Kingdom Hearts: The Fragorian

“You have failed the Mark of Mastery Exam,” the man across the table said with a sadistic grin.

“What.”

I slammed my hand on the table, rattling the glasses and silverware. “You change it every time! And only because it is me!”

He leaned back in his seat. “Ah, that I do. Do you know why?”

I shook my head angrily.

“In real life, you must adapt to any situation.”

“Then why the hell do you not apply that to your other students?!”

“That is their training, Rendynn Spire. I expect more from you than any other. I would know.”

He gestured to the oddly shaped weapon on his back. It was curved like a scimitar, with a wickedly jagged axe-like head on the end. A tiny charm shaped like a broken shield (though I seriously thought it should have been a troll face) dangled off the pommel.

“But here’s the thing, ‘master’. I don’t have a Keyblade. Even worse, I don’t even have a stable job! The longer I go without that Mark of Mastery, the longer I go on a low budget and... and... mooching!”

Let me explain myself, here. This had been my sixth attempt at the Electroknight Mark of Mastery exam. The man who I called ‘Master’ was named Keng. He changed the exam up every time I took it, one time challenging me to a duel. Needless to say, I lost or failed every single time. Add onto that the waiting time of thirty days and you’ve got one angry teenager.

Did I also mention that a Mark of Mastery to an Apprentice Electroknight is a High School/College Diploma to a regular student? Jobwise, that was very accurate. I had to rely on odd jobs and unstable pay to keep my home warm and my food cold.

You’d see why I was pretty miffed.

“Rendynn, my faith in you remains. It is up to you whether to believe in yourself, too.”

I got up from the seat with a snarl. Keng was irritating. His praise would be sound, even uplifting, if it weren’t for the fact that I lived alone on a tight budget.

I stomped out of the diner, slapping a few orbs of Munny for the waitress, who’d kindly put up with my behavior that evening.

Outside was the city of Praetor, a technological marvel of a mountain city. Nighttime would approach soon, which would change the cityscape to a sea of lights when the sun set. I leaned on the railing of the steps. There was only one problem with the whole ‘nighttime’ business.

Heartless roam at night.

The sunset was an orange-tinted warning for the citizens: The Darkness is coming.

I could see small groups of people picking up the pace, some even full-on running to their homes. I was in no rush. I had been in training for six years, landing me at the healthy pre-adult age of nineteen. In that time, I had learned how to handle a blade (or two, if a situation like that ever came up), as well as properly utilize my Fragorian traits.

Our world is called Fragor. It, as well as its people, are highly affiliated with Thunder and Thunder accessories... I mean, magic. The thunderstorms which provided most of our power clustered at the peaks of mountains, and cities naturally sprung up in their shadow. The Praetor Ridge was blustery, chilly, and uninviting to newcomers - the people who lived there, slightly less so.

The Fragorian race, though human, took some traits from the world as a side effect from being born here. A small child can perform a Thunder spell. A young man can survive a bolt of lightning. Twice. Within seconds of each strike. And that was when he was unprepared.

I decided that all I wanted to do tonight was go home and rest. No use moping now, as the next exam would be in another thirty days. Dammit, Keng.

I began a light jog on the short route home. The Heartless would be out and about soon, and I wanted sleep, not injury.

But, of course, that would be boring.

A second set of footsteps joined mine. They were metallic. Looking behind me, I saw a short, armored figure with soulless yellow eyes tracking my movement behind its helmet. I spun, fired a quick Thunder spell, and promptly started running again. The whole ‘speak the word, cast the spell’ thing was bogus. All you need is the energy and the will to use it. Not some magic word. Proclaiming your attack is foolish and makes you come across as a complete dolt.

It was not long before I had more pursuers after my heart, and not in the good way. I stopped, once again turning to face my (external) demons. There were too many to ignore.

On my back was my custom short sword. It was a Boltstrike model, with an added twist. I drew the blade and flicked a switch on the hilt.

SHK-ZZZZT

The stainless steel blade extended a good foot, segmenting as it went. Between the sections flickered angry arcs of lightning magic. Occasionally a stripped wire would throw off a spark or two. I was going to get that fixed eventually. I totally wasn’t leaving it in for aesthetic purposes. Honest.

True to my training, I dove into a mix of ranged and up-close-and-personal attacks against my foes. A Soldier delivered a spinning kick only to get tripped up, stabbed, and then fired into his fellows, knocking them over like a deck of cards. Smaller creatures, called Shadows, rose from the ground and tried to make my shins suffer for what I did to their brethren.

I’m happy to say I still have my shins. As well as a higher body count.

The wait for nighttime means a large number of Heartless. I was only getting started.

Two Large Bodies had showed up on the scene. True to the name, the Heartless were... well, fat. Seriously. The guys were spheres on tree-trunk legs with equally beefy arms. A large stitched-heart symbol emblazoned on their chests as a staple of the term, ‘Emblem Heartless’.

One flexed. The other hit its belly threateningly.

“Oh, joy.”

The ‘fatso’ on the right charged first, without considering the fact I had a very sharp, electrically charged weapon in my hand. Hell, I didn’t even need to swing. I just lifted the blade, angled it correctly, and-

Whump

My blade was impaled right into its emblem, with the thing just staring at me as if I were some sort of wizard. I flicked the switch, bringing the creature in closer. I then flicked it again.

Never had I seen something so fat fly so quickly in my life. At the same time, I haven't ever laughed like a hyena, either. There’s a first for everything.

Its buddy was watching the entire event unfold. Then things changed for the worse.

‘Is... is that thing glowing?!’

The Large Body was now covered in a purplish-pinkish aura, and it was moving much faster than its flying brother.

I couldn’t react in time.

I was slammed into the wall of the alley, and I heard some very unnecessary cracking noises from my chest.

It raised an arm to punch. I raised an arm to block, closing my eyes and hoping to God that my parents would not hear about this.

…

It was taking an awful long time for the punch to come.

I looked back at the offender.

“What the hell.”

It was asleep. It was honest-to-God asleep. I slipped out of its grip, which slackened. I crept away and picked up my blade, which was dropped in the fight. Looking back, I could see the impression of a man doing a jumping jack on the wall.

I decided to let sleeping dogs lie. After all, tempting fate didn’t seem to be a good idea with the taste of blood on my breath.

***

I had reached my home, slightly hunched from the exertion and sudden impact to the chest. My breathing was irregular. I hobbled over to the kitchen. From the top cabinet, I grabbed a bottle with stars on the design. The liquid was an acid green, appearing more harmful than good. I ignored the color scheme and took a swig.

Having the bones in your body pop back into place without any pain is very, very unsettling. On top of that, the restorative effects of the ‘Hi-Potion’ took form in a green glow surrounding my wounds. They closed, numbed, then returned to normal. All in the span of a few seconds.

“I’ll never get used to that,” I shuddered.

I unstrapped the Boltstrike and set it on a stand in my room. From there, I stepped onto the balcony. I looked to the sky.

If there was anything the Heartless couldn’t take away, it was the night sky.

Unfortunately, that did not apply to the stars.

Every night, someone in my prospective line of work — namely, ensuring the continued existence of all living things — makes it a habit of scanning the night sky. The stars, we knew, were other worlds. Each one had hundreds of thousands of living beings on it. Each one had a Keyhole leading to its heart. And each one had Heartless on it, searching for that Keyhole. When they found it, the world died. No further prevention possible. No refunds.

And when the world died, its star went out.

Take tonight, for instance.

The star peeked over the summit of the next mountain over, between two thunderheads. It was bright, to begin with, which made it all the more noticeable when it started to dim.

It flickered on and off, occasionally letting out a multi-colored sparkle as something very big disappeared.

I knew what was happening. People were falling into crevasses, or being crushed by collapsing mountains. The sun in the sky was dimming. Animals and plants withered up and died without their connection to the heart of the world.

It wasn’t pretty.

I prayed to whatever gods there were that it never happened to my world. In a silent, guilty part of my mind, I thanked them that it still wasn’t our turn.

Detached grief turned into anger, as irrational as that was. I was supposed to be an Electroknight, or even a Keyblade Wielder. I was supposed to be out there, in the Lanes Between, watching for and preventing stuff just like this. Damn Keng and his pretzel logic. Damn his “tests.” I should be out there. I shouldn’t be swatting away scouting parties because I got caught out at night. I should have been there.

I should have been there.

I turned away from the sight. That part of the sky was now woefully dark. I entered my room and closed the door. I shut the blinds.

I crawled into my bed, and shut my eyes.

***

WHUMPH

And then I woke right the hell back up.

“The hell was that?” I muttered under my breath.

Shortly after that sound came another, but much more subdued.

“Robbers? The hell they doing at night?” You see, because most robberies happened during the day. The hassle of dealing with the legions of evil was usually enough to ensure at least a quiet night’s sleep.

So, either it was a particularly stupid criminal or a really dim Heartless. Either way, it was on my balcony, and either way, I had my sword so it would cease to be a problem shortly.

I crept up to the door of my balcony and pinched open the blinds. I then closed them again. Then I opened them back up to make sure what I saw was indeed not some sleep-addled figment of my mind.

Judging from the little coloring books I dabbled in as a small child, I could only assume that there was a purple unicorn sitting on my balcony, crying its eyes out.

This was very possibly a new trick of the Heartless. Although, if that were true, it would probably have the heart emblem tattooed on its rear end rather than whatever that star thing was supposed to be.

Opening the balcony door was probably a bad idea.

Alright.

crk-vvvvvvsh

I looked out from the sliding glass door at the tiny supposed-to-be-a-fairy-tale. “Hello?”

It — scratch that, she — looked up at me. Her purple eyes were bloodshot. She looked incredibly tired. And she was scared of me.

I was probably not the most welcoming visage on the planet. At the moment, I was tired, recently wounded, and firmly frustrated by Keng the Master Troll. I probably looked like I was about to throw her off the side of the building.

“I-I-I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I didn’t mean... I mean, I wasn’t going to... I didn’t...!”

“Shh, shh,” I hushed, reaching out to her as a placating gesture. “I’m not going to hurt you. I promise.” Okay, that was a lie if she was up to anything funny, but the chances of that were dropping by the second. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

“My name is...” she started, before interrupting herself with a sob. “My name is Twilight Sparkle. I... my home is gone. All my family, my friends... everything’s been destroyed.”

Son of a bitch.

“I may be the last Equestrian in existence,” she croaked. “And I don’t have any idea what I’m going to do next.”

I should have been there.

“I don’t have any money, I don’t have any food, I don’t even know where I am! I’m completely lost, and I don’t know what I’m going to do...!”

“Shush.”

I should have been there.

“Twilight,” I began, slowly. “I don’t know you very well. But I know what happened. I know exactly what happened. And let me be the first to tell you, you are incredibly lucky.”

She sniffed. “I don’t feel very lucky.”

I should have been there.

“I know. But you survived the unsurvivable. And you do not deserve this. Do you hear me?” I put a hand on her shoulder. “No living thing deserves to go through what you have tonight.” I looked her in the eyes. “I promise you, Twilight Sparkle, I’m going to help you to the best of my ability. I’m going to help you survive here. I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure you’re alright from here on. Do you understand?”

She nodded.

“Good. And for what it’s worth... I’m sorry.”

She embraced me, bursting into tears again. I returned the hug as softly as I could.

“I’m sorry.”

I should have been there.

***

I had given her my spare bedroom. Even through the hall and closed doors, I could still hear her sobs. Not once did I get up to quiet her down. She needed to get those emotions out, otherwise it would do more harm to herself (and me, for my heart was not exactly iron) if she felt she had to repress those emotions.

Since sleep wasn’t an option, at least for now, I instead chose to plan out my course of action.

I had a new person in the house. A new mouth to feed. On my budget, I could feed myself and leave about... a week’s worth of food in advance. Assuming she ate just as much as I did, which may be a stretch due to her size, the budget would need a good increase in Munny in order to keep living stable. That meant more job-hunting. It also meant that Keng had better know what the hell was coming his way the next time I attempted to get my Mark of Mastery. Failure was no longer an option.

With a grin at the thought of a jaw-dropped Keng, rest finally came.