So, what’s the first thing you think about when you go to an anime convention? You think about anime merchandise, celebrities in the manga/anime industry and other areas of geekdom, and cosplayers, lots and lots of cosplayers; some dressing up as DBZ characters, some as One Piece characters, and even some as characters from the real obscure stuff like Akira. However, anime and manga weren’t the only things at this convention. No, this year, in Florida, both the people that organize this particular anime convention and some people that were in charge of E3 decided to combine their mutual Japanese products that were to be showcased, mainly because there were so many Japanese made games coming out in the year of 2015. However, the one big game that every geek across America came to this convention for was Kingdom Hearts 3. Finally, after so long, there would be an official release date for later this year and everybody would get to see even more of the game and have something to look forward to.

It is at this convention that we find Phillip Smith. This 16 year old finally convinced his parents to let him come across the state and stay in a hotel with his friends for this one event. The second he received permission, Phil set to work on making his costume for this event. His costume was that of Dream Eater Riku from Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance. He got the silver wig, the yellow and white vest with the spirit dream eater symbol on the back, and some regular baggy jeans and black sneakers. He then worked on his keyblade prop, which would be wooden and be the Way to Dawn design. Luckily, his dad was a carpenter and had taught him how. Finally, he ordered the Way to Dawn keychain to complete it. After that was done, our eager teen packed his suitcase, and later met up with his friends at Rick’s place to begin the long drive.

Presently, Phillip and his five other friends were split up into groups of two, with Phil and Rick together. All of them decided to meet at the entrance by the end of the day. Rick was dressed up as Master Xehanort. Even had a bald cap to hide his hair and dyed his short goatee and eyebrows. He really sold it by walking in a hunched over posture with his hands behind his back. Though, he could never do a good impression of the magnificent Leonard Nimoy. Phillip and Rick were both looking at the various tables of gaming merchandise, when Phil spotted a shady looking guy in a cloak selling an impressive amount of what looked like high quality Kingdom Hearts merch.

“Hey Rick?”

“Yeah, dude?” he said with a generic old man’s voice. Truthfully, to Phillip, it sounded silly saying "dude" in that voice.

“While you check out this bravely default 2 stuff, I think I’ll be going to see if there’s anything good at that KH booth.”

“You sure? Cause there’s some pretty sweet swag over here.” Rick replied, indicating the various replicas of items from the JRPG.

“I’m sure.” He said with a nod. Then an eager smile grew on his face. “What I really want to see is if that guy has any of the keychains from the games!” Phil had been looking for the keychains from Dream Drop Distance to further build his collection of said game series’ keychains. He already had every single one except for Oathkeeper, Oblivion and the keychains exclusive to Dream Drop Distance. Since he was dressed as the Dream Drop Distance version of Riku, he decided to look for the chains from that game. Walking over to the shady man’s booth, he got the man’s attention as soon as he got close.

“Ummm…hello.” said Phillip nervously. Now that he had a closer look at him, he saw that the cloak looked eerily similar to the Phantom optional boss from Kingdom Hearts 1. Though instead of no face, Phillip could see a somewhat pale looking face poking through from the darkness of the hood.

“Helllooo.” said the man with a disturbingly silky voice. Even more disturbing was that the smoothness of his voice sounded even creepier than Orochimaru, and that character was uber-creepy. Phillip started having second thoughts, but the merchandise on the table looked too tempting to resist.

Phillip let out a slight shudder in response to that voice before steeling his resolve and continuing on. “Yes, well, I would like to know if you have any keychains for sale. I’m trying to complete my collection and it’s really hard to find them. So, you got any?” he said as he hefted his wooden keyblade up onto his shoulder.

“Hmmmm” the shady merchant said as he put a pale hand up to his chin in thought. He then smirked and held up a finger in realization. “Ah, I have just the thing.” For some reason, he put a hand behind his back without looking and pulled from behind, a small jewel encrusted box with the symbol of the nightmare dream eaters on it; when the man opened it up, Phillip’s eyes widened in astonishment. There, nestled in soft black foam, was every single keychain from Dream Drop Distance and also Oathkeeper and Oblivion. Every spot in the memory foam was filled with a keychain, except for one that was in the shape of the Way to Dawn chain. Phillip took his wooden prop off of his shoulders and took a quick step forward and stared at the keychain filled box with manic glee.

“I must have them!” he said while taking out his wallet.

“Fifty dollars” the man said while offering his hand for the cosplayer to put money in.

“Are you kidding!? That’s a steal!” Phillip said while slapping the money into the shady man’s hand. “Thanks!” he made a move to grab it, when suddenly, the lid slammed shut and the man pulled it away. “HEY! What gives!?”

The man gave a cheeky grin before replying. “Ah, ah, ah! First…” he said while once again holding up a finger, “…you must promise me that when I hand you this box, you will put your Way to Dawn keychain in the appropriate slot.”

“Seriously!? That’s all else it takes for you to give it to me!?” he then swiftly unlatched the mentioned keychain, “Deal!”

The box mysteriously opened by itself while the shady man moved it closer to him. When he took it, he did as instructed immediately and closed the box with a smile, feeling triumphant that he had acquired such a large portion of the series’ keychains for his collection in one fell swoop.

The shady man’s eyes glowed for a second before his smile turned maniacal. “Have a nice triiiip~!”

“Trip? What do you…?” Suddenly, a hole that looked like it was straight out of a Looney Toons cartoon, formed beneath his feet and Phillip looked down at it, then back up to the shady man. “Oh…” he then fell after a second of floating in midair, “AAAAAAAAA!!!” he screamed. The hole closed up as soon as both he and the box were through.

“HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” the man laughed as he doubled over in delight. “Aaah…that never gets old!” He then looked up as he saw another young man, dressed up as Master Xehanort walking over.

“Hey, Phil! You should see…Phil?” Rick had come over with bags of Bravely Default gear that he had purchased to show his best friend, but was nowhere to be found. Instead, he found a shady man rubbing his hands in anticipation.

The man then ushered him over, “Come, my friend. I see you have a verrrry impressive costume of Master Xehanort. Why not enhance your look with this perfect cast iron replica of Master Xehanort’s keyblade?” he said as he presented it to the teen.

Rick rubbed his chin with a look of intrigue on his face.

Meanwhile

“AAAAAAAAA!!!!” Phillip screamed as he fell, he continued to scream before calming down and looked at his surroundings. It looked like space, but tinted with various colors and the place he was falling towards looked like a very earth-like planet, the only difference being that most of the continents didn’t look familiar. Looking down, or up as the case may be, Phillip saw that he was still clutching the bejeweled keychain box to his chest and his Way to Dawn keyblade in his left hand at his side.

“Ooooh God, I hope I survive this.” he said in dread. Suddenly, some familiar creatures appeared in front of him and began descending at the same rate. “Wait, are those….they are!” before his eyes, appeared nightmare dream eaters. The kind that looked like bees in Riku’s first dream drop.

“Oh no! This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening!” he said as he began to panic. “How am I supposed to defend myself with this!?” he said as he lifted his fake keyblade up to his face. He then saw one of the monsters barreling towards him. “Boy, I hope this works!” he said as he raised the prop up for a strike. The bug nightmare came closer and he swung “Angh!” he grunted. The attack was a direct hit on the nightmare’s skull. But Phillip’s eyes widened in astonishment. Instead of the prop splintering into pieces like he expected, the keyblade cut through the nightmare down the middle, causing both halves to separate and dissolve into smoke. Phillip brought the keyblade back up and looked at it again. Now that he had calmed down a little, he could feel that the keyblade felt like actual metal and looked more intricately carved, just like the real Way to Dawn.

A huge smile appeared on his face as he realized that this was the real Way to Dawn. His smile then turned into a determined smirk as his brows furrowed. Phillip then straightened his body out to make himself go faster as he slashed through a bunch of nightmares.

“Wooo hoooo!!!” he yelled as he continued hacking through the bugs. “Oh, man! This is awesome! I have my own keyblade and I’m dream diving into another world!” Quite abruptly, the queen of the bee like nightmare, which he remembered was named Queen Buzzerfly, descended to be in front of him, indicating that he was in the home stretch of the drop. All he needed to do was defeat her and continue to the portal to the upcoming world. “You want a piece of me!? BRING IT!” Phillip said in a cocky tone.

However, before he could get closer, the big buzzerfly shot a laser from an appendage to one of its wings, hitting the arm that was holding the keychain box. The force of the laser caused Phillip to turn slightly, and the pain forced him to release the box, which opened up and dropped its contents.

“Nonononono!!!” he said as he tried to grab them, but they all fell past him and towards the world below; except for one that he managed to grab. However, he couldn’t examine which one he caught as the main priority was to defeat the big buggy nuisance that dared to make him lose his precious collection. So, he pocketed it for later. “You’re going to pay for that, bug!” he snarled before seeing a familiar orb and grabbing it before it floated past him. The words, Mega Flare, popped into his head, making him grin.

“I’ll save that for later.” he thought before turning his attention back to the dive boss. “Alright, you buzz bomber wannabe! Let’s see what you’re made of!” The Queen Buzzerfly gave a “bring it on” gesture to him, causing Phillip to let out a battle cry. “RRRAAAA!!!” the angered human threw his weight at the female nightmare who tried to shoot him with multiple stingers, but, surprising even himself, he spun out of the way of each and every one of them, reaching the queen bug in the span of a few seconds. Just before he reached her, Phillip angled himself to where his feet where to the right of her head and wound his leg back as though he were going to make a field goal. When his foot was far enough behind him, he kicked with all his might, snapping the queen’s head to the left and making her body follow suit. Once again, Phillip surprised himself. Not only did he appear to have more agility, but also more strength than before. The buzzerfly’s back was now turned to him while she clutched at her face. Phillip once again threw his weight at her to get closer and latched on to the glowing bulb that he remembered was her weak spot. After a few hits with his keyblade, the giant bug bucked him off and faced her attacker again.

She tried to hit the insufferable human with lasers, but Phillip proved too fast for her and aimed both feet at the bottom half of her body, slamming into her and causing her body to suddenly switch positions. When he saw the head coming towards him, Phillip put his sword down and behind him then gave the queen a swift upper cut to the head with his blade, causing the bug to flip backward to where its back was again facing him. Though this time, she appeared to be upside down from his point of view. For the third time, Phillip flung himself at her and got a few hits in. Before she could throw him off, however, the surprisingly combat effective human jumped off and aimed his keyblade at her. “Hope this works.” Furrowing his brow, he shouted, “MEGA FLARE!” and a huge explosion happened at near point blank range to the bug’s weak spot, causing Phillip to shield his face. After the smoke cleared, Phillip could see that Queen Buzzerfly was utterly vanquished, as evidenced by there not being a single shred of her remains.

Feeling victorious, our human hero decided to do the most appropriate thing he could think of for this scenario. He turned back towards where he was falling from and did the signature fist pump that both protagonists of the game did whenever they completed a dive.

“I wonder what world I’m going to be entering. Maybe one of the worlds from the game, like La Cite De Las Cloches? Or maybe something new, like Metroville, from the Incredibles? Oh, I can’t wait!” he thought as he entered the portal.

Equestria 12:00 am

Phillip opened his eyes and took in the room he was in. It seemed to be a bedroom with very extravagant furnishings and a couple of tapestries to add to its fancy charm. Going over to the nearby balcony, he saw that it was night time and the star studded sky appeared to be a lot clearer with its lack of clouds or light pollution from nearby cities. Speaking of which, there didn’t seem to be any modern towns in sight. In fact, the closest one looked more like a medieval village than a 21st century town. It was then that Phillip heard a light snore from behind and turning around, the shock of whom he saw was too much for him to contain.

“OH MY GOD! IS THAT PRINCESS LUNA!?” he yelled in astonishment. This caused said princess to stir from her slumber. “Eep!” the human slapped a hand to his mouth and looked for a place to hide. He found a long window curtain and hid behind it, making sure that his keyblade wasn’t poking out. After a few seconds of looking around blearily, the princess of the night rested her head back down. At which time, her horn began to glow. Phillip stepped out from behind the curtain and looked at the blue alicorn with widened eyes. “Wow, I can’t believe it. I’m in Equestria!” he whispered. Then he noticed something off. “Wait a sec. Is that my voice?” his voice was now like Riku’s. Putting a hand up to what he thought was a wig and pulling revealed that those silver locks were not a wig, but instead was real hair. He then brought his real Way to Dawn keyblade up and it all made sense.

“No way! I’ve been turned into Riku from Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance!” he whispered excitedly. Fishing out the one keychain that he was able to recover, he felt a little disappointed, but not overly so. “Oh, well. Gotta start somewhere.” he said with resignation. The keychain he had recovered was just the standard one for the keyblade he already had. Latching it back on, Phillip tiptoed over to Luna to get a closer look. “Man, I can’t believe that I’m really standing in front of the Princess Luna!” he then looked at his keyblade. “Hmmmm…I wonder.” The transformed human took a couple steps back from the bed and pointed his keyblade at her glowing horn. Turning it like he was unlocking a door yielded his desired results as the same cystalized globe that allowed the original Riku to go in and out of Sora’s dreams appeared before him. Except instead of a bunch of blackness, the center of the globe depicted a portrait of Luna sleeping soundly with a content smile on her face.

“Yes!” he whispered in triumph. Phillip then put his right hand on the globe and both he and the portal disappeared into the dream world. However, there was something that he had overlooked. If our hero had stopped to take off his vest and examine the back, he would’ve seen that instead of the normal spirit dream eater symbol that was supposed to be emblazoned on the back, it was an altered version of it with the right half being that of the nightmare dream eaters.

Once inside, Phillip thought he would be seeing Luna’s current dream, but instead found himself in a dark hallway with numerous doors on both sides. Each door had a name and cutie mark on their centers and the dreams of countless ponies could be heard from each one. Opening one door led the humanoid dream eater to a horrific nightmare about a manticore, causing him to slam the door shut before it noticed him. The next one led to an open sky. “Nope.” he said as he closed the door. It’s not that it was scary, it was just that he didn’t want to take another dive so soon.

The third door looked like a winner. The scene that greeted Phillip was that of a calm medow with a couple of unicorns having a picnic. It seemed very pleasant, and though he didn’t want to disturb them, he couldn’t deny that relaxing in a comforting meadow after all of his previous excitement was a very appealing prospect. So, after quietly shutting the door, Phillip snuck in and went to the other side of the clearing to sit down at a tree and rest. The sun provided all the warmth he needed. However, this was not to last, for not two minutes later, his stomach began to growl. He remembered that he hadn’t eaten breakfast today. Or was it tonight? Either way, the transformed human was hungry and he needed a snack.

“I wonder what there is to eat.” Looking at a nearby blueberry bush, our hero suddenly had the strangest of urges. He suddenly had a craving for not only the blueberries, but the entire bush, leaves and all. In fact, the trees, grass, small woodland animals, and even the sky itself suddenly looked appetizing. Since the ground was closer to his hands than the bush, he decided on that first. Taking hold of the ground and pulling yielded some very eye opening results. The ground ruffled to his grasp like fabric; and when he pulled, a piece was torn away from the rest like paper. What was left behind seemed to be a black void instead of more earth.

Staring at the void, then at the piece of ground, only one thought came to mind, “Well, over the teeth and past the gums as they say.” With that, he ate the piece of ground and found that instead of tasting like dirt, it was sweet. He then took a piece of the tree behind him and ate some more. This time he tasted something more specific. He couldn’t tell by the texture whether it was like a pastry or cake, but after swallowing, he didn’t care. All he saw in front of him was a very sweet dream waiting to be devoured; and at this moment, he had one monster of a sweet tooth.

Later

Luna was making her rounds to her little ponies’ dreams. Each night for the last few centuries, she had patrolled the sleeping realm and vanquished various nightmares, ranging from real life threats to creatures that only appeared in ghost stories to exaggerated life problems. Currently, she was at the door to one of her favorite subjects, Morning Glory. She expected another happy dream about spending time with the new stallion she had gotten together with recently; as lately, most of her dreams had been about him. Opening the door gave the princess of dreams a jaw dropping sight. Instead of a sweet dream about spending time with a special somepony, Luna saw a black void with Morning Glory and her coltfriend floating inside and sobbing into each other’s shoulders.

Seeing her subjects in distress, Luna floated over to comfort them. “What has happened here, my little pony? Who has destroyed what was most likely a pleasant dream?” she asked in a soft tone.

Morning Glory looked up at her with tears still streaming out. “It was horrible! He just kept eating and eating and eating! He ate the plants, the animals, the ground, and even the sky! He kept saying how delicious it all was and no matter what we did, we couldn’t stop him. He didn’t even notice us! Then he just opened a door in midair and left! Please, Princess Luna! Stop him!”

The princess was aghast at this. What sort of monster would eat a pony’s dreams!? Who could be so cruel as to invade a pony’s only safe haven and destroy it all just to sate its hunger!? Whoever or whatever it was, it would pay dearly. Going to other ponies’ dreams revealed the path that this fiend had taken. All along the Corridor of Dreams Luna found either black voids or half eaten dreams. When she had gotten to a nightmare both the pony and the nightmare apparition were holding each other in a black void and shaking in fear. They told her that the dream eating monster had said that the nightmare itself tasted like meat and ran out the door.

After a few more empty dreams, the princess of the night finally found the abomination. It was in an exciting foal’s dream of going on an adventure to save a damsel in distress. However, the dragon that the colt was supposed to fight was gone and said colt was pulling on the leg of the dream eater. This dream eater was a strange sight. It was bipedal like a minotaur, but only had a mane on top of its head, while the rest of its body appeared to be follicle free. It wore a strange outfit which was composed of a vest made of an unknown material with what she thought might be a tunic underneath, some sort of leg and hip covering, and some sort of hoof coverings that were not unlike her royal shoes, though a different shape and not made of metal. In its right hand was what looked like a demonic sword, but it had a piece jutting out from it that made the weapon look like a key. On the back of its vest was an unusual symbol. It appeared to be a heart combined with a fleur de lis with the left half having smooth edges and the right half having jagged edges.

Before the creature could take another bite of the tree trunk it was devouring Luna got its attention. “HALT, CREATURE!” she said using the royal voice that she had learned to use so long ago. This got the thing’s attention and when it turned to her, she noticed another thing about him. His eyes were half lidded and his mouth was set in a frown. Not the type that was of anger or sadness, but of neutrality, as though he wasn’t thinking anything of her.

Shaking her head to get it back on task, she addressed the creature. “I do not know who or what you are, creature, but as co-ruler of Equestria and sole princess of the night, I command you to stop the consumption of my dear subject’s dreams and to come quietly for interrogation.” The creature didn’t appear to heed her order as it put the whole piece of tree trunk it was holding in its mouth and charged at her with his keyblade raised up in what appeared to be a stabbing position. It was only because of her experience in combat that allowed her to evade what was instead a slash from the left to right. She then jumped back from a stab that came dangerously close to piercing her dead center in the chest.

“Alright, creature, have it your way!” Luna said as she charged at him while using her magic to extend her horn. It was now covered in a see-through aura in the shape of a broad sword. The creature ran at her again and brought its sword up for an overhead swing, to which Luna angled her head to parry the attack. She then teleported behind him and bucked, sending the being into an undestroyed portion of this dream’s castle wall. He then slid to the ground and rubbed his head.

Meanwhile, Phillip felt like he just woke up. Ironic considering where he was. Back on his feet he turned around and saw Princess Luna with her head low, horn aimed at his heart and pawing the ground with a hoof, getting ready to rush him. “Ready to continue, creature?” she said in a heated tone. Phillip looked at her, confused, before responding.

“What happened and what are you talking about?” he asked while scratching his head.

Luna’s horn stopped glowing as a look of confusion flashed over her face, before steeling her gaze again, getting back into her stance, and reigniting her horn. “Don’t play dumb with me, devourer of imagination! You will not trick me into letting my guard down!”

“Devourer of imagi…?” then it came back to him. “Oooh, crap!” Phillip quickly brought his keyblade up as Luna went for broke and tried to slice him with her now bladed horn. Blocking the lethal appendage made sparks fly. The part of the alicorn that was earth pony was doing its job of enhancing her strength, causing Phillip’s knees to buckle under the immense pressure. Luna, on the other hoof, was barely trying and not feeling satisfied that her foe wasn’t putting up a better fight. Phillip, getting desperate, tried to talk her out of this “Wait! I can explain!”

Luna backed off a few steps with her horn still glowing. “Alright, fiend, explain why you intruded on my subjects’ dreams, destroyed their figments, and mentally scarred them for life?” she said with impatience. She doubted that there was any good reason for it.

The beleaguered human was now put on the spot. He didn’t have a single idea of how to explain away his gluttony. “I…was very, very, hungry?” he said sheepishly.

“IRRRRR!” growled Luna as she sprinted horn first. Phillip tried to summersault to the right, but he was too slow. Luna’s horn was already only a few feet away and Phillip was only now just starting to tuck into a ball. However, that didn’t matter as the almost stabbed human suddenly turned into a ball of darkness and shot in the direction he was rolling, phasing through the alicorn’s horn and gaining a more comfortable distance. They both turned around to face each other and side stepped to try and circle around the other. Phillip was very surprised that he was able to do the Dark Roll and wondered what other dark moves he could do.

“Tell me, dream eater, what shall I call you? I want to know the name of the villain that is to be vanquished by yours truly.” she said with determination.

“Well this sucks.” he thought with a mental frown. “I haven’t even been here for long and I’m already labeled as a villain. This was not how I imagined coming here would be.” after his mental monologue of disappointment, he looked down at himself and decided to go with who he looked like. If he was going to be labeled as a villain, he might as well have her remember a cooler name than Phillip.

“Riku.” he said with a somewhat saddened tone.

“Well then, Riku. I hope you put up a better fight than you have been. Because so far, it seems that even if I were a filly, I could still beat you.” she said, not catching his tone of voice. Before she could take another step forward, a floating moon shaped clock appeared before her and started ringing. “Darn it! I’m out of time!”

“What do you mean?” he said with a tilt of his head.

After the clock disappeared, she explained. “I mean that I need to get up and lower the moon. So I have to stop holding back and capture you quickly.” she said hurriedly.

The now self-dubbed Riku looked down in thought. “I feel bad for what I did, but I don’t want to simply give up. Who knows what will happen to me. There’s no way I’m getting encased in stone or sent to the moon.” Looking back up, the keyblade wielder got back in his fighting stance and made eye contact. “Sorry, but I don’t want to take the risk of something horrible happening to me under your custody.”

“Hmph, no more horrible than what you’ve done to my little ponies.” she said before running at him full speed. Stopping a couple of feet away, Luna reared up and pulled a hoof back to punch him in the face. Riku raised his blade to block, but the alicorn disappeared in a flash and reappeared in almost an instant, landing a punch square on his left cheek. Stumbling to the right, Riku was met with another hard punch to his other cheek, sending him back the other way, but before he began leaning to his left, the bruised human received two hooves to his upper back that would’ve broken the bones of a normal human. Thankfully, along with receiving the character’s looks and powers, the morphed teen also got his above average durability.

Even though this was the case, that still didn’t stop him from feeling an immense amount of pain. Shakily getting up, he brought his sword up to bear and tried for another head on attack, showing his lack of experience. Shaking her head, Luna teleported behind and gave a strong punch to the back of his head, knocking him down.

Before losing consciousness, he had one request of the triumphant princess. “Take good care of my box…ugh” he said before passing out. She was confused by this until she turned her head slightly and received a glare in her eyes. Shielding them Luna turned to face the source and found a bejeweled box with the same symbol that was on his vest. Picking it up with her telekinesis and opening it revealed a puzzling sight. A soft material with differently shaped holes was placed inside. What was supposed to fill each hole was unknown to her, but regardless, she now had something to commemorate this unforeseen battle. Really, who would’ve guessed that the princess of the night would ever fight another being that could travel through dreams? She certainly wouldn’t have.

“I have no time to deal with you, so this will have to do. In retrospect, this is easier anyway.” she said before conjuring a huge set of metal double doors with her cutie mark on them. They opened, revealing a vast void filled with random things floating around. She then unceremoniously threw him in. “Have fun in the deepest recesses of my mind, glutton.” The doors slammed shut afterwards and large chains with a carriage sized padlock appeared, the whole thing disappearing once it was done.

“Now to raise the moon and hopefully never have to deal with this again.”

Oh, Luna. You should never tempt fate. It could bite you in the flank.

Author's Note

My new story! Hope you like it! Leave a comment and like and favorite of you enjoyed it. Make sure to tell me what you liked or disliked so that I can improve.

Edited chapter alert: I edited this so that something in the third chapter would make sense. Due to an oversight, I needed to make it so that he was specifically missing not only the keychains from DDD for his collection, but also Oathkeeper and oblivion. It will make sense later.