sticks with them forever, even if they are gone, they would always be within their hearts.
He had lost the guard on his way over here, and felt at peace for moment, not having someone following you around felt nice.
“Ooooh, what do we have here?” A voice popped up from out of nowhere, sounding like it was echoing everywhere.
Xaniel looked around, trying to find the source of it. “Well you're certainly something I’ve never laid eyes on before. The voice paused for a moment, before going on. “Hmmm, you certainly don’t look like a minotaur, no your not very furry. But oh what’s this.”
Xaniel’s necklace suddenly disappeared, he looked around frantically, trying to find the being that had stolen it. “Hey, whoever or wherever you are. Give me back my necklace!” Xaniel shouted out.
“Oh don’t worry, I’m not going to keep it...for long.” Then a maniacal laughter sounded, echoing throughout the hallways he stood in.
Something didn’t feel right, without that necklace, he didn’t feel normal. Yellow flecks of light began to emanate around him, flying up into the sky. The being that had taken his necklace watched in curiosity, as this new creature began to show signs of a sudden weakness. Xaniel began feeling weaker with each passing second, and not just that, but a pain on his entire body began to increase. He felt like he was fading away slowly without that necklace. He then slunk to the ground, falling onto his side, grunting in pain. Xaniel felt like he couldn’t move, and the flecks of light kept getting bigger. “Please...give me...my necklace...back.” Xaniel pleaded quietly.
It felt like an eternity had passed, before the sound of clinking metal got louder in front of him. There, came his necklace sliding along the ground. He slowly pulled himself over to it and gently grabbed it. Placing it over himself, he felt the weakness and pain slowly fade away, and soon he felt his strength come back.
“It was fun observing what happened to you there, umm, what’s your name?”
“Why should I give you my name when you almost killed me!” Xaniel yelled out.
“Oh what temper you have. The anger in you is sure different. I haven’t felt anything like that since a long time ago.” The being laughed again. “See you next time...Xaniel”
The voice soon faded away and all was silent. “Who was that guy? Never heard his voice before.”
Whoever that being was, he felt like he didn’t want to meet him. He continued his walk, slowly going back up to his room. Then he heard another voice from within himself, Hey Xaniel, are you there?
Who is this?
It’s me Enial. What happened to you? You feel like you went through some horrible ordeal. Wait...did one of the organization members attack you?
No, just some weird being that didn’t show himself. I don’t know what happened, but he took the necklace away and I...I felt like I was dying.
Oh that’s not good. How long was it off you?
For a good two minutes, why is that bad?
Hmm, well if fading away and almost dieing doesn’t sound bad enough then yeah, its bad. Enial stopped talking for a moment before continuing, If the necklace is off for more than ten minutes, then you’ll completely fade away.
What! I can die just by having my necklace gone!?
Yeah, sorry about that, I set that to happen, in case you lost yourself to the darkness. Now that I think about it, that wasn’t such a good plan.
Xaniel was greatly disturbed by this news. He could easily die without his necklace on, and if that being had it longer than that...he didn’t know what to imagine.
I was able to feel the energy of that guy who had your necklace.
Can you tell who it was Enial?
Ummm, let me look here. Nope, but his feeling of energy, it feels so chaotic. Xaniel, if you ever come across that feeling again, don’t interact with this being. He feels so negative, and another feeling I’m getting is that this guy lies, so whatever you do, don't trust him.
Well that sure seems weird in a world like this.
Just be careful Xaniel.
Yeah, I’ll make sure of that.
Xaniel felt Enial’s presence fade and he continued on his walk towards his room. Hoping not to run into whoever that was.
~~~
Twilight was sitting in her library, reading some books that she needed to catch up on. They were good distraction from trying to figure out if Xaniel was alright or not. In fact everypony else except for Rainbow Dash were trying not to worry about him, so they just did normal everyday things to keep them distracted.
Twilight was glad though that they would be able to spend some time with Xaniel, hoping that he didn't feel so cooped up in that great big castle. She was just finishing up one of her books when she heard a knock on the door. Twilight went to the door and opened it, seeing Fluttershy standing there. "Oh, hello Fluttershy how are you doing?"
"Um, good." She paused for a moment before adding. "I'm just worried about Xaniel right now. With all the dangers out there that could set him off, or the organization coming to hurt him, it just feels like he needs help." Fluttershy sadly implied.
Twilight wasn't thinking about him before Fluttershy brought it up. "Yeah you're right, I'm worried too, but we just need to be calm and hope for the best with Xaniel." Twilight said hopefully. That brought a smile to her face, as well as lighting up Fluttershy's as well.
Both girls then headed over to the train station and waited a bit longer until everypony else showed up. Rainbow Dash reluctantly came along, but only to keep an eye on Xaniel, as she said. They took the train which seem to last forever for everypony, before they finally reached Canterlot.
Vera had wandered out from the castle and walked around secretly in Canterlot for a while. She was bored and was curious to see what this city looked like, but knew to stay hidden though and stayed away from the more social areas of Canterlot. Vera wondered over to the train station there and saw the others. She was curious and remembered that they came here to check up on Xaniel and decided to followed them up from the rooftops, just to be safe. When they reached the safety of the interior area, Vera dropped down in front of them, startling them a bit but not enough to scare them. "Saw you guys come in from the train station, so I thought I might tag along."
"Yeah, hidden away from us on top of the roofs." Rainbow Dash blatantly blamed.
Vera just looked at her and said. "Oh come on Rainbow, you know I can't just wander around in public, think of what would happen. Besides no one saw me and you don't have to worry about me."
Rainbow just rolled her eyes and followed the rest. They came upon Cadence, which came the greeting. "Sunshine, Sunshine, ladybugs awake, clap your hooves and do a little shake." Both Twilight and Cadence giggle afterwards before Twilight asked a question.
"Hey Cadence, you know where we can find Xaniel at?"
"Yeah, the last time I saw him was when he was hanging out at one of the upper courtyards, he seemed to be meditating or something."
"Thank you Cadence." Twilight replied, smiling at her old foalsitter. The group walked off towards the direction Cadence indicated and sure enough they saw him from one of the windows, he looked like he was hanging out above one of the pools that Celestia had built.
They finally found the door to that area and found him still sitting there. By the time they got to him it was getting dark, the moon was out, the water glanced off light from the moon and it reflected off of Xaniel's exposed skin. He seemed to be only wearing some long shorts.
The group walked up to him Twilight then announced, "Hi there Xaniel, how were you today?"
Xaniel turned around and smiled back. "Oh, it's been kinda fun around here, but still quite boring without the rest of you here."
Everypony else smiled back, then Applejack asked Twilight something, "Hey Twilight how long we stickin around here fer?"
"Oh a while longer than last time." Twilight answered, then turned back to Xaniel and sat by him. Everyone else followed suit except for Rainbow Dash who was hovering above Applejack. "So Xaniel, did anythin else happen today?" Applejack inquired
Xaniel looked at her." I found a new memory, it showed me the last person among that trio of friends."
"Trio of friends?" Twilight asked.
"You remember when I told you about Riku and Kairi, well I remembered the last boy, his name is Sora, he's the hero of worlds." Xaniel stated.
"Wait, you're not talking about 'the Sora' right'." Vera asked, wondering if he was talking about the real deal.
"You know him Vera?" Xaniel questioned.
"Yeah, he helped me fight off my extreme hatred towards anyone who used the power of darkness."
"Why is that?" Fluttershy wondered
"Because I attacked Riku when we first met. I sensed darkness within him and thought that it was too late for him, but Sora showed me a different side to darkness, one I never viewed before." Vera turned to him. "That's why I didn't attack you because I felt light in you, even if your true self is just hatred and anger."
Everypony else was staring at each other in confusion. "Um, Xaniel, Vera, who are you talking about?" Rarity requested.
"Vera I think you should tell them, I may have memories but I've never actually met them before, you on the other hand have." Xaniel admitted
Vera nodded and stood up. "Alright we'll start with Riku, he's about me and Xaniel's age, taller than Sora and Kairi. He was controlled by the darkness for sometime before being able to gather the power of light and darkness." She stopped a moment before going on. "Riku now is a master of the Keyblade after saving Sora from his nightmare's."
Everypony stared for a moment before Twilight asked. "Wait he jumped into Sora's dreams? That doesn't seem physically possible." What Twilight said was true, for no one except Luna was able to see others dreams, yet she too had to be asleep. To hear that someone could jump into anyone's dreams was quite interesting, and made her feel a little uneasy.
"Well not if you're a Dreameater. He found out that he protects Sora from the bad dreams that comes his way." She paused, getting ready to talk about the next one. Now moving on to Kairi, she's one of the Seven Princesses of Light, wields a Keyblade like the rest of them and has a nobody named Namine."
"Is Namine bad?" Rainbow asked.
"Not really no. But what makes her different is that she had control over Sora's memories and could manipulate them. "Vera recalled. "But in the end she put them back together, now she resides back within Kairi."
Kairi sounded like she was similar to Fluttershy in some sense, but knowing that she too wielded a Keyblade was somewhat unnerving as well.
"Then there's Sora, the most famous of the three. He's been to many worlds and has saved them from all kinds of darkness, he's also like Xaniel, he just loves to make new friends and only see's the good in anyone's heart." Then Vera's lips formed a frown of sadness. "But he's not the only one without a nobody, his was named Roxas."
With that Xaniel, reached for his head again, the pain came back, so did the flashes of Roxas's memories. Everypony turned to him and saw the pain he was going through.
"Xaniel, what's wrong?" Twilight asked.
He looked up to her."It's those memories again from before, Roxas is back again."
Vera kneeled down next to him. "How long has this been happening?"
Twilight answered for him, "He's been acting like this since after he began to receive his memories. But even he doesn't know how they got there, aside from the fact that Enial is in there."
The pain in Xaniel's head faded away slowly, and soon he didn’t feel as much pain. Then a moment of silence before something happened. Xaniel was dropped straight into his memories. Something was weird about his one, because he didn't recognize where he was at. He looked down and noticed that his clothes were back on. "So, you're the one I've been seeing so much. Tell me who are you?"
Xaniel turned around to see who had spoken and saw another Organization member. He had his hood on, but then realized who this must be, for he had only met three others with a cloak on. "Hello there Roxas, I'm Xaniel, it is very nice to meet you."
Roxas then summoned both Oathkeeper and Oblivion. "Wait, what are you doing?" Xaniel asked.
As if to answer, Roxas attacked Xaniel. He only had a little time to summon his own weapon. Just in time too as he blocked the strikes from Roxas. "Tell me...tell me what's so special about you? Tell me why do I get memories of you?" Roxas demanded menacingly. He jumped away and got ready for another attack.
Xaniel prepared himself too but he never hoped to have to fight Roxas. He didn't want to fight his friend's nobody. "Wait, we don't have to do this Roxas, let's just talk."
"NO! You're a member of the Organization, you can't be trusted."
He then rushed at Xaniel again, swinging his keyblades violently and almost knocking Xaniel’s weapon away from him. He jumped back as Xaniel tried to strike him with his staff.
"Please Roxas, just listen to me, I don't want to fight you." Xaniel pleaded.
Roxas just charged again, dragging his keyblades across the ground, Xaniel quickly dodged Roxas as he swung his left keyblade at him and jumped back, but didn’t see him toss his right one, which struck Xaniel on his chest.
He stumbled backwards and was left open for Roxas to unleash a barrage upon him, slamming his keyblades down on Xaniel’s shoulders, which stunned him again.
Roxas then swung his Keyblades back towards his direction, and then unleashed a energy wave around him, yelling, “Take that!”
Xaniel flew back, yelling in pain and was sprawled across the ground onto his stomach. He lay there for a moment and felt nothing but pain.
But in the real world, Xaniel had fallen off the edge of the courtyard because of Roxas’s attacks and was facing upwards, eyes closed, while his friends watched in horror as he fell.
“Xaniel! Twilight yelled. She prepared to leap and fly after him, but then he suddenly disappeared from sight.
Everypony and Vera, were left to wonder in worry, at what happened to him.
~~~
Roxas walked up to the still body of Xaniel, and raised his left keyblade to finish him off, but then Xaniel disappeared. He quickly jumped back and prepared himself for wherever Xaniel would appear.
“Roxas!”
He looked around at the mention of his name, but didn’t see Xaniel anywhere. Then he was knocked forward, as Xaniel reappeared behind him and swung his staff at him. Roxas recovered quickly and looked at him. Something was different about him, he had a forest green aura emanating around him, and his expression looked serious.
“You ready to actually fight?” Roxas taunted.
Xaniel just raised his staff towards him, separating the staff into this two swords and getting into position.
Roxas immediately rushed him once more, but was surprised by the agility Xaniel had gained from his aura. He tried for a overslash, but Xaniel blocked it with his left and quickly lashed out with his right and got a direct hit to Roxas’s chest.
He stumbled back, but quickly regained his form and lunged with his right Keyblade. But Xaniel was prepared and jumped over him, quickly switching to his chain weapons, he wrapped the right one around Roxas as he jumped over him. It wrapped around his arms, trapping him, and then Xaniel proceeded to throw him around.
He slammed him onto the ground and tossed him into the air, where his left chain sword struck him hard in the stomach. Roxas fell to the ground, but slowly got back up.
Roxas then blindly charged him, anger rose up within him as he began to sloppily swing at Xaniel, who dodged each strike with such ease. Xaniel then countered with his chain, then he quickly switched to his plus weapons, and soon countered with repeatedly swinging them at Roxas, who was hit multiple times in the chest, stomach and arms.
Roxas, then jumped back, and began to swing energy strikes at him from a distance. Xaniel maneuvered around them with speed Roxas didn’t notice before. He then quickly brought back his keyblades into his stance, he tried to create the energy wave again, but Xaniel stopped him by throwing one of his weapons at him.
It hit him and sent Roxas skidding back. He ended up in the center of the glass tower that Xaniel took little notice until now. He was surprised to see who was floating there, with the others in the small circles. I...I’m inside Sora’s heart? Xaniel thought, as he wondered, how did he get here?
Roxas then slowly floated up into the air, the scenery changed as it got brighter, almost turning into a sunset like feel. An energy field appeared around Roxas, who then threw his keyblades inches away from his hands. He grunted in anger and then yelled, “Come on!”
Bright blue orbs of energy began to immediately rush towards Xaniel as he dodged each and every orb. After a few seconds from that attack, Roxas fell back to the ground, but was unaware that Xaniel had charged up a green ball of energy and sent it hurtling straight towards him. Roxas saw it, but was too late to dodge as the powerful ball of energy hit him straight on, right into the chest.
Roxas then skidded along the floor on his back, his keyblades disappearing from his sides. Xaniel walked on over to him, he stopped a few feet from Roxas, who slowly tried to stand up. “You know, I could have ended you there and then Roxas, but I didn’t now did I?” Xaniel told Roxas, irritated that he had to fight him.
“If you’re one of them, then why don’t you finish me off?” Roxas asked, as he got back up on his feet.
“Because I’m not like them, I’m being hunted down, just because I exist.”
Roxas stood there for a moment, then said, “Guess you really aren’t one of them then.”
Light flashed into Xaniel’s eyes, as his vision was still blurry. But what he didn’t realize was teleporting back to the real world had taken much of his energy, and he also didn’t realize that he was falling thousand’s of feet from the air over the courtyard. A bright light flashed above everyone. As they looked up, they saw Xaniel falling down head facing first to the ground.
“Xaniel!” Twilight screamed, who quickly launched herself into the air. She may have not flown well before, but she surprisingly was able to keep her course and intercepted Xaniel as he neared the courtyard. She landed without much trouble and laid him down. He quickly regained his vision and saw Twilight, and the others rush up to him.
“Xaniel, are you alright?” Vera asked.
“How did you disappear like that?” Twilight added, concerned and worried for him.
“I don’t know? All I remember was somehow ending up in Sora’s heart, and...I saw Roxas.”
“Did he hurt you?” Vera persisted.
“Well, he did try to hurt me, but we both came to a stalemate at the end.” He winced in pain, realizing that his left side’s wound had slightly opened again.
“Okay, lets get you back to your room.” Twilight stated. She lifted him up on her shoulder and helped walk him back. It took some time but she helped lay him back onto his bed. She slowly moved the covers to see that the wound had opened up slightly, trickling only a little blood. She summoned more bandages and wrapped another layer around him. “There, hopefully that should hold this time. Be careful next time...alright?” Twilight asked. Xaniel nodded and she stepped back. She said goodnight and walked out of his room.
Everypony soon went back to their rooms, everypony except for Rainbow Dash, who flew into Xaniel’s room. “Listen here buddy, you may be able to fool everypony here, but I’m not buying your little story.”
She then flew right up to his face. “Do you understand?”
“Well of course I do Rainbow Dash, and I understand why you don’t like me.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“It’s because I’m different, and I can respect that. I know why and I don’t mind.”
“Whatever man, just...wait what?”
“I understand, and I don’t mind why you don’t like me.”
“But how can you say that. Why are you just so calm about this?”
“Given the position you're in, I probably would’ve done the same.”
Rainbow Dash, didn’t know how to react to this, and flew off to her room quickly.
Xaniel laid down on his bed, but there was still something that troubled him as he tried to go to sleep.
"Why do you hurt so Roxas?"
~~~
It was the middle of the night. Xaniel had a hard time trying to sleep, he felt that something wasn't right. He felt that whatever Roxas had gone through, it began to bother him more and more. Xaniel finally stopped rolling and got out of the bed. He walked up to his window and looked out into the night. The moon's silver light was beautiful as it reflected off everything it touched. His skin also turned a lighter color as it's weak light radiated off him.
Whatever it was that memory that bothered him, he needed to walk it off. So he headed to the same courtyard he hung out at. Xaniel found his way easily and was soon at the destination he was at some time ago. He went back to the pool and sat down by it again. Only dipping his feet in this time. He wandered into his thoughts again, finding with ease some of his more less harmful memories and ones that he were making with his friends.
Then he heard that same sadistic voice again. "Well, you sure made it easy for me to find you alone."
Xaniel didn't turn around, surprisingly though he was very calm. He knew who it was. "What are you doing here, where are your two other pals?"
"Oh, they went back to HQ, so I thought I'd scout around and find out where you're held up. Turns out I didn't need to look for long." The being behind him said, readying his weapons.
Xaniel just got up and stared at him for a moment. "I don't have time for this, can't you just leave me alone and bother Sora or somebody else, besides I'm not much of a threat to you guys anyway."
He just laughed. "Of course we wouldn't worry about you Xaniel, hmm as if. Besides, all you've ever done is just be declared a nuisance, or so I still wonder why the old coot said so."
"The old coot, I can take it that this old man is your leader?" Xaniel asked.
"Yeah, his name's Xehanort. He's pretty much the head honcho of the new Organization Thirteen, he's pretty strong for someone like him. Any who enough about the boss, how about about we get this show underway." Xigbar implied, readying his weapons.
Xaniel just looked at him, then as he walked past him, he said, "Pass, I'd rather not fight with you guys right now."
A look of confusion spread across Xigbar's face. He turned around and asked, "Wait, what do you mean you're not going to fight me?"
"Like I just said, I'm not going to fight you, end of story."
Xigbar looked down and then shot at Xaniel.
Xaniel jumped out of the way, he disappeared and reappeared above Xigbar, hitting him in the chest with his staff. Xigbar fell flat to the ground a few feet away and was amazed by Xaniel's speed. "What, how have you gotten stronger? It can't be." Xigbar recalled worringly, remembering the first time he fought Xaniel and he was nothing but a pushover. Now he seemed different.
Xaniel just looked at him. "I said no, I'm not fighting you." He then raised the staff towards him. "If you shoot me again, then I will end you."
Xigbar thought he was bluffing but when he looked in Xaniel's eyes, they were full of nothing but hatred and anger. He didn't hesitate to disappear after realizing that Xaniel was being serious. After Xigbar left, Xaniel walked back over to the pool and sat down again. Trying to calm himself down after seeing Xigbar again. But something felt wrong, there was this feeling of cold and hatred, and it wouldn’t go away.
~~~
Luna felt an energy spike somewhere outside of the castle as she was attending her night watch. She quickly ran to the location where she had felt it earlier. It was strong whatever she felt and she was worried. Luna found the place which happened to be at one of the upper courtyards that was located outside. She looked out upon the yard and saw Xaniel sitting there. Luna was nervous after feeling that energy spike because she didn't realize it was Xaniel's. She cautiously walked over to him. "Xaniel are you alright?" Luna asked nervously.
He didn't respond. "Xaniel, what's wrong?" She asked as she walked right next to him.
He looked over to her, his expression was emotionless and he didn't seem normal. Then he suddenly grabbed his head and gasped in pain. He fell into the water, thrashing underneath the surface.
Luna could only watch in horror as he fell down. She waited for a moment but nothing came up. Luna cautiously neared the water, fearing for Xaniel's safety. Then he came up, exploding from underneath, scattering water onto her and making her jump back.
He gasped for air as he dragged himself out, Luna helped him out by dragging him far away from the water. She quickly looked at him this time, saying. "Xaniel, are you alright, what happened?" Concern was rising in Luna's voice.
Xaniel finally looked at her, he seemed normal now, but what happened. "I...I don't know, I was walking out here and then Xigbar showed up, he was trying to pick a fight with me and then." Xaniel stopped. Then Xaniel continued. "It happened didn't it, my other self almost came out. I remember everything it's just that I felt like someone else was there, that I wasn't me." Fear rose in his voice as he recalled the short time that had transpired.
Luna was far from being nervous, she was scared that Xaniel almost lost himself. "How...do you feel now?"
"I feel like myself now, but I never want to feel like that again." Xaniel sadly uttered, staring down at the ground in sadness.
Luna just stared at him, seeing that he was sad again made her feel the same way, as she wanted to make him happy, not sad. "Xaniel, there's no need to worry now, all of that is over, right now we just need you to get back inside the castle, okay." Luna stated, her voice becoming more calm.
He looked over to her, his face still showing the same sadness. "I...I know, but right now, I'd rather stay out here for a little while longer. Besides, whenever I had any trouble sleeping, I'd always go out at night and just look at the moon, for looking at it sometimes helped calm me, and the light of the moon was always beautiful to me." Xaniel recalled.
Luna felt happy that he complimented her moon. To hear that a being other than a pony state that her moon was beautiful and helped calm him, really made her feel good and happy.
So Luna walked with him back to the pool and they continued talked for sometime. Celestia woke up to feel that energy spike, she walked out of her room and noticed that Twilight and Cadence were also up. Celestia walked out of her room with the others to check out what had caused such a spike in energy.
They were all nervous, wondering if it was the Organization Members was most likely and they hoped that they hadn't found Xaniel. Soon they heard voices out in the same courtyard Xaniel was earlier that night.
They walk out to see that Xaniel was talking to Luna. Xaniel heard the others walking towards them and turned towards them, greeting them. "Hi there guys how are you doing?"
"Fine...why are you up so late Xaniel?" Celestia asked.
"Is it because of that dream still?" Twilight mentioned.
Xaniel then looked over to the pool. "Yeah, I couldn't sleep." He stated sadly. "It's just I get this feeling that Roxas is hurt somewhere and he can't get any help."
Xaniel looked over to Luna. He had retold the events that had take place here, so she knew what he was asking so she nodded. "There's something I was going to tell you guys?"
Cadence jumped forward. "Are you telling us why there was a big magic spike that we all felt earlier?"
"Yeah, about that...you see, that energy spike...that was me." Xaniel sadly admitted. All three looked at him with concern. “I came out here earlier before Luna got here, I was trying think about that dream when...when Xigbar showed up."
The three other princesses gasped. "Did he hurt you Xaniel?" Twilight asked.
He shook his head. "No, I dealt with him quickly. It's just, I didn't feel like myself when I fought him, it felt like I was somebody else, like I wasn't myself."
"Then...does that mean that-"
"Yeah Celestia, I felt my other half." The three princesses gasped, then Xaniel added, " Luna saw him first hand for only a little bit after she approached me, but I was taking back over by the time she got next to me."
"So that means, that he's getting close to finally escaping?" Cadence nervously asked.
Xaniel shook his head again. "No, he's not getting out of me, nor will he ever escape, I'll make sure of that." Determination sounded from his voice. The four princesses knew that Xaniel, even if he wasn't too keen on fighting anyone, wasn't one to be messed with. But they worried for him and they hoped that he wouldn't need to be drawn into another battle.
"Come on Xaniel, I think it's time you returned to bed." Luna stated.
Xaniel looked at her for a moment, then got up and walked back to his room, the four princesses then gathered together. "What should we do now Celestia? This shows that the Organization is far more capable of easily breaking into our domain, it would only take them seconds before they reached Xaniel." Luna fretted.
"I don't know sister, but I do know that if we are to protect Xaniel, that he has to be kept under constant supervision from now on." She stated. Then she added, "He can not be left unattended without at least one of us watching over him. So who would like to take first watch over him?"
Twilight quickly raised her hoof up first. "I'll take first watch Celestia, you can count on me."
Celestia giggled. "I don't doubt you at all Twilight."
~~~
Xaniel was just getting back to his room when he saw Vera right next to his door. "I heard about what happened. I should've been there quicker, so you didn't have to go through that." Vera uttered sadly.
"There was nothing that you could've done. I mean don't blame yourself for not being able to help me in time." He stated smiling at her.
She smiled back. "You know, for a Nobody, you're quite friendly towards others."
"Well I wouldn't be the same without my cheery smile now would I?"
Both laughed. Vera wish things could stay this peaceful. "But don't worry Vera, I know that you'll be there for me and I the same."
Vera blushed at what he said. "Thanks for that Xaniel." With that, they both walked back to their rooms. Xaniel fell into his bed. Sleep came easy and he found himself in a dream again. He saw everyone sitting together from his past life. Sora, Riku and Kairi were laughing about something. He could also see Roxas hanging out with them. Namine and Vera were also there, joining in there laughter.
Even his pony friends were there too, laughing along with them. He couldn't help but be happy. For the first time, he saw everyone from his dreams having a good time together. No matter what happened, this dream would be something that he would keep in his memories. He smiled and kept dreaming about happy things.
Author's Note
Hey there everybody. Hoped you liked this one and the feels that were also put into place here. Oh and I should hopefully be able to have someone else help me with this so that I don't have to keep editing it on my own. Kuddo's to you all for reading and hope you have a good morning, afternoon, evening, night or whatever.
Chapter IX: Chaos & The Distant Past
"So, has the target been eliminated yet?” Xehanort asked. The three members had returned, and he hoped they brought good news.
"It turns out to be much more complicated. He has acquired the help of a Keyblade Wielder." Xemnas replied.
Xehanort looked over to the three. He felt that this should've been such a minor task for these three. "Oh well, I can guess that this certain Keyblade wielder is one of the three right, perhaps Sora?"
Xemnas shook his head. "No, this Keyblade wielder is unlike anyone we have ever seen, she controls this new form of Keyblade that none of us have seen.”
“She’s definitely different. A new type of Keyblade wielder and she doesn’t feel human at all.” Saix added.
"Plus, she can teleport everywhere at once and even hit us from afar without needing to be close to us, kinda wish she was with us though." Xigbar stated with a sly grin on his face. He then added, "So what do we do now? Should we call off the mission?" Xigbar asked.
"For now, we shall wait and see what transpires. I’m interested to see whether it is us that sets him off, or if the world and his friends do." Xehanort announced.
The three members disappeared in the darkness, Leaving Xehanort to contemplate his thoughts. Hmm. Xaniel sure is very different from any regular Nobody. It will be interesting to see what happens next. But in the meantime, I shall send him to keep watch over them.
~~~
Xaniel woke up, seeing the bright light as usual. He got out of bed and walked over to his window, he always loved to look out into the world of Equestria, this world almost reminded him of home, except for all the ponies that walked around the streets of this city. Xaniel put on his normal clothes and found his coat hidden inside the closet. He looked it over again and loved what Rarity did with it.
Xaniel slipped it on and felt much more normal than he did before. Xaniel then headed out the door. He looked both ways before walking downstairs. He heard some noises outside in the courtyard and was curious to see what it was. He walked over and saw that it was two guards having a practice session with their weapons, Xaniel saw that these ponies were capable of fighting, but it seemed like they rarely ever did any fighting before, so he decided to watch them practice.
He didn't notice Fluttershy and Twilight sneak up on him. "Hey, Xaniel."
He looked over to them. "Oh, hi Fluttershy, Twilight. How are you doing this morning?" Xaniel asked.
"Oh, fine, I was just wondering, why are you watching those guards practice down there?" Twilight stated.
"Well I just thought it might be interesting to see how ponies fought is all, I don't see you guys fight all that much anyway since your world is so peaceful."
Fluttershy then looked over to him. "Well, we’ve never had a need for violence before.” She paused, raising her hoof and pointing out to the world before them.
Twilight then added, “Our world has always been so peaceful, that we’ve never needed to use any type of action to get what we wanted. There are only a few times when it was needed, but those are still rare.”
He looked out to the world again and smiled. A world where violence was never really necessary. This world was truly special in its own way, and he was afraid for it. His stomach then interrupted their conversation by growling loudly. He looked down and then turned over to the girls, smiling nervously and rubbing the back of his head with his hand. Fluttershy and Twilight giggled. Fluttershy then said, “Come on Xaniel lets go get something from the dining hall, it is morning after all."
He looked back to her. "Yeah, why not."
They headed on over to the dining hall. There, they saw that Pinkie Pie and Rarity were already seated down. "Hello you three, how are we this lovely morning?" Rarity asked, her voice only raised up to a minor yell.
"I'm good." Fluttershy replied.
“Same for me Rarity.” Twilight announced.
"Same here, oh and thank you again for my coat Rarity, I think you did a wonderful job on it." Xaniel said.
"Oh it was nothing Xaniel, I was very happy to work with new material, I already have some new ideas about the style's of my new line of dresses." Rarity replied.
"And I'm still eating this super yummy chocolate chip muffin right now." Pinkie Pie stated randomly.
Everyone looked at her for a moment before returning to their conversations. Later on Applejack came through the doors, followed by Rainbow Dash.
Celestia and Luna, followed by Cadence and Shining Armor appeared, with Vera tagging behind. Soon after everyone got there, they began to eat their meals and talk about last night's incident. "You see, we have to be on alert at all times from now on, they could appear from anywhere, be careful everypony." Luna announced.
"But how do we protect Canterlot from an enemy that can just teleport anywhere?" Rainbow asked.
“I do not know, but we need to keep watch constantly from now on.” Celestia replied.
Twilight then looked over to Xaniel. “If it’s alright with you? I volunteered to keep watch over you for the first day.”
Xaniel simply nodded, happy that he’d be able to have a friend around to talk to. The group continued to eat in silence for a few moments before a strange cloud of mist appeared at the middle of the table. A new and strange looking being appeared from out of nowhere in a small explosion of lights. The being laughed as he slowly floated down onto one of the chairs. “Greetings my little ponies.” The being announced. “So what’s on today’s agenda? Meeting with special nobles, consorting about the magic of friendship, discussing about how wonderful I am?”
“Discord. What are you doing here?” Celestia asked, irritated that he had dropped in when they were discussing important matters.
“Oh don’t be such a drag Celestia. I was just getting done checking my calendar yesterday and noticed that some major chaos has been spreading out for the past month. Have you any idea why?” He smirked, smiling as he awaited his answer.
“Well we’ve been dealing with certain matters that cannot be shared with anypony else...but if you must know, we have learned of a certain group devoted to darkness and they have been causing some trouble in Equestria."
Xaniel zoned out of the conversation as he stared at this ‘Discord’ character. He was certainly different from any creatures he had ever seen around here. He looked like a toy that had all of it’s original pieces taken apart and new pieces from different toys were randomly put together. But that wasn’t the only thing that was off. He thought he felt something familiar about this being, something he had felt not too long ago.
Discord then noticed Xaniel out of the corner of his eye and grinned with mischief. “Say...who’s the new guy?” Discord observed, but he remembered who this was from yesterday’s tiny incident.
“This here is Xaniel.” Twilight cautiously answered. “He’s a new being we have discovered, as you have noticed and he is here to ask for our help.”
“Oh really. Surely this isn’t some new pet that Celestia just adopted?”
“Discord, that’s not nice to say.” Pinkie remarked.
“Discord, remember your manners. We have to treat guests with respect.” Fluttershy asserted, not happy with the way Discord was talking to Xaniel.
Xaniel couldn’t help but feel that this creature was similar to… “Wait...is this-”
The painful memory from yesterday played over in his head, as he heard the maniacal laughter of some being, who had taken away his necklace and almost killed him in the process of doing so. Oh don’t worry, I’m not going to keep it for...long.
The amount of anger inside himself began to build up. His right arm and hand began to shake. He knew that he needed to contain all of this, but the fact that someone had almost killed him did not sit well with him at all. In fact it made his anger worse and the feeling of hatred soon developed.
Twilight was laughing at something Applejack said, when she turned to look at Xaniel and noticed that he was shaking quite a bit. She got out of her chair and slowly walked over to him. She put her hoof on his shoulder and said, “Xaniel...are you alright?”
Everypony turned towards him and noticed the same thing. Something was wrong, and they were worried. Why was he shaking so much? Discord in turn, just smiled as he realized that Xaniel was finally remembering what he did to him.
Inside himself, Enial began to feel the dark energy rise within Xaniel. He quickly stopped contemplating about why he felt anger within him when he realized that he felt the negative energy from before. “It’s that being from before…oh no...no…Xaniel.”
Enial teleported himself to the glass tower and called out his other. “Xaniel! Please stop!” He didn’t reply. Enial had feared the worse. “Xaniel! Do not let your anger control you. Get away from him!” Xaniel still did not respond. “No...Xaniel.” Enial uttered fearfully.
Back into the world, Discord was snickering at Xaniel. Was he really this angry for what he had done? All he did was just joke with him, nothing more. He didn’t know what those yellow specks of light were and didn’t think of them as anything else.
“Xaniel...what’s wrong?” Twilight asked nervously. She was worried, for she never saw him like this before.
Everypony was nervous. Nopony had ever seen Xaniel shake like this before and none of them realized why. Xaniel then raised his right hand outwards, his breathing became heavy and ragged. Light and darkness soon converged into his palm, but what freaked everypony out was that they noticed that he wasn’t just shaking, but tears began to run freely down his face.
Xaniel was enraged, to see the same being from yesterday here. Twilight was anxious and scared for him now. She then looked to where he was staring at, and noticed that he was looking directly at Discord. Her anger rose too, as she began to think that Discord may have done something to him. “Discord!” She yelled out, furious at him. “What the hay did you do?!”
He raised his hands in the air, acting as if he was being blamed for something he didn’t do. “What? I didn’t do anything to him.”
Xaniel’s raged worsened. His staff appeared and he slowly stood up from his seat. “Xaniel please, calm down. Whatever Discord did to you, we’ll handle it.” Twilight pleaded with him.
“Discord what did you do?” Celestia asked. Whatever he did, it had really set Xaniel off.
“I swear I didn’t do anything. All I did was take his necklace away for about two minutes. That’s all.”
“Why did you tease him? He didn’t deserve it.” Cadence questioned him.
Discord was about to reply, but he was cut off when Xaniel began to say, “You...how...how could you...do that?” Xaniel uttered angrily.
“I...I thought it was a simple joke, nothing more.”
A forest green aura slowly formed around Xaniel, which began to darken until it was completely flowing black and purple. “A...a simple joke?” Xaniel stopped for a moment, gaining his voice for what he was trying to say. “You, you almost KILLED ME!” Xaniel yelled.
A dark ball of energy was forming within his other palm as he was talking, which he then threw it at Discord who got out of the way just in time before it crashed into him. It hit the wall behind him, making Discord look at the spot that was darkened by the blast. He turned at Xaniel, who had separated his staff into his two swords. “Okay small fry. You think you can handle me, Discord, The Master of Chaos?”
Xaniel didn’t reply, but just readied himself. Discord attacked first, by throwing balls of fire at him. He quickly dodged them and rushed Discord, who wasn’t prepared for the strength that Xaniel had stored away. He slashed his chest and stomach and sent him skidding across the ground and into the wall. Dazed, he shook it off and noticed that Xaniel was walking over to him. All he could see in his eyes was a hatred that he had never seen before.
“Xaniel stop! Think about what you're doing.” Twilight pleaded, but it fell on deaf ears. Xaniel turned one of his swords into the chain weapon and swung it at Discord.
He quickly dodged the swipe and raised his right hand up. Pillars of ice exploded from the floor below Xaniel, but he just simply teleported before they could pierce his body. This opponent, Discord thought, was completely different from anyone else he had fought before. Luna’s power was drowned out compared to him, but it seemed he was short of reaching Celestia’s.
Discord quickly got up and threw more fireballs at him, but Xaniel just kept teleporting around them. Discord, frantic that Xaniel was closing in, summoned a dark energy ball and slammed it into the ground, causing a wave of darkness to head right towards Xaniel. He wasn’t ready for that and was knocked back, flying into the wall himself. He slid down the wall, but his anger had not dissipated, but the time to finish him was now.
Before he could do that, Discord snapped his fingers and a prison cell appeared around him. “How about you take a few moments to calm down in my little cage there and maybe we can talk about this later.” Discord told Xaniel, irritated that this shrimp could possibly hurt him.
Xaniel grabbed his weapons from the floor and tried to teleport, but when he did, the magic of the cage pulled him back into it. “Oh and if you’re thinking of trying to escape, good luck. I enchanted it with a spell that blocks and absorbs all types of teleportation magic.”
Twilight ran around the table and headed towards Discord. She stopped a few feet away from him and yelled, “Discord! Let him out of there!”
“But you saw what he was trying to do. If I let him out, he’s just going to keep trying to fight me. Besides, you know how that will end for him.”
As this conversation was going on, Xaniel was repeatedly trying to teleport out of the cage. When this failed, he switched to his swords and swung at the bars, not making a single dent in them. Discord called out to him, “Oh, I forgot to mention that the metal on the cage is a very strong material, even I don’t know what it's made of.”
“Discord, would you kindly let Xaniel out of there. Please?” Fluttershy asked.
“I’m not letting him out of there until he cools down in there.”
They heard a new sound and turned towards Xaniel. The sound was his weapon changing into something new. The staff became a longsword, with a weird type of attachment at the bottom. He looked at it and inspected the newly made weapon. How did I summon this one?
He then got a weird flash in his mind, someone new showing him how to use this version. This is how you use it. Make sure to make that thing suffer.
Who's there? But the voice didn't come back. Then as if on instinct, he pointed it at the cage and a dark purple and black light glowed from inside the hole. A loud bang came out from the new weapon and the dark energy ball quickly shot out and exploded against the inside of the cage. The three shielded themselves from the blast, when they opened their eyes, there was Xaniel, standing there. He looked at Discord with a bland expression. He then, in his right hand, swung the sword to the right and charged. Before he could get any closer, someone teleported between him and Discord.
When he looked up, he noticed that it was Vera who intervened in his fight. She then summoned her keyblade, charging her strike and sent multiple energy slashes at him, hitting him in the chest one after another. As Xaniel flew back, he lifted the weapon and shot out at Discord, the ball of energy quickly rushed past Vera and slammed into Discord. He flew back from the explosion and into the wall. Xaniel hit the wall head-first and was knocked unconscious.
“Xaniel!” Twilight yelled, as she ran over to the unmoving body of Xaniel. She looked at him and noticed that his chest was slowly moving up and down. She looked over to Discord and noticed a red mark where the ball of energy hit. It was bleeding only a little from what she saw. This fight didn’t need to happen , she thought. This fight could’ve gotten a lot worse.
~~~
What had taken place, was very interesting. A figure in a black cloak had witnessed the fight below him go on and he was surprised by Xaniel’s strength. Of course that’s only when he gathered the aura around him, without it he was much weaker than the tall white pony and the smaller dark blue pony.
“Hmm, he does show much promise. Xehanort was right about that. However, he was also right that the time for Nobodies like him is over.” The being then teleported away, satisfied that he had seen all he needed to.
~~~
Time had passed, and the sun was higher up in the sky. But the mood wasn’t so pleasant, for a fight had occurred, and it had hurt Discord some.
Twilight was walking down the hallway, trying to think about what made Xaniel lose his temper. Discord was obviously involved in this, but she didn’t know why. Whatever he did to Xaniel, it was serious. “Why did he say that Discord almost killed him? I mean, Discord was never so friendly to others, but he would never kill others...I think.”
None of this made sense, but she had just hoped that both of them were okay. She was on her way to where Xaniel was at for the time being, and Twilight had just gotten done talking to the others about what had just happened. What surprised her most was that Rainbow Dash didn’t side with Shining this time, even though the other times she was around him, Rainbow blamed him for lying and not being truthful. Yet it seemed something changed in her.
She then found her way to the hallway where the rooms were located. The Sun’s ray’s lit the hall, making it brighter than usual. Twilight did appreciate the suns warmth on her coat though.
She found his room and slowly opened his door. Xaniel was still there, in his bed sleeping. Twilight walked up to the right side and then moved her hoof to his heart, she could still not feel it move, and yet when she moved her ears towards the area, she could hear only the slight pulse. She had hoped that what he said before, about him not being alive wasn’t true, but no matter how many times she checked, there was no sound of the heart pumping at all.
She sighed sadly and walked over to one of the chairs in his room. She sat down, and thought that she could at least begin her watch over him. But it was scary, to see him become so enraged like that. Twilight never did see anything like that before, where one being is completely filled up with such rage that he or she took it out on the nearest pony to them.
The bed shifted slightly, creaking as Xaniel moved slowly. She had hoped that he would wake up and tell them why he had freaked out like that, but she didn’t know how long it would take him to awaken. Deciding that she needed to get her mind off of him, she walked over to the window. She rested her forelegs on the windowsill and looked out into the world before her. Everything seemed so peaceful, yet she knew that they were dealing with problems that faced them, instead of threatening the whole entire nation.
“Twilight.” She heard a voice behind her and noticed that Fluttershy had come in through the door.
“Hey Fluttershy. How’s Discord doing?”
“He’s recovering, and should be okay.” She paused for a moment, before adding in a sadder tone. “But what did Discord do to...to set Xaniel off like that?”
“I...I don’t know, but I know that whatever Discord did wasn’t good. Seeing Xaniel hurting like that, and to see him so angry. I...I wonder if Discord deserved that, or not.”
A small shuffling sound came from behind the two and they looked, only to see that Xaniel was up, he was staring at them, before looking away from them, facing down. Twilight walked over to him, followed by Fluttershy. “Hey Xaniel, how are you feeling?”
He just looked up at her, with such a somber expression. “I...I can’t believe I let it happen again.”
“What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked.
“Letting my anger get control of me again. This is just like last night when Xigbar made a unwelcomed visit.”
“Xaniel, what did Discord do to make you so angry at him?” Twilight questioned. She was curious, but was also worried for him.
“Well...it started yesterday morning. Celestia had assigned my own personal guard and I sort’ve lost him when I was walking through the hallways. When I was just about to get to the courtyard, some voice began to echo throughout the hallway and then my necklace suddenly disappeared.”
He paused for a moment, as his voice began to falter. “I...I didn’t realize something that was very vital to my life. My necklace as Twilight and I guessed was my heart, and when he took it off…” Tears began to roll down his face as he recalled the pain he had felt. “I...I was told by Enial that...if my necklace were to be taken away from me…that if ten minutes had passed...that I would no longer exist.”
Twilight and Fluttershy felt extremely sad for him. Fluttershy began to tear up, and Twilight did as well. How could Discord do such a thing? But yet he too didn’t realize that the necklace was Xaniel’s life line, that it was what kept him here.
Twilight walked up to him and put her right hoof on his shoulder. “Xaniel...don’t worry. You’ll be fine. We’ll all make sure that nothing bad happens to you anymore.” Twilight promised, but this was the fourth time they had again almost lost him. Once from the timberwolf, to the Organization, and almost to Roxas. Now this counted four, for Discord had almost killed him on accident.
Twilight then wrapped her left hoof around him and pulled him closer for a hug. Fluttershy walked up to them and joined in as well. They stayed like that for a long while, until Celestia and Luna came up, to see the saddening scene before them. “Girls, how is he?” Celestia asked.
They pulled apart and Twilight answered, “He’s doing alright, but I believe we figured out why Xaniel attacked Discord.”
So Xaniel again recalled the events as the two princesses listened in. This was indeed something horrible, yet they felt bad for Discord because he didn’t realize what he was doing.
More hoofsteps were heard and then unexpectedly, Rainbow appeared in the doorway. She walked in and stopped at the front of Xaniel’s bed. She sighed, swallowing her pride and said, “Hey Xaniel...I just wanted to say that...I’m sorry for accusing you of all the things I said.”
Xaniel smiled, “It’s alright Rainbow Dash. I know why you didn’t like me...and I just wanted to say that I’m sorry too for scaring everyone like that.”
Then Vera appeared through the doorway as well. “I see you're awake. I just wanted to say, that I’m sorry for throwing you against the wall like that.”
In truth, Xaniel was glad that she intervened when she did, otherwise he could've caused a lot more damage to Discord, even probably injure him, and he would’ve really put himself down if he did. “It’s okay...in truth though, I was glad that you knocked me out.” Xaniel smiled sadly. He then added in a more happier tone, “Just...don’t go making a habit of it alright?”
Vera chuckled, “Don’t worry, I won’t be doing that again anytime soon.”
Maybe today wasn’t the best of days, Xaniel thought, but he hoped that things would take a brighter turn soon. But that’s all he could really hope for, but no matter what, he would stick by them, and they would do the same.
~~~
Sometime Ago
The sun lit this world with a bright yet soft glow as the waves of the salty ocean rose up and down the coastline, roaring as it did for many years. A few hundred meters from the ocean lay a city with many buildings both small and tall. The sounds of cars, sirens and all the such echoed throughout the city.
Over on the beach, two beings were walking down the sandy floor, discussing about certain issues. “Did you see the look on his face when I told him about the buses leaving him like that, that was just too rich.” Said the first being, chuckling as they walked along. The voice sounded male, as he had short hair which was a dark blue. His clothes consisted of a bright blue and scarlet red mix.
The other being, chuckled along as well. “Yeah, I kind of felt bad for him though. He’s always on time and I think he didn’t like to know that they had just left him.” Replied the other being. He too sounded like a boy, but had a little more pitch instead of a deep voice. He had brown hair that went down to his shoulders, and a coloring of red and black on his clothes. Both beings looked the same as Xaniel, or in this case, they were the same species.
“Pfttt, he’ll be fine once he gets over it. Besides, not everyone has to make it on time every day.”
“Well it was important for him. He is the leader of our student council after all.” The second boy pointed out.
“Yeah I guess your right. Say, have you seen Nira lately?” The first boy asked.
“Umm, if you consider me seeing her yesterday, then yeah.” The second boy then paused for a moment before asking, “Wait, why are you asking me?”
“Oh, it’s not a big deal, but I think someone’s checking you out.” The first boy told the other with a little mischievous glint in his eyes.
“Wha...wait what?”
The first boy chuckled, “Dude, you mean you haven’t seen her staring at you for the past week now. I think you have an admirer.”
“Kiowa that is not funny dude. You know how I get around girls.”
“Oh please, shes just like you man. Kind, sweet, caring. Perfect matching personality traits, and she has cute body. You do admit that right?” Kiowa asked.
The first boy thought to himself, Well, yeah she is cute, but I get so nervous around girls sometimes. I mean if I know them well then I’m fine but I barely know Nira. As he contemplated, stopping for a moment before having Kiowa pass him. His friend yelled out, “Hey, Enial! Are you coming or what?!”
He looked back up to see that his friend was a few meters away from him. “Oh, sorry Kiowa.” Enial replied. He ran off, catching up to his friend, which then they proceeded to walk on for a longer time. Days like this, were always the best, Enial thought, and he wished they could last forever.
Author's Note
Hey there everypony, sorry about the long wait. I hope you like this and can't wait to bring out more.
(Oh and on a side note, I thought about adding some past scenes into the remainder of the chapters now. Hopefully you'll like this and I also will be revisiting the earlier chapters with my new editor Steel Souls. Be sure to be on the lookout for that and so I shall say, have a good morning, afternoon, evening, night or whatever and I shall see you all in the next Author's Notes).
