The silence was the most disconcerting thing about it all. Not a single peep from any living thing for miles. And to think that this city used to house around 500,000 at one point. But now, not even ghosts whisper in the streets or down the alleys. The only sound was the constant whirring of Pinkie's servos as she fidgeted about, and the occasional thunk of metal hitting stone as RD restlessly waved her wings around. The rest of the group stayed silent, waiting for the signal that was supposed to have come ten minutes ago.
“This is so BORING. When are we going to get some action?” asked RD, who began walking along the edge of the rooftop on which everyone was waiting.
“Soon enough,” I said, but even I was getting sick of the waiting. I was starting to worry that maybe Shining Armor and Cadence had failed in their mission, but I shook the thought away. They have never failed before, and they wouldn't fail now. But still...
“Look!” shouted Twilight, and everyone looked up at the sky to see a pink flare sail into the sky from within an alley.
“Alright everypony, you know your jobs, let's go!” I held out my hand in front of me and summoned my Keyblade, a bluish-gray thing that had carvings of wolves down the length of the blade. Standing on the edge of the roof, I looked down and felt that familiar feeling one gets when looking down a great height. It's the need to jump, to feel the ground disappear from beneath your feet. And so I did
Looking to the sky as I fell, I saw RD and Fluttershy launch themselves off the roof after me, and they stretched out their wings and glided toward the direction where the flare came from. I turned my head toward the wall of the building and gripped my Keyblade tight with both hands and dug it into the wall, slowing my decent. As I neared the ground, I pulled the blade free and landed neatly on the ground next to Rarity and Applejack, who were looking around and making sure that they weren't going to be ambushed from around a corner.
“You two ready?” I asked, and they both nodded, still scanning the surroundings. I climbed onto AJ's back and we rode off in the opposite direction of where RD and Fluttershy had gone. But as soon as we had turned the first corner we ran into a group of about 15 Nobodies, who had most likely been drawn out by the flare. Without pausing, AJ launched a grenade into their midst, and the Nobodies were gone. We continued on, and headed toward the radio tower.
Meanwhile, RD and Fluttershy were engaged in an aerial battle with several Wyvern Heartless, keeping them from swooping down on Shining Armor and Cadence. As the two emerged from the alley, it became clear that their mission had gone awry. Cadence's right wing had snapped in half, and the tip was dragging on the ground behind her. Shining Armor was looking just as bad, his rear left leg a mangled mess.
Even though they had barely gotten out alive, they had completed their mission. They had found Luna's heart, after she had fallen after she was ambushed by five Twilight Thorns during the investigation of a signal sent out by an apparent survivor within the city. It was a possibility that the signal was a trap, but it was worth a shot. But after the signal persisted, we were certain that there was someone still out there, most likely hiding in the radio tower where the signal came from.
Luckily, the heart avoided being consumed by the Heartless by being kept in a special case that emits a special light that drives off the Heartless. After Shining Armor and Cadence had found the heart, however, they found out that it had been previously been discovered by the Nobodies, who waited nearby, knowing that it would be retrieved later. Caught unawares, the couple had to fight off the swarm of Nobodies to retrieve the heart and escape.
Now, as they limped back towards the building that we had used as a temporary base, Twilight had met them downstairs and looked them both up and down.
“Oh my gosh! What happened to the two of you?” she asked.
“We were ambushed. The Nobodies had used Luna's heart as bait,” Shining Armor panted, the motors and servos in his body making a whining sound as some of them scraped together. After a pause, his wounded leg fell away from his body, leaving a few wires sticking out from the socket. “Well, at least I have less to drag around,” he grinned sheepishly.
Twilight picked up the mangled limb and slung it over her back, then led them back into the building and onto the roof. Rainbow and Fluttershy were already there, a bit beaten up but not too worse for where.
“Did you see me out there? I totally pwned those Heartless. There's no way those oafs could out-fly me. I am the best flier in Equestria, after all,” Rainbow Dash boasted. But at the mention of their old home, all of the ponies looked down sadly, remembering everything that had been lost.
After a minute of silence, Twilight spoke up. “So, did you two find her?” Shining Armor nodded, and his chest plate swung open to reveal a cavity, inside which where two heart-shaped metal objects, both of which were glowing faintly. One of the hearts was fairly scratched up, but none of the scratches seemed to have pierced the shell. Twilight lightly touched her muzzle to the heart and it momentarily glowed brighter, then returned to normal. With a nod, Shining Armor closed the opening in his chest, concealing the hearts once again.
Pinkie Pie bounced over to them, almost looking like she was vibrating. “What's wrong Pinkie?” Twilight asked. Pinkie started to look around quickly, her tail twitching constantly. Every several seconds or so her entire body would shiver, causing the metal plates of her body to clink together.
“I don't know, but whatever it is, it's a doozy,” Pinkie said, and continued looking around. The rest of the group looked the the sky, then turned to the direction that my group had gone.
As we neared the radio tower, we noticed that there seemed to be Heartless everywhere, swarming toward the same place as us. They seemed to more concerned with getting there than attacking us, so we were able to sneak past them easily. Once inside, we found the building completely devoid of any Heartless or Nobodies. Wary of this, I kept my Keyblade at the ready, while Rarity and Applejack kept swiveling their guns towards every door and hallway we passed. We worked our way upstairs until we found the recording rooms, which seemed empty. But as we walked down one hallway, I saw a figure dart across from us into another room.
“Hello?” I called out, and saw a face peeked around a door frame.
“Who are you?” the person asked, and I could instantly tell that it was a girl. She stepped out from the doorway and pointed with what was unmistakably a Keyblade. It looked almost exactly like mine, although with a pink tinge to it, and it was almost twelve inches shorter.
Signaling for the ponies to lower their guns, I lowered my Keyblade and kept my eye on her own weapon. “We came here because we heard a transmission coming from here. We thought that someone was calling for help,” I explained.
“Well, I was. I've been stranded in this city for weeks. And now I want to leave. So are you here to rescue me?” she asked, and crossed her arms. Apparently she trusted us enough to put her weapon down, but she still kept it at hand.
“That was the plan, yes,” I replied. I wasn't liking this girl's attitude. She was too full of herself. But I wondered how she was able to keep the Heartless and Nobodies at bay, and for weeks as she claimed. I had years of practice sparring with my friends before the darkness overtook our world and I received the Keyblade, and not even I could hold back this many enemies for longer than a day.
“Are there any other people with you?” I asked. She shook her head and started tapping her foot.
“Can we go now?” she asked impatiently, and walked past us towards the direction we came from. As she passed, what I had thought was a leather jacket shuffled slightly, revealing itself to be a pair of black, bat-like wings.
“How rude,” Rarity said, and looked at me. “Well? Can we go? The dust in here's starting to ruin my finish,” and with that she walked off after the girl. Applejack chuckled and followed, leaving me to sigh and walk after them.
Out on the roof, Pinkie Pie suffered a soft of seizure and yelled out. “It's coming!” she exclaimed, and everypony looked up to the sky in time to see a burning Gummi ship fall out of the sky and clip the radio tower before crashing into a building a couple blocks from them.
Author's Note
So here it is! My first fanfic! Sort of inspired by these two pics:
http://csimadmax.deviantart.com/art/the-darkness-205639061
http://tsitra360.deviantart.com/art/My-Little-Ponybots-282360624
That's about it I suppose. Should I continue this story? I have ideas for another chapter but nothing planned out farther than that. Thanks for reading!
We felt the building shake and raced outside to check it out. But once we reached the front door we saw that thousands of Heartless had swarmed around the building.
“Well, this is going to be annoying,” I sighed and kicked open the door, and Heartless began flooding in. Applejack stepped forward and launched a grenade at the door and widened the opening, allowing even more Heartless to enter.
“This is a horrible rescue,” the girl said, as she watched the darkness swarming around us. She didn't seem worried in the least, and occasionally kicked and swung her Keyblade at any Heartless that wandered too close.
“We know what we're doing,” I said, and walked slowly around the room, swinging my Keyblade as I went. Rarity took Applejack's position in front of the door and swiveled the miniguns mounted on her back towards the opening. Digging in her hooves, she opened fire, each bullet leaving a glowing trail as it zipped through the air. The Heartless fell quickly, and a gap quickly appeared in the swirling darkness. Slowly, she walked forward, and Applejack followed close behind, every so often firing grenades through the gap.
I made my way over to the girl who had trapped a Heartless under her foot and was slowly stabbing it repeatedly with the end of her Keyblade. After a quick stab and twist of her wrist, the Heartless expired and she watched the released heart float into the sky with an awed expression.
“That seemed a bit cruel,” I commented, and led her toward the ponybots, who had made it through the door and were now fighting their way towards the street.
With a shrug she swept past me and cast a blizzard spell at a group of Heartless gathered in a corner, freezing them solid. Walking over to the chunk of ice, she tapped it lightly with her Keyblade and smiled as it exploded into snow. “I'm a cruel person,” she said, and followed in the ponies' wake. Frowning, I followed, wondering if it was a good idea to have rescued her.
Back at base, Twilight and Pinkie were watching over Shining Armor and Cadence, talking about the crashed Gummi ship. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had flown over to the wreckage to investigate and search for survivors.
“What do you think could have happened?” Cadence asked, as she inspected the stump of Shining Armor's detached limb. He had detached the leg at the stifle joint, and a few wires were dangling from the stump. The sounds of the motors in his leg could be heard clearly as he waved the leg about.
“I'm not sure, but it certainly isn't good,” Twilight sighed, and watched her brother and foal-sitter together. She was tired of the war she and her friends found themselves in, but it wasn't anything that could be avoided. The darkness had overtaken her world quickly, despite the Princesses' attempt to shield it. During the final days before their world fell, Celestia had made a difficult decision. She called in her faithful student and her friends, along with her sister Luna, Princess Cadence, and Shining armor. Using ancient magic that only Celestia knew about, she extracted all of their hearts and encased them in a special shell that would repel the Heartless. Then, she placed the hearts within the casket holding the Elements of Harmony, and fired it towards the stars in hopes that it would land in a safer world.
The casket fell here to Earth, which was had already been overrun by the darkness but was still fighting back. I found it months ago, when it landed in a horse barn not far where I lived. Being a Keyblade wielder, I was able to communicate with the hearts directly, and learned of their world's fate. I built robot bodies for each of them, and was surprised when they expressed that they wished to fight against the darkness. After a bit of experimentation and tweaking, with input from each of them, I made battle-ready bodies that fit their tastes.
Rainbow Dash landed lightly next to the crashed Gummi ship, and walked around the outside, looking for an entrance. She found a large hole near the underside of the ship, which had burn marks all around it. Fluttershy landed next to her and poked her head in, and gasped with surprise. Inside there was a young woman, with her arms wrapped around a gravely injured man about the same age as her. She was sobbing lightly, stroking the man's back, who was taking deep, stuttering breaths.
“Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked, and gently nuzzled the woman's arm. The woman flinched and held the man tighter, then nodded.
“H-He's hurt,” she said, then lifted the man's shirt to reveal a bloody gash in his side. She lowered the shirt and kissed his forehead. Rainbow nodded to Fluttershy and flew back to Twilight's group, while Fluttershy stayed behind and watched over the survivors.
My group had finally reached the street and we raced back to base, eager to get out of the city and back home. We saw Rainbow fly over us, and she swooped down to join us. “We found a crashed ship, and there are survivors,” she said, and pointed with her wing toward the direction she had just came from. She eyed the girl we had found, and tilted her head at the sight of the Keyblade. “Who's she?” she asked.
I shrugged and looked at her. “Who are you?”
She smirked and swung her Keyblade in my direction. I reacted and blocked with my own, and she took the opportunity to grab my wrist and twist it behind my back. I was surprised and pulled away, and she let me go. “Finally, you ask. I'm Nyx. Nice to meet you.” With a grin, she gave a bow, and kept walking. With a growl, I went after her, and grabbed her arm. She pulled away and brought her Keyblade up to my throat. “Don't. Touch. Me.” she said, and turned away.
“Hey! You don't do that to Luka!” Rainbow yelled, and jumped in front of her. Nyx looked at her for a moment, then walked past her. Rainbow kept trying to stop her, and finally held out her wings to surround the girl. “Listen to me when I'm talking to you!” Nyx rolled her eyes and ducked under the wings, and kept walking. With a frustrated yell, RD flew up into the air and flew towards base.
“Now listen here little missy. We've rescued you, so the least you could do was show a bit of gratitude,” Applejack said, as she watched Rainbow fly off.
“Fine. Thanks for the rescue,” Nyx said, and gave a small curtsy. We walked back to base in silence, and met up with the rest of the group. When we got back, Rainbow growled at Nyx but remained silent. The way the others looked at Nyx told me that she had already told them of her encounter.
With a sigh, I turned to Shining Armor. “So? Did you find her?” Shining Armor nodded and opened his chest again, revealing the two hearts. “Good. So, we should all go to that crashed ship and pick up the survivors. I assume that Fluttershy is with them?” I asked, and the others nodded. We all made our way to the wreckage, and met Fluttershy outside. “How are they doing?” I asked.
Fluttershy pawed the ground at her feet, working up the courage to speak. After months of being together, Fluttershy was still shy around me. After a minute, she spoke up. “Um, well, they're asleep, but the man's hurt, and I don't know if he'll pull through.”
With a sigh, I nodded.”We'll have to get him home quick if he's going to have any chance. RD is going to have to fly him home ahead of us. Kay should be able to take care of him.” I stepped into the wreck and gently shook the woman awake. She woke with a start and summoned a Keyblade and waved it in my direction. Surprised, I stepped back and summoned my own Keyblade. Her eyes grew wide and looked at me, and put hers down.
“You're a Key-wielder?”she asked, and looked down at the man, whose head was in her lap.
I nodded and pulled a tiny bottle from my pocket, then pointed at him. “May I?” I asked gently, and she nodded and lifted his shirt. I inspected the gash closely and poured the potion over the wound, and muttered a spell that closed the skin over the injury. “The wound is still there, but at least he won't bleed out,” I said, and she nodded, reassured. I offered my hand to her. “My name's Luka,” I said.
“Kairi,” she replied, and shook my hand. “And he's Sora,” she said softly, and gently stroked the man's hair. He stirred slightly at the mention of his name, but did not awaken.
“Kairi, we're going to have to get Sora healed quickly if he's going to survive. So we need to fly him to our base to get healed. Is that alright?” I asked. She nodded, and I picked Sora up off of the ground. I carried him over to Rainbow Dash and strapped him to her back. With a nod, she jumped up in the air and was gone in seconds. I turned and saw Kairi watch them fly off, and after a minute or two after they were beyond our sight she straightened up and nodded to me. Nodding back, I inspected our group.
“Alright everyone, time to go home,” I said, and led the way home, the sun setting behind us.
Author's Note
I feel like there's a better way to organize my chapters, but I'm writing as my ideas are still in my head. Also! Sora and Kairi! But where's Riku? We'll probably find out next chapter, so stay tuned!
