Kingdom Hearts: The Fragorian

“Oww.”

“Hey, he’s awake!” I felt pressure on my chest. Pinkie was tapping me with her hoof.

“Why does my back hurt?”

“You’re using your sword as a bed, silly!” Pinkie chided with a giggle.

“Of course. How could I forget,” I said flatly. I opened my eyes to be assaulted not by the sun, but of the very bright pink pony with equally bright blue eyes. I rolled over and got on my hands and knees.

“You had us worried.” Twilight said, sitting in one of the armchairs.

“Celestia’s sakes, Rendynn! You had us scared half to death when ya wouldn’t wake up!”

How nice. They really did care —

“... ‘Cuz if ya died, you’d never get a job, and then where would we be?”

Oddly enough, that inflammatory statement reminded me of the apology I owed the ponies. I shrugged it off, opting to get up and rub my aching back, which I believed had the imprint of a lightning bolt, as well as the copyright date, serial number, and manufacturer...

Focus, Rend. Time to be the bigger man. ...Okay, so you’re already bigger by like two and a half times, but you know what I mean.

“Right, you guys, can you sit at the table over there? I need to do something real quick.” The ponies filed out of the living room.

I left for my own room, and shut the door. After cleaning myself up and changing clothes, I headed for the kitchen.

When I entered, I spotted Twilight reading one of the few books I had in the house, Applejack messing around with her hat, and Pinkie... being Pinkie? To this day, that waffle iron’s origins remain a mystery.

I cleared my throat, prompting them to look up at me.

“I believe I owe you all an apology.” I started, grabbing their attention as I sat down. I looked to Applejack first. “Applejack, I’m sorry for snapping at you yesterday. I’ve been job-hunting for six months, and it’s been a real pain trying to find one with stable pay.” I turned my head to Pinkie, who was smiling widely. “Pinkie, I’m sorry for getting flustered at your questions. I promise to be more attentive and open in the future.” Finally, I turned my head to Twilight. I thought for a moment. “Uh, actually Twilight, I think we’re cool.”

I addressed them as a whole. “Now, on top of that, due to the circumstances, we’ll be seeing a lot of each other in the coming days.” They nodded, and I continued, “Since that is the case, I figured that I should get to know you all a bit better. No use in quarreling every few minutes over every little thing, eh?”

“Right.” Twilight said with a smile.

“A’course.” Applejack nodded.

“Mmh-hmm!” Pinkie mmh-hmm’d. Heh.

“As you all know, my name is Rendynn Spire. My friends call me me Rend. I have been training for six, almost seven years now to become a full-fledged Electroknight, one of the special military forces that ship out and help other worlds.”

“... Like ours?” Twilight asked.

I winced. “... Yes. That is the reason I’ve been such a grump, recently. I was probably one of the few out and looking to the sky when your world’s star went out.”

“So that’s why ya feel so inclined t’help us?” Applejack inquired.

“Yes and no. I wanted to help you guys not only because of what had happened, but... because I’m unaccomplished. I’m no Electroknight, not yet, anyways. But what if I could help? What if I could save someone?” I looked them all in the eyes. “Don’t think for a moment that I wouldn’t have helped were that not the case. I was raised in a good family and my conscience is a force of nature.”

Applejack chuckled, “Ya sound just like mah brother.”

I chuckled, trying my hardest not to do anything that would remind her that, right now, her brother was either dead or Heartless-ified.

CRASH

That was not a good sound.

I ran out to the balcony, trying to figure out what was going on. The inky black smoke told me all I needed to know.

Speaking of Heartless...

I turned back to the ponies.

“Rend?” Twilight asked. “What’s going on?”

“Emergency,” I said, scrambling to get my gear in order. “Heartless attack down on Apogee Street. I must go, my people need me.”

With my kit in order, I bolted out the door. Or I would have, had Applejack not stopped me.

“Now hang on there, hayseed. This don’t-”

“Applejack,” I hissed, picking her up and swinging her behind me, “Now is not a good time. I can answer all your questions later, but right now, lives are in danger!”

I was halfway out before being interrupted again.

“Then we’re coming, too!”

The three were assembled behind me, far too tiny and far too adorable to look as threatening as they were trying to be.

“Ack— ffff— I —” I sputtered. “Fine! Just, whatever you do, don’t get in between my sword and a Heartless. And for Pete’s sake, hit the dirt if thunderbolts start flying.”

I finally got outside. The trio of candy-colored companions trailing me was an acceptable concession.

***

It was a scene of pure chaos. The crowd was pressing down one direction, desperate to flee whatever had kicked off this fracas. I and the ponies were running up the opposite lane. No one was stopping us, because a guy with a sword running opposite everyone else must logically know what he’s doing, right?

I wish.

“So, why are they out now?”

“I’m sorry?”

Twilight and company were keeping pace with me. Once again, I was running full tilt, but they didn’t seem to be moving much faster than a brisk trot. I had lower body strength envy.

“What would these Heartless be doing at this hour?” Twilight asked. “I thought they only came out at night.”

“Yes, well,” I panted, “That’s not quite it, exactly.” We turned a corner. Apogee Street was a few blocks away, yet. “You see, Heartless don’t like our sun for some reason. Wherever its light hits, they want to be somewhere else. Only—” I was interrupted by a particularly tight turn. “—only the place where these are, Apogee Street, has quite tall buildings on both sides.”

“Is that why they named it after a time of day?”

“Yeah. It only gets sunlight for a couple of hours around noon. Any nasties that got caught there would probably try to find shelter inside one of the buildings. That’s probably why the only shops brave enough to set up down there are the weapons and armor merchants.”

Judging from the smoke, at least one of those merchants hadn’t been armed or armored enough.

***

Apogee Street was empty. The only sign of a bad time was the smoke pouring out of a weapons shop near the back corner.

A very familiar weapons shop...

Oh, God.

The neon lighting had fizzled out. The storefront windows had all been blown inward, like a great gust of wind had hit them. The sign, which had a cartoon picture of a mace on it, had been snapped off. Despite all this, the place was still unmistakable.

The Heartless had ransacked Combo’s Breakers.

I don’t think you understand. I loved Combo’s Breakers.

Something on the highest story made a very large BANG. I barged in.

I was getting tired of running everywhere, but this was important, dammit. No Heartless downstairs. I kept running. Between the weapon racks, up seven flights of stairs. Ponies were yelling at me. Not important.

I slammed the office door open.

“Combo! You in here?”

No noise. Too quiet. There were supposed to be Heartless around, right? What was— OH.

A giant black shape lay crumpled at the far wall, smoking as it slowly dissolved. It looked like a tiny, horned Darkside. It was only after I saw its blue-yellow sword embedded nearby that I realized...

“An Invisible? Holy... Who took this thing out?”

“That’d be me,” a voice behind me coughed.

There, in all his camo-clad glory, was Connor “Combo” Breaker, the weaponsmith, curled up in the corner and clutching his famous armored shotgun for dear life.

“Hey, Rend.”

“Combo!” I cried, walking up to him. “I thought something awful had happened to you!”

He gave a sad smile. “You thought right.”

“What.”

He coughed again. I noticed several dark, purplish patches on his arms and neck.

“Combo, what are these-”

“Ring of fire.”

I froze. It hadn’t... he wasn’t...!

“Got a good shot on me before I could return the favor.” He gestured to the dead monster’s prone form opposite him in the room, chuckling. “At least I can say I killed the thing that killed me.”

“Don’t... don’t talk like that, man,” I stuttered, crouching over him. “I’m gonna get you to a hospital, alright? You’re gonna make it through this.”

“Rend, my pulse has already stopped.” He took the ensuing shocked silence to cough again, this time even harder. “Tell Lionel...” his eyes started to close. “...he can have the shop.”

“No. Hey, Combo, that’s not funny.” I grabbed his shoulders. “Combo, stay awake, come on.” I shook him. “Connor! Wake up!”

I lost my grip on him. Not for lack of trying. He phased through my arms like a ghost, his form fading into nothingness. Eventually, only a small, bright gemlike thing was left — his heart. It fluttered up, aiming itself out of the window to go wherever hearts go.

Unfortunately, that route put it right into the cloud of darkness from the dead Invisible.

It attracted the shadowy leftovers like a magnet. The rest of the monster’s corpse disintegrated and reformed around its new host.

My first thought on the final product was — it looked like a Soldier. Almost too typical to really be the Heartless formed from someone like Combo Breaker. Then I realized that normal Soldiers weren’t usually that green, nor were they as well-armored.

The thing looked at me with its soulless yellow eyes. Without much ado, it held out one hand and pulled Combo’s shotgun from across the room. Weapon in hand, it sunk through the floor.

This could turn out to be a problem.

I heard a scream below. Now it was a problem.

Without a second thought, I dashed madly for the exit, thoughts moving at even higher speeds.

Too late.

Made it, but still couldn’t do a damn thing.

Connor’s dead.

You couldn’t save him.

You can’t save anyone, can you?

I rushed down the flight of stairs to find the Green Soldier’s back to me, raising its shotgun up to-

click-SHOOM

I don’t think so, Tim.

The burst never reached the ponies, instead being halted by my recently rediscovered Barrier spell.

The over-armored Soldier turned to look at me as I fixed it with a glare that could send it six feet under.

“Rend, let us out! We can help!” Twilight shouted from the other side of the barrier.

“You’d be dead right now if I hadn’t gotten here in time,” I growled, not looking away from the Soldier. “And I’m not going to let anyone else die today. Stay out of this.”

She tried to yell something. I willed the barrier to thicken, opaquing its surface and blocked out whatever she was saying.

Even in death, the Invisible managed to get Combo a second time. Under my watch. I was livid. How can I protect these ponies if I couldn’t even save one of my best friends?

The Green Soldier realigned his gun on me.

“Connor,” I said, unsheathing my sword, “I’m sorry.”

I lunged at the monster, bringing my weapon down as hard as I could. I would later tell people I was aiming to separate its left half from its right and end the fight quickly. Really, I was just mad as hell.

CLANG

“Uhh....”

The Green Soldier had brought the shotgun up and deflected my strike with it. Not as surprising as it sounds when you think about it - Combo’s shotgun was purpose-built to be all but indestructible. He proceeded to bring the gun’s butt around and give me a whole faceful of “indestructible”. It was not pleasant.

The double shock from the gun hitting my face and my face hitting the ground broke the barrier spell I was maintaining on Twilight and friends. Just dandy, now he was going to turn around and shoot them just like he was about to-

KPAK

...Aaaand now he was flying over me after something apparently very large punched him. What the hell.

I tried sitting upright to see who had saved the ponies from certain doom. But for some reason, the only things besides me and the Soldier were... the ponies. What the hell?

“Nice hit, Applejack,” Twilight said, nodding at the mare in question, who appeared to be rearing up. “I think you broke it.”

Wait, broke what.

I turned around to see the Green Soldier buried chest-deep in a weapons rack, the supposedly unbreakable shotgun in two pieces on either side of him.

What the hell!?

I heard the audible sound of springs as Pinkie Pie came up and then put her face uncomfortably close to mine.

“Are you okay?” She asked.

I blinked, still trying to process exactly what happened in the last several seconds.

“Y-yeah. Thanks, Pinkie.”

She beamed. I heard the distinct sound of something moving through the air at high speeds.

The adrenaline pumped. My vision cleared. In one quick motion, I got off the ground, picked up my oddly-shaped sword, and blocked the tomahawk aimed for Pinkie’s head.

I addressed the ponies, “Alright, everyone. You can help, but for the love of God, watch yourselves! This thing’s got telekinesis and used to be my weapon nut of a friend, not to mention we are in a room filled with sharp, pointy objects.”

“Right!” I heard from them shout in unison.

The ‘Armsmaster’, as I decided to call the Soldier, shook itself free of the weapons racks and summoned up halberds, throwing knives, a broadsword, and a very mean-looking shuriken or two... thousand.

No sweat, right?

The Armsmaster moved first, sending a large portion of the weapons my way, glinting dangerously in the dim lighting of the store. I couldn’t hope to block them all with just my sword, so I sent smaller Barrier spells at large or numerous targets while dashing towards the armored fiend.

Applejack may have been unarmed, but she had definitely proven that her strength hadn’t toned down her agility. She dodged and weaved blades, stopping for a split second to kick large things at the Armsmaster.

Twilight was literally wielding a shortsword with her mouth, while Pinkie hopped to and fro, attracting attacks from all directions yet not being hit by a single one. Even her ridiculously poofy mane escaped harm.

All the while, I was either using wide sweeps with the Boltstrike or firing respective Barrier and Thunder spells from my unarmed hand when necessary. The Armsmaster always left a good number of weapons around it, either taking electrical hits or blocking my attacks. It was getting frustrating, to say the least.

One knife I failed to acknowledge got a good gash on my chest. Other weapons managed to nick my armor or leave shallow cuts on my arms or legs, prompting grunts of pain or anger from me.

It was slow going, and, at one point, I realized:

We’re not getting through.

Twilight and Pinkie did act as distractions, no doubt, but I and Applejack couldn’t hope to engage the Armsmaster in close quarters, and nothing we did seemed to faze it. My cuts and wounds began to take their toll, and Applejack was slowing down.

The breaking point was during Twilight’s spirited fencing match with a floating tonfa. Unbeknownst to her, a giant mace nearly six feet long was floating over her, ready to plummet down and break something important.

I barely noticed out of the corner of my eye. To this day, I’m convinced I came within half a second of complete and utter failure.

I dived, not having nearly enough time to erect a Barrier spell. I slid beside her as the telekinesis holding the mace up cut out, letting it drop like a ton of bricks. Or a ton of maces. It weighed a lot, is what I’m getting at. The only thing I could do was bring up my sword and hope the ensuing shards of metal didn’t impale me too much.

Instead, something entirely different happened.

A truly indescribable, high-pitched sound erupted from the air around us. The Boltstrike and the mace both began glowing a bright, pure white, melting together and reforming into a shape that condensed their collective mass into something altogether heftier, and much more dangerous.

The light faded, leaving the spitting image of the thunderbolt Keyblade from my dream.

It was real. The weapon, my role in using it, and everything that went along with those first two — they were real. If you’re looking for a second wind, you can’t get much better than that.

My injuries ceased to pressure my mind. The properties I had attained in the dream had returned.

I now had the power to change things.

I took a step towards the Armsmaster, who took a step back in response. I was told that the only thing that could scare the Heartless was the Keyblade itself. The silvery, spark-emitting blade only confirmed that claim.

“Rendynn.” I heard from Twilight behind me.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” I said, trying not to let my grin show in my voice. “Me and Connor need to step outside for a brief... chat.”

With that, I launched myself forward. The Armsmaster raised half a dozen weapons in defense, which I shot away with angry arcs of Thunder. I slammed into the metallic fiend and sent the both of us tumbling out the store’s front window, which, thankfully, already had the glass forcefully removed.

We tumbled in a mass of metal and screaming teenager. You can guess what was what. The Soldier-Combo hybrid kicked me off before summoning one of its greatswords. It assumed what I thought was the dueling stance.

No more games.

I flicked the edge of what used to be the Boltstrike. It entered my mind somewhere that I needed to find a new name for it, but I was sticking with Boltstrike for the time being. It fit better than ever now, in my opinion.

In stature, I had a foot or two over the Heartless in front of me. In armor, however, it had me beat. I was only wearing the padding for my training gear at the time. Combo always made his swords sharp.

Lucky for me that Keyblades came sharper.

I lunged, bringing the Boltstrike down in another beheading move. This time, there was no armor-plated shotgun blocking my path.

Aaaaand he moved.

Well, there’s the downside to that maneuver.

I caught myself before I could fall face-first onto the pavement and humiliate myself. I spun, parrying the greatsword as the Armsmaster attempted to mime me in a situation much more suited to a coup de grace like that one.

I thrust. He parried. I swooped in low, he jumped over me and gave me a goose-egg with his heel. I went on the defensive, and he bullied me into the broken glass with the flat of his sword and a bum rush.

I will have you know that getting pressed into a frame full of broken glass stings like a bitch.

I needed an edge. This thing had all of Combo’s combat expertise, plus it never got tired or discouraged. That was three points it had on me already. I wracked my brain for something, anything that I could do to throw it off.

Ohh.

I sprouted an evil grin. I had no idea if this would work, but darned if I wasn’t going to try.

I waited for the Armsmaster to come down at me again. This time I juked out of the way, catching the greatsword in the Boltstrike’s teeth. With a flick of the wrist, I retracted the Boltstrike, bringing the teeth together. It clamped the sword’s blade off at the hilt like a giant wire cutter.

The Armsmaster blinked at its now-useless weapon in surprise.

In that split second, I pulverized its head.

Game over. Rendynn wins. Fatality.

***

I watched Connor’s heart make its way through the sky and glimmer in the sunlight, before it disappeared to who-knows-where. I found out, to my pleasant surprise, the Keyblade strapped onto my back just as well as the sword it used to be did. I heard the sound of hooves on stone, and turned to meet my friends.

Twilight was the first to speak, “Rend? Are you alright?”

My cuts kind of hurt, why do you ask?

Based on the look on her face, I could only assume I looked worse than shit.

I sighed, “Yeah. Sort of. Just lost my best friend. Got a faceful of broken glass.”

“Best friend?”

“Connor got blindsided by a very powerful Heartless,” I said, wincing as I pulled a shard out of my cheek. “I can’t imagine it was very pleasant. Figures, doesn’t it? The day I get this thing,” I tapped the keyblade strapped to my back, “is the day I’m too late to save him. Guy lived four years on Apogee Street and not once did he have a problem keeping the gremlins out. Now...”

I looked up from the small, sharp fragment of pain in my hand at the three ponies. They were looking at me with enough pity to embarass a stray dog. Venting could wait.

“Anyway,” I said, eager to move on, “Now I’ve got to go over to the Breaker house and give his brothers the news. But hey, look on the bright side.”

“Bright side?” Applejack repeated, as though the words were in Japanese.

“Yeah. Combo always said he wanted to die fighting. Who else can say their last wish was granted twice?”

I don’t know what I expected, but I was sort of thankful they didn’t laugh. It meant we were all still in our right minds.