Kingdom Hearts: The Remnant

The screams were long gone. The sounds of death and ruin had faded to a dull ringing in my ears as I floated, motionless... wherever I was.

If this was death, I could get used to it.

I felt a lurch in my gut as my sense of direction started flip-flopping on which was was “up.” Eventually it settled on one direction in particular and I began to plummet, feet-first. I fell for quite a while. It was impossible to tell how far, as I could see nothing but black, black, and more black until I eventually touched down.

The “ground” made a hollow clank as I landed upright, blinking. The area about me was dimly lit, the only source of light being the ground itself. Said ground was a circular platform of stained glass, depicting a majestic castle built into a mountainside. There was nothing else around, save the abyss beyond my small island.

I carefully took a step, and when the glass proved sturdy enough not to fall through, I walked around the platform, inspecting the design.

It was incredibly well-made. Its style was a masterwork of pattern and geometry. The big question was who made it.

I peered over the edge, seeing that beyond the glass was stone, and beyond the stone was more darkness. Oppressive, binding darkness. I shrunk back from it.

A sound met my ears, wondrous, alien, but largely indescribable. I turned around, trying to identify the source. A bridge had formed, composed of the same beautiful glass material as the floor and connecting to another tower. When I had looked over the side, it was apparent to me that the structure had a base somewhere. The only question was how far down that base was...

Without hesitation, I set upon the bridge. I tried not to look down.

I did anyway. Darn it.

I was on the other side before vertigo could kick in, and had a different pretty picture to gawk at this time. The new image was that of a small thatched-roof village, with crisscrossing dirt paths and a distinctly homey feel to it. Odd, considering I lived in the city most of my life. I cringed.

I didn’t want to think about that right now.

“There are some things in the universe more horrible than we can imagine. A circumstance of extreme injustice, of slaughter on a horrendous scale. From this horror, unknown one, you spring. A beginning fraught with potential, borne of a wretched, nightmarish end.”

Trust me, mystery voice, I knew all about that.

“What are you, little one? And what could you become? My place is to guide those with great and momentous destinies. But you have none. Your future is as blank as the shadow surrounding you. What shall you inscribe on this tabula rasa,this blank slate? And what shall the worlds say to one who writes his own destiny?”

I waited to see if this voice was going to answer its own question. I certainly didn’t know...

“I don’t know.”

Damn it.

“I do know you are the only one capable of answering these questions. Make no mistake -- they are as important to all living things as the very hearts that sustain them. With the answers taken away, nothing is truth or falsity. You shall answer, and your answers shall define you. I would ask if you are prepared to take on such responsibility... but there is  no time to be unsure. The burden lies upon you already.

“But do not despair, little one. And do not fear. The key that opens the door lies beyond your grasp, but the door is already laid open for you. Your path is yours alone to decide. I can only suggest you choose wisely.”

The floor beneath me shone as if backlit by a wall of floodlights. It peaked somewhere around “eye-destroying,” then suddenly went dim once more. In front of me stood two figures, wildly different from each other.

One was a seething quadrupedal mass of white light and fire. Duller orange-red flames coalesced down its back and into the air behind it, creating a flickering, luminescent mane and tail. It was crouched, ready to spring at its counterpart, with a massive metal horn protruding from its head, glowing white-hot in the being’s aura.

The other being was just as big, but was composed of semisolid shadow. It too was quadrupedal, pawing at the ground as if to intimidate its just-as-formidable opponent. From underneath a black steel war helmet it emitted a cloud of purple and black smoke, which was speckled with dim stars. The mass of “hair” writhed and squirmed like an agitated bundle of living appendages.

“Light and darkness,” said the voice. “Order in constant war with Chaos. Which is good? Which is evil? The answers have been wiped clean. You must provide them.”

As one, the two massive beings turned their heads towards me, as if I had only just become visible. They seemed content to wait for... something to happen before jumping at each other.

“Choose wisely.”

 I’d had enough of darkness to last me ten lifetimes. Slowly, carefully, I approached the great white figure.

As I approached it, it began to shrink.

Its incandescent white flames died down and began to resolve into normal, purple fur. The horn stayed, but shrank with it and dulled to a proportionally smaller size. Most importantly, it stopped looking like a monster. The fire faded from its eyes. It looked at me, uncertainly.

She was shorter than I was.

“Hello?” she said, in a small, afraid voice.

“...Hi,” I answered.

“Who are you?”

“My name’s Rendynn Spire.” I turned towards the shadowy beast, which loomed as large and imposing as ever. “And I think I’m here to help you.”

My decision was made. The creature narrowed its eyes at me and pawed at the ground like a bull before the charge.

Let’s settle something right now. This thing was taller than me and the ex-fire-demon put together, twice. I had no idea how I was supposed to survive a fight with it, let alone kill it.

We start this story as we mean to go on: with Twilight Sparkle saving my ass.

The monster made a pouncing leap, coming down on us like a freight train on a pair of mosquitoes. Twilight waved her horn and a purplish-pink force field bubble thing covered the two of us. As the beast’s mass oozed over us like a flood of semi liquid darkness, she thrust the bubble upwards, forcing its massive bulk away and sending it tumbling off the side of the arena.

Of course, it climbed back up not two seconds later, but still -- not dead right away. Good start.

It charged again, this time along the ground. Twilight blasted it head-on with what I would later find out was raw magic. Not the most elegant way to go about shooting someone’s entire body off, but who was I to talk?

Wherever the bright purple-white beam raked across it, the beast’s substance shriveled and blew away like it was shedding leaves into the wind. Soon it was no taller than me. Which was nice. Unfortunately, keeping a stream of distilled murder going from one’s internal power reserves directly to an opponent’s face was quite draining. Twilight collapsed. Which was less nice.

The monster clearly wanted to push the advantage as soon as possible. Only, it didn’t take into account that I was not a useless ragdoll, and that I was pretty damn sure size advantage was no longer an issue.

That is to say, as soon as it attempted to gore my new purple friend, my body went into autopilot.

I ran forward and rugby-tackled the monster head-on, making sure to wrench its sharpest bit up and away from any puncturable bits on my person. I shifted to the left and used its momentum to swing it away from its planned trajectory. I kicked it square in the side as its ribcage area presented itself and sent it skidding several feet away, winded.

I spared the time out to look over my fallen friend. She was out cold, but otherwise unharmed.

My attention was diverted to my opponent, who once again stood up, this time focusing its soulless yellow eyes on me. Then it did two things I was distinctly unprepared for.

First, it smiled.

Then it talked.

“You can’t kill me.”

“Yeah?” I asked, panting slightly. “I’d say I’m doing a pretty good job so far.”

“You can attack me, certainly,” it said, pacing to the side in a halfhearted attempt to flank me. I kept facing it. “You can beat at me with your fists and feet, but you can’t truly harm me.”

“I can try.”

“Please. You might as well get into a wrestling match with a gelatin mold.”

I began to pace in time with it, unwilling to let it fight on its own terms -- if it ever fought me at all.

“Face it. You’re a weak, pathetic specimen who should have died with the rest of your world.”

I gritted my teeth and nodded slowly. “Yeah, that stung a little. So what, are you gonna try to talk me to death?”

“I can taste your despair, Rendynn Spire. It’s delicious. You can barely feel it, repressed as it is, but under your tough facade is a Heartless buffet. I’m looking forward to draining every last drop.”

“Morbid. I’d expect nothing else from a talking inkstain like you.”

“You flatter me.”

“You know what I’m looking forward to?”

“Do tell.”

In the previous two minutes, Twilight had staggered to a standing position. Her horn glowed faintly, increasing in brightness as the Heartlessicorn had its back turned to her.

In a flash of white, with a bang like a gunshot, Twilight loosed a ball of magic at the monster, shearing clean through its head and taking half of its brainpan with it.

I smiled. “That. I was looking forward to that very much.”

Twilight gave a shaky grin as she made her wobbly way over to me, taking care not to step on (or in) the Shadowcorn’s rapidly-fading, half-headless corpse.

I crouched down to meet her eye level.

“Guess I owe you a thanks, miss...”

“Twilight Sparkle,” she spoke, coming to a halt about a foot away, and sitting down on her haunches.

And that’s how I learned her name. I know it was confusing for a while there, but you stuck with it. I’m proud of you.

I laughed. The name certainly struck me as odd, but then again, I was talking to a sentient mythical creature. If anything, my name was weird to her, seeing as it was unique even back home.

Oh, right. Home.

Her smile replaced itself with a worried frown. “Is there something wrong?”

I sighed. “Yeah. Don’t worry about it, though. I’d rather know how I ended up here, of all places.”

She didn’t let up. Another thing about purple magic horses. They know how to pout.

“My world died, okay?!” I shouted. “It wasn’t locked down. The Heartless came and took everything away.”

I was prepared to launch into emotional tirade mode, but the Voice had other plans.

“So you have chosen.”

The floor beneath us gave a shudder.

“Rend?” asked Twilight, a frightened tremor creeping into her voice. “What’s happening?”

“I think this voice is screwing with me.”

“The path of light is often thankless, little one. And your path is long and treacherous.”

The stained glass below us gave a crack.

“Look!” Twilight cried, pointing a hoof at an ornate red wood door that had only just appeared there. We started running.

“To escape the shadow and emerge into the light, you will climb high and far.”

The cracks continued to spread as the platform shook even harder. I nearly slipped and faceplanted into the glass. But that would end the story a little earlier than I’d like.

“But one who climbs so high has far to fall.”

A great massive crack appeared in front of us. Twilight leapt across, clearing it easily. I jumped, missing my mark and slamming my upper third onto the floor as my legs dangled beneath me.

“And if you fall, you will be lost to shadow...”

There was no handhold. The segments of the glass were smoothed and almost frictionless. I slid to my doom and eventually lost my grip all together. I began to plummet.

“...never to return.”

Time slowed down. I felt a hot, feral breath behind me -- something ugly and hungry was ready to swallow me whole.

“But know this: You are not alone.”

A bright light shone from beyond the lip of the crevasse. Whatever was behind me recoiled and fled into the depths below.

“And wherever your path takes you, know that the power to choose that path cannot be taken from you.”

The last thing I saw was Twilight, horn aglow. All was white light and loud noise, then nothing.

“So choose well.”

***

Twilight Sparkle’s eyes popped open as she gasped. Her horn was alight, illuminating the room in an indigo hue. It let out sparks like mad, and she soon realized that she had no power over the magic flowing through it. From beside her bed, a tired baby dragon raised his head and shielded his eyes, grimacing.

“Twilight, what are you doing? Turn that down! You’re blinding me!”

“I’m trying!” she yelled, panicking. “I-I don’t have any control!”

She felt a surge of her magic burst forth, causing her to clamp her eyes shut as her horn sent out a volley of sparks away from her and off the bed. Instead of falling to the ground and burning out, the sparks appeared to tear a hole in the air, stretching wider as a darkened void took its place. A gale whipped through the bedroom, throwing books and small knick knacks every which way. Something large and heavy fell through the rip in spaced, landing with a thud on the hardwood floor.

And just like that, the flow of magic ceased. The void warped and twisted, before dissipating without a trace, the only evidence of its existence taking the form of a hurricane-blasted bedroom. Twilight’s horn flickered, and faded, and the room was dark once again.

The only sound was that of Twilight’s panting and Spike’s quickened breathing.

“T-Twilight? Are you... are you alright?” Spike whispered from his basket, his head the only thing visible.

Twilight nodded, suddenly feeling very exhausted. She fought the urge to collapse back onto the mattress as she slowly made her way to the edge of the bed.

There on the ground was the figure from what she had assumed was a dream. The man the strange voice had been speaking to -- Rendynn Spire.

His breaths were shallow, his skin was pale and bruised in places, and he was shaking like a leaf, shivering as if he had been left out all night on Hearth’s Warming Eve.

“Spike,” she began, turning to address the quivering pile of scales and bedsheets. “Get me a shot of espresso and Anima's Guide to Xenobiology. And a blanket."